The University of Maine at Presque Isle is pleased to announce that it will serve as the host of the 35th National Institute on Rural Social Work. The institute is expected to bring together social work and human services professionals from all over the United States and parts of Canada for a three-day conference focused on issues surrounding rural social work.

The event, to be held from July 14-17 and sponsored by UMPI’s Social Work Program and the National Rural Social Work Caucus, was held last year in Duluth, Minn. and will be held next year in Natchitoches, La. The theme of this year’s conference is “The 3 R’s of Rural Social Work: Relationships, Resources & Resiliency.”

Two hundred and seventeen students graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Saturday, May 15, during the 2010 Commencement Exercises – the University’s 101st Commencement ceremony. President Donald Zillman conferred degrees for the 2009-2010 academic year upon 133 students who participated in the ceremony held in Wieden Gymnasium.

U.S. Senator Susan M. Collins addressed the graduates as this year’s commencement speaker. During the graduation event, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degrees were presented to Senator Collins, and David and Roberta Griffiths, long-time pillars of the Presque Isle and university communities.

Campus and community members will have the opportunity to watch an evening’s worth of new and locally-produced short films when the Fine Art Department of the University of Maine at Presque hosts the first annual Fiddleheads Film Festival, starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 13, in UMPI’s Wieden Auditorium.

Several short films, each 15 minutes or less and created by local students and community members, will be showcased.

Sarah Smiley – author of the nationally syndicated newspaper column “Shore Duty,” which reaches more than 2 million readers weekly – will serve as guest speaker during the Houlton Higher Education Center’s “Graduation Celebration” at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 20.

The nationally known writer is coming to northern Maine through the coordination of Bernadette Farrar, Assistant Director of the Houlton/Hodgdon SAD #29/70 Adult Education program, which is housed at the Houlton Center, and HHEC Director Chuck Ames. The center, which opened its doors for classes in August 2001, is administered by the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

Students in a Social Work class at the University of Maine at Presque Isle spent the day on May 3 helping to create awareness for the people affected by the recent earthquake in Haiti during their project “A Tribute to Hope.”

Students in Professor Shirley Rush’s Social Work 287 course “Human Behavior in the Social Environment II” undertook a campus wide, non-verbal demonstration for the project, which included a multimedia presentation in the Campus Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., as well as the 24-hour installation outside of Folsom Hall of a tent constructed with salvageable materials to symbolize resilience. The tent was similar to the make-shift shelters Haitians have had to make for their families after the earthquake.