UMaine Machias names three 2025 outstanding graduating seniors
MACHIAS, Maine — Three outstanding seniors at the University of Maine at Machias will be honored during its 114th commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 10.
Each year, the senior class chooses one student to receive the Ivy Orator award, which honors the enduring friendships, wisdom and knowledge graduates have gained and their hopes for the future. This year’s award winner is Xander LaComb, a creative arts major with a creative writing concentration and minors in English and zoology.
LaComb, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation from Norway, Maine, is the president of Student Health Initiative Education & Leadership (SHIELD) and the 100% Society and serves on the boards for the Machias Audubon Chapter and the Tabletop Gaming Club. He is a member of the Kinap Mentorship Program’s first cohort, participated in the Residence Hall Association and is a student senator, a DJ at WUMM and a touch tank technician.
In addition to his clubs and commitments, LaComb helped overhaul UMaine Machias’s Science Bridge Program to incorporate Indigenous knowledge.
He plans to work at the Maine State Aquarium this summer then let his experiences carry him to his next opportunity.
Faculty selected Jacob Pelletier and Ollie Kyllonen to receive the annual Senior Watch awards for their citizenship, leadership and service to the UMaine Machias community.
Pelletier, of Madawaska, Maine, is majoring in integrative biology with a concentration in wildlife biology. He is vice president of the Fishing Club and president of the Garden Club, which under his leadership brought the campus garden back to life in summer 2024. They cleared vegetation, tilled the soil, repaired the fencing, constructed raised beds and moved bags of top soil, among other tasks. He hopes their work will give future students the opportunity to learn about gardening and connect with the community.
He looks forward to seeking work in wildlife biology this summer that will further contribute to his career path.
Kyllonen, of South Paris, Maine, is majoring in marine biology with a minor in zoology. During summer 2023, he interned for the UMaine EPSCoR project. As part of the internship, he sampled and filtered water from different sources in Downeast for an eDNA catalogue and researched salmon cell cultures. He has also helped maintain the aquariums in the Marine Biology lab and participated in various projects, such as retrieving a shark that had washed on shore for a lab dissection.
He plans to pursue a graduate education in ornithology or wetland ecology after working this summer as a seasonal field biologist for the Loon Preservation Committee in New Hampshire.