Vermont Student Liah Heads to Saint Michael's College

Liah, a senior at Canaan School in Vermont, will attend Saint Michael’s College this fall with a scholarship covering a full year of tuition, part of an effort to help rural students reach degrees their families couldn’t easily afford.

Canaan sits in the Northeast Kingdom, hard against the New Hampshire border, about 40 miles north of St. Johnsbury. It’s not a place most Dartmouth students pass through. But for Liah, it’s home, and she doesn’t plan to leave it behind permanently. Her goal after college is to come back to the Upper Valley region and work in business, possibly banking, in the same communities where she grew up.

“There are so many opportunities here,” she said. “I wish everyone knew that and how good things are here. There’s so much support as you’re figuring out your next step.”

That support has come from several directions. Jesse Cote, a VSAC outreach counselor who works with Liah through VSAC’s GEAR UP college and career readiness program, encouraged her to apply to multiple schools. Liah applied early decision to Saint Michael’s College anyway. She found out she was accepted in December.

She’d already been named a finalist for the SMC Book Award for Community Engagement, a scholarship that pays one year of tuition. Her school counselor nominated her. When the award came through, her decision was made.

“It’s incredibly meaningful,” she said. “I’ve been committed to attending Saint Mike’s since then, and I’m just so excited to see it happening.”

She’ll study accounting and business. Because she’s accumulated college credits already, she’ll enter SMC as a sophomore. That head start, combined with the Book Award, knocks a significant chunk off what would otherwise be a steep bill.

The financial pressure matters a lot in Liah’s household.

All four siblings will be in college at the same time this fall. Her eldest sister is enrolled in a dental assistant program. Her older sister was just accepted into a nursing program. Her twin will train as an early childhood educator. And Liah will be at SMC in Colchester, Vermont.

Four kids. One fall. Simultaneously.

Their mom recently finished her own nursing degree, earning her RN licensure while raising the twins from when they were born, taking online courses one at a time. She’s now working at an assisted living facility in Newport. Their dad works at the Ethan Allen factory in Beecher Falls, where he’s been employed since his teens. His partner has a daughter currently in her junior year at the University of New Hampshire.

Both parents, Liah says, are deeply supportive.

Liah’s experience goes beyond academic credits. She’s been working as an assistant office manager at Jackson’s Lodge and Log Cabins, a locally owned business on Lake Wallace in Canaan. She handled operations and customer service, skills she also built through Future Business Leaders of America and Key Club at Canaan School. VTDigger’s profile of Liah’s path captures how those early work experiences gave her a clearer sense of what she wants to do professionally.

Rural Vermont students face a particular set of obstacles when it comes to college access. Geographic isolation limits the college-going culture that students in larger towns absorb naturally. School counselors cover wide caseloads across sparse populations. Programs like GEAR UP exist precisely because the default systems don’t work as well out here as they do in more densely populated places.

For Liah, the combination of a strong counselor relationship, a scholarship that recognized community engagement rather than just grades or test scores, and her own determination to stay connected to her home region produced a path that looks sustainable. She’s not leaving to escape Canaan. She’s leaving to come back better prepared.

“I had faith it would happen,” she said.

That kind of confidence, in a place and in a plan, doesn’t always get enough credit when people talk about college readiness. For students from small rural towns, knowing why you’re going matters just as much as getting in.