BANGOR – Five top students in the Maine Community College System have been awarded scholarships to attend a summer program at Vassar College, a highly selective, four-year liberal arts college in New York.

This is the first time Maine has participated in Vassar’s five-week Exploring Transfer program, which aims to open new educational opportunities for promising two-year community college students who are the first in their families to go to college and may not have considered transferring to a four-year postsecondary institution to earn a bachelor’s degree.

Beginning June 18, students will take two rigorous classes designed for the summer program and taught by a team consisting of a professor from Vassar and one from a community college in New York. Students will live in the dormitories, eat at the dining halls, and hobnob with faculty and administrators as well as with Exploring Transfer alumni.

Historically, community college students have thought that they don’t belong at a prestigious, private institution and that “it’s where other people go to college – not me,” said Joseph Atkins, a visiting assistant professor of psychology at Colby College in Waterville.

Although he lived only a few miles from Vassar growing up, Atkins, 52, never thought of attending the school until he participated in Exploring Transfer 10 years ago as a student at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

“There are kids in Waterville who have never imagined Colby as a place to get a degree – it’s another world,” said Atkins, who spurred Maine’s involvement in the 20-year-old Exploring Transfer program.

“It changed my life,” he said of his stint in the program during a recent interview at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor.

Atkins said the goal is to broaden the educational aspirations of qualified Maine community college students and inspire them to think about continuing their education at a four-year institution.

“The program opens up new horizons and allows students to redefine themselves and what their possibilities are,” he said.

Students may have been looking at a community college simply as a way to “get a certificate to get this job” and figure they’ll end their education with a two-year degree, instead of, for example, continuing with their schooling and becoming a doctor rather than a nurse, or an electrical engineer rather than an electrician, said Atkins.

He recalled having the same perspective before participating in Exploring Transfer. “I had no idea how someone goes from an associate degree to a doctorate. It seemed impossible.”

The hope also is to build support for the creation of a similar program between the Maine Community College System and one or more of the state’s private colleges such as Colby, Bates or Bowdoin. Down the road, an exchange program may be developed between Exploring Transfer students in Maine and those at Vassar, said Atkins.

To that end, faculty and administrators from the Maine Community College System and from Colby College plan to visit Vassar this summer to observe the program in action.

“This is a great opportunity for our students,” said Maine Community College System President John Fitzsimmons. “Exploring Transfer is clearly an extraordinary program and we’re delighted that our community college students can be part of it.”

Exploring Transfer focuses on first-generation community college students because they don’t have role models to guide them toward higher education, said Atkins. Typically, many first-generation students choose community colleges because they are a logical next step after high school and because their admissions standards aren’t intimidating.

The Maine Community College System has been making great strides in developing relationships with four-year institutions. Last March, it forged new ground by creating the AdvantageU program in which students who earn a two-year degree in liberal studies from any Maine Community College System campus will be guaranteed admission as a junior to any University of Maine System campus.

Elizabeth Worden, director of the academic support center at Eastern Maine Community College, said she is delighted about the new collaborations.

“Historically, there hasn’t always been a wonderful relationship between community colleges and four-year universities and colleges,” she said.

Diana Patterson, 46, of Dexter, who recently completed her first year in Eastern Maine Community College’s liberal arts program, said just being admitted to the Vassar program has “got me thinking” about options after graduation.

“I’m looking forward to the experience of being on the campus of a [prestigious, private college] and rubbing shoulders with other students like myself who are really interested in education and in excelling and learning,” Patterson said.

Exploring Transfer makes no distinction about where students should continue their education, whether at a state or private institution. “The goal is to encourage community college students to get the best degree they can based on their talents,” Atkins said.

The idea is not to take away from the pathway that exists to the University of Maine System, but to open doors to all the options that are available, he said.

“Instead of reaching for that which is within reach, reach for the stars,” Worden said.

This is the first time that out-of-state students have been admitted to Vassar’s Exploring Transfer program. Students from New Mexico, California and Oklahoma also will participate.

“It’s a chance to go and find out what I’m capable of,” said Daphne Tieman, 44, who just finished her first year in the liberal arts program at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield.

During his summer at Vassar, Atkins was offered a full scholarship to the college where he subsequently earned bachelor’s degrees in computer science and cognitive science. Later, he attended the University of Rochester where he received master’s and doctoral degrees in brain and cognitive sciences.

The program enables community college students to be “pure college students,” focusing on academics and getting away from the distractions with which community college students often deal, said Atkins.

Providing a supportive environment is one of the program’s hallmarks. Those who previously attended Exploring Transfer and now are full-time students at Vassar attend courses with the summer students and act as tutors and counselors.

“They are a vital part of the program,” Atkins said. “When a student says, ‘I can’t do this,’ the counselor says, ‘Oh, yes you can!”‘

Also participating in the program are: Leon Sockbeson from Washington County Community College and Ashley Froman and Jessica Parks, both from Kennebec Valley Community College.