ESS 416: Center for Access to Engineering Excellence
The Center for Access to Engineering Excellence (CAEE) is open this week and we wanted to get to know more about the tutoring services and your peers that work there. Berkeley Engineering students Natalie Celt and Bradley Seamons join us on The (Not So) Secret Guide to Being a Berkeley Engineer to tell us how the CAEE is offering academic support virtually and how you can get the most out of the services they offer.
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Laura Vogt:
Hello and welcome to our podcast. The Not So Secret Guide to Being a Berkeley Engineer. Once again, my name is Laura Vogt. I’m the Associate Director for Marketing and Communications for the College of Engineering. This week, we’re going to spend some time getting to know The Center For Access to Engineering Excellence with two students that know and understand the inner workings, Bradley Seamons, One of our tutors, and Natalie Celt, one of the student assistants.
Laura Vogt:
So welcome, thank you both for being here today.
Bradley Seamons:
Thank you.
Laura Vogt:
Natalie, this the second time that I’ve gotten you to be on the podcast. So, thank you for coming back again. Last time you were telling us about your experience as a first year student, can you reintroduce yourself to our listeners? What is your major, some clubs and organizations that you’re involved in, and maybe something that you really enjoy about being a Berkeley engineering student?
Natalie Celt:
Yes, of course. Thank you for having me back. As Laura mentioned, my name is Natalie and I’m a third year bioengineering student, concentrating in cell and tissue engineering. And since my freshman year, I’ve been involved in the Bio Printing Club and just stayed involved in that, but I’ve dabbled in the Biomedical Engineering Society, as well as the Society of Women Engineers and the outreach events that they have. Health, and I participate in regenerative and aging research here on campus. And one of my favorite things about being a Berkeley engineer, although it’s cliche, just like the people, the friends that I’ve made just each and every one of us has a unique passion. And so it’s something I never heard about, but people are always willing to share. So just communicating and networking.
Laura Vogt:
Awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you for joining me again on the podcast. Bradley your turn. Can you tell us about yourself, your major, your student organizations, and something that you enjoy about being a Berkeley Engineering Student?
Bradley Seamons:
Cool, thanks for having me. As introduced, my name is Bradley and I’m a fourth year mechanical engineering student, minoring in electrical engineering and computer science. And some of the organizations and clubs that I’m a part of include Enable Tech, a club where we make assistive technology for disabled people, Hispanic Engineers and Scientists, and Progressive Student Association.
Bradley Seamons:
I’m also involved with intermural soccer and definitely one of the greatest things I think about being part of the Berkeley engineering community is similar to what Natalie said, just being able to get to know people and really learn about each other’s passions, because when you get another engineer to like open up and share about the thing that really fascinates them, it’s really cool to learn and just get to know them as a person that way.
Laura Vogt:
Oh, that’s awesome. Well, thank you for being here with us today. And so we’re all here because I want to talk about the Center For Access Engineering Excellence, or as I’m going to be referring it to it, either the CAEE or The Center, and how it’s still going to be able to serve and support our students remotely. So have either of you had experience with CAEE before you started working there?
Natalie Celt:
Yeah. I can take that one. For my freshman year, my friends would often congregate at the CAEE. I wasn’t really sure what they offered. I was kind of unaware, but it was one of the hubs of Berkeley engineers and I always felt welcomed there and it was just very pleasant and just a place where you could get tutoring and talk to peers in a nice environment.
Laura Vogt:
Excellent. Bradley, did you have any?
Bradley Seamons:
Oh yeah, definitely freshman year. I took E7, which is Intro to Programming for Engineers and someone that was a base [inaudible 00:03:28] by programming, I started having a lot of difficulty in the class and by week three, as like, yeah, I can’t do this. Going to office hours, I didn’t get enough help, and then someone was like, “Hey, you should check out the CAEE.” And I went there and I was able to get really good tutoring. So I can reliably go every week for that class. And I can say for sure that I would not have passed that class without the CAEE. So very useful.
Laura Vogt:
Oh, I’m so glad that you both found the support that you needed there to get through especially that first year of school when you’re switching things over and having to learn a new way of learning. So Natalie, let’s get to know the CAEE a little bit better. Can you give us an overview of The Center and the resources that it has available for students?
Natalie Celt:
Yeah, of course. So of course the setting will be different this semester, but nevertheless, the environment and the welcoming promotion of diversity and inclusion that we champion here is going to be the same. So essentially what we offer is tutoring services. That’s our hallmark service, but we also offer resources such as workshops, which are going to be listed, and we’ll talk about more later. So tutoring services, as well as just study lounges for students.
Laura Vogt:
And Bradley, can you tell us how students can access the tutoring schedule?
Bradley Seamons:
Oh yeah, for sure. So you can access it directly from the link, which is coesandbox.berkeley.edu/academic-support, but I always find it difficult to remember links, and I found if you just search Berkeley engineering, tutoring on Google, it’ll take you straight to the link where you can find everything about the CAEE and then just one more click away is access to the different tutors and what time certain classes are tutored.
Laura Vogt:
Natalie, once students are able to see the schedule, what’s the login process going to be like for them to get into our CAEE virtual front desk?
Bradley Seamons:
So, the login process will be quite simple. We’ll have one link for the CAEE virtual environment. And then from there, students will be asked to sign in or fill out a sign in form by the student assistants. And then from there, we will put students into the respective breakout room for the tutoring session that they were are looking for.
Laura Vogt:
So it’s going to be a little easier in the sense that they only have to go one place, they don’t have to look around trying to find where our tutor’s located.
Natalie Celt:
Yeah, exactly. Just one stop. And then from there, we’re just going to help you enter it.
Laura Vogt:
Excellent. And Bradley, we’ve made a webpage devoted to our engineering tutors. So why do you think that was important and how should we students use the information that we provided to get to know the tutors better?
Natalie Celt:
It definitely helps just make the tutor more of a person or a friend that you know, that you can go and ask questions from. I think especially in the transition to the online environment, it’s much more difficult to meet people, like in video chat, and so just knowing a little bit about them, their major, it helps to be able to be, okay, I know a bit about this person. You feel a lot more comfortable asking questions.
Laura Vogt:
And Natalie, we also have a page for the student assistants. So are students able to reach out to you if they see that you’re involved in something that they want to know more about? Or if they have questions about classes that you might’ve taken since we’re in the same major?
Natalie Celt:
Yes, of course. So, that’s why we have our short bios. We want to make ourselves more personable and students are more than welcome to reach out to us, I believe via email that is attached in our student profile. And yeah, we are more than happy to answer any questions and start any conversations.
Laura Vogt:
And Bradley, can you tell us a little bit more about what a group tutoring session is like and how do you use that time?
Bradley Seamons:
Sure. So often I tutor people individually, but especially for a particular class, CS-61B, which is Data Structures and Algorithms, you can have a large influx of people coming in around certain project due dates. And so we do these group tutoring sessions where you’ll get two to three people usually, and you get them to work on the same problem and that way they can work together and then ask the tutor when they have questions based off what they’re trying to figure it out as a group. And so it makes it a lot more efficient to get help to the people that need it.
Laura Vogt:
And is there anything a student can do ahead of time to make sure they get the most out of that group tutoring session?
Bradley Seamons:
I would say the biggest thing is just making sure that you sort of have a list of questions ahead of time. That way, when you’re talking to the people in the group, you can burn your questions out and see if you can get quick solutions, or if it’s going to take some more time to figure out and you’ll have to ask the tutor.
Laura Vogt:
So Natalie, I know that when we’re on campus that we have a lending library that people can get clothing sometimes, and books and computers, but since we’re not on campus, we aren’t going to be able to offer that support. Do you know of another way that students can get support in terms of technology needs?
Natalie Celt:
Yeah, of course. So there is a student tech services. It’s like a free student support for all graduate and undergraduate students. And they offer a lot of help in regards to troubleshooting any WIFI problems, installing software, but they can also direct you to resources that involve like laptop lending. There’s also something called the Step Program, and so that is highly touted for anyone who needs those resources.
Laura Vogt:
And you also touched on this a little bit earlier about the workshops that the CAEE has planned for the semester. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about those?
Natalie Celt:
Yeah, of course. So we have a link that will be attached in the podcast, I believe. And basically we’re going to have upcoming workshops or like online success, how to apply to graduate school, a LinkedIn workshop, and there’s going to be many more throughout the semester that you will all be able to access via that link, but basically just a very friendly environment, relatable way of just exploring and hacking the ways through Berkeley engineering.
Laura Vogt:
Yeah. And I like the idea that you have the CAEE virtual front desk. So if somebody just needs that personable connection, what are the hours like if they just want to be able to log on and connect with someone?
Natalie Celt:
So the hours will be 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Monday through Thursday, and on Fridays, we’re open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Laura Vogt:
Oh. So there’s quite a bit of time for people to reach out if they need to?
Natalie Celt:
Yes.
Laura Vogt:
And is there anything that we haven’t talked about that either of you would like to share with our students?
Natalie Celt:
I think more than anything, since we were talking about the CAEE, finding a community of any kind, I feel like the CAEE is a great place for this virtual environment particularly. I think we just need to hold each other accountable and find ways to connect and just be personable even on a virtual campus. I think that’s more important than ever. Finding people to talk to and relate your struggles because we’re not alone in this, and the CAEE is a great place to start if you just want to find someone to talk to.
Laura Vogt:
Awesome. Bradley, is there anything you wanted to add?
Bradley Seamons:
Yeah, I had two main things. So the first one, is a lot of the tutors often log in for several hours. And so that means that they’re in that work time sometimes. We’ll step out for a drink of water, a snack, use the bathroom. So if you ever join a tutors call and you don’t get a response within five seconds, make sure you make yourself heard and just be like, Hey, or text in the chat, that way the tutor knows that you’re there. And then the second thing is just any time you first start with the tutor, it would be cool to like introduce yourself. And since you know a bit about the tutor, just share similar things about yourself, so the tutor’s a lot better at being able to explain things to you, knowing a bit about your background.
Laura Vogt:
Oh great. I hadn’t even thought of that. Make sure since you’re going in knowing a little bit, it’s kind of nice if you get to share that knowledge about each other.
Bradley Seamons:
Exactly.
Laura Vogt:
Well, thank you both so much for being here today. Bradley and Natalie, I really appreciate your time and talking a little bit more about the CAEE. I’m excited. The schedule is going to be up, I believe starting September 14th and we’ll be sharing more about it in the ESS Newsletter. So thank you both for coming.
Bradley Seamons:
Thank you.
Natalie Celt:
Thank you.
Laura Vogt:
And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in to the Not So Secret Guide to Being a Berkeley Engineer. I look forward to podcasting with you next week.