Twenty-three students from American University of Sharjah (AUS) attended a training workshop for the Peer Leaders Program held for the Spring 2012 orientation. The workshop was organized by the Student Leadership Program of the Office of Student Affairs.

The Peer Leaders Program is based on the core principle that peers strongly influence the development of attitude and behaviors of one another. The main role of the peer leaders is to ease the transition of new admitted students from high school to university life by being their role models, guides, mentors and friends. The program requires peer leaders to adopt two to five new students during orientation day and ensure that they easily adapt into university life. In addition to benefiting freshmen, this program also provides the participating students with opportunities to develop and enhance their leadership and interpersonal skills.

The main objective of this workshop was to update the peer leaders about a checklist for all new students, which included various points about essential rules, procedures and steps which new students had to complete before registration during the orientation week and throughout the first week of classes. The checklist also highlighted the main roles and tasks of some AUS departments which new students would be visiting during their first two weeks on campus.

The Peer Leaders Program will continue developing and improving itself through its peer leaders' feedback and comments," said Dr. Moza Al Shehhi, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. "We, in Student Affairs, deeply believe that students must be given the opportunity to speak up and give their opinions to improve the program, as they are the ones who can better tell how the program can advance based on their experience during the orientation and through their communications with the new-admitted students."
Haya Hasan, a sophomore student majoring in computer engineering said, "The training session for the Peer Leaders Program was more like a semi-formal training where the peer leaders were guided through various steps which included an informative presentation and an interactive discussion. Over all, the training was beneficial, interesting and productive.

The workshop enhanced my leadership skills and it taught me to be more confident when I talk to parents and students," said Ali Lootah, a junior student majoring in design management.