Weekly Accountability & Support Sessions (WASS)

What is it? It is a space in which you will hold yourself accountable for your learning, and will explore different ways in which you can improve your study techniques to ensure you also keep a healthy life/study balance, which will make it sustainable.

Who can join: Any student is invited to join, as long as they commit to joining all sessions, except for instances when they’re sick or are prevented from attending for unavoidable reasons. This will help you carve this time for learning about studying strategies, organizing and planning your study sessions as well as using the time to practice active learning. Attending all sessions will make it easier for you to create a study routine in a space that fosters accountability. 

What we’ll do: Students will first discuss a topic or attend a short presentation given by Cornell staff with expertise in different areas, followed by hands-on practice of skills learned. During the second part of the session, students will engage in individual or small group work, evaluating their progress so far and determining what, if any, changes they need to make.

Who is leading this? Florencia Ardon, Lecturer and Neurodivergent Student Support Program Manager at the Learning Strategies Center, and faculty advisor for the Student Neurodiversity Alliance at Cornell. We will also host guest speakers for certain topics as well as student staff supporting you during each session.

By attending WASS, you will: 

• Create attainable goals for the semester and a plan to achieve them, using different active learning techniques, as well as effective organization and planning skills, and metacognitive reflection.
• You will start implementing your plan, with support from Cornell staff with expertise in those areas.
• Throughout the semester, evaluate strategies and techniques used as well as your own mindset, implementing modifications as needed.
• At the end of the term, evaluate the semester as a whole and determine strategies to use and skills to hone for the next term.