1492 The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching, Vol. 1, December 2017, Special Issue 8 T HE C HRONICLE of MENTORING & COACHING TM Appreciative Advising for Peer Mentors: A Training Module for Peer Mentor Programs Stephens, V. Dickinson College One of the challenges for new and established peer mentor programs is designing an effective training curriculum that will prepare mentors for the variety of challenges they may encounter with their mentees. This paper will expose directors of peer mentor programs to an innovative training unit they could employ for their programs. The presentation adapts key principles from The Appreciative Advising Revolution (Bloom, Hutson, & He, 2008) and fuses them with the goal setting parameters outlined in the classic mentoring text Students Helping Students (Newton & Ender, 2010). The session will illustrate the relevance of components of Appreciative Advising as a tool for helping peer mentors empower their mentees to refect on strengths and areas of growth, and develop a process for crafting relevant, measurable goals written in a positive framework. In addition to sharing the presentation’s content via Power Point I will share examples of training materials crafted for helping mentors learn the model as well as templates that will aid mentees in documenting their goals, support resources, progress and completion. Appreciative Advising is a potentially transformative tool for helping mentors generate positive sustainable developmental relationships since mentorship and advising are both rooted in a collaborative, asset-based approach. Introduction Peer mentoring programs are well regarded in higher education as a credible method of enriching undergraduate persistence and academic performance (Crisp & Cruz, 2009, p. 532). The premise of peer mentoring is broad enough to entail a variety of program types including programs focused on frst year students, students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors, and/or historically underrepresented populations. There is no universal defnition of peer mentoring currently. One study has identifed three aspects that have achieved a relative consensus notably, “mentoring relationships are focused on the growth and accomplishment of an individual and include several forms of assistance,” “a mentoring experience may include broad forms of support including assistance with professional and career development,” and “mentoring relationships are personal and reciprocal” (Crisp & Cruz, 2009, p. 528; Jacobi, 1991, p. 505-532). After co-directing a peer-mentoring program for students from traditionally underrepresented groups at a selective liberal arts college for four years, I noticed a consistent pattern in their mentoring practices. Though the mentors received 15 weeks of initial training, and yearly skills reviews and supplemental training sessions, they consistently struggled to discuss academic performance with their mentees inconspicuously. Though mentors were not expected to review grades explicitly, and staff did not share or discuss mentee grades with mentors, many mentors still felt awkward and intrusive addressing grades. Goal Setting Goal setting was a cornerstone of our program, as it is for most peer mentor programs. One of the key challenges for understanding, even among our most seasoned mentors, is that individual assignment and course grades were really components of a larger cognitive picture. As Chickering & Reisser (1993) have argued, one of the challenges for maturing college students is developing a purpose which “requires formulating plans for action…that integrate three major elements: 1) vocational plans and aspirations; 2) personal interests; and 3) interpersonal and family commitments (p. 212). Setting smaller goals are a component of this maturation which feeds into larger philosophical life questions. As a staff member, I have constantly sought resources to enrich training and supervision, especially regarding trouble areas for mentors, like discussing grades as well as more general struggles in mentor-mentee communication. I eventually turned to academic advising, a feld I was familiar with from seven years of advising experience. Through my ongoing interest in developments in advising, I was exposed to Appreciative Advising (AA), “a social-constructivist advising philosophy that provides a framework for optimizing advisor interactions with students in both individual and group settings” (Bloom, Hutson, & He, 2008; 11). The core innovation of AA is a six-stage approach to communication, comprised of the Disarm, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Don’t Settle stages. These terms serve as shorthand for strategies that help professionals build trust,