Greetings Parents,

My name is Celeste Branham, and I serve as the Vice President for Student and Community Services here at UMF. I join the university community in welcoming you.

You will find here a wonderfully vibrant, most welcoming, and intellectually stimulating community that is dedicated to academic excellence and innovation. This educational institution represents the very best nationally in the residential liberal arts experiences. Faculty and staff are indeed accessible; they come to know students well, and care deeply that they succeed.

The size of the campus is manageable and intimate. Approximately 2,000 students are enrolled at Farmington. Additionally, the university is nestled in a beautiful region of Maine, and in a lovely, small town of approximately 7,500 residents. This is a perfect place to learn and to grow.

Entering the University of Maine at Farmington will be an important rite of passage for your daughter or son, and, by extension, for you as well. It is here that they are able to accelerate their intellectual and personal independence; it is here that their confined world expands to dimensions beyond what they have known previously; it is in this location that they are encouraged to become engaged with diverse communities beyond our own. We challenge their comfort zones and require that they think and act beyond what is familiar. How fortunate I am to observe this process first hand in our young men and women, and to try to help shape positive outcomes.

Please know that I, too, welcome your questions and the expression of concerns. I am always willing to talk with parents about their sons and daughters, but my primary focus, of course, will be happily upon our students.

I hope you will come to appreciate and admire this university as much as we do.

Celeste Branham
Vice President for Student and Community Services
University of Maine at Farmington
111 South Street
Farmington, Maine 04938
cbranham@maine.edu
207-778-7087 (my personal office phone)