B2SB: Peer Mentoring

By Piper Blake
Web Content Manager

Peer mentors are great resources for incoming freshmen! As a freshman, you are assigned a peer mentor through your University Seminar class. This is the class where freshmen can explore the Texas State campus and meet students that are going through the same transition period as one another.

Each University Seminar class has a Peer Mentor that reaches out to the students in the class and meets with them regularly throughout their first and second semesters of college. The Peer Mentor is a Texas State student that has experienced their freshman year and wants to make it easier for other students to adjust to the culture shock that is campus life.

My experience with my Peer Mentor was amazing! She was so helpful in giving me tips on how to handle my course workload while staying motivated and stress-free. It was also nice to meet with another student that has been through what I was going through and talk about how I was handling everything emotionally.

College is hard and if you aren’t prepared for it correctly the stress can get out of hand easily. That is why Texas State provides extensive resources to its freshmen, so no one feels like they are alone in this new environment.

Here is a list of how Peer Mentors can help Freshmen adjust to college.

1. Registration for classes: Peer Mentors advise on how to register for classes and can help freshmen understand their degree audit that lays out what courses they still require to graduate.
2. Help complete the University Seminar class or any other course: They want you to succeed! If you are struggling in a class, your Peer Mentor will be willing to help you understand the material if they can or get you resources to guide you through that class.
3. Communication: Peer Mentors provide you with their phone number and email for a reason. Students can contact their mentor at any (reasonable) time for advice they may need or concerns that they may have.
4. Meetings: Usually, for Freshmen, they are required to meet with their Peer Mentor twice in the first semester and then once in the second; this can be face to face or over Facetime or Zoom. These meetings allow you to get to know your peer mentor and to vent about any struggles you may have with college. They ask you questions about yourself and your experience in college so far and it helps give them an insight into what you need from them.
5. Common Experience: Right now due to Coronavirus, Peer mentors are not sure how they will be handling Common Experience for Freshmen. However, Common Experiences are events on campus designed to help freshmen connect to one another and connect to their campus. It is a great resource to get students out of their dorm and involved. Peer Mentors are usually the ones that put on these events for students and their events range from registration tutorials to game nights.

These are just a few ways Peer Mentors help out Freshmen students. With COVID-19 being a risk still, Peer Mentors have had to adjust how they can help their students, but they are going to be a resource still.

Luckily, Samantha Pennell and I were able to sit down with Peer Mentor, Neesha Muttulingasamy, and interview her on how this semester will be different from years before and how Peer Mentors will still be there for their incoming Freshman.

You can tune into KTSW 89.9 for our Back to School Broadcast on Aug. 16-17 to hear the full interview with Neesha on air!