The Student Academic Resource Center’s Fall Learning Fair 2011 on October 5 focused on first-year students. The annual event aims to foster academic success and retention through student development of relevant personal and academic skills, and through increased awareness and use of learning support services on campus. This event differs from typical campus outreach initiatives in that the more intimate scale encourages departments and organization to engage students in academic dialog. Twenty university departments, services and academic organizations participated in the fair.
Display tables included SARC tutoring and Supplemental Instruction, University Writing Center, University Library, The Princeton Review, Kaplan Test Prep, Office of Academic Integrity, Office of Undergraduate Research, Veteran’s Academic Resource Center, University Math Lab and more. Student academic clubs and organizations included American Medical Student Association, Pre-Professional Medical Society, Golden Key International, Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society and more. Staff and peers answered student questions and provided informational materials, promotional items and hands-on demonstrations of effective learning strategies. A lively new addition to this year’s event included live music from one of UCF’s a cappella groups, the Crescendudes.
The 2011 SARC Learning Fair was a great success with a total of 225 student attendees. Of the student participants, about 80% were freshmen. Based on results of written evaluations, 99 percent felt that the Learning Fair was well organized; 94 percent felt more aware of UCF campus resources after attending the Learning Fair; and 93 percent agreed that they learned at least one strategy to improve their study skills by attending the Learning Fair.
In addition to the quantitative data collected, attendees also provided the following comments regarding this event: