Bookmark & share:

E-mail this page E-mail a letter to the editor Reader Comments (below)

By DOUG HARLOW
Staff Writer 12/20/2007

The seven-college system will be investing $6.2 million in a program aimed at narrowing the growing educational and income gap between urban and rural Maine.

As part of the initiative, a $3.5 million gift from the Bernard Osher Foundation will help the system increase the number of community college scholarships available to rural Maine residents

The gift will establish a $5 million scholarship fund to award up to 300 scholarships a year for rural students who want to study at a Maine community college.

The system also will expand its distance-learning offerings, help students with child care costs, deliver degree programs to rural parts of the state and expand work force training services to small rural businesses.

The projects will come with no additional state funds.

Karen White, vice president and academic dean at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield, said the plans will be a boost for central Maine residents. She said the scholarship fund will result in about $36,000 in new scholarships at KVCC with an average scholarship amounting to $1,000.

"Certainly the college is excited about this opportunity to have these scholarships available to them," White said. "We certainly will be developing a proposal, once we identify a program that we can take out into rural areas."

System spokeswoman Helen Pelletier said the plan also will have an impact on the fledgling Franklin County Community College Network.

"Clearly this is going to have an impact in Franklin County," Pelletier said. "Those resources will flow through Central Maine Community College in Auburn and could mean more courses for high school students in the region."

Pelletier said the program could benefit rural Maine high school students in a big way. "High school courses will now become more available so students can take community college courses either at their high school or at the community college," she said. "For a lot of first generation students to take a college course and know they can do that kind of work, to start to feel comfortable with the idea of college, that really tears down a lot of barriers and is a real motivator."

In addition, gifts from the TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation, in the amount of $200,000, and the Betterment Fund contribution of $150,000 will help launch a program called Bring College to ME, Pelletier said.

The Bring College To ME program is designed to offer distance learning opportunities, assist students with the costs of child care, and provide more workforce training assistance to small rural businesses.

No additional state funds are being requested to implement the initiative.

The investments are in response to a statewide listening tour of rural Maine that was conducted by system President John Fitzsimmons between July and November of this year. "We are making a commitment to be rural Maine's partner in building an educated and skilled workforce," Fitzsimmons said.

Once the programs are established, the community college system will expand an existing scholarship program to include assistance with child care expenses in the amount of $150,000.

Major gifts from the TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation and the Betterment Fund, combined with a $400,000 allocation from the college system itself will enable the system to launch Bring College to ME in the fall of 2008.

Because of the critical demand for skilled health-care workers in all parts of the state, the first five Bring College to ME degree programs will be health-care related. By the fall of 2010, the community college system expects to offer additional degree programs in other sectors, based on industry need and student demand.

Doug Harlow -- 861-9244

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Bookmark and share this story: