Maine Perspective Front Page
Stories of Personal Triumph, Academic Success in Commencement '98
Cyril Francis
Growing up, Cyril Francis looked to her grandmother and to her father, a tribal chief, as role models who pursued their dreams. Even after their deaths, memories of their aspirations inspire her.
Today, the Passamaquoddy community is inspired by Francis.
Francis is graduating with a master's degree in social work and is hoping for a job in the Mental Health Department of Indian Township. Commencement is the culmination of an almost quarter-century journey of self-help and the realization of aspirations through education.
"When I graduated with my undergraduate degree, I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience," says Francis. "This time, I'm feeling a lot of excitement about the status of what I'm accomplishing. This is not just for me but for my people, and there's a lot of pride with that. There are so many negatives about Native people. But once again, we are proving we can do it. Given all the wrenches in our paths, we still can and are doing it."
Francis grew up in Pleasant Point and graduated high school in 1975. In 1981, she began taking classes part time at the University of Maine at Machias when she decided she could "be more than a single mom doing odd jobs."
By the time she had her bachelor's degree 14 years later in behavioral science, Francis had accomplished many major personal goals. It was time to give something back.
"People always told me I had potential but I was not convinced," says Francis. "I was interested in alcohol and drugs. I had been on that path for a long time. I went into rehab and treatment facilities to get better. Through that self-help experience, I realized I wanted to help others.
"I was really impressed with the theory of looking at people's behavior based on their environment," says Francis. "I wanted a field in which I was helping people to help themselves."
In the MSW program, Francis said she found faculty and peers accepting and understanding that she comes from a different culture, language and perspective. Support for her pursuit of a graduate degree came not only from the School of Social Work but from the Wabanaki Center. And from her community, her husband and children.
Now people in Indian Township, where Francis had her field placement, are benefiting from her expertise. "We have had a handful of people from this reservation who have gotten MSWs and only two of us are here," she says.
"People are more willing to ask for services when a tribal member is providing them. If I'm the one helping them do what they need and want to do, I will provide resources and connect them to the people out there willing to help.
"When people see no hope for a future, it's hard to get out. People say that I'm an inspiration, that if I did it, they can do it. They say I'm a positive role model, a good influence, because with all the obstacles I had in my path, I still persevered.
"There was a time when I would go to any length to make sure I had my high. This (master's degree) is a different kind of high."
Greg Morse
A quarter-century ago, Greg Morse was a first-year student at the University of Maine, attending college at the request of his parents.
This spring, Morse is a newly retired Maine State Trooper and a full-time UMaine student who will graduate with what he wants most - a bachelor's degree in business.
"When I graduated from Belfast Area High School in '74, I came to Orono as a 17-year-old who didn't know what to do, and my grades reflected that," says Morse. "I dropped out and joined the state police in 1978. Then about seven years ago, I decided I had to go back to school. Ginny Gibson (interim dean of the College of Business, Public Policy and Health) was one of the first people I talked to. I told her, 'This is what I wanted to do. How do I get there?'"
Working full-time as a state trooper, Morse started by taking CED courses in the evenings. He saved up vacation time to take courses during May Term and in the summers. Since 1992, he has commuted from Brunswick.
During his 20-year career with the state police, Morse was a member of the underwater dive team and an accident reconstructionist. With a demanding, full-time job, Morse's peers couldn't understand why he also would take college courses.
"While they were out doing other things during their off hours, I was home studying or writing a paper. I'm hoping a future employer will look at my education not as a piece of paper but as the effort I put in to get it," says the 41-year-old Morse.
Morse says the keys to his academic success have been determination and stubbornness. "You have to want an education," he says. "Anyone can come up here and sit in classes. You get out of it what you want to get out of it.
"When I was here at 17, there was no place else to go, with no concept of time or money. Now I have a different outlook. Now the money for the tuition and the time on the road commuting is mine, and I want something out of it and expect the professors to teach me something.
"The most memorable moment of my University career is coming May 9. I'm going to march. I waited 24 years for this, and have all that time and energy invested. My wife and son will be there."
Morse's wife, Julie, graduated from UMaine in 1979 with a degree in child development. His son, Aaron, graduates from high school this year and is headed to college in Vermont.
"My advice to him is to put his best effort into it and get something out of it. And hopefully he will learn from my lessons not to waste time and money like I did.
"I will graduate this spring 24 years from where it all started."
Mike Cowing
Mike Cowing remembers the day in 1986 that changed his life. A building carpenter for Canadian Pacific Railroad, Cowing was working in a 10-foot trench when the earthen walls gave way and he was buried alive. His injuries ended his 11-year career with the railroad. He turned to other jobs but soon "saw the writing on the wall."
Almost two decades after he graduated from high school, he enrolled at the University of Maine.
"In high school I had the brains but never took a book home," he says. "I graduated 82 out of 84 in my class.
"All those years with the railroad I was making good money but there still was something missing. I can remember not going to class reunions with the feeling of being a little bit of a failure.
"I went to my 20th reunion with a 3.92 GPA as a UMaine sophomore."
Cowing entered UMaine's Onward Program with plans to major in studio art. In his first year he took a couple math classes and found his forte. He was so good, he started helping his peers. Now a math major, Cowing has been coordinating Onward's Math Lab since 1993.
"I couldn't put a price on how I feel, how much better I am as a person," says Cowing, who has commuted to classes daily for the past six years from his home in Milo. "The more I've been in school, the more open-minded I've become. It's not just about what I've learned in math or biology but the things I've learned about me - those times I got through a tough math class, the years I paid to go to school by rolling pennies or selling most of what I own.
"I'm proud of the 3.5 I earned in math but I'm even prouder of the 3.9 I earned in life."
Cowing has become a role model for many students who not only learn skills in math during his tutoring sessions but his heart-felt lessons in motivation, self-esteem and persistence. His sister, Susan Flagg, also is a UMaine student now as a result of his influence.
"I tell others that it's not the math but how you get through it that makes you a better person," says Cowing. "I am more impressed by the person who comes every day and tries than I am by the person who breezes through. The person who works at it and does it is learning something about math - and themselves."
This month, Cowing was accepted into the College of Education and Human Development's Master of Arts in Education program for graduates of four-year colleges with degrees in the liberal arts and sciences. The full-time, 13-month professional development program is based on intensive immersion in educational methods and practice in UMaine courses and in cooperation with area schools.
He hopes one day to teach in a small college or in an educational program for nontraditional students like Onward, which he credits with profoundly making a difference his life.
"I would love one day to teach a kid like I was, a kid who has all kinds of smarts but no motivation to use them. I was kind of a class clown, the kind of kid who irritates a teacher but who would have loved for someone to see my potential and foster it."
Spider, Sarah and Martha Williams
Edward "Spider" Williams and his two daughters, Sarah and Martha, will each receive bachelor's degrees in the afternoon Commencement ceremony. But what's even more exciting is that their hero who made it all possible will be watching - wife and mother Ruth Williams.
"Throughout these college years, I encouraged the girls and they encouraged me, but it has been Ruth who has supported us all," says Spider of his wife, the first in the family to get a college degree. Ruth drove to the University of Maine at Augusta every year for two years to earn an associate degree in nursing in 1986.
Sarah and Martha grew up knowing that college was "the logical next step" after graduating from Brewer High School. Spider quips that "mom, dad and the University of Maine" were the first words his three children learned.
Martha enrolled in 1992 as a secondary education major. In her junior year, she decided she wanted to be a scientist. She remained at UMaine rather than transferring to another university because of the opportunities undergraduates have to work in research labs. Since 1996, Martha, a biochemistry major, has worked in the research lab of Associate Professor of Zoology Rebecca Van Beneden.
Sarah enrolled at UMaine in 1994, the recipient of a number of scholarships including one from the UMaine Pulp and Paper Foundation. A chemical engineering major, Sarah is headed for a job as a process engineer in a paper mill in New Hampshire.
But Spider took a more circuitous route to UMaine. After attending technical college 25 years ago, he worked as an industrial mechanic and owned his own construction business in Brewer until 1991 when he was diagnosed with leukemia. Following chemotherapy, he has been in remission for almost seven years.
Next month, he will receive a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering - at 54, "the oldest electrical engineering student," he says.
During their concurrent years at UMaine, Spider and his daughters only took a couple classes together. Martha remembers the first time thinking it would be uncool to sit next to your dad in class. She soon found out that "there's something a little competitive about taking classes with a family member." In an economics class, Spider got an B+ while Martha got an B, allegedly because she quizzed him with flash cards while he drove to school.
As a family of students living together, they worked hard to be individuals. They supported each other - and shared an incredible sense of humor.
"The worst of it is if you do lousy on a test, there's not a whole lot of sympathy from the other two," jokes Spider. "That's when we turn to Ruth, who always hears our complaints."
When Ruth graduated, Spider and the children, ages 8, 10 and 12 at the time, held up congratulatory signs for mom and wife.
Now it's her turn.