UMBC Mock Trial continues to reach new heights at a national level, even with COVID-19 impacting the competition season. Sydney Gaskins ’22, political science, finished as a runner-up in the final round of the national Trial by Combat (TBC), a head-to-head individual mock trial championship hosted this summer by the UCLA School of Law and Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law.
Gaskins competed virtually against fifteen graduating seniors from the most successful mock trial teams across the country, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. She was the only junior to participate this year and among the first underrepresented women to compete in the championship’s history.
Gaskins presenting her case at virtual Trial by Combat 2020.
The hosts of Trial by Combat selected the sixteen contenders out of hundreds of applicants. “Sydney continues to break barriers in Mock Trial and specifically in Trial by Combat,” shares Ben Garmoe ’13, political science, a litigation attorney in Baltimore. Nine years ago he co-founded the intellectual sports team with Travis Bell ’14, psychology and political science, now a public defender in Alabama.
Garmoe notes, “She defeated some of the best competitors in the country to get to the final round.”
A recording of the entire 2020 Trial by Combat competition.
A formidable opponent
“TBC 2020 was a special and unique experience,” shares Gaskins. She says she has struggled with not being able to interact with the people she cares about because of COVID-19. “The virtual tournament was not only a much needed opportunity to reconnect, but to also make my team proud.”
Gaskins, the UMBC Mock Trial president, has a long history as a formidable opponent in her three years with the team. This year, in addition to her TBC award, she has received two Outstanding Attorney Awards and three All-National Attorney Awards. In 2019 she earned ten awards, including two All-National Attorney Awards from the Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS). Then she helped the team place eighth at the American Mock Trial Association National Championship Tournament—the team’s second trip to nationals.
UMBC Mock Trial A-Team at AMTA 2019.
At the 2019 national competition, Gaskins received an All-American Attorney Award, the highest individual honor in collegiate mock trial. Her success earned her an invitation to compete at last year’s Trial by Combat, and solidified her status as one of the top college mock trial competitors in the U.S.
Sydney Gaskins wins two trophies at Georgetown Mock Trial.
Rigorous teamwork
TBC requires students to prepare quickly for a trial and under great pressure, giving them just 24 hours between receiving the case and arguing it. Ethan Hudson ’21, English, and Garmoe were Gaskins’s support team.
Hudson helped develop the case theory and served as the “second chair” in the competition. This role is a (silent) co-counsel who is in charge of displaying exhibits and demonstrative aids, and who is permitted to communicate with the counsel. He was also responsible for managing all of Gaskins’s technology during each trial.
Together, the trio created a rigorous trial strategy for all the roles Gaskins had to perform: defense, prosecutor, and as a witness for each side. Gaskins performed each role once during the four preliminary trials, with the attorney performance carrying the most weight in scoring. Four students continued to the semi-finals as attorneys, and only two advanced to the championship trial. Gaskins was one of those final two.
Gaskins’s setup for the 2020 Trial by Combat competition.
A meaningful opportunity
Gaskins and Hudson’s experience as teammates dates back to their high school years as members of the Franklin High School Mock Trial team. Both joined the UMBC team their first year. They were set to lead UMBC’s team this spring at the 2020 National Championship Tournament before the rest of the season was cancelled due to COVID-19. This year marked the third time UMBC has qualified for the nationals in the last four years.
UMBC Mock Trial 2019. Hudson is the third on the left and Gaskins is fourth on the left.
“This tournament was special for two reasons. It was my last opportunity to compete alongside Ethan, my friend and teammate,” explains Gaskins, who plans to apply to top J.D and MBA programs in the spring. “And it was also an opportunity to once again show everyone who Sydney Gaskins is.”
Banner image: Gaskins defending her case at a Mock Trial competition. All photos are courtesy of UMBC Mock Trial.
UMBC’s Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program has launched an intensive virtual math incubator for Lakeland Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore City this summer. The free, voluntary five-week program is a math intervention for 150 Lakeland students in third through eighth grade. The program seeks to prevent summer learning loss, which could increase this year, intensified by COVID-19’s impact on student learning during the school year.
“With the changes this spring to learning, the UMBC/Lakeland Summer Math Program has allowed us to make up ground and get a head start with students in a targeted approach to math instruction,” says Lakeland Principal Najib Jammal. “This partnership lets us plan for students’ needs this fall knowing that 150 of our students had access to high-quality math instruction the summer.”
Jammal recently spoke about the collaboration in an interview for the segment “Staving Off Summer Slide” on WYPR’s On The Record.
The summer program was designed to also have a lasting impact beyond improving specific STEM skills. Lakeland teachers and UMBC partners are helping Lakeland students develop a positive math identity that will carry them forward into higher level math courses.
Moving online
The summer STEM program was originally designed to be held in person. COVID-19 both increased the need for the program and required Lakeland to move instruction online, decreasing student–teacher and peer interactions. To counter this challenge, program organizers knew they’d need more teachers to decrease the student–teacher ratio and reach more students overall.
A rug in Lydia Coley’s classroom during her student teaching internship.
The Goldseker Foundation and Baltimore Children’s Youth Fund (BCYF) provided the funding needed to implement the program online and to hire more teachers. Their financial support also expanded the program from the initial 60 rising fourth through sixth graders to 150 rising third through eighth-grade students.
This creative intervention has three priorities: whole child development, math identity development, and math growth. The program is implemented under the direction of Josh Michael ‘10, political science and education, assistant director of UMBC’s Sherman STEM Teachers Scholars Program, in collaboration with five Baltimore City school teachers and twelve interns from the Sherman Scholars program.
The summer program also relies on a firm foundation of strong teacher, student, family, and community relationships. The Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars serve as program leaders. In this role, they dedicate the majority of their day to fostering relationships with students and their families through video chats, phone calls, texts, and emails.
Coley’s classroom during her student teaching internship.
These program leaders coach the three Lakeland teachers who serve as program facilitators, including one UMBC alumna. Former Sherman Scholar Molly Hart, M.A.T. ‘19, elementary education, is now a sixth grade math teacher at Lakeland and serves as a facilitator for the summer STEM program.
“The program’s support system is incredible,” shares Haleemat Adekoya ‘23, political science. She says this experience has made her aware of the importance of consistent communication in the classroom.
If a student is absent one day, her priority is to get in touch with their family as soon as possible. “Every time I let a student and their family know they were missed, as an intricate part of the classroom community, they’ve shown up the next day and actively engaged.”
This structure of robust support is cultivating strong student and family relationships and student participation. Out of 150 enrolled students, an average of 120 consistently engage in math instruction and STEM activities each day. Nearly 100 percent engage each week. Once students feel supported and are engaged, teachers can then move forward to focus on further developing students’ math identity and math skills.
Math identity
Historically many Black, Latinx, and first-generation students, as well as English Language Learners (ELL) and students experiencing economic hardship, have faced obstacles in math achievement. Limited public school resources, insufficient access to quality culturally relevant instruction, and high social/emotional stresses have created learning gaps at lower grades, which often deepen in upper grades.
For many students, negative experiences in trying to build fundamental math skills have impeded their development of a positive math identity. Math identity is a student’s perception of their ability to perform well in math. It has been shown to impact math performance.
Coley’s classroom during her student teaching internship.
These factors have also contributed to a lack of diversity in STEM fields, reinforcing the negative stereotype that underrepresented students can’t do math regardless of the resources available to them. As a result, underrepresented students are less likely to feel confident enough to pursue higher level math courses. This further limits their access to a variety of academic, career, and social opportunities.
“I am terrified of math even though I was given all the support and resources to excel in math,” explains Adekoya. “Josh Michael and Lydia Coley give me the support and confidence to lean into this opportunity and not give in to imposter syndrome. I have to lead by example.”
Lydia Coley ’20, American studies, valedictorian of UMBC’s most recent graduating class, is also a program leader and a Sherman Scholar alumna. She is a first-year, sixth grade math teacher at Maree G. Farring Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore City.
Me, myself, and math
Lakeland serves 1,000 Pre-K to eighth-grade students. The majority come from underrepresented populations in STEM fields. They are less likely to have a positive math identity. Black students make up 32 percent of the school, 62 percent are Latinx, 42 percent are English Language Learners, 11 percent receive special education services, and most students come from low-income families.
The summer program aims to help Lakeland students break the cycle of underrepresentation. Immersing students in a safe and nurturing space encourages them to engage in the math learning process. It also broadens and strengthens their math skills and fosters a positive math identity.
Through daily interactive synchronous video lessons, based on common core standards, program leaders teach, model, and provide individualized instruction. Students develop a toolkit of strategies that build the confidence needed to take risks and see mistakes as learning opportunities.
Coley’s classroom during her student teaching internship.
Program facilitator Iliana Hernandez, a fifth-year, third grade math and dual-language teacher at Lakeland, provides program leaders with best practices to support ELL learners. She admits her own fears of math in elementary school. “I don’t want my students to fear math like I did,” shares Hernandez. “When students stay connected and feel valued and cared for their confidence grows and they feel ready to learn.”
Math growth
With this foundation in place, rigorous math instruction can move forward. Program Director Carly Harkins leads the team in curriculum development and instruction. Under her guidance, program facilitators coach program leaders in weekly lesson planning, lesson delivery, assessments, and student support. After daily class, students practice independently through proven online learning tools wherever they are on their math journey.
The program also provides hands-on experience to help students apply what they are learning. Josh Massey, the STEM facilitator, works with Michael and Harkins to create hands-on STEM activities for students.
Massey ‘18, computer engineering, and M.A.T. ‘19, technology education, is a first-year computer science teacher at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in Baltimore City. He creates 150 STEM kits weekly, and helps deliver them to students’ homes. Each kit includes the materials needed to complete a project. They tie into the week’s topic, like circuits or small machines.
Adekoya showing the circuit flashlight STEM Kit project. Photo courtesy of Adekoya.
Students first work on the project independently and then share their process in class. Each student is then the proud owner of something they have built themselves. These projects help support both math growth and a positive math identity.
Access to a bright future
When Michael sees students participating in these activities, he sees them as accessing the building blocks they’ll use to excel in the years ahead.
UMBC and Lakeland partners hope this extra support will ensure more Lakeland students will be better prepared for Algebra I when they enter eighth grade. Why? “Algebra I is a key academic gateway,” says Michael. “There is strong evidence that successfully completing Algebra I in eighth grade is related to higher math achievement in high school and attainment in college.”
Michael notes that it’s long been the case that students of color have had less access to Algebra I in eighth grade. He shares, “Our goal is to provide that access by helping students believe success in math is for them.”
Banner image: A math chart in Coley’s classroom during her student teaching internship.All images by Marlayna Demond ’11 unless otherwise noted.
UMBC’s Constantine Vaporis, professor of history, has partnered with TED-Ed Animations to produce A Day In The Life of A Teenage Samurai. This original video draws from over thirty years of scholarship Vaporis has completed on Japanese history and culture. The video is part of TED’s award-winning youth education program whose mission is to “amplify and capture the work of the world’s greatest teachers.” It currently has over 550,000 views.
The life of a samurai
“The creative process for the video required about eight months and involved me as the writer and educator in collaboration with a large creative and technical team,” shares Vaporis, the first UMBC history professor to have his research animated. “It was crafted in a style that is meant to be engaging to young viewers, historically truthful, but not photorealistic.”
The video is set in Kôchi, Japan in 1800. It is a brief window into the fictional life of 16-year-old Mori Banshirô, a samurai in training who aspires to be an artist. Banshirô’s journey takes place during the Edo period (1603 – 1868), which is the focus of Vaporis’s research.
During this time, samurai also served as government officials, teachers, masters of the tea ceremony, and artists. In his latest book, Samurai. An Encyclopedia of Japan’s Cultured Warriors (ABC/CLIO, 2019), Vaporis explores the life, practice, and history of these warriors.
Vaporis continues to partner with TED-Ed. TED-Ed has invited him to be a regular collaborator on future videos about Japan. He has already critiqued two other animations.
Decades researching Japanese history
In addition to his appointment in history, Vaporis has also served as the founding director of UMBC’s Asian studies program and is an affiliate professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies. This year he is one of forty scholars selected from around the world as a 2020 – 2021 fellow in residence in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. During his fellowship Vaporis will work on his sixth book, Sword and Brush: Portraits of Samurai in Early Modern Japan.
Funding for Vaporis’s early research in Japan was through a Fulbright Scholars Award and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers. He lived in Japan for seven years, completing archival research through these and additional fellowships.
This led to the books Breaking Barriers: Travel and the State in Early Modern Japan (Harvard University Press, 1995); Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Service in Edo and the Culture of Early Modern Japan (University of Hawai’i Press, 2009); Nihonjin to sankin kôtai [The Japanese and Alternate Attendance] (Kashiwa shobô, 2010); and Voices of Early Modern Japan: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life During the Age of the Shoguns (ABC/CLIO, 2012; Routledge, 2014, 2020).
Banner image: Constantine Vaporis at UMBC. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.
Gloria Chuku, chair andprofessor of Africana studies, has been named UMBC’s Lipitz Professor of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) for 2020 – 21. This distinguished professorship, funded by Roger C. Lipitz and the Lipitz Family Foundation, recognizes and supports innovative teaching and research. During her professorship, Chuku will carry out research for her new book project, Becoming Igbo in Nigeria and the Diaspora: A History of Ethnic Identity Formation and Negotiation.
UMBC faculty and staff retreat, summer 2017. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.
“I am humbled and grateful for my colleagues’ recognition of my contributions to the Africana studies department, CAHSS, and UMBC; to my profession; and to the fields of Igbo and Nigerian histories, African studies, and gender studies,” shares Chuku. “I feel validated.”
In the span of thirty years, Chuku’s internationally-renowned scholarship and teaching has explored the topics of ethno-nationalism, gender, economics, decolonization, conflict, and African-centered epistemological traditions of the Igbo people, the third largest ethnic group in Nigeria.
Scholarship on Igbo culture
Chuku will spend time studying the Commonwealth and African manuscripts at Oxford University’s Bodleian Libraries in the coming year. She will also do archival research at The National Archives in London. Chuku will then return to the United States to review the unpublished papers on the Igbo people at the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University.
This research will inform the writing of Chuku’s second book, about the processes of Igbo ethnic identity formation, negotiation, and integration across time. This includes Igbo identity within Nigeria and the global diaspora.
Chuku’s first book, Igbo Women and Economic Transformation in Southeastern Nigeria, 1900 – 1960 (Routledge, 2005), remains the most comprehensive study on Igbo women, covering all Igbo subculture zones. As a result of her work she was the first woman to receive the prestigious Ali Mazrui Award for Scholarship and Research Excellence in 2017.This international award recognizes a pre-eminent scholar of African studies for their research and scholarly achievement.
Chuku’s 2017 Ali Mazrui Award. Photo courtesy of Chuku.
Enriching UMBC
In addition to her research, Chuku has been a vibrant part of the UMBC community. As affiliate professor in gender, women’s, and sexuality studies and language, literacy, and culture, she has served on their undergraduate and doctoral program advisory committees, respectively. She has also served on the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary Activities.
In 2018 Chuku organized an international conference at UMBC on the history and legacy of women’s roles in the Nigeria-Biafra War. The conference brought renowned scholars and activists from Nigeria, South Africa, Germany, England, Canada, and the United States to UMBC.
UMBC students have also benefited from the intellectual and cultural opportunities Chuku has cultivated at the University. Chuku revived UMBC’s participation in the Model African Union and created the annual Taste of Africa, a celebration of Black History Month and African cultural heritage through unique cuisine and culinary traditions.
Model African Union (2020) in front of the Embassy of Liberia. Photo courtesy of Chuku.
More broadly within the University System of Maryland (USM), Chuku also serves on the executive council of the USM Women’s Forum.
USM Women’s Forum 2019 retreat. Photo courtesy of Natasha Rodriguez.
Liptz Lecture
Similar to previous Lipitz Professorship recipients, Chuku will share her work with the campus community through the Lipitz Lecture. The lecture is the culminating event of the professorship, part of the Humanities Forum lecture series hosted by the Dresher Center for the Humanities.
Chuku follows Jessica Berman, professor of English and director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities, the 2019 – 2020 Lipitz Professor, and Dan Bailey, a professor of visual arts who focuses on animation and interactive media, the 2018 – 2019 recipient.
“Dr. Chuku is recognized worldwide as a leader in her field,” shares CAHSS Dean Scott Casper. “Her service to UMBC and the national and international research community is wide-ranging and deep. I am delighted that she is this year’s recipient of the Lipitz Professorship.”
Banner image: Chuku at UMBC. Photo courtesy of Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.
UMBC’s Fei Han has received a COVID-19 Accelerated Translational Incubator Pilot (ATIP) award for research to help predict and reduce patients’ risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19. He will further develop the Hilltop Pre-AH Model™, a preventative risk model, to apply to pandemic conditions.
Han is a senior data scientist at The Hilltop Institute who develops predictive analytics related to healthcare. The ATIP award he has received provides seed funding for University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and community researchers to rapidly address issues related COVID-19 or the causal virus SARS-CoV-2. ATIP’s focus is on prevention measures that can improve public health.
“I am excited that I have the opportunity to help with COVID issues and practice data science for the public good,” shares Han. His project with a UMB collaborator is one of ten selected to receive funding, from among forty applicants.
Fostering innovative research
Han is collaborating with co-PI Zachary D.W. Dezman, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Their project, “Reducing Patient Risk through Actionable Artificial Intelligence,” will estimate individual-level risks of hospitalization due to COVID-19 and other communicable diseases for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries across the state of Maryland.
The ATIP award is a grant competition held by the UMB Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. The competition is funded through a partnership between UMB and Johns Hopkins University through the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program. That program helps support high-quality translational clinical research and fosters innovation in research methods, training, and career development.
Public healthcare solutions
Han’s project is an extension of the Hilltop Pre-AH Model™ developed for the Maryland Primary Care Program (MDPCP). Physicians in the program received access to large patient data sets that they hoped could improve their ability to provide care. But they lacked a mechanism to process the data into actionable information to care for their patients.
The Hilltop Institute uses data analytics and translational research to provide solutions for publicly funded healthcare. When MDPCP approached Hilltop with this problem, Ian Stockwell, chief data scientist, was confident that Hilltop’s advanced learning machine models could generate a solution. After all, they were built to process big data to predict the risk of adverse events.
Ian Stockwell, chief data scientist at The Hilltop Institute.
Stockwell worked on the problem with Hilltop senior data scientists Fei Han and Morgan Henderson for over a year. Then, in October 2019, they launched the Hilltop Pre-AH Model™.
The model uses Medicare claims data and a series of factors based on diagnoses, procedures, medications, healthcare utilization, demographics, and environmental and geographic factors to create a value identifying each patient’s level of health risk. Primary care providers then use this as a tool to identify patients who would benefit most from intensive primary care coordination. This type of care can effectively prevent hospitalization for routine care conditions.
Data science improves patient care
As a result of this initiative, 500 primary care providers with almost 350,000 patients across Maryland are now able to better coordinate the care for those most at risk of preventable hospitalization.
“The reason why I’m so proud of this work is that I feel it has a real impact on patients,” says Stockwell. He explains, “Primary care practices are overwhelmed. They have seen phenomenal growth over decades. The tool gives physicians a way to effectively triage the resources they have.”
Morgan Henderson, senior data scientist at The Hilltop Institute.
The Hilltop Pre-AH Model™ fills a market need as a preventative risk model for public healthcare that draws from an extensive catalogue of risk factors. This unique feature allows a user to apply conditions particular to specific events, populations, or data sets, and it will still model the risk appropriately.
Han will now expand the Hilltop Pre-AH Model™ by applying new events and features to help healthcare providers prospectively identify individuals at risk of hospitalization from COVID-19 and other communicable diseases. Both Henderson and Stockwell are joining his collaboration with Dezman to extend this work.
“It is not building a new model,” says Stockwell. “It is adding capacity to our current model that will allow it to answer this new question.”
Banner image: Fei Han, senior data scientist, at The Hilltop Institute. All photos are courtesy of The Hilltop Institute.
Nihira Mugamba ‘21, political science and Africana studies, has been named a 2020 Newman Civic Fellow—the sixth UMBC student to earn this public service award. The fellowship honors her work promoting literacy in Uganda and the United States.
Mugamba has been dedicated to this cause for years, from her days as a Girl Scout. She earned her Girl Scout Gold Award as a high school student by creating a reading program for a kindergarten class in Uganda, where her family is from. The Girl Scouts describe the Gold Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve, as “the mark of the truly remarkable.”
Committing to social change
Nihira Mugamba. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11
Mugamba has sustained her commitment to expanding literacy during her undergraduate years at UMBC. As a sophomore she interned at the Parliament of Uganda, where she worked alongside the education committee. During her internship, she was able to continue her work with the kindergarten reading program. She has also volunteered for two years in Baltimore City Public Schools as a literacy fellow.
This type of long-term commitment to social change is precisely what the Newman Civic Fellowship honors. The year-long fellowship supports each recipient in further developing their social change and leadership skills through regional and state gatherings. Fellows are paired with mentors and become part of a national network of peers. They support each other in finding solutions for challenges facing communities locally, nationally, and internationally.
“Nihira is an exceptional volunteer, organizer, and leader passionate about working within communities in need of support,” shares President Freeman Hrabowski, who supported her nomination. “She is committed to improving educational outcomes for underserved students and families through professional practice and policy.”
Investing in literacy
Mugamba, born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, came to UMBC with a vision. Over the past few years, she has worked to define her specific interests within political science, and to imagine a career pursuing her commitment to social change. “This all seems so straightforward when I talk about it,” explains Mugamba. “But it was a path whose dots didn’t connect until recently.”
In her sophomore year she was referred to UMBC’s Sherman Center for Early Learning in Urban Communities. There she was introduced to her mentor, center director Mavis Sanders, professor of education, who was impressed with Mugamba’s vision. Sanders remembers Muganda telling her she wanted to become Secretary of Education.
Mugamba, wearing orange jacket, with The Shriver Center literacy fellows.
Mugamba was a great fit for the center’s Literacy Fellows program, a collaboration between the Sherman Center and UMBC’s Shriver Center. The program pairs college students with a Baltimore City elementary school. Fellows visit a classroom and work with a teacher throughout the semester, helping students develop reading and writing skills. Mugamba became a Sherman Early Literacy Fellow at Bay-Brook Elementary/Middle School.
“Nihira is exceptional. Reflective, goal-oriented, and highly organized, she has been critical to building the Literacy Fellows program at Bay-Brook,” shares Mavis Sanders.
Mugamba enjoyed the work so much she soon became the programs’ student coordinator. This experience helped her to better understand educational disparities that can exist between neighboring communities.
Education policy from the ground up
During the 2019-2020 winter break Mugamba returned to Uganda to deliver donated books to the kindergarten where she created a reading program years earlier. She was surprised at the growth of the students in the few years that passed since her first trip.
Thank you card from Ugandan kindergarten class to Mugamba.
Magamba realized the connections between her work with children in Uganda and in Baltimore. In both places, she found that consistent communication and long-term relationships led to more successful community-engaged work.
In addition to all this community work, Mugamba served as president of UMBC’s Africana Studies Council. In this role she organized important on-campus discussions about current issues in communities in the African diaspora.
Mugamba sharing information about Africana Council.
She noticed that her academic work, internships, volunteer work, and leadership positions began to have a similar theme and purpose. Each activity led her to realize her passion for bringing people together for a common cause. And often that cause centered around education.
Mugamba now sees a clear path for herself in international education policy. “I have no doubt that she will achieve her goals,” says Sanders.
Forging a future in community engagement
With a clear sense of purpose, the rising senior is embracing her new fellowship. The Newman Civic Fellowship will help her further develop the skills needed to support social change at a large scale. She is excited to have access to the program’s large peer network and is already learning about different paths to civic engagement.
Mugamba is also preparing for life after graduation. She plans to earn a master’s degree in education at UMBC and become a teacher in Baltimore City before working in education policy at the federal level. She also hopes to return to Uganda someday to create an education-focused nonprofit.
“I didn’t know when I was a Girl Scout that it would be the foundation to a life in community-engaged work,” says Mugamba. “Looking back, I now see how much I’ve learned about the real needs of communities by being an active part of them—lessons that I will carry well into the future when I help to develop and implement education policy.”
Banner image: Mugamba working with students at Bay-Brook Elementary/Middle School. All photos courtesy of Mugamba unless otherwise noted.
Eric Ford, director of The Choice Program at UMBC, has been appointed to serve as chair of Maryland’s State Advisory Group (SAG), a part of the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services (GOCCP).
Ford has dedicated his career to serving young people facing inequalities. As director of Choice, he guides the program in providing community-based, family-centered services for youth. Choice seeks to promote positive outcomes for young people who are incarcerated, on probation, or would benefit from support to avoid entering the juvenile justice system. Ford’s new leadership role with Maryland’s SAG extends the impact of his work across the state.
Ford, first on the right, with Choice youth unveil a mural created over spring break at Lane Manor Recreation center in partnership with Artivate Inc.1
As SAG chair, Ford will assist in the review of grant proposals, monitor juvenile justice programs, and advise the governor and legislators on compliance with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. The appointment, which began July 1, 2020, comes after four years of service. Ford also served as the vice chair of the SAG for one of those years. During this period, he helped develop a three-year plan outlining the goals and objectives for the SAG.
Dedicated to serving young people
Ford has focused on supporting youth for more than 25 years through a range of community and educational institutions. He actually began his work with Choice as a case worker in 1993, before serving as a case manager, career counselor, community schools coordinator, and in other high-impact roles.
Ford later returned to Choice in 2011 as assistant director, before becoming associate director of operations in 2014. Four years later he advanced to acting director and was then selected as director.
“I am pleased to name Eric Ford as the next Chair of Maryland’s State Advisory Group,” shares Glenn Fueston, executive director of the GOCCP and a fellow former Choice case worker. “As the SAG continues to address Maryland’s juvenile justice system needs, Eric’s background in youth development programming will help solidify the SAG’s commitment and responsibilities under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.”
Supporting reform at the state level
The SAG chair appointment is Ford’s second recent appointment from the governor. Last year he was appointed to Maryland’s first Juvenile Justice Reform Council (JJRC), a part of Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services (DJS). The council develops a statewide framework to reform the state’s juvenile justice strategy and its implementation at the local level.
DJS and Choice have worked closely together over the years. DJS is the top funder for Choice programming, which has demonstrated over decades the value of investing in youth. Choice has supported DJS in developing practices that include youth and family voices and that recognize the importance of racial equity.
Eric Ford (second on the left) with President Freeman Hrabowski and other Hampton University alumni at the Department of Juvenile Services Leadership Conference.
“Eric’s inclusion on the JJRC is important because The Choice Program has been a great partner with DJS for decades,” said Sam Abed, secretary of DJS. “They have a tremendous trove of first-hand knowledge and experience working to support our youth in the community. That perspective is vital to help us shape the future of juvenile services in Maryland.”
Representing youth voices
Both new appointments are important to Ford. Each furthers Choice’s anti-racist mission of a collaborative mentorship process led by young people’s goals for themselves. Ford sees this work as integral to addressing current disparities in the juvenile justice system, including arrest rates and detention rates for young men of color.
Ford (on the right) presents an award to a Cherry Hill community youth during Choices yearly Jam and Slam Back to School event.
For decades, Ford has supported youth in reaching toward their futures while facing incredible challenges. Now, as Choice’s longest-tenured leader of color, chair of the SAG, and a member of the JJRC, he hopes to offer other leaders a glimpse into the experiences of young people of color in the juvenile justice system.
“I represent all young men and men of color that are still in a juvenile facility who may not have a voice,” says Ford. “I have to speak for them.”
Banner image:Ford (first on the left) Ford (first on left) with students and staff at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia. This mentoring program was run in partnership with Pride Youth Services. All photos courtesy of Eric Ford.
Governors across the United States have been working to determine what safe reopening might look during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the National Governors Association (NGA) needed experts to outline considerations, they reached out to UMBC’s Lucy Wilson.
For more than a decade, Wilson has served as a public health expert on disease response and public health planning at the international, national, and state levels. When the NGA called, she joined an interdisciplinary team of experts in developing “The Roadmap to Recovery: A Public Health Guide for Governors,” published this April.
Keeping Maryland safe
Wilson is an infectious disease physician who is also a professor and graduate program director of emergency health services at UMBC. Prior to coming to UMBC, she served as a medical epidemiologist at the Maryland Department of Health, as chief for the Center for Surveillance, Infection Prevention and Outbreak Response for ten years. There she oversaw Maryland’s infectious disease outbreak responses and infection control guidance in all types of settings.
Spring 2019 graduate school graduation ceremony. (Wilson, first on the left in the second row.) Photo courtesy of Wilson.
She has also served on the State’s Physician on Call Team, where she was one of a small group of doctors responsible for assessing potential biological, chemical, and nuclear threats. And she currently is the co-principal investigator of the Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) branch of Maryland’s Emerging Infections Program (EIP). Through EIP, she conducts surveillance epidemiology and antibiotic resistance research focusing on healthcare-associated infections (including COVID-19) in hospitals and nursing homes. At UMBC, her research focuses on visualizing health outcomes across the continuum of healthcare.
“I have experience working with stakeholders throughout the state to examine different areas of response…that cut across the spectrum of emergency management and response,” explains Wilson. She notes that this could range from education to agriculture to transportation. “This gave me the perspective to help make recommendations to governors about how to create a team and what type of considerations to have for COVID-19 response.”
Learning from previous outbreaks
The NGA provides governors, cabinet members, Congress, private business, and the international community with guidance related to public policy and governance. To develop a COVID-19 recovery roadmap, Wilson helped assess the various settings impacted by COVID-19. She then applied the science of infection control and disease transmission to help develop criteria to maintain the safety of settings like schools, hospitals, prisons, and nursing homes.
Wilson’s recommendations were informed by her prior work in infection control, disease surveillance, and government response to outbreaks, diseases, and pandemics at a national and international level. These include responding to the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus pandemic of 2009, Ebola, Zika, statewide food-related outbreaks, and medication recalls.
When it comes to COVID-19, Wilson says, “This level of pandemic is unprecedented in modern times.” She explains, “We can look back to 1918 to see how social distancing worked. We can look at other countries who have had different COVID-19 strategies in terms of their response and reopening. But what we need to be prepared for is that the coronavirus is difficult to control.”
Using available tools
“Governors must respond with tools we know will work, as appropriate to their region, to try to minimize illness,” states Wilson. These tools focus on minimizing physical contact between people, from using touchless purchasing and curbside pickup at businesses to adjusting work schedules to spread out employees.
The Roadmap to Recovery report divides states’ COVID-19 responses into two stages. The first stage focused on reducing the spread of infection through mandated physical distancing in the absence of comprehensive testing, treatment, or vaccines. Closing gathering spaces like schools, businesses, places of worship, and recreation areas helped to “flatten the curve.”
The second stage involves necessary measures and infrastructure needed to safely open up society. This includes continuous assessments to determine whether to keep moving forward or to return to previous restrictions.
“This is a multifactorial situation where we will likely see more cases and potentially more waves of disease,” shares Wilson. “It will be difficult to eradicate the coronavirus until we have a vaccine or valid treatment. Hopefully, as we implement and determine best practices, we can minimize the number of infections and deaths.”
Beyond the report, Wilson also provided support to policymakers as a panelist for a Johns Hopkins University Diagnostic Excellence Summit on COVID-19. The summit focused on “Diagnostic Strategy for the COVID-19 Pandemic — Bench to Bedside to Blueprint for Policymakers.” She is currently helping to develop and implement campus policy as part of UMBC’s Incident Management Team and Fall Planning Coordinating Committee.
Informing the public
Since the start of the pandemic, Wilson has also provided guidance to the general public on how to take precautions to reduce coronavirus transmission. “People are being asked to take very drastic measures, which have radically changed their lives,” she says. She takes the time to speak with the media because she knows it is essential for people to understand the reasoning behind public health guidelines.
In March, Wilson explained the need for sufficient protective equipment for healthcare workers in the New York Times. When the virus began to impact cruises she explained the quarantine process in the Washington Post.
“It is important to know what is science and what is reasonable. People want to know what actions people can take to take care of themselves,” says Wilson. Wilson was a guest on the Public Health On Call podcast, produced by Johns Hopkins. She spoke about how nursing homes and first responders can address the threat of COVID-19.
Wilson has now also begun speaking with news agencies, including CNN. She shares what the process of reopening the country might look like. Leaders are learning how to manage rapid changes on a daily basis in all aspects of life, beyond just healthcare.
Wilson expects that, moving forward, some interventions will work better than others, and communities will learn from each others’ experiences. “This is an evolving process. There will be changes in recommendations and information. Our understanding of this virus is that it affects everyone and every sector of our society,” says Wilson. “We need to have patience and be flexible because we are all learning as we go along.”
Banner image: Lucy Wilson. Photo courtesy of Wilson.
Friendship first, story second. These have been the cornerstones of success for Count Me In, Riverdale, and Obsidian, three Retriever-made podcasts.
While their production paths differ, all three started with the same premise—to have more time to talk and create with a good friend about a topic they obsessed about. Podcasts take time and energy, so you had better love the topic you chose.
For sisters Carly Faye Engelke ’08, dance, and Hannah Mae Engelke ’14, psychology, their die-hard topics were dance and Montessori.
“We talked for hours each day, even though we lived in different time zones, to the point where my husband,”—producer Corey Jennings ’10, economics—“strongly suggested we start a podcast,” says Carly Faye. With 82 episodes covering a wide range of dance-related topics and an impressive guest list behind them, Count Me In shows no signs of slowing down.
On the other hand, Riverdale co-creator Imani Spence ’16, English and media and communication studies, produced just six episodes to coincide with her specific fandom. When Spence, a long time fan of the Archie Comics, watched the Archie-inspired teen mystery show, Riverdale, she knew she needed to share her new guilty pleasure. Spence also wanted to keep in touch with her best friend, Amanda Quinn ’16, political science and global studies, who lived across the country. Bam! The Riverdale podcast was born.
“I watched the first season and was hooked,” says Spence. “I got Amanda hooked. Next thing we knew we were watching the show, taking notes, and recording a podcast.”
As in the case of Obsidian, sometimes the obsession is an intentional artistic exploration. The narrative podcast evolved from a creative writing exercise between friends Adetola Abdulkadir ’17, bioinformatics and computational biology, and Safiyah Cheatam M.F.A, ’21, intermedia and digital art, who discovered a mutual love of science fiction and Afrofuturism, which explores the liberation and betterment of black people and black lives through different mediums.
“I wanted to write scripts again and this was a great opportunity,” says Cheatam. “I believe Afrofuturism is a good tool for black people to imagine a better future for themselves.” Over the course of a year, they worked on creative development, hired actors, a sound designer, and an artist to create one episode. They are now funded for 10 more episodes through a Rubys Artist Grant from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.
In addition to the importance of collaboration and topic focus, podcasts require some technical skills—and all three of these production teams had either prior experience in radio or friends who did. But, regardless of skill level, they all struggled to find time between life commitments. Their advice? Forgo the fear of lacking technical skills, time, location, an audience, or a certain number of episodes. Make it work.
In the end, they all agree, podcasting is about having fun. It is a medium that can deepen the bonds of friendship and creates a community, making all the hard work worth it.
***** Header image: Carly Faye Engelke and her sister Hannahrecord an episode of Count Me In. Photo by Corey Jennings ’10.
Jim Kruger ’13, political science, M.P.P. ’14, has a favorite spot near the public policy building.
The bench, Kruger’s own donation to UMBC, is strategically positioned to give him a break on his path to and from the public policy building. It was a much-needed respite when he was a first-year political science student at the age of 60 and again as he earned a master’s in public policy a year later.
“Students confuse me for the professor,” says Kruger, who visits the bench still as he pursues a doctorate in public policy at age 70. “They introduce themselves to me and are quite astonished when I sit next to them ready to learn just like them.”
Jim and Kathy Kruger at a Hilltop Society dinner in 2018.
UMBC prides itself on providing flexibility and support for all students regardless of what age they begin their academic journey. In fact, UMBC and the University of Maryland, Baltimore partnered recently to become Maryland’s first “age-friendly” universities. They join 58 institutions worldwide that make up the Age-Friendly University Global Network, led by Dublin City University in Ireland.
Universities earn the “age-friendly” designation by committing to 10 guiding principles related to opportunities and resources that support active and healthy aging from research to enrollment and staffing. The initiative is inspired by the World Health Organization’s age-friendly cities movement. It is an opportunity to provide the support needed to make learning, working, and innovation accessible through life’s continuum.
“This is about mindset,” said UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. “It is a challenge that we face in our society to rethink how we think about aging. The more we grapple with these challenges together, the more joy we will have in our societies.”
Kruger’s daughters—Sarah Brandt ’97, biology, and M.A. ’08, education, and Megan Kruger ’97, biology, whose names are also listed on the bench—know it hasn’t always been an easy road for their father.
“He has a lot of energy,” says Megan, who notes he starts each morning making sure his grandchildren are fed, dressed, and are on time for the bus. He then heads to UMBC where he has followed a rigorous course of study for the last 10 years. No excuses. Not even through prostate cancer.
Slowing down after retirement was not his plan. In fact, he aims to finish a path he began in 1968, the year he originally entered college. The following year, he married and, shortly after, had his first child, Jim Kruger IV, followed by twins. College gave way to full-time work, and he worked as an industrial steam pipe fitter in Baltimore for 40 years. Regret is not in his vocabulary.
Jim Kruger’s student experience, while at times difficult, was not that much different than that of younger students. Learning French was exasperating. Group work was awkward, especially when group partners had a different sense of timeliness. There was always new technology to learn. And health issues momentarily interrupted his course.
But Kruger also found tremendous support. The Writing Center and online library were crucial to his success, he says. And, like many students, he was grateful for financial support. The Golden ID program, a state program that provides some financial support for people 60 and over, helped fund his undergraduate and graduate study and created a community. Another element of support for Kruger was his daughter-in-law Leslie Kruger, who has worked on campus for more than 12 years.
Through it all, Kruger says he appreciated the support of his family and faculty mentors who were always accessible, especially, during cancer treatments. With more than 40 years invested in his education, he is excited to forge ahead.
“He believes in finding your own path,” says his daughter Megan, “even if it changes many times.”
At times of momentous change some take solace in creating. The UMBC community is no exception, adding to a long history of artists and writers recording everyday life during pandemics. From writing diaries and journals to creating art books and developing archives, Retrievers are finding ways to continue to support and create community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We rely on scientists, policy makers, and government officials for information,” explains Amy Froide, professor of history, who researches 17th century Britain, including the last great plague epidemic of 1666.
“We need this information. However, it is artists, writers, painters, and musicians who help us understand and process our daily life during this unprecedented time.”
Historians turn to journals and diaries written during the plague of the 17th century in Britain because they painted a picture of everyday life. Artifacts that chronicle how people live, feel, and react to a catastrophic event on a daily basis help us understand the devastating effects across different sections of society. These mundane acts were as important to understanding the impact of a devastating time as were major headline stories.
Early on in the pandemic, Froide encouraged her students and colleagues to document the COVID-19 era through journals and diaries of their own to help future historians understand how daily life changed. Julia Arbutus’20, English and financial economics, the editor of The Retriever, was inspired by Froide’s post and wrote, “‘The more mundane, the better’: Mass observation during the coronavirus.”
“The arts and the humanities are what we depend on to sustain us,” says Froide.
Paying homage
Jill Fannon,MFA ’11, intermedia and digital arts, is trying to balance the fine line between being a partner, mother, independent professional photographer, and a concerned citizen living within a global pandemic. At the beginning of the stay-at-home orders she took pictures of her family and of artists from a distance, but it didn’t feel quite right.
“These small projects weren’t clicking for me,” says Fannon. “I realized that during this historic moment capturing the experience of health care workers would be very meaningful both in the short and long term.”
Fannon’s “Care In The Garden” is a series of photographic stories about women health care workers. Therapists, physician assistants, and nurses are captured in their uniforms with different types of personal protective equipment in nature. Capturing the workers in nature serves as a contrast between a sterile and structured medical environment with the natural blooming world of spring. It also serves as a reminder of places where we would usually enjoy breathing in the scents of new blooms but that now pose a threat with a virus that attacks the respiratory system.
The first set of images were compiled in Womanly Magazine, a Brooklyn, NY-based magazine dedicated to serving women and marginalized communities. The series also lives on Jill Fannon’s Photography website.
Pieces from Jill Fannon’s photo series “Care In The Garden.”
Another source of inspiration is Fannon’s family of first responders. Both parents served in Baltimore City and County. Her mother is a retired ICU nurse and her father a retired fire chief, while her brother is a Baltimore City fire chief.
“I wanted to document the people that were working really hard,” says Fannon. “It was a way to share the lives of workers whom the public was depending on and are taking extraordinary risks.” Fannon adds that growing up she remembers her mom taking nostalgic family portraits which she drew inspiration from as well.
In addition to documenting the pandemic, Fannon is also mobilizing fellow artists to give back to the community as a co-creator of Feral Kids – Benefits Maryland Food Bank. The project asks area artists to donate a print they created to sell online with 100 percent of the benefits going to the food bank. This endeavor is co-led by Nick Prevas’03, visual arts, and has received support from Justin Plakas ’04, visual and performing arts, former student Kyle Hurley, Joseph Faura,M.F.A. ’11, intermedia and digital arts; and Carrie Rennolds,M.F.A. ’14, intermedia and digital arts.
Donnan researches the history of the relationship between Native Americans and Irish immigrants, a partnership that has typically not been included in history. “History is a dialogue,” says Donnan. “One of the main reasons for my academic career is diversifying the voices who are heard in these narratives.”
Donnan grew up in Northern Ireland during tumultuous times. After the conflict, he noticed that the history of Northern Ireland rarely included the accounts of everyday people who had to endure the violence, poverty, and famine. Donnan wanted to prevent this from happening during this COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the future, people are going to write about COVID-19 and they are going to analyze presidential speeches and CDC press releases,” explains Donnan. “This archive will be a place where people can now and later learn about what all kinds of people were thinking on the day-to-day. The ones the news and history books rarely document.”
Acknowledging the lost and found
Associate professor of media and communications studies, Rebecca A. Adelman, also took to the digital world, creating the Coronavirus Lost and Found archive. One of the topics that Adelman researches is the role of emotion in public culture, and the forms of suffering that often get overlooked in times of crisis.
“I am interested in non-spectacular forms of suffering. I wanted to capture the stories that would never make the news but still matter,” says Adelman.
The collection so far is as varied as its contributors. In “I Lost First Grade” a first grader talks about her sadness about missing math, her friends, and her beloved teacher. Another person shares their frustration about losing their most cherished “Alone Time;” and in “My [Health] Recovery, readers learn about the anger and hopelessness felt about losing access to doctors for ongoing recovery treatment. In Order and Time for Creativity, contributor Jason Tremblay writes about a “found”—time to be creative and embrace passions.
“I felt it was important to create a forum where people’s losses and finds could be recorded, shared, and acknowledged even if they seemed small in the greater scheme of things,” said Adelman.
Losing a conference, finding stories
Writing and reading stories to help us process what it’s like to live through a pandemic is a long-held practice. In 1348 during the Black Death, Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer, wroteThe Decameron, a story that tells of a group of people who told 10 stories a day for 10 days to pass the time during the bubonic plague. Kate McKinley, professor of English, explains how The Decameron revealed how different economic classes dealt with the Black Death in her article “How the rich reacted to the bubonic plague has eerie similarities to today’s pandemic.”
UMBC’s digital story working group in the humanities, led by Bill Shewbridge’80, history, M.S. ’85, instructional technology, professor of the practice in media and communication studies, had originally planned a Digital Storytelling Conference in March with the University of Loughborough in the United Kingdom. When the conference was postponed, the group found an opportunity to start a Decameron of their own.
UMBC’s version is collecting 10 stories a week for 10 weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stories in The Digital Decameron offer a space to document our current life through digital stories about any topic.
Charlotte Keniston, MFA ’14, intermedia and digital art, associate director of the Peaceworker Program, curated the second week. Over 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers had to be evacuated throughout the world and returned to their homes due to the pandemic, so Keniston used the platform to highlight the digital stories of returned UMBC Peace Corps Volunteers and the lessons their Peace Corps service taught them. All the videos record a meaningful event marking the first time they became truly aware of being a Peace Corps Volunteer either through a ritual they were invited to participate in, a meaningful conversation they had with local community members, or challenging experiences in a new culture.
Calling all artists
Visual artist Nicole Ringel ’19, M.F.A., intermedia and digital arts, and adjunct professor of visual arts, found herself in need of keeping and widening her artist community during the pandemic shelter-in-place orders. Ringel, who through her work investigates the layered historical and ecological nuances of shared landscapes, had one powerful tool to meet this goal—a risograph machine.
A cross between a silk screen press and a copy machine, the risograph is popular with artists for its ability to make high quality prints at low cost. She found herself equipped with a tool that could create a print book and serve as a platform for artists cut off from their creative communities. In the absence of being able to meet in person, the book would at least bring together their stories, poetry, and photography.
Ringel and her risograph machine. Photo courtesy of Ringel.
COVID Landscapes is the inaugural book of Ringel’s small press Sense of Press. Over forty artists share their perspectives on how home, work, and social environments have changed as a result of COVID-19. Ringel was inspired by the changes she experienced in her own spaces. Her house is now a work, classroom, and home space. She says that even mundane spaces such as the grocery store have changed. They are now charged with anxiety and fear of contagion.
“The book is a way to bring mindfulness into the act of creating things in the wake of all the systemic problems we face every day,” says Ringel. “It is about an exchange of art and labor, a vehicle that brings something precious that we can touch and feel, to remind us of the power of purposeful connection and community especially during a time of isolation and uncertainty.”
Header images, L-R: Nicole Ringel’s Covid Landscapes project, Jill Fannon’s “Care In The Garden,” and class journaling from The Retriever newspaper.
Share your own stories of Retriever Resilience by using the #UMBCtogether hashtag, and read more at umbc.edu/together.
Community-engaged work has been integral to the UMBC experience for Joseph Mayhew, M.A. ‘20, TESOL; Kiplyn Jones, M.A. ‘20, public policy; Malgorzata Bondyra ‘20, management of aging services; and Thao “Rosemary” Do ‘20, biological sciences. Despite coming from such different academic programs, they have all been able to connect in meaningful ways with local and international communities. And after graduating this week, they’ll each apply their talents, skills, and sense of commitment to community-engaged careers.
Using Peace Corps skills at home
Joseph Mayhew, a Catonsville local, left Baltimore over ten years ago for the University of South Carolina. After studying political science, he worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as an AmeriCorps volunteer. Mayhew helped set up shelters for refugees and immigrant youth and helped manage FEMA’s news desk hotline. He decided to follow his AmeriCorps service with the Peace Corps in San Bernardino, Paraguay.
Mayhew was excited to improve his Spanish skills and immerse himself in Paraguay’s culture. He taught English, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills to San Bernardino’s youth.
“We were sharing strategies for the community to do their own development work based on their needs and identity as a community,” he shares. “It wasn’t about us staying and directing what needed to happen. It was about us stepping back so communities could move forward in the direction they wanted with new tools.”
Jones (front row, center, in yellow) and Mayhew (back row, third from left) with their Shriver Peaceworker cohort. Photo courtesy of Jones.
After the Peace Corps, Mayhew searched for a graduate program that would build on the skills he gained there. He didn’t know it would take him back home to Baltimore. The more he learned about UMBC’s Shriver Peaceworker Fellows Program, the more he knew it fit his career goals, integrating graduate study, community service, social change leadership, and ethical reflection.
Seeing Baltimore through fresh eyes
The Peaceworker program reintroduced Mayhew to Baltimore, including the history of local communities and the disparities they experience, which he had not learned growing up. Mayhew began to dedicate his time working with Baltimore’s refugee and immigrant communities.
“After his Peace Corps service in Paraguay, Joe was eager to return and connect his grad studies to work that supported our region’s newcomer communities,” explains Joby Taylor Ph.D. ’05, language, literacy, and culture, director of UMBC’s Shriver Peaceworker Program.
Mayhew (blue shirt) and Kiplyn Jones (first on right in back row) on a Peaceworker Baltimore history tour with Taylor (right, with beard and glasses). Photo courtesy of Jones.
Mayhew worked at a refugee and immigrant shelter. He also used the Spanish skills he learned in Paraguay to support the English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program and to develop high school and college readiness programs for the Latino youth at Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School (CJR).
“Chances are that if you saw young kids and families touring UMBC in the past two years, you saw Joe with his CJR students,” shares Taylor. “He’s led literally hundreds of families on their first ever college visit—that all-important first step to college access and a sense of belonging for newcomers and first-generation students.”
Bridging the language gap
Mayhew’s work with Baltimore’s Southeast community helped him to define a new career path. There, he witnessed first-hand how bridging the language gap helps English language learners access educational opportunities. He decided that the best way for him to help create positive social change was to become an ESOL teacher.
Mayhew (on stage) with CJR students at an end of the year Collegiates Program celebration event at UMBC. Photo courtesy of Taylor.
“I’m a language learner also,” says Mayhew. “Being able to move through multiple worlds and using all of your linguistic repertoire to express yourself is powerful. There are certain things that I can say in Spanish that I can’t express in English.”
“I want students who live anywhere in Baltimore to be able to speak English while preserving their culture and language,” Mayhew shares. “They should be able to hang on to their identity and not have to live with this hierarchy that English is a language above other languages.”
Mayhew will teach ESOL full-time in Baltimore City’s John Ruhrah Elementary/Middle School, working with another Peaceworker alum, Newcomer Center Lead Kevin Okun, M.A. ‘09, TESOL.
Building relationships in Java
Kiplyn Jones grew up in Florida surrounded by a diverse international community that inspired her to broaden her linguistic and cultural knowledge. During high school she worked at a restaurant and began to learn Turkish and about Islam from the family that owned the business. This led her to learn Arabic and earn a B.A. in linguistics from the University of Florida.
The next step on Jones’s journey was the Peace Corps, which placed her with a linguistically diverse (Javanese, Sundanese, and Indonesian ) speaking Muslim community in Java, Indonesia where she taught English, leadership, and teamwork skills to teens. “Anything I do, I try to do it meaningfully,” explains Jones. She was committed to having a positive impact and to learning as much as she could.
Jones with at home with her host family in Pangandaran, Indonesia. Photo courtesy of Jones.
“In Indonesia personal relationships are very important for developing professional relationships,” Jones says. Both her host mother and co-teachers at a local high school helped her connect with the community.
Jones with fellow co-teachers from SMA1 school in Pangandaran, Java. Photo courtesy of Jones.
“I was the first Peace Corps volunteer in this part of Java. The closest volunteer was six hours away,” remembers Jones. “Being the first one meant I had the unique responsibility of learning how to be a part of the community and collaborate on creating programs for future Peace Corps volunteers to build upon.”
Jones facilitating an after school English Club. Photo courtesy of Jones.
Envisioning positive change in the world
Jones’s Peace Corps experience strengthened her desire to pursue a career in international development. She knew the Peaceworker Program would help her meet these goals.
“We have seen Kiplyn grow as a researcher as she dived into the public policy master’s program,” shares Charlotte Keniston, M.F.A ’14, intermedia and digital art, associate director of the Peaceworker Program. “Kiplyn discovered a love for program evaluation and data analysis as she completed each step of the program.”
Building on the skills she learned in Indonesia, Jones also learned to support the students in UMBC’s Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP). The program is designed for undergraduate students interested in developing solutions to global challenges in areas such as sustainability, security, and health.
Jones (third from left) with GCSP director Maria Sanchez, mechanical engineering, (second from right) and mentees at GCSP meeting in Washington, DC. Photo courtesy of Jones.
“Initially, Kiplyn was apprehensive about working with students from STEM fields, as that was very different from her own background in linguistics,” remembers Keniston. “She was able to find a common ground of working together to envision positive change in the world. She’s really helped to grow and shape that program and has been a fantastic mentor to those students.”
Jones (first on left) and Sanchez (first on right) with graduating GCSP scholars.
Jones’s dedication to international development work earned her a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to Jordan. Fulbright programs are now on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but she looks forward to having the chance to travel again, and to supporting communities wherever she finds herself.
Touring Polish violinist finds home at UMBC
Malgorzata Bondyra came to the United States as a violinist in a Polish folk band. Before she returned to Poland to finish her degree in economics, a friend asked her to replace her in a nanny position in Maryland. Bondyra accepted. She worked and enrolled as an international student in Dundalk Community College, where she earned her associate’s degree.
Malgorzata Bondyra’s original UMBC ID. Photo courtesy of Bondyra.
Bondyra next pursued a degree in music performance at UMBC, but during her sophomore year decided to take time off to raise her daughter.
Eighteen years later, she returned to complete her undergraduate degree in the management of aging services. And this time she had company. Bondyra’s daughter, Dominika Bondyra ‘21, computer science, was already a student at UMBC.
Bondyra’s three children. Photo courtesy of Bondyra.
Finding a career within the Polish community
Just as Bondyra’s Polish culture inspired her pursuit of a career in the performing arts when she was younger, the local Polish community in Baltimore inspired her more recent interest in working with older adults.
While raising her daughter, Bondyra had various jobs and volunteered to translate medical forms for older community members. She then began accompanying them to doctor’s visits and helping them ask questions about their healthcare. She enjoyed the experience so much she became a certified Polish language medical translator.
“I really enjoyed working with the Polish seniors,” shared Malgorzata. “When I learned about UMBC’s Erickson School of Aging Studies I was excited to finally complete my degree in this new career path to better serve the elderly in my community.”
An internship with a twist
This spring Bondyra was to begin her final internship at Seven Oaks Senior Center in Baltimore County, home to a large Polish community. There she would help with recreation activities to help members bond with each other and support continued learning and mobility.
After the facility temporarily closed due to COVID-19, the center continued to support its members by providing some services online. And they had a special idea for their intern. “The center asked me to finish my internship by having an online cooking class,” says Bondyra. “I really had to think about it because I am very shy.” In the end, she agreed.
Bondyra cooking pierogi for Seven Oaks Senior Center’s online cooking class. Photo courtesy of Bondyra.
“Cooking with Gosia” (short for Malgorzata) quickly became a hit with the members of the senior center. Bondyra drew on her knowledge of traditional Polish recipes she had grown up eating and cooking. She began with the more familiar recipes, like stuffed cabbage and pierogi, then moved on to lesser known dishes. The online classes drew not only the local Polish community, but also other viewers from around the world interested in Polish cooking.
While the internship offered an entirely new way for Bondyra to support others, her success in the position also reflects two decades of connection to Baltimore’s Polish community. Bondyra plays the violin for a Polish church, serves as vice president of the Baltimore chapter of the Polish National Alliance, and is the artistic director and choreographer for a local Polish folk dancing group.
This spring, in addition to her bachelor’s degree from UMBC, she’ll earn a bachelor’s degree in Polish folk dancing from University of Rzeszow in Poland.
Bondyra (with violin) with a Polish folk dancing group at her church in Baltimore. Photo courtesy of Bondyra.
“I work very hard in everything I am passionate about,” says Bondrya. Next, she’ll pursue a master’s degree through the Erickson School. “I look forward to graduate school at UMBC,” she shares. “Who knows where this next adventure will take me.”
Holistic medicine from Vietnam to UMBC
Rosemary Do chose to attend UMBC at the recommendation of her brother, Duy Do ‘07, biochemistry. UMBC gave him the strong STEM foundation he needed to then attend the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and later Columbia University College of Dental Medicine to specialize as an endodontist. Rosemary heeded his advice and moved from Vietnam to the United States to also pursue a career in dentistry.
This illustration by Rosemary Do depicts Vietnam and Vietnamese geographic and cultural icons within an eye. Features include Hạ Long Bay (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the Thiên Mụ Pagoda (a historic temple). Image courtesy of Rosemary Do.
Rosemary Do’s interest in dentistry comes from a very personal experience. “My father had periodontal disease and diabetes,” she shares. “Dentists in Vietnam did not take into consideration his diabetes limiting the effectiveness of his periodontal surgeries. I want to be able to practice dentistry from a holistic point of view to help the most people.”
Finding a lab and a band
Do’s first trip from Vietnam to Virginia was quite a journey, but she had family in Virginia, so it went smoothly. More daunting was traveling from Virginia to UMBC, Do explains. UMBC meant the beginning of an independent journey with no quick access to family. She made a conscious decision to get out of her comfort zone and find community.
Do knew that she wanted to enrich her academic experience through lab research. She reached out to Jeff Leips, biological sciences, who invited her to support his lab’s developmental biology research with fruit flies. During her three years with the lab, she learned the importance of being meticulous as well as the value of learning from mistakes.
“My attention to detail grew, which is very important in dentistry,” explains Do. “Dr. Leips created a safe environment to learn and be innovative by encouraging us to explore, lead experiments, and make mistakes.”
Rosemary Do (right) with her band The Leips and the Flies. Photo courtesy of Do.
Leips’s lab also gave Do meaningful social connections. This past December, Leips and the students created a band, The Leips and the Flies, with Do on guitar. Their first performance was at the department’s end of the year party.
“Rosemary is one of the most impressive students I’ve had the pleasure of working with,” shares Leips. “She is an amazing student, an impressive young scientist, and an awesome rhythm guitar player in the lab band. We are really going to miss her but wish her well in the next step of her career.”
A better version of myself
Always focused on new opportunities to grow, Do also joined UMBC’s Aikido Club. Before joining she had never played a sport or studied a martial art, but she wanted to try. Eventually, she became the vice president of the club and helped run Women’s Self Defense Seminars.
With a fulfilling and balanced campus experience, Do sought ways in which to engage with UMBC’s surrounding community. She began volunteering in the oncology department at Saint Agnes Hospital in Southwest Baltimore, delivering food to patients. Later she worked with UMBC’s Shriver Center to volunteer in the Multiple Sclerosis Aquatics Program at the Catonsville YMCA.
“I have been a very privileged person all of my life. My mother is a doctor and my father is an engineer. I’ve never had to worry about anything,” shares Do. “My experience with the Shriver Center helped me learn a sense of responsibility to be a better version of myself for the betterment of others.”
Every weekend for six semesters Do assisted patients with stretches in the pool to alleviate their pain and increase their range of motion. Two years ago, she became the student coordinator.
Do (wearing UMBC T-shirt) with the Multiple Sclerosis Aquatics Program at the Catonsville YMCA. Photo courtesy of Do.
As she transitions to the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, Rosemary Do knows she made the right decision following her brother’s advice. “Looking back from when I left Vietnam to now, it has been a great journey,” she shares. “Everyone here at UMBC has shaped who I am today and I am grateful for that.”
Banner image: Malgorzata Bondyra (center of first row) at a folk dance festival in Poland.Photo courtesy of Bondyra.
