Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute is a nonprofit environmental education organization dedicated to understanding, preserving, and sustaining the health and values of Maine’s lakes and the communities dependent upon them.

The Student's Portal is an innovative educational initiative of MLCI in cooperation with the Mitchell Center. The portal works hand-in-hand with PEARL - the source for environmental information in Maine, the Mitchell Center's on-line resource for environmental data. MLCI's partner schools use the Student's Portal as an educational resource to exhibit, explain, and explore Maine lakes. Using stories, poetry, pictures, video clips, and even field data, students of the MLCI's nine partner schools create a rich picture of the lakes surrounding them. Here, students are inspired and motivated to become passionate stewards for their lake communities.

MLCI's partner schools represent the geographic and cultural diversity of Maine. MLCI schools cover the state - from the Atlantic coast to Canada, and from the east to bordering New Hampshire. Schools include the largest middle level institution, Bonny Eagle Middle School, (Sebago Lakes) as well as one of the smallest K-12 schools in the state, Rangeley Regional School (Rangeley Lake). MLCI also travels to the Indian Township School (Long and Lewey Lakes) on the Passamaquoddy Reservation in northeast Washington County. The other six schools are: Nobleboro Middle School (Pemaquid Pond), China Middle School (China Lake), Fort Kent Elementary School (Eagle Lake), Winthrop Middle School (Maranacook Lake), Greenville Middle School (Moosehead Lake), and New Suncook School (Kezar Lake). Just as the regions vary so do the lakes and their issues.

As resource capacity grows, MLCI looks forward to welcoming more schools onto the Students Portal. For information on how to become a partner school please contact MLCI’s Director of Education, Dr. Mary Ann McGarry at eddirector@mlci.org.

The Student’s Portal is made possible by the members of MLCI with additional funding provided by the Davis Family Foundation, the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, and the Maine Math Science Teaching Excellence Collaborative.