Photo by: Will Gentry
Thousands of Oklahoma students are playing catch-up when they get to college; Oklahoma Christian University has programs designed to bridge the gap between high school and college.
The Bridge Program at Oklahoma Christian aids students, who score less than a 19 on the ACT, stay in college and get the help they need. It counts as credit hours and gives tutoring to students. The Student Success Program is an open tutoring program that gives students one-on-one tutoring on any subject where they may require help.
According to The Oklahoman, every four out of 10 students in Oklahoma need to take remedial courses to get into a university. Because these students need to take remedial courses, many Oklahoma college students have to take classes at a community college or stay in college longer, which often leads to more student debt.
Associate Director of Student Success and head of the Bridge Program, Lannea Pamberton, said that the reason students are in remedial colleges courses at Oklahoma Christian is because of ACT scores. The remedial classes that are available are in math and English.
“You’re put in remedial math if your ACT is low and you’re in remedial writing if your ACT score in English is below an 18,” Pamberton said.
The Student Success Program started in 2013 and is available for every student at Oklahoma Christian.
“Any student on campus can have access to the Student Success Center, where they can sign up for tutoring,” Pamberton said. “maybe they want to make an A from a B to an A or they want to make that D a C.”
The Student Success Center also helps tutor for tests and organizational skills. Students can go to the Student Success Center whenever they feel they need help and can stay for tutoring as long as they feel they need to be tutored. There are currently twelve mentors in the program.
“We’ve increased our graduation rate in the Bridge population,” Pamberton said. “And that is what Student Success is all about – helping the students to stay at OC and get the help that they need.”
While the Student Success Center only started last fall, Pamberton said that there have been positive results. She said the students in the program are doing much better in class and feel more confident.
Senior Megan Reed who is one of the tutors for the Bridge Program said that the difference between the Bridge Program and the Student Success Program is that with the Bridge Program, students are required to take Bridge as a course for two years and the students can get tutoring with more than one subject. The Student Success Center lets students work on their schedule on their own time.
“I think Oklahoma Christian is a little bit more tricky to get into as a school than a community college can be,” Reed said. “But their education is going to be a lot better here, you’re going to get a lot more hands-on, one-on-one help. So it’s really great to have these programs and faith, so that students can start out at Oklahoma Christian and get that extra help at the Christian atmosphere.”
As a Bridge tutor, Reed has seen some of the students in Bridge Program come to college unprepared for it. When they are done with the Bridge program as sophomores, during their junior and senior year they will sign up to be tutors and help tutor in the Bridge Program.
Junior Brandon Loe is a former Bridge student and said that the Bridge Program helped him not only with tutoring, but to get extra credits with classes for fall and spring of both his freshman and sophomore year.
“So instead of having to take more classes and having a bigger work load of homework, I can go in and work on homework in there or even work with a mentor,” Loe said.
Loe said he also got help with his math homework and with scheduling his classes.
The Student Success Center is located on the second floor of the Mabee Learning Center in room 215.
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