Ryan ChartrandMost agree that college is a time of exploration and self-discovery, and in order to help facilitate students in this endeavor, the Pride Center recently developed Peer Response Involving Student Mentors (PRISM).
PRISM is a peer-counseling program for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and is expected to be available at the start of spring quarter.
What’s unique about PRISM is its online component, which is designed to allow student/counselor interaction for students who are uncomfortable with coming to the Pride Center in person.
Those who desire face-to-face interaction are welcome to visit the Pride Center.
“Basically, the PRISM program is just a way for current students who work for the Pride Center to help facilitate the coming-out process or other issues students are dealing with in the LGBT community,” said Jennifer Ledbetter, student coordinator of the program and psychology senior.
“The online part of the counseling is specifically for anonymity and also for the time component. It’s for people with busy schedules who need someone to talk to, vent to, brainstorm ideas with for a solution, or just to know someone is there who is willing to talk.”
According to Ledbetter, students will log into a system similar to instant messenger in order to chat.
In addition, the program hopes to eventually offer the choice of group chats that will involve one peer counselor and several students at a time. Students who wish to remain anonymous will have the option to choose a screen name.
A nine-person team, composed of students who applied and interviewed for the positions, is currently training with various professors and campus counselors and learn about counseling styles, ways to handle conflict and crisis, and special issues facing LGBT students.
Recreation administration sophomore Jessica Cresci, a student coordinator for the center who is training to become a peer counselor, said the program will serve the campus community well.
“It’s going to be great for students coming out at Cal Poly because there really aren’t a lot of students who are out, and I know there are a lot of people on campus who may identify as LGBT,” she said.
“Even though our campus isn’t really hostile towards the LGBT community, it isn’t the most comfortable place to come out. With (PRISM), they don’t have to meet face-to-face; we can do it completely over the Internet and we don’t even have to know who they are.”
Once the program begins, PRISM will likely accept more applications towards the end of spring quarter in order to train additional counselors for the fall term.
“Most of our efforts are on the actual face-to-face peer counseling,” Ledbetter said.
The Pride Center’s Web site will have a link to PRISM, and it will include a list of counselors available with biographies and pictures.
Ledbetter said she expects a lot of people in the LGBT community to be interested in and utilize the counseling program once the service begins.
“It’s for everybody basically, but it’s more specifically for queer and questioning students, or anyone who has a question regarding sexuality and wants to talk,” she said.