Penobscot Valley Senior College

20/08/2026

We had a beautiful day for the last field trip of the summer. A tour, tasting, and snacks at the Dragonfly Farm & Winery . Thank you to Megan and Ben Wei and our server. Serendipity struck again-- our visit happened to coincide with a canning run, something none of us had seen before. My favorite among the sweet fruit wines we tasted was Cranberry Pineapple Lemonade Spritz, which I never would have predicted. What was yours?

18/08/2026

TWO FREE CLASSES. EASTPORT HALL, RM 135, 128 Texas Avenue, Bangor. 10:30-12:30.

13/08/2026

A visit to the Margaret Chase Smith Library and Home in Skowhegan was educational and inspiring. She served as a U.S. representative (1940–1949) and a U.S. senator (1949–1973) from Maine. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress. She was among the first to criticize the tactics of Joseph McCarthy in her 1950 speech "Declaration of Conscience". She was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the U.S. presidency at a major party's convention. Also interesting was the home she designed herself, preserved as it was when she lived in it. Many of us will be digging in to learn more, like listening to her debate with Eleanor Roosevelt! The knowledgeable staff were generous sharing their extensive knowledge with us.

13/08/2026

Are you a weather geek? This volunteer opportunity might be for you! PVSC had an interesting class with John Fitzgerald, a member of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. CoCoRaHS volunteers use low-cost measurement tools and utilize an interactive web-site to provide high quality data on rain and snow fall for natural resource, education and research applications. CoCoRaHS is in all fifty states. https://www.cocorahs.org/

08/08/2026

What a treat the hardy souls who braved 90+ degree weather for a recent walking tour of Bangor murals had! Annette Sohns-Dodd, the President of Bangor Beautiful and a driving force in changing the landscape of Bangor through murals, trees and gardens, and other beautification efforts, generously shared with us the mission and back stories for many murals and gardens around Bangor. Starting with her iconic Bangor postcard mural painted in 2014 to numerous instances of changing ugly gray walls into beautiful murals in collaboration with other artists and members of the community, she is having an impact. Bangor Beautiful has also planted hundreds of flowers and trees. Some of the installations are primarily educational and some are truly works of art. Check out their website and enjoy! https://www.bangorbeautiful.org/

07/08/2026

Maine Public aired a program today on life long learning, featuring MSCN - Maine Senior College Network . The excellent panelists were Donna Anderson, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at University of Southern Maine in Portland; Susan Goran, volunteer; board president, Midcoast Senior College in Brunswick; and Eileen Kreutz, instructor & student, Gold LEAF Institute, Farmington. The
VIP Caller was PVSC's own Berney Kubetz, who routinely offers extremely well-received courses on important legal, political, and social topics.

Maine's Senior College Network offers older students classes across the state

07/08/2026

Roland Dube, PVSC’s multitalented Administrative Coordinator, is appearing in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio as Bessa Selim in the Winter Harbor Music Festival this month! Winterharbormusicfestival.org.

Meet the cast: The Abduction from the Seraglio, “Bassa Selim” Roland Dube (August 13, 15, 14, & 16)

Roland Dube lives in Bangor and has retired after 41 years in education. He is the administrative assistant for the Penobscot Valley Senior College. He is also the treasurer of the Bangor Community Theatre, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Maine, and the Hancock County Retired Teachers Association. Roland is very active in many theatrical community productions. He is thrilled to be involved in another WHM production after recently playing Frosch in Die Fledermaus.

05/08/2026

PVSC students received a terrific overview of the complex geology of Maine from Amber Whittaker, Maine Geological Survey, who is a superb communicator, educator, and scientist. It was particularly interesting to learn about LIDAR, a new technology that is leading to new discoveries about Maine's history.

01/08/2026

An interesting follow-up to Mark McCollough’s recent PVSC presentation on restoring the American Chestnut tree.

In a recent article for The Conversation, Dr. Steve Strauss discusses how advances in genomics and biotechnology are creating new opportunities to support chestnut restoration.

We're pleased to see perspectives from a longtime TACF collaborator. Steve served on our Science Advisory Review Committee in 2018 and currently has a pending proposal with TACF to improve genetic transformation methods for chestnut.

Give the article a read and let us know what part of chestnut restoration you're most excited about: https://theconversation.com/new-genetic-approaches-raise-hopes-for-restoring-the-american-chestnut-to-its-former-glory-282125

01/08/2026

NPR’s Maine Calling will be doing an episode on Friday, August 7, focused on lifelong learning! Members of several Maine senior colleges, including PVSC’s own Berney Kubetz, will be participating. Tune in at 11 a.m.