First Year Seminar Peer Leaders: They’re the Connectors in an Innovative Program
When members of the Class of 2025 graduate in May, many will have spent four years as instrumental components of a unique program designed to acclimate new students to life at Syracuse University.
These seniors have been involved as students taking the course in their first year of college, then as peer leaders for First Year Seminar (FYS) for three subsequent years. The one-credit, 15-week required course engages students in conversations, activities and assignments about making the transition to life on campus. It not only serves as an introductory course to Syracuse University, but also actively builds community, connects students to faculty/staff and each other, and encourages a positive transition to a new environment. Within that setting, students explore the topics of belonging, interdependence, wellness, development of identity, socialization, discrimination, bias and stereotypes.
Since the program began in 2021, more than 500 faculty, staff and students have participated in FYS in various roles. They’ve served as lead instructors (faculty, staff and graduate students) or as peer leaders (undergraduate students). Lead instructors partner with peer leaders to guide seminar discussions for class sections. With some 4,000-plus new students in first-year classes, and with sections capped at 19 students to create an intimate, seminar atmosphere, 225 students were needed to fill the peer leader role in 2024.
Peer leaders are the embodiment of FYS and they are the connectors that are integral to the program, say Shannon Hitchcock Schantz, FYS director, and Jimmy Luckman, associate director. Peer leaders work in conjunction with lead instructors to guide discussions that are anchored around increasing students’ sense of belonging on campus.
“The program isn’t advanced only by faculty and staff; peer leaders are a big part of the FYS experience. They are connectors for FYS participants and they’re conduits who facilitate discussions on many issues while sharing the kinds of University resources that are available. They connect students where students want to be connected. Through discussions, they can transform the classroom experience, providing a space for sometimes difficult conversations, and that’s been a very strong thing,” Luckman says.
The past four years have been a time of growth for the program, as the previous FYS leaders, Schantz and her team have built “a great foundation,” she says. “Now, we are looking ahead and seeing how to enrich the peer leader experience.”
In addition to monthly leadership development meetings for peer leaders, Luckman says the team is considering creating a peer leader development model and potentially expanding leadership opportunities for the students. They are also conducting focus groups to obtain feedback on the peer leader role and may form a peer leader alumni group. They also hired a coordinator to supervise peer leaders and manage the myriad details of hiring and tracking a 200-plus student workforce.
While hundreds of peer leaders are needed each year, Luckman says it has not been difficult to recruit for those roles because students love working with fellow students and they understand the value community-building work adds to their background and experience. Many also recognize the role as a chance to develop leadership skills and want to take advantage of that, Luckman says.
The team asked for peer leader feedback to continue to enhance the position and the co-facilitation model the course follows. Schantz says the responses showed the importance of the lead instructor and peer leader in creating a positive atmosphere in the course. Another factor that influenced peer leaders returning to their roles in subsequent years is the respectful environment that peer leaders form with their students.
Four students who took FYS their first year on campus and then stayed on as peer leaders for the next three years are set to graduate this spring. They shared with SU News their reasons for deciding to remain in those roles and what the program has meant to them since their earliest days at the University.
Mariana Godinez-Andraca, a dual public relations/psychology major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the College of Arts and Sciences, is an international student from Mexico City. She likes that FYS embraces “uncomfortable” conversations, such as discussions about cultural awareness, microaggressions and learning to have empathy for others, she says.
“What I value most is that FYS embraces these conversations wholeheartedly, creating a space where students can open up, challenge their beliefs and grow into more empathetic individuals.” She says she has appreciated “sharing my experiences and cultural background…in a space where we actively listen to each other and where everyone’s stories and perspectives enrich our understanding, broadening my own cultural awareness while giving me a meaningful platform to share my journey. I hope I leave an impression that encourages others to embrace diversity and engage more thoughtfully with the world around them.”
Nehilah Grand-Pierre, a broadcast and digital journalism major in the Newhouse School, finds the give-and-take between FYS participants and peer leaders invigorating and gratifying.
When FYS participants were offered the opportunity to ask peer leaders any question about any topic, she says one participant asked how to discover one’s self-worth while in college. “I said the best way is to not define your self-worth through other people. I told how studying abroad in London forced me to stop defining myself by the activities and relationships I had on main campus, and instead define myself by my reactions to all the new things I was experiencing. I said what happens to you doesn’t define you, but how you react to those situations does. I recognized that as a senior, I had so much experience to pull from, and I saw how real experiences helped drive discussions.”