Costa Rica Houses New Energy Program
By Shane Brennan, Daily Targum
Imagine a 12-day excursion down to Costa
Rica where you could find not only beautiful
beaches, but also college credit awaiting
your arrival This is the vision of three
University students heading the
Entrepreneurial Renewable Energy Project, a
new program that stresses the benefits of
renewable energy through interactive
activities.
Co-Founders Melissa Lee, Mikhail Naumov and
Ben Lapidus recently returned from Costa
Rica, where they learned about four types of
renewable energy.
They hope to expand this opportunity to all
students.
“It would be a 12-day trip,” said Lapidus, a
School of Arts and Sciences junior. “The
core eight days focuses on learning about
four types of renewable energy. The energies
we would learn about are wind power,
geothermal, hydroelectricity and biomass.”
Students would spend two days focusing on
each type of energy, he said.
“We would focus on interactive activities
rather than lectures to learn about a
certain types of energy on the first day,
and the next day, we would go out and do an
activity based on that type of energy,”
Lapidus said. “For example, for wind power,
we would go wind surfing.”
The group anticipates sending the first
group of students in January as a pilot
session.
“We’re hoping to have seven different
sessions after the pilot and each group
would have a maximum of 40 students,”
Lapidus said.
Financially speaking, it would be an
all-inclusive trip consisting of food and
living accommodations and all students would
be insured, Lapidus said. Energy companies
in Costa Rica are helping to finance the
project.
“Another goal of the program is experiencing
another culture,” Lee said. “There’s so much
to do in the free time; students could go to
clubs, go into town and all the different
activities that they couldn’t do at Rutgers
based on geographic restrictions.”
Naumov, a School of Arts and Sciences
junior, said no other college offers a
program like this one.
“Although it’s not directly correlated with
Rutgers, the project would have Rutgers
stamp of approval and after speaking with
administrators, we have support from Rutgers
Deans as well Rutgers career services,”
Naumov said.
The group has a variety of written and
verbal support from an assortment of
University administration, Lapidus said.
Ali Berger, a Mason Gross School of the Arts
junior, shares the same opinion of many
students in regards to the trip.
“It definitely seems like something I’d be
interested in,” Berger said. “The program
sounds like it could open a lot of doors and
could be a lot of fun. You don’t hear about
too many opportunities like this.”
Naumov stressed the importance opening up
the opportunity for all majors. He pointed
out how students in each major could
benefit.
“Business students could see the financial
development of the different types of
energies, engineers could learn about how
these ideas are built from the ground up and
political policy majors could see the
cultural influence,” Naumov said.
The program focuses on forward thinking and
extending the traditional route to something
more tangible than sitting in lecture halls,
Lapidus said.
“It doesn’t make sense to not want to
participate,” Lapidus said. “The
eco-friendly trend is going to be a major
factor in the future and a lot of companies
are going to look for students with
experience in the field. This is the only
program that really offers hands-on
experience.” |
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