Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.48
Liaison Heather Albert-Knopp
Submission Date March 30, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

College of the Atlantic
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Heather Albert-Knopp
Dean of Admission
Office of Admission
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Number of students enrolled for credit (headcount):
397

Total number of students enrolled for credit that are served (i.e. directly targeted) by a student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting to the extent feasible):
397

Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer educator program:
100

Name of the student educators program:
Discarded Resources Team (work-study)

Number of students served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
397

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:

The Discarded Resources (DR) team is made up of work-study students and a Building & Grounds staff supervisor. The team oversees composting efforts on campus and handles all other on-campus recycling and waste (which is better known at COA as "discarded resources"). The DR team concerns itself with keeping the college's recycling and composting systems running efficiently while educating students, faculty, and staff about how to improve the functionality and accessibility of DR stations within residences, classrooms, offices, and dining halls on campus. To this end, the DR team develops and updates signage around campus; hosts outreach and training sessions on effective recycling and composting habits; sets up and monitors recycling stations around campus on a weekly basis; conducts an annual campus-wide waste audit, sharing the results with the wider community; coordinates the “Move Out” session at the end of each term, with the objective of maximizing composting, reducing, reusing, and recycling efforts; maintains the "free box," an on-campus space for reusing and repurposing previously used items; and other responsibilities depending on campus needs. Specific, recent examples of DR team projects include: educating the community on the benefits and savings of hand dryers versus paper towels in order to alleviate pressure on COA’s paper towel composting system; engaging students with the PLAN (Post-Landfill Action Network) while working together with the Zero Waste Club; conducting an educational survey of campus offices about compost knowledge and activities; and setting up a recycling program for cigarette butts in order to avoid pollution of local waterways.


A brief description of how the student educators are selected:

Students indicate their interests and skills when they apply for work-study positions. Applicants are reviewed and selected for the role by the program coordinators. Some students are also recruited specifically for the job by the program coordinators because of their interests and skills.


A brief description of the formal training that the student educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:

Students are trained by the program coordinators, including both Buildings & Grounds staff and COA faculty in botany/agriculture. There are various manuals describing the critical job functions within a shared Google Drive folder that new students can use for reference. The program coordinators work closely with the team as mentors, providing a campus walkthrough of every DR station and receiving training on how to manage the shared folder, facilitate weekly meetings, and write informative and complete meeting’s minutes and agenda action points.


A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or faculty/staff coordination):

The DR team is made up of paid work-study positions, as well as one paid staff member. As described above, the team also receives support from faculty and staff of the college.


Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
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Number of students served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (2nd program):
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A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):
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A brief description of how the student educators are selected (2nd program):
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A brief description of the formal training that the student educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):
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A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or faculty/staff coordination) (2nd program):
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Name of the student educators program (3rd program):
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Number of students served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (3rd program):
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A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (3rd program):
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A brief description of how the student educators are selected (3rd program):
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A brief description of the formal training that the student educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (3rd program):
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A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or faculty/staff coordination) (3rd program):
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A brief description of all other student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs, including the number of students served and how student educators are selected, trained, and supported by the institution:
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Total number of hours student educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually (all programs):
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

An article about one of our discarded resources team members:
http://www.coa.edu/live/news/1277-reframing-waste-at-coa


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.