Become a Mentor

As a freshman, it’s nerve-wracking to explore the Seidenberg community, but there’s a way to help with those nerves. As an upperclassman, you have the opportunity to assist with a freshman student’s transition into the community through the NYC Peer Mentor Program! One of the best ways to get integrated into the Seidenberg community is through the Peer Mentor Program and upperclassmen have the opportunity to help out with that integration. The peer-to-peer communication between mentee and mentor creates a starting foundation for all students who join.

The program, run by Seidenberg advisors Matt Brown and Stephanie Elson, is a newer program at the Seidenberg School. They started it as a way to use the leadership skills of upperclassmen to lead incoming students to success.

Will McNeese, a senior Information Technology major, is one of these peer mentors! He joined the program to help others. Will took the time to talk about who the program is for as well as what being a mentor is all about.

“[The] program is a resource for new students who might need extra guidance in their transition to college,” he explains. “[The program] is also great for second years or higher who like helping people and want to help incoming freshmen with that first-semester anxiety.”

Over the course of the first semester, the freshman mentee and the upperclassman mentor pairs meet and compete in challenges. They also take the time to get to know one another and learn to check in with each other throughout the semester.

Will has gained a great deal from the program, but he explains that the joy of helping others and using his time to make someone else’s life easier are the best parts of being a mentor.

“I’m sure there are lots of students who [are] terrified of being in college and [have] a ton of questions and concerns without any clear place to ask them,” Will explains. “This program is a way for those same students to help make sure somebody else doesn’t go through that [anxiety] (or at least not as badly).”

As for why others should join the program, he notes that prizes can be won by those who complete challenges in the first semester. The prizes Will and his mentee won included a fifty-dollar gift card for Amazon last semester. All members of the program also receive a free t-shirt! According to Will, though, the best part isn’t about the prizes—it’s the networking.

“You…get to meet and connect with a lot of students, and there [are] a lot of industries—especially [within] the tech world—that are based on connections,” he explains.

All in all, the Peer Mentor program is perfect for all NYC Seidenberg students who wish to engage in the Seidenberg community and help others. If you would like to learn more about the program, stop by the information session on April 3rd at 12:15pm during common hour in the Seidenberg Lounge!

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Seidenberg Peer Mentoring Program goes into its second year

The Seidenberg community was delighted to kick off the second year of our student mentoring program on Wednesday, September 6, 2017. When the program first began last year, we saw great success as senior students took incoming Seidenberg majors under their wings to help navigate the Seidenberg – and Pace University – experience.

Now in its second year, the program has seen a swell in new and returning students flocked back to meet one another and grow our Seidenberg family. The program aims to help new students settle into life at Pace, learn about how Seidenberg and the University operates, and meet new friends. For experienced students who are mentoring our n00bs, they learn how to provide guidance to new students and valuable skills that are extremely useful in the working world.

Director of Recruitment and Retention and Academic Advisor Stephanie Elson led the welcome presentation, which laid out the expectations of both mentors and mentees – including the requirement to take as many pictures as possible! #SeidenbergSelfie!

Our newest advisor on the NYC campus, Matt Brown, also welcomed the students. “Your relationship as mentees and mentors is about teamwork,” Matt said, emphasizing the community aspect of the program. “You all are part of a greater community, and individually you bring something great to this team.”

Matt also touched on one of our greatest assets here at Pace – “Pace is a global community with people from different backgrounds – be supportive, be non-judgmental.”

New students also got to meet community manager Olga Bogomolova, who welcomed them to the program and reminded them to take care of our space and each other.

The Seidenberg Peer Mentoring program is one of our points of pride. If you’ve been through our doors, you know that community is everything to Seidenberg, so we are delighted to see such a robust cohort of students entering and returning to the program this year.

We can’t wait to see how our mentors and mentees do! Welcome and welcome back to all of you!

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