Local graduates receive diplomas at Houlton Higher Education Center

  HOULTON, Maine — The excitement of graduation spanned several generations last Thursday when some 65 students accepted diplomas for various disciplines at the Houlton Higher Education Center (HEC). Family members, friends and well-wishers filled HES to celebrate the achievements of students in SAD 29 and SAD 70 adult education programs, the Carlton Project, University of Maine at Presque Isle, Northern Maine Community College and the University of Maine affiliated campuses.
Guest speaker, Sarah Smiley, an author and syndicated newspaper columnist, spoke to the graduates about her own struggles as a Navy wife and mother returning to school to pursue a journalism degree after having earned a teaching degree years earlier.
David Rowe, an adult education instructor who is also a youth pastor at Houlton’s Wesleyan Church, said his students are ready to take the step from working to attending college. Smiley’s remarks, said Rowe, tied in perfectly with issues his students face. “She did a great job. They were here to get a high school diploma or to get a GED or an extra class credit for their diploma and go from working to getting into college.”
Tammy Prosser, a Houlton resident, said she was “getting her high school diploma, finally, and glad to be going to college in the fall to become a social worker.”
On the other hand, Elise Carver, also of Houlton, was home-schooled. She said she wants “to wait a year to save some money. I know that I want to go to Bible college.”
The Carlton Project graduated six students. Alan Morris, a teacher and founder of the program said “they are an amazing group of kids. Five are going to college and one is going into a CNA course.”
Assistant Director of Adult Education Bernadette Farrar said the 37 students from SAD 29 and 70 had worked “very hard to attain the goals they have set. And, for each one, it’s very different.” Rachel Rice, director of community and media relations at UMPI, agreed saying, “it’s wonderful to see everybody here to celebrate these graduates who have worked so hard and faced so many challenges to get to this point.”
HES, which opened its doors for classes in August 2001, is administered by UMPI.