Have you always had an interest in Psychology?
Yeah, I took a Psychology class in high school and I really liked it.

Do you know what you intend on doing after gradation?
I’m looking into Industrial Psychology — working in businesses and perhaps marketing. I have a Business minor so I’m trying to integrate the two fields.

Sounds interesting, what would you do with that?
Industrial Psychology does things like looking at the color of walls to see how it effects worker productivity, doing research to see what affects the working environment. It involves a lot of research and a lot of work with business and seeing how you can make things different, more efficient, more productive.

What attracted you to UMF?
Well, I’m a big skier and so pretty much my whole life we’ve driven right through campus on our way to Sugarloaf.

I also like the small size of the school. I also got a really nice scholarship, which didn’t hurt my decision. Originally, I was a little resistant to go to college in Maine because I’m from Maine and I wanted to try someplace outside the state, but once I came to Farmington and walked around campus and met professor, I just had to come here because it’s such a friendly environment.

So skiing was a big pull?
Skiing was huge.

Do you have any interest working in skiing?
Not really, I just like to ski for fun. I don’t plan to pursue a career in it.

Are you active aside from skiing?
I do a lot of hiking. I like to swim, go to places like Smalls Falls, that kind of stuff. Every year my family comes up to Rangeley and we camp for a week, so I already knew a little bit about the area.

You’re on the varsity soccer team here, what’s that been like?
It has been very interesting. Initially, I didn’t think I could handle both school work and soccer, so I figured I’d focus on academics my first semester and if it went well I’d play the following year. Then, my first semester here the team captains came to my door and asked me to try out — they said I could handle academics and athletics. And they were right.

The team captains just came to your residence hall room?
Yeah, a few of the players came to my room and said, “Come on down to practice and try it. If you don’t like it you can leave but if you like it, stay.” So I went to one soccer practice and I’ve been there ever since. It has been really rewarding. I’ve met a lot of great people.

Tell me more about the team.
I think there are 23 of us. We’re really close — we eat lunch and dinner together and hang out together after classes and stuff. It’s a good group of guys.

And you’ve been able to balance soccer and school work?
Oh, yeah. Easier than I thought, actually. It been working out well.

Do you do anything else?
I do way too much [laughs]. Last year my friend and I started the UMF Chess Club. We meet twice a week and play chess. There are 4 or 5 who come every time and next year we’re hoping to get a lot bigger and maybe host a chess tournament. I’m also involved in the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and we’re doing things to promote healthy environments for athletes. Plus I’m a member of the regional Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and we do a lot of stuff about legislation for student-athletes within the North Atlantic Conference.

What do you mean by legislation for athletes?
Recently, we’ve been working on things like gender equality. Last semester was more sportsmanship oriented, ways to increase sportsmanship both at games and outside of games. Essentially, anything we talk about in our meetings gets represented regionally and then it goes to the national level — that’s where athletics policies are made, so through that we have strong a student voice at a national level.

I had heard of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee but I didn’t know it was a national program.
Yeah. On campus we’ve been hosting things like the Beaver Bowl last weekend — we had about 50 student-athletes who got to bowl for free and we had a great time. We also sent a group of student-athletes to Habitat for Humanity in Brunswick, Maine to build a house there, which was pretty cool. And we’re helping out at the UMF All-Nighter at the UMF Fitness & Rec Center. We’re doing a quite a bit on campus, which is fun.

Anything else you have time for on campus?
Lately, I’ve been really enjoying going to French movies. I’m taking French this semester and I really like French movies — French movies with English subtitles.

Do you have a favorite memory of Farmington?
Last year our soccer team was seeded 8th in the tournament and we had to go against the top-seeded team and we ended up beating them at their place. They had 250 fans there, all cheering for them, and it came down to the last shot and we won. That was pretty cool.

And what about Psychology, do you have a favorite professor?
So far my two favorite professors have been Steve Quackenbush [Associate professor of Psychology] and Marilyn Shea [Professor of Psychology]. I had Steve for General Psych and a couple other classes and I had Marilyn for Physiological Psychology. I enjoy the way they teach their classes. Both are personable and give concrete examples you can really connect to.

What has been your biggest challenge?
Right now, I am taking Honors Logic. It is a really difficult class, with Mark McPherran [Professor of Philosophy]. You remember proofs in Geometry? Well, right now we’re doing proofs with Logic. You have to take something and put them into symbols … it’s hard to explain but trust me, it’s pretty tough. But that’s why I really like the Honors classes.

If a freshman asked you what Farmington is really like, what would you tell them?
I guess the first thing I’d stress is the importance of student and faculty relationships — I’d say our professors are more personable than faculty at other schools. Here you’re on a first name basis with your professors. They care about you. They’re willing to go out of their way to help if you have a problem. Instead of saying, “we can’t do anything about that,” they say, “how can we solve this problem?”

Second, I’d stress the strong Liberal Arts community. Our school is really about experiencing as many things as you can, instead of focusing on just one thing — you know, getting a well-rounded Liberal Arts education, which I think is very important.

Third, I’d let them know that although there’s a strong focus on academics here at Farmington, there are plenty of other opportunities for things to do both in school and out of school. We have a million clubs and organizations — about anything you can think of — or you can start your own club, like I did.