Peer Educators

The Peer Education Program is designed for students to become leaders and advocates for health & wellness amongst their student peers. The Peer Education Program supports the Wellness & Health Promotion Department’s mission to promote multi-dimensional well-being through a holistic approach to wellness. The values Peer Educators uphold are honesty, respect, responsibility, and kindness.

College is an exciting time in a person’s life. But, college is also a huge adjustment as an individual becomes an adult. Campus life offers more autonomy and freedom, but also requires more responsibility because it comes with the potential for high-risk behaviors. College students are susceptible to drug and alcohol misuse, poor nutrition choices, poor sexual health choices, and poor time management skills. These risky behaviors can lead to a decline in academic performance, health concerns, stress, anxiety, and depression.

The Peer Education Program is designed to construct opportunities for students to become influential leaders on their campus. Peer Educators are students passionate about developing and maintaining a healthy and safe college campus through advocacy and education efforts. The Peer Education Program is grounded in the purpose of fostering positive influence on the UND campus to help students develop and maintain healthy decision-making skills, as well as prepare them for life after college.

The role of a Peer Educator is to mentor, lead, and educate their fellow peers. The Peer Education Program prepares students to be leaders within their community, foster healthy relationships, promote networking skills, and create role models.

As Peer Educators, their responsibilities are to encourage informative & open conversations about campus life and how to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle while in college.

Peer Educators communicate educational topics through:

• Toilet Talks - a bi-monthly publication posted within the Wellness Center
• Presentations - available by request
• Tabling - engaging students around campus
• Events - various programs throughout the year promoting healthy behaviors

The goal of a Peer Educator is to obtain knowledge and competency through research in various health-related topics that affect college students and identify preventative measures against high-risk behaviors to promote a healthy and safe campus community.

Peer Educators provide education and resources to other students to promote health and wellness.

The Peer Educator Program teaches fundamental skills that can be utilized throughout a person’s lifetime. The program includes the Certified Peer Educator (CPE) Training, a lifelong certification offered by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). The CPE training teaches the basics of what a Peer Educator is, how to form connections with other students, explains theory and models, and helps develop evidence-based programming. Peer Educators become leaders on their campus and help create positive change within the student population.

The program benefits the entire campus by promoting a communicative and caring community. The Peer Educator Program offers an advocacy initiative designed to prevent high-risk behaviors that can be harmful to college students. The program encourages meaningful conversations about various topics that affect the student experience.

Skills Development

• Leadership
• Creativity
• Organization
• Time Management
• Networking
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Listening
• Critical Thinking

Interested in joining the Peer Educator team? Visit our Student Employment page for position opportunities and information!