The Young are the Restless: Matthew Kresha
This is the final installment in a three-part series about young activists facing a troubling economy.By Adam Raphael
June 24, 2009
Matthew Kreshna (left) is an ardent environmental activist
When speaking about green jobs, Matthew Kresha has little trouble conjuring up a specific example to illustrate their benefits.
Kresha, a student in Applied Science with a specialization in Renewable Energy at Austin Community College, describes how the Texas cities of Abilene and Sweetwater were once experiencing serious decline. Their schools were deteriorating, their ranches were folding up, and their shops were closing—until wind energy developers recognized the area’s potential.
Residents realized that they could make money building wind turbines on their ranches. Money began to flow into the city, and the town’s tax base grew to roughly triple what it was prior to the construction of the wind turbines. These new jobs allowed young people to attend school and find jobs locally, and even attracted people from other parts of the state.
Kresha tells stories like this one over and over again as the co-founder of the Renewable Energy Students Association, which helps provide support and networking opportunities for students enrolled in his academic degree program. When he is outside of the classroom, Kresha works as a Utility Systems Operator at an Austin power plant. However, his main responsibility over the last few years has been as a leader in the green jobs movement.
Kresha has worked hard to expand the movement because he feels it is an integral part of this country’s future: “I fight hard for [the green jobs movement] because I believe it makes too much fundamental sense to fail. It will provide young people with millions of jobs and also make our environmental resources more sustainable.”
Since first establishing the Renewable Energy Students Association, Kresha has transformed the organization into an activist network. The group now provides skill trainings, hosts meetings with potential employers, and serves to inform the community about renewable energy sources and ways to become involved with the movement. Kresha takes particular pride in the diversity that has emerged within the program: “Our members range from students fresh out of high-school to those with full heads of gray hair. We have students with their GED and others with their Masters’.”
The program’s expansion is the result of people of all ages beginning to recognize that the green jobs movement benefits not only the planet, but also the economy as a whole. With soaring unemployment rates, Kresha explains the double-meaning of the organization’s title: “The group’s acronym, RESA, is translated to mean ‘to pray’ in the Spanish language. We joke that we all pray every day that the green jobs movement will take off across the nation.”
While the green jobs movement continues to grow, Kresha still worries that the new industries won’t really be green: “We need to make sure that the new opportunities support sustainable, renewable, and carbon-free industries. We can’t be feeding people into the clean coal or nuclear industries because those aren’t truly green.”
Nonetheless, Kresha is noticeably excited by the direction of the movement: “Young people are at the forefront of the movement. We are limited only by our own imagination. As an activist, it is a great time to be involved in the green jobs movement because it can still grow. It is not stagnant or limited, which enables us to really shape its path.”
Kresha has also spent time lobbying for the American Youth Works Program, which provides green-related trainings to youth in some of Texas’ poorest neighborhoods. The program takes at-risk youth and teaches them how to install solar panels, restore park lands, and other important green jobs. “The great thing with green jobs,” says Kresha, “is that they often kill two birds with one stone. They create opportunities for those people falling through the cracks of our troubled economy, and they shape a healthier, more sustainable infrastructure for the future of this country.”
Being from Texas, Kresha understands the state’s oil history, but also recognizes the need for change: “I am confident that we will all look back at oil and see it as archaic, old, and even barbaric. We will someday ask ourselves why we ever did it.”
Adam Raphael is a former advocacy intern at Campus Progress.
For more information about green jobs, check out this interactive map detailing green job creation in every state. You can also take action now by telling congress to strengthen the weak Renewable Energy Standard in the American Clean Energy and Security Act.
Social Bookmarking
--------
Comments