Marlena Yang 651-583-4944 myang1@luc.

edu March 26, 2014 To Whom It May Concern: It has been such a great pleasure working with John Pearson as peer Graduate Assistants for the Office of First-Year Experience. Mr. Pearson, who I consider my peer mentor, has played a significant role throughout my first-year as a graduate student in the Higher Education program at Loyola. I am truly honored to write this letter of recommendation for Mr. Pearson. As peer professionals in the Office of First-Year Experience, I had the opportunity to work directly with Mr. Pearson in orientation during the summer of 2013 where we helped welcome the largest first-year class at Loyola. Together we created and led professional development workshops for the forty-three Orientation Leaders we co-supervised as well as worked on other major projects for the program. For the entire year I have known Mr. Pearson, he has exemplified true passion and interest for the field of Higher Education, especially with the work he does with and for his students. I witnessed Mr. Pearson take on a pre-college summer scholars program, which was not fully developed at the time, and launched it into something transformative for fifty high school firstgeneration students. The positive impact he made on the students, who had little knowledge about the college process, were confident about attending college by the end of the program. In addition to the peer professional work we did as a team in the summer, I currently recognize Mr. Pearson as my personal peer mentor. I feel I was at an advantage as a first-year graduate assistant to have a second year graduate assistant working directly with me in the same office. During the summer of orientation, I spent countless times trying to emotionally and mentally prepare for my first semester in graduate school and Mr. Pearson continuously assured that everything would be fine. Sharing his personal journey as well as providing meaningful advice gave me confidence in my first semester. Times when I panicked about my grades, he assured me to focus less about the grades and invest more time in the learning content. Mr. Pearsons presence and support gave me selfconfidence in recognizing my greatest potential when I least acknowledged it. I highly recommend Mr. Pearson as a strong graduate student who deserves the completion of his Masters in Higher Education at Loyola. The work he has done for the Loyola community has been remarkably impactful, as I previously mentioned. Not only was he a great peer mentor, but he was also a positive role model in my educational journey. If you wish for more information regarding my experience working with Mr. Pearson, please do not hesitate to reach me at your earliest convenience. My contact information is specified above. Sincerely, Marlena Yang Graduate Assistant Office of First-Year Experience Loyola University Chicago