After struggling to adjust to her new college life last fall, Elizabeth Manzanero found a place to call home.
She said her friends at the Queer Academy, a student group under the Queer Alliance organization, provided her with advice and guidance to get the help she needed.
“It was very comforting having someone there to give that extra nudge,” said Manzanero, a second-year political science student. “If you had academic problems, they would suggest that you go to the (Academic Advancement Program). If you had emotional problems, they would suggest that you go to the (Counseling and Psychological Services) center.”
Now, Manzanero is a coordinator for Queer Academy, a holistic “peertorship” program for queer students at UCLA that started last winter. The program serves as a resource for students and provides emotional support during difficult times, Manzanero said.
Queer Academy participants are called peertors and peertees, which group members said is “a radicalized name for what’s more commonly known as ‘mentorship.'” Group members said they use the term peertorship to try to be gender-inclusive, since the word “mentorship” contains the word “men.”
Forty-six students are in the program: 20 peetors and 26 peertees, Manzanero said.
During Manzanero’s first winter quarter at UCLA, when the program began, she was a peertee in the program. This year, she’s a peertor.
Manzanero said one of her fondest memories during the program was sitting on the grassy hill near Janss Steps with her Queer Academy peertor during her first year.
The two of them would sit and talk about how she was feeling, her classes and any problems she was having at the moment. Being with her peertor created a safe, relaxing environment for her, she said.
“That area brings back a lot of good memories,” she said.
Manzanero said the program helped her get through her first year at UCLA, which was difficult both academically and emotionally. She added that her UCLA experience was positively transformed by her participation in the Queer Academy program.
Students in the program are placed into different groups, which they call families, and each family organizes its own social activities, Manzanero said.
Manzanero said she remembers studying with her family – called #Fabulous – at an apartment during midterms week her first year at UCLA.
Manzanero said she met with her two peertees for the first time last week.
Weiwen Balter, a first-year sociology student, is one of Manzanero’s peertors for this year.
Balter said she heard about the program through the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Campus Resource Center.
She added that she likes the program because she can talk about whatever is on her mind during meetings.
Manzanero said peertors are paired with peertees based on an application that each of them fills out. Program coordinators try to match students who have similar interests and who will work together well based on their years and schools and where they are from, Manzanero said.
Jesus Duran, Manzanero’s peertor last year, is a UCLA alumnus who graduated in June.
Duran said he saw Manzanero grow into a more confident student and leader over the school year. Though Duran was there to help her with whatever she wanted to talk about, Duran said he thinks he grew from his relationship with her as well.
He said what he likes most about the program is that it encourages the peertor and peertee to be equals. Both the peertor and peertee can share their experiences with one another.
“You learn so much from each other,” Duran said. “I knew I was going to get something out of it as well.”
Overall, seems like an awesome concept. That said, changing “mentorship” to “peertorship” to give it a “radicalized name” seems kind of silly. Mentorship comes from the Greek name, Mentōr. Mentōr was an adviser to Odysseus’ son Telemachus in the Odyssey by Homer, not a symbol of patriarchal hetero-normative oppression. But to each their own.