University of Southern Maine

Classes that excite you.
Professors who know you.

You're probably asking yourself, with 8,000 undergrads is USM the kind of school where I become a member of the faceless crowd? Our answer is… hmmm, "faceless crowd," great name for a rock band, but not appropriate for a learning environment.

Our take on a great place to learn is one in which professors:

Bring subject matter to life.
Have curiosity and talent that drive them to be constantly pushing beyond the boundaries of what is known in their fields.
Don't just travel in academic circles, but also connect with professional peers in businesses, organizations, and industries.
And most important, get a charge out of sharing what they know with you.

Connections

With greater Portland right outside our door, we're always making connections with businesses and organizations around us. What that means is that your learning experience goes way beyond the walls or our classrooms. You have all these opportunities to get involved and get job-worthy experience… through business and government internships, musical performances, volunteer projects, art and cultural centers, sporting events, poetry readings (your poetry that is), and many, many more.

Student Profile

Major:
Linguistics

Surprising Personal Fact?:
I got involved in a contra dancing community – country folk dance, it dates back to the first settlers who came over on pilgrimage, British colonial dancing, updated to bluegrass, its a good community setting.

Why USM?
The community was fantastic, getting opportunities to do things that you can’t at a bigger school.

Such as?
Worked as the production manager for newspaper as a sophomore… other things like that: worked for academic journal, an editor for Southern Maine Review, and they also needed someone to run lit journal, Words and Images, took over publishing director (managing editor).

Best thing about Portland?:
If you love to eat, come to Portland. You can throw a rock and hit an excellent restaurant in Portland, it’s one of the best cities in nation per capita for good restaurants.

Your approach to learning?:
The most important thing to learn new things is to remember that you don’t know anything. Being in the honors program helped me recognize a lot about the world I don’t know, and the more I was able to give up opinions and realize I didn’t know much, the more I could learn… the more to have curiosity about what’s out there.

University of Southern Maine

Professors Who Know You

Classes that excite you. Professors who know you.

Connections

Student Profile

Classes that excite you.
Professors who know you.