Bright IDEA: How Energy Programs are Sending Scholars to College

A significant part of our Culture at IDEA encompasses being good citizens. We teach our scholars how important it is to be members of the San Antonio community who make a difference. During the late summer and early fall, IDEA San Antonio campuses participate in an energy reduction program with CPS Energy to reduce power usage during times of high strain on our local power grid.

Participation in the program teaches young scholars the importance of conservation, the ways they can contribute to their community, and what can happen when schools and civic entities partner. Now it will also teach them there is a network of adults committed to supporting their college goals. For the past two years of our participation in this CPS Demand Response program, the IDEA San Antonio Facilities Team met our benchmark, receiving over 80,000 dollars in funds. The choice of how to use these funds became clear after working side-by-side with our facility managers and custodians asking them why they work at IDEA. Each answer received from the team was centered around our scholars and wanting to be part of giving them better opportunities than many of them had. These team members often spend a lot of time with our scholars throughout their time on our K-12 campuses, watching them grow and thrive into young adults, and using these funds to continue to support them beyond graduation felt like a natural progression.

Over the course of the last few years, our campuses and managers have faced challenges that have pushed our thinking and challenged us around every corner.

As every operations member knows, it is our mission to eliminate obstacles affecting the overall success of our students. Our challenge was to invest our facilities staff in our organizational goal of seeing 100% of our scholars to and through college. As such, we collectively decided to use all the funds raised in the CPS Demand Response program to create the San Antonio Facilities Scholarship, to be given to graduating seniors. We hope to impact scholars who are struggling with a financial gap in their top school choice and support them through the challenges of the first year of college.

Our mission is more than just words, it is a belief shared by our custodians to our CEO. Now, more than ever, our buildings are helping us be a part of something truly special. We have a saying here at IDEA that, “a rising tide raises all ships”. I hope that other individuals take a deeper look into their facilities and see how they can make an impact. Programs like the CPS Demand Response program exist nationwide, and with a bit of research, you can find resources in your area and make a greater impact on the lives of students for years to come.