Kudos to the student government for the implementation of yet another peer mentoring program.
This year has seen an impressive rolling out of new peer advising programs, and Excelling Through Mentoring is simply the latest success.
It’s a program that connects 10 groups of six freshmen, called pods, with two mentors. The mentors show the freshmen the ropes over six weeks, with groups meeting once a week.
Allison Howard, co-chairwoman of Excelling Through Mentoring, said the program is designed to follow up with freshmen after their first semester.
She said freshmen need the opportunity to figure out college their first semester, but after that, they might need some help refining their college experience.
We agree.
Freshmen year can be daunting, and it can take a good full year to figure out college life. In fact, for many students, the first two years of college are trial and error.
This mentoring program is an innovative way for freshmen to learn from the mistakes of upperclassmen and reap wisdom from them.
Furthermore, 10 faculty members will give talks about adapting to college life. This is another benefit of the program.
While students can give plenty of solid advice about academics to each other, professors can provide insight into common freshmen issues — like how to get to know your professor in a 300-person lecture.
But by far, the upperclassman-freshmen link is the biggest benefit to this program.
It can take a full year — or even two — to discover all of the nuances of UNC and Chapel Hill life. And we’re glad to see student government taking an initiative to welcome the newcomers.
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
