Get Involved

Student leaders in a roundtable discussion

Get Involved

 

Student Wellbeing offers several paid opportunities, unpaid internships and volunteer opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students interested in health and wellbeing. Many of these positions include opportunities to hone public speaking skills, presentation development and facilitation, event planning, marketing, peer support and more! If you’re interested in being a change agent for campus wellbeing, please apply to get involved!

Peer Education Opportunities

Bystander Intervention Peer Educators (BIPEs)

In partnership with professional staff, BIPE facilitate the “Blue Hens CARE and Intervene” initiative, an interactive sexual misconduct prevention program that uses the bystander approach to promote communities that embody a culture of CARE, where everyone recognizes they play a role in preventing sexual and relationship violence.

Training Requirements
BIPEs are expected to complete 15 hours of training during August before facilitating programs on their own.

Compensation
$15 per hour

How to Apply
If you are interested in applying to join the BIPEs, fill out our application. For more information, read the full BIPE position description.

Recruitment takes place each spring semester, with training the following August.

Apply to join the BIPEs

Mental Health Peer Educators (MHPEs)

Mental Health Peer Educators (MHPEs) promote the mental health and wellbeing of students and the campus community by:

  • Providing education and practical skills on topics including mindfulness, stress management, reducing stigma and suicide prevention, delivered via presentations to student groups and classes, as well as campus-wide events
  • Raising awareness of issues impacting mental health and wellbeing
  • Assist with service connection and referrals to on-campus services and resources, such as the Center for Counseling and Student Development, Student Wellness and Health Promotion, Sexual Offense Support, TimelyCare and the UD Helpline

Training Requirements
Mental Health Peer Educators are expected to complete several hours of training before facilitating programs on their own.

Compensation
$15 per hour

How to Apply
Recruitment takes place each spring semester, with training the following August.

Contact MHPE@udel.edu for more information!

Healthy HENS

Healthy HENS provides preventative student health screenings, wellness promotion services and a variety of campus-wide activities and educational outreach efforts that encourage Healthy Exercise, Nutrition and Sleep, as well as stress and sexuality.

The goals of Healthy HENS are to:

  • Identify, educate and assist all students in need of health and wellness services
  • Promote lifestyle change with regard to improving student health, exercise, nutrition, sleep and stress
  • Assist students in meeting their personal goals through the support of healthcare professionals and peer interactions
  • Foster lifelong healthy behaviors that will aid in improving self esteem and body image, as well as chronic disease prevention or management

Training Requirements
Healthy HENS are expected to complete several hours of training before facilitating programs on their own.

Compensation
$15 per hour

How to Apply
Recruitment takes place each spring semester, with training the following August.

Contact healthyhens@udel.edu for more information!

Sexual Offense Support (SOS) Advocates

SOS Advocates provide support for survivors of sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating/domestic violence and stalking via our 24 hour crisis service, and provide support for those who are assisting survivors. SOS serves anyone in the UD community, including faculty, staff, undergrads, graduate students, parents, family and friends of survivors.

SOS Advocates also present prevention-based educational programs on campus. Applicants do not need to have studied gender-based violence, as training is provided. Applicants should be able to listen to the wide range of feelings that accompany these very traumatic offenses, convey empathy and provide information and options to callers. It is also important that applicants consider their own experiences with sexual misconduct, their healing process, support system, coping strategies, wellness or self-care plan, and have reached a place of emotional and psychological readiness to assist other survivors.

Requirements
Each applicant must be able to attend all training sessions in order to be considered.

We are looking for volunteers who, once trained, are willing to:

  • Be involved in SOS for at least one year after training.
  • Take shifts on the 24 hour helpline, assisting survivors or parents, friends or UD staff who call.
  • Provide audience support at potentially triggering campus events, deliver SOS educational programs, and provide SOS information and materials at campus fairs and events.
  • Attend meetings at least once per month.
  • Conduct interviews of new candidates each November.
  • Help, in any of a variety of ways, at our annual training program each January.
  • Abide by the ethical guidelines and reporting mandates that SOS advocates are required to follow.

How to Apply

  1. Read through our Frequently Asked Questions.
  2. After you have read everything on this page, complete the Online Application Form. If you have difficulty with the online form, contact us at Student Wellness and Health Promotion, 305 Warner Hall, 302-831-3457 or email sos-non-crisis@udel.edu.
  3. After the application deadline, you will be contacted with more information.
  4. Interviews will be held in November.
  5. Our goal is always to notify applicants of their status by the end of November (before Thanksgiving break begins, if possible.)
  6. Mandatory Training is held in January and during the Spring.

Apply to be an SOS Advocate

 

Compensation
At the moment SOS is a volunteer experience but we are hopeful that we will be able to offer it as a paid opportunity in the near future.

SOS Advocates Frequently Asked Questions

We accept application once a year, beginning at the start of the fall semester, with a deadline typically at the end of October. Please check back each fall semester for our next application period.

Unfortunately, there is not. SOS training provides the critical information and skill development for anyone who wishes to serve as an advocate on our 24/7 crisis service and present SOS programs.

Students who would like to join but will be abroad this year are encouraged to apply the following fall semester and plan accordingly to be available for training during the next Winter Session.

Yes, if you are planning to remain in the area for the rest of the year after graduating. A great deal of time, energy and expense goes into planning training, so we ask that advocates commit to at least a year with SOS before moving on. This protects the organization from not losing our most valuable resource too soon—our advocates—so that we can continue to provide the services we offer. It also enhances the value of your experience by allowing you opportunities to practice your skills on the 24 hour crisis helpline and presenting programs.

There are some clear expectations of time commitment that are fixed, while others are more flexible. Members are in control of when, and how often, they sign up for their commitments in SOS

  • Mandatory training: The two weekends of training in January (30 hours) are mandatory. Students cannot join SOS unless they can commit to both of these two weekends.
  • Additional Training: The semester following your training, there will also be the option of completing 10 additional hours of training to make you eligible for a national advocate credential. This portion is not required to join SOS.
  • Meetings: SOS holds meetings every other week (about twice per month, sometimes more). It is important for members to attend in order to participate in group planning and decision-making, to allow members the opportunity to process contacts they have had and to stay abreast of what is going on in the organization. Of course, your academic commitments come before SOS, but volunteers are asked to commit to attending half of these in a given semester (about once/month).
  • Duty Shifts: An individual duty shift lasts for a 24 hour period from 7 p.m. of one night until 7 p.m. of the following night. Advocates are asked to sign up for at least one duty shift every month. In some months, like January and June through August, many members are at home, abroad or engaged in full-time internships that make it difficult to take shifts. In these months, it is helpful when those available members can take more shifts to ensure that the schedule gets covered. Beyond these basics, the commitment level is up to the individual—some members wish to take more shifts to get more experience or to work toward the next level of certification, while others may prefer or need to take less in a given month. There are provisions built in to cover shifts when advocates have a sudden emergency, death in the family, breakup, illness or other hardship.
  • Programs: There isn’t a specific minimum number of programs that advocates are asked to do. That said, it is the responsibility of the group to ensure that program requests get filled. The commitment level is up to the individual—some members wish to get a lot of programming experience, while others may prefer or need to take less in a given month.
  • Interviews: Each November we interview new applicants wishing to join SOS. All advocates are asked to participate in at least one interview night, and we may need some advocates to volunteer to do a second night in order to interview all applicants.

Shifts are not assigned. Each advocate is in control of what dates they sign up for duty, and how many to take on. Shift sign-up is managed through an online platform. The goal is always to have a month filled about a week prior to the start of that month.

  • Find your people: Many advocates report having found their place at UD in SOS, finding a fit in this meaningful community and making lifelong friends. If you are passionate about victim advocacy, ending sexism and sexual/relationship violence, helping others, educating or effecting change in the world, the members of SOS might be your people too!
  • Resume-builder: if you are interested in going into victim advocacy, sexual violence prevention, counseling, domestic violence prevention, public policy, nursing, social work, social services, medicine or criminal justice, the experience you gain as an advocate will be a huge selling point on your resume.
  • Practical skills: Many advocates learn helping and communication skills through their work in SOS that assist them in their own personal relationships, work relationships and in their classes. In addition, advocates become more comfortable giving presentations and hone their facilitation skills.
  • Life-changer: Many advocates report having found their true passion and career focus through their participation in the group. In fact, SOS alumni have gone on to work professionally in Delaware in victim services at the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) or Know Your IX, or to work in higher education as faculty or Student Life professionals. Alumni have also gone on to medical school, law school or to seek advanced degrees in public policy, criminal justice, sociology and more.
  • Certification: SOS training is an National Advocate Credentialing Program pre-approved course. Trainees who successfully complete all 40 hours of SOS training will be eligible to apply for certification in victim advocacy through the National Organization for Victim Assistance’s NACP at the Provisional Level. With additional experience and training, advocates may seek NACP certification at the Basic, Intermediate or Advanced level. In this way, SOS training and experience is an asset for those intending to pursue a career in victim services or advocacy.
  • Fun and connection: SOS meetings provide not only dinner to members, but also a safe space for everyone to be who they are and feel accepted.

Survivors can be awesome and powerful advocates for other survivors, after they have gone through an active healing process and reached a place of readiness to help others. Survivors’ own vulnerabilities can be exposed or triggered when working in this role. It is important for you to consider:

  • What have you done to engage in an active healing process? How do you cope with crisis and stress?
  • If you have triggers, how do you manage them?
  • What has brought you to the point where you feel the next step for you is advocacy work?

Survivors may be asked to engage in a second interview to explore these themes. It is dangerous to the health and wellbeing of survivors who are not, in fact, ready to be advocates to try to serve in that role, and it is dangerous to the health and wellbeing of those survivors who call SOS seeking help to have survivors serving as advocates who are not fully emotionally and psychologically prepared for this role. It is with all parties’ best interests at heart that we approach this topic when we are interviewing candidates.

Internships

Internships are available on a rolling basis throughout the fall and spring semesters. Applications will be posted as positions become available.

Sexual Offense Support (SOS) Internship

The SOS Internship offers a variety of experiences which can be contoured to the student’s interests. This internship can be completed in conjunction with a required class in a variety of academic majors or minors. The SOS Internship may be designed to meet the hours required by the course. Past interns have completed 40 hour, 80 hour or 400 hour internships.

Example Responsibilities

  • Designing new educational programs
  • Researching best practices in prevention and education of sexual violence
  • Conducting on-campus surveys facilitating focus groups with current students
  • Working at health fair tables and campus events to promote SOS
  • Serving on the Sexual Assault Prevention & Education committee and supporting events
  • Preparing SOS training materials or assisting with administrative tasks designing and distributing publicity materials
  • Communicating with the SOS victim advocates about projects

Previous training as an SOS victim advocate is a plus and those interns may be asked to complete alternate tasks. Interns have the opportunity to attend state-wide coalition and committee meetings, which offer the opportunity to network, learn more about professional career paths in their field of study, and be involved beyond the campus environment. The SOS Intern is supervised by the SOS Coordinator, Zainab Shah.

Sexual Violence Prevention Internship

The Sexual Violence Prevention Internship provides opportunities for students to engage in gender-based violence prevention and education, particularly within the college setting. The learning experience can be tailored to suit the specific interests of the student, who will work closely with Joanne Sampson, Program Coordinator for Violence Prevention.

This internship can be adapted to fulfill the number of hours required by a specific course or program (not suitable for 600 hours). Applicants should be self-starters, and have an interest in gender-based violence prevention.

Example Responsibilities

  • Designing educational programs
  • Researching best practices in gender-based violence prevention with a focus on engaging men; healthy masculinity; bystander intervention; consent education; and healthy sexuality
  • Working on campaigns, and promotion of events
  • Maintaining websites and social media

Interns have the opportunity to attend state-wide coalition and committee meetings, which offer the opportunity to network, learn more about professional career paths in their field of study and be involved beyond the campus environment.