UMaine to welcome new first-year students Friday
Nearly 2,000 new first-year students, members of the Class of 2015, will arrive at the University of Maine on Friday, Aug. 26. to begin Fall Welcome Weekend, a series of events designed to acclimate them to campus life and prepare them for the start of classes on Monday, Aug. 29.
Fall Welcome Weekend begins with the Maine Hello, UMaine’s acclaimed move-in activity that begins at 8 a.m. Friday. Hundreds of volunteers, including UMaine students, faculty members, staff members and alumni will greet the students and their families to lend a helping hand as they move into residence halls.
President Paul Ferguson will participate in the Maine Hello for the first time on Friday.
Maine Hello activities are focused in the Hilltop and Stewart Quad areas, both near UMaine’s New Balance Student Recreation and Fitness Center. Almost all first-year students live in that part of campus, residence locations that are a key component of UMaine’s First Year Residence Experience academic and social programming.
As of Aug. 19, some 1,848 students were confirmed as members of UMaine’s new first-year class. That is four more students than last year, and a three percent increase (52 students) over 2009. The number of out-of-state students choosing UMaine continues to increase. Enrollment from outside Maine is up by 15 percent over last year, up by 24 percent over two years ago.
Saturday, Aug. 27 will feature UMaine’s second Fall Welcome Weekend Day of Service. New first-year students will visit local community service agencies, working in groups led by project leaders to help those agencies on projects involving cleaning, painting, etc.
“It is our hope that these students will (be inspired) to continue their involvement in service throughout their education at UMaine,” says Lisa Morin, coordinator of UMaine’s Bodwell Center for Service and Volunteerism.
Service activities are scheduled for 12 noon-3 p.m. Saturday. Organizations where students will work include Adoptive and Foster Families of Maine, Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, Bangor Community Garden, Bangor Goodwill Store, Bangor Land Trust, Boy Scouts of America (Katahdin Area Council), Brewer Parks and Recreation, Challenger Learning Center, Coldbrook Equestrian Center, Cole Land Transportation Museum, Crossroads Resource Center, DEEMI Search & Rescue, Food and Medicine, Green House Nursery School, Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Old Town Knights of Columbus, Leonard Middle School (Old Town), Leonard’s Mills, Maine Audubon Society-Fields Pond, Maine Discovery Museum, Maine Veterans Home, First United Methodist Church (Bangor), Old Town Learning Center, Old Town YMCA, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Orono High School, Orono Land Trust, Orono/Old Town Kiwanis, Page Farm & Home Museum, Phillips-Strickland House, Ronald McDonald House, Ross Manor, Spruce Run, Stillwater Montessori School, Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Town of Veazie and the Wilson Center at UMaine.
For more information, contact Morin at 581-4194 or lisa.morin@umit.maine.edu.
Other Fall Welcome Weekend activities include:
– a visit to downtown Orono (2-4 p.m. Friday)
– a Black Bear field hockey game vs. Northeastern (6 p.m. Friday)
– Black Bear Block Party (9 p.m.-midnight Friday at the New Balance Student Recreation and Fitness Center, along with residence hall quads)
– President’s Annual Dinner on the Mall and Student Organizations Fair (5 p.m. Saturday)
– Traditions Ceremony (6:30 p.m. Saturday)
– a trip to the American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront (10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday)
– The Big Jam, featuring free food, outdoor music and activities on Stewart Quad (11a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday)
A full schedule is available online.
Aug. 24, 2011
Contact: Joe Carr
(207) 581-3571