More resources, in the form of program skills, were made available during a Microsoft Word workshop. The workshop was more inclusive as it taught new skills that are especially helpful to returning students and English as a second language students.

These skills included tools such as using the snipping, text-to-speech and smart lookup on Microsoft Word.

The workshop was held on Sept. 11 by Albert Wilmovsky, lab technician, who demonstrated how to find and use “basic” tools to increase students’ success.

He explained that the text-to-speech tool is especially useful to students who do not speak English as their first language and who are looking for help with pronunciation.

Though this is a more hidden feature, it is a tool that greatly helps students expressed Wilmovsky.

A workshop attendee said that even though the Success Center is a place where she head to for help she feels she relies on it too much.

Cynthia Gonzalez, social work major, explained that when she goes to the Success Center “most of the time they are the one who are doing the changes [for me].”.

The workshop helped her learn the skills on her own and be able to do them from home so that she does not have to “rely on tutors,” she explained.

Additionally, Wilmovsky explained the importance these workshops have for students who return to school after several years.

He said, “When you don’t have a foundation it’s harder to know what to ask. This gives [students] the opportunity to get them started and get to know the programs.

“They just need something to get them started and that is what these lessons do, it helps them get a general overview of these programs.”

Even though the Microsoft workshop was low in attendance, Wilmovsky said that other workshops, such as the Microsoft Excel workshop, have been filled to capacity twice already.

Wilmovsky said his focus is on students and making sure that students have the skills to be successful through knowledge on commonly-used programs such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

He said, “Sometimes [students] don’t know all the extra things like how to add pictures or sound effects or things that make their powerpoint that much better, when they aren’t able to add design concepts to their presentation and it just looks to plain.

“They are then graded according to how their presentation is and so many times they might not get those extra points that they would have normally got if their presentation looked that much better,”

Wilmovsky ended saying that it is important to highlight smaller events like workshops so that all students have the skills to be successful.