About the Office
The Office of Community Service and Civic Engagement has existed since fall of 2006. Before that, Andrea Thompson McCall promoted service-learning and co-curricular service out of the office of the Dean of Student Life; since the creation of the OCSCE, she has been able to focus her efforts. Recently, the value to the university of promoting civic engagement has become apparent, and this office is part of a movement on this campus and throughout much of higher ed.
The office is located at 23 Brighton Ave on the Portland campus. It's a little white farmhouse next to Payson Smith hall, and, like many of the campus offices, is actually a historic building. OCSCE shares the building with the Interfaith Chaplaincy, also directed by Andrea Thompson McCall. Contact information:
Interoffice Mail: 23 Brighton Ave, Portland Campus
Postal Mail: Office of Community Service, P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300
Phone: (207)228-8091 (main office); (207)228-8284 (Director)
Fax: (207)228-8403; Email: community@usm.maine.edu
The staff here evolves over time, because of the Office's reliance on AmeriCorps VISTA staff and student workers. These are a few of the faces you could expect to see if you stopped by:
Andrea Thompson McCall, Director. Andrea also serves as the Director of the Interfaith Chaplaincy. Community service work has been a passion of hers throughout her career.
Michael Wilson, VISTA, Community Collaboration Coordinator. Michael lives in Portland's Parkside Neighborhood. He's fascinated by community, democracy, and dance; he's committed to higher education's work with the first two. Michael graduated from Bates College in 2007 with a B.A. in American Cultural Studies.
Alicia Sampson, VISTA. Alicia lives in heart of the arts district in Portland’s West End Neighborhood. She believes that cultural diversity is an inherent component in human life. It is her hope that culturally relevant education can promote the value of other worldviews and other ways of living. Alicia graduated from Montclair State University in 2007 with a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology. Alicia focuses on student recruitment and develops one-time and short-term community service events. She also works with multicultural communities both on and off campus.
Amanda Vickerson, VISTA. Amanda is a native Mainer; she grew up in Scarborough and went to Colby college after highschool. She has a BA in Women's, Gender & Sexuality studies and minored in Education. During her time at Colby, she became really interested in service learning and civic engagement, and loved her own direct service experience. After a brief stint in Boston, she returned to Maine and is looking forward to the opportunities available with the small but enthusiastic group of people in our office. Her main focus here is to work with USM's existing mentoring program, expanding and deepening our partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Jennifer Murray, Student Coordinator. Jennifer works primarily to promote and support service learning, but does a little of everything else as well--including web design. She's a sociology major due to graduate in, hopefully, May 2009.
Rachel Putnam, Office Associate. As a new student in fall 2007, Rachel chose to make community service, and work at the office, one of the centerpieces of her involvement here at USM. She works in student recruitment, organizes service projects, and keeps the office running. Her studies include both Nursing and Holistic Health.
Erin Watson, Office Associate. Like Rachel, Erin was a new student in 2007 and found a home in the Office of Community Service. She graduated from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in 2006 and is now a Business Finance major here at USM. She did a lot of community service at her high school, including tutoring in subjects from chemistry to french and washing lots of cafeteria dishes.
