Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 33 : Summer 2017 | Page 19

the University’s Maine Policy Scholar for the 2016-2017 academic year. During her Maine Policy research year, Thompson looked at protection from abuse (PFA) orders in Maine and improvements that could be made. Her research sprang from a service project that took place two years ago in a Domestic Violence class taught by UMPI Criminal Justice professor Lisa Leduc. Thompson and her fellow researchers spent hundreds of hours reviewing 1,600 PFA files and she finished that process during a summer field experience class. She then conducted interviews with law enforcement officials, district and defense attorneys and victim advocates. As a Maine Policy Scholar, Thompson presented her findings and recommendations to a panel of Maine legislative officials at the University of Maine in Orono in late April. The statewide recognition continued in April when UMPI student Alexandra DesRuisseaux and MMG Insurance were named the recipients of two Maine Campus Compact Awards. DesRuisseaux, a sophomore Elementary Education major, received the Heart and Soul Student Award for her work as a founding member of UMPI’s Inclusion and Civility Task Force, which included helping to create a campus inclusion pledge and design a silicone bracelet that reads “Owl Stand By You”—a reference to the University’s mascot, the snowy owl. MMG Insurance received the Corporate Partner of the Year Award for its partnership with UMPI in the Young Professional Institute and the establishment last year of the MMG Center for Professional Development, located in UMPI’s Kelley Commons. For more information about these and other exciting things happening at UMPI, visit www.umpi.edu and click on “News and Events.” Above: Idella Thompson, Maine Policy Scholar Below: Young Professionals Institute Class of 2017 SUMMER 2017 17