Buccaneer Involvement Guides

The Buccaneer Involvement Guides (BIGs) program has been a successful peer mentorship program embedded inside of ETSU 1020 Foundations for Student Success first year experience course, and will be expanding to other First-Year Experience courses.  Each BIG is placed in a single section of a First-Year Experience Course where they are mentors for the entire class. This program was implemented in Fall of 2016 with the primary purpose of providing first-year students with a peer mentor (or BIG) who will assist the students to get involved in campus activities and organizations, serve as a point of connection to campus resources, role model balance between academic achievement and extracurricular activity, and create a sense of community within the course section. Each year the program has succeeded in documenting a strong correlation between student interaction with their BIG and retention, academic achievement, and campus involvement.

Requirements to be a BIG:

• Must be an undergraduate student. 
• Have at least a 2.5 G.P.A.
• Meet with each student twice a semester.
• Attend the required training August 12th-August 14th.
• Attend monthly meetings.
• Facilitate an out of class activity
• Teach designated lessons and Facilitate check-in or icebreaker activities during class.

Benefits of being  a BIG include:

• Compensation
• Relationships with ETSU Faculty
• Gaining transferable skills such as conflict resolution, decision making, and time management. 
• Making connections with first year students. 
• Learning more about ETSU's campus and campus resources.
• It is fun! 

For more information contact Katie Potter bigs@etsu.edu.