Boston University
EN-2: Student Orientation

Sustainability Ambassadors lead Boston University’s efforts in supporting a culture of sustainability on campus at Orientation. Ambassadors are undergraduate leaders who welcome incoming Terriers at Orientation and provide information about sustainability resources on campus, through a combination of information learned and their own personal experiences. Through direct engagement in conversation with first-year students and their families, Ambassadors encourage mindful actions at Orientation and throughout students’ time at BU. The Sustainability Ambassador position is part of the Summer Leadership team through BU Orientation. Among other things, ambassador responsibilities include co-leading green campus tours, educating students about waste sorting during meal times, and participating in Common Ground, an interactive exploration of the City of Boston. Additionally, sustainability@BU staff and ambassadors participate in an expo where students who want to learn more about a variety of University resources may have more focused conversations with representatives. Finally, every new student receives a reusable bag and water bottle at Orientation. For graduate students, sustainability@BU participated in a number of program-specific graduate orientation sessions which served roughly 2,000 graduate students. This included the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences Resource Fair and the Hospitality Administration, Dental Medicine, and Economics Departments.

Sustainability is included in all BU Orientation sessions for incoming freshmen and transfer students. However, for FY17 sustainability@BU was only able to collaborate with a few departments and schools that house graduate level programs, so roughly 2,000 incoming graduate students had sustainability included in their orientation sessions.