Nathan Hickey first started mentoring 19-year-old Dakota Eddy three years ago, when she was a sophomore at Mill River Union High School. Working through the GEAR UP program, Nathan is part of a team of VSAC Outreach Counselors throughout the state who offer guidance and support to middle- and high…
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Blog Archive: Vermont Spotlights
In the fall of 2020, Michelle Legere walked into the sophomore-class advisory group at Richford Junior-Senior High School to introduce herself as a brand-new VSAC Outreach Counselor. Even on her very first day at work, she knew that Xavier Wood was a standout. “The students took turns introducing…
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During the spring of his senior year at Burr & Burton Academy, Nick Williams had several college acceptance letters sitting on his desk. But, he recalls saying to his parents at the time, “I have no idea how I’m going to afford this.” “It kind of soured the process for me,” says Nick, now 24. “I…
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Vaughn Winter is determined to rise above the series of odd warehousing and restocking jobs he's held since graduating from Montpelier High School.
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Burlington High School senior Sahra Hassan has twice been recognized as being among the top students in the country and part of the nation’s most promising STEM talent. But you’d never know it in talking to her. This hardworking and high-achieving student comes across, first and foremost, as humble…
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Dylan Tanner is ready for a career that taps into his digital design passions and allows him to spend more time with his growing family.
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When college-bound Rhiana Carr was starting her final year at Fair Haven Union High School and thinking about next steps, the top-ranked college just 18 miles down the road from her home in Orwell wasn’t initially on her application list. Even though Middlebury College was very familiar to her—given…
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BryAnna Goslant became interested in criminal justice when she was recovering from extensive hip surgery her sophomore year in high school.
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When Mikayla Powell was born, her parents were still kids themselves. “My mom and dad were just teenagers. There are pictures from their high school graduation with me in it,” she says.
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Allyson Ratz, 17, has always been interested in how things are put together. Whether it’s the individual strokes of one of her award-winning pencil drawings, how the lines of a classic rock song can tell a story of social change, or how the release of chemicals inside the brain can influence a…
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