Transcript

Danny Tanaka:

I would say Maine is cold, but warm.

Cold for the temperature, but nice warm people.

Very welcoming people and they’re just very caring is what I would say.

So my name is Daniel Tanaka.

I’m in a Bio-Premed program.

I’m currently a senior from Berkeley, California, and I’m on the swim team.

I knew like by sophomore year of high school I was ready to, you know, spread my wings and kind of leave California.

I just always wanted to see more of the United States, I guess.

Having never been to the East Coast, I was, you know, naturally curious like how it was.

I haven’t seen snow.

Like the change from California to Maine has been crazy, to say the least.

The biggest thing, obviously, temperature like California, Berkeley especially, is like usually just 50 to 80 degrees.

Maine is much more variable. It’s a lot colder, a lot more humid.

There’s also a difference socially.

Coming from like a city, it’s easy to get lost, easy to like just kind of, you know, be one person instead of like a community.

In Maine, it’s much more tight-knit.

You know, a lot more people.

From the start when I got here, coming off the airport, just a wide-eyed little kid, my first interaction with a Mainer was them offering to drive me to my hotel.

Someone who I didn’t even know, offering to do that was just crazy to me.

It’s just conveying the niceness that Maine truly embodies.

So I first came into research at Maine my, like towards the end of sophomore year.

My girlfriend who I’ve been dating since I got here, she like recommended me to, pursue research because, you know, that’s what medical school applicants do.

They have to have research. They have to be a list of applicants.

So I was like, “Oh, I guess I’ll go and, you know, email some PIs.”

And I stumbled across Dr. Talbots lab I thought I was just like some stupid undergraduate, you know, who honestly didn’t even know the

difference between like, tryponin and like, whether it was a hormone or something.

I was like, “I’m just, I’m not going to get this, you know, research, you know, job.”

I’m just like, I was so neurotic about not getting it, but I ended up getting it.

And it’s honestly been a blast.

I’ve sort of shifted my focus a little bit.

Now the opportunity of going to graduate school and pursuing a chemistry Ph.D.

And it’s really just been the opportunities that UMaine has brought me that’s, you know, allowed for this shift.

I currently am part of two research labs on campus.

I’m a student gov representative and VP of fundraising for SAC.

And it’s been honestly the guidance of my advisors, my coaches, my friends who have kind of informed my decision as well.

I didn’t think I would ever have the chance or ever be inclined to be the person to take graduate level chemistry courses or be the person to pursue like graduate school in chemistry and chemical biology.

And I can confidently say that I would like to do this for the rest of my life.

Like it’s something that I enjoy and something that is very sustainable.

And honestly, it’s intriguing.

So I started swimming when I was around six.

First started taking lessons, you know, doing all that.

I realized that I really wanted to swim in college during sophomore year.

And I didn’t really have access to a club team because they’re so expensive.

So I kind of put myself on this journey through going to the pool at the YMCA and working day in and day out to become a better swimmer.

I reached out to them, the coaches of the University of Maine.

And through them I was able to continue my dreams of being on a divisional collegiate team.

And honestly, I couldn’t imagine it happening any other way.

I’m very appreciative of the opportunities that the University of Maine has provided me and the opportunities that the University of Maine swim team has provided me.

It’s really molded me, not just as an athlete, but as a person.

And I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

Like low-key after Norwich it was hurting.

Yeah, because you went all shoulders.

I was like…

You had windmills literally attached to your arms.

I know, I know.

It was impressive though.

Annabelle Collins:

I love the white noise of the HVAC system.

When the HVAC system is shut down and the entire building is quiet, you don’t know what to do.

You’re like, something is wrong here.

And it is, they’re supposed to be running.

I’m Annabelle Collins, I’m from Jay, Maine

and I’m a mechanical engineering technology student.

So when I was a little kid, instead of going daycare, I would hang out with my grandparents.

My grandfather was a carpenter and I would just build stuff with them.

Like, it really got me in the building mindset of things.

And then when I continued over to college, I started MEE, mechanical engineering for a couple years, switched over to business management where I thought the management aspect would help me out.

a wee bit more, but ended up settling on MET, mechanical engineering technology.

I find it’s kind of the best of both worlds.

You get that management and manufacturing aspect.

I walk in and I’m like, huh, do I wanna go in the wood shop or the metal shop today?

So by day I’m an engineering student and by night I get to enable the student section with a pep band and I love it.

The student section loves it, the rest of the fans love it and I sure hope the team loves it too.

We are just a whole bunch of students that want to enjoy our free time and being in pep band it’s…it’s all about the bigger picture.

You know music, we’re supposed to kind of be in the background but pep band we we just work together to make our team play the best that they can and make sure that everyone else has a great time with it.

And coming to UMaine I knew I wanted to stay musical in some sense you know a singular pep band player is a gear a singular engineer is a gear of a bigger picture once you have all those gears together they just create the energy and if you’re not loud play louder in the case that you’re a trumpet then lower down a little bit.

When winter comes around and you get those like five foot tall bankings perfect!

I like to compare them like when I see a snow baking taller than my car I get a wee bit like concerned and I just like slowly drive by because you never know if somebody’s just gonna slide down.

Haven Jones:

Over the summer I was sitting in Chipotle with my family and the first wave of college kids came in.

And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, it’s happening! This is my time!”

And I knew that school was right around the corner and it’s like being able to come back to this place, it’s just, it’s stunning. It’s really nothing better.

I mean it really feels like I’m on a little island here.

I look forward to it every summer.

Being so engrossed and so enthralled with the people and the experiences here, while still being able to drive 20 minutes and be in the middle of nowhere.

Like that experience is just, is so amazing to me.

Hi, my name is Haven. I am a senior here at the University of Maine.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been four years.

This campus still makes me feel like I’m a freshman.

I’m from Orrington, which is about 30 minutes from here.

I decided to kind of come to UMaine because I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do.

I initially started out as a computer engineer and I’m currently a business major here at the UMaine Business School.

You know, switching to business I thought was just going to be a gateway to getting a job later on.

I had no idea the sense of community that I was able to develop there.

One of my professors I talked to and I ended up connecting with her name is Buffy Quinn.

And she inspired me to reach out.

To work harder, to get a sense of what I could be doing, what I could do more.

And I ended up getting really involved in the business school as a Bridge Week representative, an orientation leader, and currently a peer leader.

It’s such a safe place to truly explore.

I feel more confident than ever that I could go on and take on the world.

As a kid I never really went away.

I wasn’t a summer camp kid. I didn’t really go and stay at friends’ houses very often.

But came along freshman year and moved into the dorm. I lived in Somerset 420 all the way up on the fourth floor.

My mother swore up and down that I would absolutely hate the experience.

But it was definitely one of the best things I think I’ve ever done.

It was such a unique thing to just have a friend across the hall, walking over there, knocking on the door, and say, “Hey, you want to go to Pats?”

It’s such an amazing experience.

And I think if I could go back to one time in my life, it would be my freshman year.

I went on to live two more years here as an RA.

I tell all of the incoming students, “Please be open and get involved, because you really don’t know what is going to happen. You really don’t.”

Probably my sophomore summer I went and started doing things with my friends, just hitting the ball back and forth.

I bought myself an $11 Marden’s racket, but then I started getting a little bit more into it.

And it ended up being such an amazing, positive experience.

Community, the people, it’s definitely one of my favorite things I do during the week.

Days like this, where it’s sunny and the leaves are falling, they just allow you to reminisce at a certain level in which I haven’t really experienced otherwise.

It’s crazy to me that it’s over. I think I’m feeling a level of shock and awe that I’ve completed for years, and that’s it. I’m done.

It makes me appreciate the times I’ve had here, and I think I will in the future not so easily forget all the little moments, because it goes by so fast.

Yoooooooo

You’re not even catching Haven in his element when he wears only flip flops and sweatpants.

And sweaters.

What about the sweater with the sweatpants?

That was a good — Did anyone else watch that last week?

It was a terrible combo.

Anyone catch that last week?

It was a terrible combo.

It was elite!

Wait!

Let me look at my notes on what outfits he bit more last week.

Jamie Fogg:

Just growing up in Maine I have always just felt a really strong connection with the land and I think that UMaine is just a really great place to study.

It just feels like home.

It’s small enough that it has the tight-knit feel but also large enough that I feel like really anyone can find their place here.

My name is Jamie Fogg. I’m from Dedham, Maine and I’m a marine science major.

In high school I got involved in marine science through a program that allowed me to go to Mt. Desert Rock Island which is a tiny barren rock basically 20 nautical miles off the coast of Maine.

And I did seal wound research out there and I really just fell in love with marine mammals and studying them.

Then after I did that research I had the opportunity to present that to the Maine State Science Fair which kind of led me to UMaine really.

And my teacher actually told me about this professor, Dr. Kristina Cammen, who is doing health and genetics work on seals and marine mammals.

And I was like wait, I really want to work with her, she’s really cool and I can see myself doing this in the future.

And I started working in her lab I think the second month of my freshman year.

So a week before college started I spent a week out on Hurricane Island with a group of I think like 10 other undergraduate students.

My sophomore year I did a project on environmental DNA of gray seals but specifically looking at how environmental DNA acts in a coastal environment.

Recently this summer I had the opportunity to go out again to Mt. Desert Rock and spent almost a month out there which is just really fantastic.

And then this year I’m working with Dr. Paul Rawson looking at polychaetes and oysters which is definitely a switch up because I’m typically working with marine mammals so it’s really fun to do something different.

I think a lot of my time definitely goes to studying, I’m kind of a bookworm.

My favorite place to study in the library is definitely the third floor.

Because my friends like to talk to me and I like to lock in.

There’s no talking on the third floor.

There’s no talking on the third floor.

Guys, what’s the vibe like?

Happy!

Happy and down to Earth.

Yeah!

I’ve never met a more humble group of people in my life.

I think UMaine’s really special for that.

I think that there’s such a wide variety of people here too which is really nice.

We all been hiking through backcountry squatters and Madeline is actually the backcountry squatters president.

So I think we all found our community kind of through clubs on campus.

And yeah we all really enjoy being outdoors which has definitely brought us together.

My favorite thing about the trail system is just how accessible they are.

They’re right off of campus.

And there’s so many beautiful trees out here as you can see.

When you first get to UMaine in August it’s still very summery which we can utilize the river a lot.

Also Acadia is so close so we hike a lot.

And then as it goes towards September the leaves start to change and it gets a little bit chillier.

And it’s, I don’t know, it’s just kind of like okay we’re ready to start locking in and doing school which is nice.

You get to experience the really cold winter which is always fun to be bundled up and go play out in the snow with your friends like a child.

It’s always just sweet because we come together during the winter.

UMaine is such a great place. You’ll meet so many amazing people just like I did.

We hope to see you around.

I want to be a super senior because I don’t want to leave.

I know! Oh my god I just can’t hold this.

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.

Kaidar Donenbayev:

My previous bike was broken, so I got this bike and I got it from my professor.

And I traded two chocolate bars for this bike and it’s been very nice.

It works.

And I think it’s very worth it for this price.

Hi everyone, my name is Kaidar Donenbayev and I came from Astana, Kazakhstan.

And I study Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, with minors in mathematics.

When I first came here, I think it was definitely one of the hardest experiences of my life, I would say.

In general, it’s not just hard to adapt to culture, it’s also the language.

It was very hard for me to understand people, it was hard for them to understand me.

And I think it’s normal. It’s normal process when you’re going to a different country.

Honestly, I think everyone should go through this.

I just tried to go to some events and tried to make friends.

The International Students Association helped me a lot.

And they were very friendly, very helpful in the beginning.

And because of that, I decided to become the president of the International Students Association, to help other people, since I also feel how they’re feeling, and I understand that.

For other activities, I play soccer, I play soccer in intramurals.

When I started playing soccer here, I was very surprised that people actually care this much about soccer here.

I thought that no one would play soccer, no one knows about anything about soccer, but there are a lot of people that play soccer, and they’re very good at it.

It’s very interesting for me to play on a team for the first time, in an actual team, not just with some random kids outside.

So I decided to come to Maine. I looked at some, maybe, photos and the description of the state.

I kind of liked it. My family liked it.

The Earth and Climate Science program is very good here, Honors College, and I had a relatively good scholarship.

I do think that it was the right decision, since how much I like Maine.

How much I like the people here.

My freshman year, my professors talked to me and reached out to me about research opportunity.

Even though it was very scary, I decided to try it, and I like it.

We were modeling lectures that used to be in Papua New Guinea 20,000 years ago, trying to understand how big they were and how cold it was at that time.

When you’re thinking about your research, almost every day, it helps you a lot, not just with your research, but to improve in general.

I help with writing a draft for these publications, for these research projects, and it was also very helpful since I became a co-author for both of these works.

For me, it was probably one of the most valuable experiences at UMaine.

I’m glad I did the Honors College, because it made me improve so much in terms of my language skills.

If you would tell me what I’m going to be doing here, like two years ago, when I was still a high school student, I would be very surprised.

In Kazakhstan, there are a lot of ecological problems.

Hopefully, in the future, I can maybe do something to solve these problems in Kazakhstan.

Thanks to UMaine, who gave me this research opportunity.

It’s my second home.

Gabriella Shetreet:

This is a place completely steeped in nature and the wonders of the world just completely around you.

It’s very peaceful here and there’s still a lot of people from different walks of life that you’re going to meet and it’s a place that feels like home.

Hi, my name is Gabiella Shetreet. I am a fourth year here at UMaine.

I’m from York, Maine, so southern Maine, and I am a dual major in English and art history.

I also have an interest in film and Spanish, so hoping to do a double minor.

Well, I don’t know, we’ll see.

I am a resident assistant in Penobscot Hall for the Honors Complex.

I’m the Vice President of Hillel.

I am an intern at the Lord Hall Gallery

and also an intern at the Writing Center.

I’m a volunteer at the Child Development Center on campus.

Oh, I’m part of the Honors College.

So I had a bit of an unconventional college start, we should say.

I left after the first year, which I was very sad about.

I actually cried for a while.

And I tried going to another school.

I ended up going abroad and traveling on my own, and then I came back here with full support of every department I’m a part of.

And coming back to UMaine with fresh eyes after a year was probably the best decision of my life, yet it’s been so amazing.

I just really was able to take charge of my experience here.

So Honors, this whole opportunity to go abroad to Bulgaria was presented to me right when I came back.

And I was kind of like, wow, all right, I’ll be here for a semester and then go across the pond again.

And that was incredible.

Publication opportunities opened up for me.

I just kind of got that confidence to submit my writing.

And, funnily enough, soon enough, I was published.

When I left UMaine, I went to school in a city, and there wasn’t much nature around.

And if there was, it felt like I was in a little dog park.

UMaine’s campus is something really special.

It’s easy to take things for granted.

And walking through campus, it’s not only a beautiful view, but it reminds me of all the good times I’ve had here.

I can walk past every building and have a good memory associated with it.

I think, absolutely, UMaine has given me so many connections and pathways of different networks I can go down in terms of life after graduation.

It’s a place that feels like home.

I always think about that sign when you drive in, welcome home, you know.

It’s somewhere you feel at peace.

My friend and I were just sitting on a bench, and the Kiwibot’s like driving, or, you know, rolling past us.

And all of a sudden, it literally turns itself all the way around, stares right at us, and does its little, like, side-eye expression, and then starts flashing the heart eyes at us.

And then it goes away.

Super funny.

They’ll just stop and start, and then go in little circles and get all confused.

Patrick Bilodeau:

If you’ve ever seen Lord of the Rings it’s basically, you’re living in Middleworth out here.

It’s beautiful scenery.

Hills, trees…

Like, you’ll be walking through the woods and you’ll just like, step right and like, overlook the ocean, so it’s like…

The best scenery you’ve seen movies you’re livin’ in it here in Machias.

I would say it is one of the most calming and least stressful places I’ve ever been.

Especially for something called a college campus.

What I enjoy most about Machias — the area, the campus, and just around town — is how soothing and nice it is to be here.

It’s just kind of like very easy going.

If you want people to actually know who you are and understand who you are, this is the place to come.

My name is Patrick Bilodeau.

I am a junior at the University of Maine at Machias.

I’m an outdoor rec major and I graduate in May of 2026.

I’m from Vermont, so I came from a place kind of like Maine.

I wanted to go to a place that was far enough away from home, but also close enough to people where it’s like you have something there.

And the price is very reasonable, so it was a nice choice.

I study outdoor recreation.

I get to do everything basically marine bio does without the science.

So that is nice for me because I was originally marine bio and I was like, I only want to do the lab part, but I don’t want to do the science.

And that was rec, so now I do rec.

I am a lifeguard at this pool.

You get hired for work study, and once you’ve worked through work study, you actually get hired again as like a normal employee.

So it’s kind of, you never run out of a job.

What I like about the woods is no one comes out here, so there’s always a spot to be alone.

Going to the ocean, if it’s very calming, very soothing, it’s just right in our backyard.

You see that seal?

Oh, I think I went away.

It’s your own small community.

It’s not like, oh, I’ve never seen this person before.

Like on big campuses, professors know you, actually know you.

They don’t just know you as a number.

With academics, you can learn a lot of different things.

I taught Mancala to kindergarten.

That was a class.

You learn what it is to be a leader in any type of setting.

In a classroom with 15 people, if you think she’s a great professor, like triple it.

Great professor.

How every moment on campuses when you want to hang out with someone, like, hey, what are you doing?

And you go, oh, not much.

And it’s like, oh, you’re going to be with me for the next three hours.

That’s how it works.

In the woods.

In the woods.

In the woods.

I feel like the community

at Machias is very accepting.

I feel like upperclassmen do their job and help freshmen transition.

That is a big part of this campus, is the people that you meet.

Your classrooms are only 10 people.

So like, you go on camping trips with these people.

So you really get to know who these people are.

I think I’ll be friends with these people at Machias for the rest of my life.

And I’ll probably go camping with them in 50 years.

That happens, like, every day.

Just like something random.

Our drive here was like crazy.

There was a guy on a bike just like drinking coffee in the middle of the road.

It’s like, what’s going on?

It’s just like, that’s like the greatest stuff that happens.

Nina Hollon:

So I got to spend a lot of time on campus at the University of Maine as a child, because my dad was an English professor.

For my whole life he was a professor up there and he retired about 10 years ago.

This is actually a picture of him.

So we spent a lot of time there growing up, running around his office in the English department and poking around classrooms and the library and just really all over campus actually, kind of a great place to grow up.

Hi, my name is Nina Hollon and I’m in the University Studies Program and I’m from Orono, Maine.

So I grew up in Maine but I went to California for college and after staying there for a while, working in New York and living in New York,

I got the chance to move back here about 10 years ago and I’ve been here ever since.

So I did start college when I was 19 and I was sort of a traditional student at that point and took regular classes full time and then I had to start working.

Once I started working I shifted over to evening classes and then I was more part time so that the college experience kind of spread out after my first year and I kept working and then my job kept getting more demanding and so I just got to a point where I couldn’t take classes anymore and when you move internally at a company from job to job, they don’t ask you for a resume, they don’t ask you what degree you have.

You’re known by your reputation.

I was coming up on 30 years at a job that I had been at.

I left that company, I started researching, running a consulting business which is what I’m doing now and while I had that sort of down time, it occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity to go back and finish school and that was something that really nobody knew.

Nobody really knew that I hadn’t finished college and I was embarrassed about it.

I reached out to the University of Maine and I found the University Studies program and the people were fantastic and they helped me understand how I could really pretty easily become part of UMaine, become part of that program and showed me that within about two years

I could have my degree and so that’s what I’m doing now.

What I like about being able to study anywhere is probably this. I can literally be outside on the deck, I can be in my house, I can be in another country doing my schoolwork and it just works really well for the life that I have.

I recently just had some family visiting from Luxembourg and I took them on campus and we got to walk all around and we were walking into the gym, the New Balance Center and they said, “Are you allowed in here?”

And I said, “Yeah, it’s open all the time.” And then I sort of paused and I thought, “I’m a student

here. We can go in here.”

And I pulled out my student ID and showed them and we sort of laughed.

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