First Year Program Annual Report 2004

Section 6: Student and Peer Leader Training

Student Peer Leaders are an integral part of the First Year Program, and their success has been documented in both 2003 and 2004 evaluations. The FY program is still the only program on campus that offers leadership training and experience across all four colleges. Two improvements have been made to their training.

  1. This year's training focused on SPLs responsibilities to and relationships with students in their FY sections. We purchased a training book for each SPL, Student Helping Students: A Guide for Peer Educators on College Campuses, that greatly facilitated our preparation of SPLs. Topics for discussion included: 1) Student Maturation and the Impact of Peers; 2) Intercultural Competence; 3) Interpersonal Communication Skills; 4) Problem Solving with Individuals; 5) Understanding Group Process and Leading Groups Effectively; 6) Using Campus Resources and Referral Techniques. This text was an invaluable tool and the SPLs acknowledged its usefulness.
  2. The Administrative Assistant has taken over much of the responsibility for training and supervising the SPLs and that has released the director for other program development.