To kick off a new peer mentorship program, the lead advisor and a few members held an event “Espresso Yourself: Meet Your Mentor” to help other students connect with each other and connect with a group of mentors who were able to answer questions and help the mentors network with students.

As a way to introduce the peer mentorship program, the event’s main goal was to bring students and mentors together while also building a community, with the students being able to connect to the mentors and have long conversations.

When asked what their main goal was for this event, Fuifui Ah Kuoi, Mentorship Programs Leadership Advisor said, “Our biggest three learning outcomes is to encourage students to meet other students, learn something new, and to build community with each other. Like, find a community where students are able to talk with each other, share mutual college failures and success.”

Le My, one of the mentors at this event, is in her second year at Highline College majoring in international studies. When she was asked if this event was useful to the students she said, “We act like a friend to you, we will provide you advice, help you through any difficulties you will have in your education.” 

The peer mentorship program started to look for ten mentors during the beginning of the fall quarter, then they were trained during the winter quarter going through at least three training sessions about leadership, how to network with students, and other peer mentorship related training.

This event was also to help the mentors network with the mentees on campus and try to answer any of their questions, whether it was academic or just giving them advice. They also wanted to see if any of the students matched with the mentors.

Ly Luong, Service and Mentorship Engagement Consultant, had talked about the process of making this event and said, “We make opportunities for the mentee and mentor just so they can see each other and have a connection so we thought ‘Why don’t we use coffee?’, because in my country people just go to caffe and they just start chatting, this is how they make friends and make better connections.”

Bella O’Donnell, a running start senior, was asked what her favorite part of the event was, she said, “Honestly the networking. Like, getting to know the mentors and everything. It’s really interesting.”

Another senior running start student, Zeynep Garayeva was also asked what her favorite part of the event was and she said, “I was talking about my future degree and they explained to me the difference between two majors and how to take them.”

This program wants to encourage students to meet with other students and be able to connect with each other, build their community with other students where they can talk with each other, and be able to hang out and be able to help each other with similar problems they might be having while at Highline.

During this event you were able to chat with other students and have snacks like cookies and croissants or even have a coffee in a calming area with soft lights and music playing in the background. You were also able to talk with the mentors who were there and could ask them about their time in college or ask them any question you had.