LEWISTON – With four colleges within its borders, Lewiston carries all the possibilities and potential of a college town.

Students and parents just need to realize it, high school teacher Joan Macri believes.

“Sometimes I think Lewiston looks down on itself because it’s a mill town,” Macri told a crowd at the Great Falls Forum on Thursday. “We have to stop blaming ourselves. We’re a mill town. We don’t have advanced degrees. We have to move on from that.”

On Thursday, Macri outlined her work at the high school and detailed the success Lewiston has had getting students to consider higher education, particularly students whose parents never attended college themselves.

“Because we have this range of colleges here, why not take advantage of that?” she asked.

Macri, a veteran teacher, heads Lewiston High school’s college aspirations program. Over the past few years, she’s helped create the school’s unique early college program, which allows high-schoolers to take classes and earn credits at local colleges. She started the school’s aspirations lab, which helps students research and apply for college. And she began taking sophomores on tours of New England colleges.

Her work has helped boost Lewiston High’s college-going rate. A decade ago, Macri estimated, 55 to 60 percent of Lewiston grads went on to higher education. Last year, 80 percent did.

“It definitely has changed the high school. Kids are no longer saying, ‘If I go to college,'” Macri said. “They’re saying ‘Where will I go to college?”

Getting younger teenagers thinking about college has been key, she said, as has getting older teens comfortable on a college campus and getting them to challenge themselves.

Still, she said, getting students to college isn’t easy. Especially when it comes to financing it.

She rarely sees full scholarships anymore, she said. Increasingly, colleges are requiring families – even very poor families – to pay part of tuition and are requiring students to take out large loans.

“Personally, I’d like to see it become a campaign issue with our presidential nominees. But nobody’s asked me yet,” she said.

Held at the Lewiston Public Library, the Great Falls Forum is a monthly public platform for thought-provoking speakers and discussion. It is sponsored by the Sun Journal, Lewiston Public Library, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and Bates College.

Macri was the last speaker of the season. The forum will resume again this fall.