Hi from Verity – Week 5 (already!)
Hello everyone,
I cannot believe how quickly these past five weeks have passed, and how much has been achieved.
In week 4 I had a meeting with the Humanities Senior Tutors to inform them of the exciting Humanities Peer Mentoring scheme. The Senior Tutors provide a role of pastoral care for students, both at undergraduate and post graduate level, and are the point of call above a student’s Personal Academic Tutor (PAT). This means any issues not directly related to the academic content or structure of the programme of study. Senior tutors can also give you advice about the many support services that the University of Southampton offers to help students during their studies. This means their role and that of the mentors will be heavily connected together and therefore it is crucial that Senior Tutors, PATs and Mentors are all supporting students in the same way and promoting each network of support. The meeting was extremely successful, and the senior tutors are fully on board and enthusiastic about the scheme.
In week 4 I also created the application form for current student to apply to be mentors. I did this using software called iSurvey, which generates questionnaires and surveys that one can tailor to suit their needs. iSurvey also stores all the data collected in an easy to read and manageable nature which I can keep track of regularly. I tested my application form, and got James and Charlotte to do a test run, and with everything working and in place it was ready to go live! My next step was to send out an email to all second and final year undergraduates within the Faculty of Humanities promoting and advertising the scheme. The societies have also started to advertise the application form and decide who on their committee will take up the role of Peer Mentoring Officer. Within the first hour of application going live 8 students had already applied which is promising!
I did stumble across some difficulties with regards to creating e-posters and advertisements to email to students and societies to use on social media websites. This was because the University of Southampton has particular brand guidelines when it comes to advertisements, and cautious of this I did not want to produce anything which was against the recommendations. After a day filled with confusion and emails back and forth between various people, Eleanor was able to step in and save the day and reassured me that what I had produced was suitable for the purpose. (Phew!)
This week I had a meeting with the University’s Student Services team to inform them of the Humanities Peer Mentoring scheme and to learn more about enabling services. Enabling services provide support for students who have disabilities, mental health issues or specific learning difficulties. It is therefore vital that the mentors are aware of these fantastic services which are available to students, and then they can advise those students in need of the best places to go to seek advice. The team were thoroughly excited about Peer Mentoring, and to increase awareness of all those brilliant support systems Student Services has to offer.
That gives you an insight into my past two weeks, which has been a priority to get the word of Peer Mentoring out to students, but also different departments with the University.
Until next time… Take Care!