If I’m being honest here, I probably have the best job on my campus. It’s not that I have the easiest job that my campus offers, or that it pays a lot. It's also not just the fact that I love what I do, although that certainly helps. It's the fact that my job has been able to help me grow as a person and meet great, new people.
Now you might be wondering what it is that I do. I'm a Peer Mentor for something called the BELL (Bridge to Earning, Learning, and Living) program on my campus. At first glance, my responsibilities seem fairly simple: I need to provide a minimum of three social hours to a student with an intellectual/developmental disability. Because these students are not considered to be traditional Roberts Wesleyan students, and are often stuck in their own classrooms, it is my job to introduce them to the general college community, and allow them to experience everything that our school has to offer.
Often with the students I mentor, we'll attend chapel together, go to lunch, walk the track, or just sit around playing cards. Sometimes, I also help them plan to attend events that happen after they go home for the day, such as recitals and concerts. I've even been able to take on a larger role as a Peer Mentor and volunteered to run a club that helps students in the BELL program take a more active role in campus, as well as meet new people.
That all sounds pretty awesome, but perhaps my favorite thing about being a Peer Mentor is the relationships that I have built through this program. I remember being extraordinarily nervous on my first day two years ago. I worried that the student I was working with was going to hate me. Even worse, I was afraid that she wasn't going to say anything to me.
What I found that day was the complete opposite: we met each other, and she started to talk, and never stopped. We were able to spend the whole year working together and getting to know each other, usually over lunch in the now extinct B.T.'s Grill. Even though she was part of the Class of 2015, we still occasionally talk, and I still support her and encourage her with what she wants to do with her life.
Since my first student, I've been a Peer Mentor to five others, each of them incredibly unique, talented individuals. I've been able to work with budding artists, a student with a strong voice for activism, a future funeral director, a soon-to-be security guard, and an organist who's just starting to spread his wings. While I was helping these students to become successful, they were also helping me to grow as a person. They opened my eyes to different things happening around campus by inviting me to attend with them. I've been able to master the art of small talk on days when conversation seems to be the last thing happening. I gained a greater appreciation for art and learned how best to speak up for causes I believe in, as well as better practice techniques and a new love for the practice room. I even learned that there's actually a rather intense process to become a funeral director.
Now that I'm getting ready to graduate in just a few short months, I find myself feeling immensely saddened at the prospect of having to leave my job with BELL. These students aren't just students that I work with, they've become some of my best friends, and I can't imagine going on to a job where I won't be met with their beautiful faces everyday.
