Talking Stick - July/August 2008 - 50

Support System Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering learning community students organize into collaborative groups to tackle a problem-based learning activity. (Below.) phoToS: ioWA STATe uNiVerSiTy Here, a student uses a large common area in Willow Hall at Iowa State to study. printed in a brochure, but student peers who maintain strong communications with their assigned students can often deliver it more effectively. Peers fill many roles – from being a role model to tutoring other students to actively helping students make connections to the curriculum. In filling these roles, peers often work closely with professional and paraprofessional staff (e.g., faculty, academic advisors, and resident assistants). In the most basic model of peer involvement, peers are role models of sound academic behavior. Seeing students who have balanced their lives – students who are academically successful and still fully involved in campus activities – is a way for new students to gain confidence and perspective. Upperclass students at Purchase College, called “Lifelines,” are linked with first-year students with similar interests. They maintain regular contacts with their assigned students to ensure that they are comfortable with academic and social life, help students negotiate everything from course difficulties to registration, and serve as models of academic achievement and leadership. Peers may also assume the role of giving or coordinating specific academic support activities. This approach may also allow peers to be more proactive by, for example, coordinating study groups if they know when tests and project deadlines are approaching in certain classes. They can go directly to the students in the halls and organize study groups for these assignments. With the directness of this approach – specific classes, specific assignments, and specific students – there is a high likelihood of significant participation. St. Lawrence University houses an upperclass peer mentor, who is also trained as a writing tutor, near first-year students. The welltrained community advisors at Southeast Missouri coordinate tutoring sessions in the halls, help students find appropriate academic support on campus, and assist in interventions with students who receive midterm warnings. Peer helpers at Tougaloo College assist with tutoring, supplemental instruction, and the overall institutional emphasis on “students helping students.” Peer leaders at Appalachian State are trained as part of an academic support team that includes faculty and advisors. Similarly, Prairie View A&M uses PALS (Panther Advisor Leaders) as part of professional teams that help create a supportive environment in the residence halls, where the motto is “where academic success comes first.” Peer mentors at Central Arkansas and Iowa State live in the residence halls and help students with academic adjustment. Likewise, peer educators at the University of Charleston help create the connections between academic and student life that are important to the living-learning environment the university is trying to create. 50 Talking Stick

Talking Stick - July/August 2008

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