Graduate Peer Support (GPS) — Navigating to social fitness!
A program for graduate students designed to increase access to peer support and engagement with campus resources
Introduction:
In addition to addressing physical health, cultivating one’s mental and social wellness is critical to living a balanced and fulfilling life. Social fitness refers to the combined resources available in one’s social world (e.g., social support) that can be used to effectively manage and overcome stressors. Graduate students are at risk for experiencing mental health problems due to the rigorous demands and often socially isolating experience of graduate study. The 2021 UC Davis Graduate Student Experience Survey revealed that 36% of graduate and professional students met the threshold for clinically significant depressive symptoms, and 32% disagreed that there is a strong sense of community among graduate students at our university. Thus, the Graduate Peer Support (GPS) program seeks to increase access to social support by hosting weekly and quarterly events and facilitating a peer-to-peer mentorship program, encouraging cross-disciplinary interactions within UC Davis’s diverse graduate student community.
Outcomes:
Aim 1: Increase graduate students' access to social support by piloting a graduate student peer-to-peer mentorship program and hosting frequent, informal gatherings at the Graduate Center in Walker Hall.
Aim 2: Increase graduate students’ knowledge of and engagement with existing campus resources utilizing a social campaign in the Fall of 2024 (i.e., “Make an aPEERance”).
Aim 3: Promote graduate student mental wellbeing and social fitness by increasing access to peer support and engagement with campus resources.
Opportunities for Involvement:
Please complete the google form below to receive more information and updates regarding the Graduate Peer Support program:
Recent Milestones:
N/A
Project Lead(s):
Madeline Olwert
Graduate Student
Human Development Graduate Group
mrolwert@ucdavis.edu
Marika Sigal
Graduate Student
Human Development Graduate Group
msigal@ucdavis.edu