You wake up and realise that today is the day. You have already unpacked and organised your new room yet there are over a thousand different questions swimming through your mind.
Where do I go? Where is my lanyard? Who am I?
Trust me, those are the questions I ask even now… and I am about to go into my second year. One thing I have noticed about becoming a second year now is that while I have an important year ahead of me, full of hard work and study (and bantering!) I also have a new responsibility as a peer mentor.
Returning to university and having seen the brand new changes around the campus, I came to realize that I have yet again become a First Year Fresher again. Seeing brand new student scurrying around and even seeing new lecturers take over my course, it’s been rather intriguing.
When it comes to supporting students, the university managed to up the game this year by introducing the ‘Peer Mentors’ scheme. I wasn’t aware of this scheme last year but I am glad that it has been introduced as it will definitely be a new lifeline for new students that need guidance and support when it comes to both the social and study aspect.
I luckily had the opportunity of becoming a Peer Mentor and have as of yet enjoyed the training session and have already received the list of students that I alongside my classmate Amber will be looking after. For me personally to be able to help others, and to be able to sit down with students and listen to their worries is important as I strongly believe it should be a fundamental core value to offer help in whatever shape or form possible.
The training session itself that is provided by the university is really in depth and it allows you to understand how to act in any scenario you might face during your role as a peer mentor.
I would definitely recommend the role of Peer Mentors to others as you never know how much it’ll help a student in the long run.
Peace.
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