Michaela Holbrook flashes her infectious smile in her senior picture. She will graduate from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in June. Supplied photo
OTISFIED — Between taking college courses, studying allied health at Oxford Hills Tech School, working in Bridgton and serving extracurricular committees, Otisfield senior Michaela Holbrook barely has a spare moment.
She is in her second year serving as one of two student representatives on Maine School Administrative District 17. She is also a member of the National Honor Society and Vice President of the Key Club at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. She is committed to serving her school, community and especially her loved ones.
In Key Club, members sell concessions during home basketball games and use the funds to create Thanksgiving baskets for families in need in the surrounding communities. Last fall they supplied about 100 baskets to families of Oxford Hills students.
“I’m dually enrolled in two college classes and I’ll get three credits for each one,” Holbrook said during an interview with the Advertiser Democrat a few weeks ago, as she was recovering from a tonsillectomy. “One is at Central Maine Community College. I’m taking college writing there and taking an Algebra class through University of Maine Augusta. Last year I took American history I and II as dual enrollment classes at UMA and earned six college credits my junior year.”
As she enters CMCC next fall, she will just have one semester of nursing prerequisites, physiology and anatomy lab and lectures to complete.
“After that I will flawlessly fit right into their nursing program. They only had 36 seats open and I was able to get one of them. It’s a highly competitive program. There are five of us altogether attending, that I know of, from Oxford Hills.”
Holbrook earned her nursing assistant certification during junior year and has been working with patients since.
“I’ve always had a huge interest in nursing. If you ask my mom and dad, they have always known,” she laughed. “When my mom got a cut on her leg, I was about two or three. She said if I could have pushed the doctor out the way, I would have. I wanted to pull the stitches.”
It was not just a toddler’s curiosity but a calling. When her family members have been ill or hospitalized, she is at their side to help them heal. After her father became disabled following a workplace accident in 2009, she has cared for him through 14 surgeries, helping with his recoveries. Her experiences with her pepe, meme and grandfather were similar.
“I experienced death [in the family] at a very young age,” Holbrook said. “My pepe had a very rare condition called Paget’s disease. He died when I was in second grade and I was the last person to say goodbye … right after that he passed away.
“And not even six months later, my meme passed away, and I got to see the hospice care setting and I really, really liked it.”
Her grandfather had heart surgery and later developed dementia.
“My grandfather, who passed away in February, 2021, he always called me his little nurse,” Holbrook said. “That made me really decide to become a nurse. I was able to help him cope with what he was going through. He would have breakthroughs we he talked with me.
“And it was on the phone because of COVID. Every time he’d call me he’d be like, ‘hi Kayla, how are you doing?’ He always remembered me. And I would go to where he was in that moment, and we would talk about that stuff.”
Even while recovering from a tonsillectomy, balancing college and high school credit classes and working as a CNA with dementia residents, Otisfield senior Michaela Holbrook is happy when she talks about her love of nursing. Nicole Carter / Advertiser Democrat
Holbrook is considering a few different nursing specialties. Hospice is one and psychiatric care is another.
“I have a huge love of psychology,” she said. “And I’m also interested in the emergency care setting. I may minor in psychology. I’ll get my two-year degree at CMCC and then I’ll transfer to either UMA or University of Southern Maine. If everything goes well, I will graduate in 2026.”
Her interest in psychology stems from her own experiences. She was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in elementary school; some relatives have been diagnosed with other behavioral health illnesses.
“It helps me advocate for people who have mental health disorders,” she said. “I also had a difficult childhood.”
During Holbrook’s freshman year her family was thrown into turmoil. She lived apart from her father with no contact for two years.
“All three of us [including my mother], went through some extensive counseling. From that, I reconnected with my dad and I’m actually living with him again. It showed me how much goes on behind closed doors that people don’t realize.
“I can be quick to judge but I also step back after a second and ask what is going on. What does this person need help with? I’ve always been a huge advocate for myself and could ask for help when I needed it. I am the only one who can take care of my mental health, or make people aware that I need it.”
Holbrook said the experience she is gaining as a student rep. on the school board has also helped her develop deep empathy for others.
“It’s shown me what [directors] have to go through and the decisions they make,” she explained. “Even though people disagree, they can usually put aside their differences to come together to form the best options for everybody.”
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