My Green Spring Break: Installing Solar Panels

Reader Contribution by Beth Beavers
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While other college students spent their spring breaks sleeping, drinking, studying or lounging on the beach, I had the opportunity to learn about green collar jobs hands on. I was one of 12 students in a unique journalism course offered by sustainability expert and journalist, Simran Sethi, at the University of Kansas. We traveled from the chilly plains of the Midwest to the beautiful Bay Area of northern California. The course, titled Green Reporting, Green Building, Green Justice, focused on spreading the green movement to the people who benefit from it the most, but are often forgotten–low-income communities.

We stayed in Berkeley, a place where curbside recycling and composting are the norm. Buses and BART take you anywhere quickly, cheaply and economically. Notes on the walls in our hostel encouraged us to conserve water by “letting the yellow mellow” and turning off the water in the shower while soaping up. It was a stark contrast to our fair Lawrence, Kansas (the home of KU) where there is no city-wide, curbside recycling, people still water their lawns in the summer and getting around without a car can present problems (If it’s not rain or wind, it’s the cold and snow.)

Our class took the BART just a few stops away to Oakland almost daily. A diverse, sprawling community, Oakland was once known as the “murder capital of the United States.” But Oakland gets a bad rep, and over the past decade community leaders and members have worked hard to improve all aspects of their city. A big part of the improvements has been a focus on being eco-friendly. In Oakland, we worked with a non-profit organization called GRID Alternatives. GRID was founded in 2001 and works “to bring the power of solar electricity and energy efficiency to low-income homeowners, and to provide community members with training and hands-on experience with renewable energy technologies.” Families that receive panels from GRID pay nothing. GRID is an organization that could only survive in California, thanks to the state’s solar rebate programs.

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