Overall Rating Platinum
Overall Score 85.50
Liaison Breeana Sylvas
Submission Date Feb. 28, 2022

STARS v2.2

University of California, Merced
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Allajah Wheatley
Zero Waste Coordinator
Sustainability Department
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Number of students enrolled for credit:
8,544

Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
8,544

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

Name of the student educators program (1st program):
Energize Colleges

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

Energize Colleges is a branch program from the non-profit organization Strategic Energy Innovations. The program supports a network of community and institutional partners that prepare students to become leaders in the energy economy. The objective of the program is to develop students' knowledge, skills, and experience for energy and green workforce options by providing them with real-world projects and experiences.

Although many of the internships provided through the Energize Colleges Program consisted of living laboratory research projects, there was outreach including an intern that started a volunteer program to help educate the campus community. The volunteers table throughout various parts of campus and interact with the community through educational programs and conducting surveys. Surveys were used to assess community members level of understanding of the campus sustainabilty goals. This information would be utilized to find the next tabling topic for education. Additionally, the Energize Colleges Fellow is a recent university graduate who manages and coordinates the program and provides outreach and engagement to the campus community on sustainability efforts and current projects.


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

Target audience includes students, staff, and faculty. The energize colleges interns supported the UC Cool Campus Challenge a systemwide challenge that engaged members of the UC community to pledge to reduce emissions and incorporate sustainability partices daily. The energize collegs student interns engaged students, staff, facutly, student organizations.


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

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
40

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (1st program):
40

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (1st program):
1,600

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (1st program):
Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
EcoRep Program

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

The EcoRep Program is a sustainability peer to peer educator program that focuses on educating students on sustainable practices that benefit both on and off campus communities and the environment. EcoReps encouraged behaviors in the following environmental disciplines: resources and waste management, energy efficiency, and water conservation. The EcoReps also supported outreach and engagement for the entire campus community.

Example of EcoRep outreach activities and events have included, zero waste event training's, careers in sustainable transportation workshop, sustainability career panel. These outreach activities were promoted through social media and tabling events. Another example of EcoRep outreach efforts include encouraging both residents and the campus constituency to participate in the campus community garden. Both residents and community members can volunteer to maintain the garden and participate in harvest days. The Ecoreps also have a strong presence at Campus Sustainability Day and Earth Day, where students are provided information on sustainable living both on and off campus.


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

The EcoRep target audience include students, staff, and faculty engagement. Similar to energize colleges, the EcoReps supported the campus efforts to engage students, staff and faculty during the UC Cool Campus Challenge.


Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
10

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
40

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
18

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
7,200

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (2nd program):
Name of the student educators program (3rd program):
Global Food Initiative Ambassador and Carbon Neutrality Engagement Fellow

A brief description of the student educators program (3rd program):

The Global Food Initiative (GFI) Ambassadors' role and project incorporates identifying how to increase student and public awareness on food security, health, and sustainability. The GFI Ambassador leads campuswide student engagement and communications efforts for the initiative. The role also draws on perspectives toward open dialogue within UC Merced and the UC campuses.

The Carbon Neutrality Engagement Fellows role is to work with their campus sustainability office and staff to communicate UC‐wide sustainability goals and programs and to engage undergraduate and graduate students in programming efforts. The Carbon Neutrality Engagement Fellow's efforts should enable and empower students to provide feedback about campus and UC‐wide sustainability programs.


A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (3rd program):

UC Merced's Global Food Initiative (GFI) Campus Collaborative is a UC-wide effort, funded by the UC Office of the President, to create a central coordinating space to support and nurture innovative research, outreach, and extension projects to solve challenges related to the food system, health, and sustainability.

The UC Merced Campus Collaborative is focused on facilitating research, coordination, communication, and improvement of food and food security-related resources on campus and in surrounding San Joaquin Valley communities.


Number of trained student educators (3rd program):
4

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (3rd program):
40

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (3rd program):
18

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (3rd program):
2,880

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):
11,680

Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
1.37

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.