LIVERMORE FALLS – They have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, mapped fault lines and participated in groundbreaking medical research.
Now Livermore Falls High School faculty and staff want as many of the school’s graduates as possible to get in touch and contribute to the making of an aspirations board, showcasing their accomplishments.
Senior English teacher Ann Weatherbee said Wednesday that former students work in mills and as plumbers, run businesses, attend colleges or universities, work family farms, serve in the military, build homes, heal sick animals, and do scientific research.
She and other faculty members want current students to see academics as a way to reach their goals and live their dreams.
“The most important thing (to teachers) is an education that enables them to go on and pursue their dreams,” Weatherbee said.
The board is actually being made by a graduate who owns a construction business in the area. The alum – Roger St. Pierre – also made the display cases currently in the high school lobby.
The board is set to go up next week, and will be filled with information about grads in time for the first day of school. After the students have had their fill of learning about former graduates’ jobs, Weatherbee said, a world map will go up instead, and alumni will be asked to write in about all the places they’ve been.
“I think we’re going to be amazed,” she said. “We’re trying to encourage students to see what’s out there in the world and think about what their dreams are, and how they might obtain those dreams.”
Going to college is one way of reaching your aspirations, but Weatherbee said LFHS faculty want their students to know a college degree isn’t the only way to happiness – or success. Lots of LFHS grads have turned a trade into a small business.
“They saw a need for a service and got the training – they’ve been very innovative in what they’ve done,” she said.
“One of our goals is to open their imaginations,” she said.
Superintendent Terry Despres said he is amazed so many members of his staff are putting in extra work over the summer to make the aspirations board happen. He said he thinks what’s being done will help widen his students’ horizons.
In small towns, especially here, where the economy has been hit with business closures, kids don’t always realize how many opportunities for work are out there. But with the kind of technology available today, you can make a life in western Maine and still do what you love, Despres said. His former students, among others, have shown him that.
Comments are no longer available on this story