Associate Professor Dr. Jill Swiencicki explains that the process of founding a peer program stemmed from the question, “What are we doing to support student writing beyond the first year?” The answer, she found, was to “ask [those strong writers] to come back as mentors, or Peer Colleagues. Come back to the First-Year Programs and help to deepen and enrich what’s happening with drafting and with reading – modeling that great student behavior in the classroom.”

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While pioneered in an English 101 course, the role of the Peer Colleague embodies more than in-class tutoring. As Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Barbara Lowe, describes, “This is more robust than a writing tutor… Peer Colleagues have taken the class themselves, they are embedded in the class, and what they can bring to the class is unique as a peer teacher.” The Peer Colleague, essentially, is a mentor for achieving all of the goals of the First-Year Programs:
 

1. Students will increase their self-awareness via engagement in an important issue(s) and reflection on where they place themselves regarding that issue.
    

2. Students will approach an issue from multiple perspectives.
    

3. Students will be able to mount a convincing argument about an issue, demonstrating the ability to write and think critically.
    

4. Students will increase their information literacy skills.
    

5. Students will learn to work effectively in collaboration with others.
    

The Peer Colleague Program extends the academic support offered to freshman students by integrating the presence of past students into the classroom. The classroom then becomes a “more authentic decentered collaborative learning environment” for transitioning students at all levels of writing. To communicate the program goals, Peer Colleagues leverage their own peer status in an informal environment of student interaction.