With the gift, Board of Visitors member Michael J. Bell ’86 will provide an annual cohort of students with a distinctive ‘road map for success.’
By Marc Glass, November 2018
Interim President Dr. Eric C. Brown has announced that new Board of Visitors member Michael J. Bell ’86 has committed $50,000 to the University to establish the Bell Scholars Program, an integrative, cohort-based approach to academic advising, combining intensive mentoring, career-development activities, and experiential-learning opportunities.
“I never envisioned myself as being able to make a gift that could be the starting point for something much bigger, in terms of the impact on students,” says Bell. “It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to effect this kind of change.” (Photo by Marc Glass.)
“We are deeply grateful to Michael for his exceedingly generous investment in the University,” said Brown. “In addition to providing us with vital resources to launch the Bell Scholars Program, he has articulated compelling ideas for how we can make a transformative impact on the lives of students with his gift. I thank him for his foresight and for making the success of our students a philanthropic priority.”
Bell said making the gift is an opportunity to “bolster the mission of the University” and help provide students most in need of support with a “road map for success.”
“Farmington continues to hold a special place in my heart. The fundamentals of the education I received there allowed me to find my path,” said Bell, the founder and president of Bell Oldow Inc., an environmental due diligence firm based in Chelmsford, Mass. “I wanted to provide the University with funding so future students can have a similar experience for their own intellectual growth and career development.”
Bell offered a vision for supporting at-risk students that aligns existing University programs to provide Bell Scholars with special advising, mentoring, and career-exploration opportunities — before matriculation and throughout their four years. The anticipated outcomes of the initiative include increased student success, retention, and career preparation.
With Bell’s vision in mind, Bob Pederson, the University’s longtime director of the Center for Student Development, and Cyndi McShane ’07, a career counselor at the CSD and instructor of Academic and Career Exploration courses at UMF, developed a framework for the Bell Scholars Program.
Their plan calls for the first cohort of Bell Scholars to begin their UMF experience in summer 2019. Prior to matriculation, Bell Scholars will take a four-credit seminar, combining instruction and coursework that provides an orientation to college-level academic expectations with career and academic exploration activities to help students identify and choose a major. The blended-delivery course, featuring on-campus instruction with online assignments and advising throughout the summer, will offer Bell Scholars opportunities to secure on-campus employment that will continue in the fall, as well as connections to the University’s many student support offices.
And by completing four credits over the summer, Bell Scholars will need to take only 12 credits in their first semester to achieve full-time academic status. Taking a reduced course load in the first semester — 12 credits instead of 16 — will help the cohort acclimate to the rigors of college-level work.
Pederson and McShane have structured the program so that each Bell Scholar will build an individualized “career ladder,” featuring experiential learning opportunities based on their major, interests, and goals. Throughout their UMF experience, Bell Scholars will build upon these career-development plans with job-exploration activities, such as informational interviews with employers and alumni, as well as internship and graduate-school advising. Each cohort will also be matched with alumni mentors who will help provide career-readiness coaching.
A distinctive feature of the program involves integrating sophomore Bell Scholars into the advising model to support incoming first-year Bell Scholars.
Through this cycle of peer advising, second-year Bell Scholars will share their experience with newcomers, thereby gaining leadership and mentoring skills as they impart knowledge. Pederson and McShane say the approach will reinforce lessons learned for program veterans and result in increased retention among new Bell Scholars.
Pederson said the Bell Scholars Program harnesses proven strategies for improving student success, including cohort-based learning communities in which students have a shared purpose “and have each other for support.”
“All of the programming will result in early, meaningful engagement, and we know that students who are engaged are much more likely to be successful,” said Pederson. “The data suggest that if students are successful out of the gate, in their first semester, they will be successful and graduate at much higher rates.”
Beyond helping to “release the potential” of students and provide them with educational activities that integrate their academic and career interests, McShane sees the Bell Scholars Program as means to strengthen the human capital of the state’s economy.
“A relatively low percentage of the population in Maine holds bachelor’s degrees,” said McShane. “As most of our students come from Maine and work in Maine after graduation, the Bell Scholars Program is an opportunity to develop the state’s workforce and professionalize it in a significant way.”
Bell said he is gratified to see his vision reflected in Pederson and McShane’s plan and that it addresses the varied needs of students.
“There’s not a single issue that will generally help an individual student. It requires a process and an approach that integrates the support of programs that are already in place,” said Bell. “I’m excited by many aspects — introducing support during the summer before the fall semester, the focused career and academic exploration, alumni mentoring, and the circle of mentoring among Bell Scholars. What excites me the most is the commitment to these students throughout their UMF experience. I look forward to seeing their evolution.”
Bell, whose many years of generosity include creating the Michael J. Bell Geology Field Trip Fund and giving to the UMF Fund and the Thomas E. Eastler Geology Scholarship Fund, said making this new investment in the University is intrinsically fulfilling.
“My wife Patricia and I are incredibly fortunate, and we’ve worked hard to get to the point where we have the means to do something for the University that will be beneficial to many students,” he said. “I never envisioned myself as being able to make a gift that could be the starting point for something much bigger, in terms of the impact on students. It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to effect this kind of change.”