The Maine Event for Science Learning

Six enthusiastic Saints took an exhilarating journey to Acadia National Park in Maine for Canterbury’s annual Women in Science & Service Trip in the spring. 

The students—Seoin “Eva” Choi ’25, Ella de Marval ’25, Abigail McGuire ’26, Lyla Kane ’26, Maeve Prendergast ’27, and Yawen “Sophia” Zheng ’27—joined Director of Sustainability and Science Department Chair Cammy Roffe P ’12, ’15 at the Schoodic Institute, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “inspiring science, learning, and community for a changing world.” 

Our students were certainly inspired as they worked with scientists on current projects and participated in service activities to benefit the park. Their many memorable experiences throughout the week included studying cross-system subsidies with Schoodic Institute employees, taking a geology walk led by the National Park Service, spending a day of intertidal exploration at Winter Harbor, and completing marine debris cleanup that yielded 230 pieces of plastic, fishing gear, and other trash cleared from one small rocky beach alone. 

During their leisure time, the group took a cruise along Bar Harbor, hiked up Cadillac Mountain, and toured Bowdoin College and the L.L.Bean headquarters.

Cammy was happy to report that the end result was overwhelmingly positive. “The trip was a great opportunity for the students to experience and explore the rocky coast of Maine while learning, bonding with each other, and doing service,” she said.