Project Name: Ashland District School Compact for Success
Project Contact: Lynwood McHatten
Project Description:
The ADSCS will provide all students and parents with free programming to increase career and post-secondary aspirations for all through a variety of courses, informational meetings, field trips, summer camps, speakers and tutoring, with low income students given priority. The program will include career awareness, the college application, financing options and successful completion strategies for students attending post-secondary institutions.
All seniors taking physics will take College Prep and learn about college life, applying to and financing college, self-discipline and time management. Every effort will be made to schedule all seniors. All juniors will take an SAT Prep class. The senior English classes will require filling out at least one college application and the FAFSA. College Admissions and Financial Aid personnel will speak to the classes. All students will take the ASVAB and complete a career search to help expand their knowledge of career opportunities. Speakers will be brought in to talk about specific careers. All students will take college visits, attend a college fair and those that meet academic guidelines will be given the opportunity to complete college courses while still in high school.
The guidance office will conduct follow-up sessions in November/December to ensure that students going on to post-secondary are being successful and offer assistance to students. Teaching staff will be informed of the grant’s goals and given staff development opportunities on raising student aspirations. Families will be offered opportunities to take part in all segments of the program outside of class work.
Project Name: All Students College and Career Ready
Project Contact: Stephanie Doyle
Project Description:
Casco Bay High School has a strong commitment to providing outstanding college access programs for their students. Naviance, the web-based college and career program, is a key piece of the college and career planning for students. The purpose of this program is:
- Use Naviance and the CBHS crew advisory program to help students develop digital portfolios that address the question: What are my plans for the future?
- Create partnerships that deepen students' post-secondary options via the Maine Compact and UMaine system.
- Provide access to college visits, the USM college fair, and a CBHS career day for all students.
- Deepen support in academics and post-secondary planning for English Language Learners, and other students who will be the first in their family to attend college (as well as their families).
- Initiate follow-up on CBHS graduates to ensure successful college transitions.
Project Name: Apply Yourself - Skill Development Initiative
Project Contact: Elizabeth Russell
Project Description:
Eastern Maine Community College will implement the “Apply Yourself – Skill Development Initiative” by offering free placement assessment and academic skill development opportunities to underprepared high school seniors who wish to attend college. EMCC will provide outreach services at rural high schools in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Waldo, and Hancock Counties. These services will include:
- Career presentations that include information about the academic skills required to be successful in specific programs of study;
- Free Accuplacer® assessment and advising sessions;
- Financial workshops highlighting FAFSA preparation and the benefits of boosting academic skills prior to college enrollment;
- Free access to PLATO math and/or writing courses and one-on-one support;
Post-testing to ensure that pre-established goals have been met.
The ultimate goal of this initiative is to sufficiently prepare students to enter and succeed in the standard courses required for their intended program of study, thus saving students’ time and money as well as helping to ensure their success.
Project Name: Personalized Aspirations Planning
Project Contact: Beverly Homich and Susan Hamilton
Project Description:
Ellsworth High School (in RSU 24) seeks to continue and expand the success of the Maine College Access Challenge Grant of this current year. In six months, we were successful in increasing the number of students applying to college, the number being accepted, and the number that succeeded in achieving their higher education goals. Building upon last year’s successes, we hope to add program features to engage more students, engage them earlier, and engage them at a deeper level with further continuity. These features would include: adding juniors to the senior pool, providing in-depth career exploration by both juniors and seniors, promoting financial literacy for students and parents, and offering follow-up assistance to seniors to ensure their successful transition to college and improving their chances of remaining there.
We hope that we can stem the tide of stop-outs (students whom begin post-secondary education but do not see it through). We wish to build upon the successful collaboration between the post-secondary career specialist, guidance counselors, social worker, teachers, school staff as well as the parents and guardians of under-represented, first- generation and low-income students. Finally, coordination of these in-school services with outside groups, programs, and agencies will give students the needed overall community support essential for motivating their success.
Project Name: Franklin County College Access Project
Project Contact: Ray Therrien
Project Description:
Our needs are related to the expansion of our efforts and to serve the increased enrollment in our programs as evidenced by the growing waiting lists of residents seeking to enter our college access system. In order to expand capacity we are requesting support for technology services, increased academic instruction, and a learning campus in North Franklin County.
Franklin County Adult Education has been instrumental in the development of the Franklin County Community College Network. The Network was established to address the access, persistence and success challenges of the residents of greater Franklin County as they seek to attain post-secondary education and training. FCAE has partnered with dozens of social service agencies, businesses, schools and colleges, economic development organizations, and civic groups to create a model college access system. The three greatest barriers to higher education for our rural population are distance, cost and culture. Through our collaborative efforts we are establishing community college satellite sites throughout the county to eliminate the distance barrier. We developed resources to provide scholarships for low-income college aspirants that minimize cost. To overcome cultural challenges we initiated supports including college transition programs, mentoring and tutoring programs and developmental/remedial courses.
Our efforts have created an ever-increasing demand for our services and we are in danger of becoming a victim of our own success. Our partners provide us with many resources but the challenge of delivering direct services and providing instructional support to students remains the responsibility of FCAE.
Project Name: Pathways Through College
Project Contact: Eva Giles
Project Description:
Pathways Through College will leverage Lewiston Adult Education’s (LAE) experience and resources dedicated to adult college transitions programming to help more adults in Lewiston and the surrounding communities to gain access to college and earn their degree.
LAE has been dedicated to adult college transitions programming for more than a decade. We have helped hundreds of students gain the skills and confidence needed to succeed in college. We have developed an effective integrated curriculum. We have built strong partnerships. We have incorporated best instructional practices. However, there is more work to be done and we need additional resources to meet the needs.
In the past ten years, Lewiston has increased the number of adults who have earned a college degree, but they are still far below the state and New England region. While we are making steps in the right direction, we need a catalyst that will help us to maximize our efforts, increase access, and support resiliency and retention efforts to insure degree attainment at a faster pace.
Project Name: The Maine Employers' Initiative
Project Contact: Maggie Drummond
Project Description:
Maine Development Foundation (MDF) is seeking funding to expand its program, the Maine Employers’ Initiative (MEI), to increase services linking employers and their employees to education resources and to encourage Maine’s working adults to take advantage of educational opportunities, including degree completion.
The expansion of MEI will increase access by compiling and distributing comprehensive information about the opportunities and programs available across the Maine educational landscape, specifically for adult learners seeking to finish a degree or otherwise improve their skills and qualifications. To jump-start degree completion success, MEI will increase awareness of opportunities for adults to earn college credit for previous experiences and learning. To increase persistence, the program will convene regional working groups, where MDF’s collaborators, employers and educators can work more closely together to create, capitalize on and support adults in the workforce participating in educational opportunities.
With the addition of FAME funding, MDF will take this unique and successful program to the next level: providing access to an invaluable road-map to adults in all parts of Maine to encourage them to reach for their educational and career goals.
Project Name: Bulldogs Building Bridges to Postsecondary
Project Contact: Nora Murray
Project Description:
Lawrence High School and Lawrence Adult Education will “build bridges” between secondary and post-secondary schooling for students who are low income, first generation, and not college ready in math. Targeting juniors, seniors, and recent graduates who did not go on to college, a College Transitions Coach will use technology and social media to connect with these students and parents on college planning issues. Additionally, the College Transitions Coach will collab-orate with guidance staff and adult education to facilitate college planning workshops, arrange supplemental math tutoring and provide individual case management services. With intensive advising and frequent contact both in person and online, the College Transitions Coach will address barriers to college enrollment for the targeted students as they develop their college access plans.
Project Name: College Access Services
Project Contact: David Durkee
Project Description:
Old Orchard Beach/Saco Adult & Community Education is committed to the philosophy of lifelong learning for all members of the communities we serve. We develop and implement programs that address the evolving needs of our communities and provide opportunities for individuals of many ages to interact in pursuit of their educational, vocational, and avocational goals.
In keeping with this philosophy, with additional funding our program will augment a spectrum of services for individuals seeking to make the transition to post-secondary education. Our target population will include GED, high school diploma, college transitions, and district students at risk who are a part of our alternative education partnership with RSU #23.
College Access Services will consist of the following elements:
Academic Preparedness: Participants in College Access Services will benefit from career and job readiness courses in addition to specific career education through the use of the Skillbott curriculum. All College Access Services Students will complete applications for post-secondary institutions in addition to participating in workshops and classroom activities related to financial aid and financial literacy.
Student Support Services: Our student services and support counselors will provide direct assistance to students to ensure that students make informed decisions about post-secondary aspirations in addition to assessing the participants academic preparedness and fostering the development of the skills for personal and professional success.
College Partnerships: College Access Services participants will attend college visits and experience the college environment first hand. In addition, college admissions counselors from local colleges and universities will meet and speak with aspiring post-secondary students on site.
Project Name: Aspire Higher Oxford Hills
Project Contact: Maureen Mooney-Howard
Project Description:
The Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS) College Access Challenge Grant would expand our District’s strong momentum toward increasing the college-going expectations and actual enrollment of our students. This will be accomplished by adding a full-time staff person in our Aspirations Lab. Our Lab is a comfortable room where OHCHS students receive help with their post-secondary process. During the 2009-2010 school year, we received an AmeriCoprs member to staff our Lab. The progress he made in one year toward helping our students with their aspirations was phenomenal! MCACG grant money would allow us to build and expand on this success. The main focus of this new staff member would be to personally support our many first generation and low income students and their families. Specifically, she/he would collaborate with our Guidance staff to put together a caseload of seniors who would benefit from additional help with the often confusing and very intimidating college planning process. In addition to assisting this targeted list of students she/he would assist other students by offering workshops, presentations, preparation for PSAT, SAT and Accuplacer tests, assistance with college application, essays, financial aid forms and scholarships opportunities. She/he will coordinate our Aspirations Program that allows OHCHS juniors and seniors to take free college courses at Western Maine University and Community College Center (WMUCC). She/he will also assist the Director of the Education Exchange with our sophomore and junior college visits, OHCHS College Fair and Financial Fitness Fair for our senior class.
Project Name: SAVE: Starting Access Very Early
Project Contact: Dori Fellman
Project Description:
Mountain Valley High School/Partnerships for Success’ “SAVE: Starting Access Very Early” grant will expand on its current college ‘access for all’ initiatives to reach out into the community to strengthen the college-going culture and to provide financial aid information to a wider audience. SAVE will produce innovative best practices that are tested, data driven and replicable. The focus of the grant would be two-fold: to increase services to the students and families identified as being most at risk of not continuing on to a post-secondary education and to pilot innovative and replicable ways to increase financial aid awareness in both K-12 and the community. The SAVE initiative includes a College Access Counselor position to ensure effective pilot programs and initiatives are implemented to the best capacity and to increase intensive intervention with one on one career/college access counseling for at risk students and their families. The cornerstones of the project include:
- Community Financial Literacy Forum
- College Savings Account Match Events
- College Access/Financial Literacy Public Kiosks
- Intensive assistance and support for students identified most at risk of not enrolling in post-secondary education
- Provide information and support for families, including FAFSA events
Project Name: College Aspirations and Access
Project Contact: Sue Spalding
Project Description:
The Spruce Mountain South Campus High School, (formerly known as Livermore Falls High School) Aspirations and Access Grant would expand the current capacity for personal support to first generation and low income students and their families. The addition of “programs” will only benefit those who actually attend and many low income families do not attend. Increased personal attention is the only way to reach many of the families most in need of help and support.
This College Aspirations and Access Grant would provide:
- A full-time “College Access Specialist” to carry out the activities of the project.
- Personalized assistance to students and families with the college admissions and financial aid processes to ensure that all PINS are secured and FAFSA’S filed by April 1, 2012.
- Increased opportunities for campus visits for Juniors and Seniors.
- Visits to the homes of first generation and low income students as needed during the financial aid process, the spring award letter time, and during the summer to help keep students “on track”.
- Encouragement and incentives to families to take advantage of opportunities such as free financial aid workshops, as well as personalized financial aid counseling from a Bates College Professional.
- Increased individual attention to seniors and juniors planning to attend college, especially first generation and low income students.
- Increased awareness and knowledge of the benefits of a college education to students.
Project Name: MAY-mester: Making Achievement Yours
Project Contact: Debra Cunningham
Project Description:
As part of a comprehensive student retention support program, Thomas College has developed the “MAY-mester (Making Achievement Yours) Program” to support the success of first generation, low-income college students at risk of losing their financial aid eligibility due to insufficient academic progress. Providing summer credit recovery programs with retention support for the students during the summer program and over the next academic year, will allow these students to recover the necessary credits to maintain their financial aid standing. A vital component of the program is to alleviate the financial burden of paying for summer classes for low-income students. Filling gaps in service will allow more students to develop the capacity to be successful and persist to their degrees.
Project Name: UMF Upward Bound Challenge Project
Project Contact: Lynn Ploof-Davis
Project Description:
The UMF Upward Bound Challenge Project will serve 67 current Upward Bound students, grades 10-12, and approximately 200 low income and first generation students currently enrolled at the University of Maine at Farmington. For the past 31 years, UMF Upward Bound has successfully served over 650 underserved students and their families from 11 target high schools in West Central Maine. Last year’s Challenge Project (the 2010-2011 Maine College Access Challenge Grant) provided valuable services to students enrolled in Upward Bound and low income and first generation students enrolled at UMF.
The 2011-2012 UMF UB Challenge Project will provide a comprehensive group of services designed specifically to increase the number of low income and first generation students who are prepared to enter, persist and succeed in postsecondary education. The project will: increase students’ financial literacy and help them learn how to save for college, help students and their families successfully complete the FAFSA, provide students with a wide variety of college visits, help current UMF students persist and graduate, help UB alumni who did not complete college re-enroll and complete their education, provide assistance and support to target school personnel to increase their knowledge of the needs of low income, first generation students and provide professional development to full-time Upward Bound staff to increase their knowledge of financial literacy, financial aid and college access
Project Name: COAST (College Opportunities and Successful Transitions)
Project Contact: Cheryl Dearman Mills
Project Description:
Although 92 percent of our population are high school graduates, only 37.6 percent hold a Bachelors degree or higher and an additional 8 percent have an Associates degree. That means less than 45% of adults 25 or older on average in our six communities have college degrees. It is well documented that there is a direct correlation between education and wages; higher levels of education produce higher earnings. In today’s economy it is essential for our students to pursue and persist with their post-secondary goals. We are well equipped in our towns to help students finish high school. The COAST Program is designed to address the gap between high school completion and post-secondary completion.
COAST will provide opportunities for adult education students past and present to explore opportunities for a post-secondary education and prepare for their chosen program. Students will work with local Adult Education programs and the COAST Facilitator to explore career opportunities and prepare for and apply to schools. In conjunction with community organizations the student will also prepare financially for their goals. Students and their families will have opportunities to visit college campuses, fill out applications and the FAFSA forms with support from the COAST facilitator. COAST will maintain contact with enrolled students for support. With additional classroom resources, the COAST Facilitator and continued professional development opportunities for all staff, COAST will help our students explore, persist and be successful with their post-secondary goals.
Project Name: Pathways to College and Career Success
Project Contact: Thomas Nash
Project Description:
Our goal is to help each High School Diploma (HSD)/GED and College Transitions (CT) learner understand the importance and value of continuing his/her education at the postsecondary level, and focus on activities to propel students on their journey to college and career success: completing academic work necessary to be successful at the college level, developing a Success in College/Career Plan, filing the FAFSA, completing “The Notebook” (activities/information to help them consider career paths and college degree options), job shadowing, taking the Accuplacer, visiting college campuses, attending a college success class, meeting with college advisors, and ultimately submitting a college application and taking college level classes.
To this end, we will hire a College/Career Pathways Coordinator, who will develop “Career Pathways” postsecondary certificate programming and serve as an advisor to students regarding future career opportunities and the college degrees, certificates, licenses, and other postsecondary credentials that help people rise above their current low-income status. The new Coordinator will work closely with two existing Coordinators as a “team of advisors” to each student, thereby creating an integrated approach and developing a “seamless transition” from earning a high school credential, to becoming “college ready,” to planning for future career success.