Copywriting for CONTXT Magazine

In this article, I discuss the Academic Resource Center for Ringling College of Art and Design with a straightforward, journalistic approach.

At Ringling College of Art and Design, students are immersed in rigorous programs

designed to sharpen their creative and technical skills in their given major.

However, fundamental academic skills are paramount to success. Positive study

habits, strong writing ability, and time management are just a few of the skills that

students need in order to be successful in both their scholastic career as well as

their subsequent professional career as an artist. The Academic Resource Center

[ARC] provides a variety of services to Ringling College students to assist them with

this important component of their education.

“The strategies I teach are individualized to each student’s unique cognitive style,

their strengths and weaknesses, and the demands of their major and current

project,” says Paula Jawitz, who last year assisted over 1100 students to develop

better reading, studying, and time management skills. “My services are not

exclusive to struggling or disabled students. I see many students, who want to

maintain their high academic averages for scholarships and their own high

standards.”

Based on an interview, which helps determine a student’s strengths, weaknesses,

and learning style in conjunction with how it relates to an actual assigned project, an

individual study strategy program is developed for each student. 

ARC not only sees students by appointment, they also visit specific classrooms to

offer seminars on topics tailored to a class or project requirements, and even help

faculty with classroom strategies and exam composition.

“At Ringling College of Art and Design, I faced many challenges with my schoolwork,

but the staff at the ARC was able to adjust to my learning style and help me succeed,”

recalls Allison Pineau. “The tips and strategies that I’ve learned from the ARC were

very beneficial and I was able to carry them beyond graduation and through

graduate school.” Allison currently holds a Masters Degree in Art Therapy and

works for Disney.

Students are reading more diverse materials and need to have several

comprehension strategies in their reading repertoire to keep up with new

information and constant changes in technology and in their fields.

Also, because Ringling College students graduate with a Bachelors degree, there are

specific, required liberal arts classes in addition to classes in a student’s major.

“The ARC was easily the most important asset I had available to me at Ringling.  I

remember in my first year or so, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed,” says Justin Farris,

a Computer Animation graduate. “Since I was determined to keep my grades up in

order to keep the scholarships I was awarded, I turned to the ARC for help. They

really helped me with my liberal arts classes so that I was able to focus more time on

my animation, which eventually led to a junior year Sony Internship, and then a job

at Pixar immediately after graduation.”

(SIDEBAR)

Four Tips for time planning and project management:

1.  Avoid Surprises!  Know what is coming for the entire semester. How?  Read every

syllabus by the second week of the semester. Put EVERY assignment on to your

monthly calendar.

2.   Be Realistic! Generously overestimate the most time each assignment will take,

and beak it into small, manageable components with specific time and a day for

each. 

3.   Take Control!  Know your peak, and low concentration levels and develop a

study schedule that pairs challenging work with high focus times, and fun and

distractions with the low times. 

DO NOT Avoid your distractions: schedule them at a time that does not interfere

with your homework.

4.  Prioritize! Complete every class assignment’s requirements. Then, IF there is

extra time in that week, go back to a high priority assignment to go beyond the

requirements