Nia Smith, a 2024 Penn State graduate and former Liberal Arts Chaiken Center peer success coach, poses for graduation photos. Credit: Provided. All Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Nia Smith became one of the first peer success coaches in the Liberal Arts Chaiken Center for Student Success, there was no established blueprint for the role.

Smith and her fellow coaches were helping create it.

“I remember meetings where we all sat in an undesigned space brainstorming what our jobs would look like,” Smith said. “It was empowering and let me know I have what it takes to replicate this process when the time comes.”

For Smith, who graduated from Penn State in spring 2024 with bachelor’s degrees in psychology and women’s studies with a minor in child maltreatment and advocacy studies, becoming a peer success coach also represented a shift in her own Penn State experience. As a Chaiken Scholar, she benefitted from a community designed to provide students with academic guidance, resources and opportunities for personal and professional development. As a peer success coach, she became one of the students providing that support to others.

“Going from receiving support to being someone else’s support was surreal,” Smith said. “I felt pressure to say the right things and know the answers, but once I realized I wasn't expected to have all the answers — I simply was there to listen and help guide my peers — I believe it made my experience and theirs a lot better.”

Smith was also a Schreyer Scholar and McNair Scholar during her time at Penn State. She said her experiences as a Chaiken Scholar and peer success coach helped broaden her perspective and taught her how to connect others with resources without assuming she needed to solve every problem herself.

“Being a Chaiken Scholar allowed me to further develop my perspective on the world through leadership opportunities, cohort building and specialized help with identifying resources to help me as a student,” she said.

This approach has remained relevant since Smith left Penn State.

Smith is now pursuing a master’s degree in social work and serves as a graduate residential director, supporting graduate students who live on campus. The role requires her to understand available campus resources and serve as a source of support for students — responsibilities she said echo her work as a peer success coach.

Smith said she originally planned to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology, but her experiences supporting others led her to consider how different academic and professional paths might prepare her to serve the populations she hopes to work with.

“My transition from Ph.D. to master’s in social work (MSW) feels more like a pit stop than it does a change in destination,” Smith said. “I think it’s important for me to explore the MSW because I need to figure out if this track will give me everything I need to support my desired population the best way I can.”

The coaching approach she learned through the Chaiken Center has been particularly influential, Smith said.

“I really started to think about how, as a Chaiken Scholar, the coaching methods that we used in guiding people toward their own answers rather than diagnosing people was something that was very successful,” she said. “I saw it change a lot of mentees’ lives.”

As the Liberal Arts Chaiken Center celebrates its fifth anniversary during the 2026–27 academic year, Smith said seeing how the center and peer success coaching program have grown is especially meaningful because she remembers helping define what the role could become.

For her, the center’s continued growth also reinforces something she learned as a student: At a university as large as Penn State, knowing where to find community and support can make a difference.

“A large part of finding your place at Penn State is understanding the dynamics and everything that Penn State has to offer. This distinct hub of peer coaching, intellect and resources has become a necessity and source of hope for students who realize Penn State is just too big to be wandering around in a dark.”

Smith described the Liberal Arts Chaiken Center as “a light in the community to help people find their way.”

“I am so excited to continue to watch it thrive,” she said.