Saint Joseph's College of Maine is a private Catholic liberal arts college in Standish, Maine, that grants bachelor's degrees in a traditional on-campus setting, as well as bachelor's and master's degrees via online education. The college’s 430-acre (1.7 km2) campus in southern Maine is located on the shore of Sebago Lake, just 18 miles (29 km) from Portland, Maine’s largest city. It is the only Catholic college in Maine.
Saint Joseph’s was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1912 as an institution for women. The college, run by a lay and religious Board of Trustees, was located on the convent grounds in nearby Portland until 1956 when it moved to its lakeside location in Standish. In 1970, Saint Joseph’s became coeducational and six years later began a distance education program for working adults. Saint Joseph's College Online offers its online programs to 2,400 students in 50 states and nine countries.
Academics
On campus, the college offers more than 40 majors, minors and partnership programs. The average class size is 17. The student-to-faculty ratio is 12:1. On campus, the college offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as professional programs. The most popular majors are nursing, business, education, exercise science/sports management, and biology.
The Academic Center offers first-year students help with transition to college, including faculty/staff mentors, study skills workshops, tutoring, and a writing lab. Saint Joseph’s also offers internships to enhance education in a professional setting, which can lead to contacts for future employment.
Through Saint Joseph's College Online, there are roughly 2,400 students enrolled in more than 30 academic programs leading to bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as associate degrees and certificates. Support for students includes counselors, advisors, online tutors, an IT help desk and financial aid. Students also have the option to take courses on campus during the summer.
Study Abroad
As a member of International Student Exchange Program (ISEP), Saint Joseph’s offers study abroad at 265 colleges in 37 countries. Students have the option to study abroad for either a semester or a full academic year.
Campus Life
Athletics
Saint Joseph’s College teams are known as the Monks. The college fields NCAA Division III sport in soccer, volleyball (women only), swimming, basketball, golf, field hockey, baseball, softball, lacrosse, and cross country. The college is a member of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), and the North Atlantic Conference (NAC). Intramural teams include everything from basketball to bowling; club sports include dance team, cheerleading, ice hockey and ultimate Frisbee. The athletic center is equipped with a full gym, indoor track, pool, and dance/aerobics room. The 2012 SJC baseball team was ranked 14th in the country in the DIII NCAA ranking. The baseball rankings for the 2013 season was projecting SJC at 12th in the country. With a win against #1 Wheaton College, the Monks moved up to #9 in the country.
Dining
Pearson’s Town Farm began as a small garden project in the summer of 2005 developed by Bon Appétit (SJC campus cafe) General Manager Stuart Leckie and Saint Joseph’s graduate Matthew Olson. As the first years past, the garden began to take on a life of its own, run by subsequent student, faculty and staff volunteers.
In the spring of 2009 Bon Appétit wanted to further develop the farm to enlarge its potential. That year a full-time farm manager and interns were hired to expand the growing operation and develop a program that would better educate young people about agriculture and their food. That first summer’s crops were used in the College dining hall, Café Bon Appétit. During the College’s summer break, produce was taken to Catherine’s Cupboard Food Pantry. This partnership flourished and bolstered the farm’s commitment to helping educate the community and fight the growing food insecurity issues that were arising.
On July 1, 2010, Saint Joseph’s College took over full financial responsibility of the farm. Serving in collaboration with the Mercy Center, Pearson’s Town Farm has been able to further develop and refine its commitment to educating the community and empowering the underserved through simple means of planting seeds and nurturing life. The work on the farm is done by student, staff, and educator volunteers.
Housing
Eleven residence halls exist.
By the Numbers
- c. 1,000 students
- c. 2,400 online students
- roughly 85% live on campus;
- 66% female, 34% male;
- 55% from Maine;
- 23% from Massachusetts;
- 12% from New Hampshire;
- Remainder from the other 50 states and various countries;
- 66 full-time faculty members and 72 part-time, including clinical nursing faculty at local hospitals.
- At St. Joseph's College, 86.1 percent of full-time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid and the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $15,116.
Student life
Accreditation
The college is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The nursing program is also approved by the Maine State Board of Nursing and accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The Elementary Education and Physical Education majors and the Secondary Education minor are State of Maine-approved programs.
Honor Societies
- Delta Epsilon Sigma, a national scholastic honor society for students of Catholic colleges and universities, has been at Saint Joseph’s College since 1950.
- Sigma Theta Tau International is the nursing honor society and exists to promote the development, dissemination and utilization of nursing knowledge. Sigma Theta Tau is committed to improving the health of people worldwide through increasing the scientific base of nursing practice. The Kappa Zeta Chapter-at-large of Sigma Theta Tau was chartered at Saint Joseph’s College in April 1988.
International Service Trips
The International Service Trips began when philanthropist and College Trustee Normand Dugas first introduced Theology Professor Steven Bridge to Gale Hull, Founder and President of Ipswich, MA-based Partners in Development (PID). From 1992-94, Bridge and his students at Hackett Catholic Central High School in Kalamazoo, MI had successfully undertaken several relief projects in Haiti, and he was looking to initiate a similar program at Saint Joseph’s College. Hull’s nonprofit organization offered just such an opportunity, and in 2004 the College sent its first team to Haiti. Their work took place in Blanchard, an outlying “suburb†of Port-au-Prince. There, the 10-person crew built the foundation of a duplexâ€"one that would eventually withstand the catastrophic earthquake of 2010. A second team was scheduled to return in 2005, but political unrest forced the cancellation of that trip. As an alternative, Saint Joseph’s followed PID to Concepcion, a small village in San Antonio Suchitepequez, Guatemala in 2006. Being the first humanitarian aid workers to enter this region, the College team was greatly anticipated by the locals. Saint Joseph’s participants were met by the Mayor at the airport and greeted on site with festively decorated streamers, balloons, and a banquet of food offered in gratitude for their assistance. Hundreds of residents gathered to meet and welcome these new foreigners, and regional television crews were there to capture the scenes. That 21-member team set a strong precedent by building the first PID house in Guatemala, staffing medical and dental clinics, distributing hundreds of pounds of donations, operating children’s programs, and digging a water line through the village. From 2007-2010, Saint Joseph’s continued to send teams to Guatemala, and each year, they grew in numbers. By early 2010, Haiti had stabilized politically, and the College made plans to return. Then, without warning, a 7.0 earthquake devastated the south-central region of the country. The needs were dire, but the lack of infrastructure allowed for only essential personnel to operate. So in 2011, College teams continued their work in Guatemala. In 2012, however, things had settled enough to return to Haiti. That yearâ€"and each sinceâ€"the College has sent teams to both sites. From 2004 until present, hundreds of students have participated in these trips. Many go beyond this. Quite a few have chosen to sponsor children, and some have returned to work for longer stints as PID summer interns. The College has even helped to initiate a few small business ventures. In 2008, Saint Joseph’s was pleased to award Gale Hull an Honorary Doctorate for her tireless efforts on behalf of the extreme poor.
Community Service Honor
Saint Joseph’s College was named to the 2013 and 2014 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. This designation is the highest honor a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement. In the application for this award, Community-Based Learning Director Kimberly Post tracked both the academic and extracurricular programs within the Saint Joseph’s College community, reporting that 800 students engaged in service both in and out of the classroom over the course of the year, 390 of which engaged in at least 20 hours of service learning per semester, with a total of 12,856 service hours provided.
Carnegie Classification of Community Engagement
In 2015, Saint Joseph's earned the Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation. Community-Based Learning Director Kimberly Post, who went through the rigorous two-year process of research and fact gathering, examined community engagement in all areas of the institution, from students to faculty and staff. The classification reflects the dedication the College community has to providing students learning experiences that prepare them to be both skilled and compassionate citizens of the world, and recognizes the faculty's real-world, community-based approach to teaching and learning.
Notable alumni
Writing, Journalism, Television
- Randy Freer (1982). President, FOX Sports Network
- Pat DeCola (2009). Writer, FOXSports.com
- Andrea Gibson. Slam Poet, Activist
- Don Ashley Turlington. Musician and Author
Sports
- Charlie Furbush. Pitcher, Seattle Mariners
- Sheri Piers. Master runner, top 10 finisher in 2012 Boston Marathon
Education
- Robert Caret. President of the University of Massachusetts (2012-14) Chancellor of the University of Maryland system (2014-present (2017))
- Marilyn Lacey. Sister, Director, and founder of Mercy Beyond Borders; In 2001 she was honored by the Dalai Lama as an “Unsung Hero of Compassionâ€, for her life of service with refugees.
Politics
- Bonnie Newman. Politics and Education
Notable Faculty
- Dr. Mark Green, Professor of Environmental Sciences specializing in Oceanography and Marine Biology, Author
- Dr. Jonah P. Erikson, Professor of Environmental Sciences, Author
- Dr. Michael Connolly, Professor of History specializing in Irish History and Culture, Author
- Dr. Steven Bridge, Professor of Theology, Author, Humanitarian
- Dr. Edward Rielly, Professor of English, Author
See also
- Timeline of women's colleges in the United States
- Great Northeast Athletic Conference
- North Atlantic Conference
- List of NCAA Division III institutions
- Harold Alfond
- Frank Fixaris
References
External links
- Saint Joseph's College of Maine Website
- Saint Joseph's College of Maine Magazine Website
- Saint Joseph's College of Maine Athletics Website
