On her Center for Student Advising (CSA) peer adviser profile, Amanda Rita Suarez ’14 encourages first-years to chat with professors at office hours, talk to librarians when writing research papers and get rush tickets to Broadway shows. She also shares her favorite New York City spots (Chelsea Market, The Cloisters and Riverside Park) and her favorite Columbia traditions (the Tree Lighting, Primal Scream and President Lee C. Bollinger’s annual Fun Run).
Peer Advisers Jiawen Tang ’15 and Jennifer Bai ’13 handed out treats in Lerner as part of a CSA Cares event during Wellness Week in 2013. Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Student Affairs
Suarez, a political science and Hispanic studies major from Fairfax, Va., is one of eight student leaders in CSA’s new peer advising program, which aims to provide students with social, academic and emotional support beyond what they receive from their advising deans. She hopes her insights will guide fellow students — especially first-years — in their academic and extracurricular pursuits and help them navigate life as Columbia College students.
"I wanted to give back and engage one-on-one with other Columbia students, so that I could hear their concerns and support them by sharing my firsthand experiences,” Suarez says. “I work to listen to students' concerns, lend an ear and respond to questions ranging from academic issues and stress management to extracurricular opportunities.”
CSA’s peer advising program, which launched during the 2012–2013 academic year, is one of several new peer-to-peer resources designed to support College students. The Office of Global Programs (OGP) launched a peer advising initiative during 2010–2011 to connect students who were returning from study abroad programs to those who were interested in studying abroad. And the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) expanded its culturally-based “Columbia Mentoring Initiative” (CMI) during the 2012–2013 school year, adding special programs for Arab/Middle Eastern and Indigenous/Native students.
Students and staff members say these programs are successful because students feel they can relate to their classmates, and their shared experiences strengthen the meaning of peers mentors’ advice.
“Peer advisers can provide firsthand accounts of course experiences, major options and co- and extra-curricular activities.” — Monique Rinere
“Peer advisers can provide firsthand accounts of course experiences, major options and co- and extra-curricular activities,” says CSA dean Monique Rinere, who created the program in 2012 in response to student feedback. “PAs can help students navigate and connect with resources at CC and [Engineering] based on their knowledge, training, and experiences.”
“The Columbia Mentoring Initiative provides an opportunity for students to support their peers in successfully navigating Columbia,” adds Marta Esquilin, senior associate director of Multicultural Affairs and the director of the Intercultural Resource Center. “They connect students within smaller communities that we call ‘family trees’ in meaningful ways to build community and increase students’ sense of inclusion on campus.”
OGP’s assistant director of global programs, Sara Ede, who created the study abroad peer mentoring initiative, says her idea was to provide a more holistic perspective of the study abroad experience and supplement what study abroad advisers could offer with firsthand experiences about, say, living in an Argentinian homestay, coursework at an international institution or the cost-of-living in London, and provide leadership opportunities for returning students.
Aniekeme Umoh ’15E and Sophie Qian ’15E during their CSA peer adviser walk-in hours. Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Student Affairs
“The idea is to give students who want to go abroad the excitement from other students who have been there, to give them realistic expectations about what studying abroad is about, what the academics are about, what it’s like living in a homestay,” Ede says.
The study abroad peer advisers organize special programs and information sessions, based on location or themes, such as an Italian cooking class in a residence hall to learn about studying in Italy or a field trip to Little Senegal in Central Harlem to learn about studying abroad in West Africa. And rather than holding traditional office hours, as study abroad administrators do, they respond to emails or meet prospective students for one-on-one conversations at coffee shops.
“We often had extremely deep and rewarding conversations,” says Eric Kutscher ’13, a history major with a concentration in African studies who studied abroad in Kenya. “I was able to speak about how to manage being gay in a country where homosexuality is illegal and was always able to answer fascinating and challenging questions from peers interested in pursuing travels similar to my own.”
CSA’s peer advisers also provide a different perspective, giving advice on the Core, majors and campus resources, along with extracurricular activities and New York City, and offering support to students through walk-in advising hours in Lerner Hall, online chats, blog posts, social media, and special events like panels and study breaks.
“There are so many incredible resources here at Columbia that I've personally benefited [from] — from fellowships to internship programs to extracurricular activities to my coursework to study abroad,” says CSA peer adviser Jiawen Tang ’15, an economics-political science major from Providence, R.I. “I wanted to take part in helping other students optimize the resources available at Columbia.”
And students say such mentoring initiatives are invaluable, introducing them to life on campus and in New York, helping them develop a sense of belonging and providing support so that they can be successful academically and emotionally.
“I think that the CMI program is great because it brings together first-years… and connects them with an upperclassman whom they can reach out to and depend on for support,” says William Su ’15, chair of the 2012–2013 CMI Asian Family Tree.
“As a student who had a rough time adjusting to Columbia during my first year, the Columbia Mentoring Initiative was a way for me to meet people who had similar backgrounds and experiences,” says Armando Lozano ’15, chair of the 2013-2014 CMI Latino Family Tree. “This program was an invaluable resource to me during my transition to New York City.”
— Sydney Schwartz Gross ’05J