Surviving at Georgetown is not an easy task. As my theology teacher puts it, we are ripped away from our families, transplanted thousands of miles to live with total strangers and then, under these conditions, we are expected to perform brilliantly at our studies. This gargantuan task is made even more difficult by the social responsibilities we are expected to fulfill. You’re supposed to get a boyfriend, you’re supposed to get drunk and you’re supposed to be skinny. It’s not surprising that many freshmen buckle under the pressure.
Into this dismal picture steps the Peer Education program. I had my session this week. These are two consecutive one-hour mandatory sessions for freshmen each fall and spring. There, peer educators attempt to help new students deal with various situations, such as pressure to have sex or drink alcohol, that arise as freshmen adjust to life at Georgetown. I didn’t expect to enjoy it – after all, nothing mandatory is ever fun, but luckily it turned out to be a worthwhile experience.
As I entered the room, I immediately liked the informal atmosphere of the program. Everyone sat on the floor, and the advisers were in T-shirts of their own design. We gathered round in a circle and started with a game to break the ice. Then we were presented with various questions and according to our opinions we had to move into groups of “agree,”unsure” or “disagree.” One of the more interesting questions was whether or not you would let a friend hook up at a party if he or she were drunk or high on drugs. Apparently, some people would. I was quite surprised by that response, but it was great to be exposed to such different opinions and the rationale behind them.
The advisers then put on a skit, which was supposed to represent a typical Friday night party scene on a Village A rooftop. In the skit, “Tara” meets “Peter” who’s had a little too much to drink; he walks her home and in the spur of the moment she asks him, “Do you want to come up and watch a movie or something?” Even though the skit ends at that point, we are pretty sure that watching a movie is not what Peter has in mind, he’s way more interested in the “or something.” Throughout the play we were allowed to comment, question and voice our opinions about the characters and their reaction to the situation.
Other hypothetical situations were also presented, including the especially relevant and difficult ones of not having as much money to spend as your friends or being a teetotaler on campus. We then discussed ways that these situations may be dealt with. It was eye opening to find out that 20 percent of students at Georgetown choose not to drink at all – that’s one in every five people. When you look around campus it certainly doesn’t feel that way, but it takes the pressure off your shoulders when you know that there are other people like you.
Finally, we split up into small groups where we received packets with information on who to go to if we ever need help. All of this lasted only one hour. Although we were handed packets with all the relevant information, I felt that more time should have been spent discussing issues like depression, date rape and abortion. These are discussed in the package, but how many people are going to read it?
Peer advisers deserve a lot of credit. They become involved because they believe that they can make a difference by sharing their experiences. According to peer adviser Rachel Bennett (COL ’03), the program her freshman year involved more preaching and less participation from students, and she got involved so that she could change it from the inside out.
The work that goes into the peer education sessions definitely pays off. The scenes enacted were relevant and realistic. You often hear about issues like balancing work and play, and you may already know how to deal with these situations, but it always helps to have these values reinforced.
A peer adviser revealed that recent evaluations filled out by students have been giving the program rave reviews. From the response and level of participation in my own group, I could tell the program is definitely living up to its goals. Thanks to their program, surviving at Georgetown is going to be a bit easier.
Maryam Mohamed is a freshman in the School of Foreign Service. Window to My World appears every other Friday.
