Spotlight: The Student Listener Program

By AADITYA BILAKANTI, ISABEL EVANS, ELLEN JIN, OLIVIA LITTLEFIELD, ALEXA MOREL, and ARJUN VELAN

Dorm communities play a vital role in promoting student well-being at Exeter. Each dorm features a team of faculty, proctors, and student listeners who work to support its students. The Student Listener program, supported by Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), was started over forty years ago and has grown to be an essential resource for students. Student listeners serve as peer listeners who help students adjust to life at Exeter and provide support for any concerns or struggles they may be going through.

This year, the student listener program has undergone some major changes. The total number of listeners has been cut in half and the role has become a two-year commitment. Training meetings have also turned bi-weekly to allow listeners more time to engage with their dorm members.

Student Listener Coordinator Jo Mautz gave further insight into the recent changes. “We started with a handful of students in the 1980s and reached over eighty listeners until recently. After we waded through Covid, we took a step back to re-evaluate our impact on the student body and ways we could become more visible and responsive to the needs of the community,” she continued. “We decided to down-size and make it a two-year commitment to increase support to the listeners while asking them to be more intentional, accountable, and to prioritize this unique leadership position during their upper and senior years.”   

Upper and student listener in Lamont Mathilde Senter also commented on the shift in student listener numbers. “The downsize in the number of student listeners has added to the intimacy of the listening community. I know most of the student listeners by name and it’s great to have that friendly group of people,” she said. 

Senior student listener Yuvan Rasiah agreed, touching on the shift from last year to this year. “I know everybody by name. It’s not like last year where I didn’t know some people because there were so many of us, and we didn’t interact. That’s one of the biggest things—we’re more connected.”

The lessons that student listeners have learned are also invaluable to the lives of Exonians. One of these applications is Harkness. Often viewed as a competition between students, it’s almost always filled with people trying to say as many points as possible in class. Rather than trying to put out as many points as possible, a better solution would be to listen. This is exactly what student listeners aim to do. 

As the Student Listener program advances into 2025 with its changes, Mautz has clear goals for the visibility of the Student Listener program over time:  “Our hope over the next two to three years as we phase in these changes is to increase awareness about our program, be more accessible and utilized, and expand our outreach efforts to help foster trust between the listeners and their peers.” 

One change across dorm communities is the Sunday-night Listening Hours initiative, meant to increase the outreach and trust mentioned by Mautz. 

Senter describes that this year, “All listeners have a more active role. We host listening hours weekly which means that we can directly interact with students in our dorms.” She continues, “Every other week I personally open my door to other girls in Lamont. I always bring treats and normally up to 10 girls come in! People do their homework, snack, rant, and have a good time.”

Similarly, the two-year timeframe helps to encourage more dedication to the role. Senter continued, saying, “The expanded time frame means that the community is made up of more dedicated listeners. Everybody who joined this year knew that we would spend more time training together and in the leadership role.” These new changes have helped the student listener community become more focused and impactful. 

Senior student listener in Dunbar Rayna Nakadi expanded on the significance of the two-year commitment. “I think previously there was this big student listener to proctor tunnel. Having this two year timeframe and lock in, it really develops this student listener role much more. I think being a leader for two years in the dorm, you have significantly more experience than leaders who’ve been there one year. Having been in that two year lock brings more responsibility because you go into your second year having been a leader for a year already, whereas other proctors this is their first time being a leader in the dorm.”

Rasiah echoed a similar sentiment. “I think that there is a sense that people are aware that this is a continued responsibility. It’s not something they get to do for one year and go become a proctor. I think there was some of that last year in that people were like, ‘Okay, we’ll just get this over with’ and then move on to proctorship, almost like a step in the ladder,” he continued. “I think that when you create this idea of it being two years, it’s not something that you can opt out of.”

Given the new changes, the student listener program is flourishing and establishing itself as a pillar of student help resources on campus. It may be simple, but having a peer to talk to makes a great impact on the lives of students adjusting to Exeter. 

Mautz concluded on the importance of the student listening position. “What makes the role unique is that it is more than being a friend but is not clinical support. It’s the ‘in between’ that allows for students to be heard and seen by the listeners without judgment.”

She continued, “I think this quote by psychologist Tara Brach, Ph.D., captures the essence of a student listener. ‘The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.’”