Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 81.02
Liaison Sam Lubow
Submission Date June 29, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Stanford University
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Moira Hafer
Sustainability Specialist
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Number of students enrolled for credit (headcount):
19,372

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):
19,372

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

1st Program 

Name of the student educators program:
Green Living Council

Number of students served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
7,000

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:
The Green Living Council is a group of trained students who act as “Green Living Coordinators” for individual dorms/residence halls and provide environmental education and outreach to dorm members and incoming freshmen. Examples of the peer-to-peer outreach include administration of the university's Green Living Pledge, kick-off presentations during New Student Orientation, and organization of the annual "Energy Wars / Water Wars" event, including tabling and campaigns aimed at educating and raising awareness among the entire student population.

A brief description of how the student educators are selected:
To become a Green Living Coordinator, students must submit a brief application. The organization receives both staff and financial support from Student Housing at Stanford, and the leaders of the Green Living Council work directly with sustainability staff within Student Housing.

A brief description of the formal training that the student educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:
Green Living Coordinators participate in a two-unit course entitled “Promoting Behavior Change at Stanford." http://explorecourses.stanford.edu/search?view=catalog&filter-coursestatus-Active=on&page=0&catalog=&academicYear=&q=earthsys18&collapse= The course explores new research on different strategies that achieve maximum success and engagement with target audiences and provides strategies for effective program design.

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 two-unit training course is taught by Stanford Professor Tom Robinson. The GLC receives institutional support for their projects from the Office of Sustainability, Student Housing, and Stanford Dining.

If reporting students served by additional peer-to-peer programs, provide:

2nd Program

Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
Graduate Student Community Advisors Program

Number of students served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (2nd program):
12,372

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):
All graduate student dorms have peer community advisors who manage day to day affairs in the house. As part of the community advisor training in fall of 2015, all community advisors received sustainability training, with a focus on raising awareness for sustainability among their peers. Community advisors were provided with materials to send out to their peers in their residences with sustainability tips, and they were trained specifically on hosting green events in their residences that would spark conversations about sustainability throughout the community and among the entire graduate student population. After the training, several green events were held that accomplished this goal. For instance, in Quillen, the community advisor held an “Earth Day Happy Hour” to raise awareness for Earth Day among her peers in the spring and a make-your-own parfait event earlier in the year that focused on the use of compostable materials and training residents to compost correctly.

A brief description of how the student educators are selected (2nd program):
Stanford’s Community Associates (CAs) go through an application and interview process to be selected for their positions on campus. To be considered for this role, they must be registered graduate students, eligible for housing, and must have completed 1 year of graduate school at Stanford. It is a requirement that all community advisors attend training before the start of fall quarter, which includes sustainability as a core component.

A brief description of the formal training that the student educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):
CAs participate in a week of training at the beginning of the year where they are briefed on the following topics: orientation, interpersonal skills, Title IX topics, fire and earthquake safety training, suicide assessment and prevention, community building and sustainability. During the sustainability training, Office of Sustainability speaks to CAs about its seasonal conservation campaigns which can be adapted as themes for events that CAs are required to host throughout the year. Office of Sustainability also provides CAs with resources on the Cardinal Green Event program, which helps CAs make their own community events sustainable, which they can then use as a learning tool for their peers.

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):
Staff in the Office of Sustainability work with staff in the Graduate Life Office to offer the sustainability trainings to all community advisors. This program was launched in 2015 and will continue to expand in subsequent years.

If reporting students served by three or more peer-to-peer programs, provide:

3rd Program 

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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Additional Programs 

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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Optional Fields 

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:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.