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Management Side
Profile of the University of Maine Pulp and Paper Foundation
Consider Engineering campers are shown visiting the SAPPI mill in Skowhegan, Maine.

In 1913, the University of Maine in Orono launched the first pulp and paper engineering program in the US. Thirty-seven years later, in 1950, a group of the program's alumni, attending Paper Week in New York, decided to set up the University of Maine Pulp and Paper Foundation to attract and support students who were intent on careers in the pulp and paper industry.

Today, that foundation is the oldest of its kind. It has the largest endowment and attracts and supports the largest numbers of people engaged in pulp and paper undergraduate study. It can also claim the largest number of graduates prepared for paper industry-related careers and alumni/ae employed by the industry and its suppliers. Placement of outgoing graduates in the industry is typically 100%.

Components of the Foundation's Success

Carrie Enos, president of the foundation since January of 2014, and a 1999 graduate of the chemical engineering program, names two components of the foundation's work as crucial to its success: the Consider Engineering summer program, and the Co-Op/Internship program.

Consider Engineering is a camp offered to high school juniors during three consecutive sessions each summer. Of the 160-180 applicants, 102 are accepted, with full tuition, room and board furnished by the foundation. Resident counselors for the camp are university engineering students. Attendees have the opportunity to meet and work with members of the engineering faculty as well.

The camp offers engaging, hands-on exposure to the different fields of study in engineering offered by the University: field trips to a working paper mill, visits to the department's various labs and research/development centers, interactions with engineering faculty, and opportunities to gain skills in collaboration and teamwork through both games and experimental projects.

In one of the games, students pair up with their roommates to develop protective packaging for individual eggs, then compete in throwing the encased eggs as far as possible (yes, outdoors) without breaking them. The winners are the team whose egg travels the farthest distance without breaking.

In their research projects, students work on group projects involving various engineering disciplines, with the assistance of UMaine Engineering students and faculty. Some of the projects involve robotics, cell research, and forest products, among others.

Co-Op/Internship Experience

Two semesters of co-op/internship in the pulp and paper industry are required. Some students work with a different company for each of the semesters, with a wide array from which to choose. Sixty to seventy corporations located in more than twenty states are foundation members and provide a wide range of experience, knowledge, and networking. Upon graduation, students sometimes return to those same companies as full-time employees.

Scholarships and Stipends

Over $700,000 in undergraduate scholarships are awarded each year by the foundation, supporting 87-90 students annually.

The foundation also awards about $200,000 to the University Of Maine each year in graduate stipends (usually supporting 28-30 students at a time) and faculty support, which "allows faculty to teach during the summer so that our students can still complete a co-op experience and graduate in four years," says President Enos.

To date, the UMaine Pulp and Paper Foundation has donated over $13 million dollars in support of students, faculty, and programs.

The Process Development Center

One of the construction projects funded by the foundation was the Process Development Center, which, as Dr. Joseph Genco, former Director of the center, says, "put us in the contract research and development business for the university."

According to the University of Maine PDC website, "The UMaine PDC continues to collaborate with industrial partners to meet the emerging and constantly shifting needs of the marketplace. Recent collaborations include efforts to advance fiber processing technologies, to develop specialized, scalable nanotechnologies, and to respond to market demands for sustainable products. New product innovations include a non-toxic grease-proof coating additive, a new class of environmental remediation technology, a unique cellulose insulation product, a novel agricultural mulch, and new bio-based paper strength and processing aids. The PDC is also working with a dedicated group of organizations to help launch a new bioplastics industry in Maine and to engineer plastic from forest and agricultural by-products."

Paper Days

Each spring, this two-day symposium draws several hundred papermaking professionals from all over the world to the campus, for what foundation president Carrie Enos calls the "signature event" of the foundation's year.

Many alumni and current students attend, to hear the speakers and mingle with industry colleagues. Maine senators sometimes appear. Each year, two secondary teachers are awarded for excellence in preparing their students for success at the University Of Maine. Additionally, an Honor Award (the Genco Award) is presented to people who have provided service to the foundation.


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