Alumni Spotlight: Tim Chester

A confluence of passions led Tim to spend 8 weeks pursuing solar training at SEI’s training facility in Paonia, CO. A veteran and an educator, Tim recently completed SEI’s Solar Professionals Trainer Certificate Program before he begins his new job as a solar instructor newly developed solar training program at the Rural Institute for Veterans Education and Research (RIVER). RIVER is a a special program for veterans who need additional resources and support to pursue educational opportunities after returning to civilian life.

The new position is the perfect progression for Tim’s career. Tim came into solar as he began his career with the US Coast Guard in 1991, servicing solar-powered aids to navigation buoys. However, his career was unexpectedly cemented in solar after his retirement from the Coast Guard in 2012 when he realized his love for teaching. This led him to the Missoula College Energy Technology Program at the University of Montana. His three years of teaching at the university connected him with SEI Instructor Orion Thornton. As the renewable energy program was ending and Tim found himself wanting to focus  more on PV.  Orion said to him “you gotta go to SEI, there’s no way around it.”

This is how Tim found himself pursuing SEI’s Solar Professionals Trainer Certificate Program as a way to strengthen his background in solar. He said of the experience “even having been in the field and seeing solar everyday at school for the past 5 years, the program here at SEI tied it all together.  It made me understand [solar] and be able to teach it better. The combination of the classroom and the lab ties the concepts together; you can learn about it then see it and experience it.”

Adding about his SEI experience versus at a university that “the biggest difference for me, absolutely was the instructors… In a university system typically those people have all the education and the theory. There’s no question about their knowledge of the concepts they’re teaching, but they don’t have any real world experience to share with you to tie it together. So to talk to people who are doing the instructing as a secondary job but their first real job is out in the field doing what I want to do everyday and what we’re talking about every day, that experience is invaluable.”

Tim is now able to build on his solar training experience. Not only was Tim able to fund his in-person classes through his Veterans Education Benefits but he’s greatly expanding the impact of these courses to teach fellow veterans. Tim said his ultimate passion for completing the training was to “continue and expand my teaching, reaching out to more students, especially those in need of technical training that can’t or won’t attend a traditional 2 or 4 year school for training. I measure my success in life by my ability to help others and improve their lives, I believe this training will allow me to be even more successful in this endeavor to help others. “

 

The post Alumni Spotlight: Tim Chester appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).