Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention

Training Peer Educators

A Practical Guide to Preparing Student Leaders

Amber R. Dickinson

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jcotr.v22i2.2891

Keywords: Peer educators, transition, first-year, experience, training

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Abstract

Peer educators have become increasingly common on college campuses across America. Peer educator programs have primarily been created to help incoming students transition from high school to college by connecting incoming students to knowledgeable, helpful, and experienced peers. During my time as the first year experience coordinator at a public institution in the Midwest, I was primarily responsible for preparing a group of students to serve as peer educators. One of the highlights of my duties in this position was to create a training program specifically designed to prepare students to serve as peer educators in classrooms across campus. In this paper, the approach to the training program I developed will be outlined, and some of the materials used in training will be made available. Support for the training program is provided through feedback from student evaluations of the training. Existing literature regarding peer educators is somewhat limited and focuses primarily on the benefits of using students in the classroom and the importance of training these individuals. Most of the literature does not specifically address how to train students to successfully navigate their role as peer educators. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in peer educator literature by offering practical guidelines for use in peer educator training programs and to offer suggestions for training improvements based on the information gathered from the program I was responsible for.