I knew I wanted to get more involved on campus and began looking at available opportunities. I looked back at classes I had taken and remembered where I was successful, mostly due to the aid of my peers, and one peer, in particular, has stuck with me. I will always remember the impact she made in my life as a student. I admired her will to encourage us to do our best, believing in us when we didn’t necessarily believe in our abilities to succeed in the course, and always being open to answering questions and holding amazing reviews of content before our exams. She, a fellow student, was someone I knew I could reach out to without feeling shame or discomfort. I primarily relate my success in the course to her help as my LA. I am grateful for her motivation to keep going and believe in my abilities.
From this, I knew that I wanted to be that person for someone else when they joined the university. I wanted to provide them with that same mentorship and motivation to never give up and support them to do their best. Being an LA has provided me with that opportunity and much more. I have been able to reconnect with past material while learning a bit more. I’ve been able to reconnect with previous professors I’ve admired and receive their mentorship while building lasting relationships. It has also allowed me to challenge myself in various ways; first, with the material by having to re-understand concepts in the different ways that others understand them, but also logistically by giving me the responsibility to improve on managing my time and communication skills. I’ve been able to find those few students who seemed shy or uncomfortable and help them feel welcomed while providing them an avenue to reach out and ask questions, even if they didn’t want to at first.
The opportunity to inspire other students to believe in themselves and know they can succeed in STEM has been an amazingly rewarding and enriching experience in my undergraduate years. I am incredibly thankful for participating in the LA program. It has helped open my eyes to the many ways I can positively impact campus. I hope it can continue to foster these student-led communities so my peers can do the same. I am beginning to love our school more and more because of programs like these that focus on student success and well-being.