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Harold Alfond’s Vision and Generosity Position Maine for Global Education Leadership: University of Maine System The Harold Alfond Foundation:
FEATURE STORY HAROLD ALFOND’S VISION AND GENEROSITY POSITION MAINE FOR
Global Education Leadership
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Written by Dan Demeritt
HAROLD ALFOND HAD ALREADY celebrated his 90th birthday when he told friends and family that he still had a lot of work to do. Retirement, he famously said, would have to wait until at least 10 years after he was dead.
The philanthropist who had contributed millions to educational institutions and initiatives knew his gifts created opportunities for young people to pursue an education, earn a good living and raise families in Maine.
Alfond and his family understood that this work needed to extend beyond his own years.
Today, 14 years after the former business leader passed away at the age of 93, the strategic leadership of the Harold Alfond Foundation unifies education, workforce and policy partners to provide innovation and comprehensive solutions.
Global Education Leadership
Maine is poised to become a global education leader through the resulting transformations.
“Harold Alfond’s vision and generosity will shape education and improve lives for the next century,” says University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy.
“His dream of putting the transformational power of education within the grasp of every Maine family is being realized. The integrated system of education and workforce training we are developing with the support of our partners at the Harold Alfond Foundation puts learners first and provides a lifetime of Maine career opportunities.”
ALFOND BABIES ARE COMING OF AGE
Just out of high school in 1934 during the Great Depression, Alfond went to work in a shoe factory making 25 cents an hour. Six years later, he and his father bought an abandoned facility in Norridgewock for $1,000 and started Norrwock Shoe Company. That was the start of a prosperous business career for the son of Simon and Rose Alfond, Jewish immigrants from Tsarist Russia.
Alfond believed everyone should have access to higher education, and for more than a dozen years the Harold Alfond Foundation has encouraged Maine families to plan for their children’s future, starting at birth.
The Foundation deposits $500 into a college account for every single baby born in Maine. As of January 2021, 116,000 Maine children — about 10% of the state’s entire population — had accounts. Kaleb Hall, born January 2, 2008, is the very first “Alfond Baby.” The son of Jason Hall and Victoria-
PHOTO: JLG ARCHITECTS The future home of Black Bear men’s and women’s basketball.
FEATURE STORY “Education opens up our world. This is such a positive way to begin life. I want him to be able to dream and to pursue what makes him spark.”
KRISTIN TREMBLAY
Marie Vigue now is in eighth grade.
Vigue was pregnant when she learned of the Alfond Grant: Her mother showed her a newspaper story about the then-new initiative. In the hospital the day after Kaleb was born (he just missed also being the 2008 New Year’s baby), a social worker asked Vigue if she wanted to sign him up for a grant. It was a no-brainer, says Vigue.
In 2008, Vigue had not yet started college. Her parents had saved money for her college fund, but it had been needed to pay bills, including medical expenses for her father, who died when she was 17. When Vigue enrolled in community college after Kaleb’s birth, she says it was reassuring knowing that Kaleb already had a fund for his future. Vigue is now a traveling nurse who maintains employment with MaineGeneral, and she also saves money for Kaleb’s education.
Rory Tremblay is also one of the 116,000 Alfond Grant recipients. Thanks to the initial $500 Alfond deposit, monthly contributions from his parents, Kristin and Jason Tremblay of Brownfield, and contributions from his grandparents, the 2 1/2-year-old already has $4,000 for his education.
Kristin says the grant is a generous, affirming gift that says, “We believe in you. Let’s get the ball rolling.”
Harold Alfond’s story is among Maine’s best examples that there are many ways to be fulfilled and productive. To make sure students from different backgrounds and with myriad aptitudes can realize a gratifying career, the Harold Alfond Foundation supports programs that focus on student success and multiple paths to credentials valued in the workforce.
The Jobs for Maine Graduates’ expanded College Success Program (CSP) is but one example. This program, which includes Thomas College, five of Maine’s community colleges, and the University of Maine at Augusta, University of Maine at Fort Kent, University of Maine at Machias and University of Southern Maine, provides individualized services so that students — including those facing academic or financial barriers — can seamlessly advance from high school to college and a meaningful career.
There is now more than $58 million collectively available in the individual Alfond Grant accounts to open doors and pursue college dreams. Maine’s colleges and universities will be ready thanks to the higher education partnerships, innovations, and facility investments powered by the Harold Alfond Foundation.
FIRST-CLASS FACILITIES FOR MAINE AND ITS FLAGSHIP UNIVERSITY
Alfond believed in the power of athletics to inspire and bring out the best in Maine’s young people. He understood
HAROLD ALFOND
that providing meaningful opportunities and supporting competition require investment. Both his giving and donations made in his honor since his passing have prioritized athletic facilities for public and private colleges and universities and secondary private schools in the state.
The Alfond name adorns class-competitive athletic facilities from the University of New England in Biddeford to Thomas and Colby colleges in Waterville, as well at Kents Hill School, Husson University, and St. Joseph’s College. And the Alfond name and a statue of Harold Alfond are centerpieces at the University
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TOP: Before classes begin, new UMaine students receive a weeklong introduction to research learning experiences, a model coming to all UMS universities. ABOVE: In 1991, Black Bear men’s ice hockey coach Shawn Walsh, Harold Alfond and UMaine president Dale Lick break ground for the expansion of Alfond Arena. Alfond’s $2 million gift made the expansion possible. of Maine, home of the state’s only Division I athletics program.
As of last fall, Harold Alfond, his namesake Foundation and family members had made more than $34 million in facility and program investments at UMaine, the state’s research university. This commitment to the flagship’s mission and its athletic competitive excellence creates opportunity and is a source of pride for Maine people.
From wind and waves (the Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Lab), to ice (Alfond Arena), artificial turf (Alfond Stadium) and plastics (Alfond Advanced Manufacturing Lab for Structural Thermoplastics), the impact of the Alfond family on facilities at Maine’s largest university cannot be overstated.
MAKING HISTORY AND TRANSFORMING THE FUTURE
In October 2020, the Foundation pledged $500 million in grant investments to the University of Maine System, Roux Institute at Northeastern University, University of New England, Thomas College, FocusMaine, Colby College, Waterville Creates! and The Jackson Laboratory.
The University of Maine System (UMS) was tapped to receive $240 million of the $500 million. This gift from the Foundation requires a $150 million matching campaign for the University of Maine System and an additional $20 million matching campaign for the University of Maine Athletics capital projects, with both recipients actively seeking philanthropic support to meet these goals. The funds, and matching dollars they leverage, will generate positive and enduring benefits throughout the UMS, Maine, and beyond.
“Our investment in the University System is the largest single gift in the history of the Foundation and deservedly so,” Harold Alfond Foundation chairman Greg Powell said when the gift was announced.
“The System and its universities have a terrific leadership team and that leadership is setting an exciting strategic direction that commits our state’s largest education and workforce development asset to student success, partnership and greater prosperity for the people of Maine.”
The System’s plan to maximize the funds’ impact is called UMS TRANSFORMS.
UMS TRANSFORMS focuses on four areas: $75 million for a multi-university Maine College of Engineering, Computing and Information Science; $90 million for UMaine athletic facilities; $55 million for the Maine Graduate and Professional Center; and $20 million for student success and retention.
TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION: STUDENT SUCCESS AND STATEWIDE IMPACT
Student success is the metric that matters most in education. And UMaine — a land, sea, and space grant university — is banking on experience being the best teacher as the transformation begins.
In fall 2021, the university piloted a Research Learning Experience program that will be expanded to create a new model of student engagement for every incoming public university student in the state. Maine’s public universities aim to make transformative education available to every learner through new teaching methods and support in courses that are gateways to STEM education and stronger pathways to careers.
About 300 students arrived in Orono on August 23rd to begin a one-week residential program (Bridge Week) and one-credit fall research learning experience (RLE) course.
The goal is to immerse UMaine first-year and second-year students in research, creative engagement and problem-solving, as well as introduce them to multiple ways of learning and a variety of career possibilities. The 30-plus courses offered included Print in 3D, Hunt for Viruses, Make a Better Farm, Perform Music, Track the Seasons, Make a Unique Logo, Research Wind Power, and Read Customer Minds.
Research, including asking questions, is a passion for Autumn-Skye Williams, a first-year civil engineering student interested in renewable energy.
“How can we utilize other people’s strengths,” she asks. “How can we take this education on designing solutions for our own major? How do these skill sets help better collaborate with other majors and their strengths into solving a problem?”
Williams enrolled in the Design Challenges course for Bridge Week and for the RLE.
FEATURE STORY
“I am more than ecstatic to delve further into research each coming week and the Bridge Week made college life a lot easier to make friends for a person that is introverted like me,” says the Rangeley, Maine resident. “I encourage future students to do this. You can learn a lot of things academically, personally and professionally.
Sue Bell donated to the RLE program because she’s inspired by the UMS Transforms campaign and the Alfond Foundation’s leadership.
“As a former biology teacher, I’ve seen the impact hands-on research provides to inspire students to get excited about careers in STEM,” says Bell, who graduated cum laude from UMaine, earned a master’s in teaching and a Master in Public Administration, served in the Maine House of Representatives and was a member of Governor Angus King’s Executive Management Team.
“After my career in state government, I know the impact UMaine and the Alfond Foundation have on our state.”
ENGINEERING A MAINE COLLEGE TO MEET WORKFORCE AND COMPUTING NEEDS
Alfond was a proponent of collaborating to achieve success.
The multi-university Maine College of Engineering, Computing, and Information Science (MCECIS), that will be made possible by the Foundation’s $75 million grant (there’s a match obligation of another $75 million), is an example of such an alliance.
The MCECIS will pool UMS assets and talent to meet the needs of Maine businesses now, and in the increasingly interconnected digital global economy of the future.
Jeremy Qualls, professor of physics and dean of the College of Science, Technology, and Health at USM, says coalescing resources will advance Maine’s technical workforce and industries, including pursuing opportunities in emerging markets.
Dana Humphrey, dean of engineering at UMaine, where the world-class $78 million Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center will open in 2022, says Maine needs double the number of current engineering and computing professionals than it has.
“Formation of Maine College of Engineering, Computing, and Information Science, with the support provided by the Harold Alfond Foundation, is the catalyst needed to address this critical need,” he says.
The MCECIS will add undergraduate engineering programs at UMaine and USM, as well as offer UMaine graduate engineering programs in Portland. And, it will provide infrastructure to expand opportunities for students from all backgrounds and all parts of Maine, says Penny Rheingans, professor of Computer Science and director of the School of Computing and Information Science at UMaine.
It will “educate a technical workforce to help Maine businesses grow and thrive, and infuse an information-based, problem-solving mindset into a wide range of interdisciplinary endeavors,” she says.
As part of the endeavor, PerkinElmer and Portland-based SMRT are developing a master plan to reimagine four historic UMaine buildings for engineering and computing. New research learning opportunities help 300 new UMaine students find their people, place and purpose on campus this fall.
Innovation and experiential learning are hallmarks of the Maine Graduate and Professional Center (the Maine Center), which launched in 2016 with a $7.5 million challenge grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation.
The Maine Center, located in a signature space in the Old Port in Portland, provides affordable market-driven interdisciplinary programming that brings together law, business, public policy, and health policy. Students gain diverse skill sets while engaged in learning inside and outside of their core discipline.
In this first phase of support from the Foundation, collaborations among Maine Law, the University of Maine Graduate School of Business, the University of Southern Maine, and employers and entrepreneurs have catalyzed work, including short courses, certificates, concentrations, and dual degrees, as well as an executive education leadership program for Maine startups and small businesses.
Bobby Monks and Bonnie Porta already have provided a $1 million leadership gift to boost the Maine Center.
“The complex problems facing the world today — climate change, immigration, poverty, and the super-high pace of technological change — demand com-
plex solutions with deep roots in public policy, the law, and business,” says Monks, an entrepreneur and co-chair of the Maine Center campaign. “The Maine Center is where these disciplines will come together and push us further toward solutions, generating an outsized impact on Maine’s economy.”
By 2026, graduates of the Maine Center — 70% of whom stay in Maine — will add an additional $88.5 million to the state’s gross domestic product (market value of finished goods and services).
Leigh Saufley, dean of the University of Maine School of Law, says that “investors in the Maine Center are making a huge difference to the world we will see
UMAINE PRESIDENT JOAN FERRINI-MUNDY
FEATURE STORY The UMaine Soccer Facility will be the new home of the Black Bear women’s soccer team.
two years from now, 10 years from now or 100 years from now.”
CLASS-LEADING ATHLETIC FACILITIES FOR EVERYONE
Alfond was an outstanding high school athlete. The 1991 inductee into the University of Maine Sports Hall of Fame often said he learned valuable lessons playing sports. His legacy of support in the form of a $90 million investment in Black Bear Athletics and facilities will spur excellence and draw people to Maine’s flagship university for generations to come.
Ken Ralph, UMaine director of athletics, says the investment will improve athletic facility infrastructure to a level that exceeds its peer group. “As we seek to upgrade the competitive excellence of all Black Bear teams, we need to provide access to class-leading venues for our athletes,” he says.
Improvements to the historic Alfond Arena will include state-of-the-art locker rooms and lounges for the women’s and men’s ice hockey teams, as well as significant upgrades that will bolster experiences of student-athletes and fans.
A signature project of the master facilities plan — a new multipurpose center — will feature a 3,000-seat basketball arena for the women’s and men’s basketball teams.
“We could not be more excited for the new facility to be built and for our program to be playing back on campus,” says Amy Vachon, women’s basketball coach and three-time America East Coach of the Year.
“As a student-athlete, I remember walking across campus to play games and seeing the fans lined up waiting to enter the building. It is a special feeling to be able to play games ‘at home.’ Our entire program — alumnae, current players and future players — are ecstatic about the new facility. We can’t wait for the day the crowds return to campus to watch basketball!”
The center also will be the site of other UMaine-based and community-based events, including contests, commencements, and academic fairs.
“These new and refurbished facilities will also allow the university to expand its ability to host on-campus athletic contests for youth and club teams while also providing the state of Maine with an exciting option for state championship venues,” says Ralph. “It is our stated goal to make Orono the preferred destination for championship athletic competitions in Maine.”
Being a destination for youth academic and athletic events will positively impact enrollment at the flagship campus, where faculty, staff, and students conduct world-class research of global impact and local relevance.
These most recent Harold Alfond Foundation investments, like dozens of Alfond family and Foundation investments before them, provide essential and aspirational resources for people and for institutions of higher education.
These assets provide myriad opportunities for all people to learn, grow, collaborate, and realize Maine’s motto of “the way life should be.”
Chancellor Malloy says UMS is eager to maximize these investments to foster vibrant, resilient, inclusive, and innovative universities and communities.
“We are thrilled to be a catalyst in realizing a healthy, robust state in which everyone can thrive,” he says. “Just as Harold Alfond envisioned.”
