Leading and Learning as an Honors Peer Educator

Before I enrolled in being a peer educator last spring, my impression of my job and what it means to be a leader was to show a bullet point set of things to memorize and answer questions. After all, I was a freshman just last year and with COVID forcing virtual intro sessions, there isn’t much a leader can do anyways besides make themselves available. However, I’ve realized that my concept of what a leader needs to be is not at all what I originally imagined, which left out many crucial aspects of what I’ve done to consider myself a leader for my students. For example, the first example of a “leader” that pops into mind to most students here at UW is a professor for one of their courses. Obviously, I don’t disagree, but the main point that I see in this fact is we see leaders as people who are older with expertise in some area of study. I feel like in some ways this deemphasizes the importance of peers as leaders, since while we are not much older, we do have expertise in a more generalized sense of “surviving” college. Essentially what I’m saying is that I think a leader doesn’t have to be a professor of sorts. They can be anyone who can offer support in not just academic disciplines, but also moral and experiential support as a friend.

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Many of the skills that I have learned these last few months I see as transferrable to how I want to be a leader in the future. I think the most important aspect of a leader is not in a managerial task like distributing work to people, but rather being able to earn the respect of those who you are leading. They need to have a reason to trust me as a leader and listen to what I have to say. In my case, as a peer educator I need to present myself as a relatable figure who has gone through the same experiences that they are about to go into. If I can’t accomplish that, there isn’t much of a point to having a peer educator compared to more lectures from the honors advisers. As such, I want to be perceived as a leader that is far from being a boss, but rather a friend who wants to share their experiences for the growth of those who I am leading.

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There were also many times for reflection throughout the course that I was able to grow, learn, and adapt to situations that were presented to me. For example, my pre-quarter reflection I believe I nailed the areas of self growth that I would need to specifically pay attention to (adaptability, communication, and critical thinking). In addition to the constant focus in keeping track of time during sections, making sure I get all announcements done (many of which I forgot and had to ad din a post-section email), and many other small tasks, I had many particularly challenging moments where I had to employ all three of these elements. For example, I had a few students who I became slightly concerned about since they seemed slightly less engaged within the section and I had to balance when I should give them space, when I should contact them, and when I should alert the advisers. All of the times I alerted the advisers though, I was happy to see that the students in question had already discussed their concerns with them, meaning that they were actively searching for help. Furthermore, I learned many novel ideas from both my PE check-in and H397 course on how to keep students engaged by thinking outside the box via new activities (one of which I had to create in a panic a day before the section due to an error in my agenda), directing conversation between themselves and not just directly to me, and deciding the best ways to make myself seem approachable to them so that they would be willing to share any issues/concerns with me. All in all, I think that the constant flux of unexpected events and situations has greatly helped me develop many of my own personal skills.

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As someone who is planning on being a returning peer educator next year, I hope to apply the things that I have learned this year into improvements for my students, from more major things like being a bit less intense in my own extroversion (as noted in feedback from my students) to smaller things like scheduling earlier social events and remembering to take a section photo at the last section. Although I feel like this experience went far better than I had actually expected, I still want to make sure I stray away from simply repeating myself next year as I need to force myself to take in the feedback I’ve received to make an even better experience for any future students. Also, in general I want to make sure that I can transfer my leadership skills from here, such as the aforementioned adaptability, communication, and critical thinking skills, to a wide variety of possible leadership positions ranging from my positions in GlobeMed, Grey Matters, or as a squad leader next year in the marching band. Overall, I am confident that my experience this year as a peer educator has been a truly transformative one that has been one of the best decisions I have made since joining UW.