Overall Rating Platinum
Overall Score 86.17
Liaison James Gordon
Submission Date May 31, 2022

STARS v2.2

Thompson Rivers University
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.04 / 4.00 James Gordon
Environmental Programs and Research Coordinator
TRU Office of Environment and Sustainability
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Number of students enrolled for credit:
26,660

Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
26,660

Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
100

Name of the student educators program (1st program):
TRU Student Sustainability Ambassadors Program

A brief description of the student educators program (1st program):

The TRU Sustainability Office’s Student Sustainability Ambassadors Program is designed to help spread the ‘spirit of sustainability’ at TRU. Students can be a force for change and improve the culture of sustainability on campus. This group is ideas-driven, goal-driven, while being effective and trying to have fun. The program is for all students enrolled in a for-credit program.
Student Ambassadors will need to interact (either in-person or virtually) with at least 500 of their fellow students during one or more school semesters by educating them on a variety of sustainability issues. Once these 500 ‘touch points’ are complete, and a report and program evaluation form are submitted, each ambassador will receive a certificate of completion and a credit of $200 which they can put towards tuition at TRU. It is anticipated that it will take 12 to 20 hours to reach these 500 touch points. Three student mentors are also part of the Ambassadors Program and they will help ambassadors from each program/project to reach the goals of their program/project. Examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities include running the TRU Green Guide Challenge; educating fellow students about what TRU is doing to support the City of Kamloops Community Climate Action Plan; starting up a Paper Reuse Program; conducting Eco-Hikes (which combine nature walks while picking up garbage); a food scraps composting project; and surveying and quizzing fellow students on zero waste activities.


A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (1st program):

The TRU Student Sustainability Ambassador Program targets all TRU students enrolled for credit. For those TRU students interested in getting involved in a student sustainability educators program that is completely virtual, they are encouraged to consider joining the All-TRU Sustainability Educators Program.


Number of trained student educators (1st program):
12

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
23

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (1st program):
2

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (1st program):
552

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (1st program):
Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
All-TRU Sustainability Educators Program

A brief description of the student educators program (2nd program):

This program was developed specifically to be 'Covid-friendly' e.i. possible to do completely virtually.
Sustainability encompasses so much – environmental, social and economic factors—and we all have much to learn about it and much to share about it. All TRU students (including from Open Learning), staff, faculty and administrators are encouraged to join the new All-TRU Sustainability Educators Program. At the heart of the program is telling 1 minute original ‘sustainability stories’ that are important to the participants to share with each other, and the world. Participants can learn about other people’s 1 minute stories from a website where they are stored.

To participate in the program, participants are required to join for one year (30 minutes per month on average), and do the following:

1. Create at least one 60 second original ‘sustainability story’ about something they care about. Stories can be expressed in any creative format (video, text, photos, audio, etc.), so long as they can be shared in a digital format.
2. Share their story with ten members of the TRU community within their peer group who are not part of the program. Peer group examples: students sharing with other students; or staff/faculty members sharing with other staff/faculty members.
3. ‘Experience’ at least ten 60 second sustainability stories from other educators during the year. ‘Experience’ meaning to watch, read, listen to, etc..

Once a year there will be a program celebration with awards and prizes for best stories and educators, as well as weekly draw prizes that all program educators are eligible to win. Once the program requirements are met, all participants must complete a short program feedback survey. Once this is done they will be awarded a program certificate of completion.

Funding of up to $50 per educator per year will be available on an as-needed basis and while budget lasts. This is for seed funding to help promote stories, help bring stories ‘to life’, or for other needs.

During the program, there will be one-on-one meetings and group meetings, as well as training on sustainability issues provided by Sustainability Office staff and other qualified people.

Sustainability story ideas will need to be approved by a vetting committee to ensure content is correct and that the nature of the story has not been covered extensively by other educators. The vetting committee will be made up of students, staff and faculty, with a minimum of five members.

All stories will be stored on this website: https://sustainability.trubox.ca/


A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (2nd program):

This program is open to TRU students and staff/faculty, but as part of the program terms of reference, each group must share their stories with at least 10 members from their peer group (students to students and staff/faculty with other staff/faculty).


Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
0

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
52

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
1

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
0

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (2nd program):
Name of the student educators program (3rd program):
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A brief description of the student educators program (3rd program):
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A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (3rd program):
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Number of trained student educators (3rd program):
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Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (3rd program):
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Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (3rd program):
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (3rd program):
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Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (3rd program):
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A brief description of all other student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education 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) :
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (all other programs):
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Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators (all programs):
552

Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
0.02

Website URL where information about the student sustainability educators programs is available:
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.