Alumni Spotlight
Wallace Keene, Class of 鈥�55
When Wallace 鈥淲ally鈥� Keene graduated from what is now SMCC in 1955, the school had four academic programs and fewer than 200 students.
Keene grew up in the small Maine town of Hebron and came to Maine Vocational Technical Institute straight out of high school in 1953 for the school鈥檚 Radio-TV program. He used his education here as a springboard to a long and productive career as a telecommunications engineer, working for the likes of LM Ericsson, ITT Corp. and Siemens before retiring in 2000.
Now 82, he lives in Boca Raton, Fla., with his wife.
While at MVTI, Keene lived on campus, worked in the cafeteria and served on the Student Council, the yearbook staff, the Dormitory Council and the Judiciary Council.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 have had the career I had if it hadn鈥檛 been for the school. I wouldn鈥檛 have been as productive as I was, having the opportunity to work for companies like ITT and Siemens.鈥�
If you graduated during SMCC鈥檚 early years or know somebody who has, drop us a line at ccanfield@smccME.edu.
Alumni Spotlight
Ogy Nikolic, Bosnia to SMCC
Ogy Nikolic was just weeks away from returning home to his native Bosnia after spending his senior year at Thornton Academy as an international student when he got the word: a local Rotary Club had awarded him a scholarship to pay for his first year at SMCC. The scholarship changed his life.
Rather than returning to Bosnia, Nikolic earned an electronics technology degree at SMCC in 2001 and later earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree at the University of Maine at Orono. He is now the majority owner of OGO Sense, an internet marketing and app development company with offices in both Portland and Bosnia.
While at SMCC, Nikolic lived on campus, was a member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, volunteered for different groups and worked for the security department. He also earned a prestigious George J. Mitchell Peace Scholarship, allowing him to study in Ireland for a semester.
Nikolic moved back to Bosnia in 2008, where he started OGO Sense. But he came back to Maine last November to open a second office for his company, which has about a dozen employees and clients across the U.S. and Europe.
Nikolic said SMCC was instrumental in his career development.
And he has some words of advice to students:
鈥淒on鈥檛 be afraid of failure. People who don鈥檛 fail don鈥檛 try hard enough or they play it too safe. And try to enjoy every moment of whatever you鈥檙e doing.鈥�