McGlauflin graduates from Emerson College
Paige McGlauflin from Sidney recently graduated from Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, receiving a BS degree in journalism.
Unity College reinventing how students receive first two years of college
TERRAIN uses Expeditionary Learning as its educational model. (contributed photo)
Unity College is nationally known for its experiential education, but this fall the college is taking that to the next level, by reimagining its curriculum for students in their first two years. The fall of 2019 saw the launch of a testbed for TERRAIN at Unity College, which is designed for students to develop career-focused skills beginning on day one.
TERRAIN at Unity College is a direct response to the changing demographics and needs of residential learners in the first two years of college. Nationally, roughly 30 percent of freshmen drop out after their first
year. Anxiety and depression on college campuses are on the rise, and there is an increasing demand for return on investment for students once they graduate with a four-year degree and enter the job market or pursue graduate school.
Faculty and staff spent two years developing the co-curricular activities that have become TERRAIN at Unity College, gaining insight from students on how they want to learn, as well as employers on the skills they seek in ideal employees.
TERRAIN uses Expeditionary Learning as its educational model, with innovative and integrated courses where students receive comprehensive, relevant, and outcome-based opportunities to help build or retool their knowledge and professional skills in sustainability fields.
TERRAIN brings an integrative approach to learning, allowing students to learn where they live in Living Learning Communities. Cohorts of students share academic experiences and projects in addition to social and recreational opportunities centered around a theme or real-world challenge.
Of Unity College’s incoming Flagship class of 223, 61 students are participating in this fall’s testbed, and in the fall of 2020, all incoming Unity College students will take part in TERRAIN.
“We listened to the challenges that students face in the first two years of college, to industry leaders in the green economy who hire our students, and did extensive research, which found that TERRAIN would revolutionize our curriculum and appeal to residential students who want to learn career-focused skills beginning the first day they enter Unity College,” said Unity College President Dr. Melik Peter Khoury. “TERRAIN allows students to explore a range of professional opportunities, which will help them build the foundational skills for their careers and graduate school.”
In TERRAIN, students will:
- Learn from guest speakers and field experts in the residence hall lounge while exploring ideas they’re curious about.
- Participate in multi-day excursions in locations across the state and country to put new knowledge into practice.
- Work with tutors right in the residence halls to strengthen skills and refine projects. Develop and practice leadership skills.
- Collaborate with others in the Living Learning Community to explore issues, tackle challenges, and communicate ideas across academic, professional, and social contexts.
In addition to TERRAIN’s customizable curriculum, internships, practicums, and short courses offered year-round, its four-quarter academic calendar allows students to engage in a robust residential college experience while having the flexibility for work, family commitments, and career opportunities. If a student wants to accelerate their education and earn a bachelor’s degree in fewer than four years, TERRAIN gives them that option, or if they want to participate in a more traditional college schedule they can. It also allows them to take time off for any reason, if they need to without falling behind.
“Learning those practical skills that I can apply to my major first before I settle down into a desk with a textbook was my main goal,” said Savannah Sedivy, a first-year Marine Biology major taking part in the TERRAIN testbed. “Being stuck in a general classroom, even if you’re using real-world examples, doesn’t compare to actual real-world experience. With these intertwined classes, TERRAIN has pointed me toward skills that I’ll use later in life, or even the very next day.”
For more on TERRAIN at Unity College, visit unity.edu/terrain-at-unity-college/.
Seeking donations for classroom
Megan Marquis, a high school math teacher, has moved back to Maine and is seeking donations for chairs and tables so students have some place to sit in the classroom. If anyone has tables (farmer’s market style, wooden) or any amount of rust-free metal folding chairs, please drop them off at 37 Neck Road, China. You may contact her at m.marquis.m@gmail.com.
Mckenzie graduates from basic military training
U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Kenneth R. Mckenzie Jr. graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio, Texas.
The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills.
Airmen who complete basic training also earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force.
Mckenzie is the son of Julie A. and Kenneth R. Mckenzie, of Albion.
Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce names program director
Cindy Stevens Mid-Maine Chamber program director
Mid-Mine Chamber of Commerce, located in Waterville, welcomes Cindy Stevens as its new program director. Cindy has been named Chamber Program Director, replacing Kelly Smith who is leaving October 16 to pursue employment at the Snow Pond Center for the Arts, following two and a half years in her position.
Stevens, who retired October 1, had served 41 years in various sales, marketing, human resources, finance and management roles with the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal, part of the Masthead Maine newspaper group. Her most recent position was regional advertising director for both papers, serving in that role since 2013. She was responsible for all advertising print and digital revenue, events, and internal promotions. Stevens was a former member of the founding board of directors of Waterville Main Street.
A graduate of Mt. Blue High School, in Farmington, Stevens graduated from Kennebec Valley Community College, in Fairfield, with a degree in marketing, and from the University of Maine at Augusta with bachelor of science and bachelor of arts degrees in business and marketing. She holds a masters degree in management/marketing from Thomas College, in Waterville, and earned her real estate broker’s license while employed with Century 21 Surette Real Estate.
Included in her new duties as program director will be oversight of dozens of the Chamber’s signature events, working with multiple volunteer committees, as well as marketing and communications of these events. Mid-Maine Chamber President and CEO Kimberly Lindlof said of Stevens, “I have known Cindy since my days in ad sales when she was steering the ship of my competition. I have great admiration for Cindy, the wealth of experience she has compiled, and the relationships that she has built over the years with the regional business community. The Chamber is hoping to capitalize on that connectivity as well as Cindy’s vast understanding of the market in the mid-Maine area. Our team is pleased to welcome her aboard.”
Stevens resides in Winslow with her husband, Gary, and son, Jonathan.
Palermo legion to hold annual craft fair
The Malcolm Glidden American Legion Post #163 craft fair was started by Pauline York in 2013 and has been a huge success over the years. Pauline passed away before the first craft fair event but the family, the legion auxiliary and legion members kept it going in her memory.
This event is held to raise money to send students to Boys/Girls State. In 2019, they were able to send three girls and two boys. Over the years, they have sent a total of 19 students.
They have a raffle with over 30 items, all donations from Pauline’s family. There will be a bake sale with homemade pies, yeast rolls and many desserts.
The legion members will be selling hot dogs for lunch. There will be a variety of crafters, vendors, decorated wreaths, jewelry, cards, bird houses and feeders, wood crafts, sweaters, mittens, sewing and knitted items, pickles, salsa and relishes, and personalized tumblers and cups.
Everyone who attends gets to sign up for a chance at winning door prizes. The legion asks for support for this great event to be held on Saturday, October 26, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., at the Malcolm Glidden American Legion Post #163 home, on the Turner Ridge Road, in Palermo.
Walk to end Alzheimer’s raises over $35,000
Nearly 300 participants joined the Kennebec Valley Area Walk to End Alzheimer’s in the fight to end Alzheimer’s disease on Saturday, October 5, at the RiverWalk at Head of Falls, in Waterville. Participants raised $35,000 to fund Alzheimer’s care, support and research programs.
Fundraising for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s continues through the end of the calendar year. Donate to a team or individual participant at alz.org/walk.
In Maine alone, there are more than 28,000 people living with the disease and 69,000 caregivers providing unpaid care. In the United States, more than five million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, the sixth-leading cause of death and the only disease among the top 10 causes that cannot be cured, prevented or even slowed. Additionally, more than 15 million family and friends provide care to people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s®
The Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Since 1989, the Alzheimer’s Association mobilized millions of Americans in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk®; now the Alzheimer’s Association is continuing to lead the way with Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Together, we can end Alzheimer’s – the nation’s sixth-leading cause of death.
Alzheimer’s Association®
The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s research, care and support. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s. Visit alz.org® or call 800.272.3900.
Vassalboro selectmen’s October meeting rescheduled
Vassalboro selectmen have moved their next meeting from the usual Thursday, which would be Halloween, to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, so that board members can fulfill any Halloween obligations.
China board votes to give Buckshot Power Sports $25,000 loan
Buckshot Power Sports in China. (image source: Facebook)
by Mary Grow
After the Oct. 10 China selectmen’s special executive-session meeting, Town Manager Dennis Heath reported the four board members attending voted unanimously to give Buckshot Power Sports a $25,000 loan.
The loan will come from China’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) fund’s revolving loan fund. The loan was recommended by the TIF Committee’s loan subcommittee and by the TIF Committee.
Kennebec Valley Council of Governments assists the China committee managing loans, and a consultant working with KVCOG was involved in reviewing the loan application. Heath said the final document incorporates recommendations from the consultant.
Selectmen’s approval was the last step in the application process. Heath expects Buckshot Power Sports owner Mike Rackcliffe and KVCOG personnel will now finish the paperwork so Rackcliffe can get the money.
TIF funds come from taxes paid by Central Maine Power Company on its north-south power line through China and its substation in South China. Under state law and regulations, TIF funds may be used for a variety of economic development purposes.
More information on China’s TIF, including application forms for TIF grants and revolving loans, is on the town website.
China TIF committee OKs funds for causeway project
Would need voter approval if selectmen agree
by Mary Grow
China’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee members agreed on several recommendations to selectmen at a workshop session Oct. 14. One involves spending TIF money (and will need approval from voters if selectmen approve it). The rest are plans for reallocating money among projects to better balance needs with approved funds.
The spending recommendation is to add $250,000 to the $750,000 voters allocated in 2017 for the causeway project, the new bridge and related improvements at the head of China Lake’s east basin. Town Manager Dennis Heath, who oversees finances for the committee, estimates that much will be needed to finish the work.
If selectmen approve, the additional money could be moved for bookkeeping purposes from the category of matching funds for grants (none has been spent in four years).
The exact amount needed for the causeway work is uncertain; Heath and committee members are waiting for engineering plans for walkways, replacement railings, shoreline improvements and other amenities.
There was agreement that the committee should oversee finishing the causeway work as soon as possible and move on to other projects.
One potential project, committee members decided, could be expansion of internet service, or, considering the speed of technological change, its successors; they named the new category “digital communications technologies.” The Maine legislature recently approved adding broadband and related communications to TIF-eligible projects, so China voters will need to approve adding the new category to the town’s TIF document.
Other proposed rearrangements would increase annual allotments for China Community Days, recreational trail work, Thurston Park and the China School Forest. The increases don’t require offsetting decreases, because the TIF account had unallocated money, Heath said.
The allotments do not automatically spend money. Organizations submit applications that TIF committee members review and, on the committee’s recommendation, selectmen review. Town meeting voters then approve or reject annual TIF spending recommended by selectmen.
Tod Detre submitted an application of behalf of the Broadband Committee at the Oct. 14 workshop, and Four Seasons Club President Tom Rumpf said his application for trail work is ready. The next regular TIF Committee meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4.