PURPOSE
Medical students anecdotally cite peers as a vital resource for research
opportunities, especially through “word-of-mouth” means. This abstract
describes the process of piloting a student-led peer mentorship program and
elective as part of the Academic Medicine Student Organization, a student
interest group at McGovern Medical School (MMS), and the insights from peer
mentor recruitment.
METHODS
The program was piloted during the 2025-2026 academic year. We designated
mentees as MS1 students interested in longitudinal and/or summer research
opportunities and mentors as students at or above the MS2 year with research
experience. To incentivize participation and set clear mentor expectations,
we designed an extracurricular elective to pair with the program with these
requirements: an introductory “Effective Mentoring Orientation” lecture led
by the MMS research office, five minimum mentoring hours, and completion of
mandatory pre- and post-program surveys. Upon completion, mentors receive
extracurricular credit on their transcript. Peer mentors were assigned 1-2
mentees and matched based on aspects of their professional and personal
identity, including research/specialty interests.
RESULTS
The elective has completed recruitment with 58 MS1s, capturing 24% of their
class (n=240). 42 mentors participated in the program, including MS2s, MS3s,
MS4s, and students in a research gap year. 76% (n=32) of the peer mentors
completed both the required Effective Mentoring Orientation and pre-program
survey, which captured qualitative data on mentors’ motivations for
participating in the program. Notably, 81.3% (n=26) of the surveyed mentors
ranked 5/5 importance for “paying it forward” through mentorship in medicine.
CONCLUSIONS
A formal extracurricular elective developing student mentorship skills can
not only streamline mentors’ goals but also reaffirm their place in academic
medicine. This peer mentorship program ultimately encourages meaningful
reflection about research involvement and aims to increase research
accessibility.