By Darby Ray, Director. Published on September 21, 2025
Another Successful Launch
With the new school year underway, we’re sharing a few photos from the Harward Center’s opening events. While the launch of a new year is a bit overwhelming, it is also filled with happy reunions, new connections, and lots of energy. Oh, and new t-shirts!
A few of this year’s new Kessler Scholars enjoy a backyard lunch at the Harward Center, featuring sambusas and Somali rice from the Mogadishu Store on Lisbon Street in Lewiston. Yum!
New students meet Harward Center staff members (both professional and student staff) and learn about the Center’s offerings at our annual open house.
“Welcome to Your New Hometown!” Harward Center student and professional staff members get ready to welcome incoming students to Lewiston during this Orientation program that attracts most new students. The program includes local history trivia, stories of how past students have integrated off-campus engagement into their academic work, and much more.
Mohamed “Mo” Awil, director of Volunteer Programs and Community Partnerships at the Harward Center, poses with Community Outreach Fellow Hazel Handy ’27 of Brattleboro, Vermont and Bonner Leader Sivani Arvapalli of South Windsor, Connecticut at the beginning of this year’s Volunteer Fair, which attracted dozens of community organizations and hundreds of students.
Ellen Alcorn, director of Student Civic Leadership Programs and Community-Engaged Learning, invites two new students to sign up for raffle prizes at the annual Volunteer Fair.
Community Outreach Fellow Frances Hochleutner ’28 from Brookline, Massachusetts joins Yuko Handa, Executive Director of ArtVan (and proud parent of a current Bates student), to encourage students to consider volunteering with this free art therapy program at one of its Lewiston Auburn locations.
Community partner Max Bullett talks to students about the work of Tree Street Youth, a youth-serving organization in downtown Lewiston founded by two Bates students.
Local documentary filmmaker Zam Zam Elmoge, who works part-time for Lewiston non-profit Generational Noor, talks to Bates students about how to plug into the organization’s work addressing substance use disorder within Maine’s immigrant and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities.
With the most unique table display at this year’s Volunteer Fair, staff and volunteers from the Drop-In Center in Auburn talked with students about the different ways they can support our community’s unhoused neighbors by volunteering at the Center.
These new students had a great time connecting to local organizations like those above. After this photo was taken, they submitted their completed Volunteer Fair Bingo card in hopes of winning one of numerous raffle prizes, including gift cards to local restaurants.
