Author Archives: Benjamin Joseph

This summer, Meredith Madden traded her usual classroom for the sidelines of the Special Olympics USA Games, serving as Maine’s first ever medical delegate. Between pin trading, milkshake runs with athletes from across the country, and a front row seat to opening ceremonies, she came home with more than a few good stories, and one piece of advice for anyone thinking about doing the same. Read more to find out what it is.

Three-year-old Claire has always had a hard time keeping up with her big sister’s bike from the seat of her wheelchair. So two USM programs went to work. Engineering students handled the build. Occupational therapy students made sure it fit her life. Keep reading for how one custom car came together, and what it means for one Maine family.

Choosing a major doesn’t mean choosing one career forever. USM’s Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence major, offered fully online, is one of the most flexible degrees out there, teaching students how to think with data, not just what to know about it. Keep reading for five careers this degree can lead to.

Every spring, dozens of Maine middle and high school students send something they built with their own hands to the edge of space — it’s called the CubeSat Design Challenge. For the past six years it’s been led by Scott Eaton, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at USM. Keep reading for Eaton’s insights on crickets, recovery missions in the Maine woods, and what makes this program one of a kind.

Samuel Genovese first walked into a Model UN conference as a nervous high school freshman. Eight years later, he stood at a podium inside USM’s Costello Field House and opened one as secretary-general, the student in charge of the entire event. Behind that full-circle moment is a story most of the 450 high schoolers in the room never saw: months of planning, a student-led leadership team, and everything it takes to pull off the Maine Model United Nations Conference. Keep reading to go behind the scenes with the USM student who ran the show.

Occupational therapy assistants work directly with people facing physical, cognitive or environmental challenges — but what does that actually look like day to day? John Krasnavage, an OTA and faculty member in USM’s one-of-a-kind OTA-B program, shares what drew him to the field, what the work really involves, and what prospective students should know. Find out why he calls it “the job of life.”

Makenzie Renner ’26 and Caleb Randall ’23 ’26G were among the more than 1,000 University of Southern Maine students who crossed the stage at commencement in May — but unlike most of their peers, the pair had just returned from Austria, where they were invited to present on the history and culture of American music at one of Europe’s leading conservatories. Keep reading to find out how two students from USM’s Osher School of Music took American Art Song to European stages, what it took to get there, and how the experience is now shaping their next steps.

If you live in New England — Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont — there’s a program that could save you thousands of dollars a year at the University of Southern Maine, even as an out-of-state student. 

It’s called the NEBHE Tuition Break Program, and it’s one of the most underutilized benefits available to New England students considering a public university outside their home state. Here’s what you need to know.

Starting at USM during summer session is more common than you might think — and one current student says it gave them a head start they did not expect. Keep reading for five tips from a student who has been there.

Tim Fogleman arrived in Maine having visited the state exactly once. Two years later, he’s graduating from the University of Southern Maine with a public health degree, a Free Press byline, and friendships he calls the bedrock of everything. Keep reading to hear how a leap of faith led him to USM, what he found when he got here, and what he wants students to know about building community from scratch.