Cougs Help Cougs
Photos and Writing by Logan Gallinger
In this photo essay, I wanted to capture some of the ways that the Washington State University students are interconnected with each other, and almost hold a standard of excellence and quality of work among each other. Now, this is not limited to just the students, but both academic and non-academic staff. I thought it would be a little too simple to photograph WSU students, say, asking their instructors for advice or other academic figures. Instead, I wanted to focus on that internal work among the students, and I felt led to take some pictures at the Terrell Library Student Writing Center and the Math Learning Center. Both of these programs run off of peer mentoring, and they encourage that betterment from one’s peers.
These were also services I have utilized in my years here at WSU, and at the end of the day, they really show that Cougs really do help Cougs. These photos were taken when I was given permission to photograph those that were using the provided services.
This is a display that was set up in Owen Science Library. I thought it kind of fit this theme.
Rebecca, a math tutor at the WSU Math Learning Center helps a WSU student with his math homework in preparation for finals.
Jasmine, a math tutor at the MLC helps a different student with a difficult math problem.
A student visits the helpers at the Terrell Library Student Writing Center to get a second opinion on his paper.
In this photo, we see not only tutors like Jasmine helping students; we can also see students collaborating with each other to work out math problems.
The Writing Center tutors listen to your concerns and give you constructive feedback. It is a service I highly recommend, having used it a good amount myself over my years here.
The Math Learning Center is located in Cleveland Hall, in the same building as classes for education majors. It is no surprise that many of the tutors are looking to become math teachers, and this helps them gain experience doing so on a one-on-one basis.
This is honestly one of my favorite shots I got. I like how you can see the three people in the picture actively discussing the problems, and I also like the active background.
You can see the two subjects actively thinking and talking about ideas in this photo.
The role that the volunteers at peer-run help centers like this often go unnoticed. These students go out of their way to improve someone else's work, and that is a very helpful service that they provide.