“I don’t know anything about chemistry,” I thought, as I read an email informing me that my first placement as a student consultant with the Students as Learners and Teachers (SaLT) Program would be in an organic chemistry lab. I was a political science major. What could possibly qualify me to work with a STEM professor?

In this essay, I consider my role as a student consultant across these three partnerships. Each placement challenged me to adapt to new and unfamiliar subjects, different classroom cultures, and a variety of goals and intentions for the partnership. All three partnerships proved to be valuable opportunities for personal growth and development in my practice as a consultant, and together they convinced me that my non-STEM identity was an asset to my faculty partners and our work together.

Students as Partners

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