All posts by: UMBC News Staff

UMBC Alums Find Success in the Local Community

One of the greatest things UMBC students and alums can do is make contributions to the local community. Alums Delali Dzirasa ‘04, engineering and information systems, and Erin Travis ‘06, visual and performing Arts, do exactly that by stepping outside the campus perimeters and starting their own businesses in Catonsville. See how their businesses help service the community.

Delali Dzirasa ‘04, engineering and information systems, is the owner and creator of Fearless Solutions, a company that specializes in application development. Fearless Solutions revolutionizes the contracting opportunities for local businesses that would otherwise be unable to act on such opportunities. Dzirasa’s latest creation, HUBFinder, is an application geared at making it easier for small businesses and job seekers to access federal programs.

To read the full article, click here.

Erin Travis ‘06, visual and performing arts, founded Trails and Tails Pet Care, a a Baltimore County-based company. Travis, who wasn’t completely happy with her job in a photo studio, decided to make a change three years ago when she began her small pet care business. Trails and Tails Pet Care allowed her to do the two things she enjoys the most: spend time outdoors as well as take care of animals. The business provides dog walking, hiking, compatibility training, and pet sitting to clients.

Click here to read more.

Narrative Arc: Stephen Morgan ’72, Psychology

Sometimes a person’s journey to become one of the state’s most effective CEOs is surprisingly direct.

Take Stephen Morgan ’72, psychology, who is the executive director of The Arc Baltimore. Morgan began his career at the organization as an undergraduate, teaching at a summer camp for disabled adults.

Fast forward to 2014, and the Maryland Daily Record names him as one of “Maryland’s Most Admired CEOs.” It’s an achievement that Morgan observes is as much about the organization as it is about his leadership.

“The award is flattering,” he says, “but what I like is that it’s for the ‘most admired.’ It’s not just about what we do, but how we do it. It’s really about all of us at The Arc, not just me.”

Continue reading “Narrative Arc: Stephen Morgan ’72, Psychology” →

Anne Spence, Mechanical Engineering, Shares Passion for Mentoring with CBS Baltimore

When Anne Spence, mechanical engineering, began her undergraduate studies in engineering, she noticed that a number of fellow female students dropped out of the program before graduation. She wondered if a female professor might have made a difference and decided to dedicate her career to serving as a role model for young women. In an interview with CBS Baltimore earlier this month, Spence shared her passion for the recruitment, training, and retention of engineering majors.

“Here at UMBC, we are training almost 300 teachers each year to teach engineering in elementary, middle and high school,” Spence said. “We believe that exposing children early to engineering will encourage them to stay interested. We also work to retain women and minorities in engineering.”

She also shared resources and advice for youth to encourage interest in engineering and STEM fields. “Don’t listen to those who tell you that you cannot succeed,” she advised. “If I had listened, I would not have the exciting career I have today.”

Read “UMBC Professor Setting Example For The Next Generation” in CBS Baltimore.

UMBC Alums Engage with Cultures

Here at UMBC, we take pride in what our alums accomplish after graduation. Take a moment to see which Retrievers have been on the move and making news!

Ahmed Mahmood ’15, political science, comments on the external tension Muslim-Americans face when addressing issues of terrorism. After a spate of attacks, area Muslims reached out during Ramadan to foster a better image. In an article from The Washington Post, Mahmood shares that “there is a ‘healthy environment’ on [UMBC’s] campus and that Muslim students have gotten consistent support from officials for their religious requests, including establishing Friday prayer services at the campus interfaith center and planning to add halal food, which is ritually blessed for Muslim consumption, to the cafeteria menus.”

Click here to read the full article.

Justin Velez-Hagan, Ph.D. student in public policy, explains Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. In a recent interview, Velez-Hagan discussed the debt crisis and explained that the territory owes its creditors over $72 billion, an amount the U.S. government refuses to front in order to bail out the Puerto Rican government. The creditors, which are American investors, recently met with Puerto Rican officials to discuss payments, however the territory can only afford to repay about $1 billion, a sum that will be extinguished come September.

To watch the full interview, click here.

Round Up: UMBC in the News

One of the things that makes UMBC great is how wonderful our alumni, students, faculty, and staff are. Because of these amazing people, UMBC often finds itself “in the news,” so each week, we’ll be sharing with you a round-up of the most newsworthy achievements from our community.

2016 New Student Book Experience: We’d love your feedback!

At the beginning of each school year, UMBC’s New Student Book Experience (NSBE) invites all UMBC freshmen and new transfer students to read a selected book and engage in formal and informal discussion about it.

In anticipation of UMBC’s 50th Anniversary in September 2016, we are looking for a book that will be compelling reading for all audiences and help to provide context for UMBC’s past, present and future.

We are looking for feedback on the five books currently under consideration by the selection committee.

* Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

The landmark personal memoir of a former slave who became one of the most dynamic voices of the abolitionist cause.

* Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Dr. King’s last book, published in 1967, the civil rights leader examines the politics of poverty and race in the United States and lays out directions for change.

* March: Book I and March: Book II by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated and lettered by Nate Powell.

Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis retells the story of the 1965 Voting Rights march in Selma, Alabama in the form of a graphic novel.

* Not in my Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City by Antero Pietila

A sweeping and detailed portrait of racism and housing practices in 20th-century Baltimore.

* My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

An acclaimed memoir by United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The final selection for the 2016 book will be made in September. In the meantime, please leave comments and feedback for the selection committee below. Which book(s) interest you the most? (Enough to participate in an alumni discussion of the book? To attend a lecture with the author or related scholar?) Which do you think would appeal to new UMBC students? Which fit best into the celebration of UMBC’s first 50 years?

Diverse Names UMBC’s Student Affairs A “Most Promising Place to Work”

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education has named UMBC one of this year’s “Most Promising Places to Work in Student Affairs” among the nation’s research universities. UMBC was one of only 31 universities featured on the national list and one of just 14 research institutions included.

“Student affairs at UMBC is guided by the mission of facilitating learning and preparing students for success in a multicultural and increasingly global society and workforce,” Diverse reported. “The Division of Student Affairs embodies a true commitment to teamwork and community, while cultivating student development and growth.”

“At UMBC we believe that each person has a unique story that drives her passion or allows him to contribute new perspectives to our shared community,” Nancy Young, vice-president for student affairs, said. “We are pleased to be included in this impressive list and, equally important, we appreciate the opportunity to stop and reflect on why we love it here!”

This list was created using a national survey administered by the Center for Higher Education Enterprise at The Ohio State University and commissioned by the American College Personnel Association and Diverse. Read UMBC’s profile in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Pete Caringi, Men’s Soccer, Profiled in The Baltimore Sun for Excellent Coaching and Leadership

As the UMBC men’s soccer team gears up for another season, The Baltimore Sun featured Coach Pete Caringi for his excellent leadership of the Retrievers. Last year, Caringi led the team to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) College Cup and was named Division I Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

In the article, fellow coaches and UMBC men’s soccer alumni praised Caringi’s coaching skills and passion for the game. “He’s a coach that can get everything out of his players and you just want to give everything you have to win a game for him,” said Giuliano Celenza, who played for UMBC from 1999-2000 before joining the Baltimore Blast. Celenza described how Caringi not only coached him on the field but made sure that he finished his degree after he began playing professionally. Senior defender Zach Wenger agreed, saying, “He’s always staying on top of us in terms of UMBC soccer. He’s always making sure we’re getting the job done in the classroom, carrying ourselves the right way off the field and then all that translates onto the field.”

University of Maryland, College Park coach Sasho Cirovski admired how Caringi led the Retrievers to the NCAA College Cup. Calling Carinigi the “soccer mayor of Baltimore,” Cirovski said, “What Pete engineered at UMBC last year is going to be legendary because to win at Maryland, to win at Louisville, to win at Creighton and to win at Wake Forest — I mean that’s an unparalleled run in the history of college soccer.”

Although Caringi is excited to coach the team to another championship, he told The Sun that he values the relationships he has developed with his players and coaching staff more. “One of the things I’ve always told my players is this is more than you just coming to play for me,” he said. “That’s more rewarding than saying I’ve won championships but have no relationships with the guys. I’ve always cherished that part of it more than anything.”

Read “UMBC soccer coach Pete Caringi Jr. looks to top last year’s successful run” in the Baltimore Sun.

Orianne Smith, English, Wins Inaugural British Association of Romantic Studies First Book Prize

Orianne Smith, associate professor and chair of English, has won the prestigious biennial First Book Prize from the British Association of Romantic Studies (BARS). Smith’s book Romantic Women Writers, Revolution, and Prophecy: Rebellious Daughters, 1786–1826 (Cambridge University Press, 2013) was selected from a strong shortlist of finalists for the inaugural prize.

Professor Smith traveled to Cardiff, Wales to accept the award. In an announcement posted on the BARS blog, the judges stated during the award ceremony that her book “corrects the gender imbalance of previous work on literary enthusiasm by shedding light on the previously obscured role of women writers in apocalyptic discourse…a tremendously fluent and incisive study, making surprising and productive use of speech-act theory to bring out the performative dimension of prophetic writing.”

Dr. Smith participated in a detailed and wide-ranging Q&A posted on the BARS blog about her research process in writing her award-winning book. She said the idea for the project first came to her when writing the conclusion for her final paper on the “wild, wacky and truly wonderful Civil War prophetesses” in her seventeenth-century sectarian writers class during her second year of graduate school.

Orianne Smith with Professor Emma Clery, the Chair of the First Book Prize Committee, giving her acceptance speech.

“It occurred to me that there could be an interesting connection between these seventeenth-century women who claimed the authority of God during a period of revolution and Romantic women writers who also assumed the mantle of the female prophet in the wake of the French Revolution,” she said. “I wrapped up the paper with this thought, but the idea of a British tradition of female prophecy stuck with me.”

Also in the Q&A, Smith discussed how the project evolved, the benefit of placing religious discourses at center of cultural debates and literary studies, and her future research, among other topics.

Dr. Smith’s teaching and research interests include gender and Romanticism, the Gothic, and the connections between religion, superstition, and magic in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and she has published widely in these fields. Read more about her work on the English department website.

Opportunities through Robotics: Kavita Krishnaswamy ’07

Every so often, we’ll chat with an alum about what they do and how they got there. Today we’re talking with Kavita Krishnaswamy ’07, mathematics and computer science. Krishnaswamy has spinal muscular atrophy and has not been able to leave her house in six years. Thanks to Beam Telepresence Technology, a robotic program that allows her to remotely view and navigate spaces through her computer screen, she’s presented her doctoral thesis and attended conferences across the country. The current Ph.D. student talks about her experience with the Beam and her research on robotics and accessibility.

Q: What’s your most memorable experience/moment at UMBC?

UMBC is a journey to fulfill, not a destination to complete. Every day was a day to remember with milestones to accomplish, wisdom to be learned, and experiences to cherish. The accumulation of my UMBC experiences has molded (and continues to mold me) for the real-world. I am so grateful that each and every experience I encountered has brought me to my place now.

One of my favorite experiences was to go to the seventh floor of the library to study and look out the bow window on a pleasant view of the entire campus. Viewing outside the window often filled with positive energy and reminded me to appreciate the everyday journey and have the perspective to soar to great heights by overcoming obstacles and promoting feelings of humility relative to the grandeur and glory of Mother Nature.

Q: How has your life changed since using the Beam telepresence robot?

I have a more active and busy lifestyle since using the Beam. I am traveling all over the world to conferences, meetings, museums, concerts, and other attractions with the Beam. Meeting new people and networking to make new contacts has been productive to advancing my research and career goals.

Q: What do you see in the future for robotic technology and how it changes the way people interact?

The future is here now! Robotics technologies will become ubiquitous as time moves forward for the benefit of humanity. Ultimately, the quality of life will improve for all.

Q: Can you tell me more about your current work?

My research involves the development of robotic systems to provide assistance and increase independence for people with disabilities. I am developing several prototype robotic systems that will support transferring, repositioning, and personal care, with a focus on accessible user interfaces for control that are feasible for persons with severe disabilities. For example, I am investigating the use of brain computer interfaces, speech recognition, and facial gestures to control a robotic interface for repositioning the arms of users with disabilities to strengthen their muscles and relieve pressure on the joints.

Q: What are your plans after graduate school?

It is the blessing of continuing education that excites me. I will always continue learning. Within the next 10 years, I will have my PhD degree, be married to [the] man I love, have a happy and healthy child, be successfully employed as a professor and researcher, have my own home, invent a number of assistive devices and robotic technologies that help increase independence for people with disabilities, make my parents proud, and be thanking God for bringing all of my dreams into reality. In all aspects, I want to be successful and do the best that I possibly can to overcome adversities that may stand against my way.

UMBC Faculty Discuss Baltimore City Civic Engagement Work in Diverse

In the wake of the unrest in Baltimore earlier this year, several UMBC faculty were interviewed by Diverse to share the projects they are doing with students and colleagues to work with the city as it recovers from its first uprising in nearly 50 years.

Beverly Bickel, a clinical associate professor in the language, literacy and culture program, discussed the Imagining America conference, which is sponsored by UMBC in partnership with MICA and Morgan State University. Many conference sessions will focus specifically on Baltimore and address topics such as race, inequality and community-based approaches to spur collective action.

“Part of our commitment in doing that was about how we could use this conference to develop the work in Baltimore,” said Bickel. “We want to use it as an organizing process to strengthen the arts community [in] Baltimore.”

Lee Boot, associate director of the IRC, said that he and some of his colleagues are cautious about not appearing as to have all the answers: “These issues are real[ly] complicated. The whole idea that [the] university alone is [the] purveyor of knowledge is insane,” he said.

“And we’re trying to level that. Another thing that came up is that Baltimore has to take its stories back. … An opportunity that comes out of what happened in April is that now [there is] a wider understanding that those events were results of things that had happened before. We’re trying to say [that] this is not a bunch of bad players, but results of decisions we have made. That’s a line of thought most people are not interested in listening to most of the time.”

Denise Meringolo, an associate professor of history, is working with community partners to create a website that includes original content and documents history in the days surrounding Freddie Gray’s death. The goal is to provide a historical record of diverse perspectives from the people whose lives were directly impacted by the events.

“The thing that’s most important for me [is] that it’s broadly collaborative and puts [the] needs and interests of community first,” Meringolo said. “At this point this is a collection project. … Healing at this time feels like skipping over their pain. I think we’ve got to stop skipping over the pain, so people don’t go from trauma to forgiveness and skip over the hard work. I feel like this [is] the beginning of the hard work.”

Read “Baltimore Higher Ed Institutions Fight to Restore the City” in Diverse.

Kate Drabinski, Gender and Women’s Studies, Reacts to Target Phasing Out Gender-based Signs in Stores on ABC 2 Baltimore

Target recently announced it is moving away from using gender-based signs in its stores such as removing signs featuring suggestions for boys and girls in certain sections and in toy aisles, removing reference to gender, including the use of pink, blue, yellow or green paper on the back walls of shelves.

Kate Drabinski, a lecturer of gender and women’s studies, was interviewed by ABC 2 TV in Baltimore about her thoughts on the decision.

“It’s kind of sad that it’s such a bold move, but it’s a really bold move especially given how gendered things for kids really are,” she said during a recorded segment that aired on the 11 p.m. newscast on August 10.

Drabinski said gender rules are learned early, such as advertising and society telling girls things for them are pink and purple, while boys’ items are blue. She said she hopes Target’s decision will spur action and conversation on a much larger scale.

“What I hope happens is that this jump starts a conversation about how gender is built into all things that we buy and how we might change that.”

Watch the full segment “Target phasing out some gender-based signs in stores” on ABC 2 TV.

All posts by: UMBC News Staff

UMBC Alums Find Success in the Local Community

Narrative Arc: Stephen Morgan ’72, Psychology

Anne Spence, Mechanical Engineering, Shares Passion for Mentoring with CBS Baltimore

UMBC Alums Engage with Cultures

Round Up: UMBC in the News

Read more at UMBC Insights!

2016 New Student Book Experience: We’d love your feedback!

Diverse Names UMBC’s Student Affairs A “Most Promising Place to Work”

Pete Caringi, Men’s Soccer, Profiled in The Baltimore Sun for Excellent Coaching and Leadership

Orianne Smith, English, Wins Inaugural British Association of Romantic Studies First Book Prize

Opportunities through Robotics: Kavita Krishnaswamy ’07

Read more about Kavita and her research!

UMBC Faculty Discuss Baltimore City Civic Engagement Work in Diverse

Kate Drabinski, Gender and Women’s Studies, Reacts to Target Phasing Out Gender-based Signs in Stores on ABC 2 Baltimore

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