BELFAST, Maine — Michele Chadwick sports her polka-dot backpack — a Valentine’s Day present from her children — with pride as she strolls the halls of the University of Maine Hutchinson Center with her 23-year-old daughter, Maleah Chadwick.
Attending school with her daughter, the new backpack, and especially the pride would have been unthinkable for Michele Chadwick just a few short years ago. Back then, Chadwick, 42, of Searsmont was in a controlling and abusive marriage of 23 years. She spent a lot of her time raising her four children and trying to keep the house, and the family, together.
“Whatever he said, I did,” the slight, effervescent woman said this week. “Trying to make it look good when it wasn’t very good. You learn how to pretend really well.”
Three years ago, during a violent altercation, she finally stopped pretending. Her youngest daughter urged her to call 911, and she thought about the example she wanted to set for her girls. In the end, Chadwick picked up the phone, and the police came and arrested her husband. Ultimately, he spent six months in jail.
And Chadwick started to figure out a different, better future for herself and her children. That vision included finding some way to get to college so she could pursue her passion to help other domestic abuse survivors and those struggling with alcohol and substance abuse. But Chadwick, who works as a home care provider and does some housekeeping and maintenance, had married right out of high school and did not have great faith that she was college material.
Enter the Maine College Transitions Program, designed to help adults get back on track to enter and be successful in college. In 2002, seven such programs around the state and 25 throughout New England were funded through a Nellie Mae Education Foundation grant. That grant ran out a few years later, but the state of Maine continued to support the college transition programs.
Carolyn Haskell, the program coordinator and instructor at the Belfast Adult Education transition program, College Connection, said Thursday that since the Belfast program began, 189 students have successfully completed it. They take classes in writing, English and mathematics. They learn how to research, write and correctly format a college paper, and they learn what she calls the language of college: unusual words such as “bursar” and “adjunct faculty.” Students apply to college, navigate the financial aid system and register for classes. Classes meet at the local college campus, the Hutchinson Center, so students can get comfortable in what is often a new environment.
“It works,” Haskell said of the program. “It is hard. We don’t sugarcoat it for people.”
Perhaps more than anything, the program helps Mainers such as Michele and Maleah Chadwick build faith in themselves, Haskell said.
“A lot of the single moms, the people who have been through domestic abuse, they need confidence building as much as the academic piece. We see amazing growth in students,” she said. “The Michele I’m talking to right now is a little different than the Michele I talked to a few months ago. She’s really gained confidence. She’s not saying, ‘I think I can.’ She’s saying ‘I will go to college. I will change my life.’”
That’s true for Maleah Chadwick, too. When she graduated a few years ago from the South Hope Christian School, she decided she wanted to professionally pursue photography on her own.
“I am really stubborn. [I thought] I didn’t need college,” she said. “But I kept running into roadblocks.”
So, with a new dream — to study music composition — Chadwick, who said she can play 10 instruments, listened this winter when her mom told her about the cool program she had just started taking through Belfast Adult Education. The daughter joined her mother and the group of college prep students who spend long days together on Tuesdays at the Hutchinson Center, taking transition classes and building toward the future.
“It’s been an experience, doing this with my mom,” she said. “It’s been great. … I’ve gotten to read her writing. I see her express herself and flourish. I’ve watched her grow and become independent and think for herself. Pretty much her whole life she’s had someone telling her what to do. Now she’s on her own. I’m really proud of her.”
Michele Chadwick said the feeling of pride is mutual.
“It’s been so awesome as a mother to see her excel,” she said. “It’s really been great.”
They’ve nearly completed the semester-long program, and they know what they’re doing next. Chadwick has been accepted at the University of Maine at Augusta, where this fall she will begin studying mental health and human services. Maleah Chadwick said she will take a couple of courses this summer at the University of Maine at Augusta and intends to study music composition there.
Michele Chadwick said she has something to say to anyone who wonders if they might be able to do what she and her daughter are doing and start the Maine College Transitions Program, too.
“Don’t let fear or circumstances get in the way,” she said. “Don’t make excuses that you can’t do it, because anybody can. It will change your life. It will empower you.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 866-834-4357, TRS 800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.