HONORS
Program Student Council
PAL PEER ASSISTED LEADERSHIP Story & photo by Kora Burton
Student-to-student mentorship program gives undergraduates ‘a stronger sense of community’
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n a cloudy Georgia Wednesday, second-year Honors student May Hu and first-year Roy Epstein Koch meet to catch up and have coffee outside the Tate Student Center. Last semester, they were PALs—participants in the Honors Program Student Council’s Peer Assisted Leadership program. The mentor and mentee dive into conversation, chatting about upcoming interviews, choosing clubs, and balancing academics with social life. Every semester, Honors underclassmen and upperclassmen are paired through PAL to discuss everything from professors to downtown restaurants to hobbies and interests. Participants are asked to meet three times during the semester-long program. Mentors help fill in the blanks, said Roy, a management information systems and international business major who did extensive research before starting college at UGA last fall. “I knew where I would be living in Myers, and I knew what kind of clubs I wanted to join, but once I got on campus, it’s so much at once that it’s really hard to get through,” he said. “After meeting May, it helped me organize my thoughts.”
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UGA HONORS PROGRAM MAGAZINE SPRING 2020
May sees the mentoring relationship as a two-way street. “Honestly, I got as much help from him as he got from me,” said May, who is majoring in management information systems, international business, and psychology. “I think that in itself is such a testimony to the friendship that’s built from this.” PAL has had positive ripple effects in the Honors Program since it was started in 2015, said Maria de Rocher, assistant director of Honors and programming and the Honors Program Student Council staff advisor. “It was an entirely student-led initiative to help foster a stronger sense of community among Honors students. And that they’ve certainly accomplished,” she said. “I’ve been tremendously impressed by the success of the program.” PAL is chaired this academic year by Monte Fischer, a fourth-year Foundation Fellow finishing his degrees in mathematics and computer science through the Double Dawgs program, and co-chair Meredith Van De Velde, a third-year Ramsey Honors Scholar studying computer science and international affairs. They are in charge of the PALgorithm, the problem-
