So, what is a peer mentor and what's involved? I’ll be providing you with an overview of being a peer mentor, my experience and some tips and tricks below!
Becoming a peer mentor is a fun and rewarding role that gives you the opportunity to help guide a group of freshers as they start their journey at the University of Bath. It is your responsibility to support a small group of students who take the same course as you as they begin their first year. Peer mentoring involves welcoming new students, providing help and advice and checking in on them regularly to ensure things are going well. Throughout my role as a peer mentor, I have attended welcome events to meet my mentees and give them a tour around campus and help familiarise them with buildings they will commonly find themselves in. I also created a group chat where I can contact my mentees and check in on how they’re doing and arrange to meet up if needed to answer their questions and provide insight into their course.
The experience so far has been fun and gratifying. Helping people has always been a strong passion of mine and is reflected in my chosen career path of becoming a pharmacist. However, I am also aware of how challenging some aspects of my course can be, but I am not the first and won’t be the last to feel the same way. This feeling extends across all subjects and aspects of university life. There will always be some experiences at the university that are better received by some and not by others and this makes everyone's time here unique. This means students may wish to seek support and advice about more than just their course. Some examples include living in halls, housing for their next year, placements and societies. Therefore, I believe it is tremendously important to have people who have recently shared the same experiences and can help others by answering their queries or providing motivation and reassurance.
Highlight of my time as a Peer Mentor
The highlight of my time as a peer mentor so far would be when I discovered a student from another peer mentor group had tagged along to my campus tour and stayed after to discuss some fears he was having about coping with the intensity of the course. I found this a rewarding opportunity to reassure him that the course would start at a basic level to ensure all students were on the same page, this was something I wish I had known when first started the course. Since then, despite not being my own peer mentee, we have kept in touch and meet up from time to time to discuss how the course is going and to answer questions.
Skills Development
The skills I have developed from being a peer mentor include communication and leadership. My communication saw a big improvement as a peer mentor because I had to learn how to translate information in a way that could be understood by my mentees. Knowing the answer to their question meant nothing if I couldn’t explain it properly to them. Additionally, showing leadership and addressing them for the first time was scary as I felt as though I had no right to ask for their attention so I could introduce myself. Once I broke the ice though things became a lot easier, and I gained confidence in directing the rest of my introduction.
Advice for new Peer Mentors
My advice for new peer mentors would be not to worry if you don’t hear much from your mentees. Don’t be quick to assume that you’re being ignored and wasting your time if they don’t respond to your messages. Trust me, you are not wasting your time. Being there for your mentees is what being a peer mentor is all about, whether they need help and advice or not. It should not stop you from checking in with them regularly and letting them know you are here if they need anything. Another piece of advice I have is to never be afraid of admitting when you can’t help. You're still learning too and don’t know everything. Don’t feel bad about admitting you don’t know the answer, instead try and direct them elsewhere appropriately.
To conclude, students should consider becoming a peer mentor because being able to connect with new students is invaluable for their experience starting at university and will develop your own skills in communicating and providing support. I hope you’ll consider becoming a peer mentor and help keep the university a welcoming and supportive community!
If you are considering becoming a peer mentor or have any questions about the role, you can read more on the SU website or email peersupport@bath.ac.uk.