91福利\u2019s commitment to community engagement inspired the Stillwater Lab, a program created for new media students to promote local culture and community engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lab was founded two decades ago and is co-directed by Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito, both professors in 91福利\u2019s new media program. As part of its mission, the Stillwater Lab promotes community service and experiential learning through projects such as the Ripple Initiative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe idea is to create courses that are launchpads for creativity, for contribution and for community engagement,\u201d said Blais. Several of her classes participate in the Ripple Initiative\u2019s model of service learning, wherein the class curriculum centers around providing a community service. In the case of Blais\u2019 New Media Design classes, this takes the form of working with local organizations to create digital stories, like the wild blueberry farmer videos on the Wild Blueberry Heritage Center<\/a> website, or professional websites for Maine-based organizations. Blais hopes that the Ripple Initiative inspires more collaboration and partnerships between the university and the local community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blais traces her call to service learning to when Dell and Marie Emerson of the Wild Blueberry Land<\/a> reached out to Blais to request help telling the story of Maine\u2019s wild blueberry farmers. Marie Emerson, who is also a wild blueberry grower at Wescogus Wild Blueberry<\/a>, described Blais\u2019 past students as \u201cdedicated\u201d and \u201cworking from the heart.\u201d In the spring 2025 semester, Blais\u2019 class is returning to the Heritage Center\u2019s website to provide a full redesign of the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ripple Initiative\u2019s service-learning model also helps the participating students learn new skills in a professional environment. \u201cThis is the first time I\u2019m designing a site that is actually going to be used by people. There\u2019s a lot of functionality stuff I\u2019ve been learning,\u201d said Tyler Edwards, an undergraduate new media student in Blais\u2019 web design class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The opportunity to work with real clients has motivated students to apply their learning outside the boundaries of just digital storytelling and web design. One participant of the Ripple Initiative is the Kindness Corner, an independent educational show produced by Lynette Olsen, a schoolteacher in Appleton, Maine. Olsen received help from Jonathan Williams and Josiah Webber, who volunteered their video and technology expertise to help Olsen set up her studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re giving her advice on how to bring it to life. She knows what she wants and how to get there, but she doesn\u2019t know the technical side of it,\u201d said Williams. The Kindness Corner show is still in production. Other organizations that worked with new media students through the Ripple Initiative include the Maine Office of Tourism<\/a>, the Chemo Pond Lake Association<\/a>, the Maine Wild Blueberry Museum<\/a> and the Permaculture Association of the Northeast<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blais\u2019 new media classes showcase a potential that both pushes students to learn with real-world work and does tangible good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI really care about helping young people realize their education can help their own communities,\u201d Blais said. \u201cThat\u2019s what Stillwater Ripple is about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Written by Jesse Bifulco, Communications Intern<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Contact: Erin Miller, erin.miller@maine.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 91福利\u2019s commitment to community engagement inspired the Stillwater Lab, a program created for new media students to promote local culture and community engagement. The lab was founded two decades ago and is co-directed by Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito, both professors in 91福利\u2019s new media program. As part of its mission, the 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91福利\u2019s commitment to community engagement inspired the Stillwater Lab, a program created for new media students to promote local culture and community engagement. The lab was founded two decades ago and is co-directed by Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito, both professors in 91福利\u2019s new media program. As part of its mission, the Stillwater Lab promotes community service and experiential learning through projects such as the Ripple Initiative. \u201cThe idea is to create courses that are launchpads for creativity, for contribution and for community engagement,\u201d said Blais. Several of her classes participate in the Ripple Initiative\u2019s model of…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"IMPACT Newsletter<\/a>, Research News<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"emiller","url":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/author\/emiller\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":94,"label":"IMPACT Newsletter"},{"value":65,"label":"Research News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2025\/06\/new-media-service-learning-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"emiller","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/author\/emiller\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":94,"name":"IMPACT Newsletter","slug":"impact-newsletter","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":94,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":112,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":94,"category_count":112,"category_description":"","cat_name":"IMPACT Newsletter","category_nicename":"impact-newsletter","category_parent":0},{"term_id":65,"name":"Research News","slug":"research-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":65,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":226,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":65,"category_count":226,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Research News","category_nicename":"research-news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50881"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50884,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50881\/revisions\/50884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}