Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 50.32
Liaison Kirk Hemphill
Submission Date April 24, 2020

STARS v2.2

Florida Institute of Technology
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.11 / 4.00 Ken Lindeman
Professor, Sustainability Studies
Ocean Engineering & Marine Sciences
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer, sustainability educators program

Number of students enrolled for credit:
3,392

Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
180

Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
5.31

1st program

Name of the student educators program (1st program):
Student Organization for Sustainability Action, SOSA

A brief description of the student educators program (1st program):
- This program works to bring best practices in sustainability to the Florida Tech campus and community. The Student Organization for Sustainability Action, SOSA, is a campus organization with recurring biweekly or monthly meetings and annual events that educate students in a peer to peer program that involves the campus community.
- The officers of SOSA train each other and educate dozens to hundreds of students across events like Fall Earth Day, Spring Earth Week, campus clean-ups, and meetings that take place biweekly/monthly.
- These meetings are conducted by students and allow other students to advance their sustainability knowledge and leadership. The organization manages projects and events on- and off-campus, many tied to sustainability initiatives that past student leaders have taught to new student leaders through annual SOSA Officer meetings. The officers of SOSA are trained through previous executive board members, Student Involvement staff, and by their faculty advisor.
- SOSA receives funding through the Student Government Association for their events.

A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (1st program):
SOSA hosts clean up events monthly and allows the students in the club and visitors to lead groups on activities. These include teaching on how to properly sort their trash and educate volunteers on recycling in Brevard County. The annual Fall Earth Day and Spring Earth Week is where the majority of the student body is interactive with the events. During these larger events SOSA pairs with 10-15 other student lead, peer-to-peer clubs, to host events like, meatless mondays, clean ups with Resident Life, beach clean ups with the FIT Surf Club, etc. These students are campus leaders on varied events for Earth Week and other green activities, with diverse partners on campus and in the greater Space Coast community.

Number of trained student educators (1st program):
6

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
30

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (1st program):
3

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (1st program):
90

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

Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
Green Box

A brief description of the student educators program (2nd program):
- Green Box was a Residence Life led sustainability-based education program implemented within the campus residence hall, Harris Village. The program had different education stations that were designed to educate students on various sustainability-based topics that included waste disposal and recycling, awareness of water usage, energy consumption, and the use of biodegradable commodities. Arts and crafts, sourced from recycled materials, was also a primary component of the program. They are on-going programs that meet monthly. The peer educators are Resident Assistants who created and lead the events.
- Resident assistants receive eight days of training before the start of the school year that formally trains them in various areas. These areas include crisis management, leadership training, program designing, diversity, and sustainability. Multiple training sessions are held throughout the eight-day training period that go over in detail how to host a sustainability-based education program. Florida Institute of Technology staff members and professors assist with these training sessions providing presentations and lectures.
- Each Residence Life sustainability-based education program is allotted a budget through the Department of Residence Life. This budget can vary from year to year.

A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
This program was targeted for all on-campus student residents. These events help the school educate the students that have a great impact on the schools' sustainability objectives. These objectives are reducing energy usage, recyling properly, sustainable daily switches, and more.

Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
50

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
1

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
6

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
12

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 

Name of the student educators program (3rd program):
We Are Sustainable

A brief description of the student educators program (3rd program):
- We Are Sustainable was a Residence Life led sustainability-based education program implemented within the campus residence hall, Southgate. During the event, student educators advised residents about recycling materials to use in order to be more sustainable. The students were also given the opportunity to plant their own small indoor plant inside of a plastic water bottle that was cut in half. Arts and crafts, sourced from recycled materials, was also a primary component of the program. They are on-going programs that meet monthly. The peer educators are Resident Assistants who created and lead the events.
- The student educators are trained in sustainability as part of the Resident Assistant training program. The training includes how to engage students in sustainable living practice, recruitment for the Residence Life Sustainability Committee, and idea-generating projects. Resident assistants receive eight days of training before the start of the school year that formally trains them in various areas. These areas include crisis management, leadership training, program designing, diversity, and sustainability. Multiple training sessions are held throughout the eight-day training period that go over in detail how to host a sustainability-based education program. Florida Institute of Technology staff members and professors assist with these training sessions providing presentations and lectures.
- Each Residence Life sustainability-based education program is allotted a budget through the Department of Residence Life. This budget can vary from year to year.

A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (3rd program):
This program was targeted for all on-campus student residents, specifically those residing in Southgate student housing. These events help the school educate the students through their peers and have a great impact on achieving the schools' sustainability objectives.

Number of trained student educators (3rd program):
50

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (3rd program):
1

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (3rd program):
6

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (3rd program):
12

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (3rd program):

Additional programs 

A brief description of all other student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:
Mrs. Puff's Life School was a Residence Life led sustainability-based education program implemented within the campus residence area, the Residence Quad. The program had different stations designed to encourage students to be sustainable on campus. In addition, the students learned about college life, the basics about taxes, recycling relay, and carbon footprint calculation. This program was targeted for all on-campus student residents. These events help the school educate the students that have a great impact on the schools' sustainability objectives. The student educators are trained in sustainability as part of the Resident Assistant training program. The training includes how to engage students in sustainable living practice, recruitment for the Residence Life Sustainability Committee, and idea-generating projects.


Earth Week 2017

The 2017 Earth Week was held from April 16th to the 22nd. The goal is to use students to provide other students with sustainability information and activities in order to increase overall knowledge. The week consisted of one to three events every day to promote sustainable advances. Several partner organizations joined SOSA to promote and participate in this event. This included Student Government Association, UNICEF student chapter, Spectrum at Florida Tech, Florida Tech Surf Club, Library After Hours, and Marine Biology Society.


Earth Week 2018
Earth week 2018 built upon the strength and weaknesses of Earth Week 2017 along with earth weeks from earlier years. Students from multiple organizations served as educators and engaged with other students through events/activities. In addition, the number of partner organizations more than doubled, as off-campus partnerships increased. A brief description of the student educator programs target audience

Number of trained student educators (all other programs):
78

Number of weeks, on average, the student educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
2

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per student educator (all other programs) :
55

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (all other programs):
115

Part 2. Educator hours per student served by a peer-to-peer educator program

Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators (all programs):
229

Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
1.27

Optional Fields 

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:
Years 2017-March 2020. Data Sources & Notes: All data sourced from the Office of Residence life; for undergraduate students on the Melbourne campus site only, Student Life. https://www.facebook.com/FloridaTechSOSA

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.