Transcript

Casey Maddock:

I had looked into schools that had dance teams.

It wasn’t like a huge thing I was looking for, but I knew that UMaine had one and just fell in love with it from day one.

Like, it feels like I’m like in a movie every time I dance out here.

It feels like very big and important and special because we have a marching band.

My name is Casey Maddock and I’m a secondary education major with a concentration in math and a minor in French as well.

I think being a kid from Maine, it’s like, duh, I’m going to apply to the University of Maine.

I think it’s everyone’s go-to, the first place they submit an application.

When I came here, I was, like delightfully surprised.

It’s like a pine tree. It’s very big, it’s very strong, it’s very sturdy, and the experiences that you have here are going to last through all the seasons of your life.

I have known that I wanted to be a teacher since I was probably in second grade, so I knew when I applied to college that I was working for somewhere where education was important and valued and they had a good education program.

So that was a big part of why I chose Maine.

And now that I’m student teaching, it’s like the most fun that I’ve ever had.

I was really worried that I was going to miss being on campus and being here with my friends, but if anything this experience has just reaffirmed for me that I was made to be a teacher, I was made to do this.

And so my very first year I was in a school observing, I was able to volunteer in a school, I did a placement last year.

The benefit of coming to UMaine and staying in-state for me was that I know when I graduate I’m going to be certified here.

So there’s no extra legwork for me, there’s no extra hoops to jump through. I know when I’m done with this program that I’m going to have everything I need to get that certificate and teach here and give
back to the state that I love.

I mean, we go into teaching because we want to work with kids, because we want to better our communities.

And so it’s really awesome that you get to do that while you’re getting your degree.

Um, whoop!

There’s my bell, I gotta go!

Um, I always say that UMaine makes me feel like a little kid again in the best way, just like the sheer joy that I feel for dancing and like coming to school and learning new things.

I feel inspired and I think it’ll still make me feel inspired 50 years from now. So I initially came here because financially it made sense.

And I honestly thought that after two years I was going to transfer elsewhere, just like save for two years and then maybe go to a different school.

But I ended up sticking around for that community.

My roommate, we are both from Maine but like we obviously did not know each other before we came here.

So she reached out to me because I left my Snapchat, so she like Snap-chatted me and then we actually ended up committing on the same day like without planning it.

And she reached out and was like, “Do you want to live together?”

And she really is like the best thing that’s happened to me.

She’s my best friend, she’s gonna be in my wedding.

Like, it really was the perfect roommate story.

Yeah, yeah, I mean obviously it’s cold and right on cue, thank you Mother Nature.

It’s honestly very magical, like that first snowfall of the year.

Campus feels like a little snow globe and yeah, yeah it’s like magical and fun.