Five Peer Educator Recruiting Blunders to Avoid

Now is the time to plan your recruitment strategies for the 2010-11 academic year. Here are five major mistakes to avoid. Planning ahead will increase your recruiting success.

1. Waiting until September to start recruiting.

First year and transfer students are attending summer orientation, checking your school’s website for information, and receiving emails from other groups on your campus throughout the summer months. Begin recruiting now by having a presence at summer orientation events, collecting new student emails, and sending emails or e-newsletters throughout the summer. Be sure your web page is up-to-date and clearly explains how to get involved. Invite new students to join your Facebook group and post your recruitment meetings as events.

2. Only recruiting first year students.

The National Peer Educator Study (NPES) conducted by Michigan State University has found that the majority of peer educators became involved after their freshman year. Juniors and seniors are looking for opportunities to apply what they are learning in their majors and to build career skills. Decide from what academic subjects you would like to attract students and talk with faculty about how being a peer educator provides practical, career-relevant experience (i.e., leadership, delegation, time and management planning).

3. Not answering the “W” questions.

Before a student commits to becoming a peer educator, he or she wants to know four things: Why me? Why now? What for? and Who says? Some students do not see themselves as peer educators. If you see in a student the qualities necessary to be a peer educator, tell him or her. When recruiting, talk about the issues students on your campus are facing now and how peer educators can help. Highlight your peer education group’s past successes. Your current peer educators are the best spokespersons for your group. Encourage them to speak about what they have received from being a peer educator.

4. Making it hard to be a peer educator.

It is okay to be selective in choosing peer educators (click here for sample peer educator applications and interview questions: http://www.bacchusnetwork.org/peeredapps.asp). We also need to recognize that peer educators are students first and have busy schedules. Think about how you can make being a peer educator work in a student’s schedule. Develop position descriptions for peer educators that clearly define what they are to do and the time it takes. Find the day and time when the fewest classes take place and schedule your meetings during that time. Plan your trainings and events with the academic calendar in mind. Having large, intensive events during midterms will create frustration and burn out. Finally, offer a safety net to students who become overwhelmed by allowing them take a break from being a peer educator to attend to other issues.

5. Not making recruitment everyone’s responsibility.

Recruitment is an ongoing, year round process. Every program, event, web posting, or flyer is a potential recruitment tool. As mentioned earlier, your peer educators are your best spokespersons for your group and your best recruiters. If they speak positively of their peer education experience and share their enthusiasm for what they are doing, others will want to join. Encourage them to invite students to the meeting and teach them how to welcome new people to the group.

Do you have a recruiting tip? Share it with others by commenting on this article.

posted by: Ann Quinn-Zobeck, BACCHUS Director of Education and Training