When Jake Dougherty was a freshman at Waynesburg University, he was hesitant about using on-campus tutoring.

“I know I was a little bit skeptical of going to a tutor at first, because I thought the tutors were going to be super smart and kind of judgmental,” Dougherty said.

When Dougherty took up tutoring, however, he found the experience wasn’t as daunting as he thought it would be.

Pam Abbe, director of the Knox Learning Center, set Dougherty up with one of his football teammates, then-senior Scott Lewis, for an accounting class. Since then, Dougherty has had only favorable experiences with tutoring at Waynesburg University.

“I think [tutoring is] very underused. People don’t use it enough, and it really helps kids a lot,” he said.

For a student to be a qualified tutor at Waynesburg, they must have at least a B in the class they are tutoring and are required to have a GPA no lower than 2.7. The number of student tutors at the university ranges upwards of 100.

Abbe has held her position with the Knox Learning Center for 20 years. She feels that tutoring isn’t just beneficial for students, but tutors as well. Abbe feels student tutoring could lead to jobs for those students once they graduate.

“I think it’s amazing,” Abbe said. “The tutors, they end up loving it, and it’s a great means to an end in terms of graduate assistantships, because you can get assistantships teaching in grad school, and here they go into that having experience.”

Senior Children and Youth Ministries Major Veronica Steen experienced tutoring her freshman year.  At times, Steen said, she was hesitant about being tutored because she didn’t want to seem “unintelligent,” but found the process to be beneficial once she experienced it.

“I think it’s just the stigma of getting tutored [that concerns students]. Steen said. “People don’t want to feel like they’re not as intelligent as other people.”

According to Abbe, the goal of tutoring isn’t necessarily to get students to the point where they have an A in that specific subject. A lot of students, however, go to tutors in order to ensure that they have the highest grade possible.

“You don’t have to get A’s in all your classes,” she said. “We certainly all have our weaknesses. So a C is just fine. Sometimes a D is ok, just to pass [the class]. In tutoring too, a lot of our students want to keep an A, so they get a tutor for an A.”

For Dougherty, the primary time people go to see a tutor is when a test is approaching. One of the biggest benefits of tutoring, according to Dougherty, is how tutors prepare students for the material they will see on the day of the exam.

“I think what helped me is that the tutors would really help prepare you for what was going to be on the test,” he said. “I think if you go to a tutor, they kind of let you know what to expect and they prepare you a little bit better for that. Obviously, it helps you retain the knowledge a little bit more.”

While the students being tutored can benefit, Abbe feels the ones benefiting the most from tutoring are the tutors themselves.

“I think the biggest benefit for the tutors is they’re able to teach their subject matter,” she said. “When you teach it, you learn it so much more so than just studying it. So actually, the tutors are the ones that probably benefit the most academically by tutoring.”

For Dougherty, while the intelligence of the tutors is something that can make students uneasy, he sees no reason to be afraid about getting extra help.

“I don’t think [students]should be intimated about going just because the tutors’ might know a little more about it,” Dougherty said.  “I think that’s good, and I think the tutoring process [at Waynesburg] is really good.”

Steen advises students who haven’t been tutored at Waynesburg not to let fear impact their decision.

“It’s going to help you in the long run,” Steen said.