Ten years ago my wife and I took a vacation — a few days on Prince Edward Island. We were about to celebrate our fifth anniversary and Alexandra had always wanted to visit the land of Green Gables, home to L.M. Montgomery and her almost-real character, Anne.

We brought our bicycles and pedaled along rolling green hills and shores of red sand.

Back then we were preparing to adopt our first baby and inscribed a welcome message to her in the red sand of Cavendish Beach. The photograph draws smiles from everyone paging through our family album.

As we prepare to celebrate our 15th anniversary, the baby has grown into an imaginative girl of 10, right at home in Anne’s world of Green Gables. Her rambunctious enthusiasm is rivaled only by that of her 7-year-old sister. (The first adoption was such a success we repeated the process.)

Today I write from Prince Edward Island, where our family of four is ensconced 50 yards from the tiny cottage we rented a decade ago.

On both visits, we marveled at the University of Prince Edward Island. A decade ago, when I was an associate dean working my way slowly up the ladder of academic administration, we were surprised to stumble upon the small campus of UPEI. It appeared incongruous amid this quiet farm country. Curious and intrigued, we wandered the campus and I bought a UPEI sweatshirt that finally wore out a year ago.

This trip, we ran across a recent graduate of UPEI — he was our tour guide on the amphibious bus that took us through Charlottetown’s streets and its harbor.

As we rode the waves and enjoyed the views, I asked him to tell me more about UPEI.

“Obviously the University has enjoyed tremendous growth,” I remarked. When we drove past it during this second visit, the quaint campus we remembered was surrounded by several newer buildings, much larger. “It’s been amazing,” replied our guide. “The campus has added several new academic buildings and residence halls, and increased its enrollment substantially. Most of it was done with private donations because the province gives the University much less funding now.

International borders make little difference. No college is an island — even if it happens to sit on one.

The ups and downs experienced by colleges and universities are tied to the economic, political and cultural vicissitudes of the communities they serve. Our institutions bear the repercussions, yet we also have the opportune duty to lead our communities toward stability and growth.

On Prince Edward Island, as well as in southern Maine, higher education is leading the way.

RONALD G. CANTOR, Ph.D., is president of Southern Maine Community College.