BTS is a student-run peer education organization whose mission is to spread awareness about gender violence including sexual assault, intimate partner abuse, stalking, and sexual harassment and to prevent gender violence through healthy sexuality education. BTS offers extensive and ongoing training, sessions about gender violence, healthy sexuality, and related topics, and challenges the culture that perpetuates gender violence at Lehigh.
Outcomes: A decrease in incidents of gender based violence, an increase in reporting, an increase in healthy relationships, a decrease in rape culture and myths, and an increase in survior support.
Camp Hawk is Lehigh’s version of summer camp for first-year students after classes have already started. At this two-day retreat, new students will engage in classic camp games and meaningful conversations to build connections and explore what their Lehigh experience is and what it can be. Student leaders, known as Camp Hawk Counselors, are responsible for leading activities and discussion and serve as a resource for students as they navigate their transition.
Outcomes: Develop leadership skills, while enhancing your communication and building teamwork and collaboration. Mentor first-year students and cultivate the incoming Lehigh community.
Contact: Office of the First-Year Experience
The Center for Academic Success provides peer tutoring services in many first and second-year courses and study skills assistance is free of charge to Lehigh University students. It is our goal to help students become successful, independent and self-confident learners. Tutors are required to have received a B+ or better in the course, receive a recommendation from their professor, and participate in the International Tutor Training Program Certification through the College Reading & Learning Association (CRLA).
Outcomes: Assist students with understanding academic content and acquire skills necessary to become successful, independent, and self-confident learners.
Contact: Center for Academic Success
4. Commoncents
Peer Financial Educators help inform their fellow students to make sound financial decisions both as a student and after college. Educators assist students in meeting financial goals like saving for spring break, utilizing a budget to decrease the amount of loans needed, or to just budget for a semester. Our peers meet one-on-one with students, as well as present to groups of students about financial wellness topics.
Outcomes: Peer Financial Educators will be the financial leaders on campus, create relationships with other students, and hone the professional skills utilized when counseling other in financial literacy.
Contact: Danika Clevenstine
5. Gryphons
If you are living in a residence hall on-campus your primary resource is your Gryphon. Gryphons are trained student leaders who support residents by offering mentorship, advice, and coordinate programs within the community. Gryphons are advocates for their peers and work to enhance the residential experience at Lehigh. In addition, they role model and enforce community standards. Gryphons are concerned with the growth and development of each individual resident and are responsible for promoting a welcoming and inclusive environment conducive to respecting the individual rights and responsibilities of all students.
Outcomes: Develop and live out your unique inclusive leadership style. Gain communication skills through facilitating community development and connecting your peers with campus resources. Learn about yourself, what you value, and how your unique style interfaces with others'.
Contact: Office of Residence Life
The GEM program offers an unmatched opportunity for emerging leaders in the fraternity/sorority community to come together, build a network of authentic relationships, and develop tools for effective leadership to create change in & beyond their communities. Together with other members of the GEM Leadership Team, GEM Mentors collaborate during spring training to develop some aspects of the program and in the fall, serve as small group leaders and content facilitators for much of the program.
Outcomes: Inspire, motivate, and coach emerging leaders as they are challenged to consider different perspectives, envision a better fraternal experience for themselves and others, and develop leadership skills to affect group- and community-oriented change. Additionally, Mentors will enhance their own leadership behaviors, and develop the abilities to take a critical perspective regarding change-oriented leadership.
Contact: Office of Student Engagement
Students interested in "all things international" can be mentors to exchange students and/or study abroad mentors. Both mentors participate in a training program that includes group facilitation/leadership skills and intercultural communication. Exchange mentors welcome incoming exchange students to campus and act as a resource to them while they are here.
Outcomes: Students will hone leadership and cross-cultural communication skills, and form long-lasting friendships with people from all over the world.
Contact: Jen Topp
The H.A.W.K.S. student-to-student mentor program pairs interested students with upperclass mentors who have the same major or intended field of study as their mentee. The mentors will serve as aides to the underclassmen students in their selection of their courses, major, and future career path. The goal is to provide a way for students to effectively transition and get help in their coursework and classes. Only in the College of Business and Economics.
Outcomes: Students develop professional skills and learn how to effectively mentor peers.
Contact: Twana Walker
The Iris Mentorship Cohort is a year-long mentorship cohort experience that engages LGBTQ+ and allied undergraduates, graduate students, staff members, and faculty members. Participants are placed in a mentorship "family" that includes a first-year student, an upperclassman, a graduate student, and a faculty/staff member. Families meet throughout the year and the entire cohort gathers for learning experiences three times each semester.
Outcomes: Students will be able to determine the ways their identities and experiences connect with and differ from those of others, evaluate whether the behavior of themselves and their communities is in congruence with their stated commitments, and build collaborative partnerships that foster positive change.
Contact: Chelsea Gilbert
10. Lehigh Connects
Lehigh Connects provides students with flash and long-term mentoring through an established alumni network. Students get access to a community that will help them integrate learning across courses and to engage with big questions that matter beyond the classroom.
Outcomes: Quality community-based mentoring that empowers students to take charge of their career development, enhances their communication skills, and encourages them to envision their future after Lehigh.
Contact: Lori Kennedy
The Mentor Collective supports students in transition to a more academically rigorous, residential university experience by pairing them with trained upper-class students who can help guide them on their path, provide support, link them to resources and offer advice on shared experiences.
Outcomes: Students can master essential professional skills that include time management and networking techniques, public speaking, and developing a growth mindset.
Contact: George White
12. Mentoring First-Year Students
Coming soon to the College of Engineering! Stay tuned...
Orientation Leaders are student role models who serve a vital role in the transition of our first-year and transfer students into the Lehigh community. OLs are dedicated leaders who possess strong communication skills, a desire to be part of team, and pride in Lehigh University. Orientation Leaders work with a small group of first-year students throughout the August Orientation program. This is a great way to get involved, meet new friends and make a difference!
Outcomes: Opportunity to mentor a group of first-year students. A chance to strengthen your communications skills. Participate in multiple teambuilding experiences. Work with numerous leaders on campus. Gain a better understanding of Lehigh University and its organizational structure. Network with various University faculty, staff and administrators.
Contact: Office of the First-Year Experience
14. Peer Scholars
Peer Scholars assist undergraduate students, especially first-year students, navigate academics at Lehigh. They offer informational events throughout the semester, help our first-year faculty advisors bring the incoming class onboard, participate in Admissions events for the college, and are good stewards and representatives of the College of Arts & Sciences. Only in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Outcomes: Students learn from each other and build networks of support while gaining critical leadership and professional skills.
Contact: Jennifer Swann
Peer Health Advisers are trained by Health Advancement & Prevention Strategies staff members and other campus experts on priority student health topics such as alcohol and other drugs, sexual health, and sleep. They have also received training on public health models and theories, facilitation techniques and classroom management, bystander intervention and recognizing signs of alcohol overdose. Peer Health Advisers offer interactive health programs for students on campus and sponsor or participate in health awareness campaigns and events.
Outcomes: Students are knowledgeable about current health priorities, learn effective facilitation techniques, and become an advocate and role model for healthy living on campus.
The Residence Hall Association is a student led organization that works to improve the on campus residential experience via social and educational programming, leadership development, advocacy and sustainability. The Residence Hall Association is comprised of an executive board and thirteen individual Hall Councils (RHCs) that are advised by Head Gryphons. Students in residential buildings are able to run for a position on their RHC (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Advocacy Chair and Sustainability Chair) via an election process in August. All students are welcome to attend RHC/RHA planned events. The Residence Hall Association plans large scale campus wide events including Hall Wars (a yearlong residence hall competition), Late Night Breakfast, Residence Hall Rally, Rock the Quad and more. Additionally, the Residence Hall Association partners with campus clubs and organizations via financial sponsorship, support and more.
Outcomes: Engage in your residence hall community via programming, leadership and advocacy to build connections and strengthen the overall Lehigh residential experience.
Contact: RHA Advisor: Sarah Thompson, RHA President: Katie Teitelbaum
The SPEAK peer educators aim to create a more educated and inclusive Lehigh in regards to LGBT+ identities and experiences by implementing workshops and trainings for first-year students and the larger Lehigh community. SPEAK members work to build their own facilitation and public speaking skills, striving to be comfortable identifying their own strengths and weaknesses.
Outcomes: Students will be able to discuss the importance of active allyship, evaluate whether the behavior of themselves and their communities is in congruence with their stated commitments, create opportunities to prioritize the tenets of active allyship in their daily lives, and develop strategies to dismantle systems of power and privilege.
Contact: Chelsea Gilbert
The Teacher Development Series is a free, six-part series designed specifically for graduate students to develop teaching and classroom skills. The Series are held each Fall and Spring semester.
The Grad Life Office and the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning partner to offer a series of workshops in our Teacher Development Program for Graduate Students. These free, non-credit workshops are open to all Lehigh graduate students. Students who attend five of the six sessions over the semester will receive a Level I Certificate of Participation and letters of commendation to their department chair and adviser. Once a level I certificate is earned and you have successfully completed 1 Fall and 1 Spring T.D. series, a Level II Certificate of Participation is earned. Noting your additional efforts, a Certificate of Participation, Level II is earned and a second letter is sent to your department chair and adviser.
Outcomes: Graduate students improve their instructional and classroom skills.
Contact: Graduate Student Life Office
19. TRAC Fellows
The TRAC Writing Fellows are talented student writers who are selected to work as peer tutors in courses across the disciplines. Trained in a rigorous 4-credit seminar course, the fellows assist students with all phases of the writing process, consult with faculty on assignment design, and help with library and database research and the use of educational technologies.
Outcomes: Promotes a campus-wide culture where writing and communication are central to learning. Communication and inquiry are vitally linked, restraints on learning imposed by traditional disciplinary boundaries are eased, and students and faculty are all part of one vibrant intellectual community.
Contact: Greg Skutches