Charting a Greener Future for Students and Grand Rapids
The mayor of Grand Rapids, Mich., David LaGrand '88, is the client for Professor Matt Heun's senior engineering class. He's entrusting Ƶ students with answering a big question that could have a major impact on the city's sustainability efforts.
“What would it take for the city of Grand Rapids to establish and operate a green revolving fund?”
That’s the question Professor Matt Heun posed to his engineering students on the first day of class.
“It's a huge question, right? And then it’s funny, Matt has several other bullet points beneath the main question. One of them is ‘are you going to include non-municipal buildings?’ Right there is probably its own project,” said Mike Troupos, a 2012 engineering grad of Calvin, who was in the room as the students first heard the question.
A Big Challenge
The question Heun asked is the student’s semester project. And it’s not hypothetical. The Mayor of Grand Rapids, David LaGrand ’88, seated next to Troupos in the back of the classroom, is the client.
“I thought ‘woah,’” said Dafna Heule, a senior mechanical engineering major, upon hearing of the project.
“My first thought is ‘Calvin? This is happening at Calvin and not a bigger school?’” said Jude Veldboom, a mechanical engineering major.
The students were initially shocked by the scope of the project. But Heun says, “I know what the students do not yet know: Calvin students are ready to address big questions. Calvin students can change the world!”
Learning “Soft Skills” Through Asking “Hard Questions”
“What I love about this in general, and Matt does this every year, is it’s such a big project and such a huge question that there’s a lot of narrowing of the scope over the course of the semester,” said Troupos. “And I think that’s really good. We all have to do that in our own lives. You have a million things you can do when you’re young and at some point, you decide I’m closing these doors so I can open these other ones. It’s a metaphor on life but it’s also good discipline as a human being to understand that I can do anything, but what should I actually do? And then to keep chiseling down so at the end of the semester the students actually have something to show for it.”
Troupos, who is now vice president of Foresight, an energy and sustainability consulting firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was in these students’ shoes about 15 years prior. In fact, he was one of the first interns for the Calvin Energy Recovery Fund (CERF), a green revolving fund established in 2009 at Ƶ. During his time at Calvin, he helped install motion sensors in Science Building bathrooms, implement a lighting overhaul in North Hall, and investigated low-flow showerheads in the dorms, a project implemented after he graduated.
Invested in, Now Investing
Now, Troupos is one of the advisers Professor Heun has brought back to help students navigate this huge question.
“It’s really cool and it makes me proud to be a Knight,” said Heule. “I think he said he graduated in 2012, before sustainability was trendy. So, it’s cool to see the effect of a genuine Christian university that’s trying to take better care of the Earth. So many people have been invested in sustainability at Calvin before it was trendy.”
For Troupos, he wasn’t looking to go into the field he’s in. He credits the investment professors like Matt Heun made in him, including as his mentor during his time as intern for the Calvin Energy Recovery Fund.
“I wouldn’t be where I’m at personally or professionally if it wasn’t for the opportunity to be the CERF intern,” said Troupos. “So, it’s a joy to come back because I want to pay it forward. I really learned and found my footing on what I want to do, what my calling is in life because of this opportunity, and so my hope and dream is that some students here understand that energy efficiency and sustainability are real viable career paths and also paths where you can find joy in what you do and feel good about the impact that you can make.”
Building Excitement, Expanding Imagination
As the students began to ask clarifying questions and hear more from the advisors and Mayor LaGrand about the project, the weight of the project didn’t go away, but an excitement started to build.
“I’m excited, but it also feels very daunting. I’m mostly looking forward to how we can break this down,” said Veldboom. “I think that’ll be the biggest lesson coming out of this.”
“This is really cool, because it’s so tangible and can actually make impact,” said Heule. “When we started talking it was exciting to hear about all the ways we are going to be able to be creative and I’m excited to use our brains in unique ways to come up with solutions.”
Proven Value of a Calvin Education
Troupos says trusting Ƶ students to propose a solution for an entire city is a testament to how community leaders view the value of a Calvin education. And he says his experience pays witness to that.
“I’ve always loved that Calvin’s interdisciplinary. When I was in high school deciding on an engineering school, I liked that Calvin was a liberal arts school first and not a technical school. And it ended up paying out,” said Troupos, who over the past five years transitioned from an engineering and technical role to a leadership and sales role with his company.
“There’s a lot of engineers in the world that don’t just sit in the room and run calculations, they have to deliver presentations, they have to solve big problems, they have to get buy-in from a lot of different stakeholders,” said Troupos. “So, I think the skills you develop in unpacking questions like the students will do in this class are a lot more powerful for somebody like me who isn’t working in an engineering role for their entire career.”
The engineering class will have the next few months to come up with a proposed recommendation, which they will present on December 9 to their client Mayor LaGrand in an event open to the public.
