Last week, Amanda Smith, the Library’s UniPASS Peer Learning Coordinator, was recognised at the Curtin Excellence and Innovation and Teaching Awards for her outstanding contribution to learning and teaching in the ‘Staff Engagement’ category. This award, facilitated by the Curtin Excellence and Innovation in Teaching (CEIT) team, recognises the individual’s impact on cultivating a culture and working environment that provides an inspiring, rewarding, and meaningful experience for staff so that they can deliver world-class teaching and a sector leading student experience.
Amanda has been coordinating our UniPASS program since 2015, and under her outstanding leadership, it has gone from strength to strength. PASS (standing for Peer Assisted Study Sessions) is a nationally accredited program, supporting students to reinforce unit content knowledge and develop valuable study skills. Academically, regular attendees at the weekly peer-led interactive revision sessions, perform on average 10–15% better than their non-attending peers. Attendees consistently report UniPASS has positively impacted their student experience.
Amanda received the award in the staff engagement category in recognition of her contribution to learning and teaching at Curtin University and more broadly, in part due to her commitment to sharing her approach and developing others. Amanda has extended the opportunity to attend PASS training to many that work in student support at Curtin University and also to a range of high school programs seeking to establish their own peer support models. Amanda is committed to empowering staff to better support students and has made a huge difference, in the Library and beyond.
We would like to congratulate Amanda on this very well-deserved award and extend our congratulations to all other award winners and nominees as well.
Written by Tracy Piper, Acting Manager, Learning Success
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