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Portland

McKayla Arsenault ’22 joins ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North as GIS and communications intern

Photo of woman smiling against wall, student McKayla Arsenault
McKayla Arsenault (Environmental Studies, ’22)

³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North: The Institute for North Atlantic Studies at the ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ has welcomed McKayla Arsenault (Environmental Studies, ’22) as the institute’s first student intern.

³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North connects researchers, educators, policymakers, and industry leaders from across Maine and the North Atlantic region to implement collaborative approaches to building resilient communities, healthy environments, and thriving economies. The institute’s work is grounded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Arsenault will assist the institute in its communications efforts, including the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to help tell the ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North story.

In addition to her major, Arsenault is tackling four minors in GIS, Climate Change Studies, Political Science, and Biological Sciences. Her GIS field experience includes use of ArcGIS StoryMaps and WebApps, and she has received a MOOC cartography certification through ArcGIS parent company, ESRI.

Arsenault’s focus will be to create an ArcGIS interactive map highlighting all of ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North’s partnerships and projects as a communications tool. The map will describe where ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North partners are, what projects the institute is engaged in, and their impacts on local and regional sustainable development.

³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North partners with people and institutions in the U.S. and across the globe, including Norway, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Russia.

β€œWith climate change being a defining issue of this century, it is more important than ever to collaborate at a regional, national, and global scale,” Arsenault said. β€œCollaboration is a key component of ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North as knowledge, ideas, and ambitions are shared between countries in the North Atlantic. I am ecstatic to work with ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North to contribute to the efforts against climate change by telling their story of international cooperation.”

Additionally, Arsenault will support ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North’s leadership of the University of the Arctic Thematic Network on Bioregional Planning for Resilient Rural Communities by staffing meetings of international stakeholders.

Arsenault will present her map to a joint meeting of ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North’s Advisory Council, composed of government and business representatives from Maine, and the Affiliate Team, an interdisciplinary advisory group of ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ faculty and students. ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ faculty member Chris Brehme, Ph.D., who joined ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ this fall and teaches GIS in the School of Marine and Environmental Programs, will mentor McKayla throughout the process.

β€œIt is wonderful to have McKayla on the ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North team, and she is already bringing so much creativity to the project,” said ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North Director Holly Parker, Ph.D. β€œA key goal for ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ North is to increase ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ student engagement with our work supporting sustainable development here in Maine and throughout the region. We hope McKayla is the first of many awesome student interns to come.”

About the ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯

The ³ΙΘΛΦ±²₯ is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.