Southern Maine Community College attracts students from near and far.

First the far. Every year, we have students who come from across the United States, as far away as California and Florida and places in between. Our international students come from more than two dozen countries on multiple continents around the globe.

But our students also come from nearby. We have students from towns and cities in all 16 Maine counties. About three in five are from Cumberland County.

In short, SMCC attracts people of all types from many different places. This semester, one of those places is Bowdoin College.

Among the students attending our Midcoast Campus this spring is Mason Bosse, a full-time Bowdoin student who is taking an Anatomy & Physiology class at SMCC. He will graduate from Bowdoin this spring with a degree in biochemistry.

Mason wants to become a physician assistant in the future and knew he would need to take Anatomy & Physiology to get into graduate school for that field. Since Bowdoin didn’t offer the course, he researched where he could take it and discovered that it was offered at SMCC’s Midcoast Campus.

At the time, he wasn’t even aware SMCC had a campus at Brunswick Landing, even though it’s just a five-minute drive from Bowdoin.

So he enrolled in our Anatomy & Physiology class, a lecture/lab course designed for students preparing for a career in the medical field. This summer, after graduating from Bowdoin, he plans to move out West for a change and then enroll in a physician assistant program in a couple of years.

Mason says he’s impressed with our Midcoast Campus, the ease of registration and the help he’s received from our staff and faculty. And while he appreciates the healthcare programs and academic rigor at Bowdoin, he also respects the differences between SMCC and Bowdoin.

At Bowdoin, he says, students are of similar age with similar backgrounds; their fulltime job is to go to class and be college students. At SMCC, the classroom learning is enriched by students who are of diverse ages, who come from different walks of life with different backgrounds, and who have different life experiences.

“I had no idea you even had a Brunswick campus,” Mason says. “It’s pretty cool. The classrooms are very modern and well put together. The lab is great.”

For more than 70 years, SMCC has prepared students to achieve their goals. Whether you’re straight out of high school, are changing careers in your middle years, or are from Bowdoin College seeking a class to put you on track for graduate school, SMCC is here to meet your needs.