MACPE | Maine Association for Collegiate Peer Educators

The Maine Association for Collegiate Peer Educators (MACPE) is a professional and scholarly network that connects college students in Maine who are engaged in a wide array of peer education roles.

MACPE started in the spring of 2025 with a simple goal: to create opportunities for connection among peer educators in Maine. In October 2025, MACPE hosted its first summit at Bates College, welcoming attendees from Bowdoin College, Colby College, the University of New England, Central Maine Community College, the University of Maine at Augusta, and the University of Maine at Farmington.

Upcoming Events: The 2026 MACPE Summit is set for Saturday, November 14, 2026 at Bates College. Stay tuned for updates.

Want to learn more and stay up to date on MACPE developments? Join our email community!


Join the MACPE Network


Vision

To foster a community of practice and scholarship in which collegiate peer educators can learn, connect, collaborate, and innovate.

Goals

  1. Maintain an open and accessible network of collegiate peer educators and professional support staff in Maine.
  2. Facilitate opportunities to share scholarship, develop as peer education practitioners, and form new relationships with colleagues across institutions.
  3. Celebrate the work of student and professional colleagues working in peer education and academic support.
  4. Build connections between learning center communities to foster new opportunities for professional development and advancement.

When: Saturday, November 14, 2026

Where: Bates College in Lewiston, Maine

Theme: Friction(less)
When a student puts their nose to the grindstone to conquer a dense reading, prepare for an exam, or write a paper, they often experience a kind of friction. Not the literal grinding of two surfaces, but social, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, or other kinds of friction that can make it difficult to perform and learn their best.

This year, we encourage peer educators to submit proposals exploring perspectives, research, and approaches to engaging with friction in peer-led learning. Specifically, we seek perspectives on and answers to some of the following questions:

And, at a time when modern learning tools, particularly Artificial Intelligence, promise to lessen friction, increase speed, and enhance the efficiency of the learning process, how do we square this push for frictionless learning with the science that supports slower and more effortful processes? 

What roles can or should peer educators play in managing the friction students often experience in learning processes?

How do we create more helpful friction (what Bjork and Bjork call “desirable difficulties”) while decreasing unhelpful friction (that which leads to burnout, procrastination, frustration, or disinterest)? 

What’s next?
A save-the-date email will circulate in late August to give folks an opportunity, at the beginning of the academic year, to share with their teams. Registration will open and a call for proposals will circulate in mid-September. If you’re interested in helping plan the 2026 MACPE Summit, or if you’d just like to share an idea, a question, or some feedback, please reach out to this year’s organizers by emailing SASC@bates.edu.

Where: The 2025 MACPE Summit was held in Lewiston, Maine, at Bates College.

Theme: The theme for the inaugural summit was Finding Connections, those connections being social, professional, and pedagogical.

Itinerary: The summit featured four 50-minute session blocks, three of which were concurrent sessions and one of which was a featured panel presentation facilitated by a team from the University of Maine at Farmington. Explore the full 2025 MACPE Summit Itinerary for detailed session descriptions.