Black Bear profiles

Jordan Gardner: Global Perspective for Humanities Explorations Fund award winner learning through travel

Jordan Gardner, of Farmingdale, Maine, caught the travel bug during the spring 2018 semester when he journeyed to Cusco, Peru. Through the ISA (International Studies Abroad) Cusco: Language, Literature, and Culture program, Gardner studied archeology, cultural anthropology and the history of the Incas at the ISA Study Center through a partnership with Universidad de Salamanca. […]

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Josephine Roussell: Ocean steward helps develop oyster sorter

Editor’s note: Story updated June 3. There are lots of oysters on Josephine Roussell’s plate. A few literally, and many more figuratively. The 2018 University of Maine graduate is a research technician on a team designing a sorter for small-scale oyster growers. Aquaculture already provides more than 50 percent of seafood worldwide, according to the […]

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Abby Irvine: Social work major passionate about helping others

People undergoing treatment for narcotic abuse at Northern Light Acadia Hospital received blankets and self-care items from staff on Christmas Day. Each present came with a handwritten card from Abby Irvine that contained one of 83 positive affirmations: “I am worthy of love and respect.” “I am proud of what I accomplish every day.” “Small […]

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Jonathan Bomar: Graduate student puts his heart into cardiac research

Jonathan Bomar joined the University of Maine Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering in 2014 after earning undergraduate degrees in geological sciences and psychology at Michigan State University. His current research examines how stem cells become heart muscle. The goal of his dissertation is to engineer therapeutic heart tissue in a lab. He envisions […]

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Nick Rotter-Weller: Californian flourishes in UMaine’s climate

Nick Rotter-Weller is an inaugural recipient of the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center (MHC) Undergraduate Fellowship at the University of Maine. The fellowship provides financial support so the senior English major can concentrate on coursework, develop his research project, work collaboratively with peers, participate in interdisciplinary humanities programs, and gain professional skills. Rotter-Weller has […]

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Kim Crowley: Humanities fellowship recipient finds therapy in poetry

Kim Crowley is an inaugural recipient of the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center (MHC) Undergraduate Fellowship at the University of Maine. The fellowship provides financial support so the senior English major can concentrate on coursework, develop her research project, work collaboratively with peers, participate in interdisciplinary humanities programs, and gain professional skills. The Newport, […]

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Social media spotlight: Arielle Spalla

Hometown: Yorktown, Virginia Arielle Spalla, a junior pre-med microbiology major, will graduate in the spring, travel for a year and read books she hasn’t had time for during her undergraduate career. Then she’ll enroll at Tufts University School of Medicine. For her capstone, she’s doing a literature review for the lab of Melody Neely, an […]

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Social media spotlight: Linda Archambault

Hometown: Bristol, Maine Linda Archambault, a biochemistry Ph.D. candidate, works in UMaine associate professor of microbiology Rob Wheeler’s lab. Last summer, she was selected as a teaching assistant for an internationally recognized practical course on fungal infectious diseases at the Marine Biological Laboratory and received the 2018–19 Janet Waldron Doctoral Research Fellowship. Archambault earned a […]

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Emily Blackwood

Social media spotlight: Emily Blackwood

Hometown: Auburn, Maine Emily Blackwood, a quaternary and climate studies master’s student, received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from UMaine in 2015. This past summer she traveled to Peru to excavate and gather information from an archaeological site with UMaine faculty members Daniel Sandweiss, Alice Kelley and Paul “Jim” Roscoe, as well as Bangor attorney […]

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Justin Hafner

Social media spotlight: Justin Hafner

Hometown: Queensbury, New York. Justin Hafner, a senior kinesiology and physical education major, psychology minor and member of UMaine’s swim team is working at the VEMI Lab where he conceived the idea for the Lento Viewer, new technology that shows people’s muscles move in real time as they exercise. The invention has applications for sports, […]

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