MURRIETA, Calif. — The Veteran Asset, a nonprofit whose mission is facilitating solar training and placing its graduates into jobs within the renewable energy industries, has announced its first female graduate.

“As a woman in solar, I am personally excited to have a female military officer in our most recent graduating class,” said Kelly Smith, co-founder of The Veteran Asset. “Monica Laux’s successful completion of our course and the NABCEP EL Exam is an example of our commitment to recruiting women, finding them jobs in solar, and creating a more balanced male/female ratio in the solar workforce. We met Monica at Camp Pendleton, where she recently finished her military career.”

Laux graduated from the Naval Academy in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics. Upon graduation, she was selected for a commission as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, where she began her military career as a logistician, leading large-scale teams in executing military exercises, deployments, humanitarian aid, and disaster-relief missions throughout the Asian-Pacific region. During her six years of service, Laux also developed project management skills as lead for two critical IT systems, supporting a user community of more than 8,000 Marines stationed across the globe.

In addition to promoting women in solar, Laux is also an advocate of renewable energy companies hiring veterans. “Vets are unstoppable. If you are going to select a perfect workforce to make this shift [to solar], veterans are perfect. They adapt and create solutions. It’s what they do every day. Dynamic and challenging environments are nothing new to them.”

Laux is one of 15 graduates of the Entry Level PV Design & Installation 10-Day Solar Training Course, offered by Ambassador Energy. She hopes to stay in the Southern California area, working within the renewable energy space.

For more information about The Veteran Asset, visit www.theveteranasset.org.

Publication date: 9/24/2015

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