From Classroom Learning To Community Engagement

At the University of Southern Maine, we extend the academic experience well beyond our classroom walls. We encourage our students to engage deeply with our faculty, our community partners, and our wide network of USM alumni, many of whom have remained in Maine long after graduation.

USM faculty and alumni are helping to strengthen the fabric of Maine by contributing to its social and economic vitality, supporting our higher education goals, and opening doors for the next generation.

Providing opportunities to participate, discover, learn, create, and make a difference is central to who we are as Maine’s Metropolitan University™. With three campuses located within the state’s most populous regions, USM offers students a chance to get involved at a level that’s hard to match at other public universities in Maine.

Part of the Metropolitan University movement

The University of Southern Maine was an early member of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU), which formed in 1989. The members of CUMU, today numbering nearly 100, share a purposeful commitment to the place in which each resides, an abiding engagement and a mutually beneficial relationship with their communities and the needs of those communities.

This is, and has long been, the mission of the University of Southern Maine.

Our community partners include state and local government, global businesses, top-rated teaching hospitals, Triple-A sports teams, performing arts venues, and dozens of other organizations in the largest metropolitan areas in Maine.

These partnerships provide our students with rewarding hands-on learning experiences through research and fieldwork, internships, and public service projects. They work on real-world issues, engage in complex problem solving, and give back in ways that shape their careers as well as their communities.

Last year, nearly 5,000 students contributed over 370,000 hours of service to regional businesses and non-profit organizations, valued at more than $6.2 million. These valuable connections have made direct and positive differences in our students’ lives and in the lives of others.

Whether our students find themselves on our Portland, Gorham, or Lewiston campuses, they will find themselves here at USM.

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