We admit it: we get a little sentimental around this time of year. You see, we’re in the final throes of the fiscal year, and it gets our minds spinning about all the things we love about UMBC: the people, the activities, the amazing research…everything.

Truth be told, all of the things we love were made possible, at least in part, by the support of our donors. And everything UMBC becomes in the future depends on our support just as much.

We think UMBC is worth it. Don’t you?

Please make your gift to UMBC by this Sunday, June 30, to make an immediate, lasting impact at UMBC.  Thank you!

Wondering how best to make a difference in students’ lives at UMBC? Check out these quick and easy tips for making your gift! Don’t forget: the fiscal year ends this Sunday, June 30.  Thanks so much for supporting UMBC!

ONLINE GIVING
You can quickly and easily make your gift online either on our crowdsourcing site, where you can directly support student scholarships and other student programs, or on our traditional giving site, where you can designate your gift any way you like!

CHECKS
Please make checks payable to the UMBC Foundation and mail to the UMBC Foundation at 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250.

GIFTS OF SECURITIES
Giving appreciated stock can be beneficial to UMBC and you. You may be eligible to take a charitable deduction for the market value of the securities, and could potentially benefit by avoiding capital gains tax and reducing your estate tax. You can request additional information about donating securities here.

PLANNED GIVING
Planned gifts can be a significant benefit to you, your family, and UMBC. Bequests, charitable gift annuities, and charitable remainder trusts offer donors a variety of ways to support the University. For more information, visit our Planned Giving website. You can also contact Kim Robinson, director of capital campaigns and donor relations, by phone at 410-455-3700 or by email at trowbrid@umbc.edu

GIFTS IN KIND
A gift of personal property includes equipment, inventory, books, works of art, or other tangible property. Gifts of personal property are accepted by UMBC. Gifts in kind can be used to benefit the university, an academic department, or program as designated by the donor. If you are interested in pursuing this type of gift, please call Kim Robinson, director of capital campaigns and donor relations, at 410-455-3700 or trowbrid@umbc.edu.

When students have the scholarship support they need, they can do AMAZING things. And during the month of June, we’re working hard to help students do just that — make the most of their time at UMBC, and change the world for the better, with the aid of scholarships. Our aim? To raise enough money to award 30 scholarships of $1,000. It’s a big goal, but you can help us reach it, and when you do, you’ll be helping students in need.

Today we’re featuring 2013 valedictorian and scholarship recipient Asif Majid ’13, interdisciplinary studies, who this fall is bound for Georgetown University to study conflict resolution. While at UMBC, Asif (a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar) not only wrote a play about Moroccan social justice issues while studying abroad in Morocco, he also participated in Model UN and served as a hand drummer in UMBC’s improvisational world music band and principal timpanist for the UMBC Symphony Orchestra.

Q: What did it mean to you and your family to be able to rely on scholarship support during your time at UMBC?

A:  Coming out of high school, one of my main considerations in choosing a university to attend was financial.  Simultaneously, I was concerned with having a sense of community, as close-knit as possible, while at UMBC.  As a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar, the financial support that I received from the program and the community support I received from my fellow scholars were essential parts of my UMBC experience.

Q:  Why did you choose UMBC?

A:  Rather than me choosing UMBC, I think that UMBC chose me.  Before and during my high school years, my father taught in the Mechanical Engineering Department, my sister was a Meyerhoff Scholar and Interdisciplinary Studies major, and my mother volunteered with the Meyerhoff Parents’ Association.  UMBC has been a constant presence in my life, and it seemed a natural fit when it came time to choose an undergraduate institution.  Receiving financial support from the school only sweetened the deal.

Q:  We know that students who receive the support they need can do amazing things at UMBC. What are you most proud of accomplishing in your time at UMBC?

A:  Though UMBC has afforded me many opportunities and given me support to be successful in many arenas, I would say that I am most humbled and honored to have achieved excellence within the Interdisciplinary Studies Department (INDS).  Designing my own major, conducting independent research through my capstone and social justice theatre project, integrating a study abroad experience into my undergraduate career, and making history as the first valedictorian from INDS are simply my way of saying thank you to the exceptional department that has been my home for the past four years.

Q:  How did it feel to be able to address your classmates as valedictorian?

A:  It is an impossible task to speak for anyone else, let alone to represent the experiences of thousands of students at a university as diverse as UMBC.  Holding fast to the idea that any good valedictory address is not about the valedictorian but about the graduates as a whole, I chose to speak in terms of ideas and principles such as risk-taking and remembering our origins.  Each graduate has a unique experience that is theirs alone, and I wanted to acknowledge that journey.

Q:  I understand you’re planning on studying conflict resolution at Georgetown. Where do you hope your studies take you?

A:  I feel that my life lines up alongside the motto of The Honors College: “Learning for Living.”  Infused with such an idea after my time at UMBC, I aim for my studies to propel me in the direction of being a conflict transformation scholar-practitioner.  This will involve working in the intersections of the performing arts, experiential education, conflict transformation, and humanitarian emergencies while also thinking, teaching, and writing about how to improve the conditions of others in conflict zones.  For me, the convergence of learning and living is an exciting interstitial space that I believe will characterize my future.

When students have the scholarship support they need, they can do AMAZING things. And during the month of June, we’re working hard to help students do just that — make the most of their time at UMBC, and change the world for the better, with the aid of scholarships. Our aim? To raise enough money to award 30 scholarships of $1,000. It’s a big goal, but you can help us reach it, and when you do, you’ll be helping students in need.

Today we’re featuring an outstanding scholarship winner and future teacher, Micaela Perez Ferrero ’13, political science, who received a number of scholarships while at UMBC, including the Alumni Association Scholarship, Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program, The Shattuck Family Entrepreneurial Scholars Program, and The UMBC Political Science Department.

Q:  How important is it for you to have received these scholarships?
A:  Without scholarships, I would not be at UMBC. Scholarships have not only allowed me to attend a 4 year university, but it also allowed me to attend UMBC. Scholarships have given me the opportunity to achieve my goals and dreams, and I am sincerely grateful for all those who have contributed to each of my scholarships.

Q: Why did you choose UMBC?
A: I decided to come to UMBC due to my acceptance into the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program. I knew that I wanted to spend my four years as an undergraduate surrounded by a community that believed in helping others and making change in order to improve communities.

Q: What’s the most amazing thing you’ve noticed so far?
A: The most amazing discovery that I have made as a student here is how willing faculty and staff want to help you achieve your dreams. This year, I have the opportunity to not only intern in New York City, but also study abroad in Costa Rica. I would have never have achieved either of these dreams without the support and encouragement from my professors.

Q: Is there a particular class that has really opened your eyes?
A: POLI 450, Seminar in Public Administration and Management, really opened my mind to the idea of working in the public sector. Along with my internships in non-profit organizations, this class helped me learn more about my future career interests and what it means to be an effective leader in the public realm.

Q: What are your plans for after graduation next spring?
A: After I graduate, I hope to be admitted into the Teach For America Corps. I interned with TFA this summer and felt truly inspired and motivated by their mission to provide all children with a quality education. I hope to also pursue a Master’s in Public Policy in order to further my career. Ultimately, I wish to work either for the government or a non-profit organization.

Q: What would you like to say to alumni who have supported your scholarships?
A: To the alumni who contributed to my scholarship: thank you. Your contribution not only allowed for me to be able to study abroad, but it also allows me to continue my education at UMBC. My entire undergraduate degree is based on scholarships and so your contribution is of extreme value to me.

Read more about Micaela on the Class of 2013 page.

Interested in helping students like Micaela? Give today.

When Dr. Shlomo Carmi – former Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology and professor of mechanical engineering – retired from UMBC this semester, he and his wife Rachel decided to give back to the university that has been such a big part of their lives for so many years.

Watch the video to learn more about why the Carmis give to UMBC.

In a final goodwill gesture to the Catonsville community, the recently disbanded Woman’s Club of Catonsville has donated $25,000 to establish a new endowment at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

In memory of 80 years of service to the Catonsville community, The Women’s Club of Catonsville Memorial Scholarship rewards UMBC students returning for their sophomore year and having maintained a 3.5 GPA, or higher. Preference will be given to candidates who have attended a public or private high school in the Catonsville area.

“The club has a strong history of putting money back into the Catonsville community,” said Paula Ray, former treasurer for the club. “UMBC has a very good reputation, and we are fortunate to have to such a fine institution in our back yard.”

Besides following the tradition of the Women’s Club, Ms. Ray says the donation was also a great way to memorialize the legacy of the club. “We really wanted a lasting endowment that the club would be remembered for.”

Most scholarships focus on the newly enrolled, but the members of the club wanted to highlight those students returning to campus to continue their studies. “The club wanted to see the money go to someone who had finished their first year, and done well,” said Ray.

UMBC plans to offer the scholarship to students beginning in fall 2014.

In his junior year at UMBC, Collin Wojciechowski ’13, political science, represented nearly 180,000 students within the University System of Maryland (USM) as their sole student representative on the Board of Regents. Wojciechowski advocated against “doomsday” budget cuts and tuition increases and successfully lobbied to overhaul the USM policy for assessing student fees, making students an active part of the discussion.

Without the aid of scholarships, he would never have been able to serve his fellow students in this way. We sat down with the newly graduated Sondheim Scholar to talk a little bit about the part scholarships have played in his life.

Help UMBC students do AMAZING things. Make a gift to the 30 Days/30 Scholarships campaign today!

Q:  How important was it to your college career to have the support of scholarships?

A:  Being the son of a firemen and a public school teacher and the oldest of three brothers who all aspire to seek higher education, having the support of a scholarship was extremely important to my college career.

Q:  Can you tell us a little about what it meant to you to be able to serve as the student regent, and then to continue working with legislators?

A:  If I did not have a scholarship, I would not have been able to be the USM Student Regent; it’s as simple as that. I only had the time and ability to serve at that post because I did not have to work a side job to pay for college.

Being the Student Regent was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. Representing students through such trying times as merger debate and the doomsday budget was the thrill of a lifetime. To then be able to take what I had learned on the Board and use it to represent Dr. Hrabowski in Annapolis was a dream. I have never had more fun then the Session I spent advocating for UMBC before legislators.

Q:  Has that work given you added insight into education funding, and if so, can you talk a little about the significance of alumni support of education in Maryland?

A:  Having been a member of the Advancement Committee of the USM Board of Regents, which oversees alumni giving, I feel I have a unique perspective on the significance that alumni support plays in higher education in Maryland. While our state, specifically Governor Martin O’Malley, has done tremendous things for public universities in terms of funding, student support and financial aid always need assistance. As students and their families continue to face economic difficulty it is up to the alumni base to ensure UMBC is a place welcoming to everyone.

Read more about Collin and his UMBC experiences on the Class of 2013 site.

FROM: Freeman Hrabowski, President, and Philip Rous, Provost
TO: The UMBC Community
RE: New Grants from the Hrabowski Fund for Innovation

We are delighted to announce the second set of projects to receive grants from the Hrabowski Fund for Innovation. These projects build on the strong commitment of our faculty to continually reimagine our students’ learning experiences.

The selection committee received a number of outstanding applications. The grant recipients were chosen by a committee comprised of faculty from each college, teaching award winners, and representatives from the Provost’s Office, Graduate School, and Office of Undergraduate Education. In selecting projects to fund, the committee sought initiatives that would address multiple courses or disciplines, respond broadly to student needs, affect student success or retention, and be sustainable.

Implementation and research grants

• Modeling as a Pedagogical Tool for the Life Sciences Curriculum– Led by Mauricio Bustos, associate professor of biological sciences, the team will use computer simulations of lab experiments to allow students in the biological sciences to focus on critical biology concepts rather than rote lab procedures. By removing the beakers, pipettes, and other distractions of the lab, the team hopes to enhance student focus on experiment design, observation, and interpretation.
• Enhancing Hands-On Problem-Solving across the Chemical Engineering Curriculum – A team led by Joshua Enszer, lecturer in chemical and biochemical engineering, will create a series of hands-on activities to connect a five-semester sequence of required courses in chemical engineering. The goal of the project is to show students how these separate courses are related, and enable them to see how the concepts they are learning in the classroom relate to the laboratory.

Seed grants

• Metacognitive Activity Promotions (MAPs) in Chemical Engineering Thinking – A team led by Mariajose Castellanos, assistant professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, will use sociological principles to examine the effect of written reflection exercises on students’ understanding of their chemical engineering coursework.

These projects join our first round of grant recipients in building on our strong history of finding novel approaches to teaching and scholarship. Established with major grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Heinz Awards, the Innovation Fund has also benefited from substantial support from alumni and friends, the local community and businesses, and state and national leaders. This support is a testament to the work we’ve already done and a vote of confidence for the national model we’re continuing to build.

The competition for the next round of Innovation Fund grants will be announced later this summer with a due date in fall. We want to thank everyone who has submitted a proposal, and encourage those whose proposals could not be funded in this round to apply again.

We are truly inspired by the creative ideas we hear each day and are delighted to be able to support more of them through this fund.

Greg Cangialosi ’96 (far right) talks with students about careers in the startup industry at the Betamore Startup Crawl, which he hosted in May.

As a master of marketing tech and entrepreneurship, UMBC alumnus Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, always seems to be two – or ten – steps ahead of pretty much everyone else. He has to be.

When many of us were still figuring out listservs, his vision for power e-marketing was already permanently changing the communications scene. When we finally started to grasp the concept of “the cloud,” he had already measured potential and created a community for big thinkers and even bigger collaboration. Follow him on Twitter, and it sometimes feels like time travel.

And yet, in the best of ways, Cangialosi is an old-fashioned guy with a timeless sense of what really matters. A generous volunteer, he embraces the three pillars of philanthropy – time, talent and treasure – and UMBC is all the better for it.

Last month month, Cangialosi made a five-year commitment to UMBC totaling $100,000 to support the creation of a business innovation competition and an endowment that will support student entrepreneurship initiatives, including everything from new courses, guest speakers and potential seed money for budding student start-ups.

“I have had wonderful experiences in all three realms of giving back and I think they are all important as they all make an impact,” said Cangialosi, who sold his start-up email marketing firm Blue Sky Factory in 2011 and recently co-founded Betamore, an 8,000 square foot “urban campus for entrepreneurship and technology, focused on three main areas, education, community and incubation” in Federal Hill.

“My recent experience, teaching, has given me the closest connection to the students, student life, and how many amazing things are happening on campus and around the university,” he said. “UMBC is moving forward, making things happen, and it’s great to be part of that momentum.”

Since his graduation in 1996, Cangialosi has played many roles as an alumnus and donor. He has judged UMBC’s annual Idea Competition, and served as a speaker for the Alex.Brown Center for Entreprenership and Career Week. A former member of the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors, he was named an Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in the Humanities in 2012. And last year, he taught “Entrepreneurial Marketing” at UMBC for the first time – an experience he found “challenging yet rewarding.”

“Greg’s relationship with campus has so many dimensions,” said Greg Simmons ’04, Vice President of Institutional Advancement.

“From his early days an entrepreneur – when he let us use his e-mail marketing platform to publicize university events like the IT Visionaries programs – to his work on the alumni board, he has always demonstrated great commitment and energy to finding ways to be supportive of UMBC.  Seeing him enjoy teaching has been great.  And this recent demonstration of his commitment – via philanthropy – shows a great alignment of UMBC’s efforts and his own value system.”

Cangialosi’s gift will further solidify UMBC’s entrepreneurship program, said Vivian Armor ’73, director of UMBC’s Alex.Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. She expects the Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition to become a major source of support and inspiration for students looking to become successful entrepreneuers.

“We’ll be able to create a very immersive experience for students,” including potential cash prizes for winning ideas, as well as structured mentorship opportunities, she said.

Through his teaching and connections to UMBC, Cangialosi has been able to further provide opportunities for students. Recently, Betamore hosted a “Startup Crawl” for more than 80 students from around Baltimore (including a couple dozen from UMBC) as a way of “getting students exposed to the startup scene here in Baltimore, and at the same time exposing new emerging companies to the amazing talent pool here in Baltimore,” Cangialosi said.

Twenty companies participated, all of whom were hiring either full time positions or internships. Students mixed and mingled, getting a taste for employment options they might not otherwise have considered.

“What I got out of it was great networking,” said newly-minted alumna Monica Berron ’13. “I had no idea we had a burgeoning entrepreneur community in Baltimore. I met a great group of women, for example, who have business called Drio who create website for bloggers and businesswomen, which is something I’m really interested in.”

“Aside from networking and meeting a lot of the founders, a portion of the Startup Crawl also included a session in which each company presented to all the attendees,” said senior Andrew Mavronicolas, who recently took Cangialosi’s class, and who is majoring in information systems with a minor in entrepreneurship. “From this, we not only learned about their companies, but some of the struggles they went through along the way.

Always looking ahead, Cangialosi is already hoping to host another Startup Crawl for the fall. And UMBC students will definitely be a part of it.

“I love UMBC first and foremost,” he said. “I am also a big believer in giving back and helping to make the places and the institutions that support you better and better. That happens by giving back.”

Learn more about entrepreneurship at UMBC here.

We’d just like to give a shout out and a warm THANK YOU to our amazing student callers. They’re revving up for end of fiscal year, so if your phone rings, be sure to give them a moment of your time and help them reach their goals. They’re so excited to talk with you about their beloved UMBC.

Give our student callers a shout out of your own on the UMBC Phonathon Facebook page!