By Hannah Eveland

College is all about building on a foundation of knowledge to achieve a degree and make the most out of your future career, and at York College there are lots of opportunities to better your ability to learn and make more out of your degree than just going to and from class. These can help excel students at any point of their academic journey.

Counseling Services is located on main campus, on the first floor of Codorus Hall. Darrell Wilt, director of The Counseling Services, said “there’s always a percentage of students that don’t know about our services, which is understandable because people tend not to notice what’s available until they need a certain kind of service.”

Typically, he said, advertisement for this service can be found at “orientation when students begin at YCP, portal announcements each semester, two outreach programs per semester (normally including therapy dogs or other interesting venues), website, faculty and staff who let students know as the needs arise, and from other students who know about us.”

Wilt noted that approximately 10% of the student body accesses Counseling Services each school year. “We’re quite popular amongst those who know about us,” he said.

Counseling Service offers free bi-weekly private counseling to students who are open to help with personal enrichment, resources and internship studies. They offer individual counseling, couples counseling and group counseling to students on schedule, and also have links on their website for virtual sessions. Some of the issues students deal with in a setting that presents a lot of firsts include stress management, anxiety, dealing with loss and depression.

To schedule your free appointment, call Counseling Services at 717.815.6437. Semester office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. You can learn more on Counseling Services by watching this video.

The Academic Support Center is here for students free of charge and provides to peer-tutoring as well as one-on-one support from an academic coach. It’s another of those services that several students interviewed said they knew nothing about.

That didn’t surprise Barbara Zmolek, the center’s director, when told that students were unfamiliar with its services. “Yes, I’m aware of this,” she said. “And it’s such a conundrum! Perhaps a person doesn’t tune into something until they’re ready to listen. Then when they want to hear it, they don’t know where to turn. All of our resources are found from the icon below on MyYCP.”

Added Zmolek, “We have 71 peer tutors on staff currently,” and students can attend an in-person or virtual session with these peers or with a coach to address areas such as time management, note-taking and test anxiety. During a session with an academic coach, students can expect to work together to create an academic plan that best suits them, to help them “master effective study habits” based on their priorities and everyday schedule.

Sessions have already begun for the spring semester. You can schedule your appointment today through the York College of Pennsylvania website or by clicking here. There is also Writing Center support available to students. This can help students achieve better success in areas such as writing essays, designing websites and giving presentations. This can also be scheduled using the York College of Pennsylvania website and searching “Writing Center.”

If a student is interested in being a tutor, he or she or they can apply on the Spartan Career Path, located again on the colleges main website.

Hannah Eveland is a senior majoring in Professional Writing and minoring in Advertising.