Interviewees
Jeanne Crocker
Jeanne has spent her adult life in the field of education, working for 21 years as a high school teacher and serving as the principal of South Portland High School for 13 years. She is currently the assistant executive director of the Maine Principals’ Association. Jeanne also has two children, both of whom are in their twenties.
Wendy Cody
Wendy is the parent of three boys, ages 18, 15, and 8. She works as an Educational Consultant for the Portland, ME-based company Academic Merit. Wendy and her family live in Yarmouth.
Dawn Fernandez
Dawn has three sons, ranging in age from 18 to 24. Her oldest has recently returned home from a tour of duty as a Marine, while her middle son will soon graduate from Yale University this spring. Her youngest is preparing to graduate from John Bapst Memorial High School. In addition to being a parent, Dawn is in an educator in the field of technology. She also teaches with the Maine Adult Education program. Dawn lives in Dedham, ME.
Jessica Thistle
Jessica is a young mother currently taking classes through Maine Adult Ed to prepare her for college. She grew up in Standish, ME and attended Bonny Eagle High School. She had planned to go to college after graduating from high school, but changed her plans after learning she was going to have a child. Now she’s ready to go back to school, where she hopes to study behavioral health and science.
James Passanisi
James is the coordinator of the Renewable Energy program at the University of Maine. He is involved in the development of undergraduate minors in Renewable Energy for University of Maine students.
Kate Damon
Kate grew up in Lewiston, ME and attended Lewiston High School. She then left Maine to attend Harvard University in Boston, MA. After college, Kate stayed in Boston to teach math at an underperforming middle school. She now works for a small math education company based out of Cambridge, MA and is going to school to become a nurse midwife.
Jessica Whittier
Jessica grew up in Fort Kent and graduated from the University of Maine (Orono) with a degree in public administration. She now works as a College Access Counselor for the Finance Authority of Maine, teaching young people and their families about the financial aid process, how to save for college, and how to make smart choices when taking out student loans.
- Find a focus when you start out at a community college
- A strong grasp of math promotes development of critical thinking skills
- Strong writing skills build colleagues’ confidence in her work
- Many factors can cause students to become disengaged in community college
- Professors and clubs can spark excitement for school
Ina Lewin
Ina grew up in Freedom, ME and was homeschooled for most of her educational career. She attended public schools briefly, but did not feel that the public school environment was a good match for her and returned to homeschooling. She has worked at her family’s greenhouse since she was 13 years old. Ina recently finished a GED preparation course with her local Maine Adult Education branch, RSU#3 Adult Education. She now has her GED and plans to attend Kennebec Valley Community College in the fall to study sign language and math.
Krystle Smith
Krystle grew up in Waterville and moved to Brunswick after her parents divorced when she was nine years old. She attended Brunswick High School. High school was a difficult time for Krystle, as she was responsible for caring for her elderly grandmother and keeping up the house. After high school, Krystle worked as a line cook for several years before deciding that she wanted to do more with her life by pursuing a college degree. She is now a student at Southern New Hampshire University, where she studies psychology. To get extra help in math – the subject with which she has the most difficulty – Krystle takes math courses through the Brunswick Adult Education program.
Marina Affo
Marina is a junior at Lewiston High School. She has lived in Lewiston since she was 5 years old, when her family moved to Maine from Togo in Africa. Marina is an honor student and serves as the president of the junior class at Lewiston High. She aspires to become a journalist.
Emily Avis
Emily is a technical service specialist at Artel Inc., a Westbrook-based technology company. Growing up, Emily moved all across the United States, living in California, Vermont, and New Hampshire. She attended the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, where she studied mechanical engineering. After college Emily moved to South Korea to work as an English teacher. She spent a few years there and the moved back to the United States to work as a mechanical engineer at Bath Iron Works. Today she is loving her job at Artel, which combines her two biggest career passions: teaching and doing hands-on mechanical work.
Victoria Morelli
Victoria is a student in her junior year at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics. Although she is not yet certain what she will pursue in college, she is very interested in food research.
Nathan Faessler
Nathan is a senior at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone, ME. Last year Nathan and a friend won first place in the DeepCwind Consortium’s “Windstorm Challenge,” in which students from schools across Maine were asked to design a floating platform for a scale model wind turbine. The prize for winning the challenge was a $20,000 scholarship to UMO, where he plans to study wind power.
Dana Clark
Dana grew up in Bangor and attended the University of Maine, where she studied psychology and child development. She then went on to get a master’s degree in adolescent development from UNH, as well as a master’s in school counseling from USM. For the past two years Dana has worked as a school counselor at Freeport High School in Freeport. She has spent much of her time as a counselor working with incoming freshmen and has seen firsthand the challenges and struggles that students face during the transition from middle school to high school. Here she offers insight into those struggles, as well as a few tips for how to overcome them and get off to a good start in ninth grade.
Tracy Reid
Tracy grew up in Lowell, MA, where she attended a vocational high school. Instead of finishing high school, Tracy left when she was 17 and began working as a nurse’s assistant. A few years ago she moved to Maine and she and her husband now live in Gardiner. Tracy is still working as a CNA but recently acquired her GED through Gardiner Adult Education and plans to attend college to get her RN degree.
Tim Even
Tim grew up in Stoneham, ME and attended high school at Fryeburg Academy. He is now a Vocal Jazz Performance major at the University of Southern Maine. He plans to join the United States Army Special Forces after graduating from college.
William Wegner
William grew up in Falmouth and attended Falmouth High School. He is now a student of Music Performance at the University of Southern Maine, where he runs on the track team. He hopes to have a career as a musician.
Kinnon Church
Kinnon grew up in Salem, MA and attended Salem High School. He is currently studying Jazz Performance at the University of Southern Maine and plans to pursue a career as a professor of music.
Andy McDonald
Andy was born in New York City and moved to Maine when he was 11 years old. He attended Cape Elizabeth High School for his freshman through junior years, then switched to Portland High School for his senior year due to turbulence in his home life. After high school, Andy decided to enlist in the Marine Corps. Now Andy is out of the military and is working to support his wife and young daughter while simultaneously attending USM. He plans to pursue a career in engineering or computer science.
Our Picks
Editor’s Pick: Not having as much money as her classmates
“My family was blue-collar in a white-collar town. My parents worked really hard and did their best, but they had four kids and neither of them had advanced degrees. They did what they could. Even though we were always taken care of and I never wanted for food or clothing or shelter, most of the kids at my very small high school – there were about 60 people in my class – had so much more than I did, and I felt that difference everyday.”
Editor’s Pick: Losing her father and leaving school
“My dad died in 2008 and I dropped out of high school my junior year for about three or four months. I just went to work full-time to keep my thoughts away from school and my dad’s death. I didn’t want to go to school because I didn’t want to be faced with the questions about why I hadn’t been in school. It was embarrassing to me. I let my teachers down, I let my mom down; I let a lot of people down. Finally during my senior year I realized that this is not a game; this is real life and I have to support myself. What could I do without an education?”