The PoliSci Pod: What Do Peer Advisors Do?

In episode of the PoliSci Pod, Peer Advisors Emma and Melat discuss their responsibilities as peer advisors and how the role has prepared them for their future.

The PoliSci Pod is a podcast created, hosted, and edited by our political science peer advisors. Tune into episodes for peer advisors' advice & helpful hints, department news & event information, and more! Join us to stay connected and informed on all things political science.

Listen to this episode, "What Do Peer Advisors Do?" below or tune in on our YouTube channel.

Transcript

Emma: Hi and welcome back to the PoliSci Pod! My name is Emma.
Melat: And I'm Melat.
Emma: And this week we are going to be talking about what we do as peer advisors, our daily tasks, and some skills we have built in this job for our future careers. Um, we're going to be doing this in a Q&A style, um, to learn more about what we do on the daily. So my first question will be for Melat. And it is, what do you do on a daily basis as a peer advisor?
Melat: Okay, so as a peer advisor, we mainly do major dec sessions and we hold uh appointments. So during our major decs, we usually have students come in, typically like two students, and they will um come and just like want to declare the major and we just give them information about the department, the major, and other special things like scholarships, research projects that are available within polisci. And after the end of the major dec, we will go ahead and fill out a major declaration form for them and then declare them into the major. Um and we also do online declarations. So that means like students will go through a self-paced module, which will go through basically the same thing we do during the appointment and we- at the end they will submit to be declared, and we will process that for them. During appointments, students will come with various questions regarding, like, course planning, or anything related to study abroad, research, really any question that they might have for the department, they will come to us and we will just do our best to answer that question for them and just help them out with their plans. Um, but yeah, that's mainly one of the big portion of what we do. But we also do some other special things, like projects of- and event planning. So if- Emma, you would like to elaborate?
Emma: For sure! Another kind of, like, area that we do in polisci advising is, we plan events for studetns. So events like, at the end of the semester we do a senior celebration for all of our graduating seniors so we plan that. Um we also plan an event in the beginning of the semester called Cake, Candy, and Conversation, which is more so tailored to incoming freshmen and newer students interested in polisci, things like that. In the past we've also planned a like small political science career fair. So those projects typically take up a lot of the semester just because we have to plan across multiple departments within our department, um communicate with people outside of the university, figure out day-of logistics, and very detailed logistics of planning an event. Um, so that's one of the things that we do. Some of the other like bigger projects that we come up with are sometimes projects to like make advising easier for studetns. So in the past we've um created things like, we've created new webpages for our website to make sure there was more information about the capstone. We found that a lot of students were asking us what the capstone was, so we created a new webpage. Um we also created projects like this podcast. Um and then we have also created like social media campaigns like our Student Spotlights, things like that. So there is a lot of flexibility with this job. Um if you have an idea, our supervisors are really open to us proposing new ideas and letting them- letting us run with them. And that kind of goes into another big part of this job, which is that you get to um kind of make your own schedule and work independently. So you can make your schedule for student appointments and major declaration sessions, like Melat talked about. But then you also have flexibility to make your schedule for the week on what you're going to work on. So if there is a new project in the works or you have some event planning to do, um you're really- it's really up to you to really make sure that you're getting in like deadlines on time, keeping up with projects. So that's been really helpful to- as- for like a career like development kind of tool. Um, Melat, are there anything, like any other skills that you think you've developed in this role?
Melat: Um in terms of skills, I think one of the main ones we uh develop is public speaking. Uh we do that through like class visits that we do like once a semester typically, or twice a semester, uh where we will go visit like an intro level polisci class and give them a spiel, kind of like we're giving you right now, but um like a shorter version, and just talk about like what our advising office does. Um and I think that has really helped me, personally, with like being better at public speaking, especially in front of like a big crowd um that I'm very unfamiliar with. But um yeah. So that's like one of the biggest skills that I feel like I've developed. And then um, I would also say just like, interpersonal skills, too. Just meeting with students and like listening to students and like being a problem solver and helping them 'cause sometimes problems arise, like issues, that I might not like know much about, but I have also been able to use my resources and figure out a way to solve this for the student, so that is a really big one, as well. Um but yeah, like email etiquette, too, is a big one, like we email a lot in this job. Um, we email students, we email like other faculty members, we email each other. Like we email so much in this role, so just learning how to write a good and effective email, just making sure that your email is both personable and also just like right to the point has been very like- a good skill to possess 'cause you will see that coming up in other roles, too, especially if you decide to go into like government jobs or like any type of office jobs in the future, like that is something that you will need. But um yeah. Do you have anything more to add?
Emma: Yeah, I would say kind of along the same lines as forming good email etiquette, is also good office etiquette. Um when I've been interviewing for other positions outside of this job, a big thing they always look for is office etiquette. So like learning how to communicate with office administration or just other departments within your department is really big, learning how to mass email people. Also, just like learning how to use like the printer, or a few weeks ago I had to learn how to scan a document on a printer. So things like that have been really big. Um learning how to make like your own schedule and like share that with people. Um like kind of full transparency and communication between a lot of people is a really big thing. And I would say, just kind of another like skill that I've been able to develop in this job is leadership skills. So whether that's in like leading students, advising them, um kind of being a leader quote un quote for students, but also being able to develop different projects, like this podcast for- for example, um and being able to to be- take like the lead on a project and the be- being able to divide up jobs to other people has been a really big skill that I have learned in this job, as well. Um. And then my next question for Melat would be, what have you liked so far about this job on a personal note?
Melat: Yeah, so one of the biggest things I have liked about this job is obviously the people. Getting to work like or- with my co-worker Emma, um she's the only one, but um it's just been great, like working one-on-one with another student, just like brainstorming ideas. And also just, you know, getting support from your co-workers has been really well- good. And then another thing I would say is like the support that we have from our supervisors, like both of our supervisors are very sweet people and they will help you through anything, whether it's the task that you need to be performing or like you have an idea that you want to implement for this office, like don't be shy, like tell them. They are big support and they will help you out and just like show you ways on how you can um get your project going, and I think that's been one of the biggest benefits for me. And then outside of that, like how flexible this job is. Like it fits into my class schedule and that's- it makes it less stressful. Like I don't have to go through a day of classes and then afterwards work at night or evenings. Instead, it's built into my work - or my school schedule. So I can go to class, if I have a gap I can come here work. So like that also flexibility has been a really great plus for me, personally, but yeah. Um, are there other things that you would like to add?
Emma: Yeah, I would also say I have liked the flexibility, um. Our supervisor, Josie, really emphas- emphasizes that you're students first, like you're a student-worker, obviously. Really flexible with class schedules. If you, I know we both have like had opportunities outside of this and we're both- we've both been in student groups, so there's a lot of flexibility with that. Um I would say also, one thing that I've really liked about this job is that um our supervisor really emphasizes professional development. So um she's encouraged us both to to like CLA Career Services during our shifts, like if we need to. Um also just like um in like focusing on our strengths and also things that we want to improve on and giving us tasks to do so. So there is a lot of room for professional development in this role. But yeah that's all I have. Is there anything else you would like to add, Melat?
Melat: Mhm.
Emma: So that's a little bit about us peer advisors: our role, things we do. And if you're ever interested in becoming a peer advisor, keep an eye out on our website, or our social media, or your emails. But anyways, thank you for listening and we will talk to you on the next episode.
Melat: Bye-bye.