Training Peer Mentors

The Virginia Tech College of Science is committed to making our college inclusive to all. This year, we started the Diversifying Science Peer Mentoring Program as a way to support our diverse student population. The program emphasizes relationship building and role-modeling between successful, more advanced Science students and beginning Science students, especially low-income, first-generation, minority, and female students. Through group and one-on-one settings, the peer mentors create a safe and non-judgmental environment in order to enhance and enrich the college experience of their mentees.

Students with a strong sense of belonging are more likely to persist in STEM majors. Students of color, low-income students, first-generation students, and female students face more barriers in building belonging due to an exclusionary culture in STEM. The Diversifying Science Peer Mentoring Program is one step towards making our college more inclusive towards our diverse student body.

On May 1, Saad Khan (’17, clinical neuroscience), a mental health intern with Hokie Wellness, led a mentor training workshop with Science students. His goal: get students to think of helping their peers, including checking on mental health of others. Additional activities of the day included challenging assumptions and implicit bias.

This fall, we have 30 peer mentors matched up with 90 first-year students. Participants are from all majors in the College of Science, ranging from biological sciences to statistics. The college ran a pilot peer mentoring program in Spring 2022, with 14 mentors and 14 mentees. Freshmen in the pilot program reported a stronger sense of belonging in the college and generally increased their GPA after participating in the program.

The Diversifying Science Peer Mentoring Program is a part of the Coalition for Diversifying Science, which is coordinated by Estrella Johnson, assistant dean of inclusion & diversity, and Jess Hoopengardner, associate director of inclusion & diversity. The College partners with offices across the university to form our Coalition, with the goal of supporting students’ science and cultural identities.