With the help of an education foundation that provided money for such things as mentoring, tutoring and aspirations programs, 16 high schools from around the state have significantly increased the number of graduating students expecting to attend college this fall.

The percentage of students who are planning to go on to college from the participating schools has risen by 102 students in just one year – from about 67 percent of students to 74 percent, according to a recent survey by the MELMAC Foundation. The national average is 73 percent.

Now the challenge is to make sure those students actually follow through with their college plans, said Wendy Ault, executive director of the foundation, which last year awarded each of the 16 schools a two-year, $20,000 Connect Aspirations to a Plan grant.

Among other things, the participating schools – including in Orono, Fort Kent and Ashland – used the MELMAC grant money to take students to visit college campuses; provide financial aid advice; give the PSAT to all juniors and sophomores so they could start thinking about college early and practice for taking the SAT; ensure that parents are an active part of the college process; and provide career exploration opportunities and SAT tutoring.

They also created orientation courses for high school freshmen and celebrated students who were accepted to college.

In Bingham, Upper Kennebec Valley Junior-Senior High School purchased sweatshirts from the college each student planned to attend and presented them to the youths.

“Students were thrilled,” said Principal Julie Richard. Thanks to the MELMAC grant, 23 out of 25 students plan on attending college this year, she said.

Typically one-half to two-thirds of seniors at the school expect to go on to postsecondary education.

“The MELMAC grant has made a huge impact on this school,” she said, praising Ault for helping the guidance counselor understand how to encourage first generation college students and their parents who may be overwhelmed by the admissions and financial aid processes.

This summer and fall, MELMAC schools are calling each high school graduate to make sure plans for college are progressing smoothly, one of a number of strategies borrowed from Bangor High School, where 94 percent of last year’s graduating class were planning to go to college this fall.

During the schools’ follow-up interviews, students will be asked, among other things, whether they’ve contacted their roommate and college adviser, have their college loans in place, and scheduled their courses.

If plans for college aren’t going smoothly, the schools will schedule interviews with students and parents to discuss the problem.

At Ashland Community High School, where the MELMAC initiative resulted in a 43 percent increase in the number of students who were accepted to college, guidance director Lynwood McHatten said the follow-up contact this summer enabled him to put a student back on the college track.

Because of a glitch in the boy’s financial aid package, he was discouraged and “thinking of throwing in the towel,” said McHatten, who then contacted the college’s financial aid office.

“Things are looking up,” he said.

Thanks to the MELMAC grant, the high school now is “connected to our students after they graduate,” McHatten said. “We serve as the liaison between the time they graduate and the time they go off to college. That really doesn’t exist in many schools.”

According to 2002 statistics, in Maine, on average, 65 percent of high school seniors statewide say they’re going to college, but only 55 percent actually enroll. Nationally, an average of 73 percent of high school graduates plan to go to college, while 68 percent actually go, Ault said.

Put another way, one out of every six students in Maine who say they’re going to college ultimately change their plans, compared with only one out of every 14 students nationally.

While the program appears to be succeeding in lifting the college-going rates at the participating schools, MELMAC’s goal is for the statewide rate to meet or surpass the national average by 2008, according to Ault.

Toward that end MELMAC awarded grants last year to another 16 schools which have yet to begin their work. In all, the 32 high schools represent 25 percent of Maine’s public high school student population.

John Henry, former admissions director at the University of Maine, is helping implement the MELMAC grant at Orono High School, where the number of seniors who say they’re going to college rose from 74 percent in 2003 to 81 percent this year.

Henry said the grant enabled the school to work one-on-one with about a dozen students who were on the fence about going to college.

By helping them fill out their college applications and taking them on campus visits, “you’re putting students that much closer to realizing their aspirations,” he said.

Fort Kent Community High School used part of its MELMAC money to create a course to help prepare eighth graders for their freshman year, said Scott Voisine, director of student services at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, who’s helping the school with its grant.

Called “Survivor High School,” the two-day class is based on the “Survivor” television show and features torch ceremonies and palm trees. “It’s everything you wanted to know about high school but were afraid to ask,” Voisine said.

Ault said she expects even better results among the high schools next year during the second half of the grant’s implementation as they continue to “build a college-going culture.”