In a society surrounded by technology, people are finding more and more ways to benefit from the technology they can hold in the palm of their hands.

Grand Valley State University held another academic success workshop to showcase various applications for the web and smart phones that can be useful to students.

Mariana Naddaf, an academic coach and graduate assistant with the Student Academic Success Center, hosted “There’s an App for That” on Tuesday.

“The apps I’m showing today are a supplement to our learning, but they shouldn’t be the only source of learning,” Naddaf said.

The applications showcased fell into five main categories: productivity, organization, time management, study techniques and life coaching.

One of the first applications covered was www.mint.com, a finance app that can assist students in budgeting for the month by setting goals and keeping track of spending. Naddaf explained how this can be beneficial for college students who are low on money due to their various expenses, as well as explained that it is a secure and trusted product.

She also included an explanation of Genius Scan, an application that allows people to take a picture with their smart phone and turn it into a PDF scan that can be emailed out.

“It’s a great app to have; it’s very handy. No one has a scanner anymore,” Naddaf said.

While the majority of the applications presented are free to the public, a couple of them cost between $2 and $4 in the app store.

Naddaf said “Beat Procrastination,” a meditation app involving clinical hypnotherapy, is worth trying out because it can improve motivation.

Along with all of the applications explained throughout the presentation, the audience was supplied with an information packet that listed several applications that may be useful for students.

The turnout of the event was small, but it included GVSU junior Mariah Modson, who expressed her interest in learning about more productive ways to spend time on her phone.

“To know there are billions of apps no one knows of is crazy. Everyone is on their phone so much, it might as well be something beneficial,” Modson said.

This event was the last academic success workshop the Student Academic Success Center will host during the fall semester.

The Student Academic Success Center offers a variety of programs to assist students in reaching their academic goals. Some of the resources include various tutoring services, the writing center, academic success workshops and academic study skills counseling.

For more information about the Student Academic Success Center, visit www.gvsu.edu/sasc.