Green Society is Ready to Harness the Sun
Lake Ridge Academy junior Viveka Hulyalkar is literally walking on sunshine this year. This Westlake resident and President of the school’s Green Society is about to see her vision of transforming the campus’ energy use come to life as two solar panels that were researched and built by Upper School students will be installed this month.
Green Society, founded by Hulyalkar in 2008, was originally conceived as a group dedicated to examining ways to reduce Lake Ridge Academy’s carbon footprint. The group began by systematizing the school’s recycling program and raising funds for automatic sensor lights in the campus restrooms. “We always wanted to examine the use of solar energy,” Hulyalkar explains. “But we thought it would be out of our reach…until we realized through research that we could construct them ourselves.”
After monthly fundraisers selling lunchtime smoothies, a Cleveland Cavaliers sponsored dodgeball tournament and a generous grant from the school’s Parents’ Association, The Green Society student members purchased and constructed the first two panels, giving their holiday vacation time to complete the construction phase. They will be involved with the appropriate installation procedures as well.
Andy Wright, Green Society faculty advisor and Upper School Science teacher, explains that while this project holds all of the environmental benefits to the school, the educational opportunities the solar panels will provide are tremendous. “Once the system is established,” he explains, “students in the Green Society and Environmental Science class will construct future solar panels and monitor the generated electricity…the entire community will be able to view the power production from our panels and see our production grow as we construct further panels.”
Wright goes on to point out that through this student driven project, the entire Lake Ridge Academy community will gain real world experience and “learn about the power of renewable energy.”
Hulyalkar is enthusiastic about the progress Green Society has made over the past year, and she credits the Lake Ridge Academy community for allowing it to happen so quickly. “At Lake Ridge, if you want to get a group started, all you have to do is write a constitution…if you want to do it, you can,” she explains. “And that is so important. The fact that the school administration is willing to go out and get the building permits for us and provide the manpower to help us is awesome.”
The Green Society’s activities have been noticed throughout the region and the state, as they were one of only three high schools in Ohio invited to attend Oberlin College’s Powershift conference in October. This forum, designed to examine environmental justice in legislation, “was a great opportunity for Lake Ridge Academy to make a difference,” Hulyalkar explains. In fact, as a result of the conference’s efforts, the American Municipal Power Company decided not to build a coal burning powerplant along the Ohio River.
When asked what motivates her to lobby on behalf of the environment, Hulyalkar puts it simply. “We only have one earth. We can’t destroy it.”
Viveka leads the way for building solar panels during holiday break.
