Our nonprofit

Maine College Circle was established in 1992 as a publicly-supported, 501(c)(3) nonprofit to help provide better, equal, and earlier access to information and inspiration about the opportunity of higher education. Today, Maine College Circle's Future of Maine Initiative helps support early aspirations, while we emphasize the value of effort. Our goal is to help build a brighter future for rural Maine students and for their communities.

Our mission is concise and deliberate: To inform and inspire early aspirations . . . to empower the youth of rural Maine . . . to build a brighter future for themselves . . . and for their community. Students can’t aspire to what they do not know. They need inspiration and encouragement all along the way. We can’t build a brighter future for these students, but we can empower them to build a brighter future for themselves. We are focused on the future and empowering the next generation.

We are concerned about the economic, cultural, and aspirational gap that seems to be widening in this country these days. It isn’t good for anyone’s future. Maine College Circle probably can’t narrow that gap, but we can bridge it.

We are a staff of one, the program director; an active Board of Directors made up of educators, business professionals, and college students from Maine; and a broad network of over 100 volunteers throughout the state. We want it that way. We don't want to be a program. We want to help communities support the aspirations of their youth and the future of their community.

We have a strong partnership with the Mitchell Institute and Mitchell Scholars who join us at many of our Aspirations Workshops. And, we have had an active group of students at Bowdoin College (the Bowdoin College Maine College Circle Group through the McKeen Center).