When Parker Lacewell first came to UNC Asheville as a transfer student from a small college in California, she felt a little lost. There were still COVID restrictions on campus at the time, and she wasn’t exactly sure where her classes were or how to get involved in her new community.
“My roommate Ella took the time to show me around campus and tell me where all my classes were, and then help me meet a great group of people, and helped me get involved on campus,” Lacewell said. “I realized that I wanted to be someone's Ella.”
Lacewell became a Peer Advising Leader (PAL) in UNC Asheville’s IGNITE program, a first-year experience program that helps new students build connections with one another, develop leadership efficacy and capacity, and deepen their sense of belonging at UNC Asheville.
“The IGNITE program is for first-year students to help them ‘find their spark,’ or find their niche, to get them involved on campus and allow them to build connections with one another,” Lacewell explained.
“They have a mentor, who is their PAL, as someone they can connect with and meet with to discuss anything from personal issues they're struggling with to how to use GradPlan.”
Students in IGNITE take their First Year Seminar course with their cohort, meet bi-weekly as a group with their PAL, and attend campus events and activities together. Lacewell particularly enjoyed facilitating conversations with her cohort during their bi-weekly gatherings.
“We have covered effective communication, we covered empathy, we covered building community, being an active part of your community. We talked about social justice like diversity, equity, inclusion issues,” Lacewell said. “The lessons had a lot of room for conversation.”
Lacewell also made sure to reach out to her cohort members individually to check in, answer any questions, or just grab a cup of coffee together.
“It was a good way to get to know my classmates in my first year seminar class, and a good way to get to know an upperclassman like Parker,” said Rachel Huneycutt, a former member of Lacewell’s IGNITE cohort. “I still run into Parker almost every day. I definitely look up to her, and after the program was over, I look up to her more as a friend. I feel like we made that connection.”
Lacewell, a junior mass communication major, still has another year at UNC Asheville and plans on being a PAL again next semester. She’s excited about the chance to continue being “someone’s Ella.”
“After just the first class with one another, I could see that they were already building community and becoming close with one another,” Lacwell said. “I think by the end of it they really felt like they found their spark.”
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