Join Our Student Team
The Office of Sustainability at Colorado College is a leader in sustainability initiatives. Established in 2013, the Office of Sustainability, alongside the Campus Sustainability Council, works to raise campus awareness and bring sustainability issues to the forefront of conversations and efforts on campus. In order to do this, our office places a great deal of responsibility on motivated and passionate CC students who lead the office toward its goals. Our student employees are a central piece in the office working on a variety of collaborative and independent projects and initiatives that are often embedded in many different offices across the college.
If you are a student interested in making a difference on campus by working on sustainability issues and initiatives, consider applying for a position with our office.
If you have any questions about our student employee program, please reach out to Sustainability Coordinator Mae Rohrbach at mrohrbach@coloradocollege.edu
Program Purpose
Through the learning objectives of the OOS Student Employee Program, we provide an immersive and experiential learning opportunity where students can pursue their passions while building roots in this community that fosters and strengthens their sense of place. This program empowers students to cultivate their leadership skills and develop their personal values that will allow them to continue to integrate sustainability beyond CC and become leaders in their pursuits.
Learning Objectives
- Explain how sustainability practices can lead to a healthier, more resilient, and more equitable world for human societies and their greater ecosystem
- Demonstrate development of professional and transferable skills necessary beyond Colorado College (e.g. - leadership, project management, teamwork, critical thinking, and communication)
- Identify how the work of the students fits into and contributes to sustainability within a larger organization, such as making Colorado College a more sustainable place
- Apply learning in a professional environment that develops personal values and prepares the student to continue to integrate sustainability in chosen career paths
- Demonstrate depth of knowledge by explaining how seemingly separate sustainability topics are, in fact, deeply connected (e.g., the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals)
Our Teams
The Office of Sustainability's student employment program is currently split between 7 teams: Administrative Assistants, CC Exchange, STARS, Emissions, Campus Programming, Waste, and Communications. There are between 1-3 student employees on each team leading programs, collecting data, hosting events, and starting initiatives that fall under each area within the office. Below is a breakdown of each team's responsibilities throughout the academic year.
With the exception of the Administrative Assistants, and in addition to the responsibilities below - student employees are asked to:
- Lead a peer volunteer team of 2-6 students throughout the academic year
- Attend weekly team meetings (weeks 1-3) that are held on Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30 p.m.
- Meet with the Sustainability Coordinator for 1 hr each block in a 1:1 team setting
- Engage with the Campus Sustainability Council
Administrative Assistants: The Lead Administrative Assistant and Administrative Assistant positions provide direct support to the Sustainability Coordinator on a weekly basis and as needed to the Director and other student employee positions. This position will assist with a wide range of administrative functions and tasks for the Office of Sustainability throughout the academic year.
Brief Overview of Duties
- Monitor the sustainability email, answering questions and/or referring visitors or callers to the appropriate person in the OOS or at CC
- Make purchases to re-stock office supplies, program rewards, and other items as directed by the Sustainability Coordinator
- Support administrative work as needed; which may include maintaining spreadsheets, copying, or scanning documents, creating surveys, putting in work orders, etc.
- Ensure main office areas are always kept up in appearance, including watering house plants
- Update information on the website as needed or directed by the Sustainability Coordinator
- Support project, programming, and event planning as needed; which may include making reservations, ordering catering, creating content, leading day-of logistics, etc.
- Coordinate the OOS e-waste program by picking up e-waste blockly, organizing a bi-semester drop-off event for the CC community, and identifying when the garage is full and e-waste needs to be picked up by arranging the pickup with E-Tech.
- Support the OOS volunteer program by overseeing the volunteer hour surveys and blockly communications from the office
# of Team Members: 2
CC Exchange Team: The CC Exchange is led by the Office of Sustainability and is part of the CC Pantry Exchange. The program aims to reduce waste generation and increase waste diversion on campus, expanding the reach of the program by collaborating with community partners (both on- and off-campus) and supporting CC students by providing a space that contributes to their overall well-being by meeting basic needs and more! The CC Exchange team oversees the weekly operations of the CC Exchange during open hours and maintains on- and off-campus partnerships.
Brief Overview of Duties
- Maintain the physical space of the CC Exchange to look organized and presentable during open hours, creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for the CC community
- Create, develop, and distribute outreach materials and communications to inform, educate, and promote the CC Pantry Exchange
- Respond to general inquiries from the CC community in a timely manner
- Lead and maintain initiatives with on- and off-campus partners throughout the year
- Coordinate semester or annual donations of items in the CC Exchange with off-campus partners
- Track and record donations and visitation to the CC Exchange
- Regularly assess if the program is meeting students’ basic needs and determine paths to improve service to the CC community
- Maintain the highest levels of confidentiality when dealing with student information and sensitive situations
# of Team Members: 2
Communications Team: The Communications team will work closely with the Office of Sustainability staff and interns to effectively communicate the latest sustainability-related efforts, programs, projects, etc. to the CC community. The team will also work closely with CC’s Communications Office to coordinate any larger message to the broader community through various channels. Responsibilities can be divided into five main areas: graphic design, website content, written material, social media, and intern campaigns. The team is responsible for assisting and leading both internal and external communication and marketing efforts of the Office of Sustainability.
Brief Overview of Duties
- Work with the OOS staff and other student employees to support communication and marketing of team/individual projects and programs as needed by helping organize, strategize, and promote through various channels to the CC community
- Develop visually engaging graphics for various print and digital content: website, posters, social media, reports, etc. working with Canva and/or other graphic design software to create content
- Plan and adhere to content calendars to schedule posts on different social media
- Track engagement and assess post effectiveness to various content and platforms
- Help plan social media campaigns to reach a wide audience, increasing Office of Sustainability visibility, and education around various sustainability efforts, programs, and projects
- Create and write content for various platforms and channels; this may include the Office of Sustainability website, blockly newsletter, articles in The Catalyst, and/or other messaging to educate the campus about sustainability efforts, programs, projects, etc.
- Research and stay up to date on various local, state, national, and international sustainability-related movements, bills to laws, and other critical issues
# of Team Members: 3
Waste Team: The Waste team will lead ongoing Office of Sustainability programming and support other waste-focused efforts across the campus. This position heavily focuses on strengthening waste programs/efforts on campus by connecting and working in partnership with other offices/units, such as Facilities Services, Sodexo, ITS, Residential Experience, etc. In addition, the Waste team will work collaboratively to develop a strategic plan to decrease the amount of waste generated on campus and increase our current rates of waste diversion through various education campaigns
Brief Overview of Duties
- Research other institution initiatives, projects, and programs that face similar obstacles as CC and are successfully impacting the campus with measurable results around waste
- Maintain clear lines of communication between all parties involved with waste on campus including but not limited to: Residential Experience, Sodexo, Facilities Services, and other related groups and/or individuals
- Create and plan campus waste initiatives, events, and promotions throughout the year to support waste education efforts
- Ensure that 100% of the CC community is aware of the e-waste program and is knowledgeable about where to recycle e-waste on the CC campus and in the Colorado Springs community.
- Maintain the Campus Compost Program; Lead in marketing efforts, tracking, educational resources, and return of bins.
- Continue to work closely with college divisions and contractors to address waste generation on campus through targeted initiatives (i.e. Give/Leave, CC Exchange, etc.)
- Conduct waste audits in close partnership with Sodexo to pro-actively identify areas of heavy contamination.
- Plan targeted waste education, materials, resources, and support in areas of heavy contamination by providing short-term campaigns – new strategies to bring into this education
- In partnership with Residential Experience, ensure 100% of residential buildings are equipped with the correct bins and signage. Establish a clear process in partnership with Residential Experience to determine building bin and signage needs moving forward.
STARS® Team: Works to collect and report data for the STARS report. STARS is the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System, administered by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). It is a comprehensive, self-reporting metric that rates institutions across broad sustainability efforts.
Brief Overview of Duties
- At the beginning of the year, review previous STARS scoring identifying key areas of improvement using the ghost worksheet and/or MIR data sheets
- Identify 1-3 smaller scope projects based on STARS findings during the data review process to initiate during the academic year
- Plan and organize timeline for data collection including types of messaging, institutional stakeholders/point-persons, data needs, and formatting, etc.
- Identify and update institutional stakeholders/point-persons to actively seek out during the academic year, communicating data needs, by when, and in what format
- Collect and enter data into the STARS reporting system by appropriate deadlines, review content for accuracy, and notify the Sustainability Coordinator and Director of the final content
- Write and publish the annual State of Sustainability report based on the STARS data and/or other sustainability-related efforts, programs, projects, etc. Work with Communications Intern(s) to publish report in newsletters, social media channels, Office of Sustainability webpage, and other outlets
Emissions Team: The Emissions team leads efforts around collecting emission data and reducing emissions across campus. The Emissions team will collect, organize, and calculate emissions with guidance from the Sustainability Director. Additionally, these positions will focus on cultivating a culture of sustainable transportation across the college. Working to spread awareness for Mountain Metro, increase engagement with PikeRide and bicycle programming, and develop the OOS voluntary travel offset program.
Brief Overview of Duties
- Become familiar with terms, procedures, and policies as they relate to GHG Inventories at Colorado College, including the GHG Protocol, Kyoto Protocol, IPCC Assessments, and various emission types and their effects at the beginning of the year
- Become familiar with the procedure for collecting the data by reading through the GHG Manual
- Responsible for collecting, interpreting, organizing, and entering data into SIMAP, and reporting results to Second Nature
- Write and publish GHG Annual Report based on the data collected and/or other GHG emission-related efforts, projects, fundraising, etc.; the report should include basic information and areas for improvement in reducing CC’s greenhouse gases
- Work with Communications Intern(s) to publish report in newsletter, social media channels, Office of Sustainability webpage, and other outlets
- Increase awareness around PikeRide and Mountain Metro programs throughout the academic year
- Engage with campus partners to identify opportunities where the CC community can participate in the following transportation programs, i.e. class field trips, block break programming, campus tours, etc.
- Identify offices/departments that are interested in participating in the OOS Voluntary Travel Offsets Program; ddetermine data collection process and department/office purchasing method
Campus Programming Team: The Campus Programming (CP) team will work to lead active Green Programs, support the coordination of annual events, and provide education and resources to students about sustainability-related activism. The CP team will work to increase engagement within Green Programs and be involved in various levels of planning, coordination, and support of annual events such as Snow Day and Earth Week. This position will be responsible for staying up to date with sustainability-related laws, movements, and other political information that might impact the college. This position’s responsibilities will heavily focus on research, and collaboration with campus partners to support sustainability-related campus programming.
Brief Overview of Duties
- Support Green Programs initiatives in partnership with on-campus partners
- Coordinate and support annual events: Snow Day and Earth Week
- Work closely with student groups and staff in developing meaningful experiences that align with the missions of both the Office of Sustainability and that individual office/organization
- Utilize various assessment tools to evaluate and track sustainability engagement through student experiences, campus-wide programs, and other programmatic initiatives
- Research and stay up to date on various local, state, national, and international sustainability-related movements, bills to laws, and other critical issues
- Work in close collaboration with campus partners and student organizations to provide education, awareness, and resources as needed
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PikeRide Positions
PikeRide Field Techs will work closely with the PikeRide Operations Manager to help balance the PikeRide fleet on Colorado College’s campus using a van or e-assist tricycle, moving bikes to new locations across campus and downtown Colorado Springs, taking them to the service location for repair, monitoring and charging bike batteries, and performing basic repairs to the bicycles. Technicians will quickly become masters of Colorado Springs geography and bicycle infrastructure and are the eyes in the field to ensure all hubs and bikes are well-kept and managed while being certain the PikeRide brand is represented positively. Field Technicians may also occasionally be requested to represent PikeRide at college events.
# of Team Members: 2
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Our Team
