DURHAM -
Students from several area schools, including Dover and
Hampton high schools, are getting used to college before they even get there.
Through a program called Project Search, students volunteer for the seminar
program, which costs schools $250 per student.
The students don’t receive any credit for their time, but
the experience proves invaluable. And the program is so popular, several
schools have students on a waiting list.
“The lecture hall will only hold so many,” said Jim Fabiano,
director of Project Search.
The next event for the group is a seminar on Wednesday,
October 3, concerning the upcoming election.
Speakers include Ryan Mohoney, executive director of the New
Hampshire Democratic Party, James Foley, finance director and Derry GOP
chairman, Jon Simons, executive director of NH GOP, and Meg Stone,
communications director and field director of NHGOP. They will form a panel to
discuss what it means to be either a Republican or Democrat especially during
an election year.
“My students are looking forward to this presentation,” said
Fabiano, emphasizing that it is not a political debate but an information
forum.
Each participating school also has a faculty advisor who
joins the students for the seminars. John Dover has been Project Search advisor
at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton now for about 15 years.
“I think (Project) Search has been a really good program for
a lot of students. It helps them in a lot of ways, including giving them a
sense of a college community, forging friendships and relationships with
students from other schools, (and) getting them to think about ideas that they
have not considered before,” Dover said, adding that the program is about
“helping them to find their own voices and learn to express themselves.”
This program has been in operation for thirty years and has
worked with thousands of students on the seacoasts of New Hampshire and Maine.
“This is a program sponsored by the schools and even during these difficult
economic times, especially for public education, each participating school
clearly understands how much this program helps their students,” Fabiano said.
Jessica Bonello was a discussion leader while at the
University of New Hampshire, and now, thirteen years later, she is an advisor
for it at Dover High School.
“The funding at Dover was cut this year, but we raised the
money,” Bonello said. “The teachers and students find it valuable,” she said,
so she raised the money by writing “about a million letters” to area
businesses.
Eight students from her school are able to participate,
though some schools from New Hampshire and Maine send as many as twenty
students.
For more information on Project Search, the schools that
participate, and upcoming seminars, visit projectsearchunh.org.
