Quotes:
"Peer educators are students who have been selected, trained, and designated by a campus authority to offer educational services to their peers" (page 6)
"Peer educator is slightly ahead in experience and awareness of what a student seeking help may be going through but not so removed as to seem unable to identify and understand his or her situation" (Page 8) "understands and won't judge me for needing input on what may seem unimportant." (Page 8)
Tips for Being a Successful Peer Educator
1. Genuine interest in positively impacting other people's lives, listen and help them through touch decisions, be invested for a long enough time to make a difference.
2. Respect individuals and their abilities, opinions, and point of view. Sense of equal dignity in the relationship to win other's trust.
3. Listen, suspend judgment, ask thoughtful (not leading) questions to help the other individual explore their own thoughts with minimal interference.
4. Empathy without pity.
5. Find realistic solutions with optimism. Look for solutions, opportunities and barriers.
6. Recognize that it takes time to build a trusting, open relationship.
Reflection:
The biggest reason I wanted to be a peer mentor for Hixson is to give back to the scholarship. I have had many opportunities opened up to me because of this scholarship and have met a lot of people I am very happy to have in my life. The best part of my experience as an incoming freshman in the Hixson program was the family unit that developed in my recitation group. This is an experience I want to have my students look back on and say “that was a great time, I learned a lot.” I hope to be a dependable source for these upcoming freshmen to rely on when they have questions and feel free to come to with any concerns.
From the reading, the idea of “What,” “So What,” and “Now What?” seems like a very logical process. To be able to reflect upon what is being taught allows everyone to process their own ideas. In the “So What” step, I wonder if that would work better within a discussion setting. While the book might want us to take one thing from a lesson, after the “What” step, I feel being able to trade ideas with fellow peer mentors to find out their interpretations of the lesson, to see if any additional lessons, theories, or applications could be used in the future (third step “Now What” and in class settings.) In the final step, “Now What” I like that we are able to apply exactly what we thought/interpreted/discussed, and put it to use in either an everyday or simply classroom setting.
I liked the “Tips for Being a Successful Peer Educator” because it is something I will be able to look back on and apply to my own relationships with the other peer mentors along with the incoming freshman Hixson scholars. Through this reading I’m hoping to find more tips or ideas to better prepare for the upcoming semester. No interaction with students will be the same, and some might not even be easy, but by the end of the semester, a higher level of confidence on how to address such situations will make everything much more manageable.
The "Tips for Being a Successful Peer Educator" are very helpful and prudent. I also enjoyed your reflection - it seems we both have the same reason why we wanted to become Hixson Peer Mentors.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I like the way you organized your post. Second, as Alex commented above, I too wanted to be a peer mentor because it was a way to give back to the program along with developing leadership skills that will helps when you graduate from college.
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