SG Peer Advice is one of the newer areas of SmartGirl. First, SmartGirls apply to be mentors. Then I send them issues that were submitted by other SmartGirls and they respond. Our SG Peer Mentors are dedicated, thoughtful, caring, and really want to help.
However, after a few months, we realized that the way we were running SG Peer Advice just wasn't good enough. SG Peer Mentors felt disconnected from SmartGirls even though they were responding to real questions. The problem was that there was no interaction. There was no way to know if what they had to say was helping anyone at all.
Now, if you've ever read one of our Advice Polls, you know that if an SG has an issue, there's another SG out there who can totally relate and has something to say to help. That's because even though all these issues are unique and special, the feelings are universal. That's why even though our submission form is anonymous and we may never know how the person who submitted the issue feels about SG Peer Mentor advice, their advice can still help tons of people who relate to it.
So how could we connect to all those people who felt touched by a certain issue, had something to add, or wanted to offer advice of their own? We wanted these issues to start discussions, share knowledge, be supportive, and all that great stuff. Our current format wasn't going to cut it. It was too rigid. We needed something brand new.
So we built it! You can see it, right now! Renamed Issues, it's based off of our SG Authors book structure. Each issue has its very own page and comments section, so you can leave comments on questions. Offer your advice and your support and get to know other SmartGirls who care about the same things.
We hope you like the changes!
I applied to be a Peer Mentor, but I recieved no reply whatsoever. Even if I was not accepted, can you send people who aren't accepted an e-mail explaining why they weren't? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWe really appreciate that you've applied to be an SG Peer Mentor. We accept applications all the time, but only send out acceptance letters when positions open up. Unfortunately, we are unable to send out rejection letters.
ReplyDeleteWe'll update the wording on the application to make this more clear. Thank you for letting us know that this was confusing!
Also, we'll put up a post soon to give people an idea of exactly what we're looking for in an SG Peer Mentor. You can submit a revised application as many times as you'd like, or you can email us at admin@smartgirl.org if you have any questions or would like a personal response to your application.
I hope this helps! Let us know what else we can do to help.