“Students helping students succeed” is the motto for a peer-mentor program at Long Beach City College in California.

Founded in 1995, Leaders Across Campus matches successful students who have a genuine heart of service with at-risk incoming freshmen, international students, returning veterans, or students with disabilities who plan to transfer.

The program was developed as a counseling intervention to increase the persistence and retention of at-risk students. Using peer mentors to help new students transition to the college environment, this one semester commitment has proven to be highly effective program with consistent retention and persistence rates between 80-100%, significantly higher than the college’s average.

Carefully screened and selected mentors are matched with mentees; both groups attend training and orientation sessions. They meet together as a pair for a minimum of one hour per week. Mentors also attend weekly Team Meetings.

The program offers ongoing training and leadership development sessions for mentors, workshops for all participants covering topics such as personality types, transfer issues, study techniques, stress management, and more. The paired students participate in a campus Scavenger Hunt for the purpose of fully orienting the mentee to campus resources. The program provides opportunities for socializing through events such as the pot-luck Kick-off Party, movie day, Fun in the Park, and the end of semester recognition ceremony called Hands of Hope.

Although the commitment is one semester, many students continue with the program for several semesters; also, there are mentees who continue to be involved, they utilize the skills they developed with the help of their mentors to improve their GPA in order to become future mentors.