Dear Future Peer Leaders,

Let me begin by saying congratulations! You’re about to begin an amazing experience

and I am so excited for you. Being a Peer Leader will be different for every single one of you,

but no matter what, you will learn so much and grow more than you had even imagined.

My name is Emily Boyd. This was my first semester serving as a Peer Leader, and I hope

to serve again this upcoming spring and next fall during my Senior year. I am a Junior, majoring

in Marketing and Economics, with a minor in International Relations. I am pursing a career in

market research analysis for an international corporation when I graduate. I am from Charlotte,

North Carolina. I chose to come to Carolina because of the Darla Moore Business School and the

beautiful campus. I also chose to come here to be with my 24-year-old sister, Trish. She is

currently studying for her masters in Political Science. Laney, my Peer Leader when I was a

freshman, was a huge inspiration to me and she greatly affected my college career. The main

reason that I wanted to become a Peer Leader was to do that same thing for some of my students.

I wanted to make a difference in new students lives, by sharing my experiences and supporting

them through-out their first semester of college.

My Peer Leader experience has been amazing. Although there were definitely ups and

downs, I have been able to grow and learn about myself, my university, and connect with faculty

and new students. I learned my leadership style, my strong and weak suites, and what I want to

do with my future. I have also learned how to facilitate a classroom, work with a superior, and

make useful lesson plan. All of these will be skills I can use now and later in my life.

My greatest joys of being a Peer Leader has been watching my students grow through-out

the semester, seeing them become friends with each other, and feeling like I have made a

difference. Hearing them say a lesson was helpful or they liked what we had done that day was a
huge accomplishment. Many of my students have reached out to me when they were struggling

with something, it was great being there for them in a time of need. I hope that they will continue

to reach out even after the semester is over. One of my biggest accomplishment was being

nominated for a Peer Leader spotlight by my co-instructor. It was fulfilling to be recognized by

the University 101 office for the work I put into being a Peer Leader.

My co-instructor, Doreen, was my instructor for University 101 when I was a freshman.

We had a great relationship and I had always show interest in being a Peer Leader. Doreen

reached out to me at the beginning of my Sophomore year asking if I wanted to partner with her

during my Junior year as her co-instructor. We have a very close relationship, and I believe we

work very well together. We have similar personalities. It’s great being able to work through

issues or complications, and being able to bounce ideals off each other. Almost everything was

great with Doreen, but there were a few times we disagreed. For example, Doreen was

sometimes, in my opinion, too hard on the students. Ultimately, we discussed that the students

were doing the best they could and they were still adjusting to college life.

My students are absolutely amazing and I love every single one of them. I have 19

students, 8 girls and 11 boys. I like to think I have a good relationship with all of my students,

and they can all look up to me. I think we have a pretty open, funny relationship. They like to

joke around with me a lot. I have made myself available for anything thing they need and try to

be as supportive and as understanding as possible.

One of my biggest struggles of being a Peer Leader was a few of my students not taking

the class seriously. I learned quickly that there will always students who aren’t excited about

class or participate as much as I would prefer. I have two students that come to mind that didn’t

gain as much from that class as I would have wished. I learned that if the students don’t
participate, it is ultimately their loss, because they wont gain as much information or connections

with their peers or myself. I struggled with this at first, getting frustrated with students and sad

after class, but I learned that I don’t necessarily have control over the situation. We talked about

this topic in our EDLP520 a lot, a lot of my fellow classmates had the same problem with their

students. I will use this skill later in life in my career and with friendships. With in my job I will

be working with other employees who I necessarily can’t control their actions or force them to

care. This will come up in my personal life as well. I will care more about certain situations in

some relationships and vice versa.

Another issue I had was worrying too much about my student’s personal issues. For

example, one of my students had decided to transfer to a school closer to home. I took this news

as a failure. I wished that I had been more supportive of that student or had know sooner so that I

could have changed their mind. Ultimately I realized that it wasn’t my responsibility to make

them happy here at Carolina, and I was doing the best I could. This was probably the biggest

change that I have made this semester. Being able to be empathetic with people’s problems, but

not taking on the problem as if it was my own. Along with this, I learned the difference between

empathy and sympathy. We talked about this in myEDLP520 class, being able to connect with

someone and understand where they are coming from. I will also use this skill in my professional

and personal life so much. Others around me will always have their personal issues. Having

empathy and compassion, while also being able to remove myself when it is time.

As I mention before, another way I have grown this semester is establishing my

leadership style and better understanding my personal skills. This was one of the goals that I had

set for myself early in the semester, to become a strong leader. I feel confident standing in front

of a group and facilitating a lesson or explaining tasks. I believe I have an outgoing leadership
style, I like to make people comfortable and confident. I have also realized that I like to get

things done and am driven by results.

Lastly, this experience has pushed me to explore new career options. I have loved this

role so much that it has made me realize I want to incorporate this kind of role in my future

career. I’m still unsure how to do that or what I want to do, but I have been exploring options in

higher education or human resources. My EDLP520, instructor, Katie Hopkins, spoke with me

about this and got me thinking about alternative options.

I wish you all luck with this new journey! I hope you enjoy this experience as much as I

have.

Best,

Emily Boyd