Hold on, young Mainer: You can come home again
Depending on where you are in Maine, you may hear this more often than other places:
Maine's young people are leaving at an alarming rate. Not only that, but there are thousands fewer than even a decade ago. At the peak in the 1970s, there were 250,000 students in the state's public schools. By 1998, there were just under 215,000, and by the 2012-13 school year the number declined to 185,767, according to the Maine Department of Education.
We all know young people who left Maine the first chance they got, seeking education, a job or a new life in cities around the globe.
Which is well and good. Every young person should have that opportunity.
Yet I am encouraged by the number of businesspeople I've met who left Maine in their teens or twenties and, after successful careers elsewhere, decided to come back. There are numerous examples: Gena Canning, a managing partner at Pine State Trading Co. (and one of Mainebiz's “Women to Watch”); Curtis Simard, president and CEO of Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; and Gregory A. Dufour, president and CEO of Camden National Bank, to name just a few.
Senior Writer Lori Valigra and I recently had lunch with Greg Dufour. The Old Town native is a good example of someone who went away to college — in Texas — then worked there and started his family there. Eventually, because of opportunity but also a desire to return to his native state, he came back. Since 2009, he has led Camden National, which with the acquisition of The Bank of Maine, will be the largest Maine-based bank.
Dufour is also an example of someone who has made the state better. The Rockport resident saw that even in a seemingly affluent area like Camden and Rockport there were pockets of poverty. At Dufour's urging, Camden National earlier this year launched a program to aid homeless shelters. For each mortgage the bank writes, it donates $100 to a local homeless shelter. To date, it has written more than $10,000 in checks to shelters.
Young ex-Mainers are out in the world gaining skills on other people's nickel, and we applaud them for it. But there are companies here that are growing that need people with knowledge and diverse skills. There are also opportunities for entrepreneurs — programs, services and local businesses — that are in demand here. So, you can come home again — and you'll be welcomed.
Along those lines, our Bass Harbor-based correspondent, Laurie Schreiber, has become our education reporter of late. In the last issue, she wrote about Maine Maritime Academy students who were gaining management experience through a program run by Bangor Savings Bank. In this issue, she talks to Edward Sihler, assistant director of the Maine Cyber Security Cluster at the University of Southern Maine. He is leading an effort to train students in real-world situations, creating work-ready graduates. We hope that those graduates will be able to find work in Maine. If they don't, for now, we'll welcome back those who left when they ready to return.
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