By Eva Kennedy, Staff Reporter
For more than 20 years, Conestoga’s Peer Mediation club has stood as a cornerstone of the school community, consisting of around 200 members. As a school-wide organization, it aims to foster unity within the Conestoga community. Members of Peer Mediation are divided into various branches, each with distinct responsibilities aimed at contributing to different aspects of the school.
To better achieve the club’s goals and recognize the lack of structural changes within the club, the advisers and leadership board of Peer Mediation convened to revamp the club’s framework, with the club set to implement the changes in the 2024-25 school year. This plan involved changing the leadership board, membership criteria and required hours for members, all with the goal of enhancing the experience for club members and the broader school community.
“We feel like the current structure is kind of worn out,” said junior Shruti Satheesh, a Peers Actively Leading (PALS) cabinet member within the Peer Mediation executive board. “Something new might be really helpful and good.”
The planning for the changes began around December 2023 when the advisers and leadership board initiated brainstorming sessions. It was during this period that the board realized one of the issues that needed addressing: the size of the leadership board. Since the leadership board is very large, communication to discuss the needed changes proved challenging. To tackle this problem, the board and advisers decided to reduce the size of the leadership board. The changes have received a wide range of feedback from the Peer Mediation community.
“It seems that people are excited about the changes, but with any change, there could also be some reservations,” Jennifer Kratsa, an adviser of Peer Mediation, said. “And that makes sense. I wouldn’t want everybody to be on board one hundred percent all the time because no good work can happen with one hundred percent consensus; it’s about talking and figuring it out.”
Members within Peer Mediation’s branches each have a separate set of hour requirements due to the differing levels of complexity and requirements. Krasta said students became fixated on the number of hours rather than the tasks they were doing.To address this, the board decided to implement the same set of hour requirements for each branch.
“We don’t want kids counting every hour they give to Peer Mediation,” Krasta said. “It’s more about the tasks they’re completing because they want to and they believe in the message and the goal.”
As the leadership board and advisers prepare to roll out the revamped structure in the 2024-25 school year, Krasta reaffirms their commitment to serving the ’Stoga community.
“We are Peer Mediation, and that is not going to change,” Krasta said. “Any changes we’re making will be for the benefit of the school and for everyone who attends Conestoga.”
Eva Kennedy can be reached at [email protected].
