Currents at USM

Achievements Noted

Several departments at USM have received recognition of the quality and high standards of the programs offered.

MOT 1 of 5 in Nation
The master's program in occupational therapy at USM's Lewiston-Auburn College has been selected as one of five graduate-level programs in the nation to participate in the American Occupational Therapy Foundation’s (AOTF) Mentor's Project.
As a result, LAC will receive consulting services from national experts on the further development and refinement of its curriculum and will be officially identified as "educational leaders in occupational therapy."

The announcement from AOTF read, in part, "We believe that each of these schools has the potential to contribute significantly to future scholarship in occupational therapy." In the AOTF program, mentorship is an interactive relationship wherein both parties share responsibility for an agreed upon goal, mentors can make suggestions, and faculty teams move ahead at their own rate.

American and New England Studies Grants
The ANES program in the last year received $30,000 as an anonymous gift to enable graduate students in the program to do research abroad and $2000 from the Maine Humanities Council for a film and discussion series, “Virtual New England: Region, Film and Culture,” that places mainstream, classic films on New England in a cultural context. The funds for student travel enabled three ANES students to visit Ireland, Bulgaria and England for research projects last summer.

Science Bowl
Five teams from high schools in Maine, NH and Massachusetts competed in the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl, held in Bailey Hall on March 3. It was the first time the Science Bowl was held in northern New England. The event at USM was hosted by USM’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy and was coordinated by Rob Sanford.
The Science Bowl is a national annual competition for high school math and science students. Last year, 60 regional competitions were held in which teams of four students answered questions dealing with astronomy, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, current events in the scientific community, computers, earth, and general sciences. Regional winners compete in Washington, D.C. for the national title.

Quality Award
The National Staff Development and Training Association (NSDTA) last summer presented the Quality Award for an innovative training program to the Public Welfare Training Group at the Muskie School’s Institute for Public Sector Innovation (IPSI). The award recognized the training group’s work in developing, implementing and evaluating a competency-based orientation and performance management system for new child support enforcement agents employed by Maine's Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery.

Child Care Crisis Addressed
The Institute for Child and Family Policy of the Muskie School, in collaboration with the Associated Day Care Services of Boston, MA, is administering a project that will inventory and analyze data on the status of the child care workforce in New England. According to child care providers throughout New England, the problem of attracting and retaining qualified workers has reached crisis proportions. The New England Workforce Partners for Early Care and Education (NEW Partners) is funded by a major grant awarded by the Child Care Bureau of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, Department of Health and Human Services. The grant, made under the Bureau’s Child Care Policy Research Partnerships initiative, is for $300,000 in the first year, with the possibility of funding for two more years at the end of the grant period.

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