Centering Student Voices at AASHE
Reflections from an AASHE Student Board of Directors Member on Engagement, Belonging, and Community
For those who do not know me yet, my name is Léonie Lado. I’m an architecture student at McGill University, where I have had the chance to nurture my passion for sustainability through various volunteer positions. Since January 2025, I have had the opportunity to sit on AASHE’s Board of Directors, under the guidance of my mentor François Miller, as AASHE sought to bring a student perspective to strategic decision-making.
My first term was dedicated to learning more about this new position. Thus, I wrote a series of guidelines and recommendations to better clarify expectations for future student board members, which were reviewed by the board. These recommendations were subsequently turned into a formal role description for student representatives.
Since attending my first AASHE Conference in October 2025, I have continued to reflect on my role in responding to members’ needs, particularly with regard to students’ place within AASHE. In Minneapolis, I had the pleasure of discussing with multiple fellow students during sessions to learn more about their existing connection to AASHE, as well as how they feel we might provide further opportunities for students to successfully collaborate and engage.
Furthermore, the Members Meeting at the conference was a great opportunity for feedback and suggestions to be made. Overall, the communicated needs and suggestions primarily centered around material to promote AASHE’s existing resources to students, from digital resources on the website to opportunities to engage and learn through workshops, as well as further opportunities for students to engage in the conference.
As we work to further strengthen AASHE’s relationship with students and to meet those needs, I thought it would be beneficial to reinforce the importance of AASHE’s existing tools, including some of my favourites as a student. Namely, through the Student for Sustainability forum, I have been introduced to, and have networked with, other students and organizations dedicated to sustainability in higher education. The Communities of Practice is an additional platform for students to share success stories or get in contact with others working on the same issues as them.
Additionally, any currently enrolled student from a member institution can access the resources from the Campus Sustainability Hub by signing up with their school email. I have, myself, explored the ‘’Campus Engagement’’ topic multiple times. I have found that it contains many inspiring articles about initiatives across the world to foster engagement towards sustainability on campus.
If you are a student reading this blog post, I highly encourage you to briefly share the projects you are currently working on for your campus on the forum and learn more from the hub and other students’ posts. It’s a great opportunity to connect and share knowledge. Of course, you can stay up to date with AASHE on social media, namely on Instagram and LinkedIn. More than ever, student voices and contributions are necessary to the sustainability movement and to AASHE’s mission.
If you are a sustainability staff member, I encourage you to share this blog post with students from your institution. It would help them gain awareness of these opportunities to engage directly with AASHE and to help AASHE honor its mission of helping students to be the change agents needed to successfully advance sustainability in higher education.
Later this March, AASHE will launch a new student engagement toolkit to help students get connected, find community, and engage more deeply with AASHE.
Additionally, Léonie’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond AASHE. She was recently featured by McGill University for her work and leadership in sustainability—highlighting how students can help shape more sustainable institutions.
Read more: A Focus on Sustainability (McGill Reporter)