Group gives meaning to life-long learning

By Karen Donato
Staff Writer
    When you think of sage you think of spice. However this SAGE stands for, Seniors Achieving Greater Education.  
Pioneer Times photograph/Karen Donato
SAGE VISITS SHIRETOWN — A group of 21 SAGE members from various parts of Aroostook County visited the Aroostook Historical and Art Museum in Houlton and the World War II P.O.W. Camp at the Houlton Airport on Oct.7. The University of Maine at Presque Isle sponsors this program that offers enrichment courses for intellectually curious adults, age 50 and older and field trip excursions to various points of interest in the area.
    Their brochure states that “SAGE welcomes intellectually curious adults. Their goal is to bring members together in a relaxed non-competitive atmosphere to discover new things about the world and about themselves.”
    Participants must be 50 or older to enroll in a variety of enriching courses offered by the University of Maine in Presque Isle. The outreach centers in local communities also offer similar courses and activities for those unable to travel to the Presque Isle campus.
    SAGE began its 11th academic year with a luncheon at the UMPI campus in September and highlighted the course offerings for the semester. Course length varies according to the individual instructors. This helps to accommodate the amount of time participants want to commit to. Courses are most often in four or six week segments and meet once a week for two hours. These learning excursions are $15 a semester. There are additional fees for some classes to cover materials needed, such as: art or science. Some students will be making their own telescope in an astronomy class. Field trips are an additional component of the membership. Groups travel to other locations in Maine and Canada, by vans supplied by the college. A $6 fee is required for the field trips.
    This year there are 111 members in the SAGE program and several have participated before. Mary Lawrence, UMPI’s co-coordinator of conferences and special programs accompanied a group of 21 to the Aroostook Historical and Art Museum in Houlton on Oct. 7. They also visited the former site of the World War II POW camp at the Houlton Airport.
    Courses offered this semester were: Inspired Drawing, Moving to Music, SAGE Fall Film Series: Under the Big Top!, Aroostook Folk Music, The Constitution, Financial Foundations, Existential French Literature in Translations, The Eskimos of the Kuskokwim River, and You and the Universe.
    Learning excursions included: Northwind Rabbitry, Ashland Logging Museum, World War II POW Camp, The History and Art of Making Traditional Snowshoes and Northern Prosthetics.
    For more information, contact: Mary Lawrence at 768-9502 or Email mary.l.lawrence@umpi.edu.