Rural Aspirations Project

Rural Aspiration’s mission is to expand educational opportunities that develop and honor community while stimulating the innate curiosity of students and teachers.  We work with educators and administrators from rural schools across Maine as they imagine ways to enrich student experiences and build professional capacity. Our programs build project-based, place-based educational opportunities; design structures that support differentiation in proficiency-based learning; create platforms that inspire individualization, and invite community partnerships that offer multiple pathways to graduation.     

In 3 years, our support to schools has grown considerably resulting in the ongoing development of; natural resource-based programming, structures to support personalized learning, as well as place-based, project-based curriculum support for teachers in over 30 schools throughout rural Maine.  In addition, we continue to provide key curriculum and professional development support as a partner in the Eastern Maine Skippers Program, which now includes 9 schools and 100 students “preparing to actively contribute to the vitality of our fishing communities today and in the future”.