Melissa ZEHNDER and Duane ONG
Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT)
melissa.zehnder@singaporetech.edu.sg, duane.ong@singaporetech.edu.sg
Zehnder, M., & Ong, D. (2024). Powering peer support [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2024, 3 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecs/hecs2024-mzehnder-dong/
SUB-THEME
Opportunities from Wellbeing
KEYWORDS
Opportunities from Wellbeing, student peer support, wellbeing, student wellbeing, mental health, student engagement
CATEGORY
Lightning Talk
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Students in university experience significant stress, they have to navigate and adapt to new environments and adopt new behaviours. At the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), we aim to provide holistic and extensive student care and support. To this end, a Student Development and Care Strategy has been established to ensure a safe, vibrant and supportive campus community. This framework encompasses aspects of student development, integration, care and recreation, to boost their learning journey beyond academic rigour. Throughout each academic year, there is continuous student engagement and support. This creates a common campus vocabulary on good mental health habits and normalises help-seeking behaviours. Often, this is accomplished by harnessing the power of peer-to-peer support.
In 2022, SIT embarked on a peer-to-peer emotional support programme. Potential supporters were interviewed for the programme, before they embarked on specially curated training with five core modules. To help drive ground-up initiatives, a student executive committee was installed. As a group, these peer supporters engage the student community to promote available support (theirs included) and resources for good mental health. Some challenges faced include lack of student awareness of the presence of peer support and their willingness and knowledge of how to connect with a peer supporter, as well as understanding the benefits of peer support.
The next phase of the peer support service has begun, where the student peer supporters should be gainfully engaged and students seeking the support report reaping benefits.
Feedback from other stakeholders such as SIT faculty will also be consolidated. The presentation will share a summary of the Student Development and Care Strategy, objectives of the SIT peer support programme, challenges faced and ideas to navigate these challenges, success stories, as well as ideas for the future. If possible, the presentation will have both SIT staff and student peer supporters sharing their peer support experiences.