MIHS student brightens up school with senior project | Community Spirit

An MIHS student not only has a bright future, he's brightening up his school with his senior project.

Harry Bolson blows a mean tuba for Mercer Island High School's band, and he's been accepted at nine colleges. Harry is not your average senior.

This 18 year old solar-powers his cell phone, and his jet black hair is already showing signs of grey.

"I have white hair, it started about two years ago," he said.

But it's not the white hair or green cell phone charger that caught our attention, it's Harry's senior project.

"My goal was to start something -- not really a movement; I wanted to push the school to be more sustainable and have more sustainable practices," Bolson said.

While other students hang in the commons, Harry stands in the rain overseeing installation of his solar panel senior project.

Liability keeps harry grounded as crews complete his sun-fueled system that will power his school's store and marketing class.

"There's seven panels in the system and it'll power about 2,000 kilowatt hours of electricity for the school every year," Bolson said.

In other words...

"It will be able to power a microwave for about 2,000 hours a year," he said.

Harry raised $8,000 for the project and got the permits. He'll only save the school about $40 a month, but his persistence impressed even the installers.

"The students are usually expecting us to donate a system that they can take in and use in their science class and don't want to do any of the work -- and not Harry," said Josh Will.

Harry is not done yet. He plans to double the size of the system before graduation. He's already raised $2,000 of the needed $10,000 for the expansion, but the more panels he adds, the more money he saves the school.

His plans for the future? Alternative energy consulting.