‘Space to create; space to learn’ an interview with Alison Brown, Monash College

Interview by Lynn Milburn, Coordinator, Peer Support Programs, Deakin University

I spoke with Alison Brown, Learning Skills Advisor at Monash College, Foundation Year, about two major peer-based projects she is passionate about. When she started in May 2017, with many ideas to provide student support, she was delighted to learn that she had free reign to pilot and experiment. She also had the opportunity to get some funding for one of her projects.

Alison’s first main project was creating a Peer Mentoring Program. Students who have successfully completed Unit 1, and have been recommended by their teachers, are recruited to mentor new Unit 1 students in specific subjects. This program started with five mentors in one subject and has grown ten-fold to approximately 50 mentors covering 11 subjects—amazing growth over only four semesters, due to both the enthusiasm of the students and the support of teachers. In fact, for the current semester, there were approximately 200 students recommended as mentors, so Alison is now working on how to manage the selection process and expand the training program.

Alison made it clear that a great program, enthusiastic mentors and supportive teachers are wonderful to have; however, without a dedicated space in a learning and teaching environment, the program is not effective. Alison successfully lobbied for a Learning Skills space in which to run all the Learning Skills activities and act as a base for the Peer Mentors. This was particularly important as the student timetable was “split” to manage space pressure, meaning everything had to be run twice.

The second peer-based project Alison initiated is Speak Up (Intercultural Club). This program is loosely modeled on Monash’s English Connect program, Let’s Chat, and offers paid opportunities for local Monash University students to facilitate topic-based weekly communication and cultural exchange sessions for Foundation students. This program also underwent changes when the timetable was split, from a six-week program of 90-minute sessions where students rotated through three activities: pronunciation exercises, fluency games and Australian culture activities, to the current 12-week program of one-hour, topic-based sessions. 

I was particularly interested to hear that the Speak Up (Intercultural Club) facilitators are recruited through Monash University’s Ros McFarlane (“our” Ros!), who forwards Alison a list of potential facilitators from her Let’s Chat applicants. Alison then knows that they have already gone through a thorough interview process. Not only does this make it efficient, cutting out the need to re-interview great applicants, it also provides students who missed out on the mentoring opportunity at Monash University to take up the opportunity at Monash College—a great example of a community of practice approach. This year Speak Up is coordinated by Thuy Dinh, Alison’s colleague, who has recently been employed due to the rapid expansion of the Learning Skills work. Thuy and Alison have re-written the program for 2019 with a stronger cultural exchange focus.

Although Alison is involved in other projects (including discipline-based work), it was clear to see why she chose to focus on these when talking to me.  Both have grown in a short time and continue to do so. In fact, Speak Up (Intercultural Club) has the potential to work across areas and divisions—not just Foundation, but also English Language, Bridging and Study Abroad. Alison is also looking at trialing new peer activities with the Business teachers, one in which mentors work in class alongside teachers and another that matches mentors with students (similar to many faculty-based mentor programs that connect new students with a mentor). It is also great to know that Alison presented her programs to the Monash College Board, and they saw the value of peer mentoring for learning.

Finally, the freedom that Monash College has given Alison to create, develop and revise peer programs means that Monash College’s Foundation students now have more targeted and layered support options. This “space to create” appears to have paid off, and I have no doubt that Alison and Thuy will continue to refine and expand their peer programs.