Elements of Peer Leading

This essay translates leadership experiences into symbols, depicting the roles, challenges, and opportunities that a Peer Leader, guiding multiple workshops in a PLTL Program over the course of a semester or more, encounters as a result of the experience of peer leading. Each peer-led experience, a Leader Element, is linked with a corresponding chemical element symbol representing a specific leadership quality. These analogies highlight how different aspects, like elements in the periodic table, work together to form a well-grounded and effective leader. Each Leader Element representation, listed in the order of elements in the periodic table, encompasses a consistent recurring theme for the essence of a valuable trait acquired during the leadership experience and provides a shared experience discussed during leader meetings. The physical representations of the Leader Elements can also provide a PLTL program with a series of symbolic badges. These badges could be used to represent stages, semesters, or accomplishments awarded to a Peer Leader during the progress of leadership development. This essay supports advice for newcomers to the peer leading position, describing the expectations, qualities, and traits acquired by being a part of the PLTL program during the experience of leading.