PEERS: Evaluation of an Undergraduate-Led Near-Peer Community Health Mentorship Program
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsr.v12i3.2096Keywords:
community health, education, high school, mentorship, project based learning, near peer, undergraduate, stem, evaluation, public healthAbstract
PEERS is a program at the University of Houston that offered a near-peer mentorship experience to high schoolers. Utilizing a project-based learning model, the program aimed to introduce under-served high school students to community health topics through a mentorship model with University of Houston undergraduates. PEERS is unique among other university mentorship programs by offering a community health learning experience through a competition format between teams of students. As part of the 2021-2022 PEERS program, students participated in reflective journaling as part of an internal program evaluation to explore the impact of PEERS on student fulfillment in three primary areas of interest including personal goals, views on community health projects, and mentorship experience. Through a manual thematic analysis approach, The PEERS leadership team analyzed 91 journal entries from over 20 high school students. Our findings indicate that the PEERS program had a positive impact on participating students, with students reporting that PEERS impacted their understanding of community health projects and empowered them to achieve their personal goals alongside the development of an enriching mentorship experience with their undergraduate mentors.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Tony Trabulsi, David Hartman, Vyshnavi Davuluri; Dr. Andrew Kapral
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