A role as a Peer Mentor

A role that a peer mentor play's in a student's first year experience in college is being a support system to that student, a friend, a resource and being there in their time of needs. A peer mentor is a role to make the student's first experience as comfortable as possible and making sure they are adapting to the college life easily. There will be plenty of times a student will come to them being lost in certain situations and it is a job as a peer mentor to understand their options and navigate where they want to go and how they want to get there.
There are also boundaries to a peer mentor's role that should not be crossed but it is up to that peer mentor to set those boundaries between them and there students. It is your job as a peer mentor to distinguish those boundaries and thinking what is appropriate and what is not appropriate; for example going to each other houses that is crossing the line of professionalism. Make sure your meetings are occurring in public places like the union or in the Leads Center, but if you know things are very personal between a student it is more likely for that peer mentor to hold a private session in a more quieter place for the student to feel comfortable.
A peer mentor's role is to also actively listen to their students no matter what the story is, some may not be as important to you but is certainly important to discuss to them. Also to have respect for them and to not judge their actions to a certain situation. Just be there for them and guide them through their first year safely.
It also establishing that you are still a student as well and there will be times that you can not meet with them or not be there all the time and it is their job to understand that you are a peer mentor but you are a student as well and both the mentee and mentor should meet half way in building with each other.

I have many strengths one in being very social and communicative, being organized, a leader and resourceful, but there were some challenges that I had to face. One of them was balancing out school, social and personal life. Working with these students I was off balance with everything that was going on in this semester, I spent the majority of my time fulfilling the needs of the students and helping them have the easiest transition. I am currently still working on the balance but I do have a better understanding of how to manage everything. Other challenges I had to come in contact with were with students who did not communicate well with me and did not cooperate consistently. Some ways I addressed the problem was talking to them about it and finding a better way to keep in contact with each efficiently. Overall this experienced has definitely improved my leadership skills and my time management skills as well. By improving my leadership skills I have learned that I am not always going to have the all the answers to certain questions but I will try my best to find it and pass it down. Being a leader has also improved my emotional intelligence, by improving my self-awareness, motivation, empathy, self-regulation, and social skills. Time management wise, I have set priorities to my life and have been working on the balance of everything but am understanding that with time management there is also organization and little by little this will not only be a habit but a daily routine. With this, I can take this knowledge with me and keep improving in many ways through time.