Spring 2021:

I entered college at one of the weirdest possible times. I was a scared entering freshman just nine months ago who didn’t even immediately get to move in on campus. I haven’t gotten the experience of being in a library studying for finals, or passing by my friends on my way to class, or even just being able to casually walk over to people in another dorm to say hi. COVID put a huge barrier on all of these activities that would be considered “normal” college life, and as such I question whether or not I can really categorize myself as a rising sophomore in this coming year. Yet here I am, an honors peer educator for the autumn 2021 quarter who is more excited than ever to guide the incoming freshmen to the best of my ability in the context of my experience. Although it was drastically different from what I had expected a year ago from now, preparing for this task has taught me so many valuable lessons. 

Adaptability is the first trait that comes to mind. As we accepted our position as a peer educator, we did not even know whether or not we would be doing activities in person or virtually in the fall. Having to craft activities that could be molded into either category if needed added another layer of complexity towards creating lesson plans that would still be engaging in both settings. Outside of COVID-based changes, working with the other peer educators to improve my lesson plans was a great experience because it highlights what I see as an important aspect of being a leader, which is knowing when to follow from other people’s examples or ideas. Each one of us individually already has so many unique ideas and contributions, so pooling them together we not only get a vast amount of things that we can work with, but we can also find the ideas that most resonate with us. As a result, we are able to craft from someone else’s initial idea with our own spin to create an end product that is much higher quality than any one of us alone. I believe this ability needs to be more heavily emphasized through other classes, because I definitely know it was a major component of my learning throughout this spring quarter.

Furthermore, the weekly discussion posts made me see the multidimensionality of teaching an introductory seminar. Being a peer educator has obviously been far more than just repeating quantitative requirements for the honors program. It has been emphasizing inclusivity and equity through differences in race, gender, identity, or even majors. It has been learning about the relevance of the history of UW so that we can translate our experience into improvements for the present and future students. It has been learning how something as simple as a change in mindset can alter someone’s ability to work towards their passion. It has even been simply learning about the importance of reflecting, like I am now, for both my own personal growth and why I should encourage the freshman to. All in all, I believe these deeper complexities in teaching not just raw concepts, but also everything that revolves around them, have been an invaluable experience as I’ve grown through our peer educator training.