By Gabriella Gomperts, Senior Features Editor
Dr. Beth Hait is the Associate Director of the Learning Success Center at Yeshiva University. The goal of the LSC is to empower undergraduate students to become independent, self-aware, confident lifelong learners. We do this by providing effective, practical strategies to enhance academic performance. Dr. Hait is from Riverdale, New York and has master’s degrees in both counseling and Jewish studies as well as a doctorate in education.
What do you like most about working at the Learning Success Center?
I took this position because I truly love working with college students. My goal is to create a safe space in which students can discuss and ask about anything. Each student has a unique background, both academic and personal, and the two interplay in their ability to achieve success in college. Every student can benefit from enhancing their own individual learning tools as well as acquiring the skills with which to balance school and life.
What advice would you give specifically to first time on campus students?
College is different from high school, no matter where you went to school and regardless of whether or not you took a gap year in Israel. If you think a course might be difficult for you, perhaps don’t take it your first semester. Give yourself the opportunity to get used to how college works. Another suggestion I would add is that if you are having any questions or concerns about a class, make a meeting with your professor in person. Meeting in person (as opposed to sending an email) enables the teacher to get to know you and for them to see how invested you are in their class.
What’s one piece of advice you want to give to all students?
I recognize that what I am about to say might go against the student culture, but I do believe it is important. The majority of students enter college not really knowing what career they want to pursue, but the culture at YU is to rush in and out of here as quickly as you can with a jam-packed schedule. If you want to figure out what to do with the rest of your life, take one less class and do an internship, take a part time job, or shadow a professional in a career you think you might be interested in. You will find out a great deal about yourself: what kind of environment you want to work in, what population you do and don’t want to work with, etc. I never met a student who took an extra semester or an extra year who regretted it. I know many students who needed to go back to school after graduating in order to take the necessary courses for the career they eventually figured out they wanted to pursue.
How would you define “learning success”?
I would say it is reaching your own individual potential.
Do you have a book recommendation for college students?
If I had to pick only one — Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. It is awesome.
Photo courtesy of Beth Hait