Susan Smith Roads Recognized Among Terre Haute ‘Women in Business’

Monday, September 30, 2019
Susan Smith Roads

Susan Smith Roads has earned local, state and national recognition for her efforts in starting the AskRose homework helpline, being senior director of campus student learning resources and serving as an assistant professor of English.

Susan Smith Roads’ impact on Rose-Hulman and her hometown has been recognized as she has been selected one of Terre Haute’s outstanding Women in Business, by the Terre Haute Tribune-Star Publishing Company. She is featured in the October edition of the company’s Terre Haute Living magazine and will be honored at a special community breakfast at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

See a profile about Smith Roads within the magazine issue.

“We are always proud to recognize the many leaders in and around Vigo County,” says Robyn McCloskey, publisher of the Tribune-Star and Terre Haute Living. “We are particularly honored to share with our readers the stories of the outstanding women in business who have worked so hard to fulfill their own dreams and as a result, make Terre Haute and the surrounding areas better places to live, work and play.”

Smith Roads is a veteran educator who created AskRose (formerly known as the Homework Hotline), an innovative telephone and technology-based homework helpline that’s become a national model to help middle school and high school students improve their knowledge of mathematics and the sciences.

AskRose has conducted more than 700,000 tutoring sessions since its inception in 1991, when Smith Roads learned about a need from Terre Haute business leaders for improved math skills among local job applicants. Students in grades 6-12 contact AskRose by phone, email or chat session to be assisted by Rose-Hulman students who are specially trained to help in math- and science-related material. Tutors strive to improve the student’s problem-solving skills, without providing the student with the answer.

Smith Roads also has helped countless Rose-Hulman students as the senior director of student learning resources/learning center and is an assistant professor of English. The learning center provides peer-tutoring in all academic areas offered at Rose-Hulman. She created the resident sophomore tutoring program and programs that support English as a second language for international students attending the college.

For her career educational and community service efforts, Smith Roads has received TechPoint’s Mira Award, one of the most prestigious technology-related honors in Indiana, and the Sagamore of the Wabash, one of Indiana’s highest honors given to Hoosiers who have rendered distinguished service to the state. She also has been honored with the Paul Harris Community Service Award from the Rotary Club of Terre Haute and Terre Award by the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, along with receiving Rose-Hulman’s President’s Outstanding Service Award and honorary alumna status from the Rose-Hulman Alumni Association.

Susan and her husband, David, a Vigo County School Corporation teacher, live in Terre Haute.