FARMINGTON – Eleven students at the University of Maine at Farmington spent the semester studying different facets of adult education, ranging from the local literacy program to the Somerset County Jail, delivering a presentation on the subject at the annual Michael D. Wilson Symposium, Wednesday afternoon at the Emery Community Arts Center.
Ten students in Professor Gaelyn Aguilar’s Ethnography course, economics professor John Messier and student researcher Marina Giovannini collaborated in the creation of ‘Adult Education: The Power of Possibility,” summaries and excerpts of which were presented at Wednesday’s symposium. Students spoke with the local adult ed administrators, current and former students involved with programs and traveled to the Somerset County Jail to speak with inmates involved in that facility’s creative writing program.
Marina Giovannini walked the audience through a financial analysis of the adult education’s GED program, using average salaries, tax commitments and incarceration rates to calculate the average cost of a high school drop out to society, compared to citizens with high school degrees. The GED program, Giovannini argued, returned $7.04 for every $1 spent, or a 700 percent return on investment.
Other students poetically described the options facing inmates released from the prison system, discussed interviews with a Franklin County Literacy Volunteers class and listed the implications of technological advancements, both positive and negative, on the adult education program.
Students involved in the adult education study included Michaela Blow, Chelsea Browing-Bohannah, Thomas Cyr, Marina Giovannini, Innes Herdam, Madeleine Hicks, Kevin Lapointe, Lindsey Niles, Georgia Qualey, Zachary Stevens and Kelsey Theriault.
Professors Aguilar and Messier were both thanked by Adult Education Director Ray Therrien, who said he had hoped to learn “who we are and what we do, from the perspective of fresh, youthful eyes.”
Great Job John and UMF!
Wonderful work that has connected UMF students to our community for the benefit of both. Keep it up! Thanks Ray and all those at Adult Ed for keeping your vision alive despite the ongoing challenges.
Adult education is so important for there are so many people who think education is over once you’re out of school. Adult education possibilities need more advertising in media and must be pushed in front of wide public! So many people could benefit from getting new skills and knowledge through well-planned adult education programs!
I know Ray Therrien has been leading and advocating this for a long time. Hopefully the new UMF President was in attendance of this presentation and will take note that UMF needs to get back into the adult education arena, something it abandoned years before her arrival. Good work, UMF students.
Great Job everyone, Adult education is very important!