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For members of the inaugural cohort, face-to-face residencies in Portland offer a chance to work through real workplace challenges, question assumptions and build connections with peers across industries

Mariah Curtis learned to make decisions under pressure in ambulances and emergency rooms. Leading a rural health care organization brought questions her clinical training hadn’t prepared her to answer.

As CEO of Harrington Family Health Center in Washington County, she is responsible for finances, strategic planning and the organization’s future.

“I was sitting at a boardroom table and presenting finances and leading strategic initiatives, and it’s very much outside of anything I’ve done before,” Curtis said.

She knew the health center and its people, having helped lead significant changes before becoming CEO earlier this year. What she wanted was a stronger foundation in the business side of health care.

That search led her to the University of Maine’s new Low-Residency MaineMBA.

Curtis is one of 14 students in the inaugural cohort of the program, which combines online coursework with three required in-person residencies in Portland. The format allows working professionals to pursue an MBA while keeping their jobs.

For students moving into management or taking on broader responsibilities, that means fitting graduate school around the work they hope will help them do better. Interviews with three members of the first cohort described the appeal of learning alongside professionals from other fields — and the adjustments required to make room for school.

The 30-credit program includes 24 credits of core MBA coursework and six elective credits, with asynchronous online study and multiday residencies at the Maine Center in Portland’s Old Port. Students finish with the MaineMBA Academy, which focuses on consulting projects and leadership development.

For Curtis, the demands became clear during the first five-day residency.

“It was the most intellectually challenged I’ve ever been in my life, in my career,” she said.

Five days of questions

Curtis, who lives in Cherryfield and earned her undergraduate biology degree from 91���� Machias, had taken plenty of leadership courses during her career in emergency medical services and health care. Many had begun to feel familiar.

“You kind of get to the point where one leadership course is a leadership course is a leadership course,” she said.

During the residency, students were asked to examine their thinking, defend assumptions and reconsider how they approached problems.

“Why? Is that an assumption? Why do you think that way?” Curtis recalled.

Phones and laptops were largely put aside during sessions, with time to check devices during breaks. Students spent their days in workshops, discussions and small groups.

Justin Lamoureaux, a 2017 91���� finance graduate, worked with four classmates in daily sessions known as mastermind groups. They brought workplace challenges to the group, offered feedback and questioned one another’s approaches.

As the week progressed, he said, they became more comfortable challenging one another and holding each other accountable.

Lamoureaux works at Stone Coast Fund Services in Portland, where he recently moved into his first formal management position after nearly eight years with the company. His promotion coincidentally came within days of his acceptance into the MBA program.

He arrived at the residency preparing to manage a function and help guide others after years as an individual contributor and informal leader. His classmates brought experience from different industries and stages of their careers.

The schedule left little room to treat the week as time off. When Lamoureaux returned to work, colleagues asked how his vacation had gone.

“Not quite,” he recalled telling them.

Making room for school

Lamoureaux had considered professional credentials, including the Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations. But he wanted to develop skills beyond his technical expertise in financial operations and fund administration.

Returning to 91���� appealed to him, though traveling regularly from his home in Harrison, near Bridgton, to Orono would have been difficult. The Portland residencies offered a more practical arrangement: The Maine Center is a few blocks from his office.

He had also considered fully online programs, but wanted opportunities to meet classmates in person.

“I thought that having those sort of touchpoints throughout the program would be hugely beneficial for me,” he said.

Katie Shorey, director of engagement at Live + Work in Maine, had been considering an MBA for years. Leaving work to attend graduate school full time held little appeal.

“I really like working and being a community builder, an ecosystem builder,” she said.

A native of Sweden, Maine, near Fryeburg, Shorey spent about eight years working in Washington, D.C., before returning to her home state. A conference had introduced her to Maine’s entrepreneurial community, and she wanted to become part of it.

She went on to work in community relations and marketing at People’s United Bank, now M&T Bank, and helped build Startup Maine into a nonprofit offering year-round programming. In 2019, she joined Live + Work in Maine as its second employee, working to attract and retain talent and connect people with career opportunities.

The MBA offered a way to build financial, strategic and leadership skills while continuing that work. Finding time for it has required trade-offs.

Shorey spends many evenings reading and completing assignments. A class meeting can mean missing a work event. Dinner sometimes gets pushed back. After more than 17 years away from the classroom, she is adjusting to being a student again.

“It’s just been a shift in priorities,” she said.

Upcoming courses in data analytics and financial accounting bring their own apprehension.

“I’m actually more nervous about those classes,” she said. “They are certainly skillsets I need to work on!”

Bringing lessons back to work

The students are still early in the program, and their accounts so far reflect initial experiences rather than long-term results.

For Shorey, the first course’s focus on teamwork and accountability has prompted her to reconsider how she collaborates and communicates with colleagues.

“It’s just made me intentionally think a bit more … about the workplace and how I show up with my colleagues,” she said.

She hopes the financial and analytical coursework will complement the relationship-building that has shaped much of her career.

Curtis, meanwhile, wanted opportunities to work through problems with other people. She had explored other online programs before choosing the low-residency format.

She said the readings and exercises before the residency had already encouraged her to examine how she approached challenges. The in-person discussions pushed her to consider perspectives beyond her own experience.

Those conversations have continued between sessions. Lamoureaux said the cohort established a WhatsApp chat where students ask questions about classes and stay in touch. He has also connected with a classmate who lives in Portland.

“We’ve now actually built those connections and can maintain that connection throughout the next 18 months or so,” he said.

For Shorey, meeting the cohort expanded a professional network she had spent years building across Maine. Despite her work with businesses and community organizations throughout the state, she had known none of her 15 classmates before the program began.

Now she is balancing that new community, coursework and a career she wanted to keep pursuing. The choice has meant rearranging her schedule and preparing to tackle subjects outside her comfort zone.

“This is sort of like rocking the boat for me right now,” she said. “But in a really good way. I intentionally walked through these doors because I wanted to take on something new, and it’s been a good life shake-up.”

Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu