6 minute read
Peerless Dedication
Bishop’s Peer Support helps the School through a challenging year.
By Joe Tash
As The Bishop’s School navigated through the unprecedented challenges of a global health crisis this year, the School’s Peer Support program provided a welcome sense of stability and connectedness for students, faculty, staff and parents.
In some ways Peer Support did what it has always done—reached out to new students to make them feel at home, led chapel discussions and talked with many different groups on campus, from middle school students to parents.
But this year brought the added challenge of working around restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the start of the school year, all classes and activities were held online, but as the year went on, Bishop’s transitioned from distance learning to a hybrid of online and in-person instruction.
Peer Support adapted as well, reaching out to the School community with a mix of virtual and in-person events and activities.
“It’s been a difficult year, but we’ve tried our best,” says Seiji Ayala-Sekiguchi ’22, a junior in his first year with Peer Support.
The group has spoken at middle school advisory sessions on such topics as kindness and inclusion, and they have worked to make personal connections at lunch, “so everyone feels welcome at the School,” Seiji says.
Peer Support is open to students in grades 10-12 and the class runs for the full school year, meeting twice each cycle during X period. The non-academic course is offered on a pass/fail basis, and students earn one semester of credit for this independent elective. The course is reserved and required for members of the School’s Peer Support program.
Students must apply for admission to the program. School Counselor Megan Cooper Broderick ’98, who also serves as faculty adviser for the Peer Support program, said students must demonstrate a genuine interest in the program and propose a project they’d like to work on if selected. Students must also provide recommendations from a peer and a teacher.
This year’s team includes 21 students. Megan has expanded the program in recent years to be more inclusive and provide an opportunity for as many students as possible.
If there’s an overarching theme to the group’s work, Megan says, it’s this: “How do we keep our community connected, how do we inject kindness into the community? How do we find moments to be nice and slow down and care about each other?”
Team members make themselves visible and available if students want to talk and the group would like to do more formal peer counseling. To that end, they have created a form to request peer counseling and tried peer counseling office hours. Megan stresses to the students which issues can remain confidential and which must be brought to her attention.
Some of this year’s team members say their contacts with Peer Support students
VIDEOS IN THIS ALBUM
Incorrect Correct
Proper Mask Wearing Navigating Our Campus
Our Morning Routine Milk Break and Lunch
when they were just starting at Bishop’s stuck with them and made them want to join the program.
Abby Beamer ’22 is in her second year with Peer Support, and she plans to continue with the group next year, when she’ll be one of the team’s student leaders.
When she first came to Bishop’s as a sixth-grader, Peer Support put on activities such as bringing service dogs to campus and serving ice cream. They also reached out to students during upper school orientation to make them feel more comfortable. Abby says she wanted to provide those kinds of experiences for others.
This year Abby helped the middle school launch a new Peer Support program, and she’s worked on a newsletter the team started to improve communications during the pandemic.
At lunch only three students can sit together at a table, which means students may unintentionally be more socially isolated. Activities such as writing notes for teachers and fellow students, a paper airplane competition or a picnic with kites and lemonade can make students feel more connected.
“We’re trying to make sure we still foster a sense of community even though things feel so much further away,” Abby says. “By having fun activities and events for students, it lightens the mood of the day and makes it more fun to be at school.”
The secret to the success of Peer Support may be that members of the team find the work both rewarding and enjoyable, and they tend to stick around.
“Almost everybody stays for their entire time at Bishop’s. Nobody leaves the group unless they have a scheduling issue,” Megan says.
Kelly McFarlane ’21, a senior now in her third year with Peer Support, says the group is like a family whose members support each other and are open to each other’s ideas.
“I think it’s hard to have a bad experience in Peer Support. It’s a really friendly group,” says Kelly.
Creating a sense of community on campus has been especially hard this year during the pandemic, and Peer Support has responded by coming up with creative ways to encourage personal connections.
For example, earlier in the year, team members held Zoom sessions in which students could bake or watch movies with Peer Support students.
Kelly says Peer Support was there for her when she was new at the School, helping her adjust and make friends. “For me it was like paying it forward, I wanted to help someone else who is new.”
Another Peer Support project that has gone over well this year was a series of videos the team made to prepare students to return to campus. Lucas Buu-hoan ’21, who is also in his third year with the program, enjoys making videos as a hobby, and he spearheaded the effort.
Lucas made videos about how to follow COVID-19 guidelines such as wearing masks and physical distancing, and he is now working on a video to be shown in chapel on the theme of justice.
Along with being welcoming and supportive, Lucas sees Peer Support as promoting school spirit and the fun side of campus. “That’s kind of who we are.”
“I really enjoy being in Peer Support and especially being one of the leaders this year. It’s taught me how I can make a difference wherever I am,” Lucas says.
Megan says the group’s impact can be seen when members of the School community reach out, such as a teacher asking for Peer Support’s help in connecting with a student who is struggling.
“Those moments big or small… that is evidence of success,” she says. And the group is always willing to help. “When I ask, they don’t balk.”
“They’re just a great group of people. It’s such an honor and a joy to be around them,” Megan says.
In February 2020, Peer Support students participated in a panel interview intended for CBS Sunday Morning (the air date was postponed due to the pandemic).
