Northern Arizona University
EN-1: Student Educators Program

The role of the Eco-Rep is to provide peer to peer education on how to live more sustainabiliy in NAU residential communities. Topics will include energy and water conservation, recycling, and other relevant environmental issues. Eco-Reps will serve as a resource that role models and promotes environmentally conscious behavior within their residential community/area. They will also assist students in becoming aware of their everyday lifestyle choices and understanding the effects an individual can have on the environment, specifically in their residence. The goal is to promote behavior changes that will continue beyond the time they live at NAU. Eco-Reps share information with their peers through monthly tabling events, trifold displays, and other outreach such as bulletin boards and signs in their halls.

Any student living in a community managed by Housing and Residence may apply. Students are asked to fill out a brief online application that asks for information about their housing assignment and contact information. The application asks them to share why they want to be an Eco-Rep and what they hope to gain from the experience. They are also asked to share any interests or past experiences they believe would be relevant to the Eco-Rep position. Finally, they are asked to discuss an environmental issue or topic that they think is relevant to living on campus and explain why it is important and how they would talk about it with their peers. Currently, program participants are selected based on the quality of their application, however since it is a volunteer position, it is not highly selective. We accept multiple participants per community, and have the goal of having at least one per residential community.

Shortly after selection, Eco-Reps participate in four hours of training and orientation. Participants receive an overview of the purpose of the role and its responsibilities. The training also provides discussion on what peer educators are and what are effective strategies for peer education and communication. Eco-Reps are provided ongoing training through bi-weekly meetings and a resource manual that they receive for each month’s topic. Each manual chapter has information that covers local, natural, and global aspects of a topic. Topics include recycling and waste minimization, conscious consumerism, food systems, and resource conservation. Bi-weekly meetings include ongoing conversations about programming ideas, effective communication and publicity strategies, and peer educator skills. Guest speakers address both the monthly topic as it relates to the campus as well as developmental topics such as leadership and marketing. The goals of the training and meetings are to assist students in designing and implementing monthly educational campaigns that are fun, engaging, and informative.

The Housing and Residence Life department employs a full-time coordinator whose job focus is sustainability education. The program is funded out of the budget provided for this position. Students spend 8 - 10 hours a week in meetings and in outreach and education activities. There are 22 paid EcoReps. The weblink is : www.nau.edu/ecorep

Community-Based Action Learning Teams (ALTs) bring first year students together with graduate students, faculty, and community partners to work on issues of sustainability and democratic community organizing. These new engaged learning teams are the creation of a partnership between the Program in Community, Culture & Environment’s Sustainable Environments and Engaged Democracy (SEED) Freshman Learning Community and the Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities (SUS). The graduate students from the MA Sustainable Communities program act as facilitators or student educators for each Action Learning Team. There are over 10 Action Learning Teams, 350 undergraduate and 20 grad students participating both on and off campus in the areas of social, environmental, and economic justice. Visit their website to learn more about the different teams: https://nau.edu/provost/vp-tlda/fys/alts/ Action Research Teams: AGWA ASSET ATAM Foodlink H.E.A.L.T.H. Immigration NENAU Public Achievement Queer and Ally (Q&A) SNAIL SSLUG Sustainability Cafe VeloComposting WACBAT Total hours = 750

The graduate student facilitators/student educators are selected based upon their backgrounds in subject matter and their community building and educating experience.

Each Action Learning Team facilitator/student educator will participate in a formal facilitator training week before the beginning of fall semester. This training brings in experts in community building and organizing and intends to expose the graduate student facilitators to a wide array of educational and organizational strategies. This training takes place at the end of August and is a requirement for graduate students who wish to become Action Learning Team facilitators.

The Action Learning Team program has been proven to increase student engagement (inside and outside of the classroom), student participation, and student retention. Due to the tremendous success of the program, NAU Administration has chosen to financially support the program through Presidential innovation funding. The Action Learning Teams will grow across campus in the coming year and expand throughout various colleges and departments. Each college or department will bring in additional financial support and staffing support.

Global Engineering Outreach is a student organization at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. Our goal is to organize the cooperation of students, professors, professionals, and community members to approach a world in which the communities we serve have the capacity to sustainably meet their basic human needs, and the members of our organization have global perspective. The students work to educate the communities they go to on best practices related to sustainable development projects. Total hours = 125

GEO welcomes all majors and all skill levels. GEO supports diverse enrollment and works to find a place in their organization that suits each individual's skills with the club's needs.

Students involved in the program and specifically with project teams and international project teams undergo a variety of training to prepare them for trips and the projects themselves. This training can include medical training, report training, or project specific training to adequately prepare students members.

The University allows faculty members that are involved in projects to become advisors to GEO. The group does much of its own fundraising, but partners with NAU's Center for International Education for student scholarships.

Two Residential Learning Communities where students are trained to teach studets: Eco House (20) The Forestry “Tree House” (30) SEED: Sustainable Environments and Engaged Democracy

Total number that are served: Eco-Reps: 7,700 ALTS: 1,300 GEO (students in Engineering): 2,400 Eco House: 20 Tree House: 30 =11,450