2008 Woodie Awards
Peerless Mentors
Heidi Gitterman
Issue date: 10/17/03 Section: News
COM's peer mentors offer one-on-one support to fellow students
Tucked between the Counseling department and the Transfer Center, diagonally across from Job Placement, the Re-entry office is one of the best resource centers on campus--and the home of COM's peer mentors. Want tips on how to navigate the system? Need help with studying? Feeling overwhelmed? At a time of decreased services and increased fees, COM's peer mentors provide guidance and support to any student who requests it -- and their services are free.
Mentors are students who offer one-on-one support to other students. Unlike traditional school counselors, they have personally used-and mastered-the student resources, and they have faced some of the challenges that you're experiencing now. They are a diverse group of people who want to give back to the COM community.
Theresa Roots is a fulltime business/economics major at COM and the working single mother of four children. She knows what it's like to have to juggle all the balls without dropping one. Roots keeps an active file on every resource available to student parents, and she does this not as a professional, but as a friend--someone who's been there.
Laura Lee graduated from vocational high school in 1975 and taught English in Japan for 15 years. When she came to COM in the summer of 2000, she was not only re-entering school, she was re-entering the United States--but she had never attended college. It was at COM that Laura first discovered her leaning disability--thanks to re-entry counselor Joetta Scot and a peer mentor who encouraged her to get tested through the disabled students program. Now Laura has a 4.0 GPA and helps other learning disabled and re-entering students make successful transitions.
Drew Case works fulltime, nights, as a machinist at the Chevron refinery in Richmond. He is in his senior year at USF, majoring in Art. He's been married for 25 years, loves to run, and is an avid motorcyclist. Even though he has maintained a 3.85 GPA, Case says he wishes he had known about the Re-entry office when he first came to COM, because it would have made things a lot easier. "People carry around things that they shouldn't have to keep dealing with when there are solutions," he said, "and oftentimes you can't find that solution by yourself, so this is where you come to get it."
Tucked between the Counseling department and the Transfer Center, diagonally across from Job Placement, the Re-entry office is one of the best resource centers on campus--and the home of COM's peer mentors. Want tips on how to navigate the system? Need help with studying? Feeling overwhelmed? At a time of decreased services and increased fees, COM's peer mentors provide guidance and support to any student who requests it -- and their services are free.
Mentors are students who offer one-on-one support to other students. Unlike traditional school counselors, they have personally used-and mastered-the student resources, and they have faced some of the challenges that you're experiencing now. They are a diverse group of people who want to give back to the COM community.
Theresa Roots is a fulltime business/economics major at COM and the working single mother of four children. She knows what it's like to have to juggle all the balls without dropping one. Roots keeps an active file on every resource available to student parents, and she does this not as a professional, but as a friend--someone who's been there.
Laura Lee graduated from vocational high school in 1975 and taught English in Japan for 15 years. When she came to COM in the summer of 2000, she was not only re-entering school, she was re-entering the United States--but she had never attended college. It was at COM that Laura first discovered her leaning disability--thanks to re-entry counselor Joetta Scot and a peer mentor who encouraged her to get tested through the disabled students program. Now Laura has a 4.0 GPA and helps other learning disabled and re-entering students make successful transitions.
Drew Case works fulltime, nights, as a machinist at the Chevron refinery in Richmond. He is in his senior year at USF, majoring in Art. He's been married for 25 years, loves to run, and is an avid motorcyclist. Even though he has maintained a 3.85 GPA, Case says he wishes he had known about the Re-entry office when he first came to COM, because it would have made things a lot easier. "People carry around things that they shouldn't have to keep dealing with when there are solutions," he said, "and oftentimes you can't find that solution by yourself, so this is where you come to get it."