Interviewees: Students / Twenties
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Brandie Miville
Brandie grew up in Thorndike and attended Mt. View public schools until her sophomore year, when she chose to finish her high school education through homeschooling. After graduating in 2004, Brandie had two children and began her own at-home childcare business. In order to have more job options in the future, Brandy decided to attend college to study early childhood education, but the college she applied to would not accept her homeschool high school diploma. So, Brandie headed over to her local Adult Ed branch and took the course to prepare for her GED. She had a great experience with Adult Ed and is now working towards her degree at Kennebec Valley Community College.
Corey Sturgeon
Corey grew up in Old Orchard Beach and attended Old Orchard Beach High School, graduating in 2007. He then went on to the University of Maine, but decided to transfer to the University of Southern Maine for his senior year. After switching majors twice during his time in college, Corey decided to pursue his long-time interest in psychology. For financial reasons, Corey has been unable to finish his degree at USM as yet but hopes to earn his final three credits and graduate soon. He currently works as a manager at Olympia Sports. Corey is 22 years old.
Seth Poplaski
Seth Poplaski is the official “Spokester” for the Maine Credit Union League’s ‘Young & Free Maine’ program, which seeks to inform young people about financial matters and increase awareness about Maine’s many credit unions. Seth grew up in Winterport, ME and attended Hampden Academy, graduating in 2005. He then went on to study broadcast journalism at the University of Maine and graduated in 2009.
Samantha O’Brien
Samantha has lived in Portland since she was 10 years old. She attended Deering High School and Falmouth High School but dropped out during her sophomore year partially as a result of a difficult home life. Later, Samantha studied to receive her GED. She has been working to support herself since she was 15 years old and has worked primarily in the restaurant industry. Her hope is to one day go to college to study marine biology.
Sammi Henebury
Sammi grew up in Somerville, MA and graduated from Somerville High School in 2000. After high school, Sammi joined a traveling carnival and spent the next four years roaming around New England, manning game booths and carnival rides. She ended up settling down in Vermont for a few months but wasn’t thrilled with her experience there, so she moved to Portland to live with a friend. She has now been living in ME for six years and works as a phlebotomist for the Red Cross. She is also studying for her nursing degree at SMCC.
Kara Taheny
Kara grew up in MA, where she lived in poverty with her father, a single parent. When she was 15, her father remarried and his wife kicked Kara out of the house. With nowhere else to go, Kara moved to the Shaw House, a teen homeless shelter located in Bangor. Kara became pregnant at the age of 16 and left the Shaw House to finish high school in the alternative education program the Good Samaritan Agency. She graduated from high school at 17 and enrolled at the University of Maine, where she is studying education with a concentration in peace. She is also currently working as a teacher for at-risk youth at the Shaw House, the homeless shelter where she lived as a teenager.
- Experience as a non-traditional student at UMO
- Advice for parents: show your kids that they’re worth your time & effort
- Working as a teacher with transient and at-risk youth at the Shaw House
- The challenges of being both a college student and a mother
- Having a child brought clarity to her beliefs and morals
Shannon Morton
When Shannon was 16 years old, she made the decision to drop out of high school. She then spent over a decade working various minimum wage jobs, wondering what she was doing with her life. Then, after losing her job, Shannon decided it was time to get her GED. She went through the GED program at Maine Adult Education, graduated, and is now in the College Transitions program preparing to study history at SMCC.
Kristen Conley
Kristen grew up in Wolfeboro, NH and attended Kingswood Regional High School. After high school, Kristen went on to study biology at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. At college, Kristen often thought about a future in the medical profession but was unsure of exactly what sort of health care career she wanted to pursue. After graduating, she spent a few years working various jobs before deciding to move to Portland for Maine Adult Education’s CNA program. She completed the program and is now working as a CNA at Maine Medical Center. Kristen is also a current student in USM’s nursing program and plans to graduate in 2013 with her nursing degree.
Dianna Leighton
Dianna moved around a great deal as a child and teen before graduating from Jacksonville, Florida’s Terry Parker High School in 1999. She then went to college in VT before deciding to finish her bachelor’s degree online through the New York Institute of Technology. Dianna now works as the Youth Librarian at the Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle.
Nick McCrea
Nick McCrea graduated from John Bapst Memorial High School in 2005 and then went on to study journalism at the University of Maine. After graduating from UMO in 2009, Nick felt he could benefit from further education in journalism and so decided to get his master’s degree at Syracuse University. During his undergraduate and graduate programs, Nick completed many internships and made the connections that helped him to secure his current job as a reporter for the Bangor Daily News.