STORY BY JOHN CARTER JR
PHOTOS BY CLARK CHEN
Recently I had the opportunity to interview Fort Hays Honor Society president Samual Neff. Mr. Neff, a Junior accounting student here at Fort Hays State University, was eager to give information concerning the development of the GRE prep session events and furthermore gave us some insight as to what we can look forward to in the future concerning these events and others planned by we Honor Society. Here is what we had the opportunity to discuss:
John Carter- Can you describe the planning process for the GRE Prep Sessions?
Samual Neff- The planning of these sessions begins with the reservation of the room. We try to find a room that can both accommodate us and also provide excellent technological resources so that our speakers can present effectively. Once we have the room reserved throughout the month we move to find speakers for the sessions. Typically this is done by reaching out to particular departments and resources on campus and looking for suggestions as to whom they may suggest speaking on our topics. Though since the event has been done for years now we try and invite speakers who have helped out in the past.
JC- What were the topics covered in these sessions and how many sessions were available?
SN- Currently, we offer four sessions occurring every Tuesday in September covering stress and test anxiety management, analytical writing, critical thinking, and finally power prep, software, and math.
JC- How often (per school year) are these sessions made available?
SN- These sessions are only put on once a year in order to catch everyone who will take the GRE throughout the year.
JC- What is the expense or cost of these sessions for aspiring GRE applicants/Students?
SN- These sessions are completely free to everyone who would like to attend! What makes our prep sessions unique from others is that we actually hand out a fixed amount of free GRE prep books to our attendees. This is in an attempt to provide helpful resources to students while not putting stress on them financially while they already have to worry about paying for the test.
JC- How do you feel concerning the turnout of the event?
SN- I was quite happy with the turnout of the event! We were looking to have at least 10 attendees at the last three sessions and I am excited to say that we met that goal. Many of our attendees came back for multiple sessions and ended up bringing friends.
JC- Are there any factors that the Honor Society looks to improve upon in future GRE Prep events?
SN- We would, of course, love to advertise the event more and increase attendance. The most important thing for us is having people coming to receive this information we are providing to them so that they can succeed during the GRE. Finding the time to put on more of these prep sessions throughout the year would also be the next step in growing this event but in order to maintain the integrity of it, we will need to find alternative funding sources if we would like to continue providing the free study materials to attendees.
Thank you very much to the Fort Hays State Honor Society and Samual Neff for this interview. we have plenty of things to look forward to with future Honor Society events.