Billington Peer Leader Program

Preparing students for leadership is a key part of the Baylor mission, and programs across campus embody that calling. One is the Billington Peer Leader program in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, a student-led and student-focused initiative to support Pre-Business students as they navigate the transition to college. Laura Lalani, Associate Director for Student Success Initiatives, and Madeline Prescott, a student leader within the Billington program, share how the program develops leaders and sets students up for a successful college experience.
Transcript
Derek Smith:
Hello, and welcome to Baylor Connections, Conversation Series with the people shaping our future. Each week we go in depth with Baylor leaders, professors in more discussing important topics in higher education, research and student life. I'm Derek Smith, and today we are talking student leadership. The program today focuses on the Billington Peer Leader Program in Baylor's Hankamer School of Business. It's unique student-led and student-focused initiative to support pre-business students as they navigate the transition to college. Student leaders are trained to partner with first-year students and develop supportive relationships for success. The program is a demonstration of the university's focus on leadership development and student success. One of the many traits which have led Baylor to be named one of Time Magazine's Best Colleges for Future Leaders.
Our guests today are Laura Lalani and Madeline Prescott. Laura Lalani serves as Associate Director for Student Success Initiatives at Hankamer School of Business. Madeline Prescott is a senior double major in entrepreneurship and corporate innovation and management, and she is a leader in the Billington Peer Leader Program. And they're both with us today on the program. Laura and Madeline, great to have you with us. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Madeline Prescott:
Of course. Thanks for having us.
Laura Lalani:
Thank you.
Derek Smith:
Great to have you here. So we've got a staff member and a student and you all work together in so many different ways to support students. I'll begin with you, Laura. As we start a new semester here, a lot's taking place to get the new semester underway. Where are a few of the places we might find you both working on this program and getting things going for the new semester?
Laura Lalani:
Thanks, Derek. So we are housed in the Hankamer School of Business in the undergraduate programs office, which is in the first floor of the foster building, which is a beautiful building if you have not had a chance to visit it. And mostly, I'm working in my office next to my Baylor approved heater at this time of the year. But yes, and Madeline.
Madeline Prescott:
Yeah, definitely. We're usually in the foster building. Something that's pretty unique about our building is that we have an atrium area in the middle where the students can congregate and do homework and study and things like that. So you'll often see the leaders meeting with their students in that area, just having conversations, having coffee with them.
Derek Smith:
So it can be just very informal or formal in these cases as you get the semester under way and work with new students?
Madeline Prescott:
Yes.
Derek Smith:
So I gave a really brief description of the program at the beginning. I'd love both of your perspectives from the student and staff and Madeline, let's start with you. Someone asks you what is the Billington Peer Leader Program, how would you describe it?
Madeline Prescott:
Yeah. I like to think of the program as it's a mentorship and it's an opportunity to be an older sister, an older brother to a group of freshmen that are coming in. I remember my freshman year, I'm the oldest cousin, I'm the oldest sibling in my family, and so I've always been the one to pioneer new experiences. So having a peer leader super helpful and that's something I wanted to be able to give back to our students is that having that person that's been in your shoes very recently, and has had similar questions that you've had is a pretty unique experience. So getting to mentor them through that has been awesome.
Laura Lalani:
Yeah. So the Billington Peer Leader Program is something that's able to serve our pre-business students and they're all incoming first-year students, and that's about 900 students that we serve each year, just at the first of the semester that are in that pre-business program. That's about 25 to 30% of our incoming first-year class. So we're the second-largest unit on campus. So absolutely, it's a great opportunity for us to serve those students and to connect them with an older already admitted business student.
Derek Smith:
Visiting with Laura Lalani and Madeline Prescott and Laura, the Billington Peer Leader Program, when did it begin and what was the impetus to get it going?
Laura Lalani:
The program began really because of our dean who is a fabulous leader within the school of business, and we started in 2022 that summer with a simple conversation of how can we increase student success? How can we bring more depth of relationship to our students? And it was from those conversations, the dean really said, "How can we make this happen?" We already had some wonderful foundations in place through our academic advising, which is a really strong foundation for helping our students be successful, along with a new student experience course, which is called BUS-1101. So those two things were already in place, but our dean came to us and gave us a charge and said, "How can we continue to develop relationships and support those pre-business students?" So that's really where it began was that desire for community and connection and personal relationships.
Derek Smith:
So you get this charge and you have some resources already underway, but what did it take to build that into what it's now?
Laura Lalani:
It felt like we were building an airplane as we were flying because we brought this to a pilot in the spring of 2023, so it was very quick. We brought a proposal based on a Swiss cheese model, which was a layering approach for our student success of there's not one thing that's a silver bullet to help a student be successful. So we really brought in a layered approach of how can we help those students in a multifaceted way. So from there, we were able to run a pilot in the spring of 2023 as well as spring of 2024. And then the word got out of this exciting thing that we were doing in the school of business. So a family came along to partner with us, John and Dina Billington heard about the work that we were doing and thought this would be a great partnership for their goals. So they brought in some more financial support to allow us to expand this program to all pre-business students.
Derek Smith:
And now Madeline, when did you get involved with the program?
Madeline Prescott:
So I had the opportunity to be a student as a pre-business student that spring of '23 program. So when they first launched it, I was given a mentor and there are about six other of us pre-business students in that group. So I've gotten to see it from the student perspective. And then once I was admitted to the business school, I've had the opportunity to lead different groups.
Derek Smith:
Great. So both roles from the very beginning of the program.
Madeline Prescott:
Yes.
Derek Smith:
That's great. Well, Laura, the pillars of this. Obviously you mentioned the Swiss cheese approach. There's a lot of different, but are there some basics and foundational elements of this that you use to measure the success?
Laura Lalani:
Yeah. So those tenants are really focusing on that holistic development of a student because the reality is especially first-year students is a lot of them change their mind about what it is that they want to study. And that's perfectly normal and natural. So yes, it has a business focus to it and there's a lot of business school elements to it, but we wanted to focus on that holistic development of students, which is really in line of the business school values as well as Baylor as a whole.
And those six pillars are centered on academic, spiritual, mental, physical, social and financial. There might be a quiz at the end of that, but those are our six pillars where to really address that holistic development of a student and that is how we are addressing the success and what we focus on in those peer leader discussions each week. But another layer to this too is that we have partnered with Dr. Stephanie Kunst to do some really professional research on this as well through some qualitative surveys that we give these students in order to address the effectiveness of the program. So it's a very multifaceted way that we are looking at how is this program successful and what impact is it making on our students?
Derek Smith:
Well, you all and Student Success Initiatives within Hankamer have a lot of resources and understanding, but how valuable is that student perspective to speak into that?
Laura Lalani:
It really is critical. It's foundational because the thing about student work is that it's real time. So we want to know what impact is making every single day, and how we can improve it a semester over semester, year over year because that is what's going to contribute to a long-term successful program
Derek Smith:
Visiting with Laura Lalani and Madeline Prescott on Baylor Connections. So Madeline, you got involved first as mentee, then as a mentor. This is a very broad question. You can go a lot of different ways with this, but just take us inside that. What does that look like in practice in different ways?
Madeline Prescott:
Yes. So the structure of the program is we meet in a classroom. It's me and a co-leader, usually a girl and a guy. And each of us are assigned anywhere from 6 to 12 students. So with those groups, we meet once a week for about six or seven weeks and we cover course content and PowerPoints and that sort of thing and presentations going over those pillars that Laura just mentioned. And then we have the opportunity to meet with them twice a semester outside of the classroom, just one-on-one with the students. And I think that's the time whenever the students really feel like they can ask us those questions like, "Is this a stupid question to ask?" And we've been asking those same questions at some point very recently. So we're able to help them through those steps and what that looks like.
Derek Smith:
How much of it is structured, how much of it is unstructured when you're visiting?
Madeline Prescott:
There is a guideline of topics to talk about, but the core of the program is just to give them another friend, another resource so you can follow the questions that they give us to talk with our students through. Or you can just ask them, how's your freshman year going? What are some things you're struggling with? Where can I help you? In that sort of perspective.
Derek Smith:
Are there that are really powerful in that? I'm assuming it probably takes people a little bit of time to open up, but there's those moments when maybe someone opens up and it encourages other people to do so as well.
Madeline Prescott:
Definitely. So on the one-on-ones, you definitely get more of a personal relationship with your students and it's fun to go back into the classroom and watch each student start to interact with one another. And I think that's super special is they're given an automatic group of friends, a group of girls and guys around them that they can get to know that are asking the same questions as they are. So they feel less siloed in that sense because going into freshman year, everything you're going into is really new. So you feel like you're the only one that doesn't have it figured out because no one's really asking those questions to one another. But in that classroom setting, they have the opportunity to ask those questions and be like, "I was wondering the same thing. That wasn't a dumb question to ask. These are valid things to be curious about."
Derek Smith:
Do they ever stump you with the question?
Madeline Prescott:
Sometimes they. Sometimes they brought up some new stuff that I'm like, "That's a good one," but we're able to find the right resources and whether that's emailing our advisors and asking them for help in that scenario.
Derek Smith:
Well, to that end, Laura, how do you all help prepare students like Madeline and other peer leaders for the role?
Laura Lalani:
So we do train them. A lot of them are great and they already are so familiar with a lot of the resources, but we do have a training process for those students because there are some administrative tasks and some things that they do need to know. So that's part of what we do as we're getting ready for our next peer leader group to come on board this upcoming fall.
Derek Smith:
This is Baylor Connections, we are discussing the Billington Peer Leader Program in Baylor's Hankamer School of Business with Laura Lalani, associate director for Student Success Initiatives in Hankamer. And Madeline Prescott, a senior double major in management and entrepreneurship and corporate innovation. You talk about how you prepare them. As you go back and visit after meetings, what are those meetings as you talk with your peer leaders about what they're hearing, and how valuable is it just to hear what the questions are being asked on the ground by your students?
Laura Lalani:
Yeah. So we meet with our peer leaders mid-semester just to get a pulse on what's going on. I mean, we communicate with them regularly, but we do get a sense of what's going on right now with them. And then we also do an exit interview at the end. And it's really fascinating to hear how the peer leaders themselves grow so much throughout the semester, and what is surprising to them about what they're personally learning and how they're growing, and those soft skills that they're going to be able to translate even later on to another job or another workplace. One funny story, I had a peer leader tell me one time that he didn't know he could carry a conversation for 45 minutes completely by himself. So he was very proud of himself, and it was just really indicative of just how they grow as leaders throughout that time.
Derek Smith:
Madeline mentioned the relationships and obviously the peer leader forms a relationship with his or her mentees, but also when you talk about these classes, these groups of students getting to know each other, sounds like there's some depth and breadth in the way this connects students to their fellow Hankamer students.
Laura Lalani:
Yes. So as I mentioned before, all of our pre-business students are required to take a new student experience course. So the peer leader groups are embedded within that new student experience course. So they meet as a large group on Fridays, but then it's that small group that's the peer leader that's a part of that class, that is really where the magic happens. Right, Madeline? And that's that small group and then they get assigned that one-on-one leader. So it really is a part of what we're already doing in the school of business, but it's what deepens those relationships where they get to connect with an older student but also with each other in that small group and get to know each other.
Derek Smith:
I've seen some news in recent years, Baylor has continued to increase retention and again, this past year celebrated record retention. How much do you see something like this playing into results like that?
Laura Lalani:
Absolutely. And like I mentioned before, not every single student is going to stay a business student, but we believe that they have a place here at Baylor. So I think it's that combination of yes, we are supporting you as a student and helping you grow as a person regardless of whether or not you stay in the business school, or that you find a better fit major elsewhere at the university.
Derek Smith:
I think certainly too, Hankamer has a lot of students across campus really, across Baylor students who are natural leaders or who have that leadership potential to be developed. We've seen Baylor recognized as a best college for Future Leaders by Time Magazine each of the last couple of years now. So Madeline, I want to ask you, how do you feel like this is shaping your own understanding of your leadership ability?
Madeline Prescott:
Yeah, definitely. So like she mentioned, we have that classroom set up and that is more of a lecture style class per se. Whenever you're in the front of the classroom and you're giving a presentation, and honestly the freshmen are very intimidating to present to, in my opinion. They are not quite sure what's going on. It's the first time they're in a college classroom usually. So that's definitely been a skill I've been able to develop is how to present in front of an audience, how to engage that audience and get them to retain the information that we're giving them.
But like she mentioned earlier too, in those smaller one-on-one settings, there's some students that have a harder time opening up or don't necessarily want to continue the conversation, but we want to make sure that they know that we're a resource for them, that we're there for them. So you continue to talk to them and you continue to try to open up that door and help open up that line of communication. And I think that's also a unique skill that we get to develop of how we get to help people open up to one another.
Derek Smith:
Does it give you a deeper appreciation for your professors going up there?
Madeline Prescott:
Definitely. I've definitely started nodding, and smiling more in class so that they understand those cues because the freshmen sometimes give you blank stares because like I said, they're not exactly sure what's going on. It's their first college class, especially whenever they see a fellow student stand up in front of them, sometimes it's a little bit harder for them to want to respect what we have to say. So learning how to validate what we're saying and showing them how it can truly help them.
Derek Smith:
Laura, this program, it is really about the students who are being mentored and helping set them up for success, but as far as the peer leaders, how much is that a focus on just developing them as leaders for when they go out into the business world?
Laura Lalani:
Yeah. I think a lot of that is that training piece and getting to work with wonderful students like Madeline, but that self-reflection piece is really important and critical and we have myself and another staff member, Chad Shearn, that are helping lead out on this program, especially him as well, being able to invest in those students and to develop them as leaders, is just as important, and that self-reflection piece is key.
Derek Smith:
When you think about just Hankamer and its mission and its goals, how important is that leadership piece?
Laura Lalani:
I think it's the school of business living out their values and missions because it's one thing to say that you want to build leaders, it's another thing to put that into action and to build a program where you are able to do that and serve. I mean, those are the values and the tenets that hold up. The literal building of the school of business are our values. They're written on the pillars within the building. So I think that this program in particular is an excellent example of the school of business living out that mission.
Derek Smith:
Visiting with Laura Lalani and Madeline Prescott here on Baylor Connections. Madeline, I'm curious for you as a senior, a double major, you've got a lot on your plate, this is an important part of that. How much does essentially teaching your fellow students, do you ever find yourself drawing on that? Sometimes they say the best way to learn something is to teach it. Do you ever remind yourself, "I better make sure I'm doing that as well in these situations?"
Madeline Prescott:
Definitely. I always like to say to our freshmen, the most important skill you can develop is learning how to calendar, have either paper calendar or digital calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook calendar, have something of that sort to lay out your classes on and lay out everything that you need to do in a day so you have time to do it. So we usually have that lesson come through the first two, three weeks of school and then I'll look at my calendar and be like, "I have put nothing on this." So there is a good sense of checking us and making sure that we're doing what we need to do. And it also just reminds me how important these skills are because these are things that have carried me through college so far, and being able to maintain those skills has been super important.
Derek Smith:
And Laura mentioned there's regular interaction between you all and peer leaders and those in Student Success Initiatives in Hankamer, but I'm curious, how much do you and your fellow peer leaders compare notes? What are some of the things that you find yourselves discussing when you do so?
Madeline Prescott:
That's a good question. I think a lot of what we talk about is how do we get our students to engage in the classroom setting specifically because freshmen, they're scared to be in that larger classroom. They're scared to speak up in front of other people, so what's the best way to go about that? And just sharing notes on building that skill and us as leaders, but also, talking about just the funny stories. Because every single class we have in our large classes, we have an icebreaker that we do, and sometimes they're given to us and sometimes we can make our own up depending on the mood of our class. And some of those required, the students give us some funny stories, and so we just get to share stories. And I think that's been super fun.
Derek Smith:
Obviously you're very busy as a double major. Why is this something you want to make sure you really invest in and continue to?
Madeline Prescott:
So my spring semester of my freshman year, whenever I was involved in the program as a mentee, my really guided me in terms of what to get involved in the business school. And that has served me so well and I've seen how that's developed my character and developed my leadership abilities while I've been in the business school at Baylor. So that was a major reason I wanted to give that back to other community. And I saw what value her words had, and there were a lot of things I had questions about and I was like, "I don't know how to do this, so I'm just not going to do it." She goes, "No, you're going to do it, and here's how you're going to do it." So I really value that input that she was able to give me, and that's something I've wanted just to give back to the community we have.
Derek Smith:
That's great. I think you all have really painted this picture as we've been talking, but Laura, I want to ask you specifically again, what does this program say about Hankamer's desire for its students and desired with the role it wants to play?
Laura Lalani:
Yeah. I believe that it shows the school of business really desires that student success, that is that multidimensional. That it gives someone an opportunity to serve in many different ways and to connect in many different ways and to continue to expand that network to develop leaders, but also just really prioritizing students as a whole. We call it continuity of care in the business school. So showing that caring community that we have at Baylor University, but also the School of Business, and I think it's just a part of so many great initiatives that we have going on in the school of business of just showing how much we care about our students, and that we want them to grow as people because our whole goal is to send them forth into the world after they graduate. So I think this is just one stair step on just the many that are to come throughout their time in the business school.
Derek Smith:
Obviously it's a very robust program already, but still fairly young in terms of having been formed in 2022 into '23. I'm curious, where do you see this program going and growing from here?
Laura Lalani:
So we are very excited that we are able to expand this program, this upcoming fall to every single pre-business student. So what that's going to entail is that we have to hire peer leaders because those students there, they are hired. They do receive a stipend for their service with our students. So being able to recruit those students is really key to have those leaders, and leaders like Madeline who came along even when the program was so young and that we didn't have a lot of people who had gone through it yet, but that believed in the mission and believed in the purpose of this. And were able to just create this whole different culture also within the business school. So we will be serving all of our pre-business students with this program this upcoming fall, and that really is thanks to John and Dina Billington able to support this program financially to give us the infrastructure to impact all of these incoming students next year.
Derek Smith:
So fitting in a business school, it's like you're a startup and now you're just growing and scaling.
Laura Lalani:
Exactly.
Derek Smith:
What have you learned about Hankamer students through that's particularly impressed you as we close things out through this?
Laura Lalani:
I have learned that they are resilient, that they are interested in serving and helping each other, most of all, and that they're really passionate about building relationships with each other. And that relationships are key to helping them be successful and that they do care about one another, and that they are able to just help them be successful. It's the small things, Madeline, where they just want to say like, "Hey, let me help you find that room. I don't know where that room is." Or you're having trouble registering for classes. Yes, let me pull up mine and show you how I do it. So I think that is what makes it really special, this particular program.
Derek Smith:
Definitely. Absolutely. Well, you all have painted a great picture of that and I really appreciate it and no students will look forward to getting involved and good luck as you... Sounds like you've got a lot of great candidates to be peer leaders down the line, and I'm sure you'll find them as you grow this. Well, Madeline and Laura, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today on the program.
Madeline Prescott:
Thank you so much.
Laura Lalani:
Yes. Thank you so much for having us.
Derek Smith:
Great to have you both with us. Laura Lalani, associate director for Student Success Initiatives in Baylor's Hankamer School of Business, and Madeline Prescott, a senior double major in management and entrepreneurship and corporate innovation, our guests today on Baylor Connections. I'm Derek Smith. A reminder, you can hear this and other programs online at baylor.edu/connections if you can subscribe on iTunes. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor Connections.