I would like to start out by saying I will be forever grateful for my experience as a peer mentor. This experience has taught me valuable lessons about myself and what I want to do. Some prior training I would recommend would be some excel training since most of the paperwork is done through excel. I would give some organizational training beforehand as well. I want to be a counselor in the future and the experience of working with 55 students will come in handy. This experience taught me how to tailor the conversation to each student's needs, regardless of what I had planned prior. This experience initially made me rethink my future goals as a counselor, but towards the end I had one student reach out to me with a heartfelt thanks.
When she reached out to me it felt so good to really help someone get to where they need to be. I really felt the saying "if you help one person, that's all that matters". Towards the beginning, it didn't feel like I was making as big an impact as I could but I eventually found my groove and trusted myself. As a mentor you are always asking "did I give them the wrong information, could I have done better?" At first it is hard to find the answers to those questions, but over time you will find them.