Mentors provide help for freshmen

By Aaron Pancharian

For the Daily

For nearly 1,000 freshmen each year, one program at the University offers everything from home cooked meals to career advice.

Since 1991, the University Mentorship Program has connected freshmen with students, faculty and staff to help them find their way during their first year at the University.

This year marks the beginning of the Social Mentoring branch of the program. Director Connie Rose Tingson said this new program focuses on providing opportunities to students who prefer to socialize without alcohol.

"It was an idea for students who were underage and did not want to feel pressure to drink. But we don't do alcohol education, we focus on students getting to know other students," she said.

Tingson said with more than 300 participants in its first year, the new social program has been so popular some interested students were turned away.

LSA freshman Rodney Wittbrodt said he is glad he was chosen because the program "was a way to make this enormous university become smaller."

Now in its 10th year, the Academic Mentoring Program remains popular with students, growing from 300 freshman participants in 1991 to more than 700 this year. This program matches a small group of freshmen with a student mentor and a faculty or staff mentor who shares an academic interest.

"When the program started, it received a lot of support from faculty who wanted to interact with students outside of the classroom. The peer mentors get mentored by a faculty member but also serve as mentors to first-year students. For first-years it helped them navigate their way through campus and find out what they could get involved in. It gave them a big brother or big sister," Tingson said.

LSA junior mentor Lauren Peters said helping freshmen cope with attending an intimidating university was a key reason she became a mentor.

"I had a rough freshman year. It's been important to express that college is not all fun and games. There are times when it is rough, and that's OK. Even in a university this big, there are people who care about you," she said.

Peters said she cooked her freshman buddies dinner for their first meeting and sends them e-mail about various opportunities like jobs and studying abroad. "Its nice to get e-mail now and then to know someone is thinking about you," she said.

LSA junior Shenade Evans also became a mentor to give freshmen a feeling of security. When she was a freshman, the program had other benefits for her. "This has been a huge way for me to meet people," she said.

LSA freshman Kelly Alexander said she agrees. "It's like an instant group of people to meet," she said.

Faculty and staff mentors, a key component of the program, are in short supply, Tingson said, which leaves leaving some students without that experienced member in their groups to offer career and academic advice.

SNRE Prof. Paul Webb, a faculty mentor, said he helps students explore opportunities at the University.

"You need to have a strategy of sampling to find out what you want to do. So that even if you don't know what you want to do, at least you have a plan to find out," Webb said.

LSA junior Allison Zatorski said the University Mentorship Program "has had an amazing effect on me. It has totally shaped my experience here. It opens up so many doors and helps you explore possibilities you thought weren't there."

When Zatorski arrived at the University, her faculty mentor, Director of State Outreach Lew Morrissey, gave her a tour of the studio at Michigan Radio.

"He organized a tour of the radio station and introduced the possibility of an internship there. He told us the right people to talk to. It was something I would have never known about." Zatorski said.

MICHAEL HYNES/Daily

Mentoring program students LSA senior Emily Cloyd (left), freshmen Daniel Kuo and Kati DenBleyker, and mentor Paul Webb (right) and his wife meet at the Cube before going shopping together yesterday.