Next year, the Office of Multicultural Student Services will help make the college transition easier for incoming freshmen from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds with the Peer Mentor Program.
According to Assistant Director of the Office of Multicultural Student Services Norris Chase, the Peer Mentor Program was the result of student and professional staff feedback, and retention and graduation rates should reflect the program’s success.
“Our ultimate plan is to increase the retention and graduation rates of underrepresented students as well as create a pivotal peer to peer leadership opportunity for Bradley students who will serve as peer mentors,” Chase said.
Freshman nursing major Becky Mullin said she thinks the program will be a huge help to incoming students at Bradley.
“Going away to college can be a difficult transition,” Mullin said. “It will be nice for students to be able to be introduced and welcomed into the Bradley community their first year here.”
All upperclassmen and current freshmen who will have sophomore standing in the fall are eligible to apply. Students must be from a racially diverse background with at least a 2.5 GPA, and have extracurricular involvement to qualify.
This isn’t the first time the university has tried to utilize this type of program, according to Chase.
“From what I understand, a similar program had been attempted a few years back but did not
flourish due to unexpected changes in personnel,” Chase said. “However, many upperclassmen have been really excited about the program and often speak about how helpful the program would have been if it was around during their freshmen years.”
Chase said the peer mentors will have a variety of responsibilities, including assisting mentees on move in day, working with a peer mentor team to plan at least one social program per semester for all program mentees and assisting with the recruitment of new mentors.
All peer mentors will also actively participate in meetings and mentor programs throughout the year, said Chase. Students will be participating in interviews for the peer mentor position this week and next week.
Junior marketing major Cabrittany Price said she thinks the program will have positive results.
“The program sounds great,” Price said. “Bradley is a pretty easy school to transition into, but the program will help make it that much easier.”
