This is a mentoring program for fifth- and sixth-grade students with low school performance who are at risk of developing antisocial behavior. The aim is to strengthen social skills, motivation, and self-esteem, as well as to improve school performance.
The program seeks to develop meaningful bonds between university student mentors and elementary school students. Mentoring sessions take place weekly and address six areas of development: affective, communicative, academic, motivational, social, and cultural. The intervention is implemented within the university and lasts 10 months.
The Peraj program originated in Israel in the early 1970s as an initiative devised by a small group of scientists and students from the Weizman Institute of Science. In Mexico, the program was introduced in 2004 on one of the campi of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with 11 mentors for elementary school students, and then grew to 162 campi across the country and more than 5,000 mentors (each mentor serves one student).