For nearly two decades, Dr. Kristy Clementina Perez has dedicated her career to helping students find their voice, build confidence, and see themselves as leaders. After beginning her career as a classroom teacher, she joined Baruch College’s SEEK program as a graduate student intern, where she went on to become a counselor and create the Urban Male Leadership Academy Scholars Program.
Today, as Director of Baruch SEEK, Dr. Perez continues to champion the power of relationships and sees peer mentoring as not only a way for students to support one another, but as an opportunity to develop the advising, communication, and leadership skills that will serve them throughout their careers.
Over the past two years, CARA has partnered with SEEK at Baruch College to strengthen its peer mentoring program. Last year, SEEK piloted the partnership with five students. This year, the model has expanded to the full peer mentor cohort of 20 students. The impact of that first year is already coming full circle: two students who participated in last year’s pilot have graduated and returned to SEEK as part-time staff. They will facilitate first-year seminars, advise students, and help launch the new peer advising model.
At Baruch College, students pursue their studies across three schools: the Zicklin School of Business, the George and Mildred Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Together, these schools serve a diverse student body with a wide range of academic and professional aspirations. Through performance-based assessments, coaching, and reflection, students have the opportunity to recognize the skills they are developing and understand how those skills can translate into future careers. Being a peer leader requires students to draw on a wide range of transferable skills, including emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, communication, and problem-solving. It also gives them relationships and experiences that can expand how they see themselves and what they imagine for their futures.
“How can we enrich the peer mentoring program so that the peer mentors are seeing themselves as leaders and having that lens of an advisor and counselor while understanding the intentionality around that work?”
This was the question that prompted Dr. Perez to reach out to partner with CARA to strengthen Baruch SEEK’s existing model. Our collaboration has helped both Baruch SEEK and CARA continue to learn about the answers.