Lauren Rauert, Communication Sciences and Disorders ’22, remembers feeling anxious in her first year at UVM, and she wants to help other students feel comfortable and connected. Rauert volunteers for CNHS LINKS, a peer mentor group providing first-year CNHS students with friendship and guidance. LINKS — an acronym for Learn, Include, Network, Kindness, Service — matches first-year students with peer mentors who are excited to connect them to the university, the college, their major and the greater Burlington community.
Rauert was recently selected to lead the mentor group as the “Uber LINKS” for spring 2021 through spring 2022.
A sociology minor who enjoys working with people of all ages, Rauert has a variety of experience helping young people achieve their full potential. She has volunteered for the New Hampshire Teen Institute, assisting with programs for at-risk high schoolers and middle schoolers. Last March, Rauert participated in an alternative spring break trip working with the Athletes of the Ozarks, an organization that provides athletic programs for children and adults with disabilities. She looks forward to applying her experience, skills and the knowledge she has gained in her communications sciences and sociology coursework to her leadership with the LINKS.
“I'm so grateful that I can use the foundation I've built to share my experiences with others and help their transitions be as smooth as possible,” Rauert said. “As LINKS, we have the incredible opportunity to be one of the first concrete and dependable people, and friends, first-years will encounter throughout their years at UVM. I am beyond excited to begin working more closely with this program, all of our LINKS, and all of our first-years for the next two years!”
In addition to LINKS, Rauert serves as fundraising coordinator for the UVM Speech and Hearing Club, and she has worked as a research assistant for an autism study with professor Patricia Prelock since her first year at UVM. This semester, Rauert works as a teaching assistant for CSD101. She enjoys baking, hiking, traveling and exploring new places and different cultures.
