Emory University
IN-25: Innovation B

In spring of 2016, the Office of Sustainability Initiatives in partnership with the Campus Services department launched the WaterHub at Emory student docent program, which trains two to three Emory undergraduate and graduate students each semester to serve as tour guides for the water reclamation facility. Since the WaterHub opened, an estimated 1,000 students, faculty, staff and community members have toured the facility to learn about the technologies and the facility's impact. The program has a two-week training schedule, which educates the students on the functions and benefits of the facility, as well as gives them the opportunity to practice leading tours. Once the students are trained, they lead at least one regularly scheduled public tour each week in a semester. The program offers the docents the opportunity to meet other interested students and professionals who have similar interests; become the on-campus face of the facility; serve as a resource to their peers and professors; and gain professional skills, especially in the area of verbal communication. More generally, the program makes the one-of-a-kind facility open and available to all Emory, local, national, and even international individuals and groups; explains the WaterHub’s innovative technologies and their environmental, research, and educational purposes; and, trains Emory students to feel comfortable and confident while acting as the public faces of the facility.