FARMINGTON — “Good work is what I hope for all of you graduates,” speaker Dr. Doris A. Santoro, Bowdoin College professor of education, told the 2023 graduates during commencement exercises Saturday, May 6.

Pipes and drums from Rysher Entertainment lead the procession Saturday, May 6, that marks the start of the 2023 University of Maine at Farmington commencement at Narrow Gauge Amphitheater in Farmington. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Good work is different from a high-paying job or even a career that is well regarded by others, it is about finding an important service to others that can be undertaken ethically in a way that helps and doesn’t harm others and lives up to the standards recognized by your peers who are also doing the work, she continued. “When we are incredibly fortunate we get paid to do good work,” she noted.

Santoro asked the graduates to look back to that one teacher or professor who made it possible for them to be graduating. Perhaps it was a second grade teacher who recognized reading difficulties, the middle school physical education teacher who taught about belonging, the high school math teacher who conveyed the elegance of equations or the UMF professor who helped find balance and academic purpose during the upheavals caused by the coronavirus pandemic, she said.

An artistically decorated mortarboard on a University of Maine at Farmington student as the student waits in the parking lot Saturday, May 6, at Narrow Gauge Amphitheater in Farmington prior to the start of graduation. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

For Santoro, it was her high school English and journalism teacher who issued detentions for her sassiness but pushed her to take herself seriously as a reporter. “He held me accountable and his good work made a difference that neither he nor I could totally anticipate at the time,” she noted.

Many educators are overwhelmed, are being threatened by the very communities where they work, Santoro said. More than 90% of students in the United States attend public schools, which can not function without teachers, she noted. America is a democratic society, every one has a voice in shaping conditions where teachers can do good work, she stated before adding, “We must raise our voice.”

More than half the students graduating from UMF Saturday morning, May 6, decorated their mortarboards for the ceremony held at Narrow Gauge Amphitheater in Farmington. Sun Journal photo by Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Everyone needs to do their part so educators can be enabled to do good work, Santoro noted. “For [their] good work to be sustainable, the work environment needs to convey respect, value teachers’ collective expertise and promote the design of creative and fulfilling opportunities,” she said. She welcomed those graduates who will become teachers to a profession that has the potential to offer unbelievable and gratifying work and encouraged them to demand conditions that allow for good work.

“To those of you who are not public school teachers, we have a substantial role in supporting the conditions that allow educators to find meaning, experience joy and feel sustained while serving our communities,” she noted. “As you move into this next phase of your lives, I wish for all of you to be able to do good work. At the same time, consider how you can support the good work of the public schools and university educators who played a part in your arriving at this important achievement.”

Senior class speaker Emalyn Remington from Bennington, Vermont, spoke about spending her entire life searching for home. She has moved over 20 times and been a student at 10 different institutions from Vermont to California.

“I can say with complete sincerity I didn’t expect Farmington, Maine, to become my home,” Remington said. “I found our campus completely by accident while looking at schools in Maine online. But there was something about UMF that drew me in, called to me, felt different.

“Right away I realized I had made the right choice. I discovered that UMF has faculty who genuinely care about their students and their wellbeing both in and outside the classroom. I found like-minded individuals and created a family five hours away from my own.”

Remington said she was astonished by the resiliency seen when students were sent packing in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Strength is  a word that comes to mind when I think of the Class of 2023,” she noted. “Determination is another. It is with that strength and determination – that has carried us over our time at UMF – that we can now gracefully say goodbye, that we can enter the real world prepared for whatever it is going to throw at us.

“We are ready for any trials and tribulations because our time here has made us all a little fearless.”

UMF President Joseph McDonnell was delighted to have secured Narrow Gauge Amphitheater as the graduation venue with its magnificent western Maine mountains in the background and “these beautiful green fields that just earlier in the week were not green but a pond.

Graduation doesn’t happen without the UMF faculty and staff, McDonnell said. “Here, teaching matters,” he stressed. “The university experience is a transformative one. UMF nurtures an inclusive culture, welcomes and values all its students. I hope what you have learned here at UMF is to embrace diversity.”

“There are few things more inspiring for me than a college graduation because this commencement is the beginning of a milestone event,” professor emeritus Wesley McNair said. He noted the graduates might be feeling bittersweet to be leaving the college they have grown to love but at the same time being ready to start their new life at last, come what may.

Mia Spring Michaud, Celia Hart Caravan and Tracy Bunting acknowledged the displacement of indigenous peoples who once lived along the Sandy River, with much of that area now occupied by the university.

“Class of 2023, you have succeeded despite the pandemic,” University of Maine System Trustee David MacMahon said. “You have completed your education frequently replaced by remote learning. For that I commend you. It’s hard to believe that Zoom, now a household name, was launched in 2003. Where would we be without it?”

More than 300 from among 347 graduating students in bachelor or master degree programs were conferred degrees.

One of them was Lilly Towers, a former Spruce Mountain High School student. One of the many reasons she chose UMF was due to it being a smaller campus, she wrote in an email to the Livermore Falls Advertiser on Friday.

“I knew that I would be able to have more of a closer relationship with my peers and professors,” she noted. “Another reason I chose UMF would be it’s close, yet far enough, proximity from where I grew up in Jay. This allowed me to be a part of both communities and receive free housing my freshman year as a Franklin County resident, which I think is a great opportunity.”

Towers plans to attend USM for a masters in school counseling next spring. She will take classes in the meantime and work in Southern Maine.

“Although COVID hit during a majority of my college experience, I would say the most rewarding thing about my time there would be graduating a semester early despite everything that happened,” Towers wrote. “The professors I had during college, especially my psychology professors and my advisor were very helpful.”