All posts by: Magazine Editor

While a student at UMBC, Hasina Jamal Stearns ’09, computer engineering, founded the publishing company Fred & Barrel, Inc.  Now, the company’s first book, Guy, a philosophical play by Cinna, is available in the UMBC bookstore. Stearns is the editor-in-chief and illustrator.

Guy—a hybrid novel, play, and movie script—tells the story of Guy, a tall handsome tennis player who thinks deeply about mankind and life. At least, he does in the first act. He would continue to ruminate about such things if he weren’t so swamped with homework and projects. He spends most of his time in an old children’s insane asylum, which is now being used as a studio and research center by architecture students. One day, he decides not to return to campus and instead opts let his whim take him to wherever he is destined.

Other UMBC alumni contributed to the book: Truc Nguyen ’07 helped connect Stearns to its designer; Andrew Shoenfeld ’07 took the cover and illustration photos; Tim Brosius ’08 created the website and Hariklia Karagiannis ’09 edited the website.

Stearns is currently a graduate student at American University studying producing for film and video. One of her inspirations for this course of study is this book, which she hopes to turn into a movie.

Another book that Stearns hopes to eventually publish was written Jamie C. Heard, a UMBC student who passed away in 2008. She is working with Issa Legall ’09 to make this a reality.

– Originally published on UMBC Insights

Steven Fischer ’98, visual and performing arts, a filmmaker profiled with several other director alumni in the September 2011 issue of UMBC Magazine, has been interviewed by the Lincolnshire Review.

Read the Q&A in the Lincolnshire Review here.

The two-time Emmy-nominated writer/producer and the creator of Steve & Bluey recently released a new documentary entitled “Old School New School” in which he interviews artists he respects about the nature of creativity and how to sustain a career in the arts.

In photo:  Fred Weil, videographer, Steve Fischer, director, Brian Cox, actor and Chris Cassey, director of photography for “Old School New School.” Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

After spending most of his career working in tech management in busy New York, Eduard Berlin ’70, history, is returning to Baltimore to pursue a different path entirely — a life of books.

“We’ve always been a book family,” said Berlin, who along with his wife Ann took ownership of Baltimore’s Ivy Bookshop — an independent shop focusing on literary works and author events — at the start of the year.

“We’re really, really grateful that (bookstore founder) Darielle (Linehan) has the confidence in us to take this on,” said Berlin, noting that his wife has worked in publishing for 30 years. “We’re very, very excited.”

Read the Baltimore Sun’s report on the Berlins and the Ivy Bookshop here.

A member of UMBC’s first graduating class, Berlin is a member of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors and plans to get more involved with UMBC upon his return to Baltimore, he said.

From the entire UMBC community to you, our alumni, have a wonderful holiday season!

We hope you enjoy this short video featuring the UMBC Mama’s Boys singing “Let it Snow.”

-View the holiday e-card here.

Author and medical student Sheg Aranmolate ’05 has released his second book, a novel set in the African savannah entitled Bountiful Famine.

The story follows a young man through the memories of his childhood on a subsistence farm after awaking in the dark bound, injured and afflicted with amnesia.

Aranmolate “hopes to transport readers into a unique world and reveal not only some of the suffering of Africans, but also some of the rich culture and the joyful moments that are shared with family and friends,” he said.

A medical student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN, Aranmolate earned his bachelors in biochemistry and molecular biology (with a minor in psychology) from UMBC in 2005. In 2008 he was featured on the ABC television show, Oprah’s Big Give and appeared twice on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

– Read more about Aranmolate here.
– View a Memphis television interview with Aranmolate here.

A recent collaboration between UMBC’s New Media Studio, headed by Bill Shewbridge ’80, history, and the Erickson School resulted in a digital storytelling project pairing university students with seniors at the Charlestown Retirement Community. Shewbridge, Director of the New Media Studio, noted that the participation of freshman in the course inspired the theme of life transitions, the Catonsville Times reported.

Read the full story here.

“You can’t tell your life story in three minutes,” Shewbridge said, but the results are compelling. “They’re all different. Some are funny. Some are poignant. But they all have their own value and their own message.”

The digital stories are now also online for public viewing.

Baltimore entrepreneur Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, has set his sights on helping new tech companies take off and fly.

The founder of Blue Sky Factory, a tech marketing firm Cangialosi founded in 2001 and sold this year, will team up with Sean Lane, chief executive of BTS Corp., a software company in Baltimore, the Baltimore Sun reports:

Their goal: Make small investments in several startups, germinate their own ideas, and help nurture the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“We want to bring in bright people who are running companies, to help give them a shot in the arm,” Cangialosi said.

A former member of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors, Cangialosi has stayed involved with UMBC, most recently acting as a judge in the university’s entrepreneurially-inspired “IDEA competition.”

Read the full Baltimore Sun story here.

The Commons SportsZone was packed last month as finalists in UMBC’s 3rd annual Idea Competition — a bi-annual contest of entrepreneurial prowess — made their presentations to a panel of alumni judges and a standing room-only crowd of over 100 members of the UMBC community.

Forty ideas were originally submitted by students, with the top 10 selected for the final round. Winners were chosen by a combination of scores from the voting audience and the judging panel, consisting of three entrepreneurial alums: Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, CEO of Nucleus Ventures, LLC; Delali Dzirasa ’04, computer engineering, President of Fearless Solutions, LLC; and Jeehye Yun ’97, computer science, CEO and President of Secured Sciences Group.

UMBC alumnus and judge Greg Cangialosi was inspired by the innovative ideas from the students. He says, “It is truly inspiring to come back to UMBC as an entrepreneur and to see the amount of energy and the quality of the ideas coming out of the students on campus. The advancements in promoting entrepreneurship at UMBC have been incredible.”

Read more about the competition winners here.

All the winners won cash prizes: 1st place $750, 2nd place $500, 3rd place $250 and Most Creative $250. The Idea Competition was sponsored by the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and was part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a week where universities around the world celebrate entrepreneurship with activities and events for their students, faculty and alumni.