Greetings! My name is Laura Curioli and I will be serving as the class correspondent for the Class of 2023. Please contact me or the UMaine Alumni Association with updates that we can share in future publications.
I double majored in history, focusing on the Middle Ages and Medieval period, and secondary education.
I also worked as a campus photographer for both Auxiliary Enterprises and Marketing & Communications, as well as a TRIO SSS Services tutor. I served on the Class of 2023 Council my senior year as class historian and then class secretary. This summer I will be working as a RAD camp counselor through the UMaine Rec Center.
This fall I will begin a two-year master’s program in history at UMaine, and work as a teaching assistant.
Thank you, Class of 2023, for being such an integral part of the UMaine experience. Congratulations to us all for pursuing our dreams despite the (pandemic) circumstances. If you have any updates or news to share with the class in the future, please contact me or the Alumni Association. We all look forward to hearing about each other’s adventures!
My time at UMaine was certainly interesting, exciting, and fulfilling. As a class, I am sure we can all agree we had quite the unique experience of pursuing education throughout the trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, I feel very fortunate to have attended UMaine and weathered through the challenges with such wonderful classmates. It is here that I, and others, have made lifelong friends and connections as well as experiencing success and accomplishments, each attuned to our own individuality.
My studies at UMaine consisted of the culmination of two degrees. In history I focused on the Middle Ages and Medieval period. My secondary education discipline was social studies with a heavy correlation to the content I studied in history. I was fortunate enough to participate in multiple research opportunities across the years. I have been a Center for Undergraduate Research awardee twice as well as a UMaine Student Symposium presenter and awardee in my junior year and senior year. Additionally, the spring of my junior year I was published in our very own Black Bear Undergraduate History Journal. My senior year I completed two capstones. My history capstone doubled as a CUGR/UMSS project for which I won an award and was entitled A Study in the Evolution of Educational Philosophies Across Three Centuries: John Locke’s Influence on Educational Philosophy and its Evolution Into the Modern Education System – A Study on ‘Some Thoughts Concerning Education.’ This project actually consisted of research on a primary source text that was provided by our very own Fogler Library’s Special Collections, which is a fantastic center for research. My education capstone focused on psychology in education and was performed with the assistance of two UMaine professors who I have previously taken classes with; it was entitled The Trickle-Down Effects of Parenting Styles on Individual Educational Experiences.
I will be attending the University of Maine Graduate History Program this fall for a two year program, and working as a Teaching Assistant for the department. In April of 2023 I was awarded the James Madison Fellowship out of Georgetown University in Washington DC and will spend the summer of 2024 studying at their Summer Institute as the Maine State representative for future history educators who are pursuing a masters in American Constitutional history. I am incredibly grateful for these future endeavors and thank the University of Maine for preparing me to move forward into graduate school.
As a UMaine Alumni, I thank you, the Class of 2023, for being such an integral part of the UMaine experience. Congratulations to us all for pursuing our dreams despite the circumstances. If you have any updates or news to share with the class in the future, please contact me (Email: laura.curioli@maine.edu) or the Alumni Association. We all look forward to hearing about each other’s adventures!