MACE Celebrations and Graduations
The theme of the conference was “Nourish to Flourish.” We focused heavily on self care and allowing our selves to grow to our full potential. Once we fill our cups with self care we can then allow ourselves to be present in our education.
Pictured on the left is the brochure for our conference which also served as our notebooks so we could remain unplugged from technology!
On the right is the sea glass art that Ashley, Rachelle, and Kate made as part of a self-care activity!
Director, Rachelle Leonard for Midcoast Adult and Community Education and Boothbay Region Adult Education and Community Education(Center), Ashley Brown Administrative Assistant for Midcoast Adult and Community Education (Left), and Kate Winslow with Boothbay Region Adult and Community Education (right) at the Maine Adult Education Association conference wearing their swag sun glasses donated by Dollar General for Adult Literacy
Jacobey Furrow heads to SMCC after graduating from Midcoast Adult & Community Education
Midcoast Adult and Community Education celebrated the graduation of Jacobey Furrow, 17, of Whitefield, on June 5 with a ceremony at Regional School Unit 12 Sheepscot Valley central offices in Somerville.
Jacobey’s parents, Joe and Angie, sister Skylar, aunts and cousins joined him to recognize the occasion. It was a roundabout homecoming, Joe Furrow said. The family moved from Union to California, and back to Whitefield. They never dreamed another generation would graduate from a program associated with Medomak Valley High School. MACE comprises both RSU 12 and RSU 40, and presents its diplomas in the MVHS books.
Jacobey was awarded his diploma by MACE Director Raye Leonard, and RSU 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle offered his warm congratulations.
Jerry Stone, representing the Midcoast nonprofit organization One Community Many Voices, which works to lower financial barriers to people in need, shared his words of wisdom.
“Go for it, whatever it is,” Stone said, as he presented Furrow with a $50 Visa gift card, Hannaford gift card, and cupcake from Laugh Loud, Smile Big, along with other gifts in a Camden National Bank tote bag.
Jacobey completed exams in reading, writing, math, social studies, and science that are required to earn a high school equivalency diploma in March. MACE offers a pathway to high school completion through the High School Equivalency Tests (HiSET, formerly GED).
“Jacobey enrolled in November as a 16-year-old determined to be able to take the official HiSETs as soon as he turned 18 at the end of January,” Leonard said. “When you put your mind to something, nothing can stop you. Jacobey’s first test was scheduled at the end of February, and he came every Monday until they were complete, racing all the way from the Midcoast campus of SMCC to the MACE office at Medomak to make it to the HiSET testing window.”
The graduation ceremony culminated in cake, conversation, and photos. Jacobey will attend Southern Maine Community College in the fall where he hopes to major in philosophy. He shared that in addition to completing his HiSET, a benefit of attending MACE was getting to take a community college class for free through a collaboration between the state office of adult education and the community college system. He signed up for Ethical Dilemmas, an upper level course that required permission to attend. Jacobey sailed through it.
“I was waiting and waiting and waiting in the parking lot for him one afternoon,” Joe Furrow said. “I finally went in, and he had been standing there all that time just talking to the professor.”
Jacobey added that college is very different then high school and he was happy to have the experience.
“The HiSET program changed my life,” he said. “I want everyone to know it’s the way to go if maybe high school isn’t working out for you.”