A Multicultural Peer Education Program in a University Counseling Center
It is important in any college/university setting to establish a campus community where students can feel like they are part of a place that offers personal and academic support and encouragement. The GMU Counseling Center 's Peer Empowerment Program (PEP) offers an environment where students can be surrounded by a group of caring peers who are trained to provide quality mental health education, referrals and resources that help students effectively manage the pressure to excel academically. Whether students are faced with pressures caused by fulfilling personal or family expectations, competition from other students to display excellence, or pressure from faculty, students need to learn how to create and maintain a balanced campus-life experience in order to flourish. PEP helps students cultivate a healthy mental health disposition.
The benefit of having a place to “drop-in” with PEP facilitates opportunities for healthy interaction, which is especially beneficial to students who may feel too vulnerable or withdrawn to seek out a counseling support group or individual counseling services. Peer educators in PEP provide students with a place to disclose feelings of helplessness or vulnerability that might prevent them from reaching optimal academic performance. In this environment students are supported in ways that build trust, and foster encouragement thereby enabling them to share some of the key issues affecting their struggle to meet personal or academic challenges. PEP's association with the Counseling Center provides an important linkage with a professional place of support for any student needing the more extended intervention of a professional counselor/psychologist to provide healthy emotional well being.
As a component of the GMU Counseling Center 's consultation and outreach effort, the PEP trains students to provide, as Peer Counselor/Educators, psycho-educational (primary prevention) services to the GMU student body. The ultimate intention of this effort is
- To promote awareness of the Counseling Center 's many services and resources;
- To foster the understanding and application of a psychological wellness model;
- To assess students' needs within the scope of the GMU Counseling Center services and objectives; and
- To assist in the personal development of GMU students by extending the learning environment beyond the formal classroom setting.