Unsung Hero: Adam Colton of HEOP aids students

Adam Colton shows staff and students how much effort truly goes into helping students academically on campus with their papers and projects.
As an academic skills specialist for the HEOP (Higher Education Opportunity Program) and the Student Success Center, Colton has multiple jobs that he has to take care of to ensure that students get the help they need.
“I wear many hats. My primary role is as a professional writing tutor for the HEOP students here at Bonaventure. They’ll come in with essays, projects, whatever thing they need help with,” said Colton.
“A subrole is managing the writing lab for the university. So, hiring tutors for the writing lab, training tutors, consulting on their work and also just getting the overflow of the lab,” Colton said. “If the tutor’s occupied or not available, I’ll take a student who needs help. In addition to that, I teach some classes for the English department; this spring I’m teaching English 101.”
Through these many responsibilities, Colton describes how he’s learned to manage all of these everyday jobs. He says it’s not always easy.
“Patience is number one, not in a negative way. People just come in with many different issues they want to work on with projects and they cross many different disciplines, so I may not be knowledgeable in, per say, a paper for economics,” Colton said. “I try to learn to help the student out. That requires patience and time and multiple sessions with a student.”
Despite this, he has come across unique aspects to his position that other staff may not experience.
“Just seeing the interconnections between different disciplines is very interesting. Things you wouldn’t necessarily expect like humanities, economics, computer science, psychology and sociology. We’re all tackling different problems from different angles on these papers,” Colton said.
The experience of working with struggling students and helping them succeed outweighs any challenges he says he has to face on the job.
“When someone’s lightbulb goes off, like, ‘I understand’ for whatever the topic is, that’s the most rewarding part of it. This is especially true when working with a student who’s having a tough time or just has a lot of questions or is becoming frustrated,” Colton said.
“You know, I’m not the mechanic, the person to fix all your problems, but just someone to help guide or shine a light. The students eventually discover for themselves the answer to the problem, and it’s very rewarding,” he said.
Colton hasn’t always been involved in working with students’ papers and projects though. Prior to this position, he was working on his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated from in September 2017. During his time there, Colton was included in multiple roles.
“At the university, I was teaching classes, literature and composition courses. I also worked part time in the digital humanities center on campus. We worked on various projects that the faculty and students had,” said Colton.
An interesting project, that was unique to any others he had worked on, had come to Colton and his colleagues.
“One of my favorite projects was the ‘Women’s Diary Archive,’ in which we catalogued local female writers in scrapbooks, particularly between World War I and World War II. We transcribed the letters from online, and it was a really neat project. It’s still in progress, they’re actually looking for a grant, so I’m really excited to see what they do now that I’m gone,” said Colton.
Colton is a truly positive, hard-working staff member who’s looking out for the students who come to him for assistance.
“Dr. Colton has helped me a lot throughout the semester, whether it be academically or personally,” said Priscilla Contreras, a sophomore journalism and English double major who was tutored by Colton. “He always has his door open and is always willing to help out when help is needed. Because of him, I feel as I have become a better writer.”
If any other student is looking for help on their papers or projects, or just general help on assignments, Colton encourages students to seek him and his writing lab tutors for help.
“We always take drop-ins here, especially the writing lab. Drop in anytime! If I’m not available in my office, you can email me at ‘acolton@sbu.edu’ or at ‘writinglab@sbu.edu,’” said Colton.