The Office of Multicultural Affairs announced that its free Genesis tutoring and mentoring programs are available for students throughout the summer.
The tutoring sessions do not require an appointment and are held Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Genesis Tutoring Center on the third floor of the LSU Student Union.
The program offers sessions in math, Spanish, English, biology and physics. It hopes to also add chemistry and French sessions soon. A student in need of a tutor can show up for a session and receive help on anything pertaining to that topic to better understand the material. The sessions can be one-on-one or in a group depending on the student’s preference.
The sessions are open to all students, but the 26-year-old program was founded with underrepresented students in mind.
Wes Heath, the assistant director of the Office of MultiCultural Affairs, oversees the Genesis tutoring program and is proud of the progress that has been made since he started to better inform and serve students.
“Within the first month I had replaced the furniture with items that are more conducive to studying, along with new technology that helps students connect more with the room,” Heath said.
He added that participation in the program has increased by 400 percent since November 2016 due to improvements made in technology and marketing strategies.
Since it is a peer-tutored service, the program also needs students who meet the criteria for a tutoring position in chemistry, French, sociology, psychology and business. The application procedures can be found on their website.
In addition to tutoring services, the Office of Multicultural Affairs also offers a mentoring program called Genesis Mentoring.
The mentoring service is a semester-long program that takes place during the fall and targets incoming first-year students from underrepresented communities, Heath said.
The Genesis mentoring program looks for mentors who are juniors, seniors, graduate students, faculty and staff. The program is a one-on-one program where students are matched with mentors based on a questionnaire. This fall, socials, along with professional and personal development, will be on the program’s agenda.
Mentors for the fall semester have already been chosen and are being trained, but applications for mentees are still open.
