The WGS Program announces the Constance “Connie” Fournier Student Travel Award

The WGS program is launching a new student travel award program available to all UMaine undergraduate or graduate students whose research, scholarship, or creative/professional work incorporates feminist methods or perspectives or addresses issues of equity and justice. This award program is funded by a donation from the late Constance “Connie” Fournier, a world traveler and educator with a passion for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

The award provides up to 600 dollars in travel expenses for conferences or other professional events to be attended this spring or summer.

Applications should be sent to Elizabeth Neiman and should include the following:

  1. the student’s name and program of study;
  2. name and place/date of conference or professional event that the student plans to attend;
  3. title of presentation and/or role that student will take at event;
  4. itemized list of expenses to be covered by the award;
  5. a short description (250 to 350 words) including
    a. the student’s work or research and what makes it a good fit for this award;
    b. what the student hopes to gain from the conference or professional event (for example the research
    involved for a presentation, or the professional/educational opportunities that the conference or
    event will provide the student).

Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis through spring semester, and until the award is granted.

“Connie’s always felt that every young person, women especially, should have the opportunity to travel and gain world experience that she can take forward in enhancing her life. It did not have to be for a long time,  but enough of an experience to broaden horizons going forward.”
– As shared by Connie’s cousin, Chris Faria.

Constance “Connie” Fournier ’62, Sept. 15, 2022, in Farmington, Maine, at 82.

Connie’s life as a world traveler and educator began right after she graduated from Colby when she set sail for Europe to study German at the University of Vienna in Austria and travel to Rome and Munich. She married Walter Thomas, a sea captain, in 1968 at Lorimer Chapel and lived in Portland, Maine, where she earned her teaching certificate. She would go on to teach English and ESL around the world, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, Singapore, and Hawaii. She divorced, then earned a master’s from the University of Hawaii in Hilo in 1984 followed by a doctorate from the University of Hawaii in Manoa in 1994.

Starting in 2001, she began working as a traveling professor for the University of Maryland’s Education Center, teaching courses on U.S. military bases in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, and Northern Africa. During this time, she was most at home living in Austria, France, Germany, and Spain. She returned for part of the summers to Livermore Falls, Maine, living in her family home on Park Street and hosting her famous “porch parties.” She loved being close to Colby and supported the arts, classical music, and the ballet.

Survivors include extended family, beloved cousin Chris Faria, and her dear friend James “Jimmy” Johnson ’62.