The Study Room
On-campus jobs offer all the convenience of, well, being on campus and staying on campus to work and all the struggle of being accessible and technically working at all times of the day. A Peer Mentor job is especially the type of job where you are on-call at all hours of the day.
What Does a Peer Mentor Do?[]
Specific responsibilities depend on the department and what students you are working with. Generally, peer mentors function as built in support for students who have either just arrived to the country, state, or university.
Global UCF peer mentors work to become culturally competent and be understanding of the different cultures of students coming to the university. Peer mentors work to help international students transition to UCF and acclimate to studying within the university and within the American schooling system. They are also responsible for helping international students network.
Tasks Specific to Global UCF Peer Mentors[]
Working with international students is a challenge, but it's also very rewarding. This job forces you to think in-depth about all the things that are second nature to you as a domestic student (if you are a domestic student), and makes you try to articulate that to people who have never experienced them. At first, it is extremely complicated to try to explain the American schooling system, grades, GPA calculation, and more to the students, but the moment you see them get it, it's encouraging.
According to the general description of a Global UCF Peer Mentor's job, some of a peer mentor's resposibilities are to:
- Assist with grade tracking and attendance reporting
- Assist advisor and help students develop the necessary skills to succeed in college
- Motivate students to be engaged and achieve academic excellence, and partenr with advisors to improve self-esteem
- Support other activities designed by the student support team in order to increase students' performance and engagement
- Attend weekly meetings with the student support team
- Be a role model both on- and off-campus, and work as a communication bridge between the program and the students
So, What Does all That Stuff Really Mean?[]
In English, that means that peer mentors must meet with anywhere between 10-14+ students per week for half an hour each (approximately). These meetings are scheduled on the peer mentor's own time, around classes, whenever a peer mentor can fit them in. These meetings are meant to casually check in to see how the student is doing outside of school, but they are also used to look at the student's grades and calculate their current GPA. These can be stressful meetings for students, so it also means that even when their grades show them failing many classes or their GPA is a 0.8 (it's happened before), you MUST remain positive and encouraging.
GPAs and confirmation that a student met with the peer mentor MUST be recorded in Smartsheet (it's a program that's a but like Excel) by the end of the week.
This also means that peer mentors must work 3+ hours inside Global UCF in what is called "The Study Room." This is a room where students come to "study" or to check in and sit around. When working these hours, peer mentors are responsible for keep track of student IDs, ensuring that students actually check in and out, and assisting with anything they need help with. Most of the time, students will mind their own business and will not talk to the peer mentor in the room but a peer mentor needs to be prepared for anything. (Fun fact: This room is FREEZING cold at all times of the day).
Weekly meetings will be held for an hour with advisors and support staff. These meetings require that peer mentors dish everything they have learned about their students, particularly if a student has said or done something concerning.
The staff will often try and get crazy by hosting events to motivate the international to spend more time in the Global UCF building and interact with each other. These events may be things like Fishbowl Fridays where the staff purchases food, decides on a theme, and hosts a little party in a part of the building called the Fishbowl (it's entirely glass... like a fishbowl). Peer mentors are encouraged to go to these events and to somehow entice their students to go as well.
How to Properly React When Students Don't Respond[]
A lot of students come into the Global UCF program very grateful for the help that is being offered to them. Other students are convinced that they are too cool for school and will not respond to advisors or to peer mentors. Here are some tips on how to respond when a student doesn't:
- Contact them again. I know you definitely already did this, just do it again.
- Know that they won't respond to your text or your email or the advisor's email.
- Write it down in the Smartsheet so you can still get paid for your efforts.
- Escalate the issue to a full-time staff member and keep moving on.