Schools

Bangor High School

BANGOR – Parents of Bangor High School seniors are invited to attend a workshop at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26, in the school’s lecture hall. Senior counselors from the guidance department will provide an overview of the college application process.

Senate Youth Program

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has announced that the United States Senate Youth Program has begun its statewide selection process.

Two outstanding Maine high school students will be selected to join 102 other delegates from each state and the District of Columbia to spend a week in Washington, observing the federal government in action.

“I have the honor and privilege of being the first delegate to the United States Senate Youth Program elected to the U.S. Senate,” said Collins. “My commitment to public service was reinforced as a senior in high school when I was chosen as a delegate and traveled to Washington and met Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman in history to serve in both the House and the Senate. I encourage all interested high school students to apply to participate in this worthwhile program.”

Since the program was established in 1962, more than 4,500 students have participated. The program is funded by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. No government funds are used.

Each student delegate will receive a $5,000 undergraduate college scholarship, in addition to the all-expenses-paid trip to the nation’s capital.

The student delegates will visit Capitol Hill, the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Supreme Court and other landmarks. They will meet with senators, Cabinet officers, government leaders and policymakers.

The delegate selection is administered by each state’s chief school officer in cooperation with high school principals. Delegates must be junior or senior elected student officers for the 2006-2007 academic year and reside in the state where they attend school.

Eligibility considerations may also be made for student representatives elected or selected by a panel, commission or board to district, regional or state-level civic or educational organizations.

Each student must be a permanent resident of the United States and enrolled in a public or private secondary school in the state in which either parent or guardian legally resides.

Students selected will be formally announced mid-December. Interested students in Maine should contact their high school principal or Dr. Edwin Naum Kastuck, School Approval Services, Maine Department of Education, 23 State House Station, Augusta 04333-0023, 624-6776, edwin.kastuck@maine.gov. The Maine selection deadline is Oct. 20.

The program brochure with detailed rules, selection process and the 2007 program annual yearbook may be accessed at www.ussenateyouth.org.

Maine Robotics sign-up

ORONO – Registrations are being accepted for the 2006 FIRST LEGO League, an international program for 9- to 14-year-olds interested in engineering, research and development and programming. This will be Maine’s seventh year running the program, and the topic is nanotechnology. For information, visit www.mainerobotics.org/nanoquest.html or www.firstlegoleague.

Registrations are accepted through September, and each team can have as many as 10 children.

Maine Robotics is sponsoring the 2006 FIRST VEX Robotics Challenge in Maine this year. The event is still in the planning stages, and is expected to be held in Orono. A tournament is planned for February. Visit www.mainerobotics.org or www.usfirst.org/vex/ for information.

Maine Robotics is seeking donations of LEGO building materials and asking those who have unwanted LEGOs to donate them to the program. With hundreds of children in the robotics programs, more LEGOS are always needed. Excess LEGOs will be offered for sale to raise money for robotics programs.

A seven-week robotics summer camp was held this year. Camps were held on the University of Maine campus in Orono, at the United Technology Center in Bangor, and at Maranacook Middle School in Readfield. Next summer, robotics camps also will be held in the Portland-Gorham area.

To learn about the robotics program, call Tom Bickford, director, Maine Robotics, at 866-4340, or e-mail bickford

@mainerobotics.org.

Colleges

Maine Maritime Academy

CASTINE – Maine Maritime Academy will hold its annual family weekend Friday through Sunday, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, with a full schedule of campus events.

Registration will be held 1-5 p.m. Friday in the lobby of the Harold Alfond Student Center. A welcome dinner will be held for students and parents, spouses and family members. Families are invited to participate in afternoon harbor tours and sailing on the schooner Bowdoin.

Saturday’s program begins with a blueberry pancake breakfast fundraiser 7-9 a.m. in the Alfond Student Center. The breakfast is sponsored by the MMA Parents Association. Late registration will take place 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the center.

A coffee hour 9-10 a.m. in the Waypoint Snack Bar in the Student Center will provide an opportunity for conversation among students, families, MMA President Leonard Tyler and Dr. John Barlow, vice president for academic affairs.

The Academy Bookstore and Nutting Memorial Library will welcome guests all day. The schooner Bowdoin will welcome families aboard for sails on Penobscot Bay throughout the day.

A regimental marching competition for new students in the college’s Regiment of Midshipmen will start at 8 a.m. on Ritchie Field, and lifeboat races will be held at 9:30 a.m. on the MMA waterfront. Harbor tours begin at 10:15 a.m. Demonstrations of the college’s state-of-the-art navigation and ship-handling will take place at 10 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

The MMA Regiment of Midshipmen will hold its annual re-dedication of a World War II-era, 3-inch, 50-caliber gun from a merchant vessel at 12:10 p.m. on the lawn between the Student Center and the bookstore parking area. The event introduces new members of the Regiment of Midshipmen to the tradition of respect for graduates of the academy who lost their lives at sea or in the service of their country.

Recognition Day ceremonies for the regimental class of 2010 will be held at 12:30 p.m. on Ritchie Field.

Family and Friends Weekend will feature a number of varsity sporting events, including varsity soccer matches on Saturday and two intercollegiate sailing events.

The Mariner Classic Intercollegiate Golf Tournament will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Castine Golf Club. Men’s and women’s varsity soccer matches against Johnson State College are scheduled to take place at 1 and 3 p.m. Sunday on Ritchie Field.

University of Maine

ORONO – The brothers of the Psi Chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity at the University of Maine recently readopted College Avenue. The brotherhood originally adopted the 1.5-mile stretch of road in 2002 with the support of Orono Assistant Town Manager David Struck. The original proposal included wooden signs to be displayed below existing speed limit signs. Since then, those signs have weathered and are in need of replacement.

During the summer months, the fraternity brothers designed new metal street signs, magnetic truck caution signs and road crew shirts. The new signs were professionally made at White Signs and mounted on their own poles provided by the town. The signs were erected on Sept. 5, the first day of classes, the approved date provided by Dig Safe.

Sept. 17 served as the first Alpha Gamma Rho road crew cleanup of the 2006-2007 academic calendar. Two six-man crews were accompanied by service vehicles.

The brothers will continue to pick up debris along College Avenue the second Sunday of each month.

Monthly status reports are sent to the town detailing the effort and include requests for additional materials.