February 2020

Members of the Criminal Justice Club and the Organization of Psychology Students delivered holiday gifts for families working with Hope and Justice Project in December. Toys, housewares, candy, toiletries, and gift cards were collected and purchased to help these families during the holiday season. Great work everyone!

Caribou Middle School and Teague Park Elementary School teamed up this holiday season to run a food drive for the area food cupboards. There is a huge need to keep these cupboards filled because they are often empty and overlooked. Students from both schools collected non-perishable food items for two weeks. Middle school students were able to grocery shop locally for the food drive with monetary donations received. Once all the food was collected, students took the time to look at expiration dates and sort boxes for inside and outside cupboards. Students filled cupboards on December 19, 2019, in Caribou and Presque Isle, including at UMPI. Currently, 10 local food cupboards have been filled and plans are to make more deliveries later in the month.

From November 25 through December 31, University Credit Union shined a light on eight University of Maine food pantries that serve students, employees and many others within our campus communities. UCU’s 2019 Ending Hunger on Campus in Maine campaign raised a total of $11,433.88 in contributions. With UCU matching that amount, a grand total of $22,867.76 has been donated to the campus food pantries on the University of Maine System campuses. UCU thanks all who contributed, raised awareness, and made the campaign a success. UMPI received $3,677.74 for its Emergency Food Pantry.

The University will host the 14^th Annual Junior Achievement of Maine Titan Challenge in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Campus Center on Feb. 26 from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. The event will bring area high school students to campus to compete against their peers across the state on business finance and marketing simulations. All Maine high schools were invited to participate in this day-long competition, free of charge. More than 150 teams from Maine high schools were registered. Twenty-two of these teams compete here at UMPI. This event is sponsored on campus by the faculty of the Business Administration program.

The UMPI Festival of Trees team received the following note from the winners of this year’s UMPI tree:

I want to thank you and all who participated in making the tree possible! We LOVE everything about it! The tree is gorgeous and the rockers will look beautiful on our porch! We loved the ginger bread house kit and the pretzels too! The fireplace heater works amazing and is being put to good use. The stocking are adorable and our daughter was just accepted at UMPI in the fall so the hats and mittens are fantastic!

We loved winning your tree! Thank you for the help to the children I teach every day at Pine Street. I know how much the free dental care means to them. We so appreciate your participation in our community.

Merry Christmas

Bud and Irene Fancy

Want another great reason to read through the image newsletter? Well, somewhere in this issue of the image is our very own owl emoji. Here’s the challenge: just find it (don’t tell anyone else its’ hiding place!), let our office know, and you could be eligible for a $5 gift certificate to UMPI Starbucks! A winner will be randomly drawn from all of the people who find the emoji on Friday, Feb. 21. You can win one time per semester. Congratulations to our December winner, Tracy Rockwell!

To let us know you’ve found it, either click on the emoji and fill out the very short form, or email Gayla Shaw with the location at gshaw@maine.edu. Happy searching!

UMPI Biology majors attended a Biomedical short course at MDI Biological Laboratory. The course, entitled “Genome Engineering Using CRISPR/Cas9: UMPI-FK 2020” was taught by Dustin Updike and was funded by Maine INBRE. UMPI students Stephen Cochrane, Christian Lunn, Shelby Shea, and Liz Ward joined UMFK students and participated in the week-long biomedical research course.

The Student Government Association at the University of Maine at Presque Isle has a paid treasurer internship position open. The goal of the position is to provide a hands-on opportunity for a real world business and finance experience for students that are interested in the fields of financing, budgeting, and governance. The position of the Treasurer Intern offers experience in civic engagement, policy, scheduling, legal, budgeting, approving club budgets, and financial sustainability. The Treasurer will be responsible for all the funds trusted to the Student Government Association for each academic year, managing and approving club budgets, and suggesting to the President and SGA club budget requests, besides following up on other duties the President assigns pertaining to the finances. It further offers a hands-on opportunity to understand how a small association performs its duties while learning how to manage budgets responsibly.

Qualifications:

• Applicants should be currently enrolled as full-time students at UMPI
• Strong preference will be given to students from the Business and Accounting programs
• Applicant should be in good academic standing
• Applicant should have a desire to pursue a future position in the career field
• Applicant should have a high level of proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel) and Google Suite (Google Drive)
• Applicant must attend all weekly Student Government Association meetings, including E-Board meetings

An $800 scholarship will be offered for each year the applicant holds this position, ($400 per semester). Applications are due on March 1. For more details on applying for this internship, contact Nicole Fournier, Director of Career Readiness, at 207-768-9589 or email nicole.l.fournier@maine.edu, or email Matthew Payan, SGA President at matthew.payan@maine.edu.

On Jan. 8, faculty and staff held their annual potluck lunch for faculty, staff, the athletic teams, and other students who were staying in the dorms over the break. Tables were set up on the 2^nd floor of Preble for everyone to sit and enjoy a spread that included pastas, salads, baked ham, casseroles, meatballs, walking tacos, homemade beans, pulled pork, sliders, and dessert, along with some great conversation.

Are you planning to complete your degree requirements in May of 2020?  If so, please complete your application to graduate as soon as possible. If you wish to participate in Commencement, we must receive your application on or before Feb. 14.

Not sure how close you are to graduating? Contact your Professional Academic Advisor and they will help you with a degree completion plan. To make an appointment, you can visit the Advising Center on the first floor of South Hall, or call (207)768-9619.

The application for degree is in your MaineStreet Student Center. Here is how to access it:

• Login to the UMPI Portal (umpi.edu), click on the MaineStreet icon, and go to your Student Center (Student Self-Service -> Student Center).
• From the ‘other academic…’ dropdown, select ‘Apply for Graduation’.
• Follow the on-screen prompts to complete your application.

The Universities across the system are working together to establish a unified campus card experience through the OneCard initiative. Any staff or faculty member (as well as students) who currently own a campus card and travel across any of the seven UMS campuses will be able to take advantage of these benefits:

• All campus cards will be accepted at any campus for dining purchases, including meal plans, dining dollars, and ‘campus bucks’
• “Campus bucks” will now be available at all campuses
• Enhanced web portal for managing accounts and adding funds
• Mobile app for iOS and Android devices
• Ability to pay using Apple Wallet
• Continued access to all of the services existing campus cards provide
• Ability for future integrations to further enhance the student experience, including online photo submission

Melanee Terry, a Junior Professional Communication and Journalism major with a minor in graphic design, from Morena Valley, CA, recently had an article printed in the Winter 2020 issue of Our Maine Street’s Aroostook Magazine. The article, titled UMPI Students From the Four Corners of America Take on Aroostook County is about the growth in student diversity from across the country and around the world at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. The article talks about students that are here from the four corners of the United States, Washington, California, Florida, and Maine. The full article can be read here https://www.facebook.com/ourmainestreet/.