 |
| Erin Olson is the 2021 valedictorian for Saint Joseph's College of Maine. She is an elementary education major with a concentration in math and special education. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
Each graduate will participate in a “grad walk” across the
stage with their two guests present in a special viewing area nearby. All
participants and guests will be masked. President James Dlugos and Michael
Pardales, vice president and chief learning officer at the college, will be in
attendance to greet the graduates as they make their way across the stage.
Commencement speeches will be pre-recorded and posted at the link above on Friday, May 7, including speeches by valedictorian Erin Olson, and Zachary Chase, a speaker representing online students at the college. Honorary doctorates of public service degrees will also be presented to Sister Patricia McDermott, RSM, and Gerald Talbot.
A native of Stoughton, Massachusetts, Olson is an elementary
education major with a dual concentration in math and special education. She
has also been a member of the Saint Joseph’s College volleyball team for four
years, a member of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, and vice president
of the Student Education Association of Maine.
Throughout her four years at Saint Joseph’s, Erin has participated in many different projects such as Operation Christmas Child, community reading days, and this past fall, Erin student taught in a remote fourth-grade classroom through the RSU 14 Raymond-Windham school district. Her success in that role led to a long-term substitute position as a remote fifth-grade teacher in the same district this spring.
Following graduation, Erin plans to find an elementary school
teaching position and begin working toward earning a master’s degree in child
psychology.
Chase is earning a master’s degree in education in addition to
serving as an assistant athletic trainer at the college, a role he has held
since 2017. Prior to joining the college community, Zachary worked as an
athletic trainer at the United Medical Gym as a clinical exercise assistant,
evaluating client needs and prescribing medical-based programs.
He is also a certified strength and conditioning coach, and he
serves as the assistant strength and conditioning coach to all of the athletes
on campus. A member of the National Athletic Trainer’s Association, Zachary,
who is a native of Old Orchard Beach, currently lives in Biddeford with his
wife Haley.
Sister
Patricia McDermott, RSM, is president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas,
which includes the continental United States, Caribbean, Central and South
America, and the Pacific countries of Guam and the Philippines. She began her
career teaching English, journalism, and religious education at the secondary
level, which she continued for ten years before taking time off to complete her
doctoral studies.
Following
this, she taught pastoral theology at The Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C. In 1999, Sister Patricia joined the Institute of the Sisters
of Mercy of the Americas’ leadership team prior to being elected to her current
position as president in 2011.
A Bangor
native, Gerald Talbot was the first president of the Portland chapter of the
NAACP. In 1972, he became the first African American to be elected to the Maine
State Legislature. During his three terms, he successfully led the passage of
the Maine Fair Housing Bill, the Maine Human Rights Act, sponsored the first
gay rights legislation, and fought to change the conditions and treatment of
migrant workers.
He was
appointed to the Maine State Board of Education in 1980 and became chairman in
1984. In 1995, he donated his vast body of photographs, papers, and material
objects to the University of Southern Maine. The Gerald E. Talbot Collection
serves as the foundation of the African American Collection of Maine.
In 2020,
the Portland City Council unanimously voted to change the name of the Riverton
Elementary School to the Gerald E. Talbot Community School in his honor.
No comments:
Post a Comment