AUBURN — Carmen Edwards of Auburn has been selected as Student of the Year at Central Maine Community College. She and six other Maine community college students were honored recently for their academic success and campus and community involvement at a ceremony in Augusta hosted by the Maine Community College System Board of Trustees.

The award winners were selected by college faculty and staff. Each of the students will be awarded a John H. Lapoint, Jr. Leadership Award in the amount of $1,000. Lapoint was president of UF Strainrite in Lewiston and a trustee of the MCCS when he passed away in 1995. Lapoint’s widow, Jana, a former board chair who served from 1995 to 2006, helped establish the fund for the annual awards.

A human services major, Edwards is a 57-year-old mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society and has consistently earned high honors or president’s honors. An active and engaged student in every way, she has worked as a peer mentor and served as president of the Human Services Club.

Edward’s journey to Maine from her native Philadelphia included a number of challenges and obstacles. Once settled in the community, she earned her GED through Lewiston Adult Education and then went on to cosmetology school. She enrolled in CMCC’s human services program in 2010 with the goal of one day helping others overcome obstacles just as she had.

Edward’s nominator wrote that “Carmen represents the epitome of what we hope for in all CMCC students; she is a conscientious citizen, embraces diversity, and is a life-long learner.”

Edwards plans to enroll this fall in a baccalaureate program at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College.

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