A University of Maine at Presque Isle program that serves local residents over 50 and believes in “learning for life” will host its spring kick-off with a luncheon event at 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 19 in the Campus Center.

Seniors Achieving Greater Education [SAGE] has worked for more than a decade to bring short courses in arts, sciences, and specialty areas to the region’s senior community. SAGE is one of 16 senior colleges in the Maine Senior College Network, and the only one north of Orono.

At the March 19 luncheon, participants will have the opportunity to socialize with SAGE members. Following lunch, they will learn all about upcoming SAGE classes. This spring, SAGE officials are offering a dozen courses and learning excursions – on topics ranging from Darwin’s Origin of Species and Financial Foundations to the Civil War and Italian cooking. Learning excursions include trips to the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum, the Musee Cultural Du Mont-Carmel in Lille, and the Houlton sector of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Momentum Aroostook and the University are teaming up for the second year in a row to provide the area’s young professionals with a one-of-a-kind leadership development opportunity.

The two entities will host the Young Professionals Institute, a professional development short course designed specifically for emerging leaders looking to hone their professional skills. The program will be offered at the University during eight afternoon sessions between March and April. The Wednesday sessions will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on March 4, 11, 18, and 25 and April 1, 8, 15 and 22.

Officials are pleased to be partnering again on this project and hope to build on the successes they realized during the 2008 course.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host its Annual Job & Career Fair in the Campus Center from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 25. Thirty businesses and governmental agencies from the region and across the state are expected to participate in the event.

“The Job & Career Fair provides a unique opportunity for our students and the public to network with employers, discover opportunities, and to gain professional employment,” Barbara DeVaney, Director of Career Services, said.

Campus and community members will learn all about journeying to the stars when the University hosts a NASA astronaut and space shuttle commander in March as part of its Distinguished Lecturer Series.

Pamela Melroy (Colonel, USAF, retired) has served as a NASA astronaut since 1995 and has participated in three space flights, logging more than 900 hours (more than 38 days) in space and helping to conduct important assembly work for the International Space Station. She will speak on “Human Spaceflight-Shuttle, International Space Station and Beyond” at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 9 in the Campus Center. All are encouraged to attend. During her visit to Maine, Melroy will speak with students at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics and at a school in Mars Hill. On the LCS/MSSM campus, she will speak at 11 a.m. on March 9 in Boothby Auditorium.

Melroy completed a 13-day flight in 2000 aboard the space shuttle Discovery, a 10-day flight in 2002 aboard Atlantis, and a 15-day flight, on which she served as shuttle commander, in 2007, again on the space shuttle Discovery. On her 2000 and 2002 flights, she served as the shuttle pilot. She will speak about her missions, her work as commander of a shuttle, and spacewalking, robotics and living in space.

The Maine Hysterical Society takes the stage at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Wieden Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10 for a night of side-splitting laughter and entertainment.

The troupe is made up of three of Maine’s most popular entertaining variety artists, actors, musicians and Downeast humorists – Randy Judkins, Barney Martin, and Steve Underwood. The trio will present a comedy variety show of original songs and parodies, hilarious Maine characters, ‘wicked-good’ juggling, and hysterical sketches.

The Northern Maine Museum of Science and Aroostook C.A.N.C.E.R. are asking local community members to put their heads to good use and take part in the third annual Planet Head Day, to be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14 in Folsom Hall.

This is the day where community members of northern Maine and adjacent Canada have the opportunity to shave their heads and have them painted to look like planets. The less adventurous can don swim caps, provided by the museum, and have them painted instead. Participants will have many photographs of planets and moons to choose from when selecting how they want their scalp to look. This year, barber Patrick Coughlin of Parsons Street Barbershop and an assemblage of planet head painters will be available for the occasion.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will showcase the work of the University’s newest Fine Art professor with an exhibit that focuses on the “personal community” she has created since moving to northern Maine.

Renee Felini’s installation Creating Community will be on display from Feb. 2 through March 6 in the Reed Gallery. A closing reception for the exhibit will be held on Friday, March 6, from 5-7 p.m.

Creating Community is a gathering of objects and creations by Felini representing her family’s sense of “personal community” since their arrival in northern Maine.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host its annual spring semester blood drive on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. This blood drive is sponsored by the UMPI Residence Life Office, the Brothers of Kappa Delta Phi and the Sisters of Kappa Delta Phi NAS.

The blood drive is scheduled from noon until 6 p.m. in the Campus Center’s Multi Purpose Room. Door prizes will be given away during the event. If donors wish to reserve a time, they should call 768-9585 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome, or you can sign up at the new online appointment scheduler at www.givelife.org.

Criminal Justice students at the University of Maine at Presque Isle will take on members of the area’s police departments during the 4th Annual Law Enforcement vs. CJ Students Basketball Game.

The competition begins on Friday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. in Wieden Gymnasium. For three years running, University students have gone undefeated. This year’s fundraising event for the University’s CJ Club will pit several criminal justice students against local police officers to determine whether this will be the year the police make their comeback, or whether CJ students can pull off another win.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s 2008-2009 Distinguished Lecturer Series kicks off the spring semester and the New Year with a presentation by an internationally renowned researcher on Native American language and culture and Indigenous education.

Dr. Marie Battiste, the Academic Director of the Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, will speak on “Animating Indigenous Knowledge in Education: From Resilience to Renaissance” on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center. The public is invited to attend this free event. Battiste also will speak to several University classes and community groups, including the local Native American community, during her visit.

For more than 30 years, Battiste has researched Aboriginal culture and experience and how they are related to lifelong learning. Her studies have ranged from protection of Aboriginal knowledge, heritage and culture to Native American learning paradigms to university retention and access of Aboriginal graduate students.