Lori Mayne

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Slide - 50 years, 50 voices - Lori Mayne - 00:00
I'm Lori Mayne and I was a student here at UPEI in the early 90’s, then a
graduate with an honors in History, and now I teach at UPEI; I'm a
sessional and I teach English 1010 as well as courses for English second
language learners.


Slide - Welcoming Professors - 00:23 
First thing I remember is when I graduated from Kinkora, I remember
thinking like so many other graduates 'I'm gonna get off this island and
explore new places" and I actually went to another university that was a
good school for a couple of years and then, for personal reasons, I decided
to come back to UPEI and I'm so glad I did. I just remember coming back to
UPEI and the professors seemed so welcoming you could go into their offices
and talk to them about assignments and they didn't seem too intimidating,
and the professors I got to meet also, were really concerned about learning
and about the things I was interested in, so, although it wasn't my
original plan, I'm really glad that it worked that way.


Slide - Love for History - 01:13 
Before I came to UPEI I had a love for History that I was starting to
discover, but I really think that it was at UPEI where I don't know that
developed and deepened and I think of some of the professors I had and they
still are icons to me, so, I was one of the lucky thousands I estimate
students, who got to hear Father Bolger lecture in the amphitheater, so you
would go in and he would be running up and down the stairs and I mean he
was, I told one of my classes once, he was more of a performer than a
professor, but one who knew his history as well and just such a love for it
and- just- you know, that sheer love for something, and sheer love for
sharing it with a bunch of other people in a great big room and I know
anybody who ever took a Father Bolger course, you know never forgot it. But
then there were other professors too that you know through their own
studies and their own lectures really left a mark on me. I discovered the
'History of Ideas' really at UPEI and I took a lot of Ian Dowbiggin courses
and through those courses I got to see history as not just events and
dates, but as, you know, a series of ideas that really can impact the world
or maybe reflect what's happening in the world; Joanne Veer was another
professor that really inspired me; took some English courses from Elizabeth
Epperly, on prose of the Victorian period but also ...really got me
interested in the thinkers of the Victorian period so I just think of those
people, and how they inspired me to learn and inspired me to show me that
loving, learning and transmitting that to others you could make a career
out of that.


Slide - Defending your Honors - 03:16 
When people say UPEI, the first thing that pops into my mind are the
professors I had, I guess...I guess because I could tell that they cared
about my learning, they cared about university, they cared about their
teaching. But also, they advocated for me; so I did my honors, which is,
you do an honor's essay and you defend it in front of a group and so you
get to spend a lot of time with those professors talking about ideas and
then you have to defend your honor's as well, and they're there with you
and they're asking you questions but you know they also want you to
succeed. I do remember that as a pretty pivotal moment just because I had
written lots of papers before but I don't think I ever had to get up and
sort of, defend what I had written in front of PhDs, and I was at the time
an undergraduate student so I think UPEI, I think- I think caring teachers
and gifted teachers.


Slide - Fundamental Skills - 04:18 
It's funny, I've worked as a journalist, so I worked at the Journal Pioneer
for a number of years and I did some background work for some other
publications and even background for the CBC at times, and I've always seen
myself as a researcher and a writer I think more than anything and I mean I
think that comes down to those fundamental skills that you know I worked
on, at UPEI. So one thing I think now when I'm teaching is; I'll be helping
students with research papers, and I often try to tell them 'You may never
write another research paper in your whole entire life, but learning to
find out the information that you need to know, finding credible sources,
making a convincing argument, giving people credit for their work, managing
your time'; all of those things really, I think, translate into skills that
people can use, not just in work, but in every day life.


Slide - Hope for the Future - 05:21 
I hope that UPEI...continues to evolve it's changed dramatically since I
was here as a student in the early 90’s, in terms even of the programs
that are offered here and even the way that they're offered and the way we
teach even to some degree. I still hope that we always pay a lot of the
attention to the skills of reading, and writing, and critical thinking,
because I don't care what field you're in, I think those skills are pretty
integral to being a good professional, and a good employee, but also to
being a good citizen, so I would say that. So one thing that's heartening
is if you're in a classroom and I teach some of my classes are completely
international students and it's heartening to see a group...of people from
so many different cultures and they're learning together and helping one
another, and sometimes teachers will say the best teaching happens when
you're getting out of the way, but just to watch them all work together
and, that's a pretty heartening thing to see, when that's not always what
we see in the news, and on social media, and in real life, so, I guess what
I would say is I hope that that sort of cooperation and collaboration can
continue in our classrooms the way that I see it now and I think I learn
every day from meeting the diversity of students that I get to meet now, so
I hope that I certainly hope that that continues.


Slide - Final Thoughts - 07:14 
So another interesting thing is, when I'm not teaching at UPEI, I get to do
a lot of research work and so, at least at some level, I've had the chance
to research the formation of UPEI and Premier Campbell's role on that; I've
had the chance to research Owen Connolly, who was an Irish immigrant that
came to PEI with not very much money and by the time he died, he had made
himself a fortune here, but he left most of his fortune to bursaries and
those have gone to students, many of whom have come to UPEI to study. And
now I'm working with a project related to Regis Duffy and Diagnostic
Chemicals and Regis, of course, started as a professor here, and has become
an incredible benefactor to the university. So, it's pretty interesting to
see this history of UPEI, not just through words on a page, but actually
come alive and to see the legacy of these people and how it affects
students and the university every single day, that's pretty neat.