UNE is not just for science geeks...its for book worms too!!!
So, since late September/early October, I have been researching the history of the Biddeford and Saco mills, the girls that worked there ca 1850 and the sensational fiction that was produced at the time. Why you ask?
Well, I as a minor in History here at UNE I decided to take Growing Up Female as one my 6 courses, and proposed this project for my term paper. Yes, the ominous term paper. You know you should be working on it a little bit every day so that come its due date, you won't need to cram, BUT...you procrastinate anyway!
My procrastination culminated this past Wednesday as I sat down at my computer for at least six hours to compose my first draft, as well as create a speech.
Oh, almost forgot to mention, somewhere between proposing my paper and researching it, I agreed with my professor to present it at the Women's Studies Conference this past weekend at UMaine in Orono!!!! Scary....I was going to have to present it in front of the class, but now I'm presenting my findings to a group of strangers!!!
Not to worry my friends, all went very well.
Here we are...postpresentation!
I presented my paper and was excited by the audience's reactions to some of what I had to say. Then Professor De Wolfe presented her paper, which branched nicely off of mine. And another student, Camille Smalley, presented to our audience what Saco did with all of the "bad girls." After we were done, we had a nice lunch on campus and were able to check out some other presentations that were just fascinating.
I was regreting my decision the night and the morning before I had to present, but now I am glad I did. It gave me an opportunity to practice public speaking, research a topic I was personally interested in and receive feed back from some major people in the Women Studies programs in Maine. Not to mention I learned a lot more about my classmates and the professors we traveled with than I would ever get in a classroom!
