Monday, August 17, 2009
Becca Braun, Hutchinson junior, and Rose Worthington, Tecumseh freshman, are paired up together as part of the new KU Honors Buddy Program. The first-year program places an upper level student with an incoming freshman to advocate student to student advising and to help ease the transition for incoming students.
Two years have passed since Becca Braun made the move from Hutchinson to Lawrence her freshman year. Now a junior on track for a double major in psychology and speech, language and hearing, she reminisces about her first semester when her path to graduation was not so certain.
Things might have gone differently, Braun said, were it not for the guidance of her Honors Program mentor and psychology professor, Kathleen McClusky-Fawcett, her freshman year.
“Outside of class, we met once a week,” Braun said. “I knew that I had some interest in psychology, but I wasn’t sure how that was leading me.”
This fall, Braun’s mentor is giving her and 239 other Honors Program upperclassmen the opportunity to pass on the advice they received as freshmen to new Honors Program students.
McClusky-Fawcett organized a buddy program, titled the Honors Student Network, after she became the new director of the Honors Program in June. The network pairs each new honors student with one Honors Program upperclassman.
“I think for some students it’s a little bit of a daunting thing to come to KU,” McClusky-Fawcett said. “Sometimes it’s easier to ask someone your own age a question than a faculty member.”
McClusky-Fawcett needed 240 upperclassman volunteers to pair every freshman with a mentor. She said within weeks of sending just one e-mail, approximately 275 students responded.
“I got more students than I actually needed,” McClusky-Fawcett said. “A lot of current students said they clearly could see a need.”
One of the fastest and most enthusiastic replies, she said, came from Braun.
“I think in going especially through your freshman year, it’s really nice to have someone emphasizing different options or extracurricular things that are available,” Braun said.
Braun said that though she sought most of her guidance from faculty, she recognized that some students also needed reassurance from peers.
“You can have a professor telling you this is a great program, but I think a student’s perspective is very beneficial,” Braun said. “You kind of need the student’s input to encourage you to take that leap and make you realize it will be fun and a good activity for your education.”
Marlesa Roney, vice-provost for student success, said students outside the Honors Program could also access free peer advice. She said she had already noticed the positive effects of student mentoring in other peer-to-peer programs across campus.
“There’s a variety of different programs that are out there,” Roney said. “Many departments have some. The programs provide formal mentoring, but there’s a lot of informal mentoring as well, which is just as valuable.”
Roney suggested that students with interest in giving or receiving peer advice should first check for programs in their academic departments. Academic advisors and faculty members, she said, can also serve as excellent resources for finding student mentoring programs.
“I would never suggest a student receive advice only from peers, but it evens out the picture,” Roney said. “A student can provide a different perspective. All those different perspectives round out the advice a student can get.”
Braun said she had already began sharing her advice in the Honors Student Network. Her freshman buddy Rose Worthington, Tecumseh freshman, said she especially appreciated the help Braun has given her on buying textbooks and finding parking on campus.
“It’s going to be convenient because she was not too long ago where I am now,” Worthington said. “While the faculty were also in the same position I am in now at one point, they’ve had more years pass to dull the memories. She will be more easily able to relate to whatever I’m going through.”
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