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De ce m be r 2013
Contents
Looking Up
Alumni Spotlight
1
Student News
2, 3
Academic Achievers
4
What We Like About You 5
Western Mass.
6,7
UB Reads
8
238 Main St., Suite 1
Farmington, Maine 04938
Phone: (207) 778 7296
Toll Free: 1-888-237-1667
TDD: (207) 778 7000
2
Looking Up
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT ~ ERICA BAXTER
Favorite thing about UMF? My favorite thing about UMF is that there are
so many activities that are going on and many different chances to find
where you fit it. They’re really here to help you and make you feel as
comfortable as possible.
Most disliked thing about UMF? I sometimes get sick of the same foods but
I learned that switching it up is possible.
What were the major factors, for you, in deciding where to attend college?
Money was a huge factor, but I chose UMF because it’s right next to my
hometown and I know the area like the back of my hand. I do live on campus,
which is really nice but if I ever want to see my family they’re only 15
minutes away.
What is your major and desired career? My major is Biology and my
desired career is to become a psychiatrist or a doctor of some sort.
December Birthdays
Alexia Krupp 12/6
Krystal Coady 12/9
Allison Bernier 12/11
Tell us about your transition from high school to UMF, how did it go/is it
going? My transition was SUPER easy from high school to UMF. Moving
into the residence halls wasn’t scary and I wasn’t nervous because Upward
Bound really helped me feel comfortable with it. I thought having a large
lecture class would be awful but it’s not intimidating at all and my teachers
are wonderful and really care about helping if need be.
Advice for current UB students? My advice for current students is to enjoy
high school in your last years. There will be times when you’re going to miss
it. Go to teachers for help, it’s their job and they like to know that you care.
Tyra Howes 12/18
Make sure you gain some great study skills especially if you’re going to live
Aimee LaFlamme 12/20 on campus. Apply to as many scholarships as humanly possible once you
Caitlyn Young 12/27 start applying to college. Listen to what the lovely Upward Bound crew tells
you, they know what they’re doing. Then lastly, enjoy your education! 
Anthony Boucher 12/30
Kara Rawlings 12/11
Destiny Powell 12/30
Alyssa Doucette 12/31
Jasmine Buzzell 12/31
-Mt. Blue Students sweep National Honor Society! Congratulations to
Macee Qi, Danika Morin, Heather McDonald, Tavia Robshaw, Isabella
Navarro, and Terry Clark!!
- Lexi Asselin is taking more challenging classes than last year and is
enjoying the additional challenge!!
- Ashlee Atchinson is in two new clubs this year: Respect Team and Key
Club!!
- Jenna Bickford is taking 2 AP classes and is enjoying the classes and the
extra challenge!!
- Natasha Blake ran cross country this fall for Oxford Hills and is interning
in a Grade 2 classroom for her Early Childhood class. She also just
recently broke the school’s women’s push-up record - wow!!
- Katelyn Campbell and Justice Pittman were both in the Oxford Hills
production of “It’s a Wonderful Life” this December!!
- Amber Dennison got her first job this fall working at Pumpkinland for
the season. She just recently made the varsity basketball team at Oxford
Hills!!
- Mariah Gonzales cheered this fall and is cheering again this winter at
Oxford Hills!!
- Faith Paglierani went to the Reptile Expo in New Hampshire this fall and
came home with a new pet gecko name “PePe the Cute” (a play on “Pepe Le
Pew” from Looney Tunes fame) !!
- Marcelo Mazariego played football for Oxford Hills this fall!!
- Keith Crockett-Harrington played footbal for Telstar this fall and finished
up his Eagle Scout project of building picnic shelter for the town of
Hanover!!
- Aislinn Forbes went to a cousin’s wedding in Ohio and got to see a little
bit of Kent State University while she was there!!
- Tyra Howes is busy with classes and extracurricular activities including
being Secretary of her class this year!!
- Kristen Jackson is also busy with extracurricular activities including
taking 3 dance classes and co-teaching one class!!
- Liz Lyons got her driver’s license in August and has recently learned how
to drive a standard transmission car!!
-Becca Stitham is competing on the speech team for Lawrence High
School!!.
-Brett Stuard is Student of the Month for Mt. Blue High School!!
-Calvin Downey performed with the Portland Youth Wind Ensemble at
Merrill Auditorium in Portland!!
-Jeremy Austin performed in the school play over the weekend and has
recently started participating in the Debate Team, the Civil Rights Club,
and Big Brothers Big Sisters at Buckfield High School!!
-Kara Libby is President of the Civil Rights Club at Buckfield High School!!
-Cole Williams is preparing for his Winter Concert for band and chorus at
Madison!
-Alisha Fox in currently doing her Clinicals at a local nursing home and
loving it!!
-Summer Libby, Kaylee Piccolo, and Tiffany Camire are cheering for
basketball and competition for Madison!!
-Tiffany Camire is student of the month for Madison High School!!
-Linda Dudley and Macy Lee are on the Indoor Track Team for
Skowhegan Area High School!!
-David Washburn is playing hockey on the Skowhegan/Lawrence Hockey
team!!
-Monique Mills is Captain of the Bowling Team at Skowhegan!!
-Alyssa Doucette is manager for the Wrestling team for Skowhegan!!
-Courtney Ireland is on the competition cheering team at Skowhegan!!
-Ceilya Cooley is in Vocal Vibe at Lawrence!!
- Rachel Averill is busy with school, work, and extracurricular activities
this year, including being National Honor Society President at Mountain
Valley High School and State Vice-President for NHS!!
- Shawn Bennet played soccer and ran cross-country this fall at Mountain
Valley High School and got his driver’s license in October!!
- Anthony Boucher played Football this fall at Mountain Valley High
School!!
- Shannon Santillo got a job at McDonalds!!
- Elliott Eno got a Classroom Award for Music Theory at the December
Student of the Month assembly at Dirigo High School!!
What Colleges Look For in Your Application
Ashley Avery
I attended an admissions workshop at Smith College whilst looking at the college.
The Dean of Admissions Deb Shaver took us through what most colleges are looking for
on their application. It was titled “What I Like About You”.
The first thing a college looks at is your transcript. They say it is an academic
competition. But do not worry about the competition, because context is everything when
it comes to transcripts. The college looks to see that you have taken the most challenging
courses for you, also known as appropriately challenging. But how do they know? Each
college will ask for a high school’s profile or they will have one on hand. This profile
will have all of the classes offered for you to take, the level of these classes, the
environment, number of students, and other things about your high school.
The next things that the college looks at are your letters of references or
recommendations. The first is the one from your guidance counselor. This letter puts the
student into the context of the school, such as how you interact with others. The second
thing they are looking for is two teacher letters that will describe students in the context
of class, and things like how well you work with peers and if we are attentive.
Third is the essay and which is really important. The essay, for administration,
provides how well students express themselves. What they are looking for:
 Can the student put together a sentence and a paragraph?
 Can the student form a thesis, provide detail and prove their point?
 Can the student write with voice and nuance and creativity?
 How do we think and communicate?
The short answer questions are as important as the essay, so put as much effort into them
as the essay, as they tell just as much about you.
Standardized testing is not required by some schools or they are test optional.
Also a lot of colleges do not employ test cut-offs. These tests are an imperfect tool for
student comparison because of geography.
The other factors: Interviews are highly recommended because admissions
counselors get to meet you in person, so that time is yours to sell yourself to the school.
Extra-curricular activities: it is more important to have consistency with one or more
rather than a wide variety. A college wants to see that you will stay with an activity.
Lastly, a new factor: shown interest. This would entail being on the mailing list, visiting
the college, participating in days that are held for potential students; the college wants
you to look like you will go there.
Some other things:
 Colleges are first generation aware when it comes to wait-listing students
 Admissions is looking to create a well-rounded class
 It is better to apply early action because you are more likely to get accepted
Submitting work (i.e. an art profile or pieces of music) you have done can only help.
Colleges may show them to professors who would say: “I would really like to work with
that student!” making you look more desirable as a student.
Western Mass. Trip Summary
By: Alyssa Higbie
A weekend college adventure with 4 of my fellow Upward Bounder’s
plus Elyse, what could be better? Ashley Avery, Allison Bernier,
Tristen Webber, Caitlyn Young, and I embarked on a 3 day journey to
Western Massachusetts (& Connecticut) to visit six colleges: Mt.
Holyoke, Amherst, University of Conn, Hampshire, UMass at Amherst,
and Smith College. We would later find out that there was a theory
surrounding 5 of these colleges (all but UConn) called the Scooby Doo
theory, if you would like to read about it you can find it
by searching “Scooby Doo college theory” on Google.
It was an early start on Saturday morning,
meeting up with Tristen, Ashley, and Caitlyn at UMF
at 7 o’clock am, and later picking up Allison on our
way in Jay. As we started our 4 and 1/2 hour drive to the Mt. Holyoke
campus we started listening to the over 5 hours of CD’s that Rico
graciously made for us. (Thanks Rico! Your sticky notes were well
noted!) The car was filled with all of our harmonious voices for a good
majority of the ride, singing an assortment of songs and even some
Disney classics from our childhood (or just last week). When we arrived at Mt. Holyoke
the first impression of the campus was that it was very pretty and kept up. We were
treated to lunch with our tour guides and were able to ask questions about the college &
what campus life is like. After lunch we took a tour around the campus and saw a couple
dorms, classrooms, labs, and the new science building that even reflected science in the
construction and design. We quickly realized as we walked around campus that the
school was big on tradition, and that it was an all-women college. After Mt. Holyoke we
went over to Amherst College and took a self-guided tour, commentated by our very own
Ashley.
Amherst’s campus was beautiful with fall leaves still on
the trees and a wonderful view of surrounding mountains. The
overriding highlight of Amherst College was by far the visit to
their Museum of Natural History where there was displays of
Wooly Mammoth bones, and full scale dinosaur replicas. On
our way out we were able to witness a wedding party coming
out of the campus chapel to take pictures at the nearby lookout.
After our quick tour of Amherst we checked into our hotel &
relaxed for a little bit before we headed to the Academy of
Music’s performance of “H.M.S Pinafore”.
After a long first day, being able to have a chill Sunday and sleep in was
marvelous. We started out from the hotel and headed towards UConn, about half way
there we made a stop in Springfield, Mass. at the Dr. Seuss National Memorial. The
memorial had an elaborate house made exclusively out of sticks, along with sculptures of
many Seuss’ classic characters including Horton, Thing 1 & Thing 2, the Grinch, and
Sally to name a few. When we finally got to the UConn campus it looked more like its
own city than a college campus! The campus is massive and you could easily spend hours
to explore it all. One of the biggest buildings that we
saw was called the Co-Op, it is the campus super
store; with two floors having everything you would
ever possibly need in college- & then some! UConn is
definitely for the student who wants a big campus & to
not have to leave campus to get what you need. On the
way back we visited Hampshire College. Hampshire is
the smallest college we toured, the campus has a laid
back and chill atmosphere to it. For most of us the
highlight of Hampshire was the tree swing we found
on campus! After Hampshire we did a drive through
tour of UMass at Amherst. The campus was pretty big
in size and the population is around the same as
UConn’s. I enjoyed having time to go shopping in the downtown area later in the evening
and for all of us to be able to try Thai food. (Which most of us liked surprisingly!) After
our downtown adventures we called it a day and retired to the hotel for some much
anticipated pool time. Let me tell you, the pool area at the hotel is like a paradise!
On our last day, Monday, we participated in Smith College’s Discovery Day.
Overall it was a very fun day for all of us with each of us getting to have a
different experience of the college. We were able to go off on our own and
see what we each wanted to see from the college. The day was broken up
into different sessions with opportunities to tour the campus, sit in on
classes, talk to students, and get helpful information. During our lunch
break we ran into Upward Bound Alumni Mollie Pleau, it was nice to see a
fellow Upward Bounder who was in our shoes only a few years back.
Personally I had a cool experience there finding a building that was named
after my great-great aunt! After a long day and busy weekend we started
back on our way up to Maine, with the music blasting, our voices singing,
and the memories of the weekend in our minds.
UB READS
– DUNCAN GRANT
Wade Watts is just an average teenager in a futuristic world, but all is not
well. Famine, disease, and poverty have ravaged the United States. So, like
many people who need a release from the real world, Wade spends most of
his time in a virtual world known as OASIS, which was made by the most
famous nerd in the world. But when OASIS's creator dies, he
leaves his vast fortune to whoever can find the in-game keys,
which will open the doors to the next puzzle and, therefore, the
next key.
But after finding the first key, a corporation hounds him,
trying with all their might to get Wade, who in OASIS is known
as Parzival, to join them and give up the fortune once he finds the
rest of the keys and doors. Wade of course refuses, which ends
up with his home getting blown up (don't worry, he wasn't there),
letting him know that the only way to stomp the enemy is by
winning the fortune.
This book, Ready Player One by Earnest Cline, is the biggest
nerd-gasm in the history of books. It's filled with 80's pop
culture references at all points, teenager logic, games, role playing
awesomeness, and just plain awesomeness in general. Granted, there are
some raunchy parts, but like I said, Wade is a teenage boy, so that's to be
expected.
Overall, an amazing read, and I would say to take any opportunity you can
to read it, gamers, nerds, and teens alike.