Joshua Archer
Special to the Star-Herald
Since its inception the nonprofit Aroostook Aspirations Initiative (AAI) has worked toward laying the foundation of a better future for The County’s youth and the region’s economy. While it’s a known fact that northern Maine struggles to hold onto its young folks, AAI hopes to lessen the burden of outmigration by showing Aroostook high school grads that they can prosper right here at home.
Last week, at NMCC, in front of education and business leaders, as well as Gauvin Scholars, AAI presented a report by Plimpton Research on “Addressing Barriers to Economic Development in Aroostook County.”
The executive summary of the report states that local employers are concerned about who will replace Aroostook County’s aging workforce. And the Dec. 21 presentation touched on northern Maine’s decline in population over the past several decades and how moving forward the region’s need to invest in its young people.
“Aroostook has many unique strengths to build on. By making strategic investments to capitalize on these strengths and to bolster already growing educational attainment and incomes, Maine’s largest county can ensure its economic health in the coming years and decades,” the report said.
“The message of this report, it talks about how our educational attainment is below state and national levels and then our skilled workforce is below sustainability levels. We don’t have enough of a workforce to support businesses who are already here and businesses that want to come in,” Sandy Gauvin, president and co-founder of AAI said. “What we want to do is we want to provide an education for our young people so that they can fill that workforce. In the long run, giving these kids an education and helping them find good jobs in The County will really help the economy up here.”
AAI’s investing comes in the form of scholarships and internships for students who wish to continue their education at a higher education institution in Aroostook County. The hope is that by creating a workforce of the future, northern Maine can look beyond traditional economic strategies and cut a new path to a more successful future.
“Aroostook Aspirations Initiative can provide many solutions to these challenges we have in Aroostook County with our scholarship program, with the internships that we offer, with the support programming we can help more students stay here in Aroostook County, complete a college degree and then have access to great work opportunities here in The County,” Kristen Wells, executive director of AAI said.
“It’s not easy to inspire our high school students to apply and go through the process of application, to go through the process to apply for college, to consider college here in Aroostook County. All of that is still fairly new for our high school graduates,” Wells said. “Each year we do our best at the high schools in The County to promote scholarship, to promote college in Aroostook County and to promote the jobs and opportunities that are here.”
AAI partners closely with guidance counselors, and once they have the name of a student who might be a possible scholar, the organization contacts them and follows up with the student to help them finish the process.
“I hope that every kid in Aroostook County knows how important they are to this region. I hope they know they can do anything they want, that they can pursue their dreams, they can invent something new, they can do it all in Aroostook County,” Wells said. “We need to really be behind supporting young people. Supporting students of all ages, supporting young adults and making it easier for them to be here and part of our community every day. I think of how many students we see involved in community groups, volunteering, involved on boards, involved on town councils, school boards … invite young people to be involved in decision making and I think that’s how we can really secure the future here.”
According to the report, a survey of Aroostook high school and college students conducted a decade ago found that local youth had high educational aspirations, a strong majority of 75 percent wanted to either stay in the area or move back at some point in the future. And that over the past decade, Aroostook’s income growth has been closely tied to college degree attainment growth.
“It’s empirically verified that the level of degree attainment equates income, it equates everything,” Ray Rice, interim president and provost of UMPI said. “The degree is the pathway to get those career ready skills, to get the attributes that people need to be successful in the new economy up here, which is going to be based upon two and four-year degrees.”
Next year AAI is doubling its scholarship program to welcome as many as 50 new Aroostook County students graduating from the high school Class of 2017.
High school grads looking to stay in Aroostook County and go for a degree who contact AAI can expect to hear something like this:
“Great job! Good choice! Next step, let’s meet, let’s talk about what you want to do, what you want to accomplish, what you care about, what you don’t care about and let me guide. I can guarantee there’s a path for you here in The County,” Wells said.
