Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 49.63
Liaison Yaffa Grossman
Submission Date May 19, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Beloit College
IN-24: Innovation A

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Lindsay Chapman
Sustainability Coordinator
Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name or title of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome:
Office of Sustainability Student Leadership Employment Model

A brief description of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome that outlines how credit criteria are met and any positive measurable outcomes associated with the innovation:

The Sustainability Coordinator for Beloit College, a liberal arts college of 1300 undergraduates, has historically hired 2-3 students each year due to limited supervision bandwidth, despite greater student interest. With an emphasis on student leadership development, the employment model was revamped to provide ~20 student employment positions. Two different types of positions were created: Leaders and Assistants. Each of the 4-5 Leaders manages a team of their peers on a specific subject: energy, waste, food, communications, and a limited duration topic that alternates depending on campus need. During the first week of the semester the Sustainability Coordinator provides training for the 4-5 leaders on project management, group meeting preparation and facilitation, and semester and year planning and goal setting. Additionally, the Sustainability Coordinator and the leaders meet once every week to review team progress, address hurdles, celebrate success, and read through and discuss a selected academic book or set of articles. Leaders work 10 hours per week and manage a small group of their peers while Assistants work 4 hours per week and get hands on experience with on-campus sustainability projects.

This model provides student employees with valuable project-based learning opportunities and develops a pipeline of future student sustainability leaders as well as candidates for the summer sustainability research program. Lastly, this model enables a single coordinator to provide ~20 student employment opportunities, quadrupling employment and resulting events, initiatives and research, while maintaining the one-on-one mentorship model with a small number of students.


Which of the following impact areas does the innovation most closely relate to? (select up to three):
Campus Engagement

A letter of affirmation from an individual with relevant expertise or a press release or publication featuring the innovation :
---

The website URL where information about the innovation is available :
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.