Eastern Maine Community College Receives New England Board of Higher Education's, Maine State Excellence Award.

BANGOR, Maine -  Eastern Maine Community College Receives New England Board of Higher Education Prestigious, Maine State Excellence Award.

EMCC was nominated for and ultimately selected for this prestigious award. The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) promotes greater educational opportunities and services for the residents of New England. In pursuit of this mission, NEBHE supports and provides several annual awards.

The State Merit Awards are presented to individuals, programs, organizations, institutions or businesses that exemplify NEBHE's mission and specifically "exhibits excellence in promoting college readiness and success for the students of their state.

“As Chair of the Maine delegation for the New England Board of Higher Education, I would like to thank you for including the Maine Excellence Award as part of the All-Maine Academic Team Recognition ceremony last Wednesday at the Senator Inn in Augusta. The academic achievement, leadership, and perseverance demonstrated by the students honored is truly commendable.  I found this event to be quite inspiring and uplifting!  The New England Board of Higher Education was pleased to be a part of this memorable luncheon, and to have the opportunity to publicly recognize the exemplary work of Eastern Maine Community College in promoting student access and success through their Summer Success Program, Student Success Center, and Veterans of America.

I appreciate all of your efforts in coordinating and organizing this recognition ceremony.  Thank you again for the opportunity to participate in this event.
Warm regards”, Karen Pardue

Karen T. Pardue, Ph.D, RN, CNE, ANEF


"As a long-time supporter of vocational/technical education, I was extremely pleased to nominate Eastern Maine Community College to receive the prestigious NEBHE Maine State Merit Award for the wonderful programs they have that promote success for all their students. And I was honored to be to be part of the ceremony when NEBHE President Michael Thomas presented the award to
EMCC! Congratulations . . . well deserved!!”, Wanda Lincoln, NEGHE Board Member.  Below is Wanda’s nomination on behalf of EMCC.

I am pleased to nominate Eastern Maine Community College, Bangor, Maine, for the New England Board of Higher Education 2017 Excellence, State Merit Award.

I am impressed with the variety of programming available to all learners . . . non-traditional as well as those right out of high school.

Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC) has always been a leader in the Maine Community College System and the entire Maine higher education community. Through its policies that put student success first, expansion of academic programs, and specialized training programs to aid in workforce development and assistance for dislocated workers, the college has significantly exhibited NEBHE’s mission of promoting greater educational opportunities and services for the residents of New England (in this case, Maine).

Since 2010, EMCC has been a member of the national Achieving the Dream Network, an initiative conceived in 2004 by Lumina Foundation and seven founding partner organizations, which is dedicated to helping more community college students succeed. It was through this network that EMCC received support and guidance in instituting their student success agenda, which makes student achievements the number one priority throughout campus. This resulted in a bolstering of student support services such as tutoring, advising, and extra attention in remedial coursework. Here are two examples of these new support services:

·         Student Success Center:  a brand new space, which serves as a hub for student support services, and

·         Summer Success Academies: a program where incoming students can gain college readiness skills and complete remedial coursework over the summer to get into their core classes more rapidly.
In 2014, EMCC was recognized nationally as a Leader College by Achieving the Dream, one of only 16 community colleges that year. In particular, the college was lauded for nearly doubling the success rate for students referred to developmental mathematics.

In addition, EMCC administration was instrumental in establishing a Student Veterans of America (SVA) chapter on campus. This organization is led by veteran students to act as an informational resource and voice for fellow veterans that are entering or enrolled into Eastern Maine Community College. SVA members help build strong relationships between our veterans at EMCC, act as a peer counseling group for veterans and the families of veterans, and assist veterans to make the transition to college life. SVA members can participate in these activities in the new Student Veterans Lounge, – a very nice, quiet space for them to use for meetings, studying, etc. SVA also participate in fund raising for veteran groups within the community.

Eastern Maine Community College has added several new high-quality academic programs and expanded existing ones to aid in students getting jobs in good career fields. These include Hospitality and Tourism Management, Criminal Justice, and Fine Woodworking among others.

EMCC also expanded its Medical Assistant degree program to rural Hancock County and Piscataquis county (in Ellsworth and Dover-Foxcroft, respectively), and its Early Childhood Education program to Hancock County. These rural areas of Maine were in dire need of good training for good jobs, and EMCC offered them a pathway to just that.

In addition, EMCC is a leader in workforce development and training that leads to optimal educational opportunities and services for residents of Maine. It has partnered with many regional businesses such as the Jackson Laboratory, RH Foster, Emera Maine, MDI Hospital, and Hollywood Casino to provide continuing education and training to their employees. This education and training has bolstered skills of these employees, making them more competitive in the workforce and more valuable to their employers.

EMCC played a significant role in re-training efforts following paper mill closures in East Millinocket, Lincoln and Bucksport.  EMCC developed two customized re-training programs in Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), and Fine Woodworking and Cabinet Making. The dislocated workers who have gone through these programs gained a variety of industry-recognized skills and certifications to make them employable. Ten out of the twelve in the Fine Woodworking cohort secured employment shortly after the program ended in July.

Finally, EMCC’s Building Construction Technologies Department has begun a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and they will be completing their first build along with the homeowners in 2017.


Eastern Maine Community College is a two-year college that provides the highest quality post-secondary technical, career and transfer education and serves as a dynamic community and economic development resource. In addition to its Bangor campus, the college has three off-campus higher education centers in Dover-Foxcroft, Ellsworth, and East Millinocket.