Welcome to 2015-16 MEEOA Membership.

It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that I write welcome to all our
MEEOA Members! I am very excited for the coming year as President of
MEEOA. I would like to thank Kelly Ilseman for all of her hard word and
commitment to her role last year. I am happy to have her support as this
year begins.

This summer been a busy time for all of our programs and I appreciate all
of the work that we continued to do as a board while working in the field
providing services to our students and communities.


This time of year reminds me of so many fond memories. Some of you may
know, but I am guessing that many do not know that I graduated with my BA
Psychology from the University of Maine Farmington in 1988. The changes in
the leaves, the smell of the cooling mountain air, brings me back to a
powerful time in my life. I was a first generation student, from a very
low-income family, lead by a single parent of six. I grew up in a small
fishing community, and I worked hard for EVERYTHING. I was blessed to have
with neighbors who were educated; one was a teacher and one a librarian.
When I was nine, their daughter brought me to USM to participate in a
learning activity for one of her classes. It was then that I knew college
was possible. This story is not much different than the story of our
students.


We all came to TRiO through our personal paths, but we are all here for the
same reason, we care about the future. We care about the communities we
serve, but more importantly we want to make a difference. Our association
is successful because of all of our hard work guiding Low Income/First
Generation Student on their path to higher education. The Association is
here to help that process. We will be reaching out to you to gather
thoughts and ideas on where you would like the organization to focus its
energies for the coming year.


There are several areas that I hope to focus on this year. The first being
reaching out to Alumni and doubling our Public Relations efforts!! We need
to get our message and stories of success out to the public and celebrate
our successes. I'll be sharing more ideas as the year progresses.


We are still in need of filling our slate of officers. Treasurer and
President Elect positions are still open. If you are on the fence with
serving on the Executive Board, or you are not sure what those duties
require.  Call/email me or a current board member and we can share our
experiences. If you would like to participate on a committee or volunteer
your time in other ways, we are open to hearing from you.

Teri

Teri Morse, Advisor
Maine Educational Opportunity Center
Aroostook,  Northern Penobscot and
Northern Washington Counties
207.551.3331 CELL
207.581.2532 FAX