#AssociationOfTheWeek – A Look at the Montpellier Health Tutoring Association

After meeting with Tutorat Santé Nîmois, this week we’re joining forces with the Association Tutorat Santé de Montpellier and its new president, Milla Esclafit-Cardoso! 

In a nutshell, what is the AssociationTutorat Santé Montpellier?

The Tutoring Program consists of second- and third-year health sciences students who have passed the PACES entrance exam and have been selected and trained for one year by the professors in charge of the program. Our goal is to provide free, high-quality academic and personal support to any student at the University of Montpellier and its branch campuses who wishes to pursue a career in healthcare. To meet this need, three associations are available to assist you: the Montpellier Health Tutoring Association, the Association of Pharmacy Tutors, and the Nîmes Health Tutoring Program. 

These three organizations pool their resources to provide equitable support to all students and share a common goal of ensuring equal opportunity in the admissions process for health-related programs. 

What activities or initiatives do you organize throughout the year? 

To start the year off on the right foot, we’re offering a Pre-Semester Workshop open this year to all PACES and PASS students: its goal is to review the entire first-semester curriculum, help students develop effective study habits, and introduce them to the university so they can find their footing. 

Each week, we review the key points from each course across all subjects through multiple-choice quizzes supervised by professors; these sessions are offered at several different times so that students can tailor their schedules to their availability. To help students with their questions, office hours are held every day at noon on campus, and a forum is also available to students. 

To ensure regular and representative assessment, we hold weekly graded quizzes attended by approximately 900 students across our three campuses, as well as mock exams, which this year saw more than 1,600 students participate in the first semester. 

To adapt to the lockdown situation and health guidelines, we held our sessions and review sessions online via Zoom, which we recorded so that PACES students with unstable internet connections could watch them. We also expanded our YouTube channel to diversify our remote learning content, focusing on parts of the course that we felt were difficult to understand.

In addition to academic support, we help students navigate a demanding year by promoting activities focused on well-being, such as board game lunches and relaxation workshops… Our biggest wellness event is Pep’s Week, which takes place in early January—a particularly difficult time for PACES students. To help first-year students connect with upperclassmen, we establish a student mentoring program right at the start of the year. 

To further promote equal opportunity, the Tutoring Service works withHandiversité to offer a disability support service for students who need accommodations during sessions or exams. 

Finally, as part of the reform process, we serve as key points of contact both within the university—by organizing career guidance forums—and at the local level through various student fairs, as well as at the national level by participating in conferences that bring together tutoring programs from across France.

What made you decide to join the organization? 

Tutoring helped me pass my PACES exam by supporting me over the course of two years: this support was incredibly valuable to me because I couldn’t afford to pay for the services of a private tutoring agency. The tutors’ availability, the quality of the sessions, and above all the support in every aspect of PACES life (studying, lifestyle, morale…) really helped me get through this challenging period. It was a no-brainer for me to apply to be a tutor after I was admitted to my second year of medical school, so I was thrilled to join the UE7 team (Health, Humanities, Society). My year as a trainee tutor was so fulfilling that I wanted to continue the journey by joining the Tutoring Office to help revitalize it during the year of the reform: so we changed our name from the Montpellier Medical Tutoring Association (ATM²) to the Montpellier Health Tutoring Association (ATSM) to better reflect our commitment to diversifying the profiles of incoming students across all health programs! 

What does the association offer students?

Beyond mere academic guidance, our goal is to provide genuine support to all young adults who are navigating university studies, life away from home, and a very demanding workload. Our core value is equal opportunity, ensuring that selection for this first year is based on academic ability rather than financial circumstances. This aligns more broadly with our duty of camaraderie—a value we hold dear in the healthcare professions—and with our training, which is largely based on peer-to-peer learning. We are, after all, students ourselves who have gone through this experience and are trying to help PACES students just as we needed help when we were in their shoes!

Why do you think someone should join your organization? 

In the first year, students can sign up for tutoring free of charge at any time throughout the year: attendance is not mandatory, but according to faculty surveys, attending 80% of the tutoring sessions is the best way to succeed on the entrance exam! 

If you wish to join the ATSM as a tutor, you will have the opportunity to be selected based on your application and an interview after your second-semester grades are released. You will then hold the status of Trainee Tutor during your second year and may continue as a Qualified Tutor when you advance to your third year. 

A few words about the 2020–2021 board?

The General Assembly to inaugurate our new executive board took place on June 9: we are all very excited to renew our commitment to supporting students repeating PACES, PASS, and LAS. We know that this year can be daunting for recent high school graduates, and we are ready to support them through this transition. 

We are in the process of changing our name, so for now our old name is still showing up on social media:

Facebook: Medicine Tutoring in Montpellier 

Instagram: 

• tutoringmedmtp
• tuto_peps (our shared wellness account for all three tutoring sites)

Email contacts: 

• General questions about the association, PACES, and PASS: asso.atsm@gmail.com
• Questions about LAS: vicepresident.las.atsm@gmail.com
• Questions about possible accommodations under the Disability Tutoring Program: vptutohandicap@gmail.com

Networks of other associations: 

Nîmes Health Tutoring: 

• Facebook: Nîmes Health Tutoring
• Instagram: tutorat_sante_nimes

Association of Pharmacy Tutors: 

• Facebook: Montpellier Association of Pharmacy Tutors
• Instagram: atp_um

We've also put together a promotional video for you in collaboration with the three tutoring programs!