University of Dayton
IN-2: Innovation 2

The University of Dayton implemented the Coalition of Projects model in fall 2016, to engage students across campus in sustainability initiatives and develop student leadership for these initiatives. The Hanley Sustainability Institutes's Director of Experiential Education, in collaboration with the Fitz Center for Community Leadership and the Learning and Teaching Center applied this service-learning engagement model to developing a student base of leadership within the Sustainability Institute. In the four months since its launch, a cohort of ten students are taking leadership for recruiting student volunteers and designing and implementing student peer education, Green Office/employee peer-to-peer education, green infrastructure, literacy assessments, and waste diversion initiatives.

We are in the first semester of this program, and thus have limited measured outcomes. There are two frames of outcomes that we are tracking: qualitative assessment of the student leaders in program and quantitative tracking of the outreach and numbers of other students engaged as a result of the program. Student/intern learning outcomes assessments, student reflections, and intern contribution to "succession planning" to raise up the next generation of student interns are part of the qualitative assessment. Numbers of student volunteers involved in campus mapping projects, lighting and energy efficiency surveys, results of the campus literacy assessment, and students participating in the composting pilot project are example of the quantitative data that we are tracking.