{"id":6716,"date":"2021-05-04T09:48:18","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T13:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6716"},"modified":"2025-06-27T15:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T19:58:08","slug":"the-u-times-congratulates-bids-farewell-to-one-of-its-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/05\/04\/the-u-times-congratulates-bids-farewell-to-one-of-its-own\/","title":{"rendered":"The U Times Congratulates, Bids Farewell to One of Its Own"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Melanee Terry knew she wanted to go far away for college her senior year of high school. \u201cI really liked the New England area,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I was looking at schools there and knew I wanted to play softball.\u201d Her two criteria were met when UMPI\u2019s softball coach at the time, Sara Shaw, reached out on behalf of the university. \u201cAt the time, I had never really heard of Presque Isle,\u201d she said. \u201cOr Maine, period. I wasn\u2019t very familiar with the state. But I applied for the school and made the softball team.\u201d Following her graduation from high school, Melanee packed up and made the trip from Moreno Valley, Calif., to Presque Isle, Maine, in fall of 2017. \u201cI try not to count the miles,\u201d she said, smiling. \u201cJust because I get homesick. It\u2019s definitely pretty far, the state of Maine is the farthest I could\u2019ve gone in the country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A snapshot of Melanee in her softball atire.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Aside from athletics, Melanee had an interest in pursuing an education in English. \u201cI wanted to go into the English program just because I liked reading and writing in high school,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t really want to go into the literature and Shakespeare side because it really intimidated me.\u201d Melanee recalled looking through UMPI\u2019s English degrees online. From here, Melanee said she was able to contact the professional communication and journalism professor, Dr. J (Jacqui Lowman), who answered her questions about the program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Four years later, Melanee is happy she chose the PCJ program. \u201cI\u2019m really happy. I didn\u2019t know much about it, like I didn\u2019t know what to expect,\u201d she said. \u201cBut now that I\u2019m in it and about to graduate from the program, I\u2019m just really grateful. I\u2019ve learned a lot about myself, academics and education as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In addition to her athletic extracurriculars, Melanee has also been a staff writer for UMPI\u2019s University Times for four years. \u201cDr. J reached out to me in the first couple weeks of my first semester of freshman year,\u201d she said. \u201cShe reached out to me and I just didn\u2019t reply because I didn\u2019t know what to do. So, she reached out to me again and I emailed her back, because I didn\u2019t know much about the club, and she said it would be really good to just join and see. She convinced me.\u201d Melanee says that she looked at the experience as a way for to her meet cool people in her field of interest. \u201cI\u2019m really happy I did (join) because it got me to meet new people and to start journalism,\u201d she said. \u201cTo start me writing for \u2018Jo Shmo\u2019 and learning how to write in a journalistic style from really early on.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Looking back at her time at UMPI and in the PCJ program, Melanee is most grateful for the people she has met. Some of her favorite memories aside from softball and meeting people include her involvement with Dr. J\u2019s non-profit, BEYOND LIMITS, and being a part of the PCJ program.\u00a0 \u201cObviously meeting Dr. J and having experiences with her, but also having experiences with my classmates,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Melanee and Dr. J taking a photo to be used in the book she’s writing for her practicum.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dr. J shared her own favorite memory of Melanee. \u201cThere are so many memories,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had, I think, a lot of fun through the years and a lot of fun this semester because her two classes with me are one-on-one classes. We talk about everything under the sun, you know, the meaning of life. Besides that, though, one of my favorite memories was when we were in PCJ 316 and we had been flailing for a while. \u2018What is the essence of this (Assistance Canines Training Services) organization? And Mel had to leave early because she had an interview scheduled. But she just got up and said, \u2018I know what it is: Selflessness and Love,\u2019 and left! And I\u2019m like, <\/span>that <\/b>is the answer!\u201d Dr. J said it was cool because if you were writing a story or movie, it would be like Elvis just left the building. \u201cHow do you top that?\u201d she laughed. \u201cShe was spot on. It was absolutely the right answer. Whenever I think of that, I always laugh.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Something that Melanee is particularly proud of is her senior practicum project. \u201cMy senior project is a series of short stories that I\u2019m writing for BEYOND LIMITS,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten to meet a lot of people. I\u2019ve interviewed 14 people for it, and I wrote 14 stories on them. I got a lot of interviewing and writing experience under my belt.\u201d She said that the overall experience has been really great because of the opportunity to tell Dr. J\u2019s story. \u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019m really honored to do because she\u2019s such an amazing person,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really grateful that Dr. J even let me do it.\u201d Dr. J reflected on Melanee\u2019s practicum project. \u201cTo imagine that she would have come from being so tentative about interviewing to deciding for her big senior project to do a collection of 14 interviews, at least half of them with people she didn\u2019t know at all, and some of the people she had never met,\u201d she said. \u201cThat took tremendous confidence. As a teacher, that makes my heart smile.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Melanee hopes that her UMPI wings help her find a career in writing and interviewing. \u201cI\u2019ll definitely miss UMPI\u2019s campus,\u201d she said, mentioning her fondness of the isolation in comparison to her hometown. \u201cI\u2019ll miss my friends and in terms of the PCJ program, I\u2019ll definitely miss Dr. J, Saint and Dusty, and everyone involved with UMPI\u2019s campus and the PCJ program.\u201d Melanee wanted to give a special shoutout thanking Rachel Rice, who helped her with her marketing and PR knowledge as well as building connections on campus; Rowena McPherson for helping her with graphic design skills; and Coach Edwards, who helped her both athletically and socially over her years at UMPI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Melanee Terry knew she wanted to go far away for college her senior year of high school. \u201cI really liked the New England area,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I was looking at schools there and knew I wanted to play softball.\u201d Her two criteria were met when UMPI\u2019s softball coach at the time, Sara Shaw, reached […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8248,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716\/revisions\/8248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}