Retiree and Las Positas student Al Franz sat at the front of the classroom, listening intently as librarian Stephanie Fish explained the resources LPC students can access through the LPC library.
Franz is taking creative writing classes at LPC and wanted to learn about new research tools that weren’t around when he was in college.
“All kinds of facilities are available since I did my research decades ago,” Franz said. “There (are) some specific applications that I never really knew much about, like Grammarly.”
On April 7 and 8, students had the opportunity to learn about the variety of research tools LPC offers to students writing research papers.
The workshop was held by the English Center, a support service for LPC students. It was formed as a result of AB 705, a California bill passed in October 2017, that no longer allows community colleges to mandate English support classes.
“We can no longer require students to enroll in support classes,” said Noël Fagerhaugh, the English Center’s senior instructional assistant. “(But) we still need to be a safety net.”
LPC STUDENT Yuri Lopez attended the research library orientation at the English Center in room 21112 on Apr. 7. The LPC English Center is hosting its third monthly workshop, showing students how to navigate scholarly databases such as EBSCOhost, JSTOR, and Google Scholar to get reliable sources for research essays. (Photo by Eric Liang/The Express)
LPC student Denise Davillier gave Fagerhaugh the idea of formalizing the English Center as a place for students to get the support they need.
“It just started when it was me and Noël,” Davillier said. “I was coming to visit her for help, and she told me that I (could) use this room.”
The English Center continued to grow and became official midway through the fall 2025 semester. Spring 2026 is the center’s first full semester as an official support service.
“It became bigger, (because) a lot (of) people needed assistance and help,” Davillier said. “I said that they needed to have a place here for students to get more help in learning English.”
Students come in not just for help with English, but for a number of various reasons. Fish, who conducted the workshop, said students often visit for help with technology. Students who haven’t been in school for a while are often unfamiliar with the online tools now essential for their classes.
“(They’re) like, ‘I’m in over my head, I don’t even know how to use Canvas,’” Fish said.
Faculty from the English department hold office hours at the center, so students can get the best assistance possible. Students can get a refresher on various topics, or help with grammar, sentence structure and formatting.
The English Center will also collaborate with the LPC Havik team to teach students how to get their work traditionally published. The workshop will be held on May 12 from 3 to 4 p.m. and on May 13 from 10 to 11 a.m.
“It’ll kind of be a fun workshop for the end of the year,” Fagerhaugh said.
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TOP PHOTO: Senior instructional assistant Noel Fagerhaugh, right, assisting LPC student Edith Alvarez, left, at the English Center in room 21112 on Apr. 7, 2026. Fagerhaugh is giving Alvarez a rundown of NoodleTools, an online citation generator recommended by the LPC English Center faculty. (Photo by Eric Liang/The Express)
Nuha Maflahi is the Campus Life Editor for The Express. Follow her on X @NuhaMaflahiLPC.
