In the North Country, economic change is taken for granted. Few people would argue that the timber industry, once the source of so many jobs, can be counted on to provide steady work in the years ahead. The Community Technical College in Berlin is a key part of the mix in this economic transition. But more generally, it is part of some very personal changes in the lives of many North Country residents.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Jon Greenberg recently sat down with five students at the college – four graduates and one who will finish next year. He has this report on what their education means to them.
Across Route 16 from the passionless and squat main building on the Berlin campus is a beautiful Victorian home, the former estate of a timber and railroad family. Today, it's a college building and the dining room has become a small conference room. Most of the students I'm supposed to meet are here and we're just pulling up our chairs, getting started a little late, when the last student finally shows up.
TAPE All right, here we go.// We were looking for your name.//That's good, sometimes it's good to be// But what is your name.// George./ George, well were all gonna that straight in just a second.
Students at New Hampshire Community Technical College: Rachael Dandeneau, Gloria Potter, George Corriveau, Mariann Letarte, Dawn Keddy. (Jon Greenberg, NHPR)
George is George Corriveau. A fit looking 51-year old with thinning hair and blue eyes, George just got his degree in nursing – a smart move in a place where the timber industry is in rapid decline. Two years ago, George was working for Wassau Papers in Groveton.
TAPE I had an option to get out and I did. I decided to go into the nursing field. // You were at the mill in Groveton. And for how many years had you been there?// I was there for ten years. I don't regret leaving the paper environment at all. This whole experience with nursing has been, for want of a better word, awesome."
And continuing with our introductions, there's Dawn Keddy. Dawn's education also has to do with a major transition. In her case, the change was more personal than economic. She's 40 years old and she ended up back at school following a divorce. Dawn got her degree in automotive technology.
TAPE: I'm actually looking to get a job in alignments and tires; that's the thing I like to do the most.
Dawn could start looking for work now, but she plans to come back next semester.
TAPE: Four more classes allows me to get an automotive service management degree which makes me a lot more marketable, especially as a 40-year-old woman going into a male dominated career. I need to have all the help I can get. // Any concerns about going into a male dominated field?// I'm looking forward to it but I know that no matter where you go, there will always be one or two bad apples waiting for you to fail. And they're going to be looking for the mistake that they can laugh about. Especially as a woman in a male dominated field. That's one of my fears. I don't want to screw up. And I know they'll be watching me a lot harder than they would a male coming through the door.
Sitting next to Dawn is a small, neatly dressed woman who didn't need a degree to get a job. Gloria Potter is 49 years old and already works for the college in the business office.
But Gloria dropped out of high school when she was 17 and when her son also dropped out, she wasn't happy one bit.
TAPE: That was one of the main reasons to go back to school, was to give him a good role model for him to follow. To go back to school and he's doing well. And that's my end goal – was my son.
Gloria's son is nearly done with college -- in less time than it took his mother to earn her associate's degree in general studies.
While technically, a degree at Berlin can be completed in two years, the combination of work, school and family forces most students to be a little more patient. Mariann Letarte took three and a half years to finish her program in office management. At 45, she now works as the town clerk in Dummer and is training to become the town's tax collector.
Mariann has no trouble describing why the end of fulltime classes gives her such a sense of relief.
TAPE: When you're in school all day and you got to go to work at night and you got to get out of work for half an hour to get your daughter to dance class and then you get home at 10 at night and you have to help your daughter with her homework. And then the next morning, you have to be at her school to volunteer for something that's going on and – it didn't stop.
Getting a degree took time and it took money. Tuition and books cost about 5 thousand dollars a year. That's one of the highest rates in the nation for a community college. But it is far less than the cost at a four year college. This point is crystal clear to Rachael Dandeneau, the youngest member of the group. Rachael is 20 and working towards a degree in environmental studies.
TAPE: Some people have their college educations handed to them on a silver platter. Mom and Dad have had the college fund since the day they were born. For somebody like me, y dad is a self-employed logger. And while he has done very well for himself and my family, he didn't, my family didn't have the extra money to put away in a college fund. So I'm paying for college completely on my own. This gives me the slightly cheaper option but I'm still getting the benefits of a real college and I still get to stay in the North Country, which for me is paramount.
For everyone in the group, part of their satisfaction with the Berlin Technical College is that it is in this part of the state. It's not just a matter of convenience. They really like this place.
George likes it because he has a chance to speak French everyday. Dawn likes it because she can spend an entire day riding her 4-wheeler on old logging roads. And all of them, like Mariann, love the wildness.
TAPE: When I open my window in the morning, my shades, I have moose, I have a bear, I have a deer. It's there. It's beautiful. I wouldn't move away for any amount of money. They couldn't give me a price on my house. Love it up here. I love the city of Dummer.
Graduation always seems full of promise and this is a pretty optimistic group. Mariann is the only one who talks about her worries for the future. Her husband is a trucker in the timber industry. These days, his last contract is to haul off tankers filled with chemicals from the closed pulp mill in Berlin. After that, the prospects are murky.
But for the other graduates, this is a fine turning point. Especially for Dawn, the newly minted car mechanic.
TAPE: As far as my future goes, I'm feeling pretty bright about it. After divorce, it's a wonderful thing. You start looking like the future is a lot brighter. No disrespect to my ex-husband, but I have taken my life down avenues I never would have expected and I'm ready to kick some major butt in the auto industry.
And what could anyone add to that? For NHPR News, I'm Jon Greenberg.
