Wendy Harvey, Co-Principal at Westbrook High School spoke to us about Education Leaders Experience (ELE), a program of Educate Maine, which connects educators with businesses across Maine. Educate Maine advances education policies and practices that prepare students to be productive and engaged citizens.
 
ELE offers educators a professional development opportunity to meet community and business leaders across Maine.  Wendy has been to Bath Iron Works, the Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) at the University of Maine, local breweries, and other businesses small and large. At Cianbro, she learned about their programs to train their own workers in fields such as electrical, rigging and crane operation.  She was given the opportunity to try her hand and got high marks for her crane operating skills.  At Hinkley Yards in Trenton, she learned that they cannot hire enough workers to manufacture their motorboats.  At BIW, they’ll be looking for as many as 1700 workers by year end 2020, and we don’t have a pool of people in this state to fill that need.
 
To help meet the need, Westbrook High School is putting renewed effort into STEM programs, including a new STEM diploma.  Students who take additional courses in math, science and technology each of their four years will receive special recognition at graduation and STEM endorsements on their diploma. This new diploma is expected to be awarded as early as this spring.
 
Another area in which the high school is working with students is on “soft skills” – looking people in the eye, shaking hands, carrying on a conversation giving good customer service.  Skills that today’s kids are less likely to develop organically today than in the past. Wendy also mentioned that there are financial literacy classes about both WHS and WRVC, but they are not required courses. In addition, a technical math class has been developed for both freshman/sophomore level and junior/senior level. Finally, a “pre tech” program has started at the middle school which brings a group of students to the high school once a week for special programming.
 
The objective is to keep our kids in Maine, and also in Westbrook. Nicole Sturgis, Aspirations Counselor at WHS, works with kids to meet business needs in our community and match them with jobs at companies like Idexx, Wex and other interested businesses. If you have a need in your business, you are encouraged to contact Nicole directly at sturgisn@westbrookschools.org  Nicole and Wendy are interested in opening a dialog with local businesses to discuss the kind of student you need for your business.
 
Wendy Harvey was born and raised in Maine, although finished high school in Texas.  Her first connection to Rotary came when she was honored at her high school by the local Mount Pleasant TX club. Her career has included time at Thornton Academy where she engaged with the Interact Club there. The book I Am Rosa Parks was donated to the Walker Memorial Library in her honor.
 
For more information about the Education Leaders Program and Educate Maine: https://www.educatemaine.org/programs/education-leaders-experience