Nicholas Urban
The close relationships that I was able to build with individual professors, staff, and other students on campus is really what set me up for where I am today.
I came from a mainstream public school in Connecticut that didn’t really teach anything at all about sustainability or energy systems. I was pushed through the traditional take-physics-when-you’re-a-senior kind of pathway. COA was the first time that I was really able to learn about energy systems, and it really opened my mind to what was possible.
I worked for the sustainability coordinator during my time at COA; I was the energy kid, and everybody knew me that way. I got to work on real projects, like our solar net metering system, and that gave me real world experience. That’s where I cut my teeth. I helped found Ampion, a community solar company, during my senior year of college, and now here I am—a direct translation of what I did at COA.
With the self-directed curriculum you learn things that you maybe weren’t fully aware you were interested in, and you change your path as you’re going along. It necessitates having a clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve and knowing in yourself what you want.