| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 52.54 |
| Liaison | Tom Hartzell |
| Submission Date | Feb. 26, 2020 |
Calvin University
EN-1: Student Educators Program
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.79 / 4.00 |
Becki
Simpson Associate Dean of Residence Life Residence Life |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Part 1. Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer, sustainability educators program
4,121
Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
4,121
Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
100
1st program
Sustainability Coordinators (for Residence Halls)
A brief description of the student educators program (1st program):
Sustainability Coordinators are volunteer peer educators who live in the residence halls and promote sustainability through formal educational programs and informal daily interactions. They are overseen by a paid student sustainability intern and the Director of Residence Life, Becki Simpson. The sustainability coordinators meet every week to plan programs and continue learning. One keynote program the SCs plan is Kill-a-watt, which is outlined below:
Kill-a-watt is a creation-care awareness program in the residence halls, during January. This initiative is structured as an inter-residence hall competition where students earn “Kill-a-watt points” for their hall by participating in program elements and decreasing their hall’s electricity. Student leaders partner with Calvin faculty and staff members, and community members to create rich educational experiences for our students during Kill-a-watt.
Kill-a-watt Desired Outcomes
• Students will explore connections between the Christian faith and environmental stewardship.
• Students will reflect on their lifestyle choices and how their choices impact others.
• Students will learn more about environmental stewardship, including specific issues such as: consumerism, wonder, sustainable agriculture, food justice, and pollution.
• Students will take small action steps towards changing their behaviors to become more sustainable, through the DREAM certification process and Lifestyle Challenges.
Kill-a-watt program elements:
Leadership training
- 250 student leaders attend a 1-hour leadership training, where they are trained in how to support the various elements of Kill-a-watt, and how to get their peers involved in the program.
Kick-off Event
• Students attend the Kill-a-watt Kickoff in each of 7 residence halls, where they learn details about how they can get involved in the Kill-a-watt program.
“DREAM” Certification (Dorm Room Environmental Awareness Movement)
• Students “DREAM certify” their rooms by taking an online assessment which evaluated the sustainability of their residence hall room and living routines. The survey addressed topics of recycling, energy use, plants, natural lighting, water use, material consumption, and environmental awareness.
• Students who earned enough points, according to the pre-assigned rubric, could receive a Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze certification emblem to hang on their door.
In 2019, 341 students completed DREAM assessments.
Lifestyle Challenges
• Students are challenged to try out new sustainable lifestyle habits for all of interim. Examples of “Lifestyle Challenges” are: becoming vegetarian, taking shorter showers, riding the bus, unplugging appliances when not in use, using cold water for laundry, or not using Styrofoam for the month.
• Challenges ranged from simple 1 and 5-point challenges, to more difficult 10, 20, and 30-point challenges.
In 2019, 396 students signed up for Lifestyle Challenges
Dining Hall Initiatives
• Dining hall bulletin boards displayed educational posters with information about non-meat protein sources. Dining Hall offered additional vegan and meatless options.
Creation Care Devotional Study
• Almost every residence hall floor participated in a devotional study that sought to cultivate awareness and attentiveness towards creation. The study was a modified selection of Lenten Devotions on creation care from the Christian Reformed Church of North America. A few days had been chosen for each week and paired with others days to create a two week study. The first week focused on practicing wonder in creation and God’s use of quiet places to speak with us. The second week targeted the “groaning of creation”, the issues the planet is currently facing and what we can do to be good stewards.
Chapel
• Calvin students shared about intersections between faith & sustainability in their lives.
Residence Hall Events
• Each residence hall also planned one in-hall event, organized by each hall’s student leaders. Each leadership team received a Resource Guide, which contained ideas for interactive programs, documentaries, and potential guest speakers.
• In-Hall Programs included:
o Faculty lectures
o Plant-potting
o Documentaries/Movies
o Dumpster-diving info session
Other All-campus Collaborative Events
• Sustainability-themed Documentary showing, in collaboration with an interim class in which all first-year students enroll (Before the Flood)
Electricity Usage
• Students were encouraged to reduce their electricity use.
Faculty/Staff Engagement
Students are encouraged to invite faculty and staff members to become honorary members of their residence hall’s Kill-a-watt team. Faculty and staff members participated in Lifestyle Challenges and attended events, earning double points for their honorary residence hall.
Kill-a-watt Finale
At final Kill-a-watt event, Sustainability Coordinators hosted a table where students could stop by and make their own sustainable toothpaste and laundry detergent. These students also hosted a "clothing swap" and poetry readings at this same event, and announced the winners of the overall Kill-a-watt contest. The winning hall received sustainable prizes for their community: Green inserts for community fridges which lengthen life of produce, re-usable shopping bags for use by any community member, re-usable staws and sustainable dish washing detergent for the community kitchens.
In addition to Kill-a-watt, the Sustainability Coordinators plan the following:
Grand River Clean-Up
In September, the Sustainability Coordinators and their friends participated in the annual Mayor’s Grand River Clean-up. We joined over one thousand people who volunteered to collect trash along the Grand River and Plaster Creek. We joined with the Environmental Stewardship Committee (the student ESC) and students from Calvin’s Creation Care floor to pick up trash along Plaster Creek, which was especially meaningful since Calvin is located in the Plaster Creek watershed. The day started and ended at a park along the Grand River downtown. Many of our team members biked together to the event.
Stewardship Worship Night
At some point during the year, the Sustainability Coordinators (SCs) teamed with their dorm Barnabas leadership team to create a dorm worship night centered on stewardship and wonder of God’s good creation. The SCs found verses, songs, poems, and prayers for the dorm worship. They put together a powerpoint presentation and went through it with their worship Barnabas team to make sure it would be timed appropriately and that the songs were all familiar for the dorm worship musicians. The event went well and was a great model for collaboration between various leadership groups on the CLC team. A total of about 300 students attended in the various halls.
Mad Farmer Food Fest
In May, the Mad Farmer Food Festival was held in KE as a celebration of the provision, joy, and gift of food. The goal of this even was to raise awareness of food issues from a faith perspective. We began with a devotion, which was followed by several breakout session offerings on the following topics: Roasting your own coffee beans, protecting the rights of migrant workers, dumpster diving and consumerism, and restoring hope through a local refugee farming program. About 200 people were in attendance. Lunch from a local businesses was available for a small fee and a full student band also played during the event. This program specifically targets the 500 students living in on-campus apartments, and sustainability coordinators from the apartments lead this event.
These students also do smaller events in their own residence halls throughout the year. They also run the composting program in each residence hall throughout the year and educate their peers about how to recycle properly.
Kill-a-watt is a creation-care awareness program in the residence halls, during January. This initiative is structured as an inter-residence hall competition where students earn “Kill-a-watt points” for their hall by participating in program elements and decreasing their hall’s electricity. Student leaders partner with Calvin faculty and staff members, and community members to create rich educational experiences for our students during Kill-a-watt.
Kill-a-watt Desired Outcomes
• Students will explore connections between the Christian faith and environmental stewardship.
• Students will reflect on their lifestyle choices and how their choices impact others.
• Students will learn more about environmental stewardship, including specific issues such as: consumerism, wonder, sustainable agriculture, food justice, and pollution.
• Students will take small action steps towards changing their behaviors to become more sustainable, through the DREAM certification process and Lifestyle Challenges.
Kill-a-watt program elements:
Leadership training
- 250 student leaders attend a 1-hour leadership training, where they are trained in how to support the various elements of Kill-a-watt, and how to get their peers involved in the program.
Kick-off Event
• Students attend the Kill-a-watt Kickoff in each of 7 residence halls, where they learn details about how they can get involved in the Kill-a-watt program.
“DREAM” Certification (Dorm Room Environmental Awareness Movement)
• Students “DREAM certify” their rooms by taking an online assessment which evaluated the sustainability of their residence hall room and living routines. The survey addressed topics of recycling, energy use, plants, natural lighting, water use, material consumption, and environmental awareness.
• Students who earned enough points, according to the pre-assigned rubric, could receive a Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze certification emblem to hang on their door.
In 2019, 341 students completed DREAM assessments.
Lifestyle Challenges
• Students are challenged to try out new sustainable lifestyle habits for all of interim. Examples of “Lifestyle Challenges” are: becoming vegetarian, taking shorter showers, riding the bus, unplugging appliances when not in use, using cold water for laundry, or not using Styrofoam for the month.
• Challenges ranged from simple 1 and 5-point challenges, to more difficult 10, 20, and 30-point challenges.
In 2019, 396 students signed up for Lifestyle Challenges
Dining Hall Initiatives
• Dining hall bulletin boards displayed educational posters with information about non-meat protein sources. Dining Hall offered additional vegan and meatless options.
Creation Care Devotional Study
• Almost every residence hall floor participated in a devotional study that sought to cultivate awareness and attentiveness towards creation. The study was a modified selection of Lenten Devotions on creation care from the Christian Reformed Church of North America. A few days had been chosen for each week and paired with others days to create a two week study. The first week focused on practicing wonder in creation and God’s use of quiet places to speak with us. The second week targeted the “groaning of creation”, the issues the planet is currently facing and what we can do to be good stewards.
Chapel
• Calvin students shared about intersections between faith & sustainability in their lives.
Residence Hall Events
• Each residence hall also planned one in-hall event, organized by each hall’s student leaders. Each leadership team received a Resource Guide, which contained ideas for interactive programs, documentaries, and potential guest speakers.
• In-Hall Programs included:
o Faculty lectures
o Plant-potting
o Documentaries/Movies
o Dumpster-diving info session
Other All-campus Collaborative Events
• Sustainability-themed Documentary showing, in collaboration with an interim class in which all first-year students enroll (Before the Flood)
Electricity Usage
• Students were encouraged to reduce their electricity use.
Faculty/Staff Engagement
Students are encouraged to invite faculty and staff members to become honorary members of their residence hall’s Kill-a-watt team. Faculty and staff members participated in Lifestyle Challenges and attended events, earning double points for their honorary residence hall.
Kill-a-watt Finale
At final Kill-a-watt event, Sustainability Coordinators hosted a table where students could stop by and make their own sustainable toothpaste and laundry detergent. These students also hosted a "clothing swap" and poetry readings at this same event, and announced the winners of the overall Kill-a-watt contest. The winning hall received sustainable prizes for their community: Green inserts for community fridges which lengthen life of produce, re-usable shopping bags for use by any community member, re-usable staws and sustainable dish washing detergent for the community kitchens.
In addition to Kill-a-watt, the Sustainability Coordinators plan the following:
Grand River Clean-Up
In September, the Sustainability Coordinators and their friends participated in the annual Mayor’s Grand River Clean-up. We joined over one thousand people who volunteered to collect trash along the Grand River and Plaster Creek. We joined with the Environmental Stewardship Committee (the student ESC) and students from Calvin’s Creation Care floor to pick up trash along Plaster Creek, which was especially meaningful since Calvin is located in the Plaster Creek watershed. The day started and ended at a park along the Grand River downtown. Many of our team members biked together to the event.
Stewardship Worship Night
At some point during the year, the Sustainability Coordinators (SCs) teamed with their dorm Barnabas leadership team to create a dorm worship night centered on stewardship and wonder of God’s good creation. The SCs found verses, songs, poems, and prayers for the dorm worship. They put together a powerpoint presentation and went through it with their worship Barnabas team to make sure it would be timed appropriately and that the songs were all familiar for the dorm worship musicians. The event went well and was a great model for collaboration between various leadership groups on the CLC team. A total of about 300 students attended in the various halls.
Mad Farmer Food Fest
In May, the Mad Farmer Food Festival was held in KE as a celebration of the provision, joy, and gift of food. The goal of this even was to raise awareness of food issues from a faith perspective. We began with a devotion, which was followed by several breakout session offerings on the following topics: Roasting your own coffee beans, protecting the rights of migrant workers, dumpster diving and consumerism, and restoring hope through a local refugee farming program. About 200 people were in attendance. Lunch from a local businesses was available for a small fee and a full student band also played during the event. This program specifically targets the 500 students living in on-campus apartments, and sustainability coordinators from the apartments lead this event.
These students also do smaller events in their own residence halls throughout the year. They also run the composting program in each residence hall throughout the year and educate their peers about how to recycle properly.
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (1st program):
Primary audience is residence hall students. Secondary audience is all of campus. (All of campus is invited to many events, some challenges are only geared toward residence hall students)
Number of trained student educators (1st program):
8
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
36
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (1st program):
5
Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (1st program):
1,440
Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (1st program):
If reporting students served by additional peer-to-peer programs, provide:
2nd program
Plaster Creek Stewards (PCS) Student Coordinator
A brief description of the student educators program (2nd program):
The PCS student coordinator organizes and facilitates service-learning opportunities for on- and off-campus students by engaging with residence halls, living-learning communities and student organizations to educate other leaders on sustainability opportunities and impacts. The PSC student coordinator also coordinates with off-campus programs to create and inform carbon offset opportunities and activities.
The PCS student coordinator was trained alongside the PCS volunteer coordinator during PCS events, learning from and assisting in education and activism efforts for the Plaster Creek watershed. The student receives ongoing training during the summer and academic year.
The PCS student coordinator was trained alongside the PCS volunteer coordinator during PCS events, learning from and assisting in education and activism efforts for the Plaster Creek watershed. The student receives ongoing training during the summer and academic year.
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
The PCS student coordinator is aimed as Calvin students who are interested in learning about the opportunities, challenges, and benefits of watershed restoration, especially in the Plaster Creek watershed. The PCS student coordinator is particular focused on on-campus students and student organizations as they are most accessible.
Peer education comes in the form of action-based clean-up events, which are always preceded by and educational component before work is performed. This could be a brief lecture or talk about the role of native plants in watershed restoration, changing water flow patters, human impacts on the watershed, and projected impacts of restoration work.
Peer education comes in the form of action-based clean-up events, which are always preceded by and educational component before work is performed. This could be a brief lecture or talk about the role of native plants in watershed restoration, changing water flow patters, human impacts on the watershed, and projected impacts of restoration work.
Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
1
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
28
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
6.50
Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
182
Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (2nd program):
If reporting students served by three or more peer-to-peer programs, provide:
3rd program
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A brief description of the student educators program (3rd program):
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A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (3rd program):
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Number of trained student educators (3rd program):
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Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (3rd program):
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Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (3rd program):
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (3rd program):
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Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (3rd program):
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Additional programs
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Number of trained student educators (all other programs):
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Number of weeks, on average, the student educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
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Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per student educator (all other programs) :
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (all other programs):
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Part 2. Educator hours per student served by a peer-to-peer educator program
1,622
Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
0.39
Optional Fields
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Sustainability Coordinator job description:
https://www.calvin.edu/dotAsset/03af5266-4b91-4369-9894-1ce40a4d55e7.pdf
Kill-a-watt (program put on by Sustainability Coordinators)
http://www.calvin.edu/go/kill-a-watt
Mad Farmer Food Fest (program put on by Sustainability Coordinators)
http://madfarmerfoodfest.yolasite.com/
Plaster Creek Stewards Student Coordinator information provided by current student coordinator Dena Baker, 03.11.2020
https://www.calvin.edu/dotAsset/03af5266-4b91-4369-9894-1ce40a4d55e7.pdf
Kill-a-watt (program put on by Sustainability Coordinators)
http://www.calvin.edu/go/kill-a-watt
Mad Farmer Food Fest (program put on by Sustainability Coordinators)
http://madfarmerfoodfest.yolasite.com/
Plaster Creek Stewards Student Coordinator information provided by current student coordinator Dena Baker, 03.11.2020
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.