News Releases

USM Professor and Student Among this Year’s Maine Campus Compact Award Winners

May 3 , 2007

Robert Sanford of Gorham, USM associate professor of environmental science and policy, received the Donald Howard Faculty Award for Service Learning Excellence. This award recognizes three faculty members annually for their commitment to making civil engagement an integral part of their teaching. Sanford, who began teaching while working as an environmental professional, uses service learning as a framework for all of his courses. His students frequently have the freedom to develop their own projects, often focusing on planning and assessment issues.

Sanford is the co-author of “Environmental Science: Active Learning Laboratories and Applied Problem Sets,” a laboratory manual for environmental science students. At USM, he helped craft a new general education vision that includes civic engagement and promotes service learning.

Marie Stolzenburg of Portland is a USM senior majoring in English with a minor in philosophy. She is one of five students in the state recognized by the Maine Campus Compact Heart and Soul Student Award. This award is given to students who are actively involved in turning their campuses and communities into places of democracy through raising their voices on issues of local and global concern.

Stolzenburg recognized a need for student activism on campus and organized a student Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) chapter, which is now one of the largest and most active student organizations at USM. With the help of PIRG, Stolzenburg has focused on the issue of student debt and worked to support the Opportunity Maine initiative to make college more affordable in Maine.

The Maine Campus Compact is a coalition of 18 member campuses whose purpose is to a movement to reinvigorate the civic mission of higher education. The organization seeks to transform Maine campuses in ways that develop active citizen problem-solvers, stronger communities, and a more just and democratic society. For more information, visit: http://www.mainecompact.org.

The awards were presented at a recent ceremony in Augusta.

>more news releases