Peer support sessions are available on a walk-in basis or by appointment. Sessions are one-on-one and last up to 40 minutes. They occur in a private room in the Learning Commons and can be scheduled a week in advance. 

Sessions can be used to recenter, process challenges, strategize about changes you would like to make, foster self-accountability, or simply to connect with another person. 

Peer support is a listening service. It supports well-being through authentic conversation, connection and by providing a space to process challenges, but it is not therapy. It is not a replacement for counseling or the support of a social worker.

• Students interested in professional support are encouraged to connect with Counseling Services.

Peers are aware of and may connect students with campus resources. This aspect of their work overlaps with the work of many other offices. Peers differ in that they may be able to offer a firsthand perspective on the value of these resources.

Well-being is foundational to academic success.

• In the 2021- 2022 Healthy Minds Study, a national survey of 96 thousand college students, over 80% of respondents indicated that mental and emotional challenges hurt their academic performance.

Mental and emotional challenges are on the rise.

• In the same study, 44% of those surveyed reported symptoms of moderate to severe depression, 37% reported anxiety disorders, and 15% reported having seriously considered suicide in the past year.
• The Healthy Minds study has been administered for 15 years. These are the highest rates on record.
• In the 2022 National College Health Assessment, a survey of over 23 thousand undergraduates, almost 75% of respondents reported moderate or severe psychological distress.

Young adults are lonelier than other age groups.

• According to Cigna Group's 2020 national survey of over 10 thousand adults, almost 80% of 18 to 24-year-olds feel lonely, a measure determined by how often they feel isolated, left out, and lack companionship.
• These numbers were rising before the pandemic and were stable in the December 2021 survey. 
• A survey of 950 Americans administered by Harvard University in 2020 found 61% of young adult respondents experienced serious loneliness.
• Their findings showed that among this group, approximately half had not had a single interaction in the past few weeks in which someone had taken more than a few minutes to ask how they were in a way that made them feel like that person genuinely cared. 

Like everyone else, young adults need authentic connection, community, and spaces that support the nonjudgmental processing of their experiences.

Peer support aims to contribute to a campus and culture that honors these needs and promotes tolerance, kindness, and care.