For Student Green Fund President, Solar Array Ribbon-Cutting Honors Those Who Came Before

For Student Green Fund President, Solar Array Ribbon-Cutting Honors Those Who Came Before

When someone handed Kaela Bartley the scissors, she hesitated.

As president of UToledo's Student Green Fund, she was about to cut the ribbon on the newly expanded solar array on Health Science Campus - a project she hadn't proposed, and one the student organization approved before she even arrived at The University of Toledo.

"Honestly, I felt a little undeserving," Bartley said. "So many students, faculty, staff and partners had done the work over the years. But I was there as the current SGF president, representing the students who started it and the ones who kept it moving after others graduated."

Celebrated in late September, the expansion more than doubles the array's nameplate capacity, from 330 to 750 kilowatts. The array is the flagship project of the Student Green Fund, which is supported by a voluntary $5 fee students are assessed each semester. The fund contributed $350,000 toward the array's first phase and $530,000 toward the expansion, while First Solar donated the modules for both.

Bartley is quick to credit the students who made it happen. Former Student Green Fund President Hannah LaPoint championed the first phase. For the expansion, Dr. Randy Ellingson, a Distinguished University Professor, secured a donation of newer modules from First Solar, and students Holly Holtkamp and Owen Schassberger submitted the funding proposal. When First Solar donated more modules than expected, students proposed additional funding to add three more rows.

The project passed through several student presidents before Bartley took the helm last December.

"To me, that handoff between generations of students is an important part of the story," she said.

'The Power to Do'

Standing before a crowd of University leaders and industry partners at the ceremony, Bartley acknowledges that she felt out of place - and nervous enough that she forgot to print her speech and had to read it from her phone.

Then a plane flew overhead. Bartley raised her voice to be heard over it just as she reached the line, "I think that's a pretty great example of The Power to Do."

"My confidence grew," she said. "And so did my volume."

In her remarks, Bartley focused on what students contributed: pushing for the project, connecting departments across campus, creating research opportunities and funding an array that saves the University energy costs.

"To me, that's what sustainability should look like," she told the crowd. "Not just thinking about what we can change today but building something that continues creating an impact tomorrow."

From Minerva to Main Campus

A native of Minerva, Ohio, Bartley chose UToledo for a mix of practical and personal reasons: a scholarship that made college affordable, a campus that felt welcoming and a university large enough to offer real opportunities without feeling overwhelming.

At the time, she was exploring astronomy and physics, and her campus visit provided a look at the solar energy research happening here.

"I couldn't have predicted then that I would end up studying environmental science and helping lead the Student Green Fund," Bartley said. "But that early look at the work students and faculty were doing stayed with me."

It was Dr. Todd Crail's Intro to the Environment course that set her direction. When he showed the class Midstory's urban heat island map of Toledo, Bartley wondered what a similar look at UToledo's campus might reveal. That question grew into her undergraduate research on campus surface temperatures.

She graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences, with minors in green chemistry and engineering and in public administration - a year early. Through the department's 4+1 program, she is now pursuing a master's degree in environmental sciences under the advisement of Dr. Richard Becker, using remote sensing to examine the urban heat island effect on campus.

"It struck me that research could do more if people outside the field understood and used it," she said. "I wanted to help bridge that gap by communicating science in ways that lead to action."

Turning Knowledge Into Action

Sustainability mattered to Bartley long before college. Growing up in Scouting America gave her a deep appreciation for the outdoors, and she arrived at UToledo already asking why sustainable options so often go unused.

She got involved with Greening UToledo through Service and the Society of Environmental Advocates her first semester and began attending Student Green Fund meetings that spring.

"What kept me coming back was seeing students bring ideas to SGF and watching the group help turn those ideas into real projects," she said.

Some of those projects are hard to miss. New water bottle refill stations the fund paid for in Presidents Hall have logged at least 2,300 uses since the start of this semester, she said.

After serving as Student Green Fund senior project manager, Bartley became president in December. The role, she said, has taught her that leadership means following through.

"Approving a proposal is the easy, exciting part," she said. "The real responsibility begins when students have entrusted you with their money and you must make sure the promised work happens."

Bartley said she hopes to carry that lesson into a career in environmental planning and outreach - and to leave the Student Green Fund stronger for the students who follow. The fund meets every other Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Bowman-Oddy Laboratories Room 1006, and any student can attend, propose a project or become a voting member. The next meeting is Wednesday, Oct. 21.

"The focus of leadership shouldn't be measured by the impact you had," Bartley said. "Rather how well it is carried forward."

For more information on the Student Green Fund, visit the organization's website or InvoNet site, or email [email protected].