An interview with Katrina Semene, Director of Environmental Resources Center, San Jose State University (SJSU)

Tell us about your event and its audience.

On Ride to School Days, San Jose State University’s (SJSU) Environmental Resource Center offers free bike tune-ups and prizes for students and faculty who bicycle to school. This event is tailored for the SJSU campus community and has been around for at least three years. In 2015, we held six Bike to School days in the Spring and Fall semesters reaching a total of 322 individuals. The warmer event days (in May and September) saw the most participants. In Spring 2016, we hope to have Ride to School Days every Wednesday instead of once a month.

For others who may want to implement a similar project, what advice would you give them?

Get as much support as possible from everyone possible. Make sure you are able to show that you have student support. Once you have the support of students, make sure you also have support from the administration.

What relevant tools or information might be useful for someone interested in implementing a similar project?

Be persistent, especially with the administration that may not have your event on their radar. Also, have a detailed plan and budget. Each Ride to School Day each event costs $40 for printing which is covered by the Associated Students funding, which we had to apply for. In previous years, we held fundraisers such as bake sales and selling Earth Day T-shirts and SJSU mugs. The remaining materials we needed we already had or others were able to supply.