Student wins LSAC award for helping introduce and develop Ted Rogers School’s Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) program
Congratulations to fourth-year student Aleenah Hassan on winning the Learning Specialist Association of Canada’s Undergraduate Student Award.
For a second time, the Learning Specialist Association of Canada (external link) has recognized the Ted Rogers School’s student service team. Evgeniya (Jane) Tsekhovaya, who currently works as a Student Advisor in the PASS office, won the undergraduate student award in 2021.
The LSAC Student Award (external link) is presented to a student who has had a positive impact on learning skills programming, services, or research at their institution. Nominations were adjudicated by a committee of LSAC professional members from across Canada.
Aleenah Hassan (external link) was chosen for the award because her achievements at the Ted Rogers School have been nothing short of remarkable. The adjudication committee highlighted Hassan's hard work, leadership skills, mentorship, relationship-building and commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
“Your contribution to the Program Advising and Student Success Tutoring and Peer-Assisted Learning Team has been invaluable. Your work in introducing SI programming, known as Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) program, has been instrumental in supporting TRSM students. Your dedication to researching peer-learning programs and implementing the PAL program has been a game-changer.” – Learning Specialist Association of Canada in an email to Aleenah Hassan
Hassan was nominated by Gillian Lee, peer learning support facilitator, for the significant impact on students Hassan has made through her work on the Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) program.
“Aleenah has been an integral part of this team for three years now and has put her heart and soul into the PASS tutoring team. She is a big reason PAL exists in this school,” Lee explained. “She has dedicated herself to supporting students and she has had a massive impact because of that.”
Over the past two years as an academic peer helper and peer-assisted learning leader, Hassan has learned a lot about the different kinds of people that come in for tutoring, about facilitation and empathy. The fourth-year BComm (accounting) student says she is grateful that she learned so much along the way because she didn't really see herself teaching or tutoring.
“Seeing all of that come together and then getting this award, it's just like all of it has come together for something meaningful,” Hassan said.
The PAL program
Hassan’s work on the PAL program started with Student Success Facilitator Sandy Carpenter at the Program Advising and Student Success office. In the 2021 Spring/Summer semester, Hassan reviewed data around student supports and discovered the department’s methods of peer-learning were ineffective. Hassan found that first-year students were coming into challenging math-heavy courses that their high schools hadn’t properly prepared them for and wanted to be able to support them effectively.
Each year, thousands of undergraduate students take math courses at the Ted Rogers School: business management students take QMS 110, accounting and finance students take QMS 130, and BTM students take ITM 107.
Hassan noticed that the small group tutoring format wasn’t working to help those students. She took a summer to figure out how to better support students and give them the tools they needed to get through those classes. Partnering with University of Toronto Scarborough, she presented her learnings on supplemental instruction at the International Conference on Supplemental Instruction in June 2022.
Then, she and Carpenter partnered with three faculty members in 2021-2022 to get the PAL program up and running. This past year, 2022-23, was the second year the PAL program has run.
PAL leaders attend lectures regularly and partner with faculty. They run three to five 50-minute sessions a week, with a maximum of 35 students each. PAL sessions focus on learning strategies, helping students develop core skills, and tackle the most challenging material.
“We meet with faculty regularly to make sure we're all on the same page and our sessions are lining up with their learning outcomes,” Lee explained. “PAL sessions give students the space to put that into practice and to work with each other and to work with the PAL leader, no matter where their level is, to really help solidify those hard concepts going through.”
Over the last year, the PAL program size has increased tenfold. It has gained traction and students are responding - they talk about how much they love Aleenah’s sessions, Lee said.
“She's just very encouraging, welcoming, and also knows the material like the back of her hand,” she said. “Aleenah is a phenomenal facilitator. As part of my role, I've sat in and I've watched her sessions, and she is absolutely amazing at both connecting with students, explaining the material, and getting them to actually engage and get their teeth into what they're learning.”
Modest and composed, Hassan takes all of it in stride.
“I remember a student once said that they wanted to change their program but they ended up staying in it because of the PAL sessions, because they really appreciated the help,” she recalled. “They hadn't taken accounting in high school, so they were really panicking when they actually came into their first accounting course. Having that kind of feedback, that was really nice.”
Colleagues cite Hassan’s hard work, passion and initiative has changed how the department approaches peer-learning and will continue to impact students long after she graduates.
“She has a heart for helping and supporting others, whether that's her fellow staff members, faculty or students,” Lee said. “Whatever she's going to do after she graduates, she's going to rock it.”
The Learning Specialist Association of Canada (LSAC) National Conference (external link) takes place May 17-19 on UNBC campus in Prince George, BC.