At a glance
The Rotating Home Sustainability Project, a student-led workshop series, brings international… Read full summary
- Funding received
- 2025-2026
- Mini
- Awarded
- $4,700
- Funding partners
-
- Services and Activities Fee (SAF)
The Rotating Home Sustainability Project, a student-led workshop series, brings international students from different cultural communities together to share lived experiences, build relationships, and translate cross-cultural knowledge into practical sustainability actions. Through five “Story → Systems → Skills” sessions, students participate in storytelling, facilitated discussions, hands-on learning, and networking focused on sustainable practices related to housing, mobility, consumption, and everyday life. Each session is co-hosted by a UW Registered Student Organization, creating opportunities for collaboration and student leadership across communities. The project aims to reduce cultural isolation while helping students navigate unfamiliar systems and identify accessible, low-waste alternatives. CSF funds are used for student and guest pay, room reservations, and facilitation kits/supplies.
The Rotating Home Sustainability Project is a biweekly, student-led “Story → Systems → Skills” circle series that is designed to break cultural siloing among international students by intentionally bringing students from different communities together. The project derives from the fact that international students are often expected to “integrate” into U.S. systems such as housing set-up, mobility, and sustainable practices without those systems being explicitly explained. As a result, many students may experience cultural isolation and limited opportunities to build relationships across cultural communities. Isolated students are likely to be affected by higher costs due to lack of awareness of alternative options such as renting instead of buying and higher waste during major transitions such as move-in and move-out. The Rotating Home project vision is to translate cross-cultural knowledge into measurable sustainability actions at UW.
Rotating Home will primarily serve as a physical space for students to express their identities and cultural practices through sharing justice-centered sustainability practices. The program runs as a five-session workshop series held every two weeks. The workshops are designed to create a generous and genuinely supportive environment where student leaders share their wisdom through practices grounded in lived experience, and our goal is to target measurable action. Each session will highlight a 30-minute live storytelling talk by a leader or founder, followed by two 20-minute rotating table networking discussions, and close with freeform interaction among all participants. We will begin reaching out to relevant RSOs once the project is approved, collaboratively finalizing the list and coordinating their involvement in events thereafter. Each workshop will be co-hosted by a UW Registered Student Organization (RSO) as detailed further along the application. The sessions integrate engaging dialogue tools to support cultural exchanges. Participants use personal story prompts, hands-on learning, and discussions to translate lived experience into usable strategies.
Finally, CSF funds will support student leadership and operations, cross community outreach, evaluation and reporting, and minimal low waste reusable supplies plus limited recycled printing for accessibility. Lasting deliverables include a reusable event facilitation toolkit, and an optional consent-based digital collection of anonymized reflections. Together, these deliverables create a repeatable model that strengthens student leadership across different cultural groups. Rotating Home aims to serve as a space to express identities and cultures through discussing some of the life changing skills they have culminated from their countries and build upon it.
Ishan Agrawal
Project lead
- ishanag@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
- Years
- 2 year(s) remaining at UW
- Affiliated groups
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Center for International Relations & Cultural Leadership Exchange
Mrityunjay Joshi
Team member
- mjoshi5@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
- Years
- 1 year(s) remaining at UW
- Affiliated groups
- Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, Center for International Relations & Cultural Leadership Exchange
Waddah Aldharrab
Team member
- waddah01@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
- Years
- 2 year(s) remaining at UW
- Affiliated groups
- Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Ziyan Bai
Team member
- baiziyan@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Staff
- Affiliated groups
- Center for International Relations & Cultural Leadership Exchange
Request amount and budget
Plans for financial longevity
Total request from the CSF is $4,850.00. The budget is weighted toward compensating student leadership because the success of a six-session program depends on reliable coordination, facilitation, outreach, evaluation, and deliverable production. Student wages cover the work that makes the series both high quality and accountable, including co-design with rotating hosts, protection of respectful dialogue through non-tokenizing facilitation, and consistent measurement of success metrics.
A small honorarium line compensates alumni guest contributions, so knowledge sharing is equitable and not extractive. Funds will also be used to rent rooms in the HUB. Remaining funds cover minimal reusable supplies and limited recycled printing for accessible outreach and pathway handouts. No CSF funds are requested for food, gifts, prizes, or merchandise, and all spending aligns to approved line items and will be reconciled with a fiscal administrator.
The project timeline spans from the beginning of Spring 2026 through Spring 2027, with each quarter focused on a distinct goal and implementation plan.
During Spring quarter (mid-April-June 2026), we plan to collaboratively finalize the list of relevant RSOs in a week, and begin reaching out to them immediately, coordinating their involvement in events thereafter. We start with the first phase of the project by co-designing cross-cultural learning and setting the conditions for non-tokenizing to make sure Hosts speak for their experience, not “their whole country”. By mid-Spring we will focus on disseminating information about the Rotating Home Sustainability workshop and meet presenters for crafting stories. We plan to confirm our five individual host partners for five workshops and 4 alumni guests for rotating network sessions during the workshop, then tailor each session to the host’s lived experience spotlight. Next, we finalize facilitation agreements and accessibility planning, build our evaluation tools, and align each session to a concrete UW action pathway so learning leads to measurable behavior change.
CIRCLE helps coordinate with the ECC for cross community outreach support. Workshops sign-ups will be circulated and promoted through CIRCLE and other campus partners' social media channels and newsletters. We also plan to spread the word via cultural RSOs to increase participation and engagement. Additionally, the website will be developed to share the mission and goals of the project and spread information more broadly for early sign up. By the end of spring, we will release an interest form that includes a brief description of our project and an interest form for students to share how they hope to explore workshops through storytelling. Upon receiving interest submissions, CIRCLE Student Advisory Board (SAB) members will categorize and finalize a set of communication tools for each workshop and begin selecting practitioners to partner with as panelists for first fall quarter workshops.
In the Fall quarter (September to December 2026), we will begin the second phase of the project, which focuses on implementation through three storytelling workshops. Due to the chances of high engagement possibility during the Fall quarter, we’ll have preparations for these workshops such as reserving space and confirming panelists well in advance of the Fall quarter beginning, ensuring maximum outreach during Dawg Daze. For our first Workshop, we aim to collaborate with the Japanese Student Association will co-host a "Mottainai a widely recognized Japanese idea emphasizing waste reduction often framed as “Reduce/Reuse/Recycle + Respect”, targeting Move-in/Move-out Route that teaches sourcing essentials through UW Surplus normalizing repair before replacement. The Second Workshop aims to be hosted in collaboration with the South Asian Student Association, conducting a no food waste principle often associated with Israf, which emphasizes reducing waste and promoting wellbeing through green consumerism practices. Participants will also be guided toward relevant UW resources such as the UW Food Pantry. The third workshop of Fall Quarter aims to feature collaboration with the Chinese Student Association, highlighting a story on resourcefulness as a form of environmental justice, centered on the idea of practicing “resourcefulness in daily life”. The session will guide participants toward low carbon commuting support through the ASUW Bike Shop and U Bike. It will acknowledge that cost barriers are real and that increasing awareness of these resources is a practical step toward making sustainability more accessible at UW.
In the Winter quarter (January to March 2027), we will complete the second phase of the project by executing the remaining two workshops, followed by the 6th session which is a celebratory session. Our fourth workshop in winter quarter aims to be conducted in collaboration with the African Student Association, sharing the framework of Ubuntu that is "I am because we are," with a mission of unifying students through shared responsibilities. The final workshop aims to be framed in the collaboration with the Latino Student Union around the concept of “Buen Vivir,” sustainability as community care. The story highlights an inclusive community that supports one another, offering a strong foundation for a belonging-based model of sustainability.
To ensure sustainability beyond the initial year, content from the project website will be transferred to the CIRCLE website after the 1-year domain hosting period ends, maintaining public access to milestones reached. By the end of Spring 2027, all workshop highlights will be updated on our website to increase visibility and showcase long-term impact for student access.
Plans for long-term project management
Rotating Home is designed to be used as a framework for cross-cultural sustainability practices guide at the University of Washington instead of being abandoned when student leaders graduate. Regular reflections post each workshop and role-based evaluations help identify and nurture emerging leaders well for next graduation cycles.
At the end of the funding period, current student leaders will work with interested incoming CIRCLE Student Advisory Board members to compile an event execution guide for future Rotating Home events, outlining outreach templates, local sustainability pathways, and organizational structures. All these deliverables will be maintained in a shared UW drive and updated annually by the next student lead team. Because the infrastructure developed during the program is documented and shared, the program can be continued at smaller scales and adapted to future events without requiring further funding.
The project page will be archived and migrated to the CIRCLE website to eliminate any hosting costs and ensure universal access. Archived material on the page will include session summaries, educational posts, and links to relevant sustainability resources around UW. With these systems in place, the project is built to evolve and thrive each year.
Problem statement
UW is losing global sustainability knowledge because cross-cultural exchange is siloed. UW is globally diverse, yet the practical sustainability navigation and culturally grounded knowledge including Indigenous knowledge that have shaped many students into leaders, are rarely shared across campus. This is a missed opportunity, as students bring deep cultural knowledge of resources, community, and sustainability rooted in environmental and social justice. Students are also expected to navigate local systems through informal networks not accessible to all. Due to high cost, time, and cultural pressure, students can fall into high consumption patterns during transitions such as setting up housing and navigating mobility, and social networks can remain siloed within familiar groups. These dynamics create both environmental and equity consequences, since the students with the least access to community and local networks face the highest barriers to building concrete behaviour such as following norms of lower waste, lower carbon choices etc. Rotating Home addresses this gap by treating lived experience as sustainability expertise, not "diversity flavor”. It emphasizes sustainability as inclusive/justice-centered, uplifting marginalized voices, by creating student-led systems that turn lived knowledge into measurable action. By treating cultural knowledge as expertise, we will make sustainability efforts directly relevant to lived experience.
Problem context
Rotating Home complements existing UW sustainability by connecting cultural sustainability ideas with practical campus systems. It functions as a bridge that helps students use resources that already exist, driving practical behaviour change such as transit/waste navigation/learning from different perspectives. Each session follows an action-oriented arc. First, a Home Practice Spotlight elevates non-Western and marginalized ways of knowing, expertise and expands what sustainability can look like beyond individual green consumerism. Second, a Seattle and UW systems decoder translates the featured practice into local realities and equity considerations. Third, participants complete a short skill share and select one measurable next step connected to UW pathways that already exist but are not equally navigable. Examples include a reuse first move in and move out route through UW Surplus to reduce waste and lower cost barriers, low carbon mobility confidence building through U Bike and the ASUW Bike Shop, repair micro skills through the MILL. When topics like wellbeing and resilience come up, the series helps students learn about campus resources without stigma. It raises awareness about systems like the UW Food Pantry and UW Farm. Overall, the project strengthens UW’s existing sustainability efforts by making them more accessible for students across communities.
Measure the impacts
| Impact / goal | Metric(s) of success | UW stakeholders impacted |
|---|---|---|
| Build cross-cultural sustainability belonging and reduce siloing through rotating-host workshop. Use non tokenizing facilitation to support anti racist, intersectional learning. | 6 workshops; 120+ unique participants; ≥60% attendees not affiliated with host RSO; ≥80% report increased belonging/campus connection/ increased confidence navigating UW sustainability pathways. These metrics will be measured using short pre- and post- wo | Undergraduate, Graduate, Alumni |
| Increase measurable, justice centred sustainability action uptake by routing participants into circular economy and low carbon mobility pathways that reduce waste and lower barriers for newcomers and students without insider networks. | 80 participants complete at least one reuse/repair action; 60 complete a low‑carbon mobility skills/action challenge; 25 visit the Bike Shop or apply for U Bike (self‑report). | Undergraduate, Graduate |
| Create durable infrastructure and leadership pipeline that enables future cohorts to run the series without rebuilding systems, including the toolkit, resource map, website hub, and successor training. | Confirmed with 5 community leader host for storytelling session and at least 3 UW RSOs partners for rotating table network session for a group of 5 participants per table, Have at least 12 peer hosts trained via shadowing ladder; 300+ views/downloads with | Undergraduate, Graduate, Alumni, Admin staff |
Communication tactics and tools
To engage the UW community, we will use a layered communication approach that supports recruitment and follow through a simple UW hosted landing page or shared hub will list the schedule, rotating hosts, and the UW Seattle Sustainability Pathways resource map so participants can access resources before and after sessions. Registration will use QR codes and automated reminders to increase participation, and each host will receive ready to share graphics and short captions to promote through their established channels. We will post short recaps after each workshop that highlight one lived practice and one UW action pathway, so the narrative stays action oriented rather than purely reflective. To support measurement and behaviour change, participants will be invited to complete a lightweight action check in after each session, and we will use aggregated data to share outcomes with CSF and campus partners. In person visibility will include limited distribution of flyers and occasional tabling, coordinated with partner events, when possible, to reach students who engage offline.
Outreach communication plan
By using a rotating host structure during workshops, Rotating Home strengthens cross community relationship building and distributes leadership across multiple RSOs. Each session will be co-promoted by the host RSO, and we will use CIRCLE and ECC channels to reach international students, newcomers, and share sign-ups forms through peer-to-peer outreach. Communication will be digital, paired with limited recycled print materials on approved bulletin boards. We will be tabling at high traffic campus moments like Dawg Daze to reach students who do not follow RSO accounts. Outreach will communicate that the series is low stakes, welcoming to students from all backgrounds.
Student involvement
Student involvement is both broad and deep and is designed to build leadership across communities rather than concentrating it in one group. A student project coordinator, a student outreach and evaluation lead, and a student peer facilitators will collaborate with rotating host RSOs, run sessions, track metrics, and produce deliverables. Rotating host partners will design and lead one “Home Practice Spotlight” based on their lived experience. Students can grow into leadership roles through a step-by-step model, moving from participant to co-host to host. This structure builds student leadership and creates resources that future student leaders can reuse, adapt, and improve.