Orono Woman Top Graduate in UMaine College
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — Amy Kirk of Orono has been selected as the top graduating senior in the University of Maine College of Business, Public Policy and Health. She will carry the college’s banner into UMaine’s Alfond Arena at the beginning of the university’s Saturday, May 12 commencement ceremony.
Kirk, who will receive a nursing degree on Saturday, completed her studies in December. She works as a registered nurse in Eastern Maine Medical Center’s Rosen Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. A former high school science teacher, Kirk also earned a UMaine zoology degree in 1994.
Kirk also earned a Gladys Folster Crocker Memorial Scholarship, an Auxiliary to the Penobscot County Medical Society Scholarship, an Omar F. and Lenora L. Tarr Memorial Scholarship, the UMaine Dept. of Zoology Academic Achievement Award and the UMaine Presidential Academic Achievement Pin.
She shares credit for her UMaine success with others in the UMaine community, including two professors.
“Zoology professor Mary Tyler was a significant influence, because she always believed in my abilities,” Kirk says. “So was nursing professor Mary Brakey. If I ever get sick, I want her to be my nurse.”
Married to Matthew Kirk, she has two children: Riley and Charlotte. Kirk’s parents are Dennis Cox and Elizabeth Downing of Brewer and Katherine Wood and Ralph Yehle of Minneapolis, Minn. Dennis Cox is a UMaine music professor.