HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met for its luncheon meeting on Monday, Jan. 8, after having two Monday holidays. Guests of the meeting were speakers Kimberly Jones and Billi Griffeth and their colleague Carolyn Dorsey. Jones and Dorsey are associate professors of business at the University of Presque Isle and Griffeth is the vice president of retail sales at Katahdin Trust Company in Presque Isle.
The guest speakers enlightened the club on the course offered by the Young Professional Institute that is offered at UMPI. Jones is the director of Employer U at UMPI and YPI is facilitated through that program. Griffeth is on the steering committee of YPI. The next course begins on Feb. 28 and runs seven weeks on Wednesdays from 4-6 p.m. with a couple of late sessions.
The class will take place at the MMG Center for Professional Development on the UMPI campus. Sixteen seats are available and the deadline for applications is Monday, Jan. 29. The Institute that was founded 11 years ago is presented by UMPI and MMG Insurance and supported by Cary Medical Center, Katahdin Trust Company and The Aroostook Medical Center. The cost is $225 per student.
The question of who should apply leads to what the course is about. As a course in leadership skills, this is not just for recent college graduates, though they could be selected. The course is designed for emerging leaders to refine their skills. The skill set addressed is not necessarily in textbooks. This year’s theme is 21st Century Leadership so the skill set that will be focused on deals with the modern workplace.
New leadership traits will be explored such as emotional intelligence, diverse relationships, networking activities, self leadership, circular vision, resilience and unification.
In the interest of the future of northern Maine to have a talented workforce and fill vacancies as they arise the Institute works with this goal in mind. The course has been sponsored by many area organizations such as Acadia Health, ACE Rent a Car, ACAP,TAMC, McCains, NMCC, The County Federal Credit Union and many others.
Often there is a cost sharing and time sharing initiative with such employers to send employees showing leadership skills to the Institute. For more information contact Jones at 207-768-2928 or email kimberly.a.jones@maine.edu. The website for UMPI shares all of this information as well at www.umpi.edu.ypi.
