PeerForward thrives because of our immense community of volunteers. Because of their talents, PeerForward can offer students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to meet professionals from exciting and interesting career pathways.
This Fall and Spring, PeerForward welcomed volunteers from Amtrak, Deloitte, and Rap Snacks to our Training Camps. An esteemed group of volunteers from Deloitte sat down to vocalize exactly why providing mentorship to Peer Leaders is an impactful experience.
Ahmiyah Mosely, a Human Capital Consultant for Deloitte, found that giving advice to Peer Leaders fulfilled a need from her days in high school. “Where I come from, we didn’t have the opportunity of someone showing us what the next step looks like,” she explained. “It feels good to be able to give some type of advice that I wish I had someone to give to me.”
Advice about postsecondary paths isn’t always about college. Birizibe Gnassingbe, a GPS Analyst at Deloitte provided insight to Peer Leaders about what employers really look for. “The [college] degree is going to get you in the door, but certifications are what speak for you within your field of study that you’re looking into.”
Representing futures that Peer Leaders can look forward to is a highlight of the experience for volunteers. Many Peer Leaders will be the first to attend college in their family, which means that guidance about what to expect from the experience can be hard to come by. For Lawrence Bullock, a Deloitte Analyst, the fear of the unfamiliar was all too relatable, but so was the encouragement to move forward, “it felt good to kind of ease those fears a little bit by giving them perspective of I was there too, and you will get through this.”
Representation matters, for students seeing mentors and career professionals who share your background can be a form of motivation with immeasurable benefits. That’s why volunteers like Senior Consultant, Mike Miles show up, “Just the simple act of showing up and letting them see, okay, there’s somebody that looks like me that has made it through, I don’t need to know anything else about them, but the simple fact that they exist, I can do that too,” he shared.
For Peer Leaders, training camps are about more than coming together; it’s a time to plan and put their mission as Peer Leaders into change into action. For our volunteers, the sight of Peer Leaders working together on such impactful campaigns can be eye-opening. “Working with them, I was able to see how their ideas were really free-flowing and detailed,” Lawrence noted. After spending time with a Peer Leader team, he could better understand how PeerForward prepares students for college, “Taking that initiative, being able to speak up and lead, I think those are some important characteristics to gain before going to college. You’re ready to go join something, meet new people, experience new things, find what you’re passionate about, and be able to transfer that passion into your major.”
Will Jones, a GPS Senior Consultant agreed, affirming “Taking control of the conversation, applying structure to it, developing a plan, communicating that plan afterward, I think those things are absolutely critical.” He felt uplifted by the campaign-building skills he knew Peer Leaders would carry into their careers, “feeling comfortable and confident doing that, translating [your plan] when you’re in a space where you’re the only person that looks like you… that can be difficult. So, seeing the confidence that some of the students were displaying in there was really encouraging to see.”
For volunteers, training camps can be an opportunity to pass on valuable information about their collegiate journey. Ahmiyah is an HBCU alumna and didn’t miss the chance to advocate for a cultural campus experience, “I learned about HBCUs from watching Drumline. I was just like, whatever type of school that is, that’s exactly where I want to go.” She knows first-hand that HBCUs offer more than a high-quality education, “being afforded the opportunity to be able to go in an HBCU in an environment where I know I can be safe, I will be heard, I will be included and cared for and nurtured for by my university and my professors. That was important to me and I want to be able to share that with the students as well.”
When volunteers share space with Peer Leaders, something incredible happens. The energy of learning from each other renews the motivation of Peer Leaders and reinvigorates the sense of purpose for our volunteers. In the final moments of their interview, volunteers were asked what piece of advice they would leave with their PeerForward team. Their answers emphasized the remarkable spirit of PeerForward volunteers.
Stick with it. There may be times when things get hard, where you may get discouraged, where you’re not sure if you’re cut out for it or if you’re in the right place – if there’s a plan and you believe in the plan, stick with it. Show up. It’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint.
Will Jones
I would say be intentional with who you are. I think that the four years that you have in college could be, they’re definitely life changing. So make sure that whatever you’re doing, you’re becoming exactly who you envision yourself being for the future.
Birizibe Nsengai
Find what you’re passionate about and try to envision where you want to be later on in life. Work towards being that person while you’re still in high school, while you go to college or whatever you may do after high school. Just show up every day, execute the plan and things will fall into place.
Lawrence Bullock
I learned as I got older is you have to experience life for yourself. You can’t let anybody else’s experience dictate what your next move is going to be.
Ahmiyah Mosely
You can always do a little bit more of the things that are going to take you to your goals and where you want to be in life.
Mike Miles
Thank you to our partners at Deloitte and their dedicated volunteers!