When asked what kind of advice she has for first-year students as an alumna, Chinedu Onyedike Varma ’04, M12, interdisciplinary studies, has a simple answer: find your passion, get involved, and have fun – “as long as it’s safe,” she’s quick to add. As a consulting psychiatrist at the UMBC Counseling Center, keeping students safe is a big part of her job, along with giving them the mental health support they need to have the best college experience possible. Students seek out Counseling Center services for a whole range of concerns, whether they’re grappling with anxiety and depression, questioning aspects… Continue Reading Path to Success: Psychiatrist Chinedu Varma ’04, M12, serves Retrievers at UMBC Counseling Center
For more than 40 years, UMBC’s student-run radio station, WMBC, has been a reliable source of news and entertainment for our campus, as well as an incubator for our students’ creative talents. As times have changed – the station is now broadcasting completely online, and has recently pivoted to livestreaming – so have the station’s equipment needs. With this in mind, WMBC officers started a fundraiser on UMBC’s brand-new crowdfunding platform, Gritstarter…and with just three days left, they’re already more than halfway to their $3,000 goal! Click here to read more about WMBC, and to make your gift heard (you can also check… Continue Reading Shout Out Loud: WMBC halfway to fundraising goal
Every so often, we chat with an alum about what they do now and how they got there. Today’s guest, George Derek Musgrove ’97, history, is an alum-turned-faculty member whose latest book, Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital, explores Washington, D.C.’s relationship to race over the last four centuries. We caught up with him ahead of the book’s November public launch. NAME: George Derek Musgrove MAJOR: History GRAD YEAR: 1997 CURRENT JOB TITLE: Associate Professor of History, UMBC What made you decide to study post-WWII U.S. history, and what specifically led you to the… Continue Reading Career Q&A: George Derek Musgrove ’97, Historian, Author, and UMBC Professor
Bedecked in black and gold, the Retriever community came out in full force for the 2017 Homecoming celebration. Held over the first two weekends in October, this year’s festivities combined old favorites with new traditions, and brought faculty, staff, alumni, students, and members of the wider UMBC community together to celebrate another year of grit and greatness. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5: Alumni Awards Homecoming kicked off on Thursday, October 5, with our Alumni Awards ceremony, an annual event honoring graduates and faculty who have made outstanding contributions to their fields and their communities. This year’s Alumni Award winners were Sylvia Trent-Adams,… Continue Reading Grit & Glory: #UMBCHomecoming 2017
In the weeks leading up to the Alumni Awards Ceremony, we’ll be profiling each honoree in more detail here on our blog. Today, meet Steven Storck ’08, mechanical engineering, M.S. ’09, mechanical engineering, and Ph.D. ’14, mechanical engineering, additive manufacturing engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and this year’s Distinguished Service honoree. As a triple alumnus of UMBC, Steven Storck ’08, mechanical engineering and mathematics, M.S. ’09, mechanical engineering, and Ph.D. ’14, mechanical engineering, knows his way around campus, to say the least. In addition to his day job as an additive manufacturing application engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,… Continue Reading Alumni Awards 2017: Steven Storck ’08, Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics, M.S. ’09, Mechanical Engineering, and Ph.D. ’14, Mechanical Engineering
