Alyssa Kam-Cheong and Ruqayyah Jhanji met at their group interview to become part of Lancaster University Management School’s mentoring programme, Leading Lights.

Alyssa, a BSc Marketing student, and Ruqayyah, a BSc Management and Human Resources student, were both selected to be mentors.

They became friends. And, in doing so, they joined lots of other students who’ve been connected by the programme.

LUMS Leading Lights is an academic skills peer mentoring scheme designed to support students in transitioning into university.

The programme gives first year students the chance to be mentored by students from other year groups.

Alyssa describes her role as a mentor: “I’d help with their academic skills like essay writing, presentation skills, referencing. All the basic academic skills you need to kind of start off your university journey.”

She says people sign up to have someone to speak to who’s going through the same things as they are.

“Instead of asking a tutor or lecturer, they’d feel more comfortable talking to another student about it.”

One of the most significant moments Alyssa experienced as a mentor was when she was able to support one of her mentees through an emotionally difficult moment for them.

“One student wasn’t very confident in her very first assignment she submitted. And she did get upset about it.”

“But then, a couple assignments later, she really progressed and improved her grades. And her confidence increased from that.”

“So, it was really nice to see how much I could help her.”

When Ruqayyah attended her interview to become a mentor, she’d already been part of the programme for one year as a mentee.

Ruqayyah was mentored in her first year of university by a third year student studying the same programme as her: Management and Human Resources.

Ruqayyah, who studied BTEC qualifications at college, says the Leading Lights programme coordinators made sure it was open to people with all kinds of backgrounds.

She remembers the concerns she had when she first started her degree. “I remember being quite nervous about the academic part of it. Like, knowing what the lecturers expected from you, and the best way to write things, and how many references should you use, and where to look for sources.”

Ruqayyah appreciated the tips her mentor gave her about referencing in essays.

Through her mentor, she discovered how to generate citations of books and journal articles through the Lancaster University library’s web tool OneSearch.

It was a much quicker process than the one she’d been using.

When offered the chance to become a mentor in her second year, Ruqayyah agreed to sign up.

Ruqayyah’s mentee studied Business Management with Entrepreneurship. He and Ruqayyah were able to find a lot in common during their conversations.

“Some of the things he said resonated with me because I was like, yeah, I’ve had that exact feeling.”

“I learned that students struggle with similar things. We really are in the same boat.”

Article published Friday 5 May 2023