Two Oswego County high school students who attend Onondaga Community College as part of the P-TECH program spent a week of their summer at a unique camp. Dylan Elsner and Evan Hansen were selected to participate in Constellation Energy's Youth Energy Summit at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "I learned a lot about clean energy, Constellation as a whole, and hydropower," said Elsner. "I enjoyed learning the history of nuclear energy, how it works, and that it's a good source of clean energy," added Hansen.
Hansen is a senior at Mexico High School, and Elsner is a junior at Oswego High School. Both are enrolled in OCC's Electrical Technology degree program as part of P-TECH, which stands for Pathways in Technology Early College High School. It's a program that provides high school students the opportunity to work toward their high school diploma and associate degree simultaneously, and ultimately a pathway to an in-demand job.
Constellation Energy Corporation operates four nuclear reactors in New York State, including the Nine Mile Point Clean Energy Center in Oswego. Constellation produced 22% of New York State's electricity in 2023. The Constellation Youth Energy Summit is held each summer, bringing together current 10th and 11th grade students from Illinois, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
During this summer's camp students participated in professional skills exercises, various hands-on activities related to energy and electricity, and took field trips to a hydropower station, a nuclear power station, and the Baltimore Museum of Industry. "The whole experience was really cool," said Hansen. "And it was nice to meet people from all across the country."
OCC provides students across the region like Hansen and Elsner the opportunity to earn college credits while still in high school. During the 2023-24 academic year approximately 325 high school students took classes on campus as part of P-TECH, Early OCC, Spartan, Academy, or the SMART Scholars program. And more than 3,500 high school students completed OCC credits by taking college-level classes in high school.
