By Jeff Bahr
Four years ago when a group of 19 renewable energy neophytes (AKA greenhorns) first entered the Green Energy Academy at Essex County Bloomfield Tech, they didn’t know much about the emerging technology. Upon graduation, however, they’ve now become true “greenies.”
As the first class of students to complete the four-year course of study, they’re also pioneers. With training focused on conservation and sustainability, the group will now move ahead to take their place with others in the emerging field of green technologies.
The Green Energy Academy debuted in 2009. In its early days, coursework leaned mostly toward the classroom where lectures and interactive projects ruled the day. But that was then. Now, the learning happens almost everywhere and anywhere. “We have really expanded the classroom and gone from using hand-held devices to working on full-scale models and learning from real working systems,” said Green Energy teacher Todd Menadier of the program’s ambitious format.
Menadier’s words are an understatement. A sizeable portion of the recreation field behind the Tech School building has been transformed into a working lab by the students. Solar panels and a wind turbine collect energy which is then stored in a bank of DC car batteries (located inside a shed that the students also constructed). The self-sustaining energy source powers various pieces of equipment, but the most impressive is a geodesic dome greenhouse that is regulated for temperature by the clever setup. Inside, the students grow vegetables that are used for school lunches.
The program was discussed in detail at an event held at the school on May 9. Essex County Vocational Technical School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Penella acted as master of ceremonies at the gathering which featured Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. and other notables. Pennella wasted no time in explaining the positive happenings at the school that prompted the event.
“This year we graduate almost twenty students,” Pennella said with pride in his voice. “Of those twenty students, we have students going into the Navy, we have students going to prep school, we have students going to community college, and sixteen of them will be going into four-year colleges – nine of whom will be studying either science, technology, engineering or math. So we’ve made some great inroads.”
“This has been an exciting year for the Green Energy Academy,” Pennella continued. “We have two students (Gesny Vale and Christian Bojorquez) who placed first in the state Skills USA (program). We were visited by our new assistant commissioner, Penny MacCormack (CQ), who picked us to be the first school she would visit when she arrived from Connecticut, to see not only free energy, and career and technical education working, but also to see how an urban school can achieve in places where people give up and say that we can’t get to the top.”
In fact, Menadier pointed out, the Bloomfield Tech program is recognized by the N.J. State Department of Education as a Green Energy model, and he is working with the state to make the curriculum available to other schools.
“I am very happy with the attention the Green Energy Academy receives,” Menadier said. “It would not have been possible without the support we received from the county executive, our superintendent, school principal, other teachers and the corporations with whom we have partnered. Students see the class as creating opportunities for them because they see things they are learning happening in their neighborhoods.”
One of the corporations that Menadier referred to is PSE&G. According to DiVencenzo, the company supplied expertise and $100,000 to help develop the curriculum that has now become a model for technical high schools across New Jersey.
“Making sure the workforce can meet the business needs of the future is one of the greatest challenges we face,” said Ralph LaRossa, president/ CEO of PSE&G. “Programs like this one are getting young people excited about opportunities for green jobs within the traditional trades and careers in the energy industry.”
A good chunk of the 19 graduates were busy taking a calculus test during the event, but a handful were available to show how everything functioned in the outdoor working lab. Guests were surprised to learn that the very sound being heard through the PA system arrived via energy collected by this forwardthinking setup.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am today of what the Essex County Vocational School has accomplished,” said County Executive DiVincenzo, whom Pennella credits for continued support of the program. You know I leaned over to Ralph (LaRossa) and said this program has not been going on one year, it’s been going on for four years. We have kids now graduating. Most people talk about Green Energy Academy, but here in Bloomfield, under the leadership of (Principal) Eric Love, my man Todd (Menadier), and all the teacher’s you’re walking the walk. …” “
This is a model program…,” concluded DiVincenzo. “We have a lot to be thankful for and I want to congratulate everyone.”
