Wesustain Ambassador Program seeks students for Eco Rep program

By Krystin Nichols
Western Herald

Western Michigan University’s Wesustain Ambassador Program is seeking students for their new and improved Eco-Rep program taking place during the 2010-11 school year.

There are 18 positions to be filled and any student living on campus in a residence hall may apply.

Kaitlyn Shields, Wesustain Ambassador Program coordinator, said that “promotional posters are on display all over campus to let students know about the new and improved program.”

Interested students can visit the ResLife website (http://www.wmich.edu/housing/) to apply online or contact the program coordinator via e-mail or phone. There will also be a small amount of hard copy applications at the residence halls.

Resident Assistants and Graduate Assistants may also apply.

“Ambassadors will be selected the first couple weeks of school [and] by Sept. 18, ambassadors will be chosen, informed and the program will get underway,” Shields said.

Once chosen, ambassadors will meet bi-weekly and will have the opportunity to participate on tours, presentations, sustainability events and more. Each month a new topic related to resource conservation or sustainability will be introduced to the residence hall students and help facilitate related activities, as well as brainstorm how they can engage their halls in the weeks to come.

“These students will model sustainable lifestyles and practices, while assisting the greater campus community in creating and maintaining a culture of sustainability,” Shields said.

“They will also be assigned responsibilities on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.”

Ambassador responsibilities revolve around facilitating communication with students, organizing competitions and raising awareness about numerous resource conservation issues.

In addition, these responsibilities include:

• The opportunity to complete a number of activities and initiatives related to resource conservation and sustainability practices
• Accumulate points throughout the year which they may redeem for rewards after their successful completion of the program
• Award categories have been developed and ambassadors can receive various award certificates for accumulating a varying amount of points.

“Ambassadors will collect points over the course of the entire academic year and in order to redeem points for rewards, students must successfully complete the program,” Shields said.

“Ambassadors must successfully complete the program and fill out a pre- and post-program evaluation sheet, midyear reflection sheet, end of the year feedback from, have actively attended bi-weekly meetings and fulfill their assigned hall duties.”

The Wesustain Ambassador Program is a partnership between Facilities Management, the Office for Sustainability, and ResLife. These 18 ambassadors will be led by a program coordinator with assistance from all three departments and three individuals from the ResLife committee.

“This program will be a hands-on educational and leadership training experience for all individuals involved. All departments work closely with the WeSustain Ambassador Program to help develop the best fit program for WMU,” Shields said.

“We hope that the ambassador program will eventually become campus-wide.”

Students with questions may contact Kaitlyn Shields at kaitlyn.e.shields@wmich.edu, Chris Caprara at christopher.b.caprara@wmich.edu or by calling 269-350-7711.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=19767

Posted by kleonard on Sep 6 2010. Filed under Breaking, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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