The Peer Program at Ann Arbor Huron High School has helped many students, but it has also helped senior Vishaal Mathews find his passion. As a junior, Matthews was interested in law and joined the Peer Program to further his communication skills. In that process, he discovered a new interest, psychology. 

His start to the peer program was one of his many decisions based off of his previous passion of law.

“Originally I wanted to improve my skills talking to people one on one for law,” Mathews said. “I later realized I didn’t like law.”

This sparked his interest in psychology and he eventually figured out his passion was in psychology. His experience in the Peer Program helped him find the career path that he wants to pursue. He describes the reason he transitioned into psychology.

“There is a lot of grey area [in law] and you don’t always help people, but as a psychologist, you are helping people,” Mathews said.

Now that he found his true passion, he used the peer program as a tool to help him learn about his passion and acquire new skills.

“I think it has helped me listen to people and not necessarily insert my own opinions every time someone has a problem,” Mathews said. “We are taught to help people get to a goal rather than tell people what to do.”

Mathews also described how these skills have helped him understand people without having to always confront them about their problems.

“I feel like I am more aware of other people’s problems,” Mathews said. “They may not be saying ‘I feel like this’ or ‘I feel like that’ but you have to look at it in a way to help understand how people feel.”