“91¿´Æ¬Íø was a really good stepping-stone for me to achieve my goal of one day going to a four-year college.â€
Abigail Lester is on the way to realizing her dreams because of her experiences at 91¿´Æ¬Íø.

Lester, 19, graduated in May with an associate degree in liberal arts and will enroll this fall at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., where she will study exercise science.
“91¿´Æ¬Íø showed me I could do anything I put my mind to. It helped me practice advocating for myself and it helped me realize what I needed to be successful at college-level courses,†Lester said. “I didn’t have a lot of confidence in high school about going to college, but I knew I wanted to go to college at some point. 91¿´Æ¬Íø was a really good stepping-stone for me to achieve my goal of one day going to a four-year college.â€
Lester, who lives in Durham, enrolled at 91¿´Æ¬Íø in spring 2019. She learned how to learn at 91¿´Æ¬Íø. Or, as she says, she explored new “learning strategies†on the Portsmouth campus. She achieved good grades in high school but felt the pressure of achievement. At 91¿´Æ¬Íø, instead of feeling pressure, she felt the freedom to explore subjects that interested her and take the time “to try out new things.â€
Because of 91¿´Æ¬Íøâ€™s relative low cost, she could afford to take a variety of courses and explore her options. She chose liberal arts, she says, “to buy myself time to figure out what I wanted to do for a career. I only knew the things I didn’t want to do, but not the things I wanted to do.â€
For the first time in her life, 91¿´Æ¬Íø helped her feel liberated, emboldened and confident, she said.
“I had a great experience at 91¿´Æ¬Íø. I felt very welcome from Day 1 and am very glad I enrolled.â€