These students are 11 reasons why the future looks bright.

Heritier “Fred” Itangishaka and Everine Nzaninka don’t know exactly what happened to their parents. Brother and sister by adoption, each was about 8 years old when their birth parents were killed in 2006, a tragic result of civil strife that has plagued what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo for more than a […]

Cancer terrifies most people. For Gage Anderson, it has been the driving focus of his independent studies since he was a freshman at Berwick Academy in South Berwick. “It’s a scourge on the Western world and the second-biggest killer in the United States,” Anderson said, “and I find it absolutely fascinating.” As a freshman, Gage […]

Darren “Lil’ Bluesman” Thiboutot got a taste of the music business beyond Maine in January, when he performed at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. Sponsored by the Maine Blues Society, Thiboutot was there as a noncompeting youth performer under age 21. Guitar in hand, he took the stage at Silky O’Sullivan’s on Beale […]

As a little girl growing up in Baghdad, Maryam Abdullah marveled at the sight of airplanes soaring across the sky. She never imagined that she would one day fly to a new home in the United States or that she could ever hope to get a job at NASA. Abdullah was 8 years old when […]

Stanzin Angmo comes from a place that claims the distinction of having several of the highest motorable roads in the world. An international student at North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth, Angmo grew up in the small village of Stok in Ladakh, a remote region of northern India on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas. Her […]

Meredith Hawkins was young when she realized that some words can hurt. As a seventh-grader at Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth, she launched a campaign, “Spread the Word to End the Word,” to stop the derogatory use of “retard” and “retarded” in the town’s schools. “It was especially prevalent when I was in seventh grade,” […]

Fred Pierce wasn’t getting much out of Greely High School before his junior year. Halfway through 10th grade, the Cumberland student was failing a few classes and wondering whether he’d graduate on time, let alone get his name on the honor roll. Then he visited the Westbrook Regional Vocational Center, which also serves students from […]

While some high school graduates struggle to choose a career, Molly Merrifield already has a few, and she’s been working at them for a while. The Gorham High School graduate grew up on Merrifield Farm, a 25-acre spread in North Gorham, where she helped her parents, Lyle and Jo-Ann, produce maple syrup and make many […]