(New Castle, PA) Thirty-six-year-old Samantha Grieve stared at the 1.5-inch-thick textbook before BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s spring semester began in January 2022.
Chemistry was a course she had never taken at Shenango Junior-Senior High School nearly two decades earlier.
“I was terrified,” Grieve said.
“Chemistry: Atoms First” included information about quantum theory and the electronic structure of atoms; molecular geometry, intermolecular forces and bonding theories; and acid-base equilibria and solubility equilibria Grieve would need to learn in order to pass the course in pursuit of her goal to become a registered nurse and help dementia patients.
“I felt very overwhelmed,” said the Shenango Township resident and mother of an 11-year-old son. “I thought, ‘I’m going to fail. I’m never going to get through this class. There goes my dream.’”
“I felt very overwhelmed. I thought, ‘I’m going to fail. I’m never going to get through this class. There goes my dream.’”
Samantha Grieve, BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing student
“Tutoring was very effective”
Butler County Community College offers one hour of free tutoring per course per week for students enrolled in credit courses on its main campus or at additional locations such as BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing in New Castle and BC3 @ LindenPointe in Hermitage.
An average of 250 students study with BC3 tutors each semester, said Heather Jewart, the college’s coordinator of tutoring. Chemistry and mathematics courses are among those for which students most often seek assistance, Jewart said.
About 92 percent of students pass courses in which they studied with a BC3 tutor, Jewart said.
“That is our goal, to have that number be as high as it can be,” Jewart said.
While chemistry terrified Grieve, Gabriel Garcia feared his indifference to learning would prevent him from graduating from Sharpsville Area High School.
The 20-year-old Sharpsville resident has studied with tutors for three mathematics courses at BC3 @ LindenPointe, where he is a general studies student in pursuit of his goal to become an elementary school teacher.
“Tutoring was very effective,” Garcia said. “The tutors knew what they were doing.”
His grades in mathematics courses improved by at least two letters from having studied with a BC3 tutor, Garcia said.
Grieve is a health care science student. She realized she needed to study with a BC3 tutor to pass chemistry and maintain hopes of entering the college’s selective-admissions programs in practical nursing and later, in registered nursing.
“The tutors are willing to sit with you, and listen, and explain something better,” Grieve said. “They don’t judge you. There were times when I had to go down into a rabbit hole in order to understand something. I sometimes need more explanation in order to understand the subject.”
Grieve passed chemistry.
“There is not a chance that would have happened,” she said, “without a tutor.”
“When you hear about success like that, about a student making it through a course they thought they would never pass, that is why we are all here,” Jewart said. “That is what it is all about.”
Added Garcia: “If you want to go to college, free tutoring is one of the best assets you could have.”
Prospective students can learn about BC3 services and resources such as free tutoring during fall open houses. Prospective students can RSVP at bc3.edu/open-house