As a Cybersecurity and Center for Women in Technology Scholar from São Paulo, Brazil, Priscila de Almeida Feitosa ’22, computer science, found like-minded classmates at UMBC—students who wanted to change the status quo of representation in technology fields.
At UMBC’s 2022 Presidential Faculty and Staff Awards (PFASA), Tamra Mendelson said she loves “getting to the core of a concept” in her research and teaching. As awardee after awardee addressed the audience, both in person and online, it became clear that all shared the same “core concept” of UMBC: community.
This award honors Ireland’s years mentoring and advocating for UMBC transfer students in information technology and engineering fields. It also brings greater visibility to UMBC’s transfer student population and to how the university can most effectively support their success.
A community of support welcomed Maygers to UMBC before she started classes freshman year. She thoughtfully grew that community during her time as a Retriever. Now, she’ll carry it with her to the next stage of her life and career.
Each graduating student’s path looks different. For many Retrievers, UMBC offers an opportunity to develop not just knowledge and skills, but also self-awareness that enables them to pursue personal passions. That self-awareness often means understanding what kinds of support made an impact on their experiences, and how they can lend support to those coming up behind them. Excellence for these seniors is about more than accolades; it is about succeeding together.
“We want to capitalize on this curiosity and diversity of perspectives,” says Helena Mentis. “Alongside technical skill development, every week we want to introduce challenges around ethics, equality, human behavior, and societal impact, reiterating that a fundamental component of development is thinking through implications.”
Many students come to UMBC with the goal of leaving the familiar behind to take on new challenges and gain a fresh perspective. Once they’re on campus, that’s also what inspires some Retrievers to explore international learning opportunities. Balancing course requirements, activities, research, and other responsibilities, while also pursuing study abroad, can prove challenging. But for these four UMBC students earning undergraduate degrees this month, it’s also been transformative.
With their hearts in the work and their ears to the ground, the people behind some of UMBC’s longest-standing homegrown programs are solving big societal problems. But the work is never done.
CSJ: Ignite takes place October 22 – 26, 2018. The week’s programs have been designed both to tap into the passion people already feel for issues that matter to them and to provide pathways for people who haven’t been engaged in traditional forms of activism to see opportunities to have an impact. “It’s about being able to share your strengths and skills for activism and social change, and being able to share the message with others,” says Jess Myers, director of UMBC’s Women’s Center.
After hours of intense competition in cyberspace, UMBC’s team emerged victorious, named champions of the college division of the 2018 Maryland Cyber Challenge.
A recent Business-Higher Education Forum report calls Maryland the “epicenter of national cybersecurity.” It found that the University System of Maryland (USM) has made great progress in increasing the number of students who earn degrees in cyber-related fields, and that programs like those at UMBC can help meet growing demand for cybersecurity professionals.
“UMBC has given me the confidence, connections, and support to be able to achieve my goals. Thanks to people I have met through this university, I’ve completed six engineering internships during my time at UMBC,” says Rutkowski.
