TURNER — Maine School Administrative District 52 Adult and Community Education is celebrating one very special and extremely motivated senior, Alex Boutot.
Whine MSAD 52 Adult Ed officials are very proud of all their students, Boutot not only accepted the challenges thrown at him during this stressful and uncertain time, but embraced them. Boutot energetically exceeded expectations and managed to complete all of his coursework requirements early, making him the first adult education high school diploma graduate in the MSAD 52 Class of 2020.
Boutot had a positive attitude right from the beginning, ever since he enrolled in the MSAD 52 Adult Education Program last year, school officials said. One of his teachers, Melanie North, said, “Alex came to us with an incredibly positive attitude, and he has kept that optimistic and strong spirit throughout this entire journey.”
Boutot was always the first student to lend a helping hand, whether that meant providing his classmates transportation to and from school, or volunteering for community service activities offered through his Civic Engagement class, such as helping out with trash clean-up around Turner and participating in a homeless youth prevention forum through Rural Community Action Ministry. When asked how he manages to stay so positive all the time, he answered, “I just think people should appreciate and embrace challenges because they can always teach you something, and make you a better person.”
Boutot was diagnosed with dyslexia in first grade, but it has never been a problem for him. Sure, he struggled a little bit with reading and writing while growing up, but experiencing all of that made him a better student. He learned how important it is for him to take frequent breaks, to split up his lessons and major projects into mini-chunks, and to reach out and ask for help when he needs it. That positive outlook and ability to persevere helped provide Alex with some of the tools necessary to not just survive, but actually thrive, during this pandemic.
When asked why the MSAD 52 adult education program worked better for him than a traditional high school setting, Boutot said that he chose to attend his adult education classes, and was never “forced” to go to class or “made” to do anything.
“The teachers there are so different,” he said. “They make it very clear right from the start that we will be treated like adults, and that we will be expected to behave like adults as well. They know how to be helpful, available, and supportive without being annoying or nagging.
“The most important part of finding success during the pandemic shutdown was having our daily check-in meetings,” he said.
Teachers were constantly reaching out to students to see if they needed anything and to make sure they were okay. This unique situation actually worked in Boutot’s favor, because he was able to spend his days working with his father building their new house from scratch, from cutting their own lumber and installing their own electricity to installing the plumbing during the day, and was then able to work on his classwork at night or on weekends. That kind of schedule never would have happened in a traditional school setting.
After graduation, Boutot hopes to pursue welding, possibly at Bath Iron Works. He is a talented young man and wants to remind his fellow students and everyone else out there who might need a little encouragement right now that, “You should try to make the best out of this situation because it is never happened before, and who knows if it’ll never happen again, but next year things will probably be back to normal, so use this crazy time to do some good.”
MSAD 52 Adult and Community Education offers a wide variety of classes, now all equipped to be entirely online or a flexible combination created specifically to meet a student’s unique situation. If you know someone who needs a high school diploma, call 207-225-1010.
PHOTO: Alex Boutot standing inside the house he is building while also finishing and completing his diploma studies online as the first MSAD 52 adult education 2020 student to finish. (Submitted photo)
