Two hundred and thirty-four students graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle during the 2010-2011 academic year. On Saturday, May 14, at 10:30 a.m. during the 2010 Commencement Exercises, the University’s 102nd Commencement, President Donald Zillman conferred degrees upon 136 students who participated in the ceremony held in Wieden Gymnasium.
Two hundred and thirty-four students graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Saturday, May 14, during the 2011 Commencement Exercises – the University’s 102nd Commencement ceremony. President Donald Zillman conferred degrees for the 2010-2011 academic year upon 136 students who participated in the ceremony held in Wieden Gymnasium.
Dr. Anthony D. Cortese addressed the graduates as this year’s commencement speaker. During the graduation event, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree was presented to Dr. Cortese.
President Don Zillman has announced that Dr. Anthony D. Cortese will deliver the commencement address during the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s 102nd Commencement Ceremony, to be held on Saturday, May 14. During the event, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree will be presented to Dr. Cortese.
“We are honored to have one of our nation’s longtime and well-known advocates for environmental sustainability address our graduating class this year. Dr. Cortese’s unwavering commitment to and passion for this critical issue is a strong model for our graduates as they enter their chosen careers,” said President Zillman. “We are also very pleased to be honoring Dr. Cortese for his outstanding example of the importance of public service.”
University of Maine at Presque Isle Education students from the U.S. and Canada recently participated in an international debate about higher education with students from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland.
The hour-long debate, titled Higher Education in the USA, Canada & Poland: Similarities & Differences, was able to happen in real time through the use of teleconferencing technology. The debate, conducted in English, was held during University Day on April 13 and was organized by UMPI’s chapter of the Student Education Association of Maine [SEAM].
University of Maine at Presque Isle students in an honors class on domestic violence are helping to organize a training session for healthcare professionals to be held on Friday, April 29, from Noon to 4 p.m. in the Campus Center.
Approximately 35 healthcare attendees from throughout the community are registered to participate in the training session, titled Health Care Response to Intimate Partner Violence: Reach Out, Recognize, Respond, Refer. The event is being sponsored by the UMPI Criminal Justice Program and the Hope and Justice Project.
University of Maine at Presque Isle Social Work majors gave a presentation during University Day on April 13 about the opportunity they had to meet with their state legislators and learn about how their future careers intersect with state government during a recent trip to Augusta.
Four Social Work majors talked about their trip on March 9 during Social Workers’ Legislative Day at the State House, which included opportunities for current and future social workers to meet their legislators, receive an update on National Association of Social Workers [NASW] Maine Chapter’s legislative advocacy, and take a tour of the State House. The event also included a lobby tracking and a mock hearing in collaboration with the Maine Women’s Lobby.
A University of Maine at Presque Isle Biology Professor will take part in a two and a half month research project at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory after earning a Visiting Scientist Fellowship from the prestigious research institution. Her fellowship is being funded in part by the Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence [INBRE] program.
Dr. Rachael Hannah is working at the MDIBL from May 15 to July 31, and will focus her research on creating a central nervous system injury model in the zebra fish to better understand neuron regeneration. Dr. Hannah will work with the researcher Dr. Voot Yin, an expert in limb regeneration, on her project. According to Dr. Hannah, nothing like this has been reported thus far. She explained that using zebra fish for her research will help to answer basic questions regarding what happens to our brains after an injury.
The UMPI Disc Sports Club is inviting campus and community members to take part in the inaugural National Amateur Dodgeball Association [NADA] Dodgeball Tournament, to be held from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, May 8, in Wieden Gymnasium.
The tournament will serve as a fundraiser for the club – so it can purchase more disc baskets and complete its disc golf course, and also so it can donate some of the funds to the Easton Girls athletic program. The group is hoping to raise $1,000.
University of Maine at Presque Isle officials are pleased to announce that the UMPI chapter of the Criminal Justice Honor Society has officially been chartered as Chapter Mu Nu.
Dr. Charles Johnson, Alpha Phi Sigma Advisor and Assistant Criminal Justice Professor, comments, “It is indeed a privilege to have a chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma at UMPI for those students who strive to be the ‘best and the brightest’ in the area of criminal justice. There are fewer than 400 Alpha Phi Sigma chapters in the United States, and Mu Nu is the only chapter at a college or university in Maine. This unique opportunity for our criminal justice students is an excellent example of the kind of offerings that UMPI strives to provide for its campus community.”
University of Maine at Presque Isle Art professor Renee Felini will showcase the next installment of her Art as My Vehicle series at the Railroad Square Cinema – located at 17 Railroad Square in Waterville – on Saturday, April 16, at 11 a.m. Felini will premiere a short film as the final result of Art as My Vehicle #9: Run a Mile – Climbing My Mount Everest, followed by a question and answer session with the artist. She describes the piece like this: “At age 30, I could not say that I had ever run a full mile. When playing soccer while younger, the running was in spurts. One of the main reasons I quit the volleyball team after junior high was that I could not meet the running requirements levied by the high school coach. I reluctantly admit that I even cheated on the running portion of the Presidential Fitness Test in grade school, skipping laps in the mile. I finally decided it was time I meet this challenge head on. No time requirements were set. I simply had to run a full mile, start to finish. I received motivation from the team of two camera operators and the driver in the car I ran behind. The accomplishment is documented with a video of me running toward the camera for a mile.”