| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 65.17 |
| Liaison | Lisa Mitten |
| Submission Date | March 2, 2023 |
State University of New York at New Paltz
EN-1: Student Educators Program
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.72 / 4.00 |
Lisa
Mitten Campus Sustainability Coordinator Office of Campus Sustainability |
Number of students enrolled for credit:
Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
Name of the student educators program (1st program):
A brief description of the student educators program (1st program):
Since the fall of 2016, the Office of Campus Sustainability has hired, trained, and supervised undergraduate and graduate student Sustainability Ambassadors responsible for integrating sustainability into campus life and operations at SUNY New Paltz. Sustainability Ambassadors are change agents charged with shifting culture, awareness, and day-to-day operations at SUNY New Paltz towards a more sustainable direction. Sustainability Ambassadors partner with faculty and staff from across campus to move forward their work and learn about institutional change and change management. Recent teams have included:
Beyond Plastics Team
Biodiversity Team
Carbon Neutrality Team
Student Engagement & Communications Team
Intersectional Environmentalism Team
Sustainability Assessment, Tracking, and Reporting
Sustainable & Inclusive Food
Sustainability-in-the-Curriculum Team
INITIAL & ONGOING TRAINING
All Sustainability Ambassadors participate in a two-day training prior to the start of the fall semester. During this orientation, they:
- learn strategies to effectively engage with peers on sustainability matters
- participate in team-building exercises
- are oriented to past achievements and best practices of the program
- learn from returning Sustainability Ambassadors about past effective strategies to foster organizational change and development
- conduct peer-to-peer engagement with incoming students especially around composting of food waste and compostable serving ware
Throughout the year, students receive training from their supervisor, Campus Sustainability Coordinator Lisa Mitten, from their peers, as well as experts in team's focus area. Examples include:
- Judith Enck of the Beyond Plastics Organization on organizational strategies to move beyond plastics
- Incorporating Intersectional Environmentalism into Your Team
- Fostering and Supporting Bike Culture & Infrastructure with regional community member Arif Khan who has a background in sustainable transportation consulting
- Best Practices with Snow and Salt Management with Phill Sexton, Founder & CEO of WIT Advisers who specializes in winter grounds management
- Engagement and relationship-building with academic sustainability leaders, including individual professors and leaders of SUNY New Paltz's Sustainability Faculty Learning Community
- Relationships building and learning about current practices and aspirations from Athletics and Wellness staff
Recent peer-to-peer outreach has included engagement about the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, plant-based foods, water conservation strategies, student opinions and perspectives on accessible and sustainable transportation solutions, and food waste and servingware compostability.
Sustainability Ambassadors have also created events to educate student artists and art-educators about how alumni in this field have integrated sustainability into their art careers and art practices as well as educating future K-12 teachers about how alumni K-12 teachers have integrated climate solutions into their classrooms.
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (1st program):
The Sustainability Ambassadors program strives to engage all students. It achieves this through peer-to-peer engagement via tabling at the outdoor farmer's markets each fall and spring semester. It also seeks to achieve this through our Instagram account, @sustainablenewpaltz. Main campus social media and communications channels often pick up our content from @sustainablenewpaltz and broadcasts it to their even larger networks.
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Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
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Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (1st program):
Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
A brief description of the student educators program (2nd program):
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (2nd program):
Name of the student educators program (3rd program):
A brief description of the student educators program (3rd program):
A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (3rd program):
Number of trained student educators (3rd program):
Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (3rd program):
Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (3rd program):
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Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (3rd program):
A brief description of all other student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:
Number of trained student educators (all other programs):
Number of weeks, on average, the student educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
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):
Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators (all programs):
Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
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:
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.