HOULTON, Maine – After just over a year in existence, the Training and Tools Grants program in Houlton is already making a difference for several alumni of Houlton Middle-High School seeking to increase their skills for employability or needing tools for their chosen profession.
To date, six training grants have been approved and two for tools.
One grantee who has benefitted from a training grant is Joshua Sutton, who recently completed the medical assisting program.
Sutton transplanted to Houlton in 2009 from Yuma, Arizona with his parents, who owned Uncle Willy’s Candy Shoppe. He attended Houlton schools before relocating to Louisa, Virginia. He returned to Maine in 2016.
Sutton received his Certified Nurses Assistant training through Windward Gardens in Camden and relocated to Houlton in June 2021, when he started work at Houlton Regional Hospital on its Acute Care Unit.
Sutton has always wanted to further his career in the medical field, but was unsure whether he wanted to pursue nursing as an LPN or RN. Upon learning about the Medical Assisting (MA) program, he felt he would have a bigger impact with patients in the community as a whole in the role versus caring for patients admitted to the hospital.
He entered the MA program through Adult and Community Education (ACE) in September 2021 and completed his clinical experience through Adult Education. He performed job shadowing in the internal medicine office of the Sigrid Tompkins Rural Health Center until finishing his program in March. He plans to continue on to get his certification in this field as well.
Looking towards the future, Sutton has taken an “every three-year approach” in that he commits to working in his current role for three years then re-evaluating whether he wants to continue in the present job or whether he wants to pursue a new field.
“One you are in a job, you never know what doors open for you until you have continued with it for a few years,” he said.
While seeing the value in furthering his education, Sutton also recognizes that there is a lot of financial stress that comes along with that. Receiving the Training and Tools Grant award helped to alleviate that level of stress for him as he completed his MA program.
“I didn’t have to work extra shifts to fund my education,” he said. “This grant afforded me some breathing room to focus on my studies instead of work extra shifts to pay for it by myself.”
Sutton offers the following advice for anyone looking to further their education, “Even if you don’t think you’re going to finish, take it one step at a time,” he said. “This builds confidence when you don’t overstimulate your brain. It helps you focus more on the present; take one assignment at a time; don’t stress over what might be the next assignment.”
Sutton added he was most influenced by his brother, Justin, stating that, “Justin was always supportive of whatever I wanted to do. He always cheered me on and encouraged me to keep going, even when things got hard.”
He explained that this would encourage him to keep going and to push himself to finish his studies. Sutton lost his brother in September 2021, just as he was starting his MA training.
Sutton lives in Hodgdon with his fiancé, Janet Geiger and their daughter, Delilah.
The Training and Tools Grants Program is available to any Houlton High School alum living or working in the Southern Aroostook area. Grants may be awarded for either a skills training program that may lead to a license, certification or associate degree or for the purchase of tools and equipment needed for vocational work.
A grant can cover up to 90 percent of the cost of tuition/fees or tools. Applicants may be of any age and must meet all requirements for their desired training program. There is a rolling application process with the committee meeting monthly. Applications for diverse vocations are welcome. The application form is available on the Houlton High School Alumni Association web site at www.houltonalumni.com.
