Sacramento State students have access to free workshops in the Student Technology Center in the Academic Information Resource Center, but many do not take advantage of the workshops.

Student Tech Center had 1,601 walk-ins, 116 expert appointments and 467 workshop attendees during last semester. So far this semester, it has seen 406 walk-ins, 748 workshop attendees and 48 expert appointments.

The workshops take place in the Student Tech Center teaching lab room 3008. These workshops are 50 minutes long and are taught by knowledgeable student staff to help students learn technology and software programs which include: Adobe, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Technical support, Microsoft, Web design, multimedia, data analysis and thesis writing.

Vice President and Chief Information Officer Larry Gilbert said he came out with the Student Tech Center idea from a past experience driven by a student need to do work in the curriculum; the center has been available for over two years now.

“We took only about 5 percent of our student wage budget off the top in order to provide the staffing in the Student Tech Center,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said the idea is to expand the center as soon as the budget can permit it to provide services to students supporting student preparedness in learning skills and study skills.

“Services will be developed to support student use of computer labs, classrooms and other spaces for learning,” Gilbert said. “Students will be provided with increased access to both general use and discipline-specific software for learning and increased availability of trained staff will be provided, with equal access to technology to all students.”

Students can receive assistance creating and practicing classroom presentations, get answers to technical questions, print large scale color documents and access multimedia and graphic software not available in the open labs. They can work with groups on assignments and learn about self-help resources available to all students, according to the Student Tech Center website.

Senior sociology major Anthony Leonardini has taken advantage of these free workshops by taking the Sociology Connect program to an orientation workshop. He is student coordinator of the Sociology Connect Peer Mentoring program.

“All of us in the Sociology Connect program were glad to hear about that, because as Sociologist, we know that it is important to be tech savvy, in this modern day,” Leonardini said. “Being familiar with certain computer software programs will only benefit us and it looks good when you can put it on a resume. The free workshops are great, especially if you need help with a computer question or want to learn how to create something new.”

Leonardini said the center is a great resource on campus all students should know about.

“It’s never a bad thing to improve your computer skills because many job careers require them, plus the workshops are free and conducted by fellow students. It is a great resource on campus,” Leonardini said.

Junior computer science major Andrew Archer said he likes the concept of free workshops, especially the one-on-one to help you even better.

“I like the idea that people will be able to learn how to use Photoshop and stuff like that, things that they haven’t been able to learn on their own considering there is not a photo 101 class, that will be nice,” Archer said. “I’m of the opinion that any way you can better yourself through education, it’s always a beneficial thing and if it’s for the most part free all the better specially when it is a useful skill like spreadsheet, word processors and image making.”

Mari Del Angel can be reached at [email protected].