Now that you're back in the school mindset after the holidays (well, that's the hope, anyway), you may want to improve on last semester's performance, or keep up your strong grades. Fanshawe has tons of resources to help all of its students, and many of them have friendly faces.

Every student at Fanshawe has access to a Student Success Advisor for his or her school of study. SSAs can help students with study skills, learning styles, time management and other academic skills. Samantha Diamond, a former Student Success Facilitator at Fanshawe's Learning Centre, suggested students start the semester off with a visit to their SSA to get in the mindset for success.

"SSAs can certainly help in a lot of ways," explained Robert Kitchen, Student Success Leader with the Student Success Centre. "SSAs work very closely with students on program progression and can either work directly with a student or help them to get to the right ... college resources to support them. They're an outstanding point of first contact for students who need to get connected within the college web of resources."

SSAs are not just for students who may be having trouble with school, they're free and available for any student. "If it's a concern and you think it's a small concern, do it now," added Kitchen. "Don't wait until it becomes a bigger concern. The earlier we meet with you, the sooner and the better we can provide the resolution."

Another great resource students can turn to is the workshops put on by The Learning Centre. Topics include How to Effectively Read a Textbook, Listening and Note-Taking, Time Management Strategies and more. The workshops cycle throughout the semester so you have multiple opportunities to attend. "We encourage students to take advantage of them early, because sometime's it's challenging when you have a full academic load and you're trying to learn how to learn at the same time," said Kitchen.

The workshops can be very helpful for students who need to pick up new study skills. Studying is a process, not an event, explained Diamond. "Everything works together. If you go to all (the workshops), you'll see how studying isn't just one day, it's not just test prep on its own — it's studying from the very beginning, note-taking and paying attention in class."

Students who had a poor first semester may benefit from reflecting on what they would do differently from last semester, Kitchen said. "Not everyone has struggled in the first semester for the same reasons: was it not going to class? Was it not understanding the material? Was the program not right for you?" Once you identify what your challenges from the first semester were, you can work to resolve them and get help if you need it, he said.

While examining where you may not have done so well, "it's important to leverage on your successes," added Kitchen. He suggested trying a stop, start, continue exercise, where you ask yourself three questions: What did I do last semester that I should stop doing? What do I need to start doing? What did I do right last semester that I should continue to do? "It's not a question of saying, 'I'm going to change everything,' but maybe pick one stop, one start and one continue to focus on, and then as my confidence grows, I can build on it," he said.

And for those students who did well in their first semester, Kitchen sends his congratulations, but he also warned these students not to get complacent. "Don't take last semester's success for granted that it will repeat itself; you're going to have different courses, different faculty, different opportunities and different challenges," he said. "Continue to build on your strengths and successes, but at the same time, look for new challenges and opportunities."

Find your Student Success Advisor at tinyurl.com/fanshawessa. Check out the list of upcoming Study Skills workshops at tinyurl.com/fanshawestudyskills.