PRESQUE ISLE – For some area high school students, this harvest break won’t be a three-week vacation or a chance to earn money working a potato harvester, it will be an opportunity to earn college credit.

Starting today, 12 juniors and seniors from two central Aroostook County high schools will be busy taking a tuition-free math course – worth three college credits – offered by the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

The 45-hour basic statistics class is funded by an Access College Early grant from the Mitchell Institute and the National Governors Association.

The grant, awarded this summer to UMPI, allows for the establishment of an early college program that helps high-schoolers earn tuition-free college credits and build confidence in their ability to achieve at the college level.

“It certainly enhances student aspirations and affirms parents’ belief that students can indeed succeed at college-level work,” Mike McCormack, early college coordinator for UMPI, said on Friday. “When we look at the challenges that so many students have had historically transitioning from high school to college, programs such as this certainly help improve that transition and contribute to improved retention.”

The ACE program allows students to sign up for certain college courses, work alongside regularly enrolled college students, and apply the credits they earn to their college transcripts.

The math course will be conducted at Presque Isle High School and taught by Teri St. Pierre, an adjunct faculty member at UMPI. The class is one of several local ACE offerings, though it’s the only one not being taught at UMPI or the Houlton Higher Education Center.

Right now, more than 35 students from 10 central and southern Aroostook County high schools are participating in the program.

Officials hope to renew the grant, if enrollment numbers hold, and offer more college courses to high school students next year. McCormack said, though, that the program is up against many competing factors.

“You’ve got travel, jobs, vacation, parents not wanting students on the road, gas prices, soccer season, and other activities – it makes for a very complex program,” he said. “Students really have to set their priorities and say, ‘Hey, I realize that getting started in the college experience with two or three classes is an advantage to me, will save me money, and also help my performance at the high school level.’

“This program is good for aspirations and helps students get a good sense of what college life is like, for sure,” he said.

For more information about the local ACE program, contact Mike McCormack at 768-9746 or at mccormam@umpi.maine.edu.