McKayla Arsenault ’22

This is the perfect university for developing close relationships with professors and staff. UNE has a really good environmental program, part of what makes it great is that it’s small — my class only has about 12 students. I had the opportunity to get really close to my professors. It’s easy to get access to what you want to do here, if you have an idea the professors and staff want to work with you.

Beyond the Classroom

My work with the Office of Sustainability during the school year led to a summer job with Groundskeeping. To me, it’s like a first step into Environmental Science because it helps me learn all of the various species of plants and trees and get familiar with the land. I take care of all of the on-campus garden beds. I prune, trim, weed, water, and plant them. I’ve been doing a lot of that all summer long.

There’s a lot that is part of the Edible Campus Initiative. There are actually edibles growing all around campus, There are blueberry bushes all over the place, there’s also tomato plants, basil, rosemary, sage, lavender.

Seeing the beds that I planted that have tomatoes and herbs that are ready to pick is cool for me because I’m seeing my work pay off — it makes me feel like I’m good at what I’m doing. I never knew that I had a green thumb until I started working in this position.