A series of articles written by SCCO Student Ambassadors.

More Than Mentors: How Peer Advisors Support the Incoming Class

by SCCO Student Ambassador, Kimi Uenaka

For most students, the very first steps in the journey of being a grad school student are both incredibly exciting and incredibly nerve-wracking: excitement for the start of a new chapter, meeting new people, and being one step closer to a career of service, but also nervousness for possibly the same reasons. It’s kind of a silly idea to be both super excited and super nervous for the exact same reasons, but it’s a shared experience that most students experience at the start of their grad school careers. Thankfully, this is where the MBKU Peer Advisors come in to help!

Peer Advisors are second-year students who are mentors to a small group of students in the incoming class, helping support the students during their transition into optometry/PA/pharmacy school and throughout their first year (and beyond, if they choose to!). They are the ones who facilitate meeting other classmates at orientation, give their own tips and tricks for what it’s like being a student, and check in with their advisees every so often to make sure they are doing ok. This kind of constant support throughout the year from my own Peer Advisor made me feel more comfortable and less anxious about starting optometry school because you always know you have someone cheering for you!

Now a second year, I have the incredible pleasure of being a Peer Advisor and have had so much fun getting to know and supporting my own advisees. One of the reasons why I wanted to be a Peer Advisor was that they get to be the first ones who welcome the first years to MBKU during the summer. We get to be your first friend at school! It starts with just one email welcoming you to MBKU and then, throughout the rest of the summer, the Peer Advisors work to answer any questions that the incoming students may have and serve as a first contact point at MBKU before you even get to campus. This way, everybody has at least one friend on campus right at the start of New Student Orientation!

My goal as a Peer Advisor was to make sure my advisees felt knowledgeable about all the resources at MBKU/what to expect throughout the year and comfortable with reaching out to me if they needed help. Basically, I just didn’t want them to feel caught off-guard by anything and to feel prepared to face the rollercoaster of  grad school. When school gets overwhelming, I think that feeling prepared for something makes up a big part of being prepared, so I hoped to set them up for success the best I could.

In the end, the Peer Advisors just want to help you succeed! Chances are they also received that kind of support from someone else before them and want to take what they learned, add onto it, and pass it on to the incoming classes. We all know how important it is to have a strong support system in grad school, so the goal is to help build that support system from the very start!

Click here to read Student Ambassador bios on our website!