All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Training Today’s Workforce UMBC is a leader in developing programs that help to create a more skilled and technologically literate workforce in the Baltimore-Washington area. The latest example is the debut this fall of new graduate programs in systems engineering, e-government and the non-profit sector. The University’s Division of Professional Education and Training (DPET) is responding to the staffing needs of regional high-tech industries by offering two graduate programs in Systems Engineering (SE). According to officials with Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE: NOC) Electronic Systems Sector–a sponsor of the new programs–the shortage of qualified systems engineers is urgent and will grow… Continue Reading UMBC: Training Today’s Workforce

p/> Preparing for a Public Service Career   Since 1987, over 300 students have participated in the Governor’s Summer Internship Program (GSIP), which is coordinated by The Shriver Center at UMBC.  The program was created to introduce high achieving college students to the unique challenges and rewards of working within Maryland state government. This year, UMBC students Crisandra Bailey, Aaron Merki and Tiffany Deinzer joined 17 other students to jumpstart their careers in public service.   All participants in the program spend 10 weeks working full-time on substantive projects with senior level public administrators and policy makers in government departments… Continue Reading Preparing for a Public Service Career

Awards for UMBC Historians UMBC’s historians are recent recipients of some of the most prestigious awards available to scholars in their field: Distinguished University Professor of History Warren I. Cohen, one of the world’s leading experts on the history of American-East Asian relations, received the Norman and Laura Graebner Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Cohen is the ninth person ever to win the award. Given every two years, the Graebner Prize is a career achievement honor that recognizes a senior historian of U.S. foreign relations who has made significant contributions to the field through excellence… Continue Reading Awards for UMBC Historians

ttp://www.umbc.edu/window/borelathens Going for the Gold in Athens   The whole world will be watching later this month as an outstanding UMBC alumna, originally from the Caribbean, competes for her native country in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Cleopatra Borel (Interdisciplinary Studies, ’02) is a three-time UMBC Track and Field NCAA All American in the shot put and was UMBC’s first-ever NCAA champion. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Borel will pursue the global pinnacle of her sport during Olympic track and field competition, which runs from August 18 through 29. Borel graduated from UMBC in 2002 with… Continue Reading Going for the Gold in Athens

Awards for UMBC Historians   UMBC’s historians are recent recipients of some of the most prestigious awards available to scholars in their field: Distinguished University Professor of History Warren I. Cohen, one of the world’s leading experts on the history of American-East Asian relations, received the Norman and Laura Graebner Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Cohen is the ninth person ever to win the award. Given every two years, the Graebner Prize is a career achievement honor that recognizes a senior historian of U.S. foreign relations who has made significant contributions to the field through… Continue Reading Awards for UMBC Historians

Mentoring the Next Generation of Researchers   Last month, assistant professor of sociology Shelia Cotten was named the first recipient of the Graduate Student Association’s UMBC Recognition for Graduate Research and Educational Advisor or Teacher Award (UR GREAT Award). The award, presented at the GSA’s last Senate meeting of the year, was established to honor those who strive to aid graduate students in their academic and professional pursuits during their time at UMBC. Cotten’s philosophy on graduate teaching and mentoring draws her students into academic life from the very beginning. “I believe that graduate students should be fully engaged in… Continue Reading Mentoring the Next Generation of Researchers

The Class of 2004   This academic year, UMBC awarded degrees to over 1500 undergraduates and over 300 graduate students from the Class of 2004.   UMBC’s Class of 2004 includes students headed to prestigious graduate programs at universities including Princeton, Stanford, NYU, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland Schools of Law and Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill, Boston, William & Mary, Rice, Emory, Indiana and Columbia. Other students have secured jobs across a wide spectrum of corporations, nonprofits and government agencies, including IBM, Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen Hamilton, ABC News, National Cancer Institute, Titan Systems, T. Rowe Price and SAIC. Many will… Continue Reading The Class of 2004

Mentoring the Next Generation of Researchers   Last month, assistant professor of sociology Shelia Cotten was named the first recipient of the Graduate Student Association’s UMBC Recognition for Graduate Research and Educational Advisor or Teacher Award (UR GREAT Award). The award, presented at the GSA’s last Senate meeting of the year, was established to honor those who strive to aid graduate students in their academic and professional pursuits during their time at UMBC. Cotten’s philosophy on graduate teaching and mentoring draws her students into academic life from the very beginning. “I believe that graduate students should be fully engaged in… Continue Reading UMBC’s 2004 Valedictorian

UMBC’s 2004 Valedictorian   Anthony Hoffman, UMBC’s 2004 valedictorian, has maintained a 4.0 GPA while earning a bachelor’s degree in physics—with departmental honors—and a minor in mathematics. This fall, he will begin Princeton University’s Ph.D. program in electrical engineering on a Princeton Graduate School Endowed Fellowship. He also received fellowship offers from Yale and Penn State Universities. Hoffman says he chose to attend UMBC because he saw an opportunity to conduct research in the new Physics building’s excellent facilities, but even more so because “The professors here seemed the most welcoming. They aren’t just teachers; they reach out to mentor… Continue Reading UMBC’s 2004 Valedictorian

Linking Graduate Education and Service   Joby Taylor, fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in UMBC’s Language, Literacy and Culture Program, is the director of the Shriver Peaceworker Program at UMBC’s Shriver Center. This prestigious fellowship program is specially designed for returned Peace Corps volunteers and follows a service-learning model for graduate education. It is named for R. Sargent Shriver, first director of the Peace Corps and architect of numerous public service programs such as Head Start, VISTA and Special Olympics.   “It’s a really thoughtful and innovative program because it links graduate study with community service and ethical reflection,” says Taylor, a… Continue Reading Linking Graduate Education and Service