Since freshman year I have been involved in Peer Mentoring. It has enabled me to work in group discussions and encourage others to do the same. I was chosen to be the liaison between the group and our faculty supervisor. This position requires a lot more commitment and dedication. I have to take notes during each session (we meet each Monday) and then type them up and send them to our supervisor. I also have to pass messages along from the group to the supervisor and vice versa. I have to make sure to keep everyone in the loop in regards to what we are all doing with the program.
This year has been very successful for Peer Mentoring so far. We have already had a 'heath day' with the freshmen. There are about 12 PM's and we broke up the freshmen into 6 groups. We introduced topics and tried to get a feel for the problems and stress they are all feeling. We got very positive feedback from both the dean of students as well as numerous freshmen. Another day like this is being planned and hopefully it will be just as successful.
We have also recently given each freshman a designated PM to talk to. Since they seem to be hesitant to just approach us, we hoped that by giving them an assignment it would take off some of the pressure. I have four freshmen and two have already come up to me, so I feel that it is going quite well.
Some other PM events are coming up. On March 21st 4 PM's will be going up to Viterbo with our faculty supervisor to train students our age to be Peer Mentors. I am going, and I'm very excited to see how their program is similar to ours. On March 28th there is a conference run by our faculty supervisor at Ambrit(a school in rome). We will be answering parents questions about our program and how we deal with different situations that we are presented with. I am also quite excited for that.
