SOAS Peer Mentoring Information

At the very core of SwM ideals sits the notion that individuals require specific and targeted support, tailored to their context. Furthermore, we believe that different programmes, because of their uniqueness, will require different strategies and plans to best support their mentees. Therefore, one central pillar of SOASwide Mentoring is that each programme has the ability to develop and grow in the way it deems best. At the same time, it is the central responsibility of the SwM Committee, to share good practices across programmes, when transferrable. It is the responsibility and final decision of each department programme whether to adopt changes or not. The role of SwM is to make sure that developments are shared, and that once decisions are made, they are followed through. SOASwide Mentoring manages both departmental and cross-departmental programmes. Departmental programmes are programmes that have as a main focus the successful integration of new students into departments and university life. There should be one programme for everyone of the eleven departments at SOAS. To start with, Alongside our 11 department programmes, we aim to introduce the following Cross-departmental programmes : - BAME students - SIP students - LGBTQ+ - 1st Generation Students - Mature Students SwM was started by Leonardo Genghini, in 10.2019, following the success of the economics department’s freshers mentoring programme. On the basis of the overwhelmingly positive response from surveys SwM was created with a preliminary base of 31 students willing and prepared to run this programme. SwM also reached out to all existing student mentoring programmes creating a communications channel between programmes preventing any individual programme from going under due to hand-over issues or for any other reason. In February 2020 SwM started a SOAS society under the same name.