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Despite being the largest resource available to most campuses, students are seldom involved as active participants in institutional change efforts. Previous work suggests that peers are the number one resource for students, providing support and information regarding academic courses, as well as advice, help, and emotional support. This supportive resource can be formalized through undergraduate peer-learning roles like Learning Assistants (LAs) and Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL). These “Peer Coaches” partner with instructors to promote active engagement in service courses, typically undergoing some pedagogical training focused on facilitating student discussion. However, the partnership can be extended to include Peer Coaches as partners in curriculum development, program coordination, metacognitive mentoring, and feedback. In this way, rather than being treated as merely recipients of institutional change, students can partner actively with instructors to carry out, develop, and sustain institutional change. This article describes the various roles assumed by Peer Coaches as part of their involvement in an interdepartmental pedagogy course and how their efforts support broader institutional efforts to transform gateway STEM courses. 

Community-based learning (CBL), also known as service learning (SL), provides students with an active and meaningful learning environment and has been studied in STEM courses for several decades. Chemistry for the Community is a novel chemistry curriculum that weaves service-learning projects throughout multiple courses, including gateway courses, and allows students to build self-efficacy and transferable skills. Over a three-year period, students experienced multiple projects while enrolled in two-semester general and organic chemistry courses, and one-semester organic survey, environmental, and analytical chemistry courses. Student experiences, gathered by surveys, reflections, and interviews were compared to those of students conducting equivalent non-SL projects, as well as projects conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Public communication and community partner interaction emerged as major themes from the data and were explored through the lens of self-determination theory. Results indicate that students were anxious about their role, but were motivated by community partner interaction. Project completion corresponded to an increase in self-efficacy regarding similar future tasks, with students perceiving benefits of multiple experiences.