University of Massachusetts Amherst
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Founded and run at UMass Amherst, Paperbark is an interdisciplinary sustainability print and digital magazine dedicated to publishing ecologically-focused creative prose, poetry, scientific writing, art, photography, and more. The magazine is curated each year through a student-led, course- base experience that engages both undergraduate and graduate students during the fall and spring semesters. The course-based training links up with the magazine’s staff. Student educators receive credit for their experience. Additionally, 1-2 lead graduate students manage the overall development of the magazine, including setting the theme and framing the submission review. Students learn about the production cycle of a literary magazine, the design process for curating an issue, and how to manage and review submissions of written and visual pieces. The students also learn about and manage the marketing, distribution, and fundraising efforts. Lead students previously served in student training roles.

Clarification for how this program conducts student peer-to-peer sustainability education on an ongoing basis:

The development of Paperbark Magazine is curated through a tiered, peer-to-peer education model. That model includes both graduate and undergraduate students. The graduate student training includes magazine staff positions held by more experienced students who have gained experience with magazine production. They work closely with a class of graduate students who learn about environmental humanities and editing ecological literature; the magazine graduate student staff work with course participants on magazine design and production. The magazine staff also works with two different sets of undergraduate students:
1) undergraduate art and design students.
2) undergraduate submission readers

The graduate student staff works with the design students on the magazine layout. They provide mentoring and work with the team on iterative design elements. The undergraduate submission readers work both with the graduate student course participants and the graduate student staff through an interactive and inclusive submission review process where the more experienced students support the student learners in an iterative review process of considering all the magazine submissions and winnowing down the pieces to the final selections. The magazine provides peer-to-peer education that recognizes the experience of all students and creates opportunities for the student teachers and student learners to both lead and learn. This tiered learning model lends itself to students beginning as readers or class participants and moving up to become magazine staff.

This program primarily targets graduate students who participate in one or both semesters of the training program. Paperbark also engages undergraduates for the submission review, engagement and events planning, and marketing; these students typically participate only during the fall semester.

The UMass Permaculture Initiative is a unique and cutting-edge sustainability program that converts underused grass lawns on the campus into edible, low-maintenance, and easily replicable gardens. This initiative was created by students and then adopted and funded by our administration in 2010. Students and permaculture staff work together along with UMass Dining Services, Sustainable UMass, and many other departments to demonstrate the vision of what a sustainable community and world can look like.

UMass was the first public university in the country implementing sustainable permaculture gardens directly on campus each year and serving the local, healthy produce in the university's dining commons.

Although the UMass Permaculture Initiative was born from just a few visionary students, we have grown considerably since our inception. As a result of our expansion, the initiative has formed partnerships with three different branches within the UMass Amherst system. The student-led UMass Permaculture committee, the Stockbridge School of Agriculture and, UMass Dining - all working together to achieve the same end.

Currently, the Permaculture Initiative which is facilitated by students, holds workshops and classes within the classroom and in the gardens on and off campus to fellow students and the greater community regarding permaculture techniques, community building, social justice and local food, and grassroots organizing.

Students who partake in the 1-credit practicum “Permaculture Gardening at UMass” are trained in various skills and concepts related to permaculture, organic gardening, and design under the facilitation of the Garden Coordinator. One of the students’ primary requirements during their course semester is to engage with the wider campus community to support the permaculture initiative. Specifically, they must fulfill 4 hours of community engagement in order to pass the course. They do so by tabling at various events across campus, including the Student Farmers’ Market which runs weekly throughout the Fall. Practicum students also serve as leaders during open garden volunteer sessions. These sessions, which occur twice weekly throughout the Fall and Spring, are open to all students and typically draw between 5 and 10 volunteers per session. Practicum students guide the volunteers through the day’s work under the supervision of the garden coordinator and student intern(s).”

The UMass Carbon Literacy Project (CLP) trains students to become ambassadors to their peers for the cause of raising awareness about the costs and impacts of carbon emissions. CLP is a global program, and UMass Amherst is the first U.S. organizational partner to deliver it internally.

CLP @UMass provides underpinning knowledge to vitally shift how UMass lives, learns, works, and leads. By participating in the CLP training, UMass students develop an understanding of the carbon impacts of our activities. This awareness, in turn, equips student educators to make more informed choices, think and speak critically about systems and processes, and to facilitate collective meaningful change.

CLP is a practice-based approach to organizational change and responsible management with published evidence. The training process brings students together around shared tools, technologies, and discussion. The result is collective knowledge which fosters practical interconnections across boundaries, leading to participant empowerment. CLP @UMass is part of an award-winning, internationally recognized program with a common set of learning outcomes.

CLP is designed to be accessible to students, faculty, and staff. Currently, all undergraduate students are the primary target audience for both training and outreach.