CASA SERVICES
The Center for Access, Success and Achievement offers various services to support the academic and professional success of its students, including peer mentoring, life coaches, tutoring and a lending library.
PEER MENTORING
CASA provides various mentoring opportunities for both academic and life skills. These opportunities encourage individual excellence while allowing students to learn and grow through workshops and other programs.
The purpose of this society is to recognize scholars of high moral and academic integrity; foster academic and professional improvement; and encourage individual excellence to empower the multicultural community to make a substantial impact on the campus of Villanova University.
Email the Edward Collymore Honors Society or program director Nicole Davis to join or learn more.
The Limitless Initiative for Friendship and Trust (LIFT) is a peer mentoring program housed in the Center for Access, Success and Achievement (CASA). Students can join as mentees or mentors.
- Mentees are first-year students who would benefit from the guidance and friendship of upper-level students who have been in their shoes. Mentees commit to regular meetings with a supportive mentor.
- Mentors are sophomores, juniors and seniors who would like to share their experience and knowledge, and who are driven to support peers. Mentors are selected based on their academic achievement as well as their engagement and involvement at Villanova.
All students who are part of LIFT will make up a community of mutual support and fellowship. In the Limitless Initiative for Friendship and Trust, we celebrate each other’s successes, and when we are down, we LIFT each other up!
Email the LIFT Peer Mentor Program or program advisor Rachel Epstein to join or learn more.
We validate, enlighten and empower.
My Sister’s KeepHER is an empowerment program intended to provide women with a place to speak, explore, learn and grow with and from each other. Our mission involves providing a space for women to share their experiences in order to validate, enlighten and empower each other. We invite women to be women. We explore all the intersectionalities of womanhood in order to create an inclusive environment where everyone in the room leaves feeling better than when she entered.
Values
- Holistic Health
- Women Empowerment
- Self- Care
- Volunteering
- Safe Space
Email My Sister’s KeepHER or program director Nicole Davis to join or learn more.
Working to be Informed, Studious and Engaged (WISE) exists to provide resources, empowerment and social skill development for males students here at Villanova. We seek to positively impact the lives of these young men through mentorship, workshops and various other programs and events.
Vision
We want to see all of our male students achieve academic success and become continual learners and professionals after graduating from Villanova.
Values
We believe in the following principles:
D.R.E.A.M.
Discipline - Remaining focused, limiting distractions and accomplishing set goals
Responsibility - Being responsible for your own success
Excellence - Giving your best in all you do
Ambition - Set the bar higher than the norm and never settle for less
Motivation - Having passion for what you want to achieve
Email program coordinator Marquis Coates to join or learn more.
LIFE COACHES
The role of the CASA Life Coaches is to:
- Empower students through personal development;
- Help students adjust emotionally, mentally and spiritually to the academic and social environment of college;
- Assist students in identifying their strengths and weaknesses and how to maximize strengths while strengthening weaknesses; and
- Develop and enhance positive life coping strategies while decreasing and eliminating negative life coping strategies.
Contact your CASA Retention Coach to schedule a session.
Dr. George James, LMFT speaks, counsels, consults, coaches and teaches people how to overcome everyday relational struggles to build successful connections in love, family and career. With a practical approach to relationships and life, Dr. James helps bring success within the reach of those he influences!
Dr. James is a nationally recognized speaker, seminar presenter and lecturer on various topics. His breadth of expertise includes a special emphasis on topics geared toward couples, men, professional athletes, actors/entertainers, musicians, college students, family-owned businesses and people of color. Dr. James is devoted to working with people to help them improve their quality of life, to be involved in the healing of their wounds and enrichment of their relationships.
Dr. James attended Villanova University as a Presidential Scholar, and majored in Psychology and concentrated in Africana Studies. He received his Masters of Family Therapy degree from Drexel University and his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Immaculata University.
He is married to Candace and they are parents to their beautiful daughter, Nalani, and cheerful son, Alexander.
Ryan McMillian, a therapist featured in the Huffington Post and CBS Philadelphia, has worked in the mental health field for nine years. He has served in universities as both a guest lecturer on matters related to behavioral counseling and as a student counselor at Princeton Theological seminary. Ryan holds interactive workshops across the country on communication skills, setting boundaries and relationship enhancement. In addition, he has a background in grief counseling with seven years of hospice work. He holds a Master of Divinity and a post-graduate certificate in Marriage & Family Therapy.
Courtney Ragin is a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in supporting individuals and families as they navigate life transitions and overcome depression, anxiety and challenges in interpersonal relationships. She completed her Masters in Family Therapy at Drexel University. Courtney has a special interest in helping women address burnout in the workplace and incorporate exercise into treatment as a tool to combat mental health challenges. Courtney has more than five years of experience working with college students to help them grow in confidence, create community and thrive during this life stage.
Courtney utilizes Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills to help clients identify and pursue a life in alignment with their values. She believes that everyone has the tools within to navigate life’s challenges and finds purpose in helping people tap into their inner strength and potential.
Outside of therapy/coaching, Courtney coaches group fitness classes in Philadelphia. She also enjoys spending time in nature, doing obstacle course races with her family and traveling both domestically and internationally.
TUTORING SERVICES
- Individual tutoring for a requested course is not provided by any other on-campus tutoring service.
- Availability of on-campus tutoring services does not match the CASA student's availability due to class or work schedule time conflicts.
Subjects covered include math, writing, sciences, engineering, business, nursing, language courses and more!
Tutoring sessions must be scheduled on WCOnline at least 24 hours in advance.
Available Tutoring Subjects
Free supplementary tutoring services are provided in the following programs: AAP, ACTIVE, ENACT, WISE, SMD and UPS. Students in CASA programs can work with CASA peer tutors to build skills to help them improve their academic performance.
Accessing an Online Session
Your tutor will leave a note for you in the “What would you like to work on?” section of your appointment sign-up form. Please check this field in your appointment by clicking on the box representing your appointment in the schedule
Online Options
You will have the options for full audio, visual, live chat and shared digital whiteboard space in which to complete the work of the session. The tutors are ready to show you how to make use of all these exciting features so we can emulate an in-person experience to the best of our ability.
If you have a tutoring need that is not covered by any of the campus tutoring services, please contact Julianna Studer.
LENDING LIBRARY
CASA maintains a small library of books and textbooks accessible for our students to checkout for the semester. The lending library has proven to be a valuable resource to help defray the costs of instructional materials that CASA students may need for class. This is particularly important in the era of rising textbook costs. In return, we ask students to donate purchased textbooks back to the library for future students to use.
