On Tuesday, March 5th, Early College leaders Margaret Guimond from the University of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK) and Teri St. Pierre from the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) hosted the first Aroostook County Early College Summit.

The event had stakeholder representation from (almost) every high school in Aroostook County, representatives from Northern Maine Community College (NMCC), UMFK faculty, and early college staff members from the University of Maine System.

Topics included an overview of the application process and online application system, student support and resources, the accreditation process through the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), and a historical overview of the program with program success data.

All stakeholders worked together to find areas of improvement and collaborated to brainstorm ways to help facilitate a seamless transition from secondary into post-secondary institutions as seamless as possible for Maine students. High school and career and technical education stakeholders had an opportunity to provide input and feedback, and their responses to the event were overwhelmingly positive.

“Congratulations to Teri and Margaret for their hard work on this event!” said Amy Hubbard Executive Director of Early College for the University of Maine System.

“I’m really pleased that we were able to collaborate with so many schools, and pull this off up here,” said Guimond. “We are still hearing the buzz about it!”