Marcia Albert
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A Resource for Success
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It's the mission of Marcia Albert, director of the Learning Resource Center (LRC), to help students – especially first-year students – succeed at LMU.
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Marcia Albert, Ph.D., director of the Learning Resource Center (LRC), knows that even the best students are often not prepared for college.
“Students are often not well prepared whether they come from private school or public school,” Albert says. They have study skills appropriate for high school, but not for college.”
To help new students switch into college mode, Albert and her staff offer one-on-one and small-group tutoring sessions, writing labs, and individualized study skills assistance. The LRC also has a collaborative program with the library in which they offer a Study Skills and Library Research Methods course – a project of which Albert is very proud.
“Lots of study skills courses are offered across the nation but there are very few study skills and library research methods courses, which really help students to understand the difference between plagiarism and original thought, and how to do citations,” she says.
What sets LMU’s LRC apart from those of other universities, Albert says, is that its services are available to all students. “At some Jesuit universities, you must be a Disability Support Services [DSS] student in order to receive LRC services. We want you to receive our services because you are an LMU student, not a DSS student.”
Some students who go to the LRC are desperate for assistance, while others are disappointed to find they need help. “It’s really important for us to normalize those feelings and say, ‘all of us at some time in our lives needed a little assistance and support’,” Albert says.
But LRC clients get more than just academic support: Albert is committed to the intercultural training of all peer tutors. “Students cannot do a good job tutoring if they do not understand the journey of the student who is sitting across from them,” she says.
Albert’s own journey to LMU came seven years ago after leaving her position as the academic skills coordinator at UC Irvine’s College of Medicine. The draw, she says, was the diverse population at LMU.
“That’s what attracted me,” she says, “in addition to the Jesuit mission: the caring for the whole person; the development of one’s spirituality; the issue of social justice.”
Albert describes LMU as a warm, embracing, supportive environment.
“I start my day with a blessing that I am here,” she says.