Apr 07, 2025  
2024-2025 Graduate Catalog, Volume 7 
    
2024-2025 Graduate Catalog, Volume 7

Academic Support Services



Academic Success Center (ASC)

Siena College recognizes academic advising as a critical component of the educational experience of its students. Academic advising is a process of problem-solving and decision-making through which a student explores and seeks information from professionals of the campus community. It is marked by a dynamic relationship between proactive students and advisor/mentors who act as teachers and guides in this interactive partnership. Students are assigned a faculty advisor in their declared major or for undeclared students, a faculty member in the School within which they are declared. Students who enter the College without selecting a School may be initially assigned to a Student Success Advisor in the ASC until declaring a major or School.  In addition, the Academic Success Center provides professional advising to any student needing: drop-in assistance; help with College procedures or advising concerns; or, assistance when a faculty advisor is unavailable. In this way, the College facilitates high quality academic advising for all Siena students. We are located in the Fr. Ben Kuhn House.

Tutoring Services

Tutoring Services are available through the Academic Success Center to all students currently registered at Siena College and enrolled in courses taught by Siena faculty. Group and individual peer tutoring are available during both the fall and spring semesters at no additional cost.

Tutoring can play a proactive role in academic success. Our trained peer tutors can help clarify difficult concepts, suggest study strategies, and assist students in developing plans for success in their courses. When combined with appropriate use of faculty office hours, tutoring can enhance academic performance and improve a student’s overall classroom experience. Students are encouraged to make use of tutoring services throughout their time at Siena.

The Writing Center

The Writing Center offers free in-person and online writing, presentation, and speaking support to ALL Siena students, faculty, and staff. We believe that writers of ALL abilities, backgrounds, skill levels, and home languages benefit from caring conversation and engaging collaboration. The Writing Center also believes that writing, like life, is practice, and doing so alongside and in community with others makes the challenging parts more manageable and the exciting parts more gratifying.

Knowledgeable, well-trained peer and professional writing  tutors provide constructive feedback, helpful comments, and generative questions for ALL assignments and projects in ALL subjects and at ALL stages. Tutors can help generate ideas, organize arguments, clarify purpose, identify/appeal to an audience, and provide guidance for conventions (grammar and punctuation) for ALL assignment types-from traditional essays to slide decks to lesson plans. Tutors collaborate with visiting writers to understand their dynamic and diverse needs and provide strategies and tactics to build and evolve their own communication practices.

Visiting writers can schedule 1:1 appointments as needed, use scheduled walk-in hours for quick assistance, or set weekly appointments with the same tutor for the entire semester through the Writing Mentor Program. 

Undergraduate and graduate students interested in joining the Writing Center staff as peer tutors are encouraged to contact our director, Dr. Lorelei Wagner (lwagner@siena.edu) during the fall semester to discuss pathways to becoming a peer tutor, including gaining permission to enroll in Writing 240: Peer Tutoring in Writing, a practice- and workshop-based tutor training course. For more information about joining our staff, visit our website at siena.edu/writing

Additional details about our mission, services, and hours of operation are posted at siena.edu/writing. The Writing Center is located in L09 on the lower level of the Standish Library. Appointments may be scheduled online through siena.mywconline.com or emailing writingcenter@siena.edu

The MacDonnell Career and Internship Center (TMCIC)

Foy Hall 203
518-783-2339

Your education for a lifetime will take you many places.  The MacDonnell Career and Internship Center (TMCIC) will help you get there!  Start early and come often.

TMCIC offers resources to ALL students-all class years, all majors, all degrees-and alumni.  TMCIC can assist with all your career and internship needs.  Some topics you may wish to discuss include:

  • Identifying your interests, skills and values
  • Discovering careers and connecting them to your interests
  • Assisting with all aspects of internships 
  • Administering and interpreting self-assessments
  • Choosing a major or minor
  • Using Platforms-Handshake, GoinGlobal, SaintsNetwork, Big Interview, LinkedIn and other tools
  • Mentoring through the Student to Alumni Mentoring Program (StAMP)
  • Networking with professionals in fields of interest
  • Writing and critiquing resumes and cover letters
  • Preparing for interviews and conducting mock interviews
  • Strategizing your job/internship search
  • Choosing and applying to graduate or professional school programs
  • Critiquing graduate school personal statements/essays and applications

TMCIC offers a wide range of services, programs and resources for the entire Siena community.  These include:

  • Individual career and internship counseling appointments

  • Peer Career Advisor Drop-In Service

  • Resume certification

  • Credit-bearing internship coordination and Experiences tracking tool

  • Handshake platform

  • Career Guide (print and digital versions)

  • Career and internship fairs and expos

  • GoinGlobal platform

  • Big Interview platform

  • SaintsNetwork platform and StAMP

  • One credit career and major exploration courses

  • Self-assessment tools

  • On-Campus Interviewing (OCI)

  • Additional programs, events and presentations

  • Private interview room for either virtual or in-person interviews

  • Business Card Printing

  • Thank you cards

All students have access to Handshake, the platform to use for all your TMCIC needs.  Handshake is an industry leading, nation-wide recruiting platform, listing opportunities for on and off campus employment, work study and internship positions.  Appointments with TMCIC can be scheduled using Handshake. Students can also see TMCIC’s events calendar, upload resumes for certification and search for positions all in Handshake.