Stephanie Littlehale, an international affairs major with a minor in legal studies, will graduate in May 2012 with a GPA of at least 3.8, an admirable accomplishment for any student, but even more remarkable considering some of the challenges this first-generation college student has overcome since high school. As a high school student, Littlehale found herself at one point homeless with no money. She worked three jobs, legally emancipated herself at age 17, and yet graduated valedictorian of her class at Georges Valley High School in Thomaston in 2008. She now lives with a supportive family in Rockport and has been working for a caterer while attending UMaine classes online and at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast. Since beginning her studies at the University of Maine, Littlehale has been named a Mitchell Scholar, a Maine Seacoast Mission Scholar, and the winner of the UMaine Department of Political Science’s annual Graton Constitutional Essay Contest. The Phi Beta Kappa honor society inductee also spent a semester abroad at the American University in Bulgaria in Blagoevgrad and founded and became president of diversity awareness group at UMaine, the “University Change Agents,” in addition to working with the campus “No Place for Hate” group, the Wilde Stein organization and other diversity-related projects associated with the UMaine Multicultural Center and Franco-American Center. She was the nomination for the College of Liberal Arts’ international affairs candidate for Outstanding Graduating Senior. Read full story