Sunrise Senior College is pleased to welcome back educator Catherine Hunter who presented The Forest and The Trees in our previous semester.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates more than 45 million Americans are bird watchers. To learn more about birds we will look to scientists and artists. Scientists search for facts while artists introduce visual and visceral components; both offer paths for the curious to learn. We will examine birds in nature and artwork including illustrations, murals, photography, sculpture and music. You will hear directly from artists in videos. Topics will include the Evolution of Field Guides, Nests and Eggs, Portraiture, Extinction and Species Recovery, and the role of art in advocacy for birds.

Presenter: Catherine Hunter was a museum curator, educator, and consultant for over twenty years in New England. She received her Bachelor of Arts in History of Art from Cornell University and began her career in the Department of Textiles at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Hunter’s courses reflect the connections one can discover while studying art, science, and culture. Research for this course included attending programs at Audubon's Hog Island, Bremen, Maine. Catherine Hunter lives in Massachusetts.  (Photo of virginia cardinal from artwork of Tim Flach).

Class Information: This is a hybrid class – Our presenter is remote but the class will be held in-person in UM@M’s room SCI 102 and via Zoom. Please Note: This class will not be recorded.

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                  IMPORTANT:  See Below

“Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.” 

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $20.00 fee.

Important:  If at this time you are not a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning to join as a member today, make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so that we can properly bill you for this class. 

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.

Were you aware that William King persuaded Maine’s settlers to break away from Massachusetts in part because he was able to convince the “District’s” evangelicals that continued political domination by Massachusetts and the Congregational Church was not in their interests. Why not join Prof. Joshua M. Smith in this special evening presentation as he looks at how Massachusetts and the Congregational Church attempted to impose their vision of an orderly hierarchical society on Maine, and how and why upstart evangelicals resisted and rejected this vision in favor of an egalitarian society with no state-supported church. Prof. Smith will place special emphasis on eastern Maine and the period around the War of 1812.”

Those interested in this subject may wish to purchase his book Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812, ISBN 978-1-62534-701-5.  It is available on Amazon and at the Maine Historical Society.   

Presenter: Dr. Joshua M. Smith is director of the American Merchant Marine Museum and the author of Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812.  He grew up on Cape Cod and coastal Maine. He holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews, Maine Maritime Academy, East Carolina University, and the University of Maine.

Class Information: This is a Zoom only class.      

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                 IMPORTANT:  See Below

“Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.” 

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $15.00 fee.

Important: If at this time you are not a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning to join as a member today, make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so that we can properly bill you for this class. 

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.

Sunrise Senior College is pleased to welcome back Alexandra Magnaud in this enlightening presentation on how African Americans have actively resisted racism and inequity in their lives and throughout Maine’s history. Maine is a predominantly white state. According to the 2020 census, 92% of Maine is white while only 2% of the population is Black. This presentation will focus on the importance of Black Mainers. It will demonstrate their persistence, resilience, and resistance to oppression as we explore just a few of the stories of Black Mainers who have played important parts of our communities’ development from the Revolutionary War period through the early 20th Century.

Presenter: Alexandra Magnaud is an educator at the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine. 

Class Information: This is a hybrid class – Our presenter is remote but the class will be held in-person in UM@M’s room SCI 102 and via Zoom.       

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                 IMPORTANT:  See Below

“Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.” 

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $15.00 fee.

Important:,  If at this time you are not a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning to join as a member today, make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so that we can properly bill you for this class. 

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.

As seniors we have become a primary target for scammers. You may have been a victim or know of someone that has been scammed. Our personal information is more easily obtained by bad people as businesses, governments and even our own social platforms are keeping this information in electronic format and it lives there forever. With our data sources being connected and shared, we are experiencing increased exposure to theft and data breaches. Your information is being sold on the Black or Dark web to an entire fraud industry that see us easy targets as the buyer.

Our presenter Ree Anna Bridges will look at various tactics that scammers utilize to try to defraud millions of people daily. She will simplify terms such as phishing, pharming, skimming and shimming. She will also discuss tips and some best practices to help protect yourself from these scams and perhaps give you a few tips that you can share to help protect others.

Ree Anna will also discuss the tools, resources and daily measures that we can utilize and who can we turn to when we need outside assistance or help. After this presentation you will become more perceptive to current fraud trends and be more focused on the communities affected.

Presenter: Ree Anna Bridges is a Community Engagement Manager and Branch Manager for UCU at UM@M. She is a Certified Credit Union Financial Counselor at UCU and a State of Maine Licensed Educator.

Class Information: This is a hybrid class - held in-person in UM@M’s room SCI 102 and via Zoom.             

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                 IMPORTANT:  See Below

“Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.” 

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $15.00 fee.

Important:  If at this time you are not a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning to join as a member today, make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so that we can properly bill you for this class. 

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.

It is no secret that brain health is a key factor in our overall health and wellness as we age. But how much do we know about ways to keep our brains as healthy as possible throughout our lives?  The brain is a complex organ made up of more than 86 billion neurons and 100,000 miles of blood vessels. The brain uses 20% of the oxygen in the body at any given time — three times what muscles use. And brain information travels an average of 350 miles per hour.

In this Introduction to Brain Health, certified fitness expert in brain health for seniors Amanda Strand will discuss some of the current research, and offer some simple exercises that may help us maintain our best brain health.

One in three Americans will experience some form of cognitive impairment in their later years. Some cognitive decline is inevitable, but studies have shown that there are steps you can take to delay the process or to reduce its effects, depending on individual environmental and genetic factors.  

Did you know there are multiple avenues for brain health that most seniors are unaware of? One is moderate exercise and its effects on the brain, including increased blood flow, improved balance, reaction time, and spatial awareness.  Another is creating new pathways in the brain with novel experiences, learning a new skill, practicing multitasking, and increasing social interaction. 

Join fitness expert Amanda Strand, an American Council on Exercise-certified senior fitness specialist and brain health trainer, as she leads this lecture/demonstration and QA session. There is much more to brain health than just doing the Sunday crossword or doing puzzles! Join us to learn about some new ways to keep your brain active and healthy as you age.

Instructor:  Amanda Strand is a continuing education provider for the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), American Aerobics and Fitness Association (AFAA), and the American Council on Exercise (ACE). She is a certified Senior Fitness Specialist, Brain Health Trainer, and Corrective Exercise Specialist. She is also a Yoga Alliance 200-hour certified yoga instructor, as well as a certified Red Cross Instructor of CPR, AED, and First Aid.

Class Information:  This is a hybrid class - held in-person in UM@M’s room SCI 102 and via Zoom.             

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                 IMPORTANT:  See Below

“Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.” 

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $15.00 fee.

Important:  If at this time you are not a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning to join as a member today, make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so that we can properly bill you for this class. 

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.

Why not join Sunrise Senior College’s resident environmental expert, Meredith Harris, in this special one session discussion on PFAS. We hear about this subject almost daily and we have concerns that it may be affecting our lives. Meredith will give us a high-level understanding of PFAS (short for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances), why this environmental contaminant is such an issue and help give us a clearer understanding of why it has been getting a lot of news coverage, particularly here in Maine where some dairy farms were forced to shut down due to the presence of elevated PFAS. More than 60 Maine farms have been identified as having unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals in their soil and water, largely from municipal sludge spread on farms as fertilizer for decades. This one session class will provide you with an overview about what PFAS are, how you might be affected, what state and federal agencies are doing about it, and what you can do.  Knowledge is power! We hope you will join us to learn about this important environmental health topic.

Instructor:  Meredith Harris is a licensed professional engineer and has been working in the environmental industry for 28 years.  She has designed and implemented investigation and cleanups of many contaminated sites throughout the eastern U.S.

Class Information:  This is a hybrid class - held in-person in UM@M’s room SCI 102 and via Zoom.             

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                 IMPORTANT:  See Below

 “Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.”

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $15.00 fee.

Important:  If you are not currently a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning on joining SSC as a member today.  Make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so the we can properly bill you for this class. 

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.

Did you know that the earliest known example of a Scottish kilt dates back to the 16th century, when Highlanders began wearing a type of garment known as the "féileadh mòr?" This garment was essentially a large piece of fabric, often woven from tartan wool, that was draped over the body and belted at the waist.

Why not join SSC’s resident kilter Eric Jones as he presents us with a brief history of this iconic Scottish garment, the kilt.  The evolution of kilts will be presented from the belted plaid, or great kilt, to contemporary kilts. Some examples of different kinds of kilts and kilt accessories will be available for you to see first-hand. Eric will lead a discussion of the history and significance of tartans. Contemporary kilt fashion will be presented with a focus on practical aspects of wearing a kilt and you will be shown how to don a belted plaid and have an opportunity to try it out for yourselves if you attend in person. 

Presenter:  Dr. Eric Jones, who is on staff at UM@M, has been wearing kilts for years and is an avid aficionado of kilts and kilt fashion. He has presented kilting to students at UM@M previously in his classes.

Class Information:  This is a hybrid class - held in-person in UM@M’s room TORR 232 and via Zoom.  

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                 IMPORTANT:  See Below

“Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.” 

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $15.00 fee.

Important: if at this time you are not a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning to join as a member today, make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so that we can properly bill you for this class. 

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.

Dr. Mark Brown will take us back in time about 3,000 years to a very tumultuous time. During the 12th Century BC, civilization underwent a drastic change that took a century to unfold; 1177 BC is used to define this change due to a very important event, the Collapse of the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean civilization. It also saw the birth of the Early Iron Age.

This class will examine the Late Bronze Age societies, from Mycenaean Greece to Egypt and east to Mesopotamia, and the events that led to the Collapse. Because archaeology is still uncovering data from this period, we will discuss the current thinking on how this region-wide collapse unfolded. We will also examine what arose out of the dust and ashes of the Collapse. 

Were the events of the 12thC BC really a collapse or a rebirth?  During our time travel we will be discussing the Hittite Empire, Egypt’s New Kingdom, Greek Mycenae, Crete Minoa, Assyria, Babylonia, Cyprus, Mitanni Empire, and the city of Ugarit of the Late Bronze Age. We will end with visiting the Early Iron Age Greece, Egypt’s Third Intermediate Era, Phoenicia, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, Assyria, Babylonia, Carchemish, and Urartu. 

These regions had different trajectories from 1500 to 800 BC. Some were survivors, some adapted, some transformed, some just coped, and some disappeared. Can the modern world learn from these civilizations as we deal with the potential challenges facing us from climate change to pandemics?

Materials presented in this class are based on:

Eric H. Cline, 2021, 1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed, revised and updated ISBN-13: 9780691208015.

Eric H. Cline, 2024, After 1177 BC The Survival of Civilizations ISBN-10: 691192138.

Instructor:  Dr. Mark Brown attended the University of Maine in Orono studying Forestry, the University of Idaho in Entomology, and the Pennsylvania State University in Entomology and Ecology with a minor in Statistics. He was a research scientist with the U.S. Dept. Agriculture for 27 years in West Virginia developing non-chemical controls of insect pests on apple and peach orchards. He also taught Environmental Sciences at Hood College in Frederick Maryland. He has taught SSC classes on science, climate change, and insects. He has also taught history classes on the Celts, Anglo-Saxons, and How Societies Deal with Crises based on the works of Jared Diamond. In this class he continues his investigation into how different societies deal with or succumb to crises.

Class Information:  This is a hybrid class - held in-person in UM@M’s room SCI 102 and via Zoom.

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                 IMPORTANT:  See Below

“Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.” 

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $20.00 fee.

Important:  If at this time you are not a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning to join as a member today, make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so that we can properly bill you for this class. 

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.