What do solar energy and a trip to the Mexican border have to do with each other? Earlier this year, our students partnered with a non-profit organization in Mexico to assist them in the same project we’re doing for our community on the roof of CRSM. For the past three weeks, the roof of our building has been under construction with solar panel installation. This is part of an initiative within the school to be more environmentally conscious about how we source energy and reduce operating costs.
Recently, a group of our CRSM students, and CRSM President Preston Kendall, took an immersion trip to the Mexico-America border in the Sonoran Desert. On this trip, the students were able to see the very solar panel project that they had helped fund come to fruition. Our student-led organization Oportunidas Para Todos (OPT) did a fundraiser for Casa de la Misericordia, and they were able to install solar panels as well as help them install electric stoves, which is what they need to help them feed the people they have there. Casa de la Misericordia is an NGO that assists asylum seekers, mainly women and children, after they cross the border. For the students on the immersion trip, it was a powerful experience to see the panels they helped to make possible with the support of the CRSM community.
It is exciting to see solar panels installed on our building to produce more green energy, and to witness this sustainable energy assist asylum seekers at Casa de la Misericordia. We hope this solar energy alternative will power our school for years to come, and will help women and children coming across the border get the resources they need.