Kieve hosts College Goal Sunday

March 11, 2006

This past February Kieve hosted the 2nd annual College Goal Sunday where 22 families attended mostly from Lincoln Academy in Newcastle to receive one on one help with filling out the FAFSA forms. Kieve's Pasquaney Hall provided wireless internet connections so families could register online.

As the Aspirations Program is implementing the State of Maine's Task Force recommendations, word is getting out that Kieve?s Leadership Decisions Institute Aspirations Program is an educational investment for Maine?s eighth and ninth grade students. The goals of the program are to prepare and encourage more Maine students to attend some type of postsecondary education beyond high school.

As students have participated in the program, LDI staff has been made aware of how the Aspirations curriculum follows guidelines from the Task Force to Create Seamless Education in Maine schools. An initiative started by Commissioner Susan Gendron and Governor John Baldacci in 2004 to promote effective communication and efficient use of time and resources, the task force requested that ?schools break down the silos between them?. The LDI staff has found ineffective communication an obstacle with many clients. For example, the middle school will have been a LDI client for 15 years and when our staff meets with the high school principal, the high school principal does not know about LDI, or even that his incoming students participated in such a program. Irony: the middle and high school share the cafeteria! So how does this relate to Aspirations? Well, the Aspirations model works with 8th graders over the 5-day residential week at LDI and then one year later, LDI staff work with those same students again in the freshman year. The model also encourages the high school guidance staff to visit LDI so that they can meet the next freshman class and their parents. Teacher trainings for both middle and high school faculty are also included in the model. Once again, another example of how LDI is on the leading edge of education.

Do you know of a school that would like to know more about Kieve?s Leadership Decisions Institute or The Aspirations Program, please contact Bob Grant, LDI Director at 563-6212 or email bob@kieve.org. If you would like to read the Task Force findings, visit:www.maine.gov/education/pk_16taskforce/Homepage_000.htm.