In2science Peer Mentoring Program
Why become a Peer
Mentor?
Peer Mentoring can be an extremely enjoyable, fun and rewarding activity to be involved in. However, it is also serious and requires a level of commitment.
If you feel ready for a rewarding and challenging commitment of your time then read on to find out what the benefits are for you.
Peer Mentoring gives you the opportunity to:
- Be involved in a valued community service as a positive role model, gaining satisfaction through helping to play a very influential part in the lives of young people.
- Develop essential workplace and interpersonal skills, and patience!
- Impart the knowledge and enthusiasm that you have for your chosen field of study onto younger students (most of you were probably influenced by a teacher or positive experience you had in school).
- Increase your confidence.
- Have practice in problem-solving and time management.
- Reinforce your own knowledge of the fundamentals of your study area.
- Experience giving someone else the understanding you have.
- Gain an insight into the teaching/learning experience.
- Have a well earned break from the rigors of study.
- Get to know new people from a different social background to your own.
- Relate your subject to the outside world.
- Gain experience that will help in making a choice of career.
PLUS -
Develop skills and experience that will make you attractive to future employers!
All Peer Mentors receive certification for attending the training session and for each school placement they undertake. In addition many past Peer Mentors have used In2science for references when applying for jobs.
Quotes from our Peer Mentors:
Why should other students get involved?:
"Two reasons - young people in the community benefit from a young, enthusiastic mentor, sometimes they just need to be shown what options (such as science) are available to them; and personal rewards for the mentor themselves - satisfaction from knowing that something they are doing is positively influencing the education of the students."
"It is rewarding knowing that you assisted someone’s learning and assisted the teacher in educating our future generations."
"It’s a great opportunity to help young students. I’ve learned a lot of communication skills from this. I’ve gained much more than I gave."
"It's good to go back to basics and solidify your own understanding of science. It can make your own study easier...and it looks good on your CV!"
"It is a good way to put your skills into practice. A science course is not just learning about science, it provides opportunities to develop critical thinking, analysing and other useful skills. It is not until you undertake this program until you see just how much you have grown and developed. It is also another opportunity for you to grow and further enhance your communication skills."
"I think it is important to get high school students interested in science and the best way to do this is by giving them the opportunity to meet Uni students who study science to share their experiences. In terms of self benefit, the program builds confidence and communication skills. It is an important skill to be able to explain things that you might know a lot about to someone who doesn't know as much in a way that is simple and easy to understand."
"It is a fantastic experience, both for the mentor and the students. It really helps to motivate the students as many of them don’t know what uni is about or what uses there are for science. The students look up to you, and it is great helping them out, and watching them improve since you have been there."
What they got out of the experience:
"The In2science program has allowed me to put something back into the community. Peer Mentoring in a class is rewarding as I know I am making a difference by promoting the future of science."
"The peer-mentoring program is extremely helpful to both mentor and class - the mentor gains confidence, learns useful explanatory techniques and, most importantly, receives a high level of satisfaction in helping others. The class effectively receives another teacher to help explain the material being taught."
"It gives you life skills which can be transferred anywhere. Any job you have will require communicating with people, instructing people and so forth. It gives invaluable experience in this field."
"I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. To see how eager and grateful the students were to have me helping them was one of the many highlights at my time at the school. Thanks for the fantastic opportunity."
"Being a Peer Mentor was an eye opening experience. I had forgotten just what high school science was like. The students were in Yr 7 and Yr 8 and they were great. The school was full of enthusiastic students and staff which just contributed to the fantastic time I had. If anyone is thinking about taking up education as a career path I would highly recommend being a Peer Mentor. After spending a Monday morning blowing things up, you know that it's going to be tough to tops that in the coming week!"