As UMBC heads into its 50th year, we’ve been looking back on our tales of grit and moments of greatness. What better time to do that than the Endowed Scholarship Luncheon, a yearly event where donors meet the students who’ve benefited from their contributions? Throughout this spring’s luncheon, speakers stressed the importance of investing in young people, and how education can bring forth greatness from humble beginnings.

Sylvia Brown came from such beginnings in rural Virginia, and said that she wouldn’t have been able to get where she is today – teacher, administrator, philanthropist – without the help of caring parents and teachers in her youth. She’s since dedicated much of her life to ensuring access and opportunities for young people across the Baltimore area. She and her husband Eddie Brown were some of the first donors to invest in the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, and they have provided abundant support to UMBC over the years.

Mrs. Brown spoke of the importance of giving, and said that it fills her with gratitude to see a beneficiary of her gifts turn around to help someone else. As she looked around the room at students sitting with the donors who funded their scholarships, she said, “I think it’s been working.”

Jackie Hrabowski, former faculty member at UMBC, current board member at T. Rowe Price, and wife of UMBC President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, also cited key influences from her childhood on her choice to give back. Her parents were known in their community for their generosity, and she remembered asking her father, as a teenager, why their family had to be the ones to help out all the time.

Her father answered, quite simply, “Because we can.”

The people who have established scholarship funds for UMBC students have done so not out of obligation, but because they could, because they wanted to invest in the success of future generations. Scholarship recipients, in turn, have a habit of paying it forward.

Awardees use their gifts not only to put themselves through school, but to give back to the institution and the community. One such beneficiary is Parker James ’16, health administration and policy, who, as a France-Merrick Fellow and Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar, co-created Students for a Healthy Baltimore, an organization that places undergraduate volunteers at health clinics throughout the city. He says these opportunities have affirmed his commitment to removing barriers to health care access for the underprivileged.

As Vice President of Institutional Advancement Greg Simmons ’04, M.P.P. public policy, put it, stories like these matter, and the establishment of endowed scholarships demonstrates the university’s commitment to elevation. Dr. Hrabowski agreed, citing UMBC’s contribution to the growth of the middle class and to the next generation of leaders.

As Dr. Hrabowski said, if we can do all this in 50 years, imagine where we’re headed next.

— Julia Celtnieks ’13

Give our students a hand, and pay it forward by making a gift today. For more photos from the event, head to Flickr.

Every day, kids in Maryland are at risk. These are kids who slip through the cracks, kids who, if given appropriate and individualized support, can be successful. That problem is one that a team at UMBC is trying to address through the Choice Program. The program’s mission is two-fold: it strives to invoke change and inspiration into lives of Maryland’s at-risk youth, and it also helps recent UMBC graduates become agents of change in our community.

“Every child of any race needs that village, that community to support him or her,” says UMBC president Dr. Freeman Hrabowski. That village is what Choice tries to provide through initiatives like the Intensive Advocacy Program (IAP), which provides a cost-efficient and effective alternative to the incarceration of youth. Through this program Choice partners with the Department of Juvenile Services to provide services like around-the-clock crisis intervention, legal advocacy, curfew checks, and structural and educational activities. Additionally, the Choice Program strives to keep children out of foster care by preserving the family unit through intensive mediation and informal counseling.

Through a partnership with the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, the program provides parental support; links to individual, group, and family counseling; and educational support services such as school visits, attendance monitoring, and school visits.

Another initiative is the Choice Jobs Program, which gives teens and young adults real-world work experience at the Choice Program’s Flying Fruit Fantasy stand in Camden Yards, kiosk in the Inner Harbor, and cafe at the University of Baltimore Law School. In addition to on-the-job learning, Choice staff also provide participants with individual and group readiness training by teaching time management, job search and interviewing skills, and much more.

At the same time that these programs are providing much-needed support for Maryland’s at-risk youth, they’re also offering unique opportunities for UMBC graduates through the Choice Service Learning Fellowship.  The Fellowship provides young professionals a launching pad for their careers by way of a stipend, extensive training, and professional experience. Instead of a job, Fellows are given a chance to learn about the environment and lifestyles of Maryland youth and how to bridge the gap between community, education, and the corporate world.

“The Choice Program takes experiential learning to the next level,” says Choice Program director LaMar Davis. “Our Community Service Learning Fellows are effecting real and meaningful change to our communities, while learning and becoming the next change agents who will lead our state in the 21st Century.”

The Choice Program at UMBC is effecting real change in our community, and they need your help to continue their critical work.  Whether you give of your time and talent as a volunteer, or make a monetary donation to the program, your support will make a real and lasting impact on Maryland’s youth.

-Samantha Hanssen ’15

Learn about how you can support the Choice Program.