Chris Ouellette discovered his passion during his senior year of high school, and now he wants to become a licensed electrician.

The recent graduate from John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor initially planned to work for a while before embarking on the classroom component of his journey to become a master electrician. But a new state program that allows Ouellette and other recent Maine high school graduates to attend the state’s community colleges for free for two years has accelerated his plans.

“I was kind of heading towards that direction already before,” he said. “But, of course, once the word came out that there was going to be this free college, it was even more of a push for me to do it now.” Read more»