Learning through experience

Peer mentor and senior Marit Huston took her experience a step further. While teaching on diversity, she invited the first-year students to join her at a drag show at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

"We took six students and we had a lot of fun. I think we're going to go to the Bentleyville Tour of Lights, too."

Hands-on diversity training

Huston had five freshmen from the Midwest and three from Korea. She believes it helped teach her and the freshmen students how to communicate with people from other countries.

"A lot of the students had never worked with international students before or had little experience. Learning how to work with a language barrier was an eye-opener for a few of them," said Huston. "We think that it's easy but English is probably the hardest language to learn."

Freshmen Garrett Arthur said working with international students was a new experience.

"They have a lot of really good ideas but it's just that they don't know the words to describe it so that we understand what they're trying to say."

Fresh perspective

Huston says mentoring taught her about patience and diversity.

"I'm a super senior and I learned from the freshmen. I would like to teach at the collegiate level one day and I've now realized I'd like to teach freshmen especially," said Huston. "They're a lot of fun and they have a fresh perspective on things."

Bird believes the best part of the course is the peer mentors.

"Learning about experiences from upperclassmen students solidifies to the first year students the things I am teaching," said Bird.

These students are among 450 students taking part in Academic Service-Learning at UW-Superior during the fall 2010 semester. "Introduction to College Experience" is just one of 16 courses that comprise a partnership between UW-Superior and organizations in nearby communities as part of the Academic Service-Learning program at UW-Superior. These partnerships provide hands-on learning experiences for students and resources for the community.