Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.12
Liaison Maria Dahmus
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of St. Thomas
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.61 / 4.00 Amir Nadav
Assistant Director of Campus Sustainability
Office of Sustainability Initiatives
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Part 1. Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer, sustainability educators program

Number of students enrolled for credit:
9,679

Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
6,059

Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
62.60

1st program

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

A brief description of the student educators program (1st program):
With the help of a Minnesota GreenCorps service member, the University of St. Thomas launched a Student Sustainability Leadership pilot program (SSLP) in February 2020. The program supported a group of paid undergraduate students who served as sustainability peer educators. The student leaders advanced campus sustainability and worked to increase student knowledge of, and engagement in, sustainability initiatives on campus and in their own lives.

Throughout the course of the program, student leaders learn about sustainability at the University and serve as sustainability ambassadors for the student body. Student leaders receive coaching on leadership principles and effective methods for peer engagement. SSLP generally meets once every week for one or two hours. During these meetings, student leaders participate in trainings, group discussions, and brainstorm strategies to best execute their work on campus. Faculty and staff members attend these group meetings on occasion to deliver presentations on various sustainability topics and best practices for outreach and engagement.

Some of the student sustainability leaders' accomplishments during calendar year 2020 include organizing the university's first Campus EcoChallenge, hosting an interdisciplinary faculty panel on ways to take action to address global sustainability challenges, developing a guide for students about the local transit system, creating a sustainability orientation session for incoming students, and creating a campus sustainability scavenger hunt.

A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (1st program):
The program consists of undergraduate student educators, and their primary audience is their undergraduate student peers. A subset of the program's activities also engage faculty, staff, Dougherty Family College two-year students, and graduate students.

Number of trained student educators (1st program):
9

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
47

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (1st program):
9

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (1st program):
1,092

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (1st program):

If reporting students served by additional peer-to-peer programs, provide:

2nd program

Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
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A brief description of the student educators program (2nd program):
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A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (2nd program):
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Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
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Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
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Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
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Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
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Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (2nd program):
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If reporting students served by three or more peer-to-peer programs, provide:

3rd 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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Additional programs 

A brief description of all other student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:
St. Thomas has several other peer-education programs that support sustainability.

Neighborhood Student Advisors are undergraduate students who work with Neighborhood Relations to plan and implement programs for students who live in the neighborhoods around St. Thomas. Their outreach and programs have addressed, among other topics, home energy conservation and sustainable transportation options.

The Health Promotion, Resilience, and Violence Prevention Team's Peer Health Educators develop, implement, and promote health promotion programs and initiatives based on the department’s leading health indicators - alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, mental wellbeing, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, sexual health, and personal health and safety. These programs can range from planning large-scale health promotion events, implementing sustained health behavior change initiatives, and assisting in health-focused social marketing.

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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Part 2. Educator hours per student served by a peer-to-peer educator program

Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators (all programs):
1,092

Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
0.18

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the student sustainability educators programs is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The Student Sustainability Leadership Program launched in the first week of February 2020 and peer education activities continued through the remainder of the calendar year until winter break in late December. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of students employed and total hours worked during the fall semester were lower than in the spring semester.

We estimated student enrollment by taking an average of students enrolled in the 2020 spring and fall semesters. Figures reported for this credit are based on calendar year 2020. Therefore, they differ slightly from the fiscal-year data provided in the preface of the STARS report.

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.