29 May How I Became The First Deaf Certified Solar PV Installer

This is Jason Shaw, a deaf Texas Journeyman Electrician and the first Deaf certified solar PV installer in the nation!  After two years of training, I took and passed the NABCEP Solar PV Installer Certification Exam in March of 2012, making me a certified Solar PV Installer.
 
I am not a stranger to the clean energy field, having spent 17 years as a licensed electrician (most of them in the commercial and industrial construction fields) and 5 years with building management control integration. I was laid off in April of 2009 with the dramatic slow down in the construction industry. After being on the job hunt for a year, coupled with the frustration of finding a position fitting my background with supervisory experience, I decided to look at my career options so I could find employment in different field.
 
I reached out to Texas Workforce Solutions-Rural Capital in Round Rock and discussed various alternative career options. Texas Workforce Solutions encouraged me to get with Cathy Redson, a professional Solar PV instructor, at the Green Job Workshop with the Texas Renewable Energy Roundup in Salado, Texas in April 2010.  At the workshop, Ms. Redson and I spent more than two hours discussing the various options for me to enter the “Green Job” field. We settled on training in the solar PV field since the electrical experience I held complemented the skills needed for the solar PV field.
 
In May 2010, I enrolled in the Austin Community College’s continuing education solar program undertaking several courses in Solar PV, Solar Thermal and Wind Energy.  The first solar PV course I took was the HART 1071 with Cathy Redson as one of the two solar PV instructors with Suzanne White.  This course, which was featured in a KXAN news report titled “Girl power meets solar power” (www.kxan.com/dpp/news/education/austin-kxan-Girl-Power-meets-solar-power), had 14 women with three men as part of ACC’s “Women in Green Job” program.
 
I continued to take renewable energy courses at Austin Community College after finishing HART 1071; however I still could not find any positions in the solar PV industry due to my background making me overqualified for many of the open solar PV installer positions which were going for apprentice electricians.  I determined the next course of action, in addition to training, was to start building up networking connections in the Clean Energy field.  The first thing I did was to join a student group, Renewable Energy Student Association, at Austin Community College as an officer with the title of Continuing Education Outreach Coordinator in fall 2010.
 
I still was frustrated with not being employed, not only in the solar PV field, but also in the electrical field.  I needed to gain experience with the installation, with lead role, of at least two solar PV systems over 1KW in order to take the North America Board of Energy Practioners (NABCEP) Solar PV Installer Certification exam after I eventually completed all the continuing education training in Renewable Energy in the Spring of 2011.
 
I heard about and decided to attend an event hosted by CleanTX Foundation’s Solar Energy Entrepreneurs Network (SEEN) in March of 2010.  At the SEEN function, I met the executive director of NABCEP, Ezra Auerbach, from New York.  Auerbach was in Austin, Texas to finalize the detail of a new program with ImagineSolar offering an alternative experience pathway lab, the first of its kind in the nation, with solar PV installation for journeyman and masters electricians in order to help them qualify for the NABCEP Solar PV Installer Certification exam.  Auerbach shared the development with me after I shared my frustration of not getting the needed experience to qualify for the solar PV installer exam.  Auerbach also mentioned another program, CNEST or Comprehensive-National Electrician Solar Training, a grant program administered by Peter Brodeur with Workforce Solutions-Capital Area in Austin, Texas.
 
I was appreciative for Auerbach providing me the information and enrolled in the CNEST program in summer 2011.   In addition, in my role as the new Co-Chair of RESA, I worked to turn RESA into a student chapter of American Solar Energy Society (ASES), making Austin Community College the first community college in the nation and the first of the higher education institute in Texas to have a student chapter of ASES.  With that success, I elected to remain a student at ACC to help RESA make the transition to being a student chapter under ASES and enrolled in the credit portion of the Renewable Energy Specialization program.  I was elected as the President of RESA for the fall 2011 term under the new leadership structure I had created.
 
I finally completed all the Renewable Energy training with ImagineSolar and attempted, with DARS helping cover the exam expenses, to pass the NABCEP Solar PV Installer Certification exam, one of the toughest in the nation with 30 percent of people passing it, in fall 2011 and did not pass.  Undeterred, I continued to study further at Austin Community College, ImagineSolar and SolPowerPeople to aid him further with preparation of 2nd attempt. On the 2nd attempt in March of 2012, I passed the exam! I am now officially a certified solar PV installer, joining 1500 other certified solar PV installers in the nation.  Auerbach, contacted me to give congratulations and informed me that, as far as NABCEP was aware, I was the first Deaf individual in the nation to become a certified solar PV installer.
 
In addition, I was re-elected to continue to serve as the President of Renewable Energy Student Association, a student chapter of ASES, at ACC for term beginning fall 2012.  My role, as the President of RESA is to lead a team to work on providing professional developments for students at ACC in all aspects of Renewable Energy, Building Efficiency and Alternative Technologies for Transportation.
 
After trying different paths, I had decided to change my major at ACC from Renewable Energy Specialization to Business Management with a certification in Small Business Management.  I plan to get employed in the solar PV industry and am looking into various options from starting a consulting business, solar PV integration company, establishing a non-profit organization to serve the Deaf community by doing outreach, education/training and community service modeled on 1 House At A Time to help the low-income families within the deaf community to do energy upgrades on their homes.  I will be taking the NABCEP Solar PV Technical Sale exam as well as the Masters Electrician Exam.  In addition, I am planning to purse the NABCEP Small Wind Installer Certification after strong encouragement from the wind energy community.

Contact me:
Jason Shaw
President of RESA
Jason.Shaw@g.austincc.edu
www.linkedin.com/in/jshawjman
512-905-7826 (TEXT ONLY!!)
512-994-0781 (VP)

RESA
Austin Community College
1020 Grove Blvd.
Austin, TX 78741
Office: 512.223.6225/Fax: 512.223.6761
RESA Website:http://www.austincc.edu/resa/
RESA E-mail: austinccresa@gmail.com