Criminal Justice job fair links students to employers
SMCC’s Criminal Justice program held a program-specific job fair that gave students a taste of the wide range of career opportunities available to them.
Sixteen local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies attended the fair April 19 in the McKernan Center. Over three hours, dozens of criminal justice students streamed through to ask questions and learn more about the agencies.
“This is a great opportunity to get your foot in the door and see which direction you might want to go,” said Nathan Charron, who graduates this spring.
SMCC holds an annual campus-wide job fair, but some individual academic programs hold their own aimed specifically at their students.
The Horticulture Department’s job fair is a longstanding tradition aimed at helping students in search of jobs, and helping businesses in search of summer and full-time employees. The Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management programs has held job fair the last two years.
Criminal Justice Professor Kevin MacDonald said he and other professors this year discussed holding a job fair for Criminal Justice students. With unemployment at a historic low, law enforcement agencies across Maine are in need of qualified candidates.
“We put out the word on a law enforcement listserv, and within six hours all of the tables were taken,” he said.
Participating law enforcement agencies included local police departments, correctional agencies, sheriff’s offices, the Maine Marine Patrol and the U.S. Customs & Border Enforcement agency.
Lewiston Police Officer Joseph Phillippon said attending the fair was a good opportunity to inform students about all his department has to offer.
“We’re short on officers and we need good candidates to fill up the pipeline,” he said.
Meet potential employers at Career Fair
Dust off that resume, brush up on your interviewing skills and meet prospective employers face-to-face at the annual SMCC Career Fair.
More than two dozen companies and organizations will be represented at this year’s fair, to be held from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, in the Campus Center.
Besides meeting with potential employers, you can practice your professional communication skills and learn about the job market outlook. Bring a resume and make a positive impression.
The participating companies and organizations are:
- Arundel Machine Tool Inc.
- Avesta Housing and 75 State Street
- Cape Memory Care
- Clarion Hotel (The Olympia Cos.)
- Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems
- Genuine Parts Co./NAPA Auto Parts
- Harvey Performance
- Hid’n Pines Family Campground
- Kelly Services
- Kennebunkport Resort Collection
- LearningWorks
- Living Innovations
- Logisticare
- Maine CareerCenters
- Maine Green Power/3Degrees
- Maine Mammoths
- Maine State Housing Authority
- MaineGeneral Health
- MaineHealth
- New York Life Maine GO
- Nichols Portland LLC
- OfficeTeam and Accountemps
- Preble Street
- Primerica Financial Services
- Pro Search Inc.
- SMRT
- Spectrum
- Spectrum-Field Operations
- St. Mary’s Health System
- Technological Innovations LLC
- Tradesmen International
- U.S. Army
- Wright-Pierce
Students share research at Thinking Matters
Thirteen SMCC students shared their capstone research projects at the annual Thinking Matters research symposium.
The April 20 Honors Program conference at the University of Southern Maine showcased high-quality student-faculty research collaborations.
The SMCC students’ projects explored subjects ranging from smoking and a human tissue disorder known as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome to facial attractiveness and a rare genetic disorder called Cri du chats syndrome.
Thinking Matters allows students and faculty to share their work with each other, their colleagues and the general public.
SMCC students who took part in Thinking Matters were:
- Aline Uwamariva — How to Make a Baby with Three Parents
- Bilyana Stoimenova — Facial Attractiveness: Bilateral Symmetry and Heterozygosity
- David Mutsinzi — Using CRISPR/Cas9 to Correct Duchene Muscular Dystrophy
- Emily Haggett — Importance and Function of Lysogeny in Marine Environments
- Hannah Waugh — Old and New Genetic Understandings of Cri du Chat Syndrome
- John Onesti — Synthetic Spider Silk Protein Fabrication Using Recombinant DNA
- Justin Fortin — Adepts of Regenerative Morphology: New Possible Fields of Bioengineering and Understanding Direct and Indirect Linear Encoding Blueprints
- Kathleen Pyburn — An Overview of the Effect of Cigarette Smoke on DNA Methylation
- Miriam Deauseault — Social Exchange Theory: What is it, and How Can it be Applied to Everyday Situations
- Rachelle Cormier — Male Infertility: Genes Related to Sperm Morphology
- Ryan Kenney —Antibiotic Resistance Genes in an Evolving Metagenome
- Sara Zobel — Better Diagnosis from an Understanding of the Genetic Pathway of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome
- Tiffany Greenleaf — Conservation Genetics to the Rescue!
Photo Caption: Emily Haggett and Ryan Kenney were among the SMCC students displaying their research at the Thinking Matters symposium
Spring Fest = BBQ, volleyball and fun
Spring has arrived, which means Spring Fest can’t be far away. Don’t miss out on the activities slated for May 1-4.
The SMCC Activities Committee’s schedule for the week includes:
- Tuesday, May 1, 7:30 p.m. Talent Show, Oceanview Dining Hall
- Wednesday, May 2, 12:30-2:30 p.m., Video game truck, outside of the Campus Center
- Wednesday, May 2, 6 p.m., Tie-Dye, free T-shirts available or bring your own to tie-dye, by Oceanview Dining Hall
- Wednesday, May 2, 11:30 a.m-1:30 p.m., Midcoast Campus BBQ, outside the L.L.Bean Learning Commons, free food and T-shirts
- Thursday, May 3, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., South Portland Campus BBQ, Campus Center Drive, free food and T-shirts, bouncing boxing inflatable
- Friday, May 4, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Volleyball, outside of the HUB
- Friday, May 4, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Plant flower seeds, outside of the HUB
Maine Mayhem Film Festival: 8 years, still going strong
Eight films written and produced by SMCC student filmmakers will make their public premieres in the eighth annual Maine Mayhem Film Festival.
The festival each year showcases the work of senior students who have been working on films as capstone projects in a filmmaking class offered through the college’s Communications & New Media Studies program.
The films will be shown on Wednesday, May 9, at 5:30 p.m. and again at 8:30 p.m. at the Nickelodeon Cinemas in Portland. They will show again at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 10, at Frontier cinema in Brunswick, and on Friday, May 11, at 8 p.m. at the Bangor Art Exchange in Bangor.
This year’s films:
- “42 Atwood Lane,” a coming-of-age drama written and directed by Brianna Penney.
- “Parasite Night,” a horror flick written and directed by Justin Taylor.
- “Off the Tracks,” a skit-comedy film written and directed by Jack Gentmpo.
- “Washed Away,” a drama written and directed by Madison Holbrook and co-produced by Taylor Freeman.
- “Crystal Clear,” a magic-realism comedy written and directed by Brendan Kellogg and co-produced by Alex Goodwin and Mitchell Kleege.
- “The Wile,” a sci-fi movie written and directed by Ben Rooker and co-produced by Emily Myshrall.
- “Phoenix,” a super-hero drama written and produced by Bodhi Ouellette.
- “Champ,” a boxing movie written and directed by Jason Smith.
Inaugural manufacturing technician class graduates
Congratulations to the first group of graduates from our inaugural manufacturing technician training program offered through SMCC’s workforce development department in partnership with Bath Iron Works.
A graduation ceremony was held April 26 at the Midcoast Campus, and graduates will now have job interviews with BIW.
Biz club students visit the Big Apple
Biz club students visit the Big Apple
Seventeen Business Club students took to the business capital of the world for the club’s annual excursion to New York City.
During the trip from April 26-29, students and Business Professor Steve Strand visited One World Observatory (atop the Freedom Tower), ate lunch on Wall Street and had a guided tour of the New York Stock Exchange. They also visited historic Trinity Church, the famous “Raging Bull” and “Fearless Girl” statues, the Alexander Hamilton Custom House and other business landmarks.
Some students saw a Broadway show Friday night, while others visited Times Square or Greenwich Village. The whole group went to the New York Comedy Club on Saturday night.
The trip provides students an opportunity to visit the world’s most active center of business and to bond with one another.
Photo caption: Shown outside of the New York Stock Exchange are Professor Steve Strand with students Haleigh Barrett, Matthew Brown, Clautel Buba, Thomas Dolloff, Shalini Govindaraju, Tina Hoang, Loreal Legare, Daniella Mawika, Christ Vie Mbalazamo, Nathalie Mitchell, Feza Mitima, Raffaella Morabito, Jonas Mutombo, Steven Ntibandetse, Ryan Patridge, Celetta Richard and Yu Shi.