By Katie Liu, June 20, 2025
The program is a collaboration between New Energy New York, Broome-Tioga BOCES and Chenango Forks High School
Eighteen months after its opening, the nation’s pioneering New Energy Lab, run by Broome-Tioga BOCES through Chenango Forks High School, recently graduated its first students to
complete the program in full. The lab, funded by NENY, is a unique program that offers hands-on battery technology training to high school students. As Broome County and upstate New York at large grow in prominence when it comes to energy storage and innovation, programs like the New Energy Lab are essential in equipping the next generation’s workforce with the knowledge, skills and passion to succeed.
“[Broome County is] a community that’s always been growing, and always has been on this manufacturing slash high tech sector or ledge,” said Matt Sheehan, director of the Career and Technical Excellence Center for BT-BOCES. “This is the next ledge to be on. This is where it’s going to be.”
Photo by Zagham A. Shah | Binghamton University
After the lab first cut its ribbon last January, only four students initially took part. Now, 19 Broome County students have participated in the program, and this year, Chenango Forks senior William Johnson is the first graduate to have completed the full two-year program. He will officially be joining Matco Electric as an electrician next, adding, “I heard they’re the best.”
Seeing passionate students like Johnson move from the program on to the stepping stones of what may eventually become their careers and callings is exciting for Sheehan. “What it means to me is it’s amazing,” he said. “You’ve got to keep in mind these are things that we started dreaming up in an office one day.”
When Sheehan first received the phone call about being a potential collaborator for the program, it was a Tuesday night. The deadline for a proposal, should his team all be in agreement that it was an endeavor worth pursuing, was that Friday. “We were honored, and we just turned around and put in 72 hours of crazy time, thought and thinking,” he said. “We’re pretty honored to see that most of the parts that we thought up are happening.”
The foundation of the program, Sheehan said, was inspired by NENY’s Battery Academy, which offers a variety of courses related to batteries and energy storage, suitable for anyone from up-and-coming technicians to the curious. Using Battery Academy curriculum, as well as their own ideas on how to best provide education over the course of 18 months, Sheehan and his team ended up with a first-of-its-kind lab that could hit the ground running, thanks to BOCES systems that were already in place.
“We’re currently in a moment where [we’re asking], ‘How do we get more energy labs or emerging technologies and battery programs around the state?’ Because that’s really the dream,” Sheehan said. “Phase one was us opening a program. Phase two, three and four are to open them around the state.”
Students can work on a variety of projects in the lab, including building their own Bluetooth speakers and solar panels. They also gain hands-on experience in soldering and tinkering with
AC/DC circuits, on top of lessons in mathematics and electric theory. For students like Binghamton High School junior Javonte Bishop, the opportunity to unravel complex topics like math has been especially useful. “It’s pretty complicated. I don’t think I would want to learn it by myself, but it definitely helped me a lot with math,” he said. The experience has been fun, he added, and without it, he wouldn’t have met his current classmates.
But beyond the classroom, the program has even gained prominence on a national stage. The nationwide organization Jobs for the Future — which has the goal to place 75 million Americans
with quality jobs by 2033 — recently featured Johnson in a PSA to showcase the benefits of training programs in creating jobs in the coming years. The attention has been both unexpected but welcomed.
“We were just happy — and we still are happy — to just have 20 kids on average being in the program and learning about the future technologies of battery management and energy storage,
and what that’s going to be for us,” Sheehan said. As the New Energy Lab prepares to welcome more and more students, Sheehan hopes those two years in the program will equip them with the necessary knowledge and access to quality jobs in the region.
“Prospective students need to know this is the future in our community,” he said. “I mean, we live in an innovative society here in Broome County, and I don’t think students always know
that.” But regardless of where students end up going, program teacher Richard Preston hopes the most important thing they learn is how to do good work.
“I hope that they can take whatever they can to help them be a responsible employee and be successful with whatever they do,” Preston said. “It doesn’t have to be in electronics. It could be
plumbing.” There are over 30 BOCES institutions in New York, and Sheehan’s ultimate dream is that this first New Energy Lab can kickstart numerous others across the state.
“I sit on a couple different boards in the region that talk about economic and workforce development. And every one of them comes back to: Where does this battery sector training fit
in the bigger ecosystem of the workforce?” he said. “The answer is it’s the foundation for everything.”