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News Article Colby students visit Beatrice Rafferty Written by Lora Whelan from The Quoddy Tides During a recent Thursday morning, students at Beatrice Rafferty met with Colby College students for a morning of activities centered on early college awareness. The program, Wabanaki/Bates, Bowdoin and Colby Collaborative Early Awareness Program, encourages Wabanaki students in late elementary and junior high school to attend college. The program is in its second year and Colby students were remarking during a break between sessions that as the program matures it will be tailored to fit different schools' needs. The Wabanaki Confederacy includes Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Micmac communities. If the fifth and sixth graders were any indication, the Beatrice Rafferty students were having fun with the interactive games that the Colby students had created. But they may also have been having fun with the Colby students themselves. The "Philosophy Game" asked the young students to make decisions based on a what-if scenario. Philosophy was introduced by the Colby students as "the love of wisdom" or "the love of debate," with a quick qualification that debate meant respectful dialogue. The game's scenario involved a sinking vessel holding six people, with a life boat only capable of holding two. Brief biographies were given of the six individuals, creating an immediate framework about the merits of each person and their worth to society. The students were then asked to decide who should survive. The fifth and sixth graders quickly proved their understanding of the nature of philosophy by challenging the Colby students with the framing of the scenario. "How far are they from the coast? How cold's the water? How come there's only one life boat?" Colby students responded quickly, trying to guide the youth back to the game's intended parameters. The fifth and sixth graders were having none of it. "Why were they in the boat in the first place, and why can't they fix the boat?" At that point one Colby student said that the boat was in the Alaskan waters and a big shark had eaten a huge hole in the bottom of the boat. Trying to end the debate, she declared that it couldn't be fixed. She was quickly reminded by more than one student that there are no sharks in Alaskan waters. When the students were asked if there had been any right answer to the scenario, they answered with a resounding "No." One Colby student, Kristen Ortiz, remarked of her experience at Pleasant Point, "It was such an honor to be able to talk to the students. I loved hearing the students sing in Passamaquoddy - it's such a unique language and it gave me chills to hear such young children singing in the language of their ancestors. I feel so honored that they wanted to share that with us and I'll always remember that from this trip." Ortiz is a Colby senior majoring in psychology, a native Hawaiian, and was accepted in the Teach for America Corps program. After graduating in May, she will be teaching special education in Hawaii. Beatrice Rafferty Principal Michael Chadwick noted that the three colleges would like to see "increased diversity at their campuses and want to open their doors to Native students." Like many educators, he felt that any student who ends their education "in high school, won't get far in this economy." Chadwick felt that the three colleges were making extensive efforts to broaden their base. Ruth Jacobs, associate director of communications at Colby College, reports that as of 2008, "Colby converted all loans to grants in financial aid packages, students no longer have to take out loans to pay for their Colby education." She explains, "Colby does not have specific Native American funds. That said, our need-based packages make it possible for families to have 'all or most of their costs' covered by aid." A Colby senior who visited Beatrice Rafferty, Jake Obstfeld, feels that Colby, Bates and Bowdoin offer something special over a university experience. He explains that because the three colleges are permeated by a strong atmosphere of cultural views, "it leads to a different outlook on the world," he says. Native students "may find more of a similar outlook on the world than at a large university." Of his experience at Beatrice Rafferty he says, "I was very impressed with how the school was a self-contained unit. There was an atmosphere of family and community."

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