| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68.23 |
| Liaison | Josh Lasky |
| Submission Date | March 5, 2020 |
George Washington University
EN-1: Student Educators Program
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.92 / 4.00 |
Kimberly
Williams Not available at this time Office of Sustainability |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Part 1. Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer, sustainability educators program
28,172
Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
7,450
Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
26.44
1st program
Eco-Rep Program
A brief description of the student educators program (1st program):
Eco-Reps help with events such as Earth Hour, Eco-Challenge and Earth Month throughout the year, just to name a few. Eco-Reps are a part of the student-run Campaign GW, an ongoing forum for students to directly share their ideas with the administration and participate in the decision-making process on future GW campus development issues, including sustainability. Eco-Reps target their outreach to the number of students served (above), which are all students living on campus in the residence halls.
GW Eco-Reps are the driving force behind Eco-Challenge, hosting small and large events in their residence halls and across campus designed to educate their peers about water and electricity reduction. During Eco-Challenge, Eco-Reps participate in several trainings where they learned how to perform energy audits of buildings. Many of them share what they learn with their residence halls.
Eco-Reps regularly staff tables at events and host trainings to help inform their peers about the importance of sustainability and provide updates regarding the university’s sustainability advances. They provide sustainability updates through a newsletter, which is distributed to a listserv of about 16,400 members of the GW community (primarily current students).
GW Eco-Reps are the driving force behind Eco-Challenge, hosting small and large events in their residence halls and across campus designed to educate their peers about water and electricity reduction. During Eco-Challenge, Eco-Reps participate in several trainings where they learned how to perform energy audits of buildings. Many of them share what they learn with their residence halls.
Eco-Reps regularly staff tables at events and host trainings to help inform their peers about the importance of sustainability and provide updates regarding the university’s sustainability advances. They provide sustainability updates through a newsletter, which is distributed to a listserv of about 16,400 members of the GW community (primarily current students).
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (1st program):
The target audience of the Eco Reps program is students that live on campus in the residence halls. Educational and community-building programming facilitated by the Eco Reps focuses on sustainable lifestyle choices that students can implement from their dorm room.
Number of trained student educators (1st program):
40
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
37
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):
4,440
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
Planet Forward
A brief description of the student educators program (2nd program):
Planet Forward is a platform for students who employ storytelling as a way to engage with sustainability. Launched in 2009 and based based at the GW School for Media and Public Affairs, Planet Forward supports students and faculty as well as others across the country and the world.
Planet Forward hosts outreach, training, and convenings for students at 22 Consortium colleges and universities, including GW, on an annual basis. Their accredited course, Annual Summit, and salons engage, train, and amplify the voices and stories of more than 200 student storytellers. These student storytellers aim to reach their peers on each of their campuses, as well as followers beyond the colleges.
Content for Planet Forward is sourced from student educators at GW, as well as student contributors from other campuses. In addition to regular contributions, Planet Forward hosts 19 college student Correspondents across the nation, including GW, who regularly contribute stories of sustainability to the Planet Forward website. The stories generated from Planet Forward Correspondents broaden the reach for sustainability programs in their local communities and college campuses.
On the GW campus specifically, Sustainability 101 (the university-wide undergraduate course on sustainability) students and students minoring in sustainability are encouraged to create short videos of their research, internship or campus activities involving issues of sustainability, and this past year 66 GW students contributed content to the Planet Forward website. The program uplifts student storytellers target and targets all of GW's students with their message and stories about sustainability on campus and beyond. The sustainability stories generated from GW Planet Forward Correspondents reach approximately 500 GW students per year.
Planet Forward hosts outreach, training, and convenings for students at 22 Consortium colleges and universities, including GW, on an annual basis. Their accredited course, Annual Summit, and salons engage, train, and amplify the voices and stories of more than 200 student storytellers. These student storytellers aim to reach their peers on each of their campuses, as well as followers beyond the colleges.
Content for Planet Forward is sourced from student educators at GW, as well as student contributors from other campuses. In addition to regular contributions, Planet Forward hosts 19 college student Correspondents across the nation, including GW, who regularly contribute stories of sustainability to the Planet Forward website. The stories generated from Planet Forward Correspondents broaden the reach for sustainability programs in their local communities and college campuses.
On the GW campus specifically, Sustainability 101 (the university-wide undergraduate course on sustainability) students and students minoring in sustainability are encouraged to create short videos of their research, internship or campus activities involving issues of sustainability, and this past year 66 GW students contributed content to the Planet Forward website. The program uplifts student storytellers target and targets all of GW's students with their message and stories about sustainability on campus and beyond. The sustainability stories generated from GW Planet Forward Correspondents reach approximately 500 GW students per year.
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
Planet Forward's primary target audience is comprised of academics, campus leadership, and other students across the U.S., and the general public through dissemination across social media channels. However, as of the end of FY19, Planet Forward's audience reached 5252 contacts from its newsletter alone, which includes sustainability professionals, journalists, policymakers, civic leadership, and executives. Student articles are subsequently read by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
29
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
45
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
9.50
Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
300
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
GW Compost Volunteer Program
A brief description of the student educators program (3rd program):
The GW Compost program is a student-led initiative to divert compostable waste from the landfill. Student leaders direct the program, and recruit volunteers to manage its operations. Each week, GW Compost sets up a collection station in a central location on campus, and collects compostable material from students, faculty, and staff to be delivered to an industrial composting facility off site. The students who lead the program are responsible for organizing the collection and training the student volunteers on proper compost technique. Trained volunteers then identify and remove contamination from the collection, weigh the material to collect data, and record personal information from participants.
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (3rd program):
The target audience for GW Compost Volunteers is all GW students. Any student can sign up to volunteer by accessing GW Serves, the university's platform for connecting students with service opportunities.
Number of trained student educators (3rd program):
70
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (3rd program):
52
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):
431
Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (3rd program):
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) :
---
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
5,171
Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
0.69
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
https://sustainability.gwu.edu/student-groups
https://sustainability.gwu.edu/waste
Planet Forward is a GW-led platform that engages students across many colleges and universities in sustainability dialogues both here and abroad. Formally, Planet Forward has a consortium of 22 partner schools.
Hundreds of GW students are engaged in sustainability-related internships on- and off-campus. Example of on-campus internship: One student designed and implemented a Sustainable Student Pledge in the Summer of 2017. Off campus example: A student interned in the White House Council on Environmental Quality https://www.planetforward.org/idea/engaging-the-public-the-obama-administration%E2%80%99s-environmental-record
Additional:
Internships are a great way for students to gain exposure to sustainability on campus and to build their resume experience in the field. The Office of Sustainability has had interns working in the office since it opened in 2009, bringing in students who have worked in a variety of capacities:
• Interns have played key roles in event planning and research of sustainability issues and best practices;
• Interns have assisted with student engagement activities, such as Eco-Rep coordination and managing our faculty/staff engagement efforts - the Green Office Network;
• Summer interns have researched the feasibility of a green campus fund, designed and launched sustainable procurement policies for GW, and created a sustainable water use video to enhance student engagement on the issue;
• Interns manage the outreach and coordination of the Green Office Network with offices across campus;
• Interns have contributed significantly to the research, content, and development of GW’s Climate Action Plan, GWater Plan, and Ecosystems Enhancement Strategy– the three components of GW’s strategic plan for sustainability practice;
• The student garden manager position helps manage and coordinate the work in on-campus garden;
• Interns in conjunction with Eco-Reps take leadership roles in coordinating Green Move-Out providing assistance;
• Interns assist with meter-reading and recycling efforts throughout the year.
•Interns have assisted with compiling data for several sustainability reporting mechanisms, as well as a progress report.
Students outside of the Office of Sustainability also work with the Zero Waste team and the Energy and Environmental Management team on their efforts throughout the university to improve water and environmental efficiency and recycling efforts, among other endeavors. The number of students served are the most recent year's total who are working in these offices.
The Green Student Coalition is designed to connect student leaders from a variety of green organizations at GW. The Coalition is targeted to students in green organizations, but also to any GW student interested in sustainability to create a sense of community for "green-minded" individuals at GW.Through the Coalition meetings, student leaders share with one another upcoming sustainability-related events and volunteer opportunities. The meetings also allow the student leaders to get to know one another and to join forces on upcoming projects that have similar themes and objectives. The meetings serve as a platform for student organizations to communicate ways in which the Sustainable GW team can support them.
The students served by this program include both the student leaders of the organizations that attend each year, as well as the students who participate in those student groups, who receive a report out on the meetings from the student leaders.
https://sustainability.gwu.edu/waste
Planet Forward is a GW-led platform that engages students across many colleges and universities in sustainability dialogues both here and abroad. Formally, Planet Forward has a consortium of 22 partner schools.
Hundreds of GW students are engaged in sustainability-related internships on- and off-campus. Example of on-campus internship: One student designed and implemented a Sustainable Student Pledge in the Summer of 2017. Off campus example: A student interned in the White House Council on Environmental Quality https://www.planetforward.org/idea/engaging-the-public-the-obama-administration%E2%80%99s-environmental-record
Additional:
Internships are a great way for students to gain exposure to sustainability on campus and to build their resume experience in the field. The Office of Sustainability has had interns working in the office since it opened in 2009, bringing in students who have worked in a variety of capacities:
• Interns have played key roles in event planning and research of sustainability issues and best practices;
• Interns have assisted with student engagement activities, such as Eco-Rep coordination and managing our faculty/staff engagement efforts - the Green Office Network;
• Summer interns have researched the feasibility of a green campus fund, designed and launched sustainable procurement policies for GW, and created a sustainable water use video to enhance student engagement on the issue;
• Interns manage the outreach and coordination of the Green Office Network with offices across campus;
• Interns have contributed significantly to the research, content, and development of GW’s Climate Action Plan, GWater Plan, and Ecosystems Enhancement Strategy– the three components of GW’s strategic plan for sustainability practice;
• The student garden manager position helps manage and coordinate the work in on-campus garden;
• Interns in conjunction with Eco-Reps take leadership roles in coordinating Green Move-Out providing assistance;
• Interns assist with meter-reading and recycling efforts throughout the year.
•Interns have assisted with compiling data for several sustainability reporting mechanisms, as well as a progress report.
Students outside of the Office of Sustainability also work with the Zero Waste team and the Energy and Environmental Management team on their efforts throughout the university to improve water and environmental efficiency and recycling efforts, among other endeavors. The number of students served are the most recent year's total who are working in these offices.
The Green Student Coalition is designed to connect student leaders from a variety of green organizations at GW. The Coalition is targeted to students in green organizations, but also to any GW student interested in sustainability to create a sense of community for "green-minded" individuals at GW.Through the Coalition meetings, student leaders share with one another upcoming sustainability-related events and volunteer opportunities. The meetings also allow the student leaders to get to know one another and to join forces on upcoming projects that have similar themes and objectives. The meetings serve as a platform for student organizations to communicate ways in which the Sustainable GW team can support them.
The students served by this program include both the student leaders of the organizations that attend each year, as well as the students who participate in those student groups, who receive a report out on the meetings from the student leaders.
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.