Paige McHatten — video transcript
So I graduated high school in 2020, a pretty uncertain time to be deciding when to go to school. UMaine kind of had that sense of security, both of my parents went to UMaine. At first I came to school being a Political Science major and now I’m where I’m at today, I’m an English and Journalism major and I’ve definitely found a home within that space. I completed a fellowship for the McGillicuddy Humanities Center right here at my Junior year and in that I did a project that revolved around the representation of women in media, and through that I created a collection of creative writing poetry and fiction that tries to, you know, relate to those themes, and through that, Dr. Holly Adams kind of encouraged me to look into Grad School. I’ve always enjoyed school. I love school, and especially at UMaine I just find so much joy, like, being in classes, bouncing ideas off of people. The community that you find at a university is really unlike anything else in my book, so Graduate School really seemed like the only option for me, so I’ll be pursuing my MFA in creative writing which I’m really excited about going to try to develop my skills even more and I’m looking into teaching, publishing, it just opens up so many different avenues and it seemed like the clear choice to me. In the sort of questionnaire that led up to this, they were asking me what one word would be to describe UMaine and I immediately said “home.” The people here that I’ve met have just really established that sense of community, and I mean through the faculty here at UMaine, through the students, everybody, I, it’s just made me feel so supported. There’s always people that will help and, you know lend an ear, and a shoulder to sometimes cry on, so it’s been wonderful.