Peer Student Success Team Provides Mentorship and Support

A screenshot from the PSST virtual painting party.
Posted by Bethany Gauthier on

When new students join Lee Honors College, they quickly become acquainted with the Peer Student Success Team. PSST is a mentorship program designed to provide an academic and social support system for incoming first year students, transfer students, international students and prospective students at Lee Honors College.
The PSST is a team of Lee Honors College students who serve as mentors and offer guidance in regard to curricular and co-curricular programming. Their duties include facilitating one-on-one meeting with mentees during the fall and spring semesters and communicating with mentees on a regular basis regarding LHC requirements, events, opportunities and self-care strategies. Mentors also attend and coordinate LHC events, programs and community service opportunities.

The PSST helps serve a vital role in connecting students to campus information and resources, which has been even more crucial while many of our students have been learning virtually and not spending time on campus. Though they certainly faced challenges in the past year while in person events were not possible, our Peer Student Success Team worked tirelessly with the Lee Honors College staff to facilitate meaningful and engaging online experiences for our students over the fall and spring semesters.

2020-21 Lee Honors College events took place on Webex and featured guest speakers including distinguished professors, WMU Medallion Scholars, LHC staff members and all of our PSST mentors. The PSST also collaborated with campus departments and organizations including WMU Career and Student Employment Services, FIRE! Sexual Assault Peer Educators, WMU Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and WMU Counseling Services. A wide variety of topics were covered and the schedule featured “How to Be a Social Change Leader in the 21st Century,” “The Power of Positivity,” and “Confronting Procrastination (Part 1 and 2),” to name just a few.  The PSST also hosted multiple events to help students relax and have fun with self-care nights and Netflix parties featuring favorite films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Pride and Prejudice.
In addition to their PSST job duties, the peer mentors take time for their own self-care and group bonding events like an online ‘painting with a twist’ party earlier this spring. Though the past year did have its challenges, the Peer Student Success Team never wavered in their support of LHC’s new students. We can’t wait to see what the PSST mentors accomplish in the year ahead! 

A new lineup of events is already in the works for the fall 2021 semester. Details will be announced soon and we’ll also be introducing the new peer mentors joining the PSST this fall. Thank you to all of our Peer Student Success Team members--past and present—for their important and impactful work in student mentorship. Learn more about the Peer Student Success Team here.