A new program recently was established to help first-year students find their niche at the University through the aid of a mentor.
Adopt a First Year, a mentoring program started by second-year College student Elizabeth Tran, connects first years with upperclassmen who have matching academic, extracurricular and other personal interests.
While mentoring programs in previous years have focused more on minority students, the program is the first attempt to broaden mentoring opportunities to the entire first-year class. The program encourages first years and their mentors to spend time fostering their relationship by participating in bi-monthly activities held by members of the Adopt a First Year board.
Tran said the program differs from other mentoring programs at the University in that it is less focused on specific ethnic groups. The program will administer extensive surveys to its applicants and make a match based on common interests, academics, extracurricular activities and personal lifestyles. Tran said she hopes this system of matching mentors with students will increase diversity within the incoming student body.
Tran served as a mentor to first-year College student Justine Fritz. Tran said because both she and Fritz thought a mentoring program could benefit all first years, they started the program in an effort to increase the strength of the student body at the University.
"It's not a sense of a normal club where you have weekly meetings and you get together as an entire organization," Tran said. "It will focus more on the mentor and the first year, and the organization will serve as a resource for driving them."
The Adopt a First Year program will provide various resources to mentors, such as a calendar of events, and will require mentors to fulfill a checklist of activities that go beyond academics.
Tran said she hopes the mentors will give their first years special tips about the University such as which professors are better than others, where the best place to study on Grounds is and which restaurants on the Corner one should stay away from.
Residence Staff co-Chair Tommy Rumley said the program will bring many benefits to first-year students.
"It will allow first years to interact with a person who has gone through the same transition that they have gone through," Rumley said.
Tran said another goal of the program is to have first years come back and be mentors for future incoming first years.
"We want to stress that it's more of a personal relationship and not where one has a hierarchy like an RA has to a resident," she said.
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