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Boston University’s Creative Writing Department

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The Boston University Creative Writing Program, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the country, hosts many readings by faculty, students, and visiting writers, as well as lectures, talks, and panel discussions throughout the school year.

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Boston University MA in Creative Writing

Creative Writing is a concentration offered under the writing studies major at Boston University. We’ve gathered data and other essential information about the master’s degree program in creative writing, such as diversity of students, how many students graduated in recent times, and more.

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Featured Programs

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

MFA in Creative Writing - Online

Embrace your passion for storytelling and learn the professional writing skills you'll need to succeed with our online MFA in Creative Writing. Write your novel or short story collection while earning a certificate in the Online Teaching of Writing or Professional Writing, with no residency requirement.

MA in English & Creative Writing

Refine your writing skills and take a step toward furthering your career with this online master's from Southern New Hampshire University.

Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction

Harness your passion for storytelling with SNHU's Mountainview Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction. In this small, two-year creative writing program, students work one-on-one with our distinguished faculty remotely for most of the semester but convene for weeklong intensive residencies in June and January. At residencies, students critique each other's work face-to-face, meet with major authors, agents and editors and learn how to teach at the college level.

How Much Does a Master’s in Creative Writing from Boston U Cost?

Boston u graduate tuition and fees.

In 2019-2020, the average part-time graduate tuition at Boston U was $1,777 per credit hour for both in-state and out-of-state students. The average full-time tuition and fees for graduate students are shown in the table below.

Does Boston U Offer an Online MA in Creative Writing?

Online degrees for the Boston U creative writing master’s degree program are not available at this time. To see if the school offers distance learning options in other areas, visit the Boston U Online Learning page.

Boston U Master’s Student Diversity for Creative Writing

Male-to-female ratio.

Of the students who received their master’s degree in creative writing in 2019-2020, 50.0% of them were women. This is less than the nationwide number of 66.6%.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

Around 25.0% of creative writing master’s degree recipients at Boston U in 2019-2020 were awarded to racial-ethnic minorities*. This is about the same as the nationwide number of 24%.

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

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Voices of the Creative Writing Graduate Program host first in-person faculty reading since 2020

Boston University’s Creative Writing Program held its annual faculty reading on Feb. 10, what Annaka Saari — the program’s administrative coordinator — called, “a buffet of inspiration.” 2023 marks the first year the event has been in-person since 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Your voice is your instrument,” said Saari. “Hearing people read their own work in their own voice I think is a beautiful experience.”

Saari said she works on planning events for the program as well as assisting graduate students with planning their courses. As a creative writing program alum herself, Saari said it’s important to “engage with other work,” especially with that of the accomplished writers featured in the faculty reading.

“To be able to have a variety of work not just in genre … but also in worldview and subject and style,” she said. “It’s wonderful.”

Ha Jin, a William Fairfield Warren distinguished professor at BU, showcased an excerpt from his forthcoming novel, “The Woman Back from Moscow,” which is set to release this fall.

Jin, also a graduate of the MFA program, is a prolific writer of novels, short stories and poems. Growing up in China has, he said, has given him a different perspective, which has helped with his writing.

“To write is to prove that I still exist as an individual, still doing something interesting, perhaps meaningful, down the road,” Jin said.

Jin also said the creative writing students he teaches are “quite brilliant,” and the help they give to each other allows them to be better writers.

Andrea Cohen, a visiting professor during BU’s Fall 2022 semester, was also invited to read. Along with readings from her previous book, Cohen said she wanted to share new works with the audience as well.

“I always like to read new things,” Cohen said. “They maybe are still under revision. Maybe they’re imperfect. But what really interests me is newness and something that excites me, and that’s usually new work.”

Inspiration for her writing, Cohen said, comes from where she least expects it.

“It’s often just sparked by a word, by playing with a word, or a very simple idea,” Cohen said.

Cohen hosts the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, which invites established poets to share their work. There is also an opportunity for poets who do not have a published book yet to read during their “New Voices: Emerging Writers” evening, Cohen said. This year’s series will start in early March and run until early May.

Melissa Cook, a current MFA student and attendee of the event, earned her bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and decided to enter the one-year program after beginning to write more frequently during the pandemic.

Professor Jin, she said, was a large motivating factor in her decision to come to BU’s program, as she said she wanted to learn from him specifically.

“He’s very wise and generous and we’re all learning a lot from him,” Cook said.

Cook said students in the program work on a thesis that either consists of short stories, poems or a novel. Most of the students are not looking for publication immediately at the end of the year, she said, but their thesis is the beginning of a large project with the help of faculty.

To improve, Saari said writers should not only practice their writing but also dive into as much material as they can.

“If you like poetry, go find more poetry,” she said. “Read the people who you haven’t read. Read the people who you’ve read before again. I think just spending time with the work, even if it’s the work of others, will produce better work for you.”

John Maniace

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UMass Boston

• Creative Writing MFA

Further your commitment to writing as the center of your professional life.

Intensive study and practice of fiction and poetry writing with award-winning and nationally renowned faculty at the most diverse university in new england..

UMass Boston's Creative Writing MFA offers you an intense, 3-year program and focused opportunity to further your commitment to writing as the center of your professional life. Through a combination of mentoring by accomplished faculty in a series of creative writing workshops, courses focused on the study of literature offered through the English MA Program, and electives that include the practice of literary editing, the teaching of creative writing, documentary poetics, the art of memoir, and more—you will have the guidance to develop and shape your work to the full extent of your talent.

All accepted students receive funding. Graduate assistantships offer the opportunity to work with students as teaching assistants and fellows, or in editorial positions with one of our sponsors, including 826 Boston, Hanging Loose Press, Write on the Dot, Consequence Magazine, Breakwater Review, and Arrowsmith Press.

Career Possibilities

Pursue a career as a professional writer, publishing your work in literary journals, magazines. Work as an editor and collaborate with writers to refine their work and shape the final product for publication. These are just a few of the possibilities.

Become a(n):

• Writer/Author
• Literary Agent
• Writing Instructor/Professor

Start Your Application

Plan Your Education

How to apply.

Applicants must meet general graduate admission requirements in addition to the following program-specific requirements:

• A 3.0 GPA overall and in the student’s major
• Three substantive and detailed letters of recommendation, from former teachers familiar with the applicant’s most recent academic and creative work
• A 3-5 page personal statement focusing on the role of the candidate’s reading life in his or her development as a writer. (Note: The general Graduate Admissions application refers to this as a statement of interests and intent. They are one and the same.)
• Applicants must indicate whether they are applying in FICTION or POETRY in their Statement of Purpose. If you want to apply in both genres, include one writing sample in FICTION and one in POETRY and indicate in the Statement of Purpose that the application is for both.
• A writing sample of 10 manuscript pages of poetry or 20 manuscript pages of fiction

Deadlines & Cost

Deadlines: January 15 (priority) for fall. While rare, if space is available, we’ll happily consider applications until June 1 (final deadline).

Application Fee: The nonrefundable application fee is $75. UMass Boston alumni and current students that plan to complete degree requirements prior to graduate enrollment can submit the application without paying the application fee.

Program Cost Information: Bursar's website

Writing Workshops (24 Credits)

Complete one from below four times.

• CW 601 - MFA Poetry Workshop 6 Credit(s) or
• CW 602 - MFA Fiction Workshop 6 Credit(s)

Literature Courses (9 Credits)

Complete three graduate literature courses.

Electives (9 Credits)

Complete three from below.

• CW 605 - Memoir Workshop 3 Credit(s)
• CW 606 - Literary Editing and Publishing 3 Credit(s)
• CW 614 - The Teaching of Creative Writing 3 Credit(s)
• CW 675 - Creative Writing Internship 3 Credit(s)
• CW 697 - Special Topics in Creative Writing 1-6 Credit(s)

Students may elect courses offered by other graduate programs with approval from the graduate program director.

• ENGL 459 Seminar for Tutors may be taken for graduate credit (see Undergraduate Catalog)
• ENGL 675 - Reading and Writing Poetry 3 Credit(s)
• ENGL 676 - Reading and Writing Fiction 3 Credit(s)
• ENGL 681 - Advanced Workshop in Poetry 3 Credit(s)
• ENGL 682 - Advanced Workshop in Fiction 3 Credit(s)

Thesis Courses (6 Credits)

Complete the course below both semesters of the third year.

• CW 699 - MFA Thesis 3 Credit(s)

Graduation Criteria

Complete 48 credits from twelve courses including four writing workshops, three literature courses, three electives, and two semesters of thesis workshops.

The MFA degree requires six semesters of full-time study, with 9 credits required in each of the first four semesters, and 6 credits in the final two semesters, during which students will concentrate on completing a thesis in fiction or poetry under the direction of a faculty member. MFA workshops are limited to 12 students, and seminars are limited to 15. Students have the opportunity to interact with writers in our Global Voices Visiting Writer series (recent visitors have been Raquel Salas Rivera and Carole Maso), and work with visiting prose writers - recently these have included Jane Unrue, ZZ Packer, and Fanny Howe.

Capstone: Completion of an MFA thesis of 48 to 64 pages of poetry or 100 to 200 pages of fiction written under the supervision of a thesis advisor, reviewed by a thesis committee, and subject to a public defense.

Statute of limitations: Five years.

Contact & Faculty

Graduate Program Director John Fulton john.fulton [at] umb.edu (617) 287-6700

English & Creative Writing MFA Department englishmfaprogram [at] umb.edu (617) 287-6702

Fiction Faculty

John Fulton , Program Director & Associate Professor Askold Melnyczuk , Professor Eileen Pollack , Visiting Assistant Professor

Poetry Faculty

Jill McDonough , Professor Shangyang Fang , Associate Lecturer

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College of Liberal Arts

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Undergraduate Creative Writing (BFA)

Develop the talent and technique it takes to excel as a creative writer in our BFA program.

About the Undergraduate Creative Writing Major

Words have power. They can catapult people out of their mindsets, throw them out of time, motivate them to rethink beliefs, and move them to introspection and tears. At Emerson College, writers have the opportunity to examine the power of the written word and experiment with offbeat ideas, novel approaches, and timeless topics. 

Our undergraduate Creative Writing BFA program is designed for the imaginative, the curious, and the poetic. Housed in the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing in the School of the Arts, the program’s faculty challenge you to sharpen your writing skills and find your own voice, ensuring that you leave Emerson as a formidable communicator—and also a unique one. Our writing courses give you a deep understanding of how writing as an art form has developed over time and across cultures, leaving you well-positioned to succeed in creative writing—a life of provoking and persuading, entertaining and educating, imagining and inspiring.

I enjoy the Creative Writing program because I am able to focus on specific genres….I am able to explore different forms of writing to solidify what I am interested in and what I am not interested in. I have learned a lot from my professors, who are all experienced writers—they are very helpful.

Real-World Experience as a Writer

Creative Writing majors have ample opportunity to gain real-world learning experience. Here are a few examples:

• Students can write or work for a number of student literary journals and magazines, including Redivider, em Magazine, The Emerson Review, Concrete Literary Magazine, and Your Magazine.
• Emerson hosts a Pitch Slam event during which students give a one-minute pitch to a board of local and national editors for the opportunity to have their writing published. 
• Beyond campus, students have access to coveted internships through our alumni network, which includes New York Times –bestselling authors, editors, and publishing professionals. Recent internship sites include: Boston magazine, Reader’s Digest , and Yale University Press.
• Through a partnership with Penguin Random House, students are mentored during a semester-long program.

Careers for Creative Writing Majors

Our Creative Writing graduates have gone on to become prominent authors, screenwriters, and critics. Examples of careers include:

• Acquisitions Editor
• Book Reviewer
• Social Media Specialist
• Writing Instructor

Notable Writing, Literature and Publishing Alumni

• Lara Egger, Author, H ow to Love Everyone and Almost Get Away with It
• Alex Garner, Assistant Editor, Museum of Modern Art
• Jaweed Kaleem, National Correspondent, Los Angeles Times
• Kira Salak, Travel Writer and Contributing Editor, National Geographic

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The MFA in Creative Writing: For Those Who Need to Write

February 18, 2015 at 3:30 PM

This is a guest post by Michael Samuels (fiction 2015), who interviewed CW Program Director Karl Kirchwey for his take on the Creative Writing MFA.

Michael Samuels

For Karl Kirchwey, prize-winning poet, translator, and director of creative writing at BU, existential questions surround the school’s prestigious Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. The top-ranked program, whose alumni include Jhumpa Lahiri, Ha Jin, Elizabeth Alexander, and Rafael Campo, is not for the faint of heart. “What are you in fact preparing your students to do?” he sometimes asks himself. “Well, you’re preparing them to starve, right? Especially if they’re poets!”

That’s a joke, mostly, although Kirchwey is humble with the promises of an MFA: there’s no guarantee that the degree will make you a great writer. “That’s a question of how you were born,” he says, “what’s happened to you that might make writing an urgent necessity for you, what might have happened to you that has unfit you for any other activity in life.”

“There are writers who manage to actually combine careers,” Kirchwey clarifies, citing the “physician poet” Rafael Campo as the prime example. Since few people make a living from writing fiction or poetry alone, most former students of the program become teachers in the US and abroad, local journalists and foreign correspondents, translators, editors, founders and coordinators of publications and literary organizations – careers enriched by a creative writing background, and with time carved out for their own fiction and poetry.

In any case, for those who believe they have the skill and devotion, “identifying your own gift and identifying your desire to focus on that gift is something which can be respected,” Kirchwey says, “and which can be built on.” The program offers “more time for your own work, more time for reading, more time for making connections with other writers, more time for learning how to teach,” he explains. The Global Fellowship, unique to the program, also provides more time to write, an adventure to write about, and sometimes the international connection that leads to a post-graduation job abroad.

Before traveling the world, Kirchwey says it’s also extremely valuable that students find their place in the cultural universe. “Just as scientific progress is completely impossible without an acceptance and an understanding of the work that has come before,” Kirchwey explains, “our progress as artists but also as human beings is completely impossible without an understanding of the literature, the art, the music that has come before.”

Writing, says Kirchwey, means joining that stream. “It is not to avoid responsibility, it is not to live as an irresponsible artist, but it is instead to take the highest kind of responsibility.”

Michael Samuels is a current Fiction MFA candidate, and writes for the Office of Communications at Boston University College of Arts & Sciences.

Thank you, Michael!  

If you are a BU MFA student or alumnus and wish to write a post for this blog, please contact Catherine Con at [email protected].

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Tory Adkisson

Tory Adkisson is the author of The Flesh Between Us (SIU Press 2021), winner of the Crab Orchard Series Open Book Competition. His poems have appeared widely in journals such as Third Coast , Crazyhorse , Adroit Journal , Boston Review , Quarterly West , and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The Ohio State University and previously taught writing at the University of Georgia and Seattle City Colleges before coming to UC Berkeley.

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Michelle Baptiste

Michelle Baptiste, an applied linguist, has been teaching writing at UC Berkeley College Writing Programs since 2002. She specializes in teaching culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse classes of developing writers. Her passion is supporting students to cultivate their own unique voice and develop a repertoire of voices they can access as they write across genres. She enjoys supporting students as they revise, design, and publish multimodal pieces online and encourages students to conduct interviews as part of their research process. In her own research to earn her MA in English...

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Sean Burns has been a Bay Area based educator, writer, and musician for 28 years. His scholarship and teaching focus on U.S. social movement history, critical theory, and California counterculture. Before joining the College Writing faculty, he served as Director of Berkeley’s Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholarship (2015-2021). In this role, Burns helped organize the campus wide Discovery Initiative and became the founding Director of the undergraduate Discovery Hub ...

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Carmen Acevedo Butcher

Carmen's translation of the spiritual classic Practice of the Presence released August 2022 from Broadleaf Books: https://linktr.ee/carmenacevedobutcher .

Carmen Acevedo Butcher (she / her) has a Ph.D. from The University of Georgia, Phi Beta Kappa. She has been fortunate her entire life to have been in class with brilliant teachers who collaborate with students. John Algeo, Margie Carroll, Wilson Hall, Paulina E. Buhl Noble, Frank Warnke, and Dot Whitfield were models for kindness, research, writing ...

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Caroline Cole

A native of Chicago, Caroline Cole has earned a B.A. in English and Rhetoric, an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction, and a Ph.D. in Writing Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has taught courses in introductory and advanced composition, business communication, technical writing, desktop publishing, and expository writing with an emphasis in Writing Across the Curriculum/Writing in the Disciplines.

In 1997, she joined the faculty of College Writing Programs at the University of California, Berkeley. Two years later, she created, launched, and...

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Chisako Cole

Chisako teaches Reading & Composition courses (R1A and R4B) and has also taught in the Summer English Language Studies program and in the Summer Bridge Program, with a particular focus on multilingual student writers. Chisako holds an M.A. from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Boston University. Prior to relocating to California, she taught at New York University and The City University of New York. At Berkeley, she has been a Lecturer Teaching Fellow, focusing her work on the social rules of classroom discourse and composition for international students. She was accepted into the...

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Teri Crisp has an M.A. in international studies from the University of Washington and did Ph.D. coursework in education at UC Berkeley, where she received an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award in the College Writing Programs. Certified in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), she has trained teachers in San Francisco, Prague, and Hong Kong. She teaches courses for multilingual student writers, and Reading & Composition courses that encourage collaborative research, critical thinking, and writing on ecology, art, and social values and policy.

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Joe De Quattro

Joe De Quattro is an American fiction writer and 2023 nominee for The Best American Short Stories. He has new fiction, "Following Calvino", forthcoming in the Summer 2024 issue of Italian Americana , a peer-reviewed journal founded in 1974 and published by University of Illinois Press. His short stories have appeared in a number of literary magazines including Bayou Magazine , Beloit Fiction Journal , The Carolina Quarterly, and The Los Angeles Review. He has an MFA in Fiction from Bennington College.

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John Fielding

A longtime Cal Bear, John's time at UC Berkeley extends back to the 80's when he earned a BA in English. This was followed by a PhD in English and numerous composition and literature classes taught as a Graduate Student and Lecturer. Over the years, John has extended his specialization from 20th century British and American literature to include crime fiction, prison literature, as well as social and restorative justice topics. In addition to City College of San Francisco and Oakland's Laney College, John has most recently taught college research and writing San Quentin State Prison...

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Donnett Flash

Donnett Flash has an M.A. in political science from UC Berkeley, and did coursework toward a Ph.D. in political science at Berkeley, as well - she was awarded an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award for her work in that department. For UC Berkeley’s College Writing Programs, she teaches Reading & Composition courses and public speaking. For many years she taught writing and political science courses in African-American Studies and Political Science, also at UC Berkeley. In addition, she teaches at the City College of San Francisco and Laney College. Donnett particularly ...

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Loyola University Chicago

Department of english, creative writing faculty.

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Forest Grove, Hillsboro & Eugene Campuses Closed

Update: Pacific University’s Forest Grove, Hillsboro and Eugene campuses, and all Pacific healthcare clinics, remain closed all day Friday, Jan. 19. More Details

Creative Writing

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Creative Writing Faculty

Professor Bove received his Ph.D. from Boston University and specializes in Victorian literature and culture, British Romanticism, and critical theory.

Professor Carstens specializes in early twentieth-century Anglo-American literature, with additional interests in fiction from late-nineteenth to contemporary, gender and sexuality studies, and critical and creative writing. Currently her primarily role is administrative, serving as Pacific’s Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.

Professor Johnson is an associate professor of English. He is currently working on a chapbook of poetry on fly-fishing. 

Professor Mitra is the Director of Creative Writing, teaching writing and literature courses for the English Department. There, she also serves as co-editor-in-chief of Silk Road Review: A Literary Crossroads   and  PLUM: Pacific's Literary Undergraduate Magazine . (On sabbatical spring 2020.)

A professor in the English Department, Darlene Pagán teaches creative writing and contemporary literature. She is an Associate Editor in Poetry for Airlie Press, and her publications include poetry ( Setting the Fires and Blue Ghosts ) and essays. She's at work on a memoir, The Safest Place to Fall , as well as a novel.

Kathlene Postma is a Professor of Creative Writing and Literature. She works primarily in fiction but also publishes and presents poetry, creative nonfiction, and scholarship. Her current writing and teaching interests are the art and history of the fairy tale and the role storytelling plays in healing from trauma. She founded and edited Silk Road Literary Review and is series editor for New Ground Books.  

Jenna is interested in helping students discover and practice ways of writing that integrate research, personal inquiry, and collaboration across disciplines.

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UMaine News

Meet the 2024 Outstanding Graduating Students 

Twelve undergraduates have been named 2024 Outstanding Graduating Students at the University of Maine. Read their short biographies:

Tobey Crawford Connor

Tobey Crawford Connor of Sullivan, Maine, is the Outstanding Graduating Student in the Division of Lifelong Learning. She is a university studies major in the Maine studies track. Connor completed an internship in 2022 with the Sullivan-Sorrento Historical Society, which led to her part-time job as communications coordinator for the organization. Her academic research focuses on Downeast Acadia prior to New England settlement in 1760, including facets of Passamaquoddy life and culture through both occupations. She is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Sigma Lambda honor societies. Connor plans to continue her UMaine education as a graduate student in the history department. She will continue her research on Downeast Maine and the Borderlands, which will complement her work at the historical society and within her community. 

A full Q&A with Connor is online.

Devin Frazer

Devin Frazer of Danbury, New Hampshire, is the Outstanding Graduating Student in the Maine College of Engineering and Computing. He is a mechanical engineering technology major with a minor in naval science. He was awarded the Navy ROTC 4-year National Scholarship and has received the Navy ROTC Academic Excellence Award. Most recently, he received the Marine Corps Association’s Honor Graduate award and the Military Officers Association of America ROTC award. During his time at the University of Maine, he designed, conducted and analyzed remotely conducted experiments for the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. He has held the positions of platoon sergeant, assistant operations officer, platoon commander and battalion commanding officer in the ROTC. Upon graduation, he will be commissioned into the United States Navy as a submarine officer.

A full Q&A with Frazer is available online.

Chappy Hall

Chappy Hall of Brunswick, Maine, is the Outstanding Graduating Student in the Honors College. Hall is a history major who pursued his passion for music by playing the trombone in several campus musical groups. In addition to participating in the UMaine Jazz Ensemble, Symphonic Band and Concert Band, he joined several campus clubs, was inducted into three honors societies and presented at academic conferences on topics including Protestant Christianity’s role in Afro-British advancement. His research and studies while a student expanded his perspective and understanding of social issues, unconscious biases and the importance of diversity. In fall 2023, Hall was named one of four McGillicuddy Humanities Center undergraduate research fellows and completed a project for his honors thesis titled “Playing History: How Video Games Can Change The Way We Understand the Past.” Hall plans to pursue a graduate degree in French or European history after spending time working and making music.  

A full Q&A with Hall is available online.

Morgan Inman

Morgan Inman of Wales, Maine, is the Outstanding Graduating Student in the College of Education and Human Development. She is an elementary education major with a concentration in mathematics and a minor in business administration. During her time at UMaine, she produced a thesis for the Honors College titled “Sexuality Education In Central Maine High Schools: What’s Happening Now and What’s Changed In Two Decades.” The qualitative study examined sex education in central Maine high schools by interviewing teachers in those schools. Inman has also been involved with a local after-school and summer camp program for three years, acting as an assistant director for the program for the last two years. She is a Maine Top Scholar and recipient of the Galen Cole Family Foundation Teaching Scholarship. After graduating, Inman plans to enter the education field as a classroom teacher and pursue a master’s degree.

A full Q&A with Inman is available online.

Ida Kuoppala

Ida Kuoppala of Pedersöre , Finland is the Outstanding Graduating International Student in the College of Education and Human Development. She is a kinesiology and physical education major with a concentration in teaching and coaching, and a member of the Women’s Ice Hockey team. A standout forward, Kuoppala was named to the All-USCHO Rookie Team her first year at UMaine in the 2019-2020 season. In her fifth and final season, she served as the assistant team captain and was named first team all-star and scoring champion. Pushed by her coaches to succeed as a hockey player and academic, Kuoppala researched how the amount of physical activity impacts academic performance in a comparison between the American and Finnish school systems. She plans to play hockey professionally in the U.S. or Europe.

A full Q&A with Kuoppala is available online.

Paige McHatten

Paige McHatten of Mapleton, Maine, is the Outstanding Graduating Student in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She is an English and journalism double major with a minor in media studies and a concentration in creative writing. While at UMaine, she was a McGillicuddy Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow, completing a collection of poetry titled “GOODNESS,” which revolves around relationships between women. She has also served as a tutor in the Writing Center; a journalism intern for UMaine’s radio station, WMEB 91.9 FM; and as editor of the university’s undergraduate literary magazine, “The Open Field.” After graduating, she will pursue a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. She hopes to publish a full-length collection of fiction and poetry while continuing to develop her skills as a writer, teacher and learner. 

A full Q&A with McHatten is available online.

Elise Morphy

Elise Morphy of Regina, Saskatchewan, is the Outstanding Graduating International Student in the College of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences. She is majoring in biology, with a concentration in pre-medical studies and a minor in chemistry. Morphy has played for the Women’s Ice Hockey team since she was a first-year student in 2020 and served as captain during the 2023–24 season. An enthusiastic student-athlete, she has volunteered with the team’s skill development program for young, local female hockey players. Her other activities on and off campus included tutoring student-athletes through UMaine Academic Support Services, volunteering with Dirigo Pines and working for the UMaine BARD Institute as a research assistant. After graduation, Morphy plans to continue learning at UMaine through a graduate study program and playing for the Women’s Ice Hockey team for a fifth and final year. She is a three-time recipient of the Highest GPA Award from the School of Biology and Ecology. 

A full Q&A with Morphy is available online.

Kian Murray

Kian Murray of Brunswick, Maine is the Outstanding Graduating Student in the Maine Business School. Murray is triple-majoring in business administration in marketing, finance and sport management; and has a dual degree in psychology with an abnormal/social concentration. Creating positive memories at UMaine by striving to find the fun moments in and out of the classroom has been at the forefront of his experience. For three years, Murray worked for UMaine Athletics in various roles, including as a sports marketing assistant, sports marketing administrative aid and student ticketing supervisor. There, he discovered his love for the sports community and desire to work directly with people. The social, volunteer and fundraising chair for Club Soccer and a two-time champion in intramural soccer, Murray was introduced to opportunities with UMaine Athletics after he participated in a home football game contest and successfully kicked three field goals. He plans to move to Boston with several other Black Bear graduates to start a career in sports or finance. 

A full Q&A with Murray is available online.

Victor Ostman

Victor Ostman of Danderyd, Sweden is the Outstanding Graduating International Student in the Maine Business School. He is double-majoring in business administration in finance and in sport management, and is a member of the Men’s Ice Hockey team. Before joining UMaine in 2020, Ostman played in the U.S. Hockey League for the Chicago Steel. As a student, he has welcomed the opportunity to gain an education while devoting his time to UMaine’s top-competing DI team. Ostman has received several weekly and monthly honorable mentions as a goaltender, as well as having been named a finalist for the Mike Richter Award, given annually to the nation’s top goaltender. In his third season with the team, he was also named the Hockey East Second Team All-Star. Ostman plans to play ice hockey professionally for as long as he is able, then work in sports or finance.

A full Q&A with Ostman is available online.

Jiyeon Park

Jiyeon Park of Incheon, South Korea, is the Outstanding Graduating International Student in the Maine College of Engineering and Computing. Park, who is majoring in electrical engineering, enrolled at UMaine in fall 2022 after graduating from Eastern Maine Community College. During her senior year, she helped upgrade the paper-making equipment at UMaine’s Process Development Center. She also served as a teaching assistant in spring 2023 and has volunteered at various events during her college career, including engineering career fairs and an engineering expo. In the summer 2023, she interned with RLC Engineering and plans to continue working for the company alongside pursuit of a graduate degree at UMaine. During her time at UMaine, she received the International Presidential Scholarship and an electrical engineering scholarship. 

A full Q&A with Park is available online.

Zoe Pavlik of Durham, New Hampshire, is the Outstanding Graduating Student in the College of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences. She is a double major in ecology and environmental science and wildlife ecology. During her time at the University of Maine, she completed an honors thesis titled “Does urbanization surrounding stopping sites affect migratory behavior in American Woodcock (Scolopax minor)?” Pavlik has also been involved with research involving rockweed food webs and insect biomechanics. She is a New England Outdoor Writers Association scholarship recipient and received the Ashman/Demeritt scholarship. After graduating, Pavlik plans to explore employment as a field tech and gain additional research experience. 

A full Q&A with Pavlik is available online.

Ece Yeldan of Kadıköy, Istanbul, is the Outstanding Graduating International Student in the Honors College. She is majoring in wildlife ecology and minoring in renewable energy, economics and policy. Through her studies, Yeldan aimed to broaden her cultural perspective on conservation and exposure to different environments, which was enriched by her study abroad program in Tanzania where she learned about conservation of large African carnivores. Her honors thesis titled “Understanding the Connection Between Water, Fish and PFAS Concentration: Implications of Fish Diet and Species Specific Variability,” prepared and encouraged Yeldan to continue wildlife conservation research. During her time at UMaine, she served as president of the International Student Association, helping organize events for international students and participating in the International Dance Festival, Culturefest and International SpringFest. She plans to continue her education at the University of Glasgow in a Master of Science program in conservation management of African ecosystems and hopes to later transition into African carnivore conservation.

A full Q&A with Yeldan is available online.

Contact: Shelby Hartin, [email protected]

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Creating experiential learning in the classroom: perspectives from the bridgebuilders program.

This presentation panel offers valuable insights from the BridgeBuilders Program, showcasing perspectives and experiences in creating experiential learning opportunities within the classroom. Participants will explore innovative approaches and practical strategies for implementing hands-on, immersive learning experiences to enhance student engagement and retention.

Creating Experiential Learning in the Classroom: Perspectives from the BridgeBuilders Program Presentation

Joseph Harris is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University. He conducts comparative historical research that lies at the intersection of sociology, political science, and global health and is author of Achieving Access: Professional Movements and the Politics of Health Universalism (Cornell University Press, 2017).  In 2017, he received the Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching, the college’s highest teaching award, and was subsequently named a Hub Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow. He serves as Faculty Director of BU’s MetroBridge program and is a recent graduate of the Provost’s Mentor Fellows program.

Seth Blumenthal is a Master Lecturer in Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program. His research focuses on the history of the Republican Party since WWII and conservative politics in the 20th century. Blumenthal’s first book, Children of the Silent Majority: Youth Politics and the Rise of the Republican Party, 1968-1980 was published 2018, and won the New England Historical Association’s James P. Hanlan Book Award. His work has appeared in the Journal of Policy History, The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. In addition, his service-learning course, titled “the Educated Electorate,” requires his students to volunteer with political campaigns, nonprofits, and other groups, and then present a research paper on the issue at hand related to students’ own experience in political activism. In 2020, Seth was recognized with Boston University’s Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence.

Sheila Cordner is the author of Education in Nineteenth-Century British Literature: Exclusion as Innovation (Routledge 2016) in addition to scholarly articles and a children’s book introducing young readers to a diverse range of classic authors. She is Senior Lecturer of Humanities at the College of General Studies, and also teaches in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program and in Kilachand Honors College.

Christina Michaud is a master lecturer and the associate director of English language learning in the CAS Writing Program. Her research interests include antiracist pedagogy, generative AI and multilingual writers, and experiential learning.

Ye ş im Sungu-Eryilmaz trains the focus of her urban and regional planning research on sustainability—particularly those factors that influence the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of cities. A seasoned professional with more than 15 years of experience and research contributions in the field of city planning and urban affairs, she has served as a consultant for numerous public and nonprofit organizations. Dr. Sungu-Eryilmaz first joined Boston University in 2011. She has taught at  Brown University, where she was recognized with the Engaged Scholars Award in 2016,  and has been a visiting scholar at Tufts University and a research associate at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Mass. Beyond urban sustainability, she specializes in planning for equity, urban economics, geographic information systems, and quantitative and qualitative research methods. Sungu-Eryilmaz teaches in the Metropolitan College City Planning and Urban Affairs program, where she incorporates geographic information systems to city and regional planning lessons.