Why Should You Meet with a Peer Mentor?

My goal for every blog post is to share experiences and give helpful tips that readers can use to be successful. This is related to my job as a Peer Mentor!* A main focus of my job is to help students find academic and personal success here at MSU. Today, I want to share a few things about why meeting with a peer mentor is a great idea and how it might benefit you!

We Are Here for You

When a student meets with a peer mentor, our goal will be to find ways to address issues that may be bothering the student. We always take the time to get to know the people we meet with and understand how the situation may be affecting their success. When it comes to making a solution, it’s all about what the student wants to do, not what we think! Throughout a meeting, we talk about goals, future directions and changes that the student is comfortable making that could improve the situation.

What Can We Do?

Peer mentors have many methods for aiding a student. Peer mentors have skills in meeting one-on-one with students, which allow us to hold good conversations, maintain good listening skills and use the conversation to reach an overall goal for the student. Along with this, we have a good knowledge of campus resources and faculty, so we can connect students with other resources that could help the student find answers.

How and When Can You See a Peer Mentor?

1. Let us know you are interested by filling out the peer mentor request form.

If you have more questions or need assistance with the form, you can email CAST@MissouriState.edu or come by Meyer Library 116.

2. Set up a time to meet with us.

After we receive your request to meet with a peer mentor, we’ll contact you to set up a meeting. We do our best to be flexible and find the best time for you. We’ll meet however works best for you!

3. Come back and see us again.

After our meeting, you will be able to go off and do awesome! However, always feel free to come back and let us know how you are doing or even tell us other ways we can help you.

I hope this gives you a good idea about what a peer mentor can do and how this could be beneficial to your own success. If you have more questions, feel free to come by the office or email us! As always, thank you for reading.

*My job title changed recently from Peer Counselor to Peer Mentor; you may see the Peer Counselor title used in older blog posts.

(Bio: My name is Michael Rexroad, a transfer student from Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City. I am a senior currently studying cell and molecular biology with a minor in chemistry.)

Wherever the Road Takes Me

College is all about learning, meeting new people and preparing for a career one day. In some cases, so much goes on over those four (or more) years of undergrad that we forget it ends at some point. During that time, it’s easy to lay back and hope that we end up where we are supposed to be. Having a good plan, however, can help ensure we’ll get there! Today I want to share some ways to start thinking about the future and tips to prepare for life post-graduation.

Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?

This is a common question asked during job interviews, but also a good one to help you think about life post-graduation. For some students, it is not an easy decision. A medical student may want to be a surgeon or physician; a business student may want to work in finance or business management. The first big step is figuring out what you could see yourself doing. Each of us has unique skills and personalities that will fit somewhere. And in a lot of ways, it is easy to see yourself doing something that sounds fun or interesting.

Experiencing a particular job can be a useful way to figure out if that job would be a good choice for you. This can include internships, meeting with a professional in a certain field or shadowing hours. For any future job, it is important to know what you’re getting into. You may figure out that a job you didn’t think you would like is actually a great fit for you!

How Do I Start Looking?

• My Career Path on your MSU account
  • MSU’s Career Center has lots of excellent resources for exploring careers, including assistance searching for internships and related experiences.
  • On your Missouri State account, you can go to the student tab, scroll to the bottom and find the My Career Path section. Here you will find resources such as your Missouri State Handshake account, programs at MSU and even a direct link to the Career Center where you can make meetings!

• Talk with your academic advisor
  • Academic advisors meet with and see hundreds of students graduate every year. Advisors have a lot of information on what helps students succeed, what opportunities are available, where internships and shadowing are open, and more!
• Talk with your professors
  • To me, professors are a highly overlooked resource for guidance on career exploration. They are professionals in the fields they teach, making them banks of knowledge about the things you may be wondering about.

A Clear Path

After getting experience and talking with different people, it can become much clearer where you want to end up in the future. You can then plan whether you want (or need) to go to graduate school, medical school, training programs or other post-graduation education or if you’ll be ready to get into the job field immediately after graduating.

Deciding on your future isn’t something that always comes easy. So, when you are out there trying to figure out where you may end up after graduation, make sure you take your time and choose something that you will enjoy!