Babson College
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Interns are student representatives that are trained through team meetings to become environmental change agents. These students educate other residents in their community about environmental issues and encourage them to live in a more sustainable way. Goals of the program include enhancing students’ knowledge and skills to successfully communicate sustainability to their peers, increasing overall student awareness of environmental actions and ways to effect individual and group change on campus, and institutionalizing environmental stewardship within the student body. Examples of the peer-to-peer outreach include: - Zero Waste Challenge - Interns get members of their community to sign up to take the challenge of carrying all their was around in a Ziplock bag for an entire week. - Babson Unplugged - Interns help spread the word on how to properly unplug and power down before winter break. - Trivia Night - Interns host a game of trivia that focuses entirely on topics of sustainability.

Students interested in an Intern position are asked to send cover letters and resumes to the program coordinator of the Sustainability Office. These students are then asked in for 20 minute interviews. 4 Interns and 2 Intern Coordinators are chosen from the pool of applicants and are e-mailed their acceptance letters. Some criteria used to select students include: time management skills, teamwork experience, ability to learn, and an approachable attitude.

The students selected for the Interns program at Babson are trained through an Environmental Action workshop designed by GreenerU®. In this workshop students examine current sustainability concerns on campus and across the world through the lens of psychology, social marketing and critical thinking. The students gain knowledge on environmental issues and behavioral science tools. This newly acquired knowledge and set of tools will enable students to examine their personal behaviors and those of their peers and assess how to foster pro-environmental behavior change. The workshop is conducted in three different sessions. Each session will focus on three aspects – Environmental Knowledge/Literacy, Skills required to move towards action and Action planning. Upon completion of these sessions, during the academic year, students will continue to gather bi-weekly for 75 minute peer review meetings. The bi-weekly meetings will help students engage in activities that include critical thinking exercises, personal behavior challenges, and campus social marketing group campaigns. These activities will help students build critical skills in communication, implementing social marketing campaigns and planning green events. By the end of the year, students will be empowered to become leaders of environmental action and should have a new perspective of themselves, the society in which they live, and the environment.

The Sustainability Manager is responsible for coordinating all of the sustainability efforts on campus. The hiring and training of Interns are also managed by this staff member. At Babson, Interns is a paid position. Each Intern is expected to work six hours per week and each Intern Coordinator is expected to work eight hours per week. Interns meet weekly with the Sustainability Manager as a team, and individually for office hours.