Peer2Peer Support at MC

“Adjusting to college life is hard, as is maintaining social and academic success throughout your time at Montgomery College. This semester we’re introducing something new, Peer Support Groups.” 

Last week, I stumbled upon an event on the MC calendar, and the aforementioned content resonated with me. As a first-generation college student, the purpose of having a peer support group played a key role in my undergraduate career. So, I got the chance to interview Maria Silva, a second-year student studying Economics at the Germantown campus. 

Q: What is the Peer2Peer Group and how does it work? 

A: We are a group of three peer advocates, meeting three times a week to make students aware of their options and the resources that MC has to offer.  So I’m part of the peer advocates this semester. And so it’s um, a fresh group of students who want to support new students and as well as students who want to talk about any type of issues or experiences at MC. So, we can help them figure out resources and talk about our experiences with them. We are like a really close group, supportive of each other. And we were always in contact with the mentors and the career navigators. 

Q: And what are some of your upcoming discussion topics?

A: So, this week is about stress management. So we are trying to talk about ways that can help you deal with stress during academia, how to prepare for exams, fill out transfer forms etc…

Next week we’re going to be talking about academic planning and the following week is going to be campus involvement. 

Q: How can students get involved as a Peer mentor? 

A: Yes, it’s a paid position. You apply through the MC website, and it has some requirements that you have met, and after that, they call you for an interview. 

Q: Is there anything else you would want people to know?

A: We just want to invite as many students who want to talk about their experience, especially new students. Because sometimes when you’re new you don’t know where to go, where to find the right resources. And I think MC has a lot of opportunities that sometimes we don’t know until we get right on the track of transferring about and rushing to find out about more scholarships. There are resources that we have in hand here and we don’t know. So I think our group [Peer2peer] discussions talk about that a lot and we’re trying to help students to have their best experience at MC.