American University
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Institution coordinates an ongoing peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program for degree-seeking students. The institution: 

• Selects or appoints students to serve as educators and formally designates the students as educators (paid and/or volunteer),
• Provides formal training to the educators in how to conduct outreach, and 
• Offers faculty or staff and/or other financial support to the program.  

This credit focuses on programs for degree-seeking students enrolled in a for-credit program.  Continuing education and/or non-credit students are excluded from this credit.  

This credit recognizes ongoing student educator programs that engage students on a regular basis. For example, student educators may be responsible for serving (i.e. directly targeting) a particular subset of students, such as those living in residence halls or enrolled in certain academic subdivisions. Thus, a group of students may be served by a program even if not all of these students avail themselves of the outreach and education offerings. 

Sustainability outreach campaigns, sustainability events, and student clubs or groups are not eligible for this credit unless the criteria outlined above are met. These programs are covered by EN 5: Outreach Campaign and EN 3: Student Life.

This credit applies to all institutions.

Institutions earn the maximum of 4 points available for this credit by having one or more peer-to-peer educator programs that serve (i.e. directly target) all for-credit, degree-seeking students. Incremental points are awarded based on the percentage of students served by the peer-to-peer educator program(s). For example, an institution with a program that serves 50 percent of all students would earn 2 points (half of the points available for this credit). 

See scoring table and example in the STARS Technical Manual.

Timeframe

Report on current program status and offerings for ongoing programs.  Use the most recent data available to report the number of students served by each program and the total number of enrolled students.  

Sampling and Data Standards

Include all for-credit or degree-seeking students (undergraduate and graduate); reporting on a sample or subset of students is not allowed.