Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Women Peer Counselors By Robin Wisniewski

         Robin Wisniewski was charged with designing and successfully launching a peer counseling program for students with disabilities, low-income backgrounds and first generation students at her University. Wisniewski assumed that the counselors would use traditional methods like note taking techniques, study habits and other basic skills to develop their academic proficiency. Wisniewski was transformed by the thinking of her peers and their way of teaching and learning. 

        The essay revolves around Lauryn and Vania two young African American women in the program. Both women agreed that one of the ways the counseling was affective not only to their mentees but themselves was the family environment that was constructed. Lauryn and Vania genuinely cared for their students, so it became more than tutoring in biology or English but a friendship and a safe environment to try as well as succeed. Lauryn and Vania viewed the program ".. as a family-type environment and compared it to other contexts where they felt comfortable and individual" (p. 78). Within this safe environment tutors also became the pupils, each student using their strengths and weakness to create one group that could conquer anything together. Another unique and compelling component of the peer counseling family structure is the ability to be one whole family yet still have an individual identity. No student was defined by their major or GPA yet their personalities and how they fit into the program. By promoting individuality it serves as a defense against racism and stereotypes. The students learn to acknowledge and embrace  differences in oneself, also being accepted by a family setting makes daily challenges and discrimination more bearable. The author discovers the Gesalt  principle of learning and teaching, that "... the knowledge of a the group was greater than the separate parts, I was working on my skill to assist peer counselors in the discovery of their interests, awareness of their practice, and to facilitate their personal and social liberation" (p. 82). Wisniewski was forced to redefine her rigid structure of learning;the teacher finally became the pupil.