All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Monitoring the Health of Vulnerable Populations

Working in the nation’s capital changed Todd Eberly ’06 (Ph.D. public policy) from a political scientist to a specialist in poverty and public health. The shift seems to be a good fit, as Eberly recently won the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration’s dissertation award for his work on how managed care affects services received by enrollees in Medicaid, the nation’s health insurance program for low income individuals.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania’s Clarion University, Eberly went to work in Washington, DC analyzing federal health policy. “I saw good policy options ignored and bad policy options embraced,” Eberly said. “I realized that I wanted a better understanding of the policy process.”

The experience drew Eberly to UMBC’s Department of Public Policy in a quest for a way to make a real-world difference. “The UMBC program goes beyond theory and really deals with practical application.,” he said. “Political Science is still my passion – but I feel that the interdisciplinary approach of the UMBC program made me a better political scientist.”

Maryland started the HealthChoice managed care program eight years ago as a way to control costs for over half a million state residents receiving Medicaid, including 30 percent of Maryland’s children. However, researchers were unsure whether managed care met the needs of socially vulnerable populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities.

Eberly’s study of before-and-after data on Maryland Medicaid recipients found that the program increased preventive care receipt by black, white and Hispanic children and adolescents, along with black and Hispanic adults. “The improvements for minority youth were particularly noteworthy, because children are especially vulnerable,” said Eberly. “Access to preventive care is key to the promotion of good heath and quality of life.”

Eberly now continues his work as a senior research analyst at UMBC’s Center for Health Program Development and Management (CHPDM) and as an affiliate assistant professor in public policy and an adjunct professor in political science and sociology.

“I’m still very interested in the politics of poverty and social policy design,” Eberly said. “It has the potential to impact so many lives, so I want to know whether policies are working to make lives better or just perpetuating inequalities.”

(11/15/06)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Closing the IT Gender Gap

Every college diploma represents the culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice by students and their families. But for the seven young women who were the first graduating class of UMBC’s Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT) Scholars program, graduation was also a giant step forward for shrinking the high-technology workforce “gender gap.”

CWIT, the award-winning program that ABC News.com called “one of best resources for women on the web,” is dedicated to achieving women’s full participation in all aspects of information technology (IT).

The CWIT Scholars Program recruits talented male and female high school students who support women’s full involvement in IT and provides them with four years of financial, academic and personal support as they pursue IT-related bachelor’s degrees at UMBC.

Other benefits for CWIT Scholars include career mentoring from experienced technology professionals. Through initiatives like ESTEEM and Computer Mania Day, the Scholars inspire middle-school girls, an age studies have shown is when girls start to turn away from science and technology coursework and careers due to societal or peer pressure.

The first class of CWIT Scholars – Payal Aggarwal, Heidi Brueckner, Sumita Das, Lindsay Mannchen, Samantha Moffatt, Natalie Podrazik and Candice Scarborough – are off to a great start, with future plans ranging from jobs with top corporations like Constellation Energy, General Electric, Erickson Retirement Communities and Northrop Grumman to attending U.S. Naval Postgraduate School after completing a summer internship with Microsoft.

For the Scholars, building a strong personal and professional support network was the key to improving their confidence and sense of community.

“I really appreciate the networking opportunities that CWIT provided,” said Brueckner. “I was able to find a wonderful mentor, two internships and a job. I’m extremely grateful that I had such a supportive family behind me every step of the way.”

“There were many times throughout college where I found my classes very challenging and it was helpful to have other CWIT scholars to turn to,” said Das. “We’ve all been there for each other for the past four years.”

“The biggest thing I took away from CWIT is how important networking is to move up in business and achieve your goals,” said Mannchen. “Personally, the CWIT staff has encouraged me to go for what I want and to never to give up when faced with adversity.”

“The first cohort of CWIT scholars demonstrated first hand women’s ability to excel in IT and served as ambassadors of excellence in their internships and research experiences,” said Claudia Morrell, director of CWIT. “They are the students and future employees everyone wants in their labs and workplaces because they will set the bar high and achieve it every time.”

“The CWIT Scholar program taught me that if you work hard and believe in what you are doing you can achieve anything,” said Aggarwal. “They taught me that I can be anything, and even how to instill that in others.” 

(7/10/06)

 

 

Mentoring the Next Generation of Journalists

“There are some very bright students at UMBC – our best could compete anywhere.”

Christopher Corbett, who recently became acting chair of the English department, knows of whom he speaks.

For 16 years, he’s offered his quarter century experience as a professional reporter and editor to a growing list of former Retriever Weekly student newspaper staffers who have gone on to begin promising journalism careers.

“I tell them you are only of value to someone if you’ve had a job,” Corbett said. “It’s like baseball, there’s a farm system. You go work for a smaller paper for a few years, and once you have that experience, you have a much better shot at making your way back to a major metro area daily.”

The list of former Retriever staffers who now represent UMBC in the media world includes:

Vikki Valentine ‘96 is a staff writer at National Public Radio in Washington who writes about science and medicine and just returned from a year off getting her masters in the history of medicine at University College, London.

Jamie Smith-Hopkins ’98 was a President’s Scholar and valedictorian. She now works as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun.  She was recently awarded best overall individual entry and best serial in any medium along with best journalist under 30 prize by the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

Anna Kaplan ’03 works as a staff writer at the Stockton Record in California (a Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal affiliate).

Scott Daugherty ’02 and Pat Furgurson ’99 are general assignment reporters at the Annapolis Capital.

Amanda Krotki ’95 works at the Baltimore Sun’s Web site as senior producer of BaltimoreMetromix.com.

Grant Huang ‘06, a winner of the 2005 Cleghorn Fellowship offered by the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, just joined the staff of the Maryland Gazette as a reporter.

Richard McNey ’03 works for Chesapeake Publishing Corporation as the editor of the Chesapeake Business Ledger, a monthly business publication that covers business much of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

A former news editor and reporter with the Associated Press, Corbett wrote for many of the nation’s largest newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is also the award-winning writer of Style magazine in Baltimore’s Back Page column and two books: Vacationland (Viking/Penguin), a novel about his home state of Maine, and Orphans Preferred (Random House/Broadway Books), which chronicles the legendary Pony Express.

Corbett’s next book will return to the American Wild West for a look at the role Chinese immigrants played in the making of that mythical era.

“Although I am a native of Maine, I like the open space out there,” he said. “I like the idea that you can drive all day and still be in Nevada. I like seeing signs that say ‘No Gas, No Water – 100 miles.’ The Pony Express is the story of a wonderful American tall tale, like Paul Revere’s ride. It’s anchored in fact but layered with 150 years of embellishment.”

Corbett’s wry style fits his affection for classic American satirists like Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken. He loves a good yarn, preferably about a true local eccentric, that is well told in person or in print. Thus, he is concerned about the steady decline of quality, hometown newspapers in the modern media business.

“A lot of things said to be journalism today aren’t,” said Corbett. “It’s mostly infotainment, insults and mentally disturbed people yowling on the radio. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not journalism.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “Journalism isn’t as pure as the driven snow. It’s gone through good and bad cycles in history. What’s really disturbing to me is the homogenization of the news product and the rise of newspaper chains. It’s two all-beef patties and special sauce that are the same in Spokane as Sarasota.”

Beyond advice to be wary of these trends, Corbett instructs his students to hone their news writing fundamentals by becoming involved with The Retriever Weekly.

“My teaching methods are simple,” he said. “I encourage them to read a newspaper – I’m often amazed by how few young people read newspapers today. You learn by doing, it’s like cake baking. The first few are inedible, but eventually, you get better. Employers usually prefer that you’ve made your rookie mistakes at a student paper before you go out and look for a job.”

Corbett is highly optimistic about the future of the English department and UMBC as the University gets ready to celebrate its 40th anniversary this fall.

“When I came to Baltimore, UMBC was only 14 years old,” Corbett said. “It was regarded as little more than a community college and not a very big one. I am amazed at how fast UMBC has taken off and how our faculty and students continue to prove naysayers wrong.”

(7/24/06)

 

 

 

Pedaling for a Cause

The summer’s rainstorms and blazing heat will not deter junior Mauria Uhlik and senior Peter Cailloux from climbing on their bikes for 4,000-mile cross-country journeys to raise money and bring awareness to two worthy causes.

Uhlik, a psychology major with a concentration in biopsychology, is riding in Habitat for Humanity’s Habitat Bike Challenge (HBC), which seeks to help end housing poverty by raising proceeds to finance the construction of five homes for the Greater New Haven affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. More than 90 college students from schools across the country will raise $4,000 each for Habitat before beginning the nine-week Challenge, which begins May 27.

Of the three bicycle routes the riders may take, Uhlik will travel HBC South, which starts in New Haven and finishes in San Francisco. For four of the six days they spend on the road, the will also work at local Habitat for Humanity construction sites or host an information session at a town meeting or community gathering.

Cailloux, a mechanical engineering major, is participating in Push America’s Journey of Hope, a bicycle challenge that raises funds for and awareness on behalf of people with disabilities. Journey of Hope, sponsored by Pi Kappa Phi, of which Cailloux is a member, is comprised of 80 Pi Kappa Phi brothers with their own fundraising goals.

With three routes (North, South and Trans America), the trek begins on June 11 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and the teams arrive in Washington, D.C. on August 12. After each day’s ride, the teams will participate in outreach events either performing Kids on the Block puppet shows or making friendship visits.

Previous participation in community service projects and awareness of social issues inspired Uhlik and Cailloux to sign up for the bicycle journeys. Uhlik, who has done volunteer work for people with disabilities and is an active member of UMBC’s Habitat for Humanity club, said the lack of affordable housing prompted her to enter Habitat’s bike challenge.

“Affordable housing should not be out of reach for anyone,” said Uhlik. “No one should have to worry about housing. They should be able to come home and know it’s their home.”

Cailloux has volunteered for many of his fraternity’s service projects such as Give a Push or GAP. Usually as a weekend project, the fraternity brothers travel to local campgrounds, building handicap accessible playgrounds, painting facilities and spending time with the campers.

For more information, visit the Habitat Bike Challenge and Journey of Hope’s Web sites.

(5/16/06)

 

 

Serious Students, Ancient Drama

While UMBC celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, a diverse group of talented students is doing its best to turn the clock back 2,500 years this weekend.

On May 11, 12 and 13, the grassy hillside between the Fine Arts and Chemistry buildings will be transformed to an ancient Greek natural theatre as student members of UMBC’s Ancient Studies Club and Theatre Council of Majors present a free performance of Frogs, the classical comedy by Aristophanes. (Information about the rain location is at the end of this story.)

The play, which starts at 4:30 p.m. each day, is open to the public and the entire UMBC community and comes complete with authentic costumes and free Greek food made by members of UMBC’s Hellenic Association.

Frogs began thanks to the vision of director/producer Steve Killen, a senior ancient studies major and president of the Ancient Studies Club. “I often walked by the hillside and thought how it would make a perfect natural theatre for an authentic Greek drama,” Killen said. “We’ve worked very hard to make the production as close as possible to how it was performed 2,500 years ago.”

Frogs tells the story of how the demigod Dionysus, having grown despondent at the state of the arts on Earth after the recent death of master poet Euripedes, takes a sometimes perilous and often hilarious journey to the underworld to find a good poet. There he encounters the two great Athenian poets, Euripides (senior biological sciences/psychology major Mark Hendricks) and Aeschylus (visiting lecturer of philosophy Greg Ealick) as the two get ready to square off in a poetic contest for the ages.

The producers of Frogs made one concession to modern technology by amplifying the actors’ voices. While the production includes some theatre majors like freshman Alexander Scally (Dionysus) and received advice from UMBC theatre faculty members, the idea behind Frogs was for it to be an independent, all-volunteer labor of love created entirely by students from a cross-section of majors.

The real labor came over winter break as many of the crew and cast spent their winter break making the play their own by working two hours a day, three days a week on a unique translation of the play from Greek to English with the help of Associate Professor of Ancient Studies Jay Freyman.

This type of dedication to academics is typical for the six Ancient Studies majors who worked on the translation, most of whom are seniors headed to prestigious graduate studies programs after completing undergraduate degrees at UMBC.

• Kristin Hulburt, stage manager/producer for Frogs, will attend the University of Chicago’s one-year intensive, interdisciplinary MA program in the humanities with future plans to pursue a Ph.D.
• Clare Ryan, who has several roles in the play, will attend Kings College London to read for M.A. in Classical Art and Archaeology.
• Rebecca Stephen, the play’s resident authentic Greek costume expert, earned a full scholarship for the combined M.A./Ph.D. program in Classical Archaeology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
• Joe Howley, co-salutatorian of the Class of 2006, was a finalist and alternate for the British Marshall Scholarship and UMBC’s nominee for the Rhodes Scholarship. He is editor-in-chief of The Retriever Weekly student newspaper. Howley will pursue a master’s of philosophy in classics at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
• Skylar Neil will spend her summer as an archeological intern with Anne Arundel County, Maryland’s Lost Towns Project, and will then pursue an M.A. in Classical Archaeology at Tufts University in the fall.
• Killen, who is not scheduled to graduate until fall 2006, will spend his summer narrowing down his graduate school application field and digging with an ongoing archaeological field research program excavation at Tel Beth Shemesh in Israel.

“In an age when so many of their generation are concerned with the immediate satisfaction of material wants, it is refreshing to find a group of students who pursue an intellectual exercise for its own sake, just because it is fun and intriguing to do and is healthy for the mind,” said Freyman. “The seriousness and depth of their analysis and discussion during these sessions would rival that of any graduate seminar.”

Important Note: The rain location for Frogs will be Lecture Hall 7, located in the UMBC Information Technology & Engineering (ITE) Building (building #21 on UMBC Campus Map).

For more information on the performance of Frogs, contact Kristin Hulburt at 240-460-7432 or Steve Killen at 443-851-3364.

(5/11/06)

 

Men’s Lacrosse Wins America East Title

The UMBC men’s lacrosse program achieved what most lacrosse observers believed was impossible at the beginning of the 2006 season. They went through the regular season unscathed (5-0), and then the top-seeded Retrievers won their first America East Conference Tournament by defeating third-seeded University of Albany 19-10 at UMBC Stadium on Sunday. The winner of the America East Conference tournament earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Division I tournament. It is UMBC’s first berth in the tournament since 1999, when they made their second of back-to-back appearances in the championships.

The top-seeded Retrievers defeated third-seeded University of Albany 19-10. The winner of the America East Conference tournament earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Division I tournament. This is UMBC’s third NCAA tournament berth overall since moving to Division I in 1981.

“These guys just came ready to play,” said Head Coach Don Zimmerman, who led the Retrievers to their first-ever NCAA Division I tournament appearance in 1998. “They believe in themselves…what you saw is a combination of some good talent, but great chemistry and a great attitude. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys.”

Lacrosse success at UMBC this spring was not limited to the men’s program. The UMBC women’s lacrosse team finished the season with a 12-10 record. They earned the right to host the America East tourney as the conference No. 1 seed but lost on May 5 in the America East semifinal to New Hampshire. Two UMBC seniors, Julie Libertini (Mount de Sales) and Kelly Fiorani (Liberty High School in Eldersburg, Md.) were named to the 2006 America East Women’s Lacrosse All-Championship Team, the conference announced on May 7.

On May 13, the men’s team will travel to Princeton University. The game time for this opening-round meeting with Princeton will be announced later in the week.

If the Retrievers upset Princeton, the No. 7 seed, they will advance to the quarterfinals on May 21 against the winner of an opening-round game between the University of Maryland and Denver. The quarterfinal will be played at a neutral site, Towson University.

The 16-team tournament concludes with the Final Four championships on Memorial Day weekend at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The University of Virginia is the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed. The other top four seeds are, in descending order, Maryland, Hofstra and Johns Hopkins.

The Retrievers enter the 2006 tournament on a six-game winning streak. In winning eight of their past nine, they have erased some of the bitter memory of losing at home each of the past two years in the America East tournament.

Defense has been a foundation of the 2006 team. Before defeating Albany to clinch the America East title, the Retrievers had held nine straight opponents, including Maryland, to single digits.

However, UMBC carries several outstanding players on offense, including Brendan Mundorf. The senior from Baltimore ( Mt. St. Joseph’s) is a two-time America East Conference Player of the Year. Against Albany in the America East title game, Mundorf had five goals and one assist and was named the tournament most valuable player.

Indeed, Mundorf is central to a “strength-against-strength” matchup that should be central to the May 13 opening-round game at Princeton. While Mundorf is one of the top attackmen in Division I, he will have to contend with Princeton’s standout goaltender, sophomore Alex Hewit, who has led Division I goaltenders in save percentage throughout the season.

Zimmerman has succeeded in recruiting standout lacrosse talent from the greater Baltimore-Annapolis region. Of the 35 players on the UMBC roster, 17 are from the Baltimore-Annapolis area. Among the seniors, those players are Mundorf, defenseman Justin Berdeguez (Annapolis High School), defenseman James Hyland (St. Mary’s of Annapolis) and transfer student and midfielder P.J. Kimener (Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville).

(5/8/06)

UMBC Students, Alumna Receive Fulbrights

Three UMBC students and an alumna have received international recognition as Fulbright Scholars for their exceptional research and academic achievements. This latest honor marks a UMBC first, with the largest number of students receiving Fulbright awards since the University’s first Fulbright Scholar in 2002. (Tim Nohe, associate professor of visual arts, also received a Fulbright and will be profiled at a later date.)

Administered by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Program was created by Congress in 1946 as an educational and cultural exchange program. Each year, approximately 1,000 one-year grants are awarded to U.S. students (recent bachelor’s degree recipients and graduate students) to use for pursuing research or teaching English in one of about 150 nations.

Asynith Palmer, a double major in English and modern languages and linguistics, is the recipient of a full grant, allowing her to design her own research project. Palmer’s grant will send her to France, where she will conduct a more in-depth study of the French admiration of William Faulkner’s literary work.

When I found out the French loved Faulkner, I wondered how the Faulknerian novel could possibly be translated into such a structured language as French,” said Palmer. “This topic fascinated me, so I dug right in.”

Palmer spent last summer at the University of Rennes researching the height of Faulkner’s popularity in France. Last semester, with the help of UMBC’s Study Abroad program, she studied at the International School at the University of Nice. For the Fulbright program, Palmer will return to the University of Rennes to continue her research and sharpen her French skills in reading, writing and speaking.  

Palmer formerly worked as a research assistant for Christoph Irmscher, professor and chair of English, and Elaine Rusinko, professor of Russian studies. Palmer is a Humanities Scholar and a member of the English Honors Program. She is co-editor of the UMBC Review, a journal of undergraduate research and creative works, and founder of UMBC’s Running Club. According to Palmer’s professors, she speaks French better than natives. Palmer is a budding scholar of American literature and has been accepted by prestigious graduate programs. She plans to enter a Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan after completing her Fulbright year. Palmer will graduate in the spring with summa cum laude honors.  

Pamela Greenlee, a political science major with a minor in French, will travel on a full grant to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Under the Islamic Civilization Initiative, a component of the Fulbright program which seeks to build an understanding between America and Islamic countries, Greenlee plans to examine human rights issues, particularly the rights of Islamic women. She will look at how civic participation has influenced changes in Islamic family law. In preparation, she will spend this summer at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies ( SAIS), where she interned last year. SAIS is helping Greenlee acquire resources for the trip such as contact information for experts in her interest field and scholarly data. She is fluent in French, has also studied German and is learning Arabic.  

In spring 2005, she participated in the Washington Semester program at American University where she studied American foreign policy. Greenlee, an intern for the Shriver Center’s Choice Program, graduates in spring 2006. After she completes her Fulbright year, she will conduct seminars for SAIS. She hopes to attend a graduate school with a strong international relations program and eventually become a foreign service officer.  

Leonard Salter , a biochemistry and molecular biology major, sees his Fulbright opportunity as a chance to learn more about the world.   “Graduating from college and being 21 means you have to be a responsible person,” said Salter. “The more I read the news, I realize I don’t know about the world.”

Salter will use his teaching grant to teach English in Malaysian high schools and universities. Though he’s not required to speak Malay, he would like to enroll in a class where he can learn the language. Salter has worked for Pfizer for three summers conducting immunology research. At his suggestion, Salter worked with one of his chemistry professors to create a chemistry assistant position. He has held this position for three semesters, researching experiments, collecting the materials and demonstrating the experiments to his peers. Active on campus, Salter serves as president of Phi Kappa Sigma and is a member of the Honors College and National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Though his post-Fulbright plans are still under development, Salter, who graduates this spring with cum laude honors, is contemplating a career as a professor and researcher.

When Jessica Lewis ’05, psychology, goes to Baden-Wüerttemberg, Germany for her Fulbright year, she won’t be going to an unfamiliar place. Lewis was born in Germany and lived there for several years when she was a small child. With her teaching grant, she will work as an assistant to German instructors teaching English.

“Though most Germans know how to speak English, I hope to bring them a real representation of America,” said Lewis, who will use this summer collecting items from her life such as personal photos and pop culture items to use as teaching aids for her students.

Lewis, a December 2005 summa cum laude graduate, has taken advanced courses in German language and literature. Although she has not participated in an official study abroad program, Lewis took a month-long camping trip of Western Europe visiting London, Paris, Andorra, Barcelona, Nice and Cannes, Monte Carlo, Pisa, Rome, Sorrento and Capri, Corfu, Venice, Vienna, Munich, Lucerne, Heidelberg and Amsterdam. Since graduating, she has worked in the Albin O. Kuhn Library’s Circulation/Reserves department. She expects to pursue a graduate degree when she returns from her Fulbright year or begin work as a foreign service officer.

Information on prestigious scholarships is available at http://www.umbc.edu/prestige/ or contact Nancy Miller, coordinator of special projects and prestigious fellowships advisor, at 410-455-6865 or nmiller@umbc.edu.  

(5/1/06)

Celebrating Undergraduate & Graduate Research

 

From opera to organic chemistry, this week puts UMBC’s core commitment to student research and creative activity on center stage for two full days.

The Carnegie Foundation ranks UMBC in the category of Research Universities with high research activity, and this week 120 undergraduates and 95 graduate students will prove that as they share their original, interdisciplinary research findings through oral and poster presentations and free arts performances and exhibits open to the campus community and public.

UMBC’s Tenth Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) on Wednesday, April 26, is the biggest in the event’s nine-year history, having doubled the number of student presenters from last year.

On Friday, April 28, the UMBC and University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB)Graduate Student Associations jointly host the 28th annual 2006 Graduate Research Conference (GRC) at the University Center (U.C.).

Founded in 1997 by the Office of the Provost, URCAD has grown steadily since then and is now a project of the Office of Undergraduate Education. The URCAD experience gives students valuable experience preparing for graduate school or future careers.

“Research experience is part of the distinctive undergraduate education offered at UMBC,” said Diane Lee, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education. “The 120 students presenting during URCAD are representative of hundreds of students, across all disciplines, conducting research or bringing into existence a new artistic expression or interpretation. Our students and their faculty mentors are to be congratulated on the quality and creativity of these efforts.”

Another key component of UMBC’s commitment to student research is the Undergraduate Research Awards (URA). Each year, students apply during February for these competitive grants of up to $1,500 to support research during the following year. 26 URA scholars from 2005 – 2006 will be presenting their research results at URCAD this week. During the noon session, 36 newly selected URA scholars for 2006 – 2007 will be introduced along with their mentors.

URA scholars will present and perform from a broad spectrum of knowledge on Wednesday.

• Junior environmental science major Ramya Ambikapathi (pictured on homepage, right) studies the impact of the invasive tree species ‘Tree of Heaven’ on eastern U.S. deciduous forests. Her URCAD project helped prepare her for work this summer with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Western Ecological Facility in Oregon.
• Junior music major Christina Finn (pictured on homepage, center) explores both the business and artistic side of her passion for classical opera singing. Her project, “The Art of Auditioning,” will help her prepare for auditions for apprentice programs at three major American opera companies in the fall.
• Sophomore biological sciences major Rasheeda Johnson (pictured on homepage, left) examines the structure and replication of the bovine leukemia virus, which could yield new approaches to fighting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Johnson does her research in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) lab at UMBC, under the mentorship of HHMI Investigator Michael Summers.

For graduate students, the GRC is a chance to network with peers and mentors while getting a practice run at the rigors of presenting at research conferences in their fields and defending dissertations.

“The GRC provides graduate students with the opportunity to present the results of their ongoing research to peers, faculty members, the University of Maryland community at large and other interested parties,” said Naresh Sunkara, co-chair of the GRC and president of the Chemistry Graduate Student Association.

Like URCAD, the GRC allows graduate students from across disciplines to shine.

• Computer science Ph.D. student Alark Joshi’swork focuses on better visualization of the structure and evolution of hurricanes.
• Chemistry Ph.D. student John Kiser is working on a new type of spectroscopy that could help improve outcomes for one of the most difficult-to-remove forms of brain tumor.
• Language, literacy and culture Ph.D. student Joan Kang Shin studies how online learning environments can provide a unique space for the growth of global communities for teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL).

“We are also excited to have UMBC graduate student alumni attending and judging the conference for the first time, and a big highlight is our keynote speaker Jorge Cham,” said Sunkara.

Cham, an instructor at the California Institute of Technology, is the creator of Piled Higher and Deeper, a highly successful comic strip about graduate school life. In his keynote address, Cham will recount tales of bringing humor into the lives of stressed out academics and explore the guilt, myth and power of procrastination.

URCAD will be held on Wednesday, April 26 from 9 am to 4 pm at the University Center and Fine Arts Building. A full morning session will be devoted to dance and film presentations. The plenary session at noon in U.C. 312 will feature President Hrabowski and two UMBC/URCAD alumni. The complete schedule is available online.

The 2006 Graduate Research Conference will be held on Friday, April 28, from 9 am to 5 pm. Oral presentations will take place in the U.C. Ballroom and ITE building. Posters will be displayed in the Engineering and Computer Science building atrium. The complete schedule is online.

(5/22/06)

 

 

 

 

Two UMBC Students Named 2006 Goldwater Scholars

 

Two UMBC students are among the 323 sophomores and juniors who have been named 2006 Goldwater Scholars. The prestigious scholarship program honors outstanding students majoring in science, mathematics and engineering who are committed to pursuing careers as research scientists.

Adjoa Smalls-Mantey, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Adjoa Smalls-Mantey, a junior with a 3.95 cumulative GPA, is one of several UMBC students conducting research in UMBC’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Smalls-Mantey, from Upper Marlboro, Md., has worked in the lab since her freshman year. Her research involves improving the mechanics of gene therapy by focusing on the Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus (MMLV). She has participated in the Gene Search Program at Catholic University where she first learned basic lab principles. She also conducted research at Howard University and participated in the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Gateways to the Laboratory Program, the first in the country designed exclusively to train undergraduate students to become successful MD-Ph.D applicants.

“This award will help support my goal not only financially, but it also provides me with the resources and networking opportunities as a scholar and researcher,” said Smalls-Mantey.

Smalls-Mantey is a trainee for the M inority Access to Research Careers (MARC), Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research Program, UMBC’s preeminent undergraduate scholarship program that aims to increase the number of persons from underrepresented groups who pursue Ph.D. degrees and careers in biomedical research or mathematics. A Meyerhoff and HHMI Scholar, Smalls-Mantey is a member of the Honors College and Golden Key International Honor Society. This year, she helped establish Fellowship Under God’s Influence, a student organization based on Seventh-day Adventist beliefs. Off campus, she is the deputy director of Pathfinder, a Christian scouting organization for children at her church.

Smalls-Mantey expects to graduate in spring 2007 and plans to pursue a M.D./Ph.D degree, specializing in immunology.

Devin Burns, Mechanical Engineering

Devin Burns, a sophomore with a 4.0 cumulative GPA, has great aspirations of obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with a focus on renewable energy systems and starting his own research lab.

For several years, Burns has worked as a research intern in the College Qualified Science and Engineering Apprentice Program at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. There he investigated mathematical tools to help detect and analyze deceptive activities by opposing forces. He also taught science and math to students in grades 8-11 as part of an outreach program at ARL.

Currently, Burns conducts research in the lab of Marc Zupan, UMBC assistant professor of mechanical engineering. He is studying the advanced materials of mechanical properties. Burns, from Smithsburg, Md., studied abroad in China and Vietnam during Winter Session 2006. He is a Meyerhoff Scholar, a member of the Golden Key International Honors Society and will soon be inducted in Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society. He also enjoys intramural sports at UMBC and is a member of the Running Club.

For additional information about the types of prestigious scholarships available, how to apply for them or to read about previous winners, visit www.umbc.edu/prestige.

Below are updates on UMBC’s 2005 Goldwater Scholars. All three students have maintained a 4.0 cumulative GPA.

Michael Aaron is a junior pursuing dual degrees in mechanical engineering and biological sciences with a minor in writing. Aaron recently went on his first international rugby tour. He accompanied the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Rugby Team to Paris, France where they faced off against Institut National d’Agronomie de Paris Grignon and won 24-7.  He met the team this past summer while conducting cellular mechanics research as part of the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP) in biology.  He has worked in labs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and at Case Western Reserve University.  A MARC, Meyerhoff and McNair Scholar, Aaron is the captain of UMBC’s Rugby Team, an active member in Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, and a Learning Resource  Center tutor. 

Andrew Kohlway is a senior MARC and Meyerhoff Scholar who has had outstanding summer lab experiences at a consortium of research universities in Pittsburgh and at Yale University. He is majoring in bioinformatics with a minor in mathematics. After graduating from UMBC in May, he will enter Yale University’s Ph.D. program in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. He recently received an honorable mention from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship competition. He will present some of the research that he has conducted in the lab of Daniele Fabris, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, at the UMBC Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day on April 26.

Stephanie Nunez is a junior biochemistry and molecular biology major with a minor in modern languages and linguistics. In January 2006, she studied abroad in Granada, Spain. She currently interns with Anandarup Gupta, assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Dental School. She will present her research at UMBC’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day. Nunez is a MARC, Meyerhoff and HHMI Schoar. She recently was awarded the Alumni Association Outstanding Student Award in Biochemistry. A member of UMBC’s Honors College, Nunez also serves as an officer in the Golden Key International Honor Society. For the past three years, she has played the bass clarinet for the UMBC Chamber Players. This summer she will be interning at Stanford University for the second time.

(4/17/06)

 

 

 

 

Education, Exposure, Experience

 

While entrepreneurship may sound like a concept only studied in business school, at UMBC it is an important part of the university’s mission. “Faculty and students pushing the envelope in science and technology, breaking new ground in the creative arts or crafting new solutions to society’s problems can all be entrepreneurs,” said Vivian Armor, director of UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and a UMBC alumna. “There are many ways you can help prepare yourself for entrepreneurship. You can study it, you can learn from other’s experiences and you can jump in and try it yourself. Our Center initiatives focus on all three of these key areas: education, exposure and experience.”

The Center, founded in 2000 through a generous gift of $1 million from The Alex. Brown Foundation, is infusing the entire university with the thinking and attitude, activities and ideas that inspire entrepreneurial accomplishment. During Entrepreneurship Week, which runs through April 7, it offers events that highlight programs available to both the UMBC and Baltimore business communities. The week kicks off at 12 p.m. Monday, April 3 with a lecture by two successful UMBC alumni entrepreneurs, Eli Eisenberg, founder and principal, Video Production Consulting, Inc., and Frank Taylor, president, The First Choice.

Many UMBC students are not waiting until graduation to start their own businesses. Supported by entrepreneurship courses, internships and other programs, as well as the student-run CEO Club, they are already achieving success. CEO Club members Wan His Yuan, a graduate student in information systems, and Jason Servary, a senior in financial economics, have created OpenPosting.com, the first online classified community for college students. The site now has 1500 registered users and receives about 4,000 page views per day. While they look for funding, Yuan and Servary are participating in the Alex. Brown Center’s IdeaLab at techcenter@UMBC, which offers support for faculty and students engaged in the start-up phase of high-technology companies by providing business advisement, mentoring and space.

Servary and Yuan recently won the UMBC Business Plan Competition and are currently one of 40 finalists (out of 174 entries) to participate in the annual Mosh Pit Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Greater Baltimore Technology Center. During Entrepreneurship Week, Servary, Yuan and other CEO Club business owners will pass on their skills and experience to fellow students in UMBC’s residence halls.

William LaCourse, professor of analytical chemistry and CEO Club advisor, believes that programs like the CEO Club support students across the disciplines. “Every great invention, movement, or accomplishment begins with a single idea that someone had the courage to put into action,” he said. “Entrepreneurism empowers an individual to act upon their idea, organize and manage its implementation, and carry it through even in the face of adversity.

“We all have within us the power to change the world, and the CEO Club is a much needed venue for students to meet and share ideas, hopes and aspirations. Members connect with successful entrepreneurs, practice the tools of success, and learn the art of invention. Whether a fledgling art gallery or an up-and-coming biotech start-up, the CEO Club allows our students to achieve their dreams,” LaCourse added.

One of the Center’s programs for UMBC faculty is a summer entrepreneurship institute that will focus on a different discipline each year. This summer, the Center will work with visual and performing arts departments to incorporate entrepreneurship into the curriculum, from designing new courses to adding new modules to existing classes. To set the stage for creative thinking, the Center and the Departments of Music and Theatre will host a lecture Thursday, April 6 by Michael Gelb, an internationally recognized pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, accelerated learning and innovative leadership. Gelb’s lecture, open to the entire UMBC community and the general public, will be held at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Recital Hall. On Friday, April 7, Anne Bogart, associate professor at Columbia University and director of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute, will speak at 8 p.m. in the UMBC Theatre. (For more information, call 410-455-2917.)

Creating and supporting entrepreneurship in the region is another important part of the Center’s mission. In addition to offering classes and seminars, the Center is one of the University’s partners in the ACTiVATE program, funded by the National Science Foundation and designed to address the unique needs of women interested in starting technology companies. ACTiVATE is now in its second year and four women in the program are now heading up their own tech companies, including Mona S. Jhaveri Brown, whose Foligo LCC recently took up residence at techcenter@UMBC.

For more information on the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, visit www.umbc.edu/entrepreneurship.

(4/3/06)

 

 

 

 

Living Learning Communities Create Rewarding Connections

 

When Tony Harris, a sophomore transfer student from Hofstra University, and Amanda Schwenk, a freshman computer science major, applied to UMBC, they had one question in mind: What is the best way to make new friends at UMBC? They both found their answer while researching UMBC’s Web site, although it wasn’t the traditional suggestion to join an organization or club. The solution was UMBC’s Living Learning Communities (LLC), where residents share common academic interests.

“I knew I would be able to make connections with people from other countries while also being around people who speak my targeted language,” said Harris, a modern languages and linguistics major studying Spanish and a resident of the Intercultural Living Exchange floor, a for-credit language immersion and intercultural communication program.

“We [students on the floor] go to dinner together and take classes at the Retriever Activities Center,” said Schwenk, a Center for Women & Information Technology (CWIT) Scholar, who lives on CWIT’s LLC floor.

However, residents of these communities gain more than friendships by living on one of the nine LLC floors. Students gain academic support with ready-made study groups and have more outside classroom interactions with faculty than non-LLCs residents, according to Kim Leisey, assistant vice president for student affairs and director of residential education. They also have the possibility of taking classes together, participating in community service projects, planning on-campus events or visiting the many Baltimore-Washington attractions.

These are all advantages that Jill Randles, assistant vice provost for undergraduate education, expects residents in the new Exploratory Majors Living Learning Community will experience. Opening this fall, this LLC will offer valuable support to the segment of UMBC students who hope to narrow their talents and interests into a defined major.

“We want to help the students identify their best academic fit at UMBC, and hopefully, by becoming engaged through our programmatic efforts, they will feel connected,” said Randles.

Each LLC offers unique experiences and lessons for residents. For example, students on the Visual and Performing Arts floor grow in their specific artistic area by being exposed to their classmates’ work, having late-night jam sessions and participating in engaging conversations about the arts, said Anna Rubin, associate professor of music, director of the floor and the Linehan Artists Scholars Program. Meanwhile, CWIT residents, particularly the male students, learn how to encourage their female counterparts pursuing careers in the male-dominated science and technology fields, said Bria McElroy, director of university initiatives for CWIT.

In all, LLC residents and their advisors agree these Communities embody UMBC’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness — gaining a sense of belonging and understanding of various cultures and viewpoints.

Below is a list of Communities for the 2006-2007 academic year:

• Center for Women and Information Technology
• Emergency Health Services
• Exploratory Majors
• Honors College
• Humanities Floor
• Intercultural Living Exchange
• Shriver Living Learning Center
• Visual and Performing Arts Floor
• Women Involved in Learning and Leadership

For more information, or to download an application, visit the Living Learning Communities Web site.

(3/27/06)