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| Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie de La Garza Students wait their turn as guest speaker Mike Quinlan asked eighth-graders what they want to be when they grow up during a special series of talks at the Caribou Middle School on Feb. 8. |
By Natalie de La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Eighth-grader at the Caribou Middle School Noah Hixon doesn’t think that students can ever be too young to start thinking about their futures.
That’s a good thing, because four guest speakers attended the Caribou Middle School on Feb. 8 encouraging eighth-graders from Caribou and Limestone to start thinking about what they want to be when they grow up.
Aside from urging kids to consider whether they want to be accountants or a dentists, guest speakers Alana Margeson, Mike Quinlan, Leland Caron and David Sleeper challenged the students to think about what kinds of choices they need to make in order for their dreams to come true.
“It was all about our goals and how we can pursue them, and if we have a goal, we need to stick to it and not let anything get in the way of it,” explained Caribou eighth-grader Katie Tardif.
Students like Tardif and Hixon came away from the event inspired and uplifted, but the impetus for the guest-speaker lessons was born of a very real problem.
Community member and local business owner Dave Corriveau approached RSU 39 Superintendent Susan White to vocalize his concern, and found that White was receptive to what he was saying.
“From my personal standpoint, I see some kids falling through the cracks through no fault of their own,” Corriveau said, adding that a little positive push can make a big difference for the students. “If we can manage to save just a couple from taking the wrong paths in life, then this would all be worth it.”
Originally, Corriveau had hoped maybe that one class, once a month might benefit from a single talk.
White, Corriveau, Fred Edgecomb, Principal of the Caribou Middle School Leland Caron and Principal of the Limestone Community School Travis Barnes held a handful of meetings to figure out the best way to organize this nudge in the right direction. They decided to select guest speakers from the community who’ve made right choices in their lives to become successful, even though everyone has ups and downs.
For instance, students may know that Caribou High School teacher Alana Margeson was Maine’s Teacher of the Year and went to Washington D.C. to meet President Barack Obama, but how did Margeson become such a good teacher? Or become a teacher in the first place?
“We wanted students to see and know that we have people locally who made choices throughout their life and found a way to be successful,” Edgecomb explained. “We all have a path to follow, and we wanted to present some of them so that students can find their own pathway.”
One of the things Edgecomb enjoyed was the fact that each speaker reached out to the kids in a different way; Margeson had an interactive PowerPoint presentation, Mike Quinlan got kids to open up about their dreams and ambitions by giving them candy when they answered questions, Caron used short film clips to inspire students and Sleeper challenged kids to think about their own morals and ethics.
“They weren’t really the same thing, but they were trying to get us to reach the same thing,” eighth-grader Hixon described. “All of them had to do with reaching our goals and not giving up.”
Sleeper was the favorite presenter of the day for both Emily Michaud and Tom Pinette of Limestone; they liked the round-table interaction and the encompassing nature of the dialogue, but they also liked how the speaker subtly offered a challenge even before class started.
“He dropped a $5 bill to see what someone would do with it,” Michaud said.
The student who picked up the money was going to take it to the front office; to Pinette, that means the classmate is a good person with good morals.
“(Sleeper) gave us a paper with different situations, like ‘if a cashier gave you more money than you actually had back in change, what would you do?’ and talked to us about how that would maybe affect others and not just yourself,” the eighth-grader described.
Making the wrong choices can sometimes close doors for the future — but making the right choices isn’t always easy. Eighth-grader Tardif liked the videos Principal Caron shared with the students that showed how to work toward goals and overcome the obstacles that get in the way.
Even when overcoming those obstacles is hard, “You can take people around you that support you, and that can help,” she said.
Tardif, Hixon, Michaud and Pinette said themes from the guest-speaking event would stick with them, but organizers will follow up to find out how the Feb. 8 talks impacted students in order to make future events better.
“Bottom line, we know they have choices to make and we want to help them make the best choices they can to be successful,” Edgecomb said.
