Mentorship is a powerful tool to use when pursuing college excellence. However, people of authority, like professors and professional mentors, aren’t the only ones you can approach for guidance.
Instead, consider that the mentor you need to help you go above and beyond could be from among the peers you interact with daily.
Read this quick guide until the end to discover how your fellow students could provide you with optimal help in ways that conventional mentors can’t!
Hierarchical vs. Peer Mentorship
There’s a common misconception that college mentorship only exists in a hierarchical form, i.e. a student receiving guidance from someone of authority, like a professor or a professional mentor from Equity Metrics.
While that form of mentorship is undoubtedly crucial to a college student’s success, it’s not the only type that exists.
Guidance can also come from the student’s peers who have specialized knowledge to share, like a senior who can help the student navigate their new college’s academic and social environment.
Both forms of mentorship are complementary, each with unique strengths that can help students differently.
Students who understand and leverage those different strengths can benefit significantly and put themselves ahead of their college peers!
Unique Advantages Of Peer Mentorships
Peer mentorship has unique advantages in terms of shared perspectives, availability, and lower costs (Collier, 2017).
Here’s what those advantages mean to a student:
- Shared perspectives: Unlike hierarchical mentorships, the mentor and mentee share similar roles, challenges, and opportunities in college. Naturally, that means their perspective on the college experience is more similar than when compared to someone like a professor or academic staff member.
- Availability: Working with a peer also means choosing from a much larger pool of potential mentors. Students can find a suitable mentor more efficiently, and there will likely be less competition for that mentor’s time and attention.
- Lower costs: Students typically pay nothing at all to enjoy peer mentorship. More importantly, it also costs colleges very little to run peer mentorship programs, which is one reason why they are becoming increasingly popular on campuses nationwide.
These and other advantages make peer mentorship a potent strategy, especially when combined with more conventional, hierarchical guidance.
Finding Peer Mentors
Peer mentors are a lot easier to find than other kinds, so here are three ways you can get the one you need:
1. Through Peer Mentorship Programs
As you read earlier, colleges recognize peer mentorship programs are beneficial and cost little to organize.
So, the first and most common way to find someone to work with is through peer mentorship programs on your campus.
These programs aim to match you with a suitable peer who can provide you with the guidance you need.
2. Through Social Interactions
You can also find a student mentor through informal means, like through regular social interactions.
For example, your peer mentor could be someone that you interact with at club gatherings on campus.
Sharing similar extra-curricular interests could be what starts a healthy and productive mentor-mentee relationship!
3. Through The Direct Approach
Last but certainly not least, you can get a peer mentor simply by approaching and asking them for help.
For instance, a classmate with a more robust understanding of a subject could help clarify unclear parts.
References
Collier, P. (2017). Why peer mentoring is an effective approach for promoting college student success. Metropolitan Universities, 28(3). https://doi.org/10.18060/21539