LEWISTON – “It’s worth it, and it’s easy if you try.”

That’s how Lewis K. Pratt Jr., Central Maine Community College’s 2009 Student of the Year, rates his experience in earning a 4.0 grade-point average in his machine tool technology studies.

He received his diploma along with 375 members of CMCC’s Class of 2009 Thursday night at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. He earned the honor and a $1,000 prize along with top students at Maine’s six other community colleges.

Not only did Pratt achieve distinction in his studies, his wife, Aimee, also was a CMCC graduate Thursday night and she was recently named to the All-Maine Academic Team.

The Lewiston couple met as employees of Bath Iron Works, and they enrolled at CMCC together. They have three children: boys ages 6 and 10, and 13-year-old daughter.

Aimee is a graduate in architectural and civil engineering technology, a field she had wanted to get into since high school some 20 years ago.

“I want to get into a machine shop and learn the business from the inside out,” Lew Pratt said.

Pratt said he chose the machine tool program because he loves to build things.

Some of his accomplishments in the program include building a Web page for the program to share with local high schools; “blueprinting” a tomato plant holder for a business department project; planning a trip for students to attend the Machine Tool Trade Show in Massachusetts; and assisting in making a specialized personal care device for a local handicapped woman.

While a student at CMCC, Pratt has been a member of Phi Theta Kappa, Student Senate, and is the founder of the Rifle and Pistol Club. He also serves as a Cub Scout leader in Lewiston.

Pratt said he believes nontraditional students such as himself and his wife do very well at community colleges like CMCC.

“They know what’s at stake,” he said. “I would suggest that anyone who wants to better themselves should give it a try.”