Peer Educators are a valuable resource for Iowa State University. When I think back over the last year and I half, I cannot even count how many times a peer educator has helped me. Before we even accepted ISU, we met with cyclone aids who gave us the grand tour of the beautiful campus where we all decided to come for higher education.
In class, we discussed concerns the incoming freshmen may have, many that were on the board were questions I had when I came to college. I feel that through this activity and the activity of acting as a peer mentor/student to answer questions we may be asked by the incoming students helped me remember what it was like to be an incoming student. The mentor/student activity also got me thinking about how to answer the questions the students will be asking next fall. Experience is great knowledge that can be utilized to help new students and to help ourselves. I also love that we, the current peer mentors, have such a diverse mix of majors. I believe that we can give better insight to students going into similar majors because we know our own course requirements for our majors and colleges.
The first couple chapters in the book laid out the importance of peer educators. The first chapter explained that peer mentors are role models and the author gave tips on how to better yourself and tips for being a peer mentor. The second chapter hit on the topics of maturation and changes in personal development. From personal experience, I feel like a completely different person than what I was as a senior in high school, I even feel like a different person from last year. I think that college makes you grow as a person, whether good or bad and as a peer mentor, I am there to positively impact others' lives.
It was easy for me to forget all of the questions and experiences I had my first year of college because I no longer worry about the things I did coming in freshman year but the class activities and the readings helped me remember how I felt. Information and experiences are powerful and if they are used right, one can make a huge difference in others' lives and that is what I plan to do as a peer mentor.
Great post!! I was a Cyclone Aide last summer so I appreciate that mention ;) I agree that I can't even fathom how things would be different if I hadn't had the peer educators who have helped me with so much in my 2 years here. I'm so excited to be that for someone else!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth,
ReplyDeleteSuch thoughtful words! I agree about the activity we did in class - I actually sort of blogged about that too :) I am not very good about thinking on the spot and was glad to hear we were going to do several activities like the one we did in class. The part about the activity I will never forget is that we should ask the students additional questions to better understand the problem. I like how this gives us extra time and clues as to how we can better help serve them.
-McKaila v.