Nathan Sereda, a graduate of NAIT’s alternative-energy technology program, wants to have a positive impact on the environment and energy industry in Alberta. He heads up Newo’s solar division, conducting site assessments, designing systems, and working onsite.
life story so far
Nathan grew up on a farm near Shaughnessy, Alberta, just north of Lethbridge, with his parents, three brothers and paternal grandparents, who lived on the same half section (320 acres) for over 50 years after emigrating from Ukraine.
“Before and after school we would go over to my grandparents’ house. A couple of times a week we would go over for supper. I appreciated it a lot.”
They were a busy family. Nathan and his brothers played sports, were involved in 4H and took violin lessons. His dad had a trucking company in addition to farming, and his mom was a teacher’s aide.
When he was 14, the family moved east to a 2,500-acre property near Bull Island, Alberta. Then farming changed. The dissolution of the Canadian Wheat Board made income less secure, and the weather became more unpredictable, with one good year followed by four or five of drought, hail, or too much rain. Despite the challenges, Nathan might have been there still if the community wasn’t the kind where anyone not born there would always be considered an outsider.
“If that land would have been up here (somewhere more welcoming), I absolutely would have tried farming,” Nathan says.
Instead, he headed to the University of Alberta Augustana Campus in Camrose, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in kinesiology and a minor in criminology, serving on the leadership of the students association, which is where he met his future wife, Naomi.
turning points
Some of Nathan’s most useful life skills he learned from 4H: public speaking, record keeping, and navigating trips to new places like Montana, the Northwest Territories, Ontario.
But going to Augustana was particularly formative for him; there was a sudden influx of new ideas and cultures, interactions with roommates from Ghana and the Philippines, and a new awareness of what it means to care for the environment.
“You grow up in rural Alberta, you’ll only know certain things or talk about certain things the whole time. It’s a very conservative mindset,” he says. “You want to care about your land because that’s how you make your money, but the environment as a whole is not so much of your focus.”
Augustana took him down a slightly different path than his brothers, two of whom are mechanics and one a country music radio host, but through twists and turns, and times of uncertainty, his parents have been there for him. In 2019, he quit an unfulfilling job and started NAIT’s alternative energy technology program without knowing exactly where it would take him.
“Being able to go out and try different things and have the support to do that has been really big.”
When his courses went online in 2020, he and Naomi decided to move to Camrose, around which most of her family is based. An Augustana connection — the best woman at his wedding, Alanna Lindsay (sister of Newo co-founder Ryan Lindsay) — eventually led him to his current role heading up the solar branch at Newo.
core values
“Obviously, solar is something that I care about, and a sustainable future,” Nathan says. “I don’t really care about amassing wealth or stuff, or anything like that.”
Sustainability, for him, means a world where everybody has enough, where people can support themselves on what they make, grow their own gardens if they want to, afford to put up solar and produce green energy and “try and give back something instead of always just taking.”
While Nathan is fascinated by space exploration and has been tracking the new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, he maintains a local perspective.
“As cool as it is that we can look out and see different planets, all we know of is this one that we can live on. And so we have to care for it. We have to care about it.”
Nathan answers solar questions at the Camrose Downtown Market.
Nathan, Garnet, Maroof and Raj don traditional kurtas in honour of Eid.
rooted in people or place
“I don’t feel attached to where I grew up,” Nathan says. “There’s nostalgic memories if I drive back there, but for the most part, it’s just — whatever. I lived there, it was a house, but it doesn’t really have any meaning. It is more about who I was with at the time.”
His family roots have been a recent source of introspection, precipitated by the passing of his Ukrainian grandfather shortly before the war broke out.
“I’m only a second generation Canadian,” he reflects. “Not even 90 years ago, my family didn’t exist in Canada. Then there’s people whose families have lived in Canada for thousands of years, and they might not even feel tied to it, for different connotations.”
Ultimately, everywhere Nathan has lived — the family farms, Edmonton, Spruce Grove or Brandon, Manitoba — “Those were just stops along the way,” he says. “For me, a sense of place is tied to who you’re with more than the place itself.”