FARMINGTON – The Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum in Oquossoc and student intern Joseph Pepin were recently recognized at the University of Maine at Farmington’s Partnership for Civic Advancement Annual Banquet.
Pepin served as a docent and assistant to the director at the museum this past summer. The UMF Partnership for Civic Advancement matches UMF students with regional non-profits and businesses to assist them in achieving their mission and goals while providing an opportunity for the students to receive hands-on experience. The program is supported in part through grant funding from Bangor Savings Bank Foundation, a sustaining partner of the Partnership for Civic Advancement.
The UMF program recently got a boost from a grant totaling $108,910 over the next two years from the Davis Educational Foundation, which was established by Stanton and Elisabeth Davis after Mr. Davis’s retirement as chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc.
In making this award, the Trustees of the Davis Educational Foundation expressed their support for the project’s objectives of ‘increasing student engagement with faculty and campus and community-based experiential learning.’ The grant will provide funding to expand the capacity of the university’s Partnership for Civic Advancement in order to help students make the connection between liberal arts education and rewarding and successful careers, graduate education, and civic leadership, as outlined in UMF’s strategic plan.
The Partnership’s internship program, which was launched in the summer of 2012, has grown by more than 300 percent over the past three years. Two additional components of the Partnership program, volunteerism and leadership education and training, were added during the past year.
The Partnership “has made a significant difference to individual students, community organizations and to the fabric of UMF,” according to UMF President Kathryn A. Foster. “We are deeply grateful to the Davis Educational Foundation for their recognition of the importance and success of the Partnership’s work.”
“This significant award from the Davis Educational Foundation will provide the support needed to integrate experiential learning effectively throughout the educational program at UMF,” said Celeste Branham, UMF Vice president for student and community services and director of the Partnership for Civic Advancement. The grant will provide funding for community outreach, faculty development, and curricular and project/program development.
All Partnership activities are designed in collaboration with the western Maine community to address community needs and economic and community development priorities, and with students and faculty to achieve specific learning objectives of the students.
