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.)