SALEM – A group of veteran educators were recently awarded a grant that will focus on programming aimed at improving postsecondary education success for students throughout the region. Rural Aspirations was started in 2013 as the Eastern Maine Skippers Program and has evolved since then to include the Maine Forest Collaborative. Founder Korah Soll said the programs were started with the intent to support rural education in a proactive way.
“We started it right at the same time that proficiency based education was starting, which focuses on multiple pathways to success. We wanted to help schools imagine how to do that,” Soll said.
Soll said their approach is less workshop based, with more of an emphasis on developing relationships with particular schools and working with them on ideas or problems they may face. One school that Rural Aspirations has partnered with is Mt. Abram High School. The recently awarded $5,000 MaineSpark Grant will help further develop all programs, including the work started at Mt. Abram. Soll and her small team of former educators have worked with the school for four years, developing a curriculum that emphasizes helping students identify their strengths and goals, both in a personal sense as well as educationally.
The MFC empowers students to connect with their local community, Soll said, and better understand the challenges and successes that relate to the vitality of rural places.
“The overarching question that all schools work on is how can we use natural resources to positively impact our local communities?” Soll said. “There’s a high percentage of students who want to stay living in these rural areas, but don’t always see a place for themselves. The MFC helps them understand the landscape and become involved with solving some real world challenges. Things that professionals in the adult world face everyday.”
Before the school year got cut short, Mt. Abram students were working on developing an online, easily accessible guide to “becoming a Maineiac”. The guide would include year-round activities in the region, from the perspective of Maine kids. Their goal was to attract more millennials to putting down roots in the area, and Soll said some of the work coming from the kids was impressive.
Students who are in the program gather a few times a year to present their work to industry professionals. Soll said many of those professionals were in awe at the work they saw.
“These kids are thinking about things that adults are thinking about,” Soll said. “When you think of teens you think of a lack of investment or engagement, but Maine Forest kids are totally engaged in their communities. It’s just a matter of how we help them channel that.”
The MaineSpark Grant will help fund the program and build the community network surrounding it, Soll said. The MFC will work with more than 50 students from school districts in Franklin, Oxford, Piscataquis and Somerset Counties. The grant was awarded to four different programs, chosen from a pool of 11 applicants.
MaineSpark is a 10-year commitment from Maine’s education and business leaders to work together to ensure that Maine’s workforce is productive and competitive. MaineSpark organizations connect people with the education, training, jobs, programs and resources needed to thrive in Maine’s economy. MaineSpark includes leaders from schools and universities, nonprofits and foundations, government agencies and businesses- all with the common goal: by 2025 60 percent of Mainers will hold education and workforce credentials that position Maine and its families for success.
