The College is pleased to announce that Erin Olson will be delivering the Valedictorian address at the College’s Commencement on May 8, 2021. Her speech will be pre-recorded and shown the day before on the Commencement website.
Erin is from Stoughton, Massachusetts. She graduated from Ursuline Academy class of 2017. Erin will earn a Bachelor of Science this spring. She is an elementary education major with a dual concentration in math and special education. Erin chose to go into education because she loves working with children and wants to help make a difference in her students’ lives. She chose a dual concentration so she would be better equipped to work with a variety of learning styles.
Erin has been on the Dean’s list every semester while at Saint Joseph’s College. She has been a member of the Saint Joseph’s College volleyball team for the past four years. In addition to volleyball, she is a member of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) and a member of SEAM (Student Education Association of Maine). This past year Erin served as the vice president of the SEAM board and captain of the volleyball team.
Throughout her four years at SJC, Erin has participated in many different projects such as Operation Christmas Child, Team Impact, and Community Reading days. During all of these activities and efforts, she enjoyed working with others and knowing that they were making an impact on the lives of people in the community, as well as around the world.
This past fall, Erin student taught in a remote fourth grade classroom through the RSU 14 district. Her success in that role led to a long-term substitute position as a remote fifth grade teacher in the same district this spring.
Remote teaching has enabled Erin to learn a great deal more about technology and how to create meaningful lessons through a computer screen. This experience, with many new resources and new ways to incorporate technology effectively, will also help Erin once she is back in a classroom setting.
Following graduation, Erin plans to find an elementary school teaching position and begin working towards earning a master’s degree in child psychology.
