Hello from Verity!

Hi everyone!

My name is Verity Smith. I graduated this month from the University of Southampton BA in History. I am currently on a summer internship at the University to create a Peer Mentoring scheme for Humanities undergraduate students, developing skills I acquired though my role as President of the History Society last year.
The plan is this: the Peer Mentoring scheme will provide a support network for all incoming Humanities students. First year students will be allocated to groups on arrival at Southampton and matched with two mentors linked to their course. These mentors will be second and final year students who are experts in the potential challenges of the student experience, and they will help first year students to settle in during this transitional period. Fortnightly meetings over Semester One will support the new students in a range of ways, including varied activities and meeting places as a way of gaining new skills and exploring their new surroundings.
All mentors will be provided with training for the role and given a Guidebook to support them throughout the scheme. There will also be a mid-point and end-point review which will give mentors the opportunity to discuss the successes and improvements required for the scheme.
In addition, the scheme will be closely linked with other branches of support at the University. Firstly, Peer Mentoring will be directly linked back to the students through the academic societies in Humanities. These student-run societies will have an Officer to promote the scheme and keep in touch with the Mentors throughout the semester. Secondly, Peer Mentoring will be linked to academic staff, in particular Mentees’ Personal Academic Tutors (PATs) who provide academic support to students throughout their degree. PATs will be able to advise students to seek the relevant support from their Mentors and vice versa, creating a strong chain of support links for students.
My successes for the scheme so far have mainly been around external and internal research of other university buddy/family/mentoring schemes. Through this research I have gained ideas which can be adapted for the Humanities Peer Mentoring Scheme. The next stage is – with the assistance of the societies – the recruitment of Mentors!
I am excited to put all these stages into motion over the coming weeks and will keep you up to date on both the highs and lows of my progress!