By Lily ’22
If you walk onto the upper school campus on a typical Monday night, you will find a large crowd of students gathering on the quad, eating pizza, and getting excited for their Peer Support group that is about to start. Every Monday night, students gather in groups of 15-25 students, depending on the night, for an hour and fifteen minutes. Within that time, we establish the rules of peer support, talk about our weekends, play games, and most importantly, talk about our issues.
Peer Support is one of the largest student groups in the entire school and is the largest at the upper school. Peer Support is a student-led support group program with eleven different groups this year. Each group has two to three senior leaders and two to three junior trainees, who will be leaders next year. Students come together to discuss issues troubling them with friends, family, or school. The most important aspect of Peer Support is “Big C” which stands for confidentiality. This concept is reviewed at the beginning of every single meeting and is the foundation of Peer Support. During my first experiences in Peer Support, I was genuinely surprised by how seriously every student takes it. If the trust of Peer Support is broken by anyone, they will be immediately kicked out of the group as there is no tolerance for any breach of confidence, which is what makes Peer Support so trustworthy. Along with Big C, Peer Support is a judgment-free zone where people from all different interests, friend groups, grade levels, and backgrounds come together. Over the course of the year, this group becomes like a family. Though we are not all best friends, we grow extremely close as a unit and are always there to support each other every Monday night, as well as for the rest of the week. I never thought I would be able to trust a group of people that I didn’t know very well, but I honestly do. Not only is Peer Support a great way to feel like a supported member of the community, but it is also so much fun. After sharing any issues, we play games that keep us laughing and bring us even closer together. It never fails to be one of the best parts of my week.
This year, I have the amazing opportunity to be a Peer Support trainee which has been even more incredible than I thought it would be. Every week, I have a training class where we talk about any issues that come up and learn skills to improve our leadership, communication, and perspective. I’ve found that we discuss topics that are not only relevant to Peer Support but also to being a leader and friend in general. I know that what I learn in this class every week will serve me well in the future. It is also amazing to be a part of a group of co-leaders. Every group in the program has a great combination of people carefully selected to create the best leadership team possible.
