Seventeen Presque Isle High School (PIHS) students, along with two University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) students, recently had the opportunity to participate in a week-long educational experience at Hurricane Island. This exciting experience was made possible due to an anonymous donor who fully funded the adventure, and was open to any student with an interest in career exploration in the sciences through Presque Isle High School’s newly implemented ELO program.

Hurricane Island runs field-based education programs with an emphasis on inspiring future environmental leaders. Students were able to experience the scientific process first-hand with the guidance of the expert staff at Hurricane Island.  The feedback from PIHS students has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Hurricane Island was a life-changing experience that allowed me to learn and grow outside of the confines of a classroom,” said PIHS senior Morgan House who will be pursuing a career in the medical field. “The environment on the island encouraged not only learning but personal growth. I left the island feeling connected with my peers and built relationships that wouldn’t have been otherwise possible here at PIHS. You truly cannot place a number on the value of a hands-on education. I will be forever grateful to the donor who made this trip possible”

Thanks to a two-year, $250,000 grant from the Maine Department of Education, Presque Isle High School has been able to partner with the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Caribou High School to implement programs offering extended learning opportunities (ELOs). ELOs are defined as hands-on opportunities outside of the traditional classroom with an emphasis on community-based career exploration. Allison Reed, Director of Guidance, is the ELO Coordinator for MSAD#1.

“The partnerships forged between schools and local businesses are proving to be mutually beneficial, with companies gaining fresh perspectives from the next generation of talent, and students gaining meaningful job shadowing experiences,” said Reed. “By providing students with opportunities to explore their passions, schools are nurturing a generation of informed, motivated, and inspired individuals poised to make a meaningful impact on the world.”

Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) are hands-on, credit-bearing courses outside of the traditional classroom with an emphasis on community-based career exploration. These opportunities are personalized for students and help them explore options for their professional lives. They help students engage in learning through instruction, assignments, and experiential learning. The Maine Department of Education (DOE), along with state-wide partner Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG), have made a concerted effort to provide working models, support, and funding opportunities for Maine schools to set up ELO programs within their school communities. To learn more about Maine’s initiatives with extended learning opportunities, visit: https://www.maine.gov/doe/index.php/learning/elo or reach out to Maine DOE ELO Coordinator Rick Wilson at rick.wilson@maine.gov.

After spending the school day teaching math and sustainable agriculture at Madison Area Memorial High School, Joshua Bishop works after hours to run the school’s Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) program. The ELO program at Madison focuses primarily on agriculture with the goal of teaching students valuable work skills while also helping to fight food insecurity in Somerset County.

One of the program’s main projects is its ELO Summer Garden which consists of multiple gardens all built from the ground up. Bishop’s students have gained agricultural work experience by maintaining these gardens and have also given back to their community. The garden’s pumpkin patch provided over 70 pumpkins for the local elementary school. Bishop and his students are also creating Bulldog Salsa and Pickles from the garden. This project builds upon their agricultural knowledge while also incorporating marketing and business skills, as they are creating a full business model for these foods.

“We are teaching students how to be employable while also giving them the ability to help them and their families’ lives by teaching them how to grow their own food,” said Bishop.

Beyond group ELOs, such as the garden, the program also offers students individual opportunities where they can earn credits through the Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG) virtual platform called LMS. This opportunity has allowed students who need extra credits in order to graduate on time to recover those credits in a meaningful way related to their career interests. Through LMS, one of Bishop’s students was able to earn credits in geography and sustainability to complete her graduation requirements on time and also gain experience doing research in those fields.

“I love making an impact on my students’ lives,” said Bishop. “Whether it be helping them with curriculum-based skills or building transferrable skills for the real world, I aim to make an impact for each and every student.”

Bishop would like to thank Kennebec Valley Farms and Kathy Bertini from the Maine Department of Education.

Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) are hands-on, credit-bearing courses outside of the traditional classroom with an emphasis on community-based career exploration. These opportunities are personalized for students and help them explore options for their professional lives. They help students engage in learning through instruction, assignments, and experiential learning. The Maine Department of Education (DOE), along with state-wide partner Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG), have made a concerted effort to provide working models, support, and funding opportunities for Maine schools to set up ELO programs within their school communities. To learn more about Maine’s initiatives with extended learning opportunities, visit: https://www.maine.gov/doe/index.php/learning/elo or reach out to Maine DOE ELO Coordinator Rick Wilson at rick.wilson@maine.gov.

As an Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) Coordinator, Healthy Acadia’s Corrie Hunkler has led a pilot to expand the organization’s youth employment and career exploration programs while creating ELO opportunities for students in the coastal Washington County region. The project aims to create and promote ELO opportunities by developing new and existing partnerships with community-based organizations and local high schools.

As part of this initiative, Hunkler has worked with several high schools to support and develop their ELO programs and offerings. At Narraguagus High School, Hunkler assisted with the creation of a Learning Korean and Photography ELO for alternative education students. She collaborated with students at Jonesport-Beals High School and community mentors to create Sports Management and Dental Hygienist ELOs. Students at Jonesport-Beals are also offered several formal ELO courses including Career Exploration, Cultural Explorations, Community Service Learning, and Fishing Industry Exploration and Innovations.

Through Community Service Learning at Jonesport-Beals, high school juniors and seniors got the opportunity to mentor students at a local elementary school. This experience allowed the student mentors to build relationships with the younger students while also learning about goal setting and community service.

Under Hunkler’s leadership, this pilot has expanded and brought awareness to local ELO programs and opportunities. “I love working with kids, helping them develop deeper, more meaningful ways to expand their education,” said Hunkler. “I love that ELOs help connect schools to communities and use these connections to enrich and expand the learning opportunities for small, rural schools.”

Hunkler would like to thank the students and school leaders she has partnered with throughout this project.

Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) are hands-on, credit-bearing courses outside of the traditional classroom, emphasizing community-based career exploration. These opportunities are personalized for students and help them explore options for their professional lives. They help students engage in learning through instruction, assignments, and experiential learning. The Maine Department of Education (DOE), along with state-wide partner Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG), have made a concerted effort to provide working models, support, and funding opportunities for Maine schools to set up ELO programs within their school communities. To learn more about Maine’s initiatives with extended learning opportunities, visit: https://www.maine.gov/doe/index.php/learning/elo or reach out to Maine DOE ELO Coordinator Rick Wilson at rick.wilson@maine.gov.

As an Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) Ed Tech, Molly Myers supports “the expansion of career exploration experiences and career planning” at Brunswick High School. From career fairs to internships, Myers helps students prepare for their post-high school pursuits.

The program has been incredibly successful among Brunswick students with about 20 students participating directly in ELOs and another 200 taking part in other career-related activities. These related activities included virtual job shadows, career fairs, guest speakers and panels, and more. Myers created course-specific career exploration for teachers to use in their classrooms to help students broaden their horizon of what might be possible through what they are learning in the present.

Students directly involved in the ELO program have completed paid work experiences, such as internships, in several lines of work including healthcare, culinary, veterinary medicine, and education. Through these experiences, students gained confidence in trying new things, asking for help, solving problems, and, in the end, articulating their learning to the larger community.

Myers says the best part of her job is “meeting with students and hearing the stories of their interests, passions, and amazing accomplishments both within and beyond school!”

Myers would like to thank Cory King for being a huge help and supporter of Brunswick’s ELO program.

Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) are hands-on, credit-bearing courses outside of the traditional classroom with an emphasis on community-based career exploration. These opportunities are personalized for students and help them explore options for their professional lives. They help students engage in learning through instruction, assignments, and experiential learning. The Maine Department of Education (DOE), along with state-wide partner Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG), have made a concerted effort to provide working models, support, and funding opportunities for Maine schools to set up ELO programs within their school communities. To learn more about Maine’s initiatives with extended learning opportunities, visit: https://www.maine.gov/doe/index.php/learning/elo or reach out to Maine DOE ELO Coordinator Rick Wilson at rick.wilson@maine.gov.

As South Portland High School’s Extended Learning Coordinator, Sheree Inman hopes to open career exploration opportunities to as many students as possible. When South Portland received the Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) grant, Inman was tasked with uniting the school’s existing internship and co-op programs and expanding these offerings to more students. Inman has been immensely successful in implementing the school’s ELO Program with many students participating in internships, job shadows, and other career-related opportunities.  

Through the program, South Portland students have been able to pursue ELOs in a wide variety of career fields including banking, real estate, media, firefighting, veterinary care, and more. One of Inman’s students was interested in finance and accounting and went on to intern for Saco Biddeford Savings Bank for her ELO. Through this internship, she gained hands-on experience in bank telling, accounting, and marketing and was able to spend time in their corporate office. This is just one of the program’s many success stories in which students have been able to gain professional experience and a head start on their career path.  

Another career exploration opportunity available to students through the program is the annual career fair. “This is where students can talk to employers about occupations and opportunities beyond high school,” said Inman. Several local businesses at the career fair also offer job shadows and internships for students.  

“The best part of my job is when I can make a connection with a student into a field that they really want to learn more about,” said Inman. Seeing students get excited about these opportunities gives her a great sense of pride in her work.  

“Without this type of programming in schools, students don’t always get to see what actually happens in various career fields,” said Inman. In the future, she hopes to continue to provide individual ELO opportunities while expanding offerings for group ELO experiences. She is also working with special education teachers to help bring ELO opportunities to their students.  

Inman and the South Portland ELO Program are very thankful to their community business partners and to South Portland’s Economic Development Director William Mann.  

Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) are hands-on, credit-bearing courses outside of the traditional classroom with an emphasis on community-based career exploration. These opportunities are personalized for students and help them explore options for their professional lives. They help students engage in learning through instruction, assignments, and experiential learning. The Maine Department of Education (DOE), along with state-wide partner Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG), have made a concerted effort to provide working models, support, and funding opportunities for Maine schools to set up ELO programs within their school communities. To learn more about Maine’s initiatives with extended learning opportunities, visit: https://www.maine.gov/doe/index.php/learning/elo or reach out to Maine DOE ELO Coordinator Rick Wilson at rick.wilson@maine.gov. 

At Yarmouth High School, Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) Coordinator Brittany Brockelbank is supporting students in exploring their career interests. From finding internships and work studies to connecting students with mentors in the community, Brockelbank is helping students engage with their learning while also preparing them for their future careers.  

Working with other faculty and staff at Yarmouth, Brockelbank has been able to expand the school’s ELO program, now offering it to all students from freshmen to seniors.  

“All too often there are barriers or structures that contain students and point them in one direction,” said Brockelbank. “ELOs are an opportunity to empower students to go in any direction they’d like!” 

The school’s ELO program has allowed students to earn academic credit, pursue passion projects, and gain professional experience. Brockelbank says one of her favorites parts of the program is its power to transform students’ educational experiences. Students who were once less interested or engaged with their education have found immense success and enthusiasm for their learning through their ELOs.  

Brockelbank says the best part of her job is the ability to say yes so often when students come to her asking about ELOs they are interested in. This means saying yes to them earning credit, participating in a work study, working as a group, and much more. When discussing her position as ELO Coordinator, she said, “It is refreshing to be in education in a role where the answer is almost always yes, and where I get to learn alongside brilliant students every day.”  

Brockelbank would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their contributions to Yarmouth’s ELO program: Rebecca Spear from Partners in Education, JMG Specialist Madalyn Shircliff, the Yarmouth Education Fund, the Yarmouth Alumni Association, Allegiance Trucks, HB Fleming, and Autowerks.  

Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) are hands-on, credit-bearing courses outside of the traditional classroom with an emphasis on community-based career exploration. These opportunities are personalized for students and help them explore options for their professional lives. They help students engage in learning through instruction, assignments, and experiential learning. The Maine Department of Education (DOE), along with state-wide partner Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG), have made a concerted effort to provide working models, support, and funding opportunities for Maine schools to set up ELO programs within their school communities. To learn more about Maine’s initiatives with extended learning opportunities, visit: https://www.maine.gov/doe/index.php/learning/elo or reach out to Maine DOE ELO Coordinator Rick Wilson at rick.wilson@maine.gov.