A recent book by Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government Professor Richard Light measuring the most important aspects of a successful college education listed a student-mentor relationship as a top priority. It is in this vein that Penn has become one of the first schools to establish a program that encourages such relationships between graduate students and undergraduates.
Project LEAD, which stands for Learn, Enable, Aspire, Develop, was launched and funded by the Graduate Student Center earlier this year. It already features 10 intercollegiate student pairings and is looking to gain in membership as the community becomes more aware of its mission and goals.
If successful, Project LEAD can become another excellent resource on which undergraduates can rely. While Penn already offers peer-to-peer advisory programs in writing and math, Project LEAD will offer the opportunity to bring together students from a wide variety of different backgrounds and expertise.
The path toward professional careers and graduate school is a long and often complicated one; a steady hand and some guidance from those who have been there before can only serve to benefit the Penn community.
At this point, there are more potential mentors than undergraduates. The mentors currently enlisted in the program can offer advice and perspectives from many different academic fields. But as Project LEAD gains more exposure, that dynamic will likely change.
We encourage both graduate and undergraduate students to participate in this program, as it will deliver an invaluable opportunity for both undergraduates and graduate students to learn from each other and foster relationships that can exist outside the classroom.
As participation in Project LEAD grows, it will offer the opportunity for many members of the Penn community to get the most out of their education. As a serious mentor-student relationship is imperative to meeting that goal, we commend Project LEAD for its goals and wish it luck in promoting greater interaction between undergraduates and their graduate student mentors.
