Speaking with special education teacher and Talent Search alum Kelsey Stratton is nothing short of inspiring. A native of Randolph Union High School, Kelsey credits both her ability to give back to her students and her interest in education to the support VSAC gave to her as a young student. For…
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Blog Archive: Student Aid Options
When 18-year-old Hawa Abdi was 2 years old, her parents made the decision to emigrate from Africa to the United States, where they knew they could give their children a life filled with education and opportunity, rather than poverty and political persecution – things they had personally experienced…
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Abdimajiid Mohamed is in search of total bliss when it comes to career planning … among other things. “Any job that I get up in the morning happy to go to would be great,” he says. “Life’s too short not to be happy.” For Mohamed, now a student at Trine University in Angola, Indiana, a major in…
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Megan Rippie, who graduated from Milton High School this spring, has always been a mentor and support for her brother, who is two years younger and on the autism spectrum. “Tyler and I are very close,” she says. “He’s more like a best friend than a brother. We never bickered, growing up.” That…
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Dr. Cody Paiva, a 2009 graduate of Blue Mountain Union High School in Wells River and a 2020 medical degree recipient from Pacific Northwest University in Yakima, Washington, was once his mother’s boss at McDonald’s. It’s a quirky twist of fate that helps tell the story of a young man from humble…
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Sophia Desrochers embraces change as a leadership opportunity, inspiring others to adapt, grow, and lead with confidence in any situation.
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When Chandler Prescott was a high school sophomore, he joined the Forestry and Natural Resources program at Stafford Technical Center, where he got a big eye-opening. “It was there where I learned about the wilderness … how global warming is affecting the wild and everything like that. I just really…
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Cassandra Bittner knows she overcame some tough odds to be able to go to college at all. Neither of her parents had gone to college; in fact, her mother never even finished high school. And in St. Albans, where she grew up, she was definitely not alone in that, a factor that made for some low…
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When asked to talk about his journey from a kid growing up in Milton to a successful college freshman, Trent Cross tells a story marked with the typical challenge facing first-generation college students: “None of my family had ever gone to college, so I didn’t really know what way to go.” “But when…
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For families with a high school senior, now is when most college acceptances arrive in full force (congratulations!), and with them, financial aid offers. It’s an exciting time and—let’s face it—also a bit overwhelming as deadlines loom: Most colleges require a deposit by May 1. That means that…
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