Students as Partners: A valuable experience for supporting students’ adaptation in the first-year transition.

Introduction

In higher education, the transition from school to university is decisive for student success. In this process, students experience new situations, obstacles and changes. Moreover, students are exposed to different risks such as academic, social, economic or individual factors. Therefore, implementing a peer-mentoring program is essential to support first-year students and enhance their self-efficacy.

During the first year, engaging students to the university is important to build up their sense of belonging. Glaser, Hall & Halperin (2006), affirm that previous studies have shown that peer-mentoring programs stimulate the connection between students and the institution (as cited in Yomtov et al., 2017).

In this context, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (PUJ) has been working in the design and implementation of a peer-mentoring program in the Faculty of Engineering, particularly for the first-year transition.

Instititutional Context

The early dropout rate at the engineering programs have been a concern. In response, the PUJ and the Faculty of Engineering have made efforts to overcome this challenge.

The PUJ developed a model to describe the different transitions that students experience in their educational process. The model has identified the accompanying routes that promote the student transit achieving retention and graduation. The Faculty of Engineering adopted this model and implemented an institutional accompaniment program named PAE.

The Faculty of Engineering has been developing strategies articulated with the institutional processes at the PUJ and focusing efforts into first-year transition. A mentoring program is one of these strategies; it refers to the accompaniment provided by peers for supporting students’ adaptation to university life. The program also allows students to recognize and value their professional choice for engineering.

The Peer Mentoring Program at the PUJ

The program is described as a gear model, where each gear represents a stakeholder and the interactions among them have been defined. The main goal of this strategy is to enhance students’ self-efficacy and self-confidence.

Peer mentors guide, support, and motivate mentees, as well as give advice in the decision making process. Their relation is based on sharing experiences. “The peer mentors can assist first-year students by providing emotional support, increasing feelings of connectedness on campus, and promoting integration within the campus community” (Yomtov et al., 2017, p. 27).

In order to achieve the main goal, it is necessary to train peer mentors and provide tools for strengthening their leadership and social skills. The training plan includes institutional identity, accompaniment routes, emotional first aid, and leadership tools. During this process, the peer mentors gain new skills and reinforce their previous abilities for success in supporting and accompanying their mentees. “Training bridges the gap between the students’ capabilities when hired and the skills needed to be effective peer leaders” (Esplin et al., 2012, p. 94).

The program was implemented in 2019, the first cohort of 44 peer mentors enrolled the whole year. In the first semester of 2019, 320 first-year students benefited from the program and in the second semester 130 students.

One-year follow-up

In the implementation, adjustments have been made in the recruitment and selection process. Students who want to engage, experience an assessment, where individual skills are evaluated in two phases: a personal interview and a case study exercise with peers.

 “It is important to ensure that the messages shared in the recruitment phase explicitly articulate the peer leader role and performance expectations so that students understand the nature of the position” (Esplin et al., 2012, p. 92).

Furthermore, the follow-up process leads us to identify students’ needs in training and provides ongoing feedback for enhancing the strategy. In this context, the evaluation process is essential to collect and report valuable information for developing improvement actions. 

Preliminary results evidence that first-year students recognize the role of the peer mentor as a partner for supporting their academic and non-academic issues. Most students affirm that they feel accepted and committed at the program. On the other hand, peer mentors have gained skills, tools and knowledge to facilitate the accompaniment process.

The experience has been rewarding for peer mentors and mentees. The peer mentors’ motivation and sense of belonging have increased. Moreover, mentees have enhanced their self-efficacy to overcome obstacles and challenges in the first-year transition.

Conclusions

“A sense of ownership may be cultivated among peer leader program stakeholders by including them in conversations, paying attention to their concerns, and supporting them in the work they do” (Esplin et al., 2012, p. 86). It is necessary to keep working on the development of students’ self-efficacy and self-confidence as key elements for their success in the educational process.

As mentioned previously, the students value the support and accompaniment provided by the peer mentors, and perceive that their role is essential to achieve their academic and individual goals.

 

References

Esplin, P., Seabold, J. & Pinnegar, F. (2012). The architecture of a high-impact and sustainable peer leader program: A blueprint for success. New Directions in Higher Education. Special Issue: Peer Leadership in Higher Education, 157, 85-100.

Yomtov, D., Plunkett, S. W., Efrat, R & García, A. (2017). Can peer mentors improve first-year experiences of university students. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, 19(1), 25-44. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1521025115611398

 

By: David Barrera, Laura Castro, Alejandra González, Maria Alejandra Sarmiento.