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

HADSA (Housing & Dining Sustainability Advocates) uses student-led advocacy, auditing and peer education to make sustainability accessible and appealing to the UC Berkeley community, improve housing & dining infrastructure, and work towards more ethical and environmentally sound practices. The team is made up of 11 paid student employees in various roles-- 2 food literacy coordinators, 2 garden coordinators, 2 waste reduction coordinators, 1 food waste reduction coordinator, 1 energy & water conservation coordinator, 1 internship coordinator, 1 communications coordinator, 1 Nature Village coordinator. Students work together to provide education and outreach about various sustainability topics through tablings, special events, and formal staff training. Students work directly with Residential Student Service Programs (RSSP)'s full time sustainability staff to accomplish their projects.

As one example of peer-to-peer education, Food literacy coordinators are responsible for organizing initiatives that promote food which is environmentally sound, nutritious, and just. They work on projects that help consumers understand and reflect on the social and environmental implications of food choices and encourage practices that promote food justice. In their cooking demos, the student educators demonstrate how to make affordable, nutritious and simple recipes for students who are starting to cook for themselves and want some tips! These demos take place within the dining halls, in the residential hall kitchens, on campus, and even at special events such as the CACS summit. The students who attend the demos are then encouraged and empowered to carry forward this knowledge and cook sustainable, nutritious food themselves.

Nature village is a multidisciplinary group of University Village volunteers and campus sustainability organizations furthering sustainability at UC Berkeley’s family housing complex, University Village. Nature Village grows, supports, and inspires sustainable living by:
- Promoting sustainable living through education and outreach.
- Increasing awareness of environmental protection, energy conservation, zero waste, and carbon neutrality.
- Providing guidance and resources on sustainable living best practices.
- Creating a unique green living environment that is suitable to University Village’s multicultural community.
- Collaborating with campus groups and departments to implement new operations, programs, and initiatives that realize sustainability metrics.

Information on Nature Village: https://universityvillage.berkeley.edu/resident-resources/community-organizations/nature-village

HADSA's programming is intended for students who live in university housing and customers of the dining halls and campus restaurants. University housing includes the residential halls, campus apartments, and family and graduate housing at University Village.

The UC Berkeley Zero Waste Coalition is a coalition of student organizations, researchers, faculty, staff, and administrators that aim to improve communication and collaboration on campus zero waste initiatives, while actively educating the student body on zero waste and acting as a zero waste resource. The ZWC educates students, faculty, and staff through several initiatives on campus. Educational initiatives include campus-wide email communications about zero waste topics, tabling in student spaces on campus, implementation of proper bin infrastructure and educational signage, online educational campaigns, and beginning of class presentations on zero waste topics.

In March 2020, the ZWC engaged over 5,000 students and faculty members in a weeklong push for compost education. Student educators engaged their peers in informational presentations about the importance of composting, Berkeley's waste system, and how to advocate for increased composting in their own off-campus apartment buildings. The Compost Week is just one initiative among many that pass knowledge from peer to peer and empower students to engage in more sustainable practices.

The target audience includes any and all members of the UC Berkeley community, mostly students and staff who utilize campus spaces.

CALPIRG is a statewide student-run nonprofit that works on environmental, civic engagement, and college affordability issues. They run semesterly fundraising pledge drives in which we educate students on campus about our priority campaign. The priority campaign in Fall 2019 was Plastic Free Seas, advocating for plastic reduction policies in California. CALPIRG members are trained on telling the problem, solution, and call to action on this issue in a succinct and compelling way in one-on-one conversations with students on campus as well as in class announcements.

In recent years CALPIRG has worked to ban all single-use plastics on college campuses. Across the UC system, CALPIRG interns and volunteers built a movement of student support for stronger limits on plastic use on our campuses. As a result, UCB CALPIRG chapter Chancellor Christ signed a commitment to banning all non-essential single use plastics. Without student support and peer-to-peer education outreach, this successful advocacy effort would not have been possible.

The general UC Berkeley student body is the target audience.

DeCal Program
The DeCal Program (or just DeCal) is an aggregate of student-run courses at the University of California, Berkeley where students create and facilitate their own classes on a variety of subjects, many of which are not addressed in the traditional curriculum. In the 2018-2019 school year, 33 DeCal classes addressed sustainability issues, totaling 70 student educators and 1,229 students reached.

DeCal classes, in a nutshell, are legitimate university classes run by students. Facilitators are the pillars of DeCal Program. Their duties include but are not limited to recruiting students, setting up and running classes on a semester-basis, and report to school faculties. All new facilitators must attend a workshop offered through the Student Learning Center. The Student Learning Center Undergraduate Course Facilitator Training and Resources (UCFTR) provides pedagogical training and resources to facilitators of the student-run Democratic Education Program (or DeCal). Through peer-led workshops and one-on-one consultation services, UCFTR aims to equip students with the skills to facilitate their classes more effectively and intentionally.

https://decal.berkeley.edu

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Berkeley Student Farms
Berkeley Student Farms is a coalition of seven student-run garden spaces at UC Berkeley. The organization is a democratic student-led organization that prioritizes meaningful inclusion, welcoming all interested students – regardless of major/academic interest, level of experience, or physical abilities. BSF provides opportunities for experiential agricultural learning and community-building, while supporting students’ basic needs and wellbeing.

In Fall 2020, BSF welcomed approximately 160 student farmers for in-person workdays, while following all necessary COVID protocols. Our online community consists of 278 active members (via Slack). Of these members, there are 20 to 30 volunteer facilitators helping support our working groups. Students commit varying amounts of time to BSF; all members are welcome regardless of their ability to commit a particular number of hours. Each individual dedicates anywhere from 1 hour per week to 10+ hours per week. During Fall 2020, BSF had 839 volunteer interactions from our 160 student farmers during our 45 open hour sessions.

https://www.studentfarms.berkeley.edu/

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Bonnie Reiss Carbon Neutrality Initiative Fellowship Program
Bonnie Reiss Carbon Neutrality Student Fellows are selected annually to engage students and increase awareness about the UC-wide Carbon Neutrality Initiative (CNI), which set a goal for the entire UC system to be carbon neutral by 2025. At least one Fellow is designated to focus on student engagement around CNI, but all Fellows engage and educate the campus community through their work as Fellows.

CNI Fellows attend mandatory orientation and training during the summer before their fellowship, which is held at the annual California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC). During the school year they attend weekly meetings with their campus supervisor, and at least one system-wide retreat. At the end of their fellowship, the Fellows return to CHESC, where they present posters on their CNI work.

CNI Fellows at the UC Berkeley campus engage in work centered around carbon offsets, sustainability research, GHG emissions inventory, and sustainability staff training. The 2020-2021 CNI recipients include seven UC Berkeley fellows, contributing a total of over 2,500 work hours over the course of the academic year.

https://ucop.edu/carbon-neutrality-initiative/cni-fellows/2020-cni-fellows/index.html#berkeley

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Global Food Initiative Fellowship Program
UC’s Global Food Initiative Student Fellowship Program funds student-generated research, related projects or internships that focus on food issues. All 10 UC campuses plus UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are participating in the program.

The program began in fall 2014, with the fellows participating in an April 2015 tour of an organic peach farm near Fresno and a July 2015 symposium in San Francisco. The second class of fellows was announced in 2015 and participated in an April 2016 tour of an organic farm in the Capay Valley and a June 2016 symposium in Fullerton. The third class of fellows was announced in 2016 and this cohort wrapped up their GFI fellowship with a trip to the San Joaquin Delta to learn about the work of UC ANR Cooperative Extension and participating in the Fullerton symposium. The fourth class of cohorts was announced in June 2017 whose experience culminated in a field trip to UC San Diego to experience the campus farms and local community gardens and participated at the symposium held at UC Santa Barbara. The 2018 class of fellows represented the fifth cohort and traveled to UC Santa Cruz to learn more about their CASFS program and campus farms as part of their year end activity. In July 2019, the sixth cohort was announced and this cohort of fellows participated in a virtual conversation with then-President Napolitano and the first virtual symposium. The application process takes place in late spring and the program is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, and administered at each location to ensure that student efforts align with local needs.

UC Berkeley has about three GFI fellows on campus annually, who engage in sustainability research and peer-to-peer education & outreach efforts.

https://www.ucop.edu/global-food-initiative/student-involvement/index.html

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ASUC Sustainability Team (STeam)
The ASUC Sustainability Team (STeam) is an ASUC commission at UC Berkeley aimed at establishing sustainable practices and promoting environmental awareness on campus. The Sustainability Team is a special program of the ASUC, and one of the oldest commissions in the ASUC. As a team, we create and implement a variety of projects that help establish sustainable practices and promote environmental awareness on campus. Project committees within STeam work as a tight unit to accomplish their goals, and leadership capacity is shared equally.

We meet all together once a week to update each other on the progress of our projects and brainstorm strategies for successful implementation. The team also spends time outside of meetings through our STeam Socials and community service days a few times per semester. The team is made up of 34 members who contribute about 2-4 hours per week throughout the academic year.

Current projects include:

Ethical eats, one of our latest projects, centers around giving students access to sustainable restaurants. Our website grants sustainability ratings to local Berkeley eateries. Our team also performed paid research with a graduate student documenting single-use plastic surrounding restaurants. The grounds of this project rests on the belief that students should know how and where their food came to be and are given the proper resources to support sustainability in the food industry.

Another program STeam began is elementary education. This semester, we're collaborating with Connect-In-Place, a Berkeley-based e-learning initiative that connects college students with local middle- and high schools to teach courses! In the Spring of 2021, we will be teaching a course on reducing waste at home and at school through the platform. We firmly believe that change can be spurred from any age and it is vital to inform our future generations of our current environmental conditions. This team aims to inspire and educate kids to take action and live sustainably.

In Fall 2020, we organized a panel on the intersection between sustainability and racial justice, with activists, industry leaders, and academics attending to speak on the importance of intersectionality in their work. In Fall 2021, we will be hosting a workshop on communicating climate science to relatives, friends, and others close to you, emphasizing the importance of education and outreach in the fight for a sustainable future. Stay tuned for specific dates!

Finally, STeam organizes Sunstock, a solar-powered music festival held on campus annually. STeam works hard year-round to prepare a venue, local lineup, sponsors, merchandise, and cuisine. Sunstock aims to unite students through music in an environmentally conscious way that brings light to improvements the music industry can make to be more sustainable. Our wide range of project niches displays how sustainability can be brought into all aspects of life and even combined with personal passions!

https://asucsteam.berkeley.edu/

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Health Workers Program
The University Health Services’ (UHS) Health Worker Program is the largest and longest running peer health education program on the UC Berkeley campus. UHS staff train student peer educators to provide health promotion services to over 5,000 residents in nine of our campus living center communities, including the residence halls. Health Workers provide peer health education, outreach, and advising services to support you with your health-related needs. Health Workers post weekly health tips, coordinate numerous health-oriented programs, and provide information about UHS and community health resources. Health Workers use health education and peer advising to promote self care and healthy habits; risk management responding to problems effectively, using home-care or professional health services. Health Workers are student peer educators who serve in the residence halls, fraternities, sororities and Bowles and provide the following services on-site or remotely.

Health Workers support people of different backgrounds for a range of health issues, empathize with their complex challenges, and share resources as a knowledgeable and non-judgemental peer. The students dedicate 8 hours per week, write and post weekly health tips, and act as a visible and active health champion. Health workers attend class each Tuesday, 2P/NP units per semester for training. With the exception of Academic Department Health Workers, Health Workers live in a student residential community in order to serve as a local "first point of contact” for the peers where you live. The Health Workers program is a one-year commitment to serve, learn, and grow. The Health Workers engage in experiential training and practice for the knowledge and skills needed to make a difference. Throughout the academic year, 54 trained Health Workers engage in peer-to-peer health education for about eight hours per week.

https://uhs.berkeley.edu/healthworkers

For programs that are only tangentially focused on peer education, or focus on some aspects of sustainability along with other topics, the total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators excludes an estimated percentage of hours dedicated to administrative work.

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How we reached 100% percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer, sustainability educators program:

The entire student body receives emails and electronic communication from Zero Waste Coalition student educators. These ~40,000 students also interact with signage, bins, and tabling that is put on by student educators. Direct education, such as beginning of class presentations, reaches ~5,000 students per semester.

All 8,500 students living in the residence halls and those living apartments are served by the Housing and Dining Sustainability Advocates (HADSA), whether by interacting with their signage, programming, or education efforts.

For CALPIRG, ~1600 students per year sign up to be dues-paying members after hearing about our campaign during the pledge drive. Based on an average 30% sign up rate, ~5330 students total are educated about the campaign.

In the 2018-2019 academic year, 33 DeCal classes focused on sustainability reached 1,229 students.

During Fall 2020, Berkeley Student Farms had 839 volunteer interactions from our 160 student farmers during their 45 open hour sessions.

For more information, visit the following websites:

Housing and Dining Sustainability Advocates (HADSA): https://rsspsustainability.berkeley.edu

Nature Village: https://universityvillage.berkeley.edu/resident-resources/community-organizations/nature-village

Zero Waste Coalition: https://sustainability.berkeley.edu/zero-waste/zero-waste-coalition

CALPIRG Students (California Public Interest Research Group): https://calpirgstudents.org/chapters/uc-berkeley/

DeCal: https://decal.berkeley.edu

Berkeley Student Farms: https://www.studentfarms.berkeley.edu/