USG Report: How I gained leadership skills from T.E.A.M. Baruch

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Courtesy of USG

Tony Chen

T.E.A.M. Baruch is a student leadership development program managed by the Office of Student Life and other offices at Baruch College to help students discover their leadership potentials.

Inspired by the Social Change Model of Leadership Development developed by the Higher Education Research Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles, OSL recruits new members each year to become peer advisors for T.E.A.M Baruch through an interview process.

The program offers seven different peer advisor opportunities to work with students on campus and expects the members to gain valuable leadership experience through working in the various fields.

Given T.E.A.M. Baruch’s many opportunities, I chose to work as a First-Year Seminar peer mentor and an orientation leader to find my leadership style while interacting with groups of incoming students.

The First-Year Seminar peer mentor and the Transfer Seminar peer mentor positions both provide all tutorials on Baruch for incoming students to the respective seminar that the peer mentor teaches.

Orientation leaders work to give the necessary onboarding for incoming students in both summer and winter.

The Peers Advocating for Wellness Services peer mentor works with the Office of Health and Wellness to support students in creating a safe environment with health-related information learned from training.

Peers for Career trains students to work with the STARR Career Development Center to provide resume review and career advisement to fellow Baruch students.

Social justice peer mentors are provided with opportunities to enhance their social justice knowledge. Success Network peer mentor leads a group of mentees to succeed through the academic year.

In my experience, I have learned much about what kind of leader I am and have been inspired to take on more opportunities at Baruch.

Simultaneously, I have also met many leaders in the program who have motivated me to be a part of the Undergraduate Student Government, where I have learned to serve students to the best of my ability.

The window to apply to T.E.A.M. Baruch 2021 is closed, but the next window to apply will open in fall 2021 in order to be a part of the program in 2022. When information is released, it will be mandatory for all interested in joining to attend an information session to be eligible for the program’s interview.

Many opportunities like T.E.A.M. Baruch exist on campus, such as being a student leader of a club and working for different other programs at Baruch.

It is recommended to join such programs, as the experience gained will help in the day you may decide to join student government.