Rebekah Davis
palmettoreport@gmail.com

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — As the semester at Winthrop University nears its end, students are busy preparing for final exams, completing final projects and making one last attempt to boost grades.

To help motivate and prepare students for the last week of the school year, a number of Winthrop groups held a finals prep tabling event April 16 in the DiGiorgio Campus Center.

Representatives from the Academic Success Center, Winthrop Wesley Foundation, Alpha Delta Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa and Alpha Omega set up tables with food and activities to help students get mentally and physically prepared for exams.

“We made a whole bunch of goody bags for final exams to just kind of help seniors and other people make their week a little easier,” said Andrew Constantine, from the Winthrop Wesley Foundation.

The group put school supplies, such as pens and pencils, in the bags along with snack items like juice pouches, chips and cookies.

Alpha Delta Pi baked over 100 muffins to motivate students to “grind on the last day of school and get As on all of their finals,” said Peyton Tolley, a member of the sorority.

The snacks were appreciated by students.

“If I can’t get any good food or anything in me I’m going to be worrying about it the whole time I’m studying, it will keep me off track, so having a good snack for me is something essential for any study session,” said student Tim Cunningham.

There were also a few tables for students to reflect on their semester and get mentally prepared for exams.

Omicron Delta Kappa, the Winthrop chapter of the National Leadership Honor Society, had a table for students to write thank you notes to their professors or anyone who helped them throughout the semester.

“We know this is a really busy time for students, but we want to give them the opportunity to reflect and give appreciation to all the people who have helped gotten them to this point,” said Audrey Hughes, president of Omicron Delta Kappa.

Alpha Omega, a women’s Christian service fraternity at Winthrop, gave students the opportunity to write down prayer requests.

Michelle Wolf, director of the Academic Success Center, said students need to prioritize sleep during finals week.

“They need to space out their studying for about 50 minutes, then take a break and stay alert and do not stay up all night studying for exams, because that won’t help them,” said Wolf. “Their brain needs to sleep to do well and needs to put the things they learned during the day into their long-term memory at night.”