Cutler Institute

For five University of Southern Maine students and recent graduates, it seemed like an icy mission impossible. Fly 2,300 miles to the edge of the Arctic Circle and while still fighting the four hours stolen by an eastbound red-eye flight, team up with students from a variety of prestigious Nordic universities, and find a way to save the world. It became the Iceland challenge.

The new report, “School-Based Policing in Maine,” funded by the Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group, examines Maine’s increasing use of school resource officers (SROs) and finds that by itself, school policing is not evidenced to significantly reduce school violence or improve school safety.

USM is among 79 organizations nationwide to receive the one-year grant and is the research team’s sixth consecutive award from OSHA.

During July and August, high school students from Portland, South Portland and Westbrook participated in Gateway to Opportunity — six-week, work-based learning program helps connect local youth with tangible work experiences during the summer.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $60,607 grant to the University of Southern Maine to help ignite study of the northern New England coastline and its resilience to climate change.

"The USM Update" is back. This month, we discuss the relatively new Promise Scholarship, the Gateway to Opportunity program, which engages local youth and with meaningful work experiences, and two internships completed by our Food Studies students.

USM’s Karen Pearson and George Shaler have been honored by the Journal for Health and Human Service Administration for their research on paramedicine in Maine.

In rural areas such as Maine, people smoke more and quit less, say a pair of USM-led tobacco studies that have drawn both state and national press attention.

USM alumnus Zach Croll's capstone project on Medicaid expansion has been published in the Maine Policy Review.

Sometime before daylight on a September morning, John Gale, 63, will set off from Dover, England for open water swimming’s signature feat. If the conditions cooperate, he’ll arrive on France’s Calais beach 13 hours after his departure, becoming one of fewer than 1,900 people to ever cross the 21-mile-wide channel with the strength of their own arms, legs and inner resolve.