Consideraciones sobre el Indicador de Bienestar

The subtheme synergistic relationship describes the relationships peers began to make with one another to help them create a comfortable and supportive college

environment. Synergistic refers to ‘acting together’ and working together in a creative, productive manner. Students began to bond with their peers regarding their experiences both in and outside of the classroom. They all realized and found a common purpose and cooperating with one another through study groups and their classroom experiences was beneficial to their college experience. By working together, students were creating relationships with their peers, which went beyond the study groups towards friendships and accountability partners. Students were able to hold one another accountable where they may feel they were lagging behind. These connections were happening through orientation, freshmen seminar, and the residence halls as well as through the classroom. Peers began to discuss their homework and class assignments and form study groups; collaborating and working together to pass their classes and understand assignments better. This relationship was organic and began to happen as students entered college, finding like-minded peers who understood their struggles and needs. These connections with their peers created this synergistic relationship that helped students not feel alone in this, at times, overwhelming college experience. This was a common thread throughout

all the focus groups as well as quick-writes. This connection they felt with their peers created a sense of belonging and feeling that their peers were going through the same struggles and concerns they had been going through. Some quick-writes supported this idea of not being alone, including;

Helped me realize I am not the only one going through this struggle. Fortunate to have people relate to my problems.

I am not alone in my college freshmen struggle.

It sizes down the issues and really puts things in perspective. Helps relieve the stress.

I personally love freshmen seminar. Since it’s a small class size we all relate with one another and really talk and express ourselves.

The ability to make friends was seen through the quick-writes and focus groups as the smoothest transition for most students. This sense of belonging helped them navigate and move through this first semester of college. They realized they would not just be studying but able to make true connections within the first few days and weeks of the semester. Forming these synergistic relationships are important for the integration into this new environment. They felt that freshmen seminar was the easiest place to meet peers to connect with and do homework with since many were taking the same courses and in freshmen seminar together. Many of the students expressed how they combined both studying and socializing together. For example, Amit stated, “So you don’t have to say, oh, I can’t hang out with you because I have to finish my essay because it is right in

front of you, kind of doing both.” They understood they could both study and socialize at the same time.

The majority of students also discussed forming study groups. These study groups involved biology, chemistry, and math to name a few. They formed study groups during the entire semester and others during their common exams. As Amit stated,

You have someone to go do it with so you have more than one opinion and a lot of times when I do homework assignments by myself, I don’t get it, and I put it away; it’s easier to have someone with you and have a different perspective on everything, so including like a math problem, you look at it one way, she looks at it a different way, she might have a better, you know.

The study groups as a form of supportive relationships also emphasizes the synergistic nature of these relationships and the ability to develop relational networks. These connections with their peers were helping them gain confidence in their

assignments. They began to rely on one another to complete their homework and felt talking the assignment through with another peer benefited them. Amit stated:

You just got back to doing homework by yourself, feel lost, and first I don’t want to do it but if I’m with someone then that kind of encourages me to figure out how to do it or what’s wrong, things like that. You deal with it with someone in a way, you have someone to talk to.

Samantha expressed the reliance her and her roommate had on one another. They became accountability partners, which was helpful since they were in the same classes and major.

Before college I was really bad with time management and I procrastinated a lot. But my roommate is like really organized so I was like we are the same major, we are in the same classes so I will stick with you. But now I find myself telling her, let’s do this today because you keep me on top, but now I’m on top. To her she helped me at first and now we help each other. We do our homework together and we stay on top of things. We will meet at this time and get this done so it helps me and it helps with doing homework as well.

Chris stated how it was useful having a class with freshmen and her/his peers: I know for me like I thought I was the only one who was like bad at chemistry and who wasn’t getting it and then I found out everyone else was too which felt good; it’s not good but at the same time it was comforting knowing I wasn’t the only one. I had no idea what was going on.

Students felt their peers helped with their confidence, procrastination, and being held accountable. The synergistic relationships, particularly helped students support each other both emotionally and academically in a positive way. Developing relational

networks seemed to be an important part of successful adjustment to the college

experience. Zion stated, “I feel like peer help is the best thing if you have gone through it or going through it with someone regardless if we have different sections we have the same work, its helpful.” Included below are a few additional quick-write comments illustrating students experiencing the positive support evident in a synergistic relationship:

Finding others who are having the same troubles and work together.

Good time to unwind and understand there are other people going through the same thing.

I wasn’t the only one dealing with stress – not alone in the process. I am not the only student who has questions and doubts.

See the same people – brought me with people that were going through the same experience as I was, so I felt like I wasn’t alone with my problems – made the transition possible.