How to Join

Are you interested in supporting other University of Maryland students? Our chapter opens new Supporter applications at the beginning of each semester.

Applications are OPEN until 2/16/24.

New Applicant

Returning Applicant

1

Complete a short, online application to help us gather some basic information and get to know you better.

2

Select applicants are invited to interview with our administrative team on a rolling basis.

3

After evaluating interviews, decision letters are sent out and Supporter training begins.

Becoming a peer Supporter is easy

Our training process

Step 1

After acceptance, trainees are to attend the first week of training and will be assigned to complete an online training module that consists of a series of videos and articles. Along with this trainees will learn and apply various

conversational skills, such as validating and normalizing, as well as how to respond to specific situations and crisis-situations.

Step 3

After training, Supporters are tested via a final exam on Lean on Me content, and are required to pass a final role-play scenario conducted through text in which they will use the tools they’ve been equipped with to confidently engage in empathetic conversations.

Step 2

Supporters will engage in role play scenarios, and learn how to approach the various topics that may arise in conversation. Attendance of all 6 weeks of mandatory training, which consists of one 2-4 hour workshop each week, is pertinent.