Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1519888
W O R K F O R M E / S P R I N G 2 0 2 4 46 F rom the start, Josh Hamilton was always a smart student. But he was also bored, coasting through classes, simply doing what he needed to get by. That changed when his 10 th grade biology teacher pulled him aside at Old Town High School and bluntly asked him why he wasn't taking Advanced Placement biology. Recogniz- ing that Hamilton was a critical thinker with a lot of curiosity, the teacher in his own way chal- lenged the 10 th grader to chal- lenge himself. That impetus had an impact. As a junior and senior in high school, Hamilton took eight AP classes, giving him 30 college credits by the time entered the University of Maine in Orono after high school. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree, gradu- ating with a 3.89 GPA, and then a masters' degree. Today, he's earning a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, researching early diagnostics of cancer. The roots of a pursuit When he was first asked by his 10 th grade teacher, Rad Mayfield, why he wasn't pushing himself more in school, his first reaction was "Why bother?" But then a switch flipped in his brain, changing his outlook and his pathway forward. "He was the first teacher who said, 'Just because you're smart and it's easy doesn't mean you just coast by. You need to chal- lenge yourself just like other students are challenging them- selves at their levels,'" says Ham- ilton, who's now 25. "I needed to challenge myself at my level, but I wasn't. I'd never had a teacher take me out and have that one- on-one conversation." Mayfield says he has always made a point of encouraging students to push themselves. He taught for 26 years, includ- ing 12 at Old Town High School, T e c h n o l o g y University of Maine Ph.D. candidate Josh Hamilton, foreground, credits his high school teacher, Dr. Rad Mayfield, with pushing him toward higher educational goals. P H O T O / F R E D F I E L D TEACHER The How an Old Town teacher helped spark a Ph.D student's intellectual drive B Y C L A R K E C A N F I E L D