Student News

Bachelor/MHS Peer Mentoring Program in its Second Year

L to R: Dylan Goldberg, Matthew Li, Juliana Wu, Jessica Brandt,   Cecelia Higgs, and Brentan Williams

Undergraduates from the Public Health Studies major at Homewood receive early admission to the MHS program, take classes at the Bloomberg School of Public Health (SPH), and gain access to SPH faculty advisors.  Following completion of the BA at Homewood, students enroll as full-time Master’s students at Bloomberg with the advantage of a full year of experience taking graduate level public health courses. This allows students to complete some program requirements and elective courses as undergraduates, allowing time to explore other topics that would otherwise not fit within the one year confines of the MHS program.

While the advantages of the BA/MHS program are significant, many of these benefits are realized as Master’s students, not as undergraduates. Taking graduate level classes and navigating in graduate school, while working to finish senior year at Homewood can be a daunting and challenging experience. Last year the Peer Mentor program was created to help undergraduate students navigate Bloomberg, get the most out of their classes, and really engage in the academic and student community at the graduate level.  This program pairs a BA/MHS student, currently a senior at Homewood, with an MHS student who was part of the BA/MHS program the previous year.  The mentor’s role is different from that of the student’s advisor because they provide support from the perspective of a student who has been through the same program and been in the same situation. The mentor is there to answer any questions not related to the academics or logistics of the program or to simply offer advice and opinions on how to get the most out of the program and their time at Bloomberg.

Last year, the inaugural year for the Peer Mentor program, served as a “pilot” year for the program. This year, six students in the MHS program volunteered to be peer mentors: Jessica Brandt, Dylan Goldberg, Cecelia Higgs, Mathew Li, Brenten Williams, and Juliana Wu. 

These students have been very enthusiastic about the program and, in addition to their positive influence with undergraduate students, they have served as a valuable sounding board for faculty and program administrators. Their perspective is unique and they have provided help ranging from comments and critiques of Program documents to logistical considerations for event planning during meetings with faculty and program administrators. They have also hosted two dinner meetings at Homewood as structured opportunities for BA/MHS students to bring questions and comments and also just to socialize and get to know each other better. The mentors will continue to meet throughout the second-half of the academic year with both current BA/MHS students and faculty to improve and expand their role in facilitating student transition from undergraduate to graduate school. They will also to help recruit new BA/MHS students this spring.

-Tom Klassen, MHS

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