University of New Hampshire
EN-1: Student Educators Program

The Sustainability Institute (SI) recruits a cohort of Sustainability Interns each year. Any UNH student can apply to be a Sustainability Intern; we have both graduate and undergraduates, from across colleges and majors. Each intern receives hourly wages, and training on both sustainability and on peer-to-peer outreach and education. Interns work directly with the SI, as well as with relevant departments or groups on campus (such as the Energy, Ecosystem, and Sustainability task forces) to 

1) support specific sustainability projects on campus through research, analysis or program implementation, and 
2) to share what they are learning and doing with other UNH students and the broader community.

Sustainability Interns help track the UNH greenhouse gas, water, nitrogen and waste footprints and then do outreach to the student body about them; they create and implement outreach campaigns around waste and recycling, Bee Campus and pollinator gardens, our Cat Trax bike share program, Fair Trade and sustainable food systems; they support SI programs such as the Sustainability Advocates and Sustainability STARS Leadership program; they support the task forces with notes, research, and development of materials. While some interns have projects that focus specifically and exclusively on outreach and education, others have projects that ask them first to “learn by doing” a sustainability initiative, then to develop peer-to-peer education around it.

Our Sustainability Interns all receive an orientation in which sustainability principles, the SDGs, sustainability practices at UNH, and the fundamentals of peer-to-peer education are featured. In addition to meeting with their supervisors, Sustainability Interns are convened weekly as a group by the Coordinator for Student Advising and Leadership Development, in sessions that focus on building community, skill, knowledge and confidence for students. They are asked to share their work with other students across campus in UNH social medial posts, blogs posts, and at various campus-wide events, including the graduate and undergraduate research conferences.

Outreach and education from Sustainability Interns is targeted to the entire student body at UNH. Since our interns are at various levels in their studies, come from different colleges and majors, and represent a variety of living situations (i.e. on- and off-campus), their collective work has reach and relevance for the entire student body. They are asked to share their work with other students across campus in UNH social media and blogs posts; at events they organize that are aimed at both graduate and undergraduate, on- and off-campus audiences; and at various campus-wide events, including the graduate and undergraduate research conferences.

Sustainability Advocates is a residence hall peer-to-peer education and engagement program that aims to encourage sustainable thought and action across campus. Each residence hall elects a designated Sustainability Advocate (SA) that sits on hall councils. EAs lead sustainability programming in their residence hall; for example, creating bulletin boards or “Kahoots!” focused on sustainable living topics, organizing hall socials that educate students on sustainable practices and sustainability opportunities at UNH, and making themselves available to answer sustainability questions that arise in hall meetings.

The primary campus level goals are to:
• Educate students about topics in sustainability at the individual, campus, and community level,
• Encourage students about ways to implement sustainable practices within their lives and their communities, and
• Connect students to resources and opportunities to gain volunteer and/or professional experience in sustainability.
At an advocate level, the primary goals are to:
• Lead by example as a peer educator and sustainability initiator,
• Gain leadership, communication, and planning skills,
• Connect with like-minded individuals through dialogue and teamwork, and
• Learn from and connect with sustainability professionals.
Staff from the Sustainability Institute design and support the program, in coordination with Residential Life. It is then implemented in large part by one of the Sustainability Interns described above (ideally one who has previously been an SA); hosting weekly meetings to educate the SAs about sustainability on- and off-campus, guiding discussions with the SAs about current events in the sustainability field, and helping the SAs plan residence hall events. Guest speakers and field trips allow the Sustainability Advocates to learn from and connect with sustainability professionals.

The primary target audience for each SA is the other residents in their hall, although the SA’s also have collaborated in organizing events open to all students on campus. About half of UNH’s students live in the residence halls (primarily first and second year students.)

Changemaker Coaches are students who have experience in UNH’s Changemaker Collaborative programs (see https://www.unh.edu/sustainability/changemakers). The Sustainability Institute employs them to coach their peers to help them make the most of their UNH experience, while driving social, environmental and economic action. 

Coaches take part in a peer education orientation program, meet weekly, and get support and training from the Sustainability Institute's Coordinator for Student Advising and Leadership Development around sustainability principles, sustainability programs and opportunities at UNH, and peer education, mentorship and leadership. 

The Coaches work specifically with Changemaker Fellows, who are first-year students.

There are three more:
- Clinic Peer Mentors; these students have been part of the Climate Action Clinic or B Impact Clinics previously, and serve as guides and mentors for new students as they move through the semester working with outside "client" organizations to meet specific sustainability goals related to either carbon footprinting or B-Corp certification. The peer mentors are paid, trained, and meet weekly to cultivate their own leadersip skills. There are 20 per year and they work 5 hours weekly for 32 weeks.

Trash2Treasure Core Team
These students provide both the logistical program support for the T2T program, and are trained to do peer education and outreach to encourage participation in the T2T collections and sale, and in a reuse culture at UNH more generallly. The core team do approximately 500 hours of peer education and outreach throughout the year.

- FIRE Peer Advisors;
The First-year Innovation and Research Experience, widely known as FIRE, is a program at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. The idea was first conceived as an extension of Paul College’s Peer Advising program, and has been designed to expand upon the principles and mission of that program.
FIRE is an integrated, team-based and game-like experience, guided by alumni and peer mentors. FIRE charges first-year students to hit the ground running by assisting them in developing multidisciplinary solutions to real-world sustainability “grand challenges.” Through a series of challenges, with guidance from idea to execution, students develop business plans to be presented at a year end finale that respond to these grand challenges.

The peer advisors who are part of the FIRE program guide the participating students in understanding the challenge presented and developing these business plans to address them—which requires them to develop and deepen content expertise themselves, in regards to sustainability challenges; to share that expertise with the students in their team; and to facilitate a collaborative approach to problem-solving around that challenge.
The FIRE mentors go through a training curriculum that focuses on grand challenges and that features the SDGs, as well as focusing on peer advising, education, mentorship and leadership. They are convened as a cohort regularly throughout the semester and supported by Paul College alumni and faculty. In 2021, FIRE peer advisors supported their peers in learning and completing projects focused on protecting wildlife, supporting water quality, enhancing community health, sustainable fashion, and sustainable economic development. There are approximately 30 FIRE peer educators, who commit to an average of 5 hours per week for two semesters.

See https://paulcollege.unh.edu/blog/2024/10/kicking-fire-grand-challenge 
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Health and Wellness has trained peer educators as well, focused on Tobacco, Smoke and Nicotivne prevention, nutrition and wellness, and sexual health and wellbeing. All are trained in the “wellness wheel" (including 8 dimensions of health: emotional, social, physical , spiritual, environmental, occupational, intellectual, and financial) and supported in sharing it with their peers, in the context of their more speciifc topic areas. There are approximately six interns in each program each year, doing an average of 6 hours per week for 32 weeks.