Student preparation highlighted at summit

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Educators and business representatives from throughout northern Maine assembled May 2 at Northern Maine Community College for a first-of-its-kind, county-wide gathering to discuss how to best prepare students for college, careers, and civic participation.
    The Aroostook County Educational Summit, a collaborative effort of the Aroostook Partnership for Progress, Northern Maine Community College, the University of Maine’s Presque Isle and Fort Kent campuses, was designed to engage the county’s educational and business communities in a meaningful dialogue about the challenges and opportunities both face.
About 65 participants including both secondary and post-secondary teachers and administrators, as well as business leaders, attended the summit.
“We all have a vested interest in preparing young people to be successful,” said Elizabeth Crawford, NMCC Tech Prep coordinator and lead organizer for the summit. “This is an opportunity to share information about how our activities and concerns align and to identify steps we should take together as a community to prepare students for life-long success. Several groups have had similar discussions on a smaller scope – it just makes sense to get all the players together.”
The summit featured a panel discussion on the most important challenges facing county education and business entities in the next five to eight years. The dialogue addressed the panelists’ thoughts on the skill sets and traits with which students and employees alike will need to be equipped to meet these challenges.
Lynn Lombard, vice president and director of human resources at MMG Insurance Co., was one of the panelists.
“For me, the most important challenges – from a business perspective – would be obtaining an affordable post-secondary education, which is necessary in today’s environment, but is becoming much harder to obtain because of the costs,” she said. “I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.
“Secondly, would be competing successfully in a global marketplace. Time and distance mean very little with the technological advances that have been made in the last 10 years, so we’re really competing globally,” said Lombard. “The third thing I see as being a huge challenge is developing good written and oral communication skills, as well as interpersonal relationship skills. I see them as being each a half of a whole.”
Lombard said, in general, “over the years in schools there has seemingly been a decrease in developing good written and verbal communication skills.”
“The ability of employees and new hires to communicate is one of the most powerful qualities an organization must have,” she said. “I’ve seen that people don’t know how to use punctuation properly, which is a part of making business happen … perhaps there’s been so much emphasis on math and sciences and less emphasis on written and oral communication skills, as well as learning to get along with each other and being able to deal with an opposing view and be open to it. We need to get back to that.”
The skill sets and traits Lombard believes students and employees will need to succeed include a continuous desire to learn, the ability to communicate effectively, computer skills, a commitment to quality, emotional intelligence, and practical aptitude.
“Sometimes that just comes with maturing as a person,” she said, “but if you set out on that path, you’re more likely to gain good common sense than not.”
Lombard said it was wonderful having all participants “reading from the same sheet of music.”
“From listening closely to the panel discussion, it appears that we all have about the same understanding of what the challenges are and the skill sets needed to advance business,” she said. “From that, we need to build cooperation. I think this is building a good foundation for future discussion.”
Other panelists included Roger Shaw, superintendent of SAD 42 in Mars Hill; Thomas Umphrey, senior vice president of human resources at The Aroostook Medical Center; Nina LoBalbo, human resource director for J.M. Huber’s Easton plant; Timothy Crowley, NMCC president; Donald Zillman, UMPI president; and Rachel Albert, UMFK vice president of academic affairs.
Crowley said it’s important to connect education and the workforce.
“The effort today is to try to decrease the gap between what schools are teaching students and what business people need in the workplace,” he said. “I think what we’ll end up with is some key points that we can take back to the education community about what students need to know and be able to do.”
Emphasizing communication skills, customer service, and math skills are key, Crowley said.
Recognizing that NMCC doesn’t have a communication program, Crowley said it’s necessary for the instructors to be more clear in their communication, as well.
“Communication needs to be ingrained in everything we do,” he said. “We need to be teaching communication skills throughout the educational process. It’s not only an English composition class, but it’s carrying those writing skills and interpersonal skills into everything you do. Communication skills, as well as math skills, need to be imbedded in the course content in every course. Those are skills for life, not just a semester.”
Following the panel discussion, summit participants met in small groups to discuss academic processes and the habits of work, as well as on subject matter centered topics including English/language arts, mathematics, and science.
The final activity of the day brought attendees together to discuss the small group findings and identify concrete, measurable goals, and objectives moving forward.
“Our expectation is that this is not an activity in isolation,” said Crawford.  “We’ll be asking everyone to find ways to continue the dialogue as well as to take specific steps towards meeting our shared challenges.
“Ultimately what we want is people who can go into the community and be effective, successful citizens, both in terms of career and their involvement in the community,” she said.