Peer mentors provided their students with resources at the Meet Your FAM event held on Wednesday, Jan. 24, and Friday, Jan. 26, in East Hall.

The event, open to all but tailored toward transfer students, allowed the Friends at Marshall to give a warm welcome to the students who started their Marshall journey this semester.

“They don’t have that Week of Welcome; they don’t get to build a bison,” said Kenzie Clark, a first-year FAM.

“What we’re trying to do is tell them that they are seen and that we are here for them and that they matter,” Clark said.

The mentors are divided into four groups: freshman, sophomore, online and transfer FAMs.

Ta’Marra Cook, a transfer FAM, said the event was a “great way for FAMs to put a name to a face and a face to a name.”

Cook often connects with her students through text and email, but she met her first student in-person at the event after starting as a FAM last semester.

Along with meeting their mentors, the event gave students the opportunity to grab snacks, goodie bags and stickers. They also received the t-shirts freshmen received during Week of Welcome in the fall.

While Clark did not have the chance to connect with any of her students at the event, she said she interacted with several last semester.

As a nursing major, Clark said many nursing students came to her for help with scheduling and finding books for their courses.

Cook, a psychology major, had similar experiences with her students who share her major, giving them class and professor recommendations.

Discussing an interaction between her and a psychology student on Friday, Cook said he appreciated her help and that they could connect as two people in the same major.

Both mentors agreed students should reach out to their FAM any time they are in need.

“We are really, truly a resource for everything,” Clark said. “If you email me for any single question about campus, or even off-campus, we have the access to pretty much every resource available on campus, and we can get you to the people that you need.”

“I am your Marshall search engine,” she went on to say. “If you need anything, you can find it here.”

Cook, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of having someone to talk to as an underclassman.

“Having someone to reach out to, at least weekly, through an email or, occasionally, through a text, is the easiest way for you to have a friend,” Cook said. “We’re basically like their family here at Marshall while they’re away.”

As someone who found the program through another FAM, Cook also recommended being a Friend at Marshall to any sophomore, junior or senior in good academic standing with the University.

For more information about the FAM program, students can reach out to their mentors through email, text, phone or in-person.

For more information about becoming a FAM, students can see Morgan Conley, the assistant direc-
tor of the program, in East Hall.