College Students Attend Camden Conference Thanks to Local Generosity

University students at last weekend's Camden Conference. Left to right: Susan Dorr, Tina Blake, Nicole Cloud, Sean Sullivan, Peter Lodge, Brad O'Brien (in back with the hat), Zach Beals, David Brown, Richard Fortuna, John Nyssen, David Kaler

ROCKLAND, Maine - For students at the University of Maine at Augusta, participation in the Camden Conference went well beyond the weekend’s events. With organizational help from University College at Rockland a three-credit college course was created focused on the theme of the conference, The Global Politics of Food and Water.

Under the direction of faculty member Peter Lodge, leading up to the conference, students read and led presentations on Climate Change, Water as a Defining Crisis of the 21st Century, studied 150 years of agribusiness and examined the geopolitics of food.  Attendance at the Camden Conference from Friday, February 21 through the 23rd was mandatory to meet the course requirements.

Through the combined generosity of the Camden Conference and Bangor Savings Bank, these students were able to attend the full conference at no charge. In addition, special luncheons and evening café events gave students special gathering points to continue the discussion provoked by the conference speakers.
 
According to Rockland student, Richard Fortuna, “This was one of the most stimulating college courses I have taken. It was demanding but rewarding. It is encouraging to see how much work is being done by people who have access to the right resources.”

According to Mary Bumiller of Bangor Savings Bank, "Helping send these students to the Camden Conference supports their emerging talents as leaders engaged in local and global issues and in the long run it serves all of us to have such activated people in Maine."