I have had the pleasure of working in the Portland educational community for over 30 years. There has been a lot of negative press lately, so I wanted to draw some attention to a teacher and her students who are changing our world for the better. I am also going to give readers a direct and easy way to support her and other teachers in our communities.
I met Anne Loughlin approximately 25 years ago when she had just won the Milken Award as an outstanding science educator. She was literally showing her students how to make and send real rockets up in the air behind Casco Bay High School.
Through the Donors Choose program, the Portland educational community has funded hundreds of projects. I became an ambassador for Donors Choose and Anne approached me in 2010 about acquiring 3D printers. Anne may have been the first to have them in her classroom. Today, many of her students have gone on to study engineering at the University of Maine – and the largest 3D polymer printer in the world is currently located there.
Dr. Habib Dagher is the founding executive director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center at the university, a 100,000-square-foot laboratory. He has been involved with offshore wind technology as well as a tiny house project in Bangor that aims to eliminate homelessness.
The world is watching, and Portland teachers and students are at the forefront of this incredible effort.
If your child is lucky enough to be in Anne Loughlin’s classroom, she will light a fire under them and they will accomplish amazing things. Please go to Donors Choose and help fund her projects, or any teacher’s project that you are excited about.
I am proud of these teachers and students. Let’s show our support.
Martha Frost
Falmouth
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