| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 53.91 |
| Liaison | Tom Hartzell |
| Submission Date | Dec. 21, 2022 |
Calvin University
EN-1: Student Educators Program
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.04 / 4.00 |
Becki
Simpson Associate Dean of Residence Life Residence Life |
Number of students enrolled for credit:
Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
Name of the student educators program (1st program):
A brief description of the student educators program (1st program):
Sustainability Coordinators are volunteer peer educators who live in the residence halls and KE apartments 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.
“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.
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.
Dining Hall Initiatives
• Dining hall bulletin boards displayed educational posters with information about non-meat protein sources. Dining Hall offers 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 showings, mending workshop, nature hikes engage different types of students in learning about sustainability
Electricity Usage
• Students were encouraged to reduce their electricity use.
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 smaller events in their own residence halls throughout the year.
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):
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (1st program):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (1st program):
Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (1st program):
Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
A brief description of the student educators program (2nd program):
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (2nd program):
Name of the student educators program (3rd program):
A brief description of the student educators program (3rd program):
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (3rd program):
Number of trained student educators (3rd program):
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (3rd program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (3rd program):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (3rd program):
Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (3rd program):
A brief description of all other student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:
Number of trained student educators (all other programs):
Number of weeks, on average, the student educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per student educator (all other programs) :
Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (all other programs):
Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators (all programs):
Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
Website URL where information about the student sustainability educators programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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
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
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