Hard hats required

Great Minds Under Construction

Freshmen at the IU Northwest campus were invited during December to a center decorated like a construction zone where they found professors in hard hats waiting to interact with them. The meeting between the freshmen and the new Student Mentors and Resource Team (SMART) took the theme "tools you need to succeed."

The SMART Center is designed to help students overcome the fear of approaching faculty members by letting them know that professors are not opponents but caring allies committed to student success. Besides encouraging pro-active learning and positive reinforcement, the program helps students communicate and interact by discussing and reflecting upon their achievements and ways they might improve.

http://www.iun.edu/~newsnw/pr120201_smart.html