The Student Success Center hosted its third workshop in the spring semester series Wednesday to explain the aspects of student life that lead to success.
Twenty-two Dixie State University students were taught ways of staying motivated Wednesday. “Staying Motivated” was one of 12 workshops the Student Success Center has planned for this semester. Student Success Adviser Kasia Palmer said the workshops are designed to cater to student needs.
“We’ve tried to gear many of the workshops toward what students are telling us they’re struggling with,” Palmer said. “We want to help students, any students at [DSU]. But mainly, we focus on freshmen students coming in.”
The workshops are designed with the time element in mind, Palmer said. Topics are scheduled based on what the students are struggling with the most at a particular point in the semester. Wednesday’s workshop was about motivation because students typically start losing motivation a few weeks into a new semester, she said.
Terri Metcalf-Peterson, lecturer and adviser in the communication department and adjunct in the music department, talked to DSU students in the Gardner Student Center about the importance of staying motivated and explained how motivation works.
Motivation is a product of value and expectation, Metcalf-Peterson said. Students are motivated to do well only if they place a high value on the courses they are taking and expect to do well with reasonable amount of effort, she said.
“He who puts in four hours of ‘want to’ will almost always outperform the person who puts in eight hours of ‘have to,’” she said.
Although workshops are not designed as typical classes, students are encouraged to come prepared to learn and are expected to participate in discussions.
“It is meant to be useful information that [DSU students] can use in and outside of school,” Palmer said. “They’re also made to be fun … We had one where we sat in a circle on the floor [and had a discussion].”
The Student Success Center is always looking for instructors and staff at DSU who are interested in lecturing on the selected topics, Palmer said. Certain students can also qualify to give a talk at one of the workshops.
“We look at honor roll students … that have been successful themselves,” Palmer said. “They can offer advice on their success and how they got to be where they’re at.”
Freshmen are not the only students who would benefit from attending the workshops, said Lindsey Larsen, a senior communication major from Pocatello, Idaho, and a peer mentor at the Student Success Center.
“I think [the workshops] are important for everyone,” Larsen said. “There are workshops (for) money management (and) all college students need to know that. It’s beneficial for … anyone who’s interested in self-improvement to go.”
The rest of the workshops this semester will focus on money management, time management and test taking strategies. The schedule for the remaining nine workshops can be found online at https://dixie.edu/studentsuccess/workshops.php.