The Ohio Program of Intensive English explored the Ping Center as one of its weekly Wednesday activities in the program’s intensive workload.
OPIE is a program that non-native english speaking students studying at Ohio University can join when entering the university to develop English skills to perform better in their undergraduate or graduate work, according to OU’s website.
There are different levels to the program depending on the student’s English proficiency. The program targets lowest level students, said Program of Intensive English program instructor Rob Campbell.
The hope of these activities is to get the students interacting with the campus and its people.
OPIE wants to promote good experiences on campus for the students involved with the program.
“Attendance to activities has been down recently,” Campbell said. “At this time in the semester the students can feel really overwhelmed with work and they feel like they need to study all the time.”
The students who attended the Ping activity received a tour of the facility and then were given the opportunity to play volleyball or climb the rock wall.
This is not the first time that the English program has worked with Ping. A similar event took place last spring.
Trevor Dunlap, a graduate assistant for Ping operations, gave the tour of the center to the students that attended. He said that it may be a little more difficult to talk to the students, but he said he made sure to talk slower and enunciate clearly.
“If the students look confused,” Dunlap said, “I make sure to spend more time talking about whatever it is I’m talking about.”
The tour helped the students feel more comfortable the building. Since the building is so big it can be a lot to take in at once, Dunlap said.
“The opportunity we have to show what our facility has to offer students to get them more involved is a good opportunity for all involved,” said Tasha Westfall, Ping’s interim asst. director.
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