Q&A With Past SPSP Peer Advisors

The SPSP Student Committee's Peer Advisor Program is back this year and currently recruiting volunteer peer advisors (learn more). In this article, we're highlighting the experiences of five past peer advisors. The program matches fourth-year undergraduates, first-, second, and third-year graduate students with peer advisors (i.e., graduate students who are in their third year or above of their graduate career). By facilitating new partnerships between early career students and more advanced graduate students, the Peer Advising Program seeks to promote professional development, service, and skills to navigate grad school.

Last week, I caught up with five peer advisors who served on the program last year to learn more about their experiences and insights on the program: Naomi Isenberg, Matthew Leitao, Slava Prokhorets, Alannah Shelby Rivers, and Jessica Utley. Read on to learn more about their current work and their thoughts on mentorship!

Why did you sign up for the peer mentoring program as a peer advisor last year?

Naomi Isenberg: Since I was a first-generation college student, there was a lot I had to learn on my own in terms of how to advance to a PhD program. I wanted to help those who might be in a similar situation and share the knowledge that I've gained.

Matthew Leitao: I believed my experience would be helpful to undergrads, especially ones who come from a non-traditional background.

Slava Prokhorets: I love building relationships and helping others build skills that will help them be more successful in their endeavors. I know everyone may not have an opportunity to have a mentor that knows about their field/graduate school, and I wanted to fulfill that role. I also thought it would be cool to connect with someone whom I would have never otherwise had an opportunity to meet, get to know, and mentor. 

Alannah Shelby Rivers: I had actually been a peer advisor since 2019, and found it a consistently rewarding experience. It's always good to have a chance and share experience and knowledge, and it has also made me a better mentor outside of the program.

Jessica Utley: First year was rough on me, and I would have benefitted from a senior student sharing their experiences with me. I wanted to be able to share what I've learned (mostly survival skills!).

What was your favorite/most fruitful part of your mentoring experience?

Naomi: I attended the SPSP Convention in person and my mentee attended virtually. We had a Zoom meeting at the convention and were able to talk about the things we were seeing and any interesting talks we attended. I also enjoyed talking with them about grad school applications and how to network.

Matthew: Being able to provide resources and set up a meeting with another researcher to talk about possible avenues for graduate school.

Slava: Making a tangible difference (e.g., giving feedback/advice on CV, Statement of Purpose, etc.).  While correlation does not mean causation, I think my advice was helpful and I was super excited when my mentee told me that they got into their graduate program of choice.

Alannah: Because I did the program for a few years, I really enjoyed just getting to know peer advisees and the various goals they had from the program. It's also great to hear what everyone is working on, since this is a good opportunity to interface with grad students with different research interests.

Jessica: My mentee has had a completely different life experience from me, but we share so many common interests! We've become friends during this experience and I so look forward to touching base with her each week.

In your opinion, how can mentors make the most of the mentoring relationship?

Naomi: I think mentors can make the most of the mentoring relationship by reminding themselves of how overwhelmed they were when they were in their mentee's shoes and expressing this to their mentee. Navigating the conference, networking, and grad school preparations/applications can be a lot to handle and there might be a lot the mentee is not prepared for. Thus, normalizing how stressful yet exciting these experiences can be might make the relationship stronger as the mentor will seem more relatable. The mentee can be reassured that what they are doing is all worth it in the end, too!

Matthew: I think mentors are great hubs of information that mentees may not have access to yet. I see mentoring as a way to connect a mentee with the greater research community as a whole and show them a broader vision of what the field of Psychology can be.

Slava: Get to know your mentee a little bit on a personal level. It's important to be respectful of boundaries and the things that people may not want to share, but I think going beyond just the "this is my advice, do you have any questions for me" goes a long way.  In my experience, this shows your mentee that you care about them and builds rapport, which makes them more comfortable with asking you questions, for advice, reaching out to you, etc.

Alannah: Honestly, I think just being open to whatever the mentee wants and needs out of the relationship. Particularly if you haven't had a chance to be on the other side of this mentoring relationship yet, it can be an overwhelming feeling—what if I don't have the knowledge to help them? What do they want from me? It's like teaching a class for the first time—you just have to be honest about limits to your knowledge and experience, do what you can, and connect to any other resources you have available. And honestly, I've had peer advisees and mentees from other programs who I likely wasn't able to help in the ways they needed most. But I hope that process was still helpful for them in figuring out what they do need from a peer mentorship experience, and it was definitely helpful for me in figuring out my mentorship style, strengths, and weaknesses.

Jessica: Make the time for it, but also take time to learn who they are as a person—outside of their identity as a student.

Is there anything else you'd like to add about your experience as a mentor?

Matthew: It was nice being able to mentor students and talk to them about their dreams and their future.

Jessica: This experience ended up being so different from what I expected, but I absolutely encourage other senior students to volunteer.

Naomi Isenberg is a 5th-year doctoral student at University of Wisconsin-Madison, who examines different mechanisms of promoting inclusive behavior change. Naomi has a 3-year-old dachshund named Goguma, which is Korean for sweet potato.

Matthew Leitao is a 4th-year doctoral student at Georgetown University, whose area of interest includes technology and well-being. Matthew loves to do origami.

Slava Prokhorets is a 5th-year doctoral student at Kansas State University, studying racial dog whistles in politics and perception of aggression against women. Originally from Belarus, Slava came to the U.S. at age 7. Despite having a pretty common Russian name, Slava has the dubious pleasure of getting her name disproportionately misspelled on coffee cups.

Alannah Shelby Rivers is currently an Assistant Professor at Texas Women's University (formerly Baylor & Drexel Universities). She served as a peer advisor as a graduate student and postdoc.  Her research interests lie at the intersection of relationships (close and formal) with health. These days, she getting into cheesemaking.

Jessica Utley is a 4th-year doctoral student at Mississippi State University, and studies intergroup relations, aggression, and bullying. Fun fact: Jessica fronted a goth rock band in high school, and currently describes herself as the "world's okayest mom".

Keep an eye out for the upcoming Free-Form Friday featuring mentors and mentees from previous years, and for peer advisee sign-ups next month!