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Bringing the Peace Corps Home One lesson Katie Long brought home from volunteering in Honduras for the Peace Corps in 2005-07 is that fun and games can have a positive social and health impact on underserved communities. Long is now using recreation and fun to strengthen communities around Patterson Park in Baltimore as part of her public service placement as a graduate student in the Peaceworker Program at UMBC’s Shriver Center. The Peaceworker Program is designed to find ways for returning Peace Corps volunteers to serve their local communities when their missions abroad are completed. As the recreation and Latino… Continue Reading Bringing the Peace Corps Home

Your Sneaker, Your Self UMBC attracts students from many corners of the globe. And sneaker artist and media and communications major Martin Figueroa ’11, has figured out a way that these homesick students can remember that there’s no place like home. He’s painting the skylines of their hometowns – or any other image that represents their personal style – right onto their sneakers. Figueroa started drawing sketches on his own shoes when he was a senior in high school. Before long, friends asked if he would paint their shoes. Figueroa has now designed more than 25 pairs of shoes, with… Continue Reading Your Sneaker, Your Self

“UMBC Reflects and Acts” is a series of events commemorating the anniversary of Sept. 11, teach-ins hosted by UMBC faculty and staff and service events. Lessons of 9-11   On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, the UMBC community gathered for a campuswide teach-in. Faculty, staff and students came together to listen and learn from one another. Now as UMBC marks the first anniversary of September 11, faculty members with expertise on terrorism and American/Middle East relations reflect on the issues surrounding the 9-11 attacks. For a complete listing of UMBC events remembering 9-11, including teach-ins by many of the… Continue Reading Lessons of 9-11

Instrument for Expression The upcoming concert by the Baltimore Dance Project is more than a performance – it’s an investigation of the human body. Featuring the work of choreographers Carol Hess (associate professor and chair of the Department of Dance), Doug Hamby (associate professor of dance) and Sandra Lacy (instructor), the concert examines the human body in time and motion. For this group of choreographers, dance and research are intrinsically linked – especially through the exploration of the body. “Dance research is the investigation of the human body and its physical limits as a kinetic object/machine and as an instrument… Continue Reading Instrument for Expression

Making Leadership History Three women students now hold leadership positions on campus, but none of them care — about being women, that is. While Yasmin Karimian (SGA president), Jen Kent (SGA vice president) and Gaby Arevalo (Retriever Weekly editor) care about the history they’ve made, they’re more interested in their work. The 2009-10 academic year marks the first time in UMBC history that three females hold these top campus positions at one time, including the first female duo in the SGA. “While I think it’s wonderful that Yasmin, Jen and I are all women and minorities that isn’t what we’re… Continue Reading Making Leadership History

Preview UMBC’s Homepage “Refresh” On Friday, August 28, UMBC will launch a “refreshed” version of its homepage in order to provide a better user experience for the variety of visitors that use the page. “Our last full redesign launched in August 2006 and since then we have been challenged with keeping an increasing amount of content organized on the page. The new page provides new, clearer content areas for a cleaner look. We also want to give users access to the many ways people can connect with the UMBC community through our social networking sites,” said Eleanor Lewis, senior communications… Continue Reading Preview UMBC’s Homepage “Refresh”

Venus, If You Will Many theatre companies are born out of a mixture of inspiration and frustration. Take The Venus Theatre in Laurel, for instance. When its founder, Deborah Randall ’94, theatre, graduated from UMBC, she pursued a career as a playwright and a performer in Washington, D.C. Like many recent graduates, Randall had a desire to succeed in a challenging profession. But she also found some of the roles she played and the theatrical atmosphere that surrounded her to be stifling her creativity. She craved a theatre that valued women and living playwrights. Randall recalls UMBC theatre professor Wendy… Continue Reading Venus, If You Will