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