Sara Pyne, Associate Manager at Connecticut Green Bank

Just how much I have learned. I'm only halfway through the course ad I can't even imagine how much more I'm going to absorb in the next two courses. I did participate in the Foundations courses and even in the energy and finance foundation courses, there is so much information - it really gives you the opportunity to do a deep dive if you want to go deeper. I knew I was going to learn, but I can't even believe how much I've learned.

I have a solar background, so I was not as familiar with other clean technologies. Having the technology course was really helpful in learning what else is out there, what is popular, and, in some instances, what else is going away. I also learned about different fossil fuels in general - I had some background knowledge before, but the energy course covered a lot of information on that as well, which was really interesting.

It is a really diverse cohort. It is interesting because a lot of these names, I’ve heard of. Being able to put names and faces to different companies and industries has been really interesting. There is also a group text thread that we all use to communicate off of the online platform. Everyone from the cohort is constantly sending new articles, so that has been an interesting way to expand my network.

It is really impressive to have this group of people who all have a common goal of being able to knowledgeably talk about clean energy. Some people have a solar background like myself, and then there are folks who are lawyers, bankers, financiers, teachers, and students. Having that wide a group of people that you can bounce ideas off of has been impressive. It's a talented group of folks.

The discussion posts, particularly in the energy module, have been interesting. You post your response, and then go back and read your class members’ responses. You would assume that everyone would have the same response because we all have a love of clean energy, but it was really amazing to see all of the different answers. And that is really because the cohort is so diverse - there are lawyers, bankers, policy people. To see all of the different answers to the same question was really intriguing.

Time management - as a working professional, I’m not sure that I would be able to do an on-campus, year-round program. Because this program is so specific, it has been really helpful to be able to go from my day job to going home at night, where I am able to take a step back to absorb all of the information. Then still being able to use that information in my daily routine at work has been really awesome. And I'm not sure that in many programs are you able to use that right off the bat - to say that you just learned something and that you're going to be able to use it at work tomorrow.

The flexibility around the weekly modules has also been really helpful. If we were provided with all of the information in just one chunk - all 8 weeks - it would have been very overwhelming, and I don't know if we would have gotten as much out of it. With this schedule, we still come together for live sessions every week, which was our regrounding. This gives us the opportunity to ask questions and learn together, but we still had the flexibility to do work on the weekend or during the evenings, which has been helpful.

It has definitely helped me with different technologies. Because I’m mainly on a solar team, I don’t necessarily get to experience all of the different technologies that we work with at the green bank. Having individual modules on the different technology pieces have been really impressive because I'm not sure that there is another place where you can get all of that information in one spot. You can read books, or explore websites, but the information is all over the place. Having this course pulls it all together, with just the right amount of information. If you're trying to do a deeper dive, you have additional resources that you can look into if you're interested in doing that. And if you are just interested in the surface level, that's available to you as well.

A lot of people! Green bankers, financiers that are interested in getting into the clean energy field, teachers, students, and maybe even folks in the fossil fuel industry who are looking for new or different ways to finance different projects. A lot of people would get benefit from this program. Journalists could learn more about the language to use in the clean energy field or maybe even how to write about the climate crisis. This is a course that is going to help.

I would recommend this program to get active in making an impact on the climate crisis. To learn more about what can be done, what has to be done, and how to finance what has to be done.