ISA PAL Selection Philosophy

The following criteria were developed by the National Peer Helping Association and the Peer Assistance Network of Texas.  These are the factors taken into consideration for PAL selection:

·        Faculty nominations – Every student nominated by a faculty member automatically receives an application for the program. The student receives consideration for every faculty nomination received.

·        Application completion – All current sophomores and juniors are eligible to apply to the PAL program, whether or not they receive a faculty nomination.

·        Confidential teacher evaluations – All teachers for each PAL applicant receive evaluation forms about the student. The PAL teachers then calculate an average score from all the evaluations returned for each student. If two or more teachers mark “Do Not Recommend,” the applicant has a poor chance of being selected for the team.

·        Interview – Each applicant with satisfactory teacher evaluations then receives an interview. The sponsors and the seniors on the current PAL team conduct the interviews. The interview provides an opportunity for the selection committee to “get to know” each applicant. The interview also provides the opportunity for the applicant to elaborate on the responses on their application.  

·        Mixture of juniors and seniors – The selection committee strives to create the following breakdown for the PAL team: 1/3 juniors, 1/3 seniors, 1/3 Advanced PALs (PALs who will be on the team for a second year).

·        Representation from various schools -- The selection committee strives to represent a wide variety of the "home campuses" that make up ISA.

·        Various social/cultural groups – The selection committee strives to represent as many different social and cultural groups as possible.

·        Equal number of males and females – The selection committee strives to create a balanced team to provide service to equal numbers of males and females.

·        Previous experience – The selection committee takes into consideration any prior training or experience  you may have that would serve you as a PAL.

All of these elements work together to help the selection committee to create a PAL team that is a “cross-section” of the ISA community.