By Abigail Bender

While the University of Maryland provides academic support to students in various ways, including guidance from professors and teaching assistants, a resource that is often overlooked is the fellow student helping in one’s class — academic peer mentors, or AMPs.  

AMPs are undergraduate students who “provide experienced perspectives to students in a course they have previously completed successfully” by supporting the instructor and enhancing student success, according to UMD’s Teaching and Learning Transformation Center. 

“A lot of AMPs talk about kind of gaining a new perspective as a student too, kind of not realizing the effort that goes into creating a course, or just realizing study strategies that are most helpful when they’re on the other side, trying to help students succeed,” said Mona Thompson, manager of the AMP program.

Every student in their first semester as an AMP must enroll in a one-credit course, TLTC333: Fundamentals of Academic Peer Mentoring, taught by Thompson. 

This course consists of weekly asynchronous learning assignments, readings, discussion boards and reflections on how to facilitate a course and engage with students effectively. Thompson said discussion and questioning techniques, as well as information about accessibility resources, are among the course topics AMPs say they find most effective.

“I think that’s been coming up a lot in AMP reflections, too, is just changing the way AMPs think about kind of creating course materials and looking out for students in the class,” Thompson said.

Although it is mostly asynchronous, the course meets in person three times throughout the semester to help AMPs reflect on their leadership skills.

“I think a lot of people talk about organization and time management and communication skills,” Thompson said. “Navigating a lot of different levels of communication, and kind of communicating up and down and managing all of those new responsibilities at once is really big.”

Each college that uses AMPs incorporates its assistance in different ways. Some courses have AMPs who provide one-on-one assistance during a class, while others have AMPs who lead study sessions throughout the semester.

Freshman criminology and criminal justice and global and foreign policy double-major Lourdes Olivencia is an AMP for STAT100: Elementary Statistics and Probability. As an AMP, her role is to aid students during lectures, host review sessions for the exams and offer tutoring to individual students. 

“I decided to become an AMP because I really enjoyed the AMPs in my STAT100 class last semester,” Olivencia said. “They were so kind and so helpful all semester.”

Olivencia said becoming an AMP has helped her improve her teaching and communication skills.

“It’s also helped me learn to just go up and ask people questions in case they’re nervous to ask for help,” Olivencia said.

Ava Burman, a sophomore public health science major, is an AMP for BSCI202: Human Anatomy and Physiology II. She creates interactive games, providing an additional method for students to learn course material.

“Anatomy and Physiology II is my favorite class I’ve taken at UMD, but it is definitely difficult,” Burman said. “I decided to become an academic peer mentor because I enjoy the content and want to help students through the difficult coursework.”

Some instructors with AMPs may allow them to enroll in TLTC399: Independent Study in Academic Peer Mentoring, led by the course instructors. This allows AMPs to gain academic credit for their work. Some departments, including psychology and communications, have their own independent study courses. 

Students who are interested in becoming AMPs for a certain class must consult an instructor to see whether the program is offered for that course, or be invited by the instructor. 

“Some instructors do applications, or some instructors will just ask individual students,” Thompson said. “I say, somebody who, you know, could teach the course material, has done pretty well and then seems responsible.”

Featured Image: The Edward St. John Teaching and Learning Center on April 20, 2026. Photo by Kendrick Brown.