Employment

“Pay to be a tutor, not to be tutored" is the message from studies of peer tutoring.
--Svinicki & McKeachie, McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, 13th ed., Wadsworth/Cenage Learning, p. 92.

So what does this quotation mean for Penn State undergraduates? It means that studies of peer tutoring affirm that tutors learn even more than those being tutored, and that your money would be better spent by learning how to tutor than by hiring a tutor.Individual tutors attest to the advantages as well; see, for example, Goldie Blumenstyk, "What One Student Learned by Teaching His Peers," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Apr. 25, 2016.

Penn State Learning encourages undergraduates to take peer tutor courses such as CI 200, ENGL 250, and similar learning assistance courses offered by academic departments. Like many other programs on campus, Penn State Learning pays qualified undergraduates to tutor their peers.

Other advantages to joining one or more of our specialized learning communities are working closely with other tutors and faculty members on improving learning in out-of-class environments, getting to know instructors and PSL staff well enough to ask for professional letters of recommendation, getting ongoing feedback on your tutoring, and honing presentation skills as invited course guests and participants at national peer tutor conferences.

We also seek undergraduate applicants for lab receptionist/data entry positions. These jobs also involve training and would be good opportunities for majors looking to learn how to interact with the public in an academic environment where precise data entry enhances efforts to accurately assess a variety of academic assistance programs.