Events

A University of Maine at Presque Isle English Professor has had his debut novel published and the University will celebrate with a reading and book signing event with the author on Monday, April 9 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center. The public is invited to attend this special event, which will include a reception featuring light refreshments, and wine available through a cash bar.

Richard Lee Zuras, UMPI Professor of English and Creative Writing, explores Zain’s final year of childhood, his father’s dismissal from the CIA, and his family’s near disintegration in this coming-of-age work The Bastard Year, published by the independent press, Brandylane Publishers.

A research team from the City University of New York [CUNY] will deliver a presentation at the University of Maine at Presque Isle at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 22 to discuss the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] funded research that an UMPI student has been helping them to conduct. Their project involves calculating snow cover in the region and using the results as a predictor for spring flooding issues, potentially a valuable tool for emergency management and decision-maker officials. The public is invited to attend this research presentation, which will take place in the Geospatial Information Technology Center (GIS Lab, Folsom 201).

The Houlton Higher Education Center presented a “Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!” event for area preschoolers, elementary-age students and community members on Friday, March 2.

The Houlton Center event was part of the National Education Association’s Read Across America Day, which calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of Theodore Geisel, the beloved children’s author also known as Dr. Seuss.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle hosted the free daylong conference Improving College and Career Readiness in Writing on Friday, March 2 in the Campus Center, offering area educators, curriculum coordinators and administrators the opportunity to explore ways to better prepare youth for the writing required in college and in their future career fields.

The conference, sponsored by the Central Aroostook Council on Education, featured more than a dozen presenters, including Patsy Dunton, an official with the Maine Department of Education, the 2012 Maine Teacher of the Year Alana Margeson, and local presenters from Presque Isle to Limestone. Registrants from Houlton to Fort Kent participated in the conference.

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 event at 9:30 a.m. Friday, March 16 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 17 senior colleges in the Maine Senior College Network, and one of two senior colleges north of Bangor.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host its Annual Career & Job Fair in the Campus Center from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20. Twenty businesses and governmental agencies from the region and across the state are expected to participate in the event.

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

Art and science will come together at the University of Maine at Presque Isle when two professors host a second annual event in honor of internationally celebrated Brain Awareness Week. “North of Ordinary NeuroArt Night” will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14 in the Pullen Hall Art Room.

Biology professor Dr. Rachael Hannah and Art professor Hyrum Benson are teaming up to offer a fun art project that also will teach participants about brain function and neuroscience. Benson will be creating plaster brains that participants will be able to paint under his guidance. Hannah will offer a 15-minute presentation about the human brain, showing how brains are mapped, and then participants will use that information and their imagination to create their brain art.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s BioMedical Club is hosting two events in March especially for people interested in careers in dentistry. Both events are open to the public.

On Friday, March 2, at 1 p.m. in Pullen Hall 111, the BioMedical Club will host a Dentistry Simulation presented by Dr. David Burtt, from the University of New England’s College of Dental Medicine. The simulation will give participants a hands-on opportunity to explore a career in dentistry.

Event raises more than $29,000 for C-A-N-C-E-R

For little Hadley McLean, being surrounded by shaved heads during the sixth annual Planet Head Day at the University of Maine at Presque Isle was a chance to feel like everyone else.

The nine-year-old daughter of Tim and Holly McLean is fighting brain cancer and has lost her headful of hair to chemotherapy treatments. But Hadley was in excellent company on Saturday, Feb. 18, during Planet Head Day, when she was one of about 100 people who proudly sported bald heads (or donned plastic bald caps to give them that appearance) and had them painted to look like planets, moons and other heavenly bodies as part of a very unique cancer fundraiser.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host Andrew Vietze – the writer and Katahdin area park ranger whose latest book explores how a 19th century Aroostook County woodsman “toughened up” future president Theodore Roosevelt – as the next speaker in its 2011-2012 University Distinguished Lecturer Series.