Designing Student-Led Near-Peer Mentorship Communities

Near-peer mentorship programs, which connect undergraduate students with their more experienced peers, can play a vital role in helping students build community, cultivate a sense of agency, and navigate science. The Access Network, a collection of nine student-led, diversity-oriented STEM communities at universities across the country, recently published the first chapter of its "Starter Kit for Diversity-Oriented Communities for Undergraduates," which focuses on near-peer mentorship programs. This resource synthesizes the working knowledge and best practices developed by student leaders from the Access Network, and offers practical advice for students interested in setting up mentoring communities in their own departments. The starter kit outlines best practices for designing, running, and sustaining near-peer mentorship programs, including lesson plans for mentor and mentee training and other template resources. While the Access Network specifically focuses on undergraduate-serving programs in STEM, their community-building framework easily extends to other disciplines and student demographics. We hope student leaders and faculty advocates find this guide useful as they create programs that foster vibrant inter-student relationships in their local communities.