All posts by: UMBC News Staff

UMBC/HHMI Meyerhoff Video Wins Telly Award

The inspiring video “Strength in Numbers: Inside the Meyerhoff Scholars Program” has won a 2015 Telly Award.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) created this video for a feature article in The HHMI Bulletin focused on the supportive community at the heart of UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program.

“Strength in Numbers” was filmed at the UMBC Meyerhoff Scholars retreat in the fall of 2013 and featured several scholars speaking about how the program has helped them. It is available to view through the HHMI website.

Blossom Tewelde ’14, biochemistry and molecular biology, spoke to The HHMI Bulletin about the importance of diversity in the sciences. “I can count on one hand all of the black female physician-scientists I’ve met in my life,” she said. “It can be hard to imagine yourself somewhere without that picture in your mind.”

Tewelde went on to talk about how she’s giving back to the Meyerhoff community as a peer advisor, saying, “I will support younger scholars the same way I’ve been supported. It’s just something about Meyerhoff—there’s a sense of ownership. Any Meyerhoff anywhere will take you in with open arms.”

The Telly Awards program honors top videos, films, and commercials, and received nearly 12,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries this year. “Strength in Numbers” received a bronze in the nonprofit online video category.

Bill LaCourse, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Describes STEM Retention Efforts in eCampus News

A National Center for Education Statistics report found that 48% of undergraduate students who entered science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields in 2003-2009 left those majors by spring 2009, sparking discussions about how the U.S. can increase the number of qualified candidates in STEM fields. Bill LaCourse, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, spoke to eCampus News this week about strategies used at UMBC to retain students in those majors.
billlacourse“Students come into college interested in STEM, but [schools] do a lot of things to push them away,” LaCourse said. He urged colleges to rethink the way they teach STEM courses and make student retention a campus-wide effort. LaCourse also discusses STEM BUILD@UMBC, a holistic student support initiative supported by a National Institutes of Health grant. The initiative uses professional advisors, supportive student communities, and inter-collegiate collaboration to better engage students. “This country needs more scientists, more medical professionals, and more technology gurus… and achieving that goal starts with active, interesting learning that keeps students engaged throughout their educational careers and beyond,” he said. The article also quoted a previous conversation with President Hrabowski on the same topic. In the article, Dr. Hrabowski spoke about “weed-out” classes as part of the problem in students leaving STEM majors. Click here to read “Universities share best practices to retain STEM students.”

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.

Read more at UMBC Insights!

Denise Meringolo, History, Describes Baltimore Uprising Project in the Baltimore Sun

Denise MeringoloAn article published June 18 in the Baltimore Sun examined a digital history project documenting the unrest surrounding the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Denise Meringolo, an associate professor of history, is collaborating with the Maryland Historical Society and University of Baltimore to collect images, oral histories, and videos taken by everyday citizens documenting the events. Meringolo, who is featured in the article, set up a website for the project.

“I decided to establish a site that allows people to participate directly in the act of collecting,” Meringolo said. “When you study social movements from the past, sometimes what’s missing are the experiences and perceptions of the people who were in that moment. You find the official reports, but it’s very difficult to get a sense of what that protest was like viscerally from the ground view.”

To read the article in the Baltimore Sun, click here.  For additional coverage by the Associated Press, click here. To learn more about the project, visit baltimoreuprising2015.org.

Kimberly Moffitt, American Studies, Responds to Rachel Dolezal Story on ABC 2 Baltimore

Kimberly MoffittKimberly Moffitt, an associate professor of American studies, was interviewed by ABC 2 Baltimore for a segment that explored the fixed nature of race in society following up on the Rachel Dolezal story. “We’re so comfortable to fixate people into boxes to say this is where you belong because of skin hue because of the activities you do,” Moffitt said.

Commenting on race as a social construction, she added: “I also think that it proves to us that as much as we as individuals would want to embody or claim our own racial categories, the reality is society dictates that to us and we don’t have control over that.”

“For members of the black community it’s a major struggle because we are used to people appropriating blackness, but we’re not used to people trying to embody blackness and actually assume it by phenotypically changing aspects of who they are in order to be seen as something that they aren’t,” said Moffitt. “For those of us who live and breathe this every day, it’s not something that we can put on and then take off.”

To watch the full segment, which originally aired on WMAR-TV’s 11 p.m. newscast on June 16, click here.

On Thursday, June 18, Prof. Moffitt was again interviewed for a live segment on ABC 2’s 6 p.m. newscast about the Charleston church shooting. Check back here for video of the segment to be posted soon.

Kate Brown, History, Examines Russia’s Foreign Agents Law in Al Jazeera America

Kate BrownIn a June 15 op-ed in Al Jazeera America, history professor Kate Brown examined the impact of Russia’s foreign agents law on the country’s civil society and environmental activists. The law requires organizations that receive funding from abroad to register as foreign agents, and the law as it was originally written excluded environmental advocacy groups.

However, Brown wrote in her column that the law has recently been used with broad application to abolish NGO’s that prevent development in Russia. “The ease with which the law can be abused could spell disaster both for Russian civil society and environmental regulation.”

With the way the law is constructed, Brown wrote that it makes it difficult for outside groups to intervene: “The multi-faceted utility of the law makes it an enticing tool, one that is increasingly difficult for NGOs to surmount. In part because of the U.S. history of spying on enemies and allies alike, there appears to be little that can be done from outside Russia without exacerbating charges of foreign meddling. As during the Soviet period, those in the United States can only watch and report,” she wrote.

To read the full column titled “Russia Uses ‘Foreign Agents’ Law to Muzzle Dissent,” click here.

Thomas Schaller, Political Science, Analyzes Immigration Policy in the Huffington Post, Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun

Tom SchallerThomas Schaller, professor and chair of political science, along with colleagues at UCLA and Stanford, recently published a column in the Huffington Post that examined the legacy of President Obama’s Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive action that took affect three years ago. DACA directed the government to temporarily defer action on young immigrants in the United States who came to the country at an early age as undocumented immigrants with their parents. Schaller, who is political director of the polling and research firm Latino Decisions, wrote about the political significance of the action on immigration policy.

“While DACA’s primary, real-world policy legacy is the dramatic relief it provided to these young immigrants, President Obama’s DACA announcement three years ago today also reshaped the national political debate on immigration, and particularly the use of presidential executive action as a solution to legislative gridlock. For Latinos, support for DACA specifically–and the use of unilateral presidential power in immigration politics generally–was on the ballot in 2012 and will be again in 2016.”

Schaller also published an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun on June 9 and wrote about the American electoral structure and its impact on representation of women in state and national politics. To read the column titled “Our electoral structure not only shuts out third parties; it shuts out women,” click here.

Behind the Scenes with Shanae Cole ’13

Shanae ColeAt 5:30 a.m. every morning, Shanae Cole ‘13, Media and Communication Studies, sits down in the control room as she assists with managing cameras, news anchors, and viewers of the popular celebrity news show, TMZ. She carefully searches through all of her leads and quickly reviews the website for any last minute breaking news before going live.

Growing up, Cole was glued to her television screen watching the latest and greatest cartoons and entertainment television. She laughed along with Bart on “The Simpsons” and Stewie on “Family Guy,” immersing herself in the cartoons and taking on the role of audience member. She also remembers falling in love with the action and thrill that superheroes provided.

When the time came to start college, Cole found a home within UMBC’s Media and Communication Studies department under the mentorship of Jason Loviglio and Donald Snyder. She says she cannot emphasize enough the impact her education provided on her career. “Today we live in a world where being media literate is important,” Cole says. “Especially since the need for new technologies to make life more efficient will only continue to proliferate.”

Continue reading “Behind the Scenes with Shanae Cole ’13” →

Building Our Collection

Suzanne Schlenger poses with a few volumes from her collection.

If a university and its people are dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, there is perhaps nowhere on campus that more embodies that mission than the library. That is surely true here on UMBC’s campus. Much more than books on shelves, the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery is an engine for discovery, providing our students and faculty with the resources and support they need on their academic journey.

This year, those resources grew thanks to Suzanne Schlenger. A member of the Friends of the Library since 2001, she recently established the Suzanne Schlenger Endowment for a Collection of American Women in Literature and donated a substantial set of books that will form the basis for this new collection.

The volumes, which now reside in UMBC’s Special Collections, include many works by Willa Cather and Edith Wharton, as well as a limited edition of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. The collection was built over many years, as Mrs. Schlenger and her late husband, Jack Schlenger, a lawyer and friend of Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, travelled the world looking for works by their favorite authors. Continue reading “Building Our Collection” →

“Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me” Documentary Screened at UMBC to Raise Awareness of Alzheimer’s Disease

Nearly 100,000 people aged 65 and older live with Alzheimer’s disease in Maryland, and there are nearly three times as many caregivers according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Sixteen million Americans are expected to have the disease in 2050, and the cost of caring for those with Alzheimer’s is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by mid-century.

In the midst of the growing presence of the disease in Maryland and nationwide, on June 11, 2015 at UMBC, country musician Glen Campbell’s family, caregivers, health officials, and representatives from the Erickson School held an event to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s and to share best practices for family members who are caring for a loved one with the disease. The event consisted of a panel discussion and screening of the film “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,” an inspiring documentary starring Glen Campbell and his unforgettable Goodbye Tour.

Community members filled the Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall to hear Glen Campbell’s wife Kim, his daughter Ashley, and other health officials discuss everything from becoming educated about the disease to coping with the stress and challenges of helping a family member with dementia.

Glen Campbell event

Dr. Nicole Absar, clinical director at Copper Ridge Memory Clinic, shared her knowledge of early diagnosis of the disease and looking for consistent patterns of memory loss, sleep disorder, and personality change. “It’s so important for all of us to get educated about dementia presentation,” she said. “Early diagnosis is so crucial.”

Cass Naugle, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Maryland, discussed how technology has improved treatment of the disease and emphasized the importance of developing a network of support to better understand the challenges associated with Alzheimer’s. “We can’t change the course of the disease, but we can change how we deal with it,” she asserted.

Ashley Campbell shared her personal experience of providing support for her father as he navigates the disease. “I have a job to do to help him with his transitions,” she said. “I keep the focus on him. I don’t have Alzheimer’s. It’s not about me. It’s about him.”

ILLBEME_ERK-9987Kim Campbell described her journey of a continual learning process that has gone through many different stages when caring for someone with Alzheimer’s and had advice for caregivers for monitoring their own health throughout the process. “You need to stay connected with friends, other people, and who you are. Often caregivers feel isolated,” she explained.

Judah Ronch, dean of the Erickson School, presented welcoming remarks for the event, and Jaclyn Harris, president and CEO of Integrace, moderated the panel discussion. The screening of “I’ll Be Me” followed the panel discussion, and Ashley Campbell closed the event with a moving acoustic performance. To view photos, click here.

UMBC: Tough Competition

Tough Competition

UMBC hosts national automotive engineering and design event, Baja SAE Maryland 2015.

One hundred teams, including 30 international teams from eight countries, gathered at Budds Creek Motocross Race Track for the action-packed Baja SAE Maryland 2015 competition, hosted May 7-10 by UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology and Department of Mechanical Engineering. The energy and excitement of the event were clear from the moment registration opened. Participant spots for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) competition were filled in just four minutes.

The UMBC Baja design, engineering, and racing team has become nationally recognized for exceptional performance over the past decade. This reputation led to SAE inviting UMBC to host this year’s Midwest event, one of three annual SAE competitions nationwide.

Most organizing universities have three years to prepare, but a last-minute location change to find the ideal track challenged UMBC’s organizing team to pull off the race with only six months to plan. The organizing committee, headed by Steven Storck ’08, ’09 M.S., ’14 Ph.D., mechanical engineering, brought together UMBC Baja alumni with representatives from University of Maryland, College Park and Johns Hopkins University to plan the event, with guidance from Neil Rothman, mechanical engineering graduate program director.

With their past competition experiences in mind, the organizing committee focused on what mattered most to participants: the race track and spectators. “Being a former Baja competitor, our main goal was to provide an exciting event that was focused around the engineering efforts of the student,” Storck shared.

The committee took an engineer’s approach to designing the race course to avoid potential scoring anomalies from tight turns and difficult obstacles. They also thought carefully about the race order, spending hours rearranging events and schedules to maximize the time competitors could display their hard work.

The committee also recognized that student participants want to share this experience, and the products of their work, with family and friends. They designed the race course so spectators could easily view the competing teams from one central location. Organizers also set up a high quality live webcast of the event to broaden the race’s audience. The livestream reached over 27,000 viewers in 124 countries. Videos of the entire first day and the Endurance Race are still available to view online.

During the competition, student teams presented their off-road race cars to engineering and business professionals, underwent strict technical inspections, and competed solo and wheel-to-wheel to prove their engineering skills. The organizers’ efforts paid off as events moved forward seamlessly. The wildly successful race garnered an unheard of 98% approval rating in a satisfaction survey following the event.

Sam Barill, head manager of SAE’s collegiate design series, praised the event, saying, “The Baja SAE competition recently held in Maryland and hosted by UMBC [demonstrated] top-notch organizing by Steven Storck and his group…and emphasized just how important these events are to the education and hands-on learning of future engineers.”

Neil Rothman, UMBC Baja team advisor, is enthusiastic about the skills students learn through participating in competitions like Baja SAE Maryland. “It is clear that engineering students benefit from experiential learning…hands-on activities where they can put engineering principles into practice,” he says.

“Baja is experiential learning on steroids,” Rothman explains. “This is ‘real engineering’ at its finest and the students who participate in Baja will stand out as those who understand how things should be designed and built. These are the skills companies are looking for.”

Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback from SAE, race participants, and families, UMBC has already started to explore hosting a future Baja race.

(6/17/2015)

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

Telehealth Now Available via the Alumni Insurance Program

Editor’s Note: This month, we’re sharing a message from our partners, Meyer and Associates.
PrintDon’t let getting sick spoil your workday or your travel plans. The UMBC Alumni Insurance Program now offers telehealth memberships with special pricing for alumni. Through this program, you can consult with board-certified doctors via phone, video or email – no matter where you are or what time it is. Whether you’re at home, at the office, or on the road, telehealth provides access to quality care, quickly and affordably.

Telehealth provides treatment for non-emergency ailments such as cold and flu, allergies, bronchitis, sprains and strains, pink-eye, and more. You can even receive prescriptions for many common health issues. Telehealth doctors are practicing U.S. board-certified primary care physicians, pediatricians, and family physicians who average 15 years of experience and are credentialed every three years.

Individual and family memberships provide unlimited use with no extra charges and no co-pays.To learn more, visit http://meyerandassoc.com/umbc or call our program partner at 888-252-2242.

UMBC UMBC
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 Directions & Parking

Resources

Important Contacts

Emergency Info

Contact Us

Apply

Top Stories of the Week

© UMBC: A University System of Maryland Member Institution