Running until September 18th, this free online program will help young people overcome many barriers thrown up because of the coronavirus crisis, from cancelled internships to lost jobs. “This change, while necessary to help slow the spread of COVID-19, leaves many young people (particularly recent post-secondary graduates) at an unexpected pause in their career and skill-building at a crucial turning point in their professional careers,” says Shakti Ramkumar, Student Energy’s Communications Manager.

By taking part in BetterTogether’s series of fun, talent-developing challenges, participants will build important skills, gain experience, and connect with peers around the world, all while competing for the chance to win up to $25K in prizes.

BetterTogether participants will receive:

• The chance to participate in any of a series of 10 challenges, each addressing an important issue to help them become change agents through empowerment, education, and building skills;
• 50+ live AMA speaker sessions with role models, co-founders, and other inspirational figures;
• A platform to connect with over 1.5 million students and young professionals from 150+ countries;
• The opportunity to win up to $25,000 in prizes, scholarships, memberships, and other exclusive awards;
• Access to Pearson’s Workplace Behaviors Learning Programme modules;
• And more!

Student Energy’s goal is to work towards a sustainable and equitable energy future by empowering young people all over the world to take action. BetterTogether removes barriers for youth by providing a program that not only helps them build important skills for the post-COVID-19 era, but also inspires, encourages, and supports them along the way.

The BetterTogether program is delivered through a strategic partnership with Goodwall. Goodwall is the next-generation community for students and professionals to connect on shared interests, showcase themselves and discover learning and earning opportunities. Learn more about Student Energy’s strategic partnerships here.

About Goodwall

Goodwall is the next-generation community and social development network built specifically to address the needs of Gen Z and younger millennials. Goodwall aims to help students, entrepreneurs, and young professionals by giving them a unique platform to share ideas, highlight achievements, showcase talents, document experience, meet like-minded peers around the world, find jobs, internships, and scholarships, and seek & provide support.

The Goodwall community is made up of over 1.5 million members from 150+ countries around the world. With 5+ million job and internship opportunities, more than $1 million in scholarships and awards, thousands of volunteer events, and hundreds of online courses, Goodwall is well-prepared to help navigate students and young professionals through this new decade.

Manuel Wiechers, mexico
COO Iluméxico
Winner of Forbes Top 30 Under 30 in Energy
SES 2009 delegate, SES 2017 Changemaker

Manuel Wiechers (Forbes Top 30 Under 30 in Energy) sparked his passion at the 2009 Student Energy Summit, where he was inspired to co-found the social enterprise Iluméxico building solar home systems in off grid areas. Manuel’s company has provided energy access to more than 10,000 people with over 1700 installations and over 25 kW of installed solar capacity.

“My company was inspired directly at SES and we are a young team…[You] can make a living and have a huge impact at the same time.”

Attending SES 2017 introduced Joshua to climate and renewable energy work, where he was exposed to changemakers who, despite their youth, had pursued leadership roles in shaping the energy future. Joshua works in the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Philippine Office on climate action and renewable energy and created the Renewable Energy Bootcamp or REBOOT, a program that trains youth from various professions to pilot renewable energy projects that also solve development needs in marginalized communities.  

Joshua also created the Renewable Energy Congress, a national multi-stakeholder conference that brings together leaders from politics, local government, industry, academe, and civil society. Its goal is to build a broad consensus and develop catalytic projects that will accelerate the renewable energy transition in the Philippines.

“I’d like to say that if you are here [at SES2019] or if you’re not here, try to get involved with Student Energy! If you were here at Student Energy Summit and you want to stay involved, why don’t you open a chapter at your university? If you’re watching this and you didn’t get to attend, still send an email to Student Energy, see if you can get involved! There are a lot of opportunities and you don’t want to miss this! This is one of the best organizations out there that engages youth, and it’s not just youth engagement, it’s opportunities for youth, and you don’t wanna miss it!”

B Theophilus Mambu, Liberia
Mining engineering student
Founder and President AgriWATTS
SES 2017 delegate

B Theophilus Mambu was a delegate at the 2017 International Student Energy Summit and he is also a Campus Director at Hult Prize Foundation, the global “Nobel Prize” platform for student innovation.

Over the years, he has provided youth-based services to over 600 youth in his country Liberia. His long-term goal is to empower 10 000 youth in the next five years through leadership, job creation and capacity building. By 2025, he hopes to engage in innovative social ventures that will harness the power of energy to change the lives of 10 million people living in slum communities around the world.

Sandra Chavez, Mexico
Renewable Energy Consultant, The World Bank
SES 2009 delegate, SES 2013 Changemaker

Growing up in Mexico, Sandra saw the realities of how people lived in rural areas. As part of her undergraduate education, she visited these communities and helped municipalities develop micro-businesses, which sparked her interest in helping communities move forward.

After attending the 2009 Student Energy Summit, Sandra Chavez began working with REN21 (Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century). Sandra and her colleagues founded Synergy for development in 2011, a nonprofit organization that is inspired by their multi-cultural backgrounds. Synergy voluntarily advises rural energy projects with the aim of promoting development. 

“By simply giving farm-owners access to solar energy, it can help reduce poverty in the community and empower them to run successful businesses…The energy sector has the platform to transform people’s lives.”

Churchill Agutu – South Africa
Founder of the Africa Green Collar Project

Churchill attended SES2017 in Merida, Mexico, where he first began to explore energy solutions from a socio-techno-economic perspective. Churchill has a background in Chemical Engineering, and presented some of his research findings on improving the performance of solar cells, to students during SES 2017. Residing in South Africa where the energy transition is still in its nascent stages and an estimated 60% of the population are youth, he’s pursed work focusing on the intersection between youth empowerment, climate change, and energy policy. Churchill is the Founder of the Africa Green Collar Project, which is working to build a knowledge economy for young people in Africa, to enable them to create a sustainable future for the continent. He also works as an analyst at a global not-for-profit company working in the low carbon space. Previously, he worked as a Climate Change Advisor at a climate change advisory firm working in South Africa’s climate change environment.

Churchill is also a former project leader for the Engineers Without Borders UP Litre of Light (LOL) Project in South Africa, and he has been involved in other projects that originated at SES 2017, including a project where he worked with an international cohort of students to build cooking stoves for a local community in Zavalla, Mexico.

Alec Macklis – USA
Founder and CEO of Gridspan Energy

At SES 2017 in Merida, Mexico, Alec gained access to key advisors and mentors who have helped him to build his company, Gridspan Energy. The company is pioneering new market and new use-case for energy storage systems with clear value and market in small island developing states (SIDS). To date they have raised over $700,000 in funding, have public-facing signature and agreement of 1st project with both the Government of Anguilla and ANGLEC a local utility. Alec has lived the Student Energy experience of creating a company that understands multi-disciplinary nature of energy and the challenging road of commercializing a novel, technology-enabled business model.

“Student Energy has had a huge influence on my career path. I ended up meeting a great mentor who was a founder of Student Energy, a co-founder of Student Energy: Janice Tran and she played a big role in mentoring me and advising during the last two years of starting this company” – Alec Macklis

Emma gained valuable understanding of the international perspective of energy while attending SES 2015 in Bali, Indonesia. Her experience there inspired her to work in the European energy system and ultimately to run for European Parliament in the 2019 election as an engineer wanting to change the energy system politically. She’s working as a young candidate to the European Parliament to empower youth in the energy sector through politics. With a foot in both the energy industry and in energy policy, Emma helps her clients understand the energy transition, create scenarios for the future energy system, and analyse policy instruments.

“Student Energy gave me this really international perspective. I’ve always been involved in politics, so I’ve been mixing politics with engineering and energy engineering and always knew that I wanted to work with policy to influence society, but before Student Energy I was more interested in national politics. But Student Energy really broadened my perspective, I was starting to think more in an international way, how can we influence the energy system on a global level. So being at Student Energy Summit in Indonesia really gave me perspectives from all around the world and really seeing that the energy system is much broader and you have to work with it on a global level.” – Emma Wiesner

At SES 2017 in Merida, Mexico, Cory Beaver first shared his vision for a Canada-wide Indigenous Student Energy Summit. The International Student Energy Summit was an empowering experience for Cory, showing him that young people could lead and implement large-scale impactful projects in different contexts around the world. Just over a year later, Cory, along with Co-Chair Disa Crowchief (also a SES 2017 delegate), realized their vision and ran Canada’s first-ever Indigenous youth-led energy summit in Calgary. SevenGen united 200 Indigenous youth from every province and territory across Canada to learn how they can lead in Canada’s energy transition, with every province and territory represented.

The success of SevenGen led Cory to bring a delegation of Indigenous youth to the 2019 International Student Energy Summit, to provide pathways for more Indigenous youth to take action on energy issues in their communities.

SES 2019 Indigenous Delegation – Report