Beginning with the upcoming Spring Semester, all the courses required to earn an Associate in Applied Science degree in Human Services will be offered on the Midcoast Campus in Brunswick. That means Midcoast students will be able to earn their degree without having to travel to our South Portland Campus for classes.
Expanding the number of Human Services courses offered in Brunswick benefits students as well as the many businesses and organizations in the Midcoast area that are in need of SMCC graduates and their skills.
Katie Ramirez is among the Midcoast students who are benefitting from our commitment to serve the needs of students and businesses alike.
After graduating high school in 2012, Katie attended a four-year university for a semester but then took time off to explore her interests. When she discovered her passion for helping people — “I tell people I was born a social worker”— she enrolled last spring in the Human Services program on our Midcoast Campus. Her pathway to her degree and graduation couldn’t be clearer, she says.
It’s important to Katie that she be able to complete her degree completely on the Midcoast Campus. She doesn’t have a car and says the Midcoast Campus offers her a beautiful setting and the full support of faculty, staff and friends.
“I have the whole package right here for me,” she says.
In addition to her classroom work, Katie has collaborated with people from the New Hope for Women organization and the Sagadahoc County District Attorney’s office on community projects and service learning. She’s intrigued by the law and is thinking that down the road she might become an advocate for domestic abuse victims in courtroom proceedings.
Our enhanced Midcoast Campus Human Services program also benefits businesses and organizations in the human services industry in the mid-coast area.
There’s a huge need for social workers not just in the Bath/Brunswick region, but across all of Maine. In fact, the largest job gains statewide from 2014-24 are projected to be in the Healthcare/Social Assistance field, according to a recent Maine Department of Labor jobs outlook report.
Human Services is a field that is all about helping people. By putting a 100 percent commitment behind our Human Services program, SMCC is helping students, employers and the Maine economy.
Ronald G. Cantor is the president of Southern Maine Community College.
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