Peer Mentoring Thank You Event 2018
Peer mentors from across the University gathered at the Lindisfarne Room on Monday 26 November 2018 to celebrate another successful year of the peer mentoring scheme.
Peer Mentors and Staff Coordinators were invited to this celebration as a thank you from the University following another excellent start to the academic year with new students being supported and encouraged as they started their journey on their chosen programme of study and made the transition into Higher Education. These students (the mentees) were invited to provide their opinion of the scheme and to share the many benefits they had experienced as a result of having a peer mentor:
“Explained clearly what it was like from a student perspective and what I should expect to know and learn and how to do so.”
“Gave tips about the city and told us what we would be expecting in the next semester.”
“Helping understand the course and university experience.”
“Providing support and giving good tips for the course/uni life.”
“I made friends through my mentor group.”
“It was nice to have another student you could speak to about your concerns before arriving in Newcastle, and helped put my mind at rest.”
“I asked for advice on which optional module to pick and she gave me a very helpful honest answer which really helped make my decision.”
187 Peer Mentors and 11 staff coordinators enjoyed drinks, food and an assortment of Christmas tunes as awards were given out for the best mentor from each Faculty and for the best Staff Coordinator across the University.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, Professor Suzanne Cholerton introduced the thank you event and was joined by Dr Sara Marsham (SAgE), Professor Jane Calvert (FMS) and Dr Ruth Graham (HaSS) in awarding the Peer Mentor of the Year awards.
Student mentors were nominated by the students they were mentoring and comments made were displayed on the overhead presentation screen which included:
“…..showed us that they want to help us and is giving a lot of support for module(s) that we are struggling in.”
“The peer mentoring scheme has proven to be very useful for transitioning to student life, however I feel like our mentor has gone above and beyond the expectations and has sacrificed a large amount of their time in order to ensure that the group was able to adapt and adjust to university life.”
“Actively offering to give up their time in order to help and promoting a professional level of communication.”
“…been extremely informative and helpful in how to write essays and lab reports. Every time they are needed, they respond with speed and efficiency and doesn’t shy away from meeting up if needed.”
“….clearly the most helpful person I met here. They made our little “mentor family” very close to each other and they really cared for us to feel like we have a support not only in them but also in other “family” members.”
“For being kind hearted, who is able to bring people together.”
The winners were:
James Ternent from Mechanical Engineering (SAgE)
Amran Thandi from the School of Pharmacy (FMS)
and Farzeen Somji from Media (HaSS).
The Coordinator of the Year was Patrick Rosenkranz from the School of Psychology. The nominees for this award also included: Alison Howard from Biomedical Sciences; David Platt from Newcastle University Business School; Jeremy Brown from Biomedical Sciences; Jennifer Warrender from Computing; Matej Blazek from Geography; Shane McCorristine from History/History and Politics ; and Ruth Furlonger from Combined Honours.
Shortlisted mentors from the Faculty of Medical Sciences included: Alice Rolph (Medicine), Anshuman Gunput (Medicine), Beth Easter (Biomedical Sciences), Brogan Butler (Medicine), Dan Jobson (Biomedical Sciences), Danielle McKenna (Psychology), Dom Weller (Medicine), Hannah Murphy (Psychology), Husayn Malek (Medicine), James Prowse (Medicine), Nketia Obed-Arthur (Pharmacy) and Sunny Sudera (Dental Sciences).
Shortlisted mentors from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences included: Eleanor Dobbs (SELLLs), Ellie Short (Sociology), Grace Dean (Modern Languages), Holly Mawdsley (SELLLs), Jennie Bryans (Geography), Jess Knaggs (Geography) and Rachel Butcher (Combined Honours).
Photograph: Grace Dean (Modern Languages), Jess Knaggs (Geography) and Ellie Short (Sociology)
Shortlisted mentors from the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering included: Deyan Jimenez (Computing), Emil Delvaux (Computing), Frazer Briggs (Computing), Quoc Anh Vuong (Computing), Sarah Griffin (Biology/Zoology) and Will O’Donnell (Mechanical Engineering).
All shortlisted mentors received a certificate in recognition of their nomination.
The celebrations aimed to thank all students and staff for the time and effort they put into making the scheme such a success.
Well done everyone!
If you would like to get involved in Peer Mentoring at Newcastle, or you would like to find out more email us at peer.mentoring@ncl.ac.uk.