Academic Support Center Spring 2026 Newsletter

On October 24th, three Senior Tutors from the Academic Support Center presented at the 2025 4C Virtual Conference: Growth, Planning and Success. Writing tutors Dylan James, Claire Lancaster and Max Thibault’s presentation “Meet Them Where They’re At: Best Practices for Working with Neurodivergent Students” was presented to an audience of about thirty-five tutors, and other academic support professionals from around the country. From the very first slides, it was clear that Dylan’s dedication to the topic radiated beyond the text.

After Dylan expanded on the “neurodivergent umbrella,” Max Thiabult explained how neurodivergence informs students’ needs. Max confirmed that a tutor’s role is to help cultivate a positive disability identity, which involves shifting the student’s perspective. “Cultivating a positive disability identity is important because it gives students the confidence they need to feel good about their hard work,” Max says. “It is beneficial in college of course, but it is also something they can carry through all aspects of their lives.” Claire Lancaster finished the presentation with strategies to shift tutor behaviors to meet students’ needs. For Claire, this involves using neuro affirmative language to assert that all variations of thinking are valued. “[We] all feel passionate about accessibility, inclusivity and equity in academia,” Claire explains. “This presentation was a prime opportunity to explore how to increase our support and empowerment of a significant portion of WCC’s student body.” The Academic Support Center looks forward to these future discussions and congratulates Dylan, Max and Claire on their wonderful achievement!

The week of October 6th, the Academic Support Center buzzed with words of thanks and kindness toward our tutors. The first week of October is National Tutor Appreciation Week and this year, students let our tutors know why they “rock.” Students from each tutorial pinned words of support on a bulletin board adorned with guitars. One student wrote: “Thank you for all your hard work and wisdom! I aspire to be as educated and be able to give back to my community as well as you all have.” Another referenced the tutors’ kindness: “Thank you for being very helpful, respectful and patient!” Fred Weiler, Volunteer Writing Tutor for seven years, is appreciative of the compliments, and is still impressed by the students’ tenacity. “I am constantly in awe of how tenacious the students who come to the Writing Tutorial are,” Fred says. “They want to excel, and it shows.” Even though National Tutor Appreciation Week has passed, remember it’s never too late to thank an ASC tutor! We are proud of their dedication to the Center.

National Day on Writing

Annually on Oct. 20th, The Academic Support Center celebrates National Day on Writing – a day of reflection and creativity. Students who visited the Writing Tutorial were challenged to write six-word short stories based on Halloween-themed images. Students came up with both spooky and humorous stories such as: “The castle glowed like never before, drawing its next victim in” and “This isn’t like the Airbnb photos!” Writing tutor, Becky Haynes, noted, “Students really got into it which was great to see. The amount of creativity that flowed onto the page in a very short time was really impressive!” We agree and are looking forward to reading next year’s submissions!