First of four stories
By Rick Vacek | February 17, 2025
To commemorate National Tutor Appreciation Week in October, Mallory Matyk wanted to honor the hundreds of alumni who have worked for her as Peer Leaders in the Student Success Center.
She discovered that their appreciation for the SSC is just as strong.
The Assistant Director for Academic Success Coaching, Success Workshops and Marketing/Outreach had continued to follow many of them on Instagram after they graduated from The University of Texas at Dallas. Many of them still follow the SSC account.
Those connections quickly turned up several who have become doctors. One of the first students she hired eight years earlier is now an attorney.
Matyk was delighted to share the news with her colleagues.
“You go to work every day and you see these students and you know you’re pouring into them, and the thing I’m most proud of is that they’re successful when they leave here,” she said.
“I know it’s the whole UTD community that has done that for them, but seeing them out there thriving and actually living their dreams is really awesome.”
What made it even more gratifying was that many of the students credit the SSC for helping them ascend to those dreams. Typically, they would come to the Student Success Center to take advantage of its wide variety of programs in their first year at UT Dallas, then act on their newfound confidence by becoming a Peer Leader.
“It’s a great job to be rewarded for something you already know, and they get to meet the students and work with them and create a community among themselves,” said Dr. Julie Murphy, the SSC’s Senior Director. “They meet people they never would have met.”
They find so much value in becoming tutors, it raises an interesting question: Who benefits more, the students receiving the assistance or the ones providing it?
More than 200 students are Peer Leaders during this spring 2025 semester, and Matyk wants every single one to get as much as possible out of the role.
“The things I’m most proud of are the connections I’ve made with our Peer Leaders,” Matyk said. “Just being a mentor to them and being the person they ask to be their reference or to write their letter of recommendation for med school … I take that role very seriously.”
Nisha Anbu is the perfect example of alumni who were SSC regulars and grew from the experience.
The 2020 neuroscience graduate received tutoring, both one-on-one and in group settings. She strengthened her communication skills in the CommLab and Writing Center. Academic Success coaches taught her how to improve her organizational habits and test results.
“It helped immensely,” she said. “I used the Student Success Center to max capacity.”
Then she worked as a Peer Leader in the CommLab for three years and benefited just as much. She loved the fellowship of the tutors and especially enjoyed finding out why they wanted to do it.
But the SSC did something else for Anbu that truly changed her life: It taught her how to speak in public.
“I am an introvert through and through,” she said. “It was really difficult for me to transition from presenting to a group of 30 students in high school to 50-plus students in college. I used the CommLab to gain more public speaking skills and just gain more confidence with talking out loud.”
Later, her evolution made her even more effective working with students seeking similar help. She could empathize with them and change their perspective with advice like this:
“Hey, I’m also an extreme introvert. I stumble and stutter and sweat. I promise you’ll get through it as long as you know what you’re talking about, are passionate and are able to keep organized. It’s totally OK if you flake. I stop all the time.”
And look where it has led her. She now is a third-year Texas Tech University medical student who goes on morning rounds at University Medical Center of El Paso offering her thoughts about patients to doctors and residents.
When she started last summer, “the very first time was like a train wreck – I got all of it wrong.” But now her dream of becoming a pediatrician feels much more in reach.
Nothing, it seems, can stop her. Certainly not public speaking.
“It’s preparing how to get my appropriate points across in a concise way, and when they ask questions not to immediately freak out,” she said.
She has improved … immensely. And it all started in the SSC.
The SSC’s influence is just as evident in the plans of another introvert who wants to be a doctor, senior Nive Bala.
“Part of what has informed my decision is Peer Tutoring,” she said. “I want a specialty that’s very people-facing and allows me to build interpersonal relationships just because I’ve gotten so much value from my job here.”
It didn’t take Bala long to see how satisfying the return on investment can be, both short and long term.
One of the first students she was assigned to tutor came to the SSC after failing a calculus test.
The student had never taken calculus before … and broke down in tears while Bala went to retrieve some materials … and Bala was being observed by a supervisor for the first time to see how she was handling her new role.
Bala felt herself sweating. But she quickly turned the situation into no sweat at all.
“Instead of tutoring her, I just sat with her and told her how I went to calculus with no foundation, and I cried in my first class because I didn’t know what was going on,” Bala said. “Now I tutor it, so if I’m able to do that, she’s able to do the same thing.
“After the student had calmed down, we went through a step-by-step process for the problem, and I helped her write out steps to do it. By the end of the tutoring session, she was able to do some of the problems herself.”
Since then, Bala has seen that same student regularly in advanced classes for math and biology.
“She always says hi to me,” Bala said. “It’s really sweet.”
The SSC also has helped Bala overcome her shyness. She used to be the type who hid in the bathroom during a party, and coming to UT Dallas from a small high school (graduating class, 25) was a shock to her system.
Now she is one of six Team Leaders in the Peer Tutoring program.
“Students really do put that trust and vulnerability on you when they’re talking about their difficulties,” she said. “They talk about how they’re struggling with their grades, how they’re first-generation students. I’ve had to become more open and more engaging to help students feel comfortable.
“They’re relying on you, so you have to do it.”
Students in any academic setting usually benefit from the tutoring they receive. That’s a given. And the Student Success Center has an overwhelming amount of data demonstrating that its guidance improves coursework.
But the SSC is unusual for a simple reason: the way Bala and other Team Leaders talk about what working there does for them.
So … back to that question: Who benefits more?
“Wow. That is a good question,” Bala said. “Obviously, when I go into it, I want the student to get more out of it because I want them to walk away not just knowing how to do a subject. I think it’s so valuable seeing students walk in lacking confidence and then walk out having it.
“Being on the other end of that has been a really valuable experience for me, and I think it also has helped me grow in confidence. I can communicate with people and meet them where they are. That’s been really valuable to me, too.”
“That’s a great question,” said Maya Langendorf, the CommLab Team Leader. “I think it’s what you make of it. When the students come in because they are passionate and they want to, it is absolutely them. But a lot of times if you come in for the extra credit on the assignment, it’s probably me [laughs].”
“That’s a wonderful question,” said Owais Sayeed, one of about a dozen Team Leaders for Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL). “I’m very biased in this opinion, but it’s definitely us, the students helping the other students.
“There are things in life that you can’t really put a monetary value on. The opportunity to practice communication skills, the opportunity to practice leadership skills in a controlled, safe environment, plus you’re helping underclassmen just a year, two or three younger than you … you can’t put a price tag on that.”
It’s almost as if the Peer Leaders should pay for the experience.
“Whenever I come to the Student Success Center,” Sayeed said, “I don’t think I’m coming to work. The way I like to perceive it is, I’m getting paid to have fun.”
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Also in this series:
How Tutoring Programs Point Students in Right Direction