By Sherrie Negrea
A set of solar generators built by a team of Newark Academy Middle School students is bringing light to schools and community centers in northern Kenya, allowing hundreds of children to study at night for the first time.
A team of Middle Schoolers spent two weeks assembling four solar suitcases that can each provide enough light to power a school of 1,500 students. The suitcases were sent to the Samburu region, a rural area where adults must travel six miles to charge their mobile devices.
“It was really interesting to get to build the suitcases and be part of this,” says Ashleen Callahan ’30, who was a co-captain on the project. “But the biggest reason that I decided to sign up was because of the difference it makes in people’s lives. Providing energy for people is huge.”
The project was launched after NA alumna Marjorie Lopus Jameson ’77 learned about the solar suitcases at a lecture she attended in Bay Head, New Jersey. The suitcases are developed by a nonprofit called We Share Solar, which produces kits for schools to make the generators and send them to villages around the world.
“I thought how cool it would be to bring this project to Newark Academy and have the students make a sustainable solar suitcase,” says Marjorie, who donated the funding for the project. “They would get hands-on experience with everything that goes into assembling a solar generator, while making an impact on a global scale.”
Sixth-grade Science Teacher Debra “Deb” Tavares agreed to lead the project and recruit students for the NA Solar Team. After a dozen students were selected for the team, they met for one hour after school for eight days during the Middle School intramural period.
Beyond learning about the mechanics of solar energy, the students also explored the impact of climate change and the global distribution of energy. “They learned to appreciate how fortunate they are, how to not take things for granted, and how to make a difference in the world whenever and wherever they are,” Deb says.
We Share Solar will send the suitcases built by the students at NA to a refugee camp in Kenya because of a request for lighting for its schools and community centers. “They have all these kids who want to learn, and they can only meet during the daylight hours because as the seasons go by, it’s dark by 4 p.m.” says Gigi Goldman, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor of We Share Solar.
Now that the suitcases have been completed, Deb hopes that the NA Solar Team members will be able to communicate with the students in Kenya who benefit from their project. That connection with the students is something Russell Montgomery ’30, co-captain of NA’s Solar Suitcase team, is also looking forward to. “I want to know how they’re using it and how the work that we did impacts them,” he says, “so we know that we didn’t just send something over that had no results.”