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What’s New :: Progress
Report
1079 ECforME
students have received an MCCS scholarship and entered a Maine community college
between Fall 2003 and Fall 2009:
An additional 623
ECforME participants enrolled in college between 2003 and 2009.
94%
of all
1702 ECforME students who
enrolled in college have gone to 2- and 4-year colleges
in Maine. Chelsea Corson - Skowhegan Area High School, 2008; Mental Health, KVCC 2010 Mary Johnson - Woodland High School, 2009; Medical Assistant, WCCC Brian Kearns - Brewer High School, 2009; Automotive Tech, CMCC Erika Kerr - Winslow High School, 2009; Liberal Studies, KVCC Sydney Nichols - Lawrence High School, 2009; Education-Early Childhood, KVCC Danielle Steadman - Bangor High School, 2008; Business Management, EMCC Brittany Thompson - Biddeford High School, 2009; Criminal Justice, YCCC
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Ashley Gooldrup graduated from Messalonskee High School in 2007. According to her guidance counselor, Brenda Holt, Ashley aspired to college but faced many barriers. Being selected for ECforME allowed Gooldrup to enroll at KVCC. She started in health science, switched to liberal studies, then after taking KV’s course in career decision-making, changed her major to education. Having found her niche, her GPA zoomed from 2.4 in her first semester to 4.0 for fall 2009. She now works as an ed tech at Oakland Elementary School, while she completes her AAS degree in education/speech and language for graduation in May 2010. Holt describes Ashley as “a wonderful young woman” and credits her success at KVCC to the support of ECforME Regional Director, Pauline Stevens. Ashley credits ECforME for financial help and for “someone to go to when I needed to.” Southern Maine Community College Students
York County Community College Students Molly Hamm and Simone Lewis are first-year students at YCCC, liberal studies majors, and 2009 graduates of Marshwood High School. Both have joined YCCC’s Diversity Club. Said Hamm, “I honestly just showed up with Simone and Shiena one day and I had a great time. There were a lot of nice people.” Lewis echoes that statement: “To me, Diversity Club is all about meeting new people and welcoming any person who wants to make a new friend.... I thought it would be fun. I wanted to try something new!” The club welcomes all, holds monthly meetings, and aims at “Putting a Stop to the Ignorance We Find Ourselves In.” A worthy endeavor, especially for students in higher learning!Phillip Moulton will spend 10 weeks, February to April 2010, in the Brittany region of France at the Institut Universitaire de Technologie (IUT) de Rennes. An Early College for ME student in the computer integrated machining program at Eastern Maine Community College, Moulton is participating in a project between his machining class at EMCC and a similar class in IUT’s mechanical engineering and manufacturing program. Four teams—each with both IUT and EMCC students—are competing to design and fabricate a tennis ball launcher capable of meeting rigorous specifications. Teammates collaborate over the Internet. IUT students are using English; EMCC students are using the metric system. Teams designed their launchers during fall semester and are fabricating them during spring semester. The actual competition takes place via video conference. The final piece is a student exchange. Moulton’s instructor, Charles Whorton, EMCC department chair, dreamed up the project with his son, who teaches at IUT. Moulton is the only project participant to go to France. He’ll live with host families and attend classes in IUT’s machine tool lab. When he returns, he’ll bring with him two French classmates, who for 10 weeks will work at Brewer Automotive Components. Whorton hopes to make this the first of many cross-cultural collaborations. “As we kick off this student exchange,” he said, “I couldn't be more fortunate than to have Phil Moulton as our first ambassador.” Moulton is excited about his adventure and credits Early College for ME for helping him get where he is. “ECforME advisers, through one-on-one meetings, come to know students on a personal level and can help them greatly when it comes time to decide on a program.” Moulton attended Capital Area Technical Center and graduated from Gardiner Area High School in 2008. Now in his second year at EMCC, he is on track to graduate in May 2010 and on track to add international experience to his resume—an asset in any field and especially in a global field like computer integrated machining. Now, Moulton is about to fulfill “a long-time dream”: going to France and graduating from college “with a great degree in a field that I love.” Here's a brief news video on the outcome of the tennis ball competition. Firefighter and First Responder Dale Wunder, Early College for ME student, tested his skills recently at a fire in Eddington. A 2008 graduate of Calais High School, Wunder is in his second year in the fire science program at Eastern Maine Community College and his second year in the live-in program at the Eddington Fire Department. Recently, he was the first to respond when a man using an acetylene torch caught his shed and mobile home on fire. Wunder contained the fire until other firefighters arrived. The shed was lost and the home damaged, but because Wunder responded so quickly, no one was injured.He will graduate from EMCC’s fire science program in May and plans to pursue his paramedic license. As long as he’s a student, he can continue in the live-in program at Eddington. Wunder hopes eventually to find a job in that vicinity as both firefighter and paramedic. back to topECforME Student Takes the Vassar Challenge Kelly Slocomb challenged herself. From June 12 to July 17, 2009, she lived and studied—expenses paid—at Vassar College in rural New York, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. A 2008 graduate of Windham High School, Slocomb is an Early College for ME student and a senior in applied marine biology and oceanography at Southern Maine Community College, South Portland. For 20 years community college students from around the country have spent five weeks of summer at Vassar in its Exploring Transfer Program. Maine community college students have participated since 2005. The idea is to prepare students to transfer to a four-year institution and to consider transferring to a private liberal arts college such as Vassar. The program is designed to help students grow intellectually. Each student takes two 100-level courses; each course is team-taught by a community college professor and a Vassar professor. Vassar pays for students’ courses, housing, food, and books. In return, the program asks students to “come with an eagerness to learn and a desire to challenge themselves academically.”
Slocomb, an Honors student, decided to apply for the program after hearing about it from her Early College for ME Regional Director, Christopher Ike. Especially after seeing pictures of Vassar’s beautiful campus, she was thrilled to be accepted and excited to go. Being in a new and rarified environment didn’t worry her; keeping up with the coursework did. Thirty students participated: two from Maine, one from Massachusetts, one from California, most from New York. Everybody knew everybody. Each student took two courses. Slocomb took a religion course, “Suffering in the World: A Cross-Cultural Exploration,” and a chemistry course, “Introduction to Forensic Science.” For religion she read 100 pages every night and wrote a paper every week. To prepare for each day’s classes, she was often up until 3:00am. Once she didn’t finish until 7:00am. While both were difficult, her courses were a good contrast. Religion was all in the classroom. Forensics began in the chem lab, but by the end, students were hands-on at the scene of the “crime”—out in a field examining maggots and beetles and five dead rats to determine each rat’s approximate time of death. For Slocomb, the best things about her time at Vassar were the friendships, especially with Amanda Ledford, a radiography major at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor. The two explored Vassar’s 1000-acre campus and wanted to go to New York City, just two hours south. There wasn’t time for New York then; they hope to get there from here.
Has Vassar changed Slocomb? Yes and no. No, because she has the same career goal: blending marine biology and photography to do underwater photography. Yes, because of the different cultures she was exposed to, both in the variety of students—including one each from Ghana, Trinidad, and Egypt (although they now live in New York)—and in the study of world cultures. “Now I see the world from a different perspective. I know more about how different people think. I’m more open to other people’s ideas.” Slocomb met the challenges she set for herself. She didn’t get homesick, so she knows she can strike out again for new territory. Academically, “I know I can do the work—that I'll keep at it, whatever it takes.” In religion she earned a C+; in forensics, a B+. Her credits (though not her grades) will transfer to SMCC and to the four-year institution she enrolls in next. Of Vassar’s Exploring Transfer Program, Slocomb says, “It's a wonderful experience! I knew it would be hard, and I knew it would be an experience I wouldn't regret.” Early College for ME Celebrates Five Years  LtoR: Pauline Moreau, ECforME Regional Director, Central Maine Community College (CMCC); John Cook, Student Services Coordinator at Lewiston Regional Technical Center (holding both LRTC and Lewiston High School plaques); Betsy Libby, Director of Admissions, CMCC; and Paul Bickford, Guidance Director at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.
The colleges and schools are listed below.
Central Maine Region Edward Little High School Lewiston High School Lewiston Regional Technical Center Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School  Thomas Robb accepts the 5-year plaque on behalf of Calais High School. Standing with him is Susan Mingo, ECforME Regional Coordinator, Washington County Community College.
Eastern Maine Region Brewer High School Hampden Academy United Technologies Center Kennebec Valley Region Kennebec Valley Community College Capital Area Technical Center Lawrence High School Mid-Coast School of Technology Skowhegan Area High School Northern Maine Region Northern Maine Community College Caribou High School Houlton High School St. John Valley Technology Center
 Receiving the 5-year plaque for Houlton High School’s participation in ECforME are Holly McPartland, guidance counselor, and Jon Turner (right), guidance director. Presenting the plaque is Charles Collins, ECforME state director.
Southern Maine Region Bonny Eagle High School LearningWorks (formerly Portland West) Portland High School South Portland High School Washington County Region Washington County Community College Calais High School Narraguagus High School Shead High School York County Region York County Community College Kennebunk High School Marshwood High School Noble High School Sanford High School back to top Low income Maine students get Early College for ME From the Connection, national newsletter of the College Board, February 2010
read more
Bangor Daily News article from April 8, 2006
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Nicole
Laliberte has relied on
determination and focus, motivation and maturity to
conquer obstacles in her path. She began living on her
own in her junior year of high school and earned 12
college credits before graduating from Lewiston High in
2008. Once enrolled at CMCC, she earned Honors each
semester and worked three jobs—often totaling more than
50 hours per week. Note: ECforME recommends working less
than half that amount! Laliberte graduates in May with
an associate degree in accounting. Her determination,
organizational skills, and “amazingly upbeat attitude,”
said her Regional Director, Pauline Moreau, helped
Laliberte succeed. Her next goal is a bachelor’s degree
in accounting.
Lindsay Bradeen
Vassar
Library
