Peer advising programs and effectiveness

Peer Advisement Program at Queens College attracted me when I heard about it through other students. I have friends and relatives who have gone through the program with various problems related to school and home and they have always come away with excellent solutions and plans of actions for those problems. I was attracted because of the information I received about the program from my fellow students and I decided I would like to be a part of any team that succeeds in helping students help themselves.

What is it you that you hope to gain from being a Peer Adviser?

I hope to gain insight through being a Peer Adviser about the profession of counseling. I have always enjoyed assisting friends and family members figure out how to address problems they encountered. Through this interaction, the field of counseling has tugged at the back of my mind for many years. Whether or not I ultimately go into the helping professions as a career, or instead devote my desire to serve through volunteer work, the Peer Adviser program will give me some experience in that area. I am excited about being able to learn communication and problem solving skills outside my family and social group.

If you were given the opportunity to change anything about Queens College, what would it be and why?

If I could change something about Queens College I would change two things regarding the program. The first thing I would do would be to invest some money into providing a more conducive space to conduct the program. While the most important aspect of the program is problem solving, it is important that when students enter the program they feel they are dealing with a highly professional and capable program. A professionally designed atmosphere that is exclusive to that use would be an important step in that goal. The second thing I would change would be the hours of operation of the program. I believe students have their own biological schedules in which they are more comfortable discussing problems and opening up. In addition many students who are having problems are doing so because of their stressful schedule. I believe the college should provide whatever means needed to offer more hours of operations so it could be available to more students.

What would be a difficult issue for you to handle and how would you deal with it?

One of the most difficult issues that I could deal with as a peer adviser would be a student who came to me and confessed to cheating. Students are under a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed, but college is also meant to be a character building experience. A student who purchased answers to a test, of had someone do their homework for them and then came to me because they were afraid they were about to be caught would be a difficult situation for me because of my personal feelings about dishonesty. I would work to help them make the right choice to correct the situation so that they could look themselves in the mirror each day.

How would you as an adviser, without being judgmental, handle this situation. A student comes to you saying that she is failing and probably won't come back to school. She is convinced that her parents will put her out of the house if she doesn't finish school.