Peer Mentoring

Do you want your Peer Mentors to seek to learn from each other? If so, it helps if they bond - get to know and appreciate each other. And if you want your Mentors and Mentees to enjoy a meaningful sharing session together, then the following proposal might interest you.
 
Goals
 
  1. Build relationships and teamwork among Mentors.
  2. Build relationships between and among Mentors and Mentors
 
Approach
 
  1. Deliver Exploring Teamwork Essentials to all Mentors. 
  2. Student Affairs staff deliver My View exercise to students, placing Mentor-Mentee pairs in the same group for the student-empowered discussion segment. Or, Mentors deliver My View to groups of Mentees.
 
Program break-down and time duration
 
Program
Student activity
Duration
Per student cost*
 
Exploring Teamwork Essentials
 
 
  1. Read booklet
  2. Discuss book
  3. Watch ONE film
  4. Bonding / skill building exercise
 
  1. 40 - 60 minutes
  2. 15 - 30 minutes
  3. 45 minutes
  4. 30+ minutes
 
Total = 130 - 165 minutes 
$6.95
 
My View
 
  1. Read exercise introduction
  2. Watch ONE film
  3. Bonding / skill building exercise
 
  1. 5 - 15 minutes
  2. 45 minutes
  3. 30+ minutes
 
Total = 80 - 90 minutes
$ .95
*Assumes college staff facilitates Exploring Teamwork Essentials program and the My View exercise. One-time cost would include $39.95 Facilitator Kits for facilitators.
 
Creating Collaborative Classrooms
 
Because My View allows students to safely practice self-expression and articulating views in front of each other, illuminating their many similarities, the exercise reduces student fears of looking stupid or wrong. FYE could then serve as a "lab" for developing collaborative classroom skills. At the end of the exercise your students will have bonded with three or more others, an important outcome that supports your institution's retention strategies.
 
My View requires two 50-minute class periods; the film can be watched and reactions gained in one 50-minute class; the small group discussion exercise and processing in the next class.
 
"It never fails to cultivate a deeper sense of collegiality and mutual appreciation amongst my students. We develop more trust and appreciation of our common humanity across the boundaries of race, ethnicity, age, gender, etc. The process definitely enhances the quality and quantity of student participation in the classroom. Positive Diversity week is a perennial favorite in my courses.”
                                                                                             Bill Secrest
Instructor, Henry Ford Community College