Location: Bowdoin / McKeen Center / Service and Leadership / Community Immersion Pre-Orientation

Community Immersion Pre-Orientation

Pre-OCommunity Immersion Pre-Orientation service trips are intensive four-day experiences of hands-on work confronting the social, economic, and environmental issues facing Midcoast Maine. Organized by the McKeen Center for the Common Good, the experience includes daily service projects, field trips to sites of interest, discussions with staff from area non-profits, nightly reflective discussions, and social activities which support local businesses.  Students build life-long friendships while fostering a commitment to service throughout their stay at Bowdoin and beyond.

Sample service activities include:

  • working in a community garden growing native produce for Portland's refugee community
  • cooking a meal at a homeless shelter
  • participating in a Habitat for Humanity build
  • cleaning up the coast
  • throwing an ice cream social at a senior center


Field trips take participants into the various communities surrounding Bowdoin College — Portland with a sizable population of recent immigrants and refugees; the island communities which hold a rich fishing and lobstering tradition; and downtown Brunswick, which is home to more than 50 non-profit organizations serving the Midcoast region. Participants visit historical sites, state parks and beaches, and meet the people who staff these places.

Student Leadership

Students who have taken part in the Community Immersion Pre-Orientation program often go on to be Pre-O leaders and help first year students begin to navigate the local community and college life. Whether it is organizing service projects, leading discussions about important community issues, modeling endurance and patience in backbreaking work, or cheering on their team in the Pre-O Olympics, these leaders devote four days to making new students feel at home once they arrive at Bowdoin.

For more information on Community Immersion, including how to become a leader, please contact Sarah Seames by email or at 798-4133.

Find out about Bowdoin Outing Club Pre-Orientation trips.