I cannot get over just how quickly the first semester of my last year of college went by!
The 13th week of class, we helped the students correct their academic plans. We had questions flying at us from every direction, and it reminded me of how I stalked my peer mentors during that class period my freshmen year. Who would have though that writing some letters and numbers on lines would be so hard? But, it was.
The most common mistake was certainly not counting their survey class in their “additional ASC courses” section. We were sure to remind them to do so. Aside from that, it was often I saw transfer or AP credit being used improperly or crossing courses that cannot be crossed. They were all easy fixes, and we even helped them count upper division answers- no one really understood why honors classes cannot count towards the upper division hours, including myself.
Week 14 was the week in which students finally submitted their academic plans, and I am positive they could not be happier to get them off their hands. We did not meet for class, and that extra two hours of sleep I got was HEAVENLY. Highly recommended.
All that is left for me to do is meet with Joanna to turn in my timesheet, which I intend to do during early December, to receive internship credit. Wa-hoo!
Now that my peer mentor journey is coming to a close, it feels so real that I am leaving my undergraduate career in a very short while. I am so glad that I took the opportunity to impact freshmen in a positive way this semester. The guidance my peer mentors provided me with at times was second to none. Hopefully, I had that same effect on students and am not just leading myself to believe that. That’d be pretty embarrassing.
Regardless, I put my best foot forward everyday I walked into the classroom or an event I hosted. I was genuinely interested in the mental well-being of the students as they left their safe space for the first time ever.
If given the opportunity again, I would take it in a second.
THANK YOU FOR KEEPING UP WITH MY LENGTHLY POSTS AND GIVING ME THE CHANCE TO BE A PEER MENTOR THIS YEAR.
Signing off,
Arlia “the great peer mentor” Duarte