Summer Pulp and Paper Institute Offers Close Look at Iconic Maine Industry
Contact: Betty Ingraham, 581-2281
David Deas, 453-5809
George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — Forty Maine high school students and teachers will be at the University of Maine’s pulp and paper laboratories on the Orono campus for the 2008 Summer Institute in Pulp and Paper Process Technology for High School Students and Teachers in mid July.
Starting out with hands-on pulp- and paper-making activities, the students — potentially Maine’s future paper industry workers — will learn about the paper-making process from tree identification and selection to actual paper-making, recycling and product testing. Participants also will tour the Sappi Fine Paper plant in Skowhegan.
The July 14-17 institute is an annual joint program organized by the UMaine Pulp and Paper Process Development Center and Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield, which offers a Pulp and Paper Technology Certificate, and funded by the National Science Foundation.
The purpose of the annual institute is to help educate an advanced workforce for the pulp and paper industry. Because many employees will be retiring in coming years, the need for an advanced workforce is growing.
Because of limited space, the institute must cap registration at 40 people.
Costs for the four-day institute, including room and board on the UMaine campus and a stipend for students and teachers, are being covered by the National Science Foundation.
For registration and other information, contact Betty Ingraham, research associate in the UMaine Department of Chemical Engineering, at 581-2281 or David Deas at KVCC at (207) 453-5809.