2nd Year and Beyond Seminars

Tougaloo College has designed a framework that begins in the first year and intervenes at the sophomore, junior and senior levels. This approach requires collaboration with and by all sectors of the college to mentor students from the first-year until graduation and beyond. To achieve academic success, three levels of interdisciplinary seminars are designed to help students achieve sophomore, junior, and senior success.

Sophomore Scholars Seminar

Sophomore Scholars Seminar (SSS)- a no credit unit focusing on specific scholarship and academic preparations to advance research development, career exploration, global exploration and mindful thinking skills. Students identify growth opportunities and demonstrate competency on an identified post assessment. Emphasis is placed on further development of critical math, critical reading, writing skills, and critical language skills with a hands-on scholarly approach to personal growth.

Junior Scholars Seminar

Junior Scholars Seminar (JSS)- a no credit unit focusing on scholarship and academic preparations to further advance research development, career preparation, community service, and critical pre-professional preparations. Students will identify growth opportunities and demonstrate competency on an identified post assessment. In this junior scholars seminar, emphasis focuses and assists students in beginning the closure process for graduation readiness.

Graduating Senior Scholars Seminar

Graduating Senior Scholars Seminar (GSS)- a no credit unit focusing on assisting students in bringing their Tougaloo College experience to a closure. This is facilitated through systematic auditing, intentional reflection of both academic and career goals and preparations (professional testing: pre-med, pre-law, mass comm., GRE, GMAT, etc.), graduation requirements (EWPE, Community Service, General Ed, etc.), research preparation, Mechanics of the Senior Thesis, Portfolio, job placement, and graduate/professional school acceptance. Students will again identify growth opportunities and demonstrate competency on an identified post assessment.

Success Coaching

OSPAS assists students on academic probation or academic warning to adjust to college rigor, assist in locating materials, places, and people on campus, and offer support, encouragement, and positive reinforcement to avoid further academic concerns. These students are required to develop academic plans with their academic advisors and meet periodically with staff in the OSPAS for assistance and referrals. The goal of the program is to return students to a good academic standing in as few semesters as possible. This is accomplished by assisting with the use of available resources and the development of critical skills, such as time management, goal setting, organization skills, and balancing academic and social demands.

Early Intervention

Early Intervention is a cooperative and collaborative program involving faculty, staff and students. It is felt that faculty, have the best – and earliest – perspective on a student's ability to complete the course work necessary to succeed in their classes. When a student is observed to be struggling or not attending class at the beginning of the term, faculty can easily refer that student for Early Intervention.

Faculty use web-based SAGE early alert system to create an academic alert with reasons and recommended actions for students enrolled in their classes. If a student misses two consecutive class sessions, the faculty member must submit an academic alert. Faculty can view SAGE to determine what action was taken by OSPAS in response to the referral.

Graduate and Professional School Assistance

In collaboration with Career Services and divisions, students will be assisted in preparing to “Get recruited”! OSPAS helps students learn strategies for successful applications to graduate school.

Community Service

Community service helps foster civic responsibility and encourages student learning and development through active participation in thought-fully organized service that is conducted in, and meets the needs of, a community. Service is also used as a means to explore careers, apply course work, fulfill personal values, and develop meaningful relationships.