Our UMBC Phonathon student callers are a vital part of our organization. We recently asked a few of our graduating seniors–who are now some of our newest alumni–to tell us what they loved most about UMBC and where they’re going next!

 “I have grown to appreciate UMBC because of its small size. Here at UMBC I have made many personal and professional connections that I attribute to the close-knit community.” ~Bernadette Amihere ’15

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“There are some awesome professors at this university who educate like it’s their passion, not their job.” ~Dan Armstrong

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“I hope to find a great-paying job that I enjoy doing and that involves solving environmental issues.” ~Kara Lopez

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“I plan on going to graduate school to obtain a Masters in Public Health and a focus on Epidemiology.” ~Jessica Aname

Editor’s note: Here at UMBC, our students are the heartbeat of campus, and we are committed to providing them the best possible education. So, for the month of March, we will be highlighting our amazing academic departments, some of their recent achievements, and ways that you can help fund their continued excellence.

Your gift is extremely important and many of our students are depending on you. Please show your support and make an impact today. With you we can make a difference.

The Chemistry and Biochemistry department is proud to announce that last year 76 B.S., 4 M.S., and 4 Ph.D. students joined the ranks of its illustrious alumni; almost 50% were female students and 30% were from underrepresented groups. The department would also like to welcome Dr. Zeev Rosenzweig as its new chair. Before coming to UMBC, Dr. Rosenzweig served eight years as program director at the National Science Foundation Chemistry Division.

With your help, the Chemistry and Biochemistry department can continue supporting undergraduate research and supplying new equipment to our students.

Click here to donate.

The Mathematics and Statistics department is pleased to announce that Dr. Bedřich Sousedík will be joining the faculty this fall. Before to coming to UMBC, Dr. Sousedík was a research associate at the University of Southern California and the University of Maryland, College Park. The department is also pleased to announce that the 9th Annual Probability and Statistics Day will be held this spring; the event is funded by the National Security Agency and will consist of workshops and a one-day conference.

With your help, the Mathematics and Statistics department can continue awarding scholarships and funding student trips to national conferences.

Click here to donate.

The Physics department would like to welcome its 10 new Ph.D. candidates: Reed Espinosa, Daniel Miller, Daniel Orozco, and John Sullivan are candidates in the atmospheric program; Fernando Calderon Vargas, John Diehl, Alex Henegar, Garrett Hickman, Diana Marcu, and Jane Sprigg are candidates in the physics program. The department is also proud to announce that its Atmospheric Physics graduate program is in the process of performing collaborative research with NASA and NOAA.

With your help, the Physics department can continue supporting undergraduate and graduate research and awarding scholarships.

Click here to donate.

Editor’s note: Here at UMBC, our students are the heartbeat of campus, and we are committed to providing them the best possible education. So, for the month of March, we will be highlighting our amazing academic departments, some of their recent achievements, and ways that you can help fund their continued excellence.

Your gift is extremely important and many of our students are depending on you. Please show your support and make an impact today. With you we can make a difference.

The Chemistry and Biochemistry department is proud to announce that last year 76 B.S., 4 M.S., and 4 Ph.D. students joined the ranks of its illustrious alumni; almost 50% were female students and 30% were from underrepresented groups. The department would also like to welcome Dr. Zeev Rosenzweig as its new chair. Before coming to UMBC, Dr. Rosenzweig served eight years as program director at the National Science Foundation Chemistry Division.

With your help, the Chemistry and Biochemistry department can continue supporting undergraduate research and supplying new equipment to our students.

Click here to donate.

The Mathematics and Statistics department is pleased to announce that Dr. Bedřich Sousedík will be joining the faculty this fall. Before to coming to UMBC, Dr. Sousedík was a research associate at the University of Southern California and the University of Maryland, College Park. The department is also pleased to announce that the 9th Annual Probability and Statistics Day will be held this spring; the event is funded by the National Security Agency and will consist of workshops and a one-day conference.

With your help, the Mathematics and Statistics department can continue awarding scholarships and funding student trips to national conferences.

Click here to donate.

The Physics department would like to welcome its 10 new Ph.D. candidates: Reed Espinosa, Daniel Miller, Daniel Orozco, and John Sullivan are candidates in the atmospheric program; Fernando Calderon Vargas, John Diehl, Alex Henegar, Garrett Hickman, Diana Marcu, and Jane Sprigg are candidates in the physics program. The department is also proud to announce that its Atmospheric Physics graduate program is in the process of performing collaborative research with NASA and NOAA.

With your help, the Physics department can continue supporting undergraduate and graduate research and awarding scholarships.

Click here to donate.

Catherine Weber ( center)) with Dean William LaCourse and Carl Weber Excellence in Teaching Award recipients

Each year at UMBC, a faculty member is chosen to receive the Carl Weber Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching Award. It honors a faculty member from the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics for exceptional dedication to teaching as demonstrated by his or her enthusiasm, up-to-date teaching materials, effective mentoring, community service in the teaching area, approachability, rigorous learning requirements, coherent teaching philosophy and inspirational teaching style.

The award was established in 2006 by his family in memory of Dr. Weber, Assistant Professor Emeritus and founding faculty member in the UMBC Department of Biological Sciences, as a tribute to his passion for teaching.

“Carl’s enthusiasm for his teaching was infectious,” says Mrs. Weber. She adds that it’s plain to see why each award winner has been chosen throughout the years. “They’re very inspiring enthusiastic teachers. Each one has been doing something innovative as teachers.”

The award has now been given for eight years. In addition to the endowment, a number of people, including Mrs. Weber, have continued to provide annual support for the award. It has successfully created a lasting legacy for Dr. Weber, and it has also given Mrs. Weber an ongoing connection to the UMBC community.

Each year, she has a chance to meet the award recipients. “That has been very nice for me,” she explained. “It keeps his memory fresh, and it’s very gratifying to see the wonderful people who are being honored.”

Now, Mrs. Weber has taken another step to continue support for the award through a trust she created in her estate plans. It’s a contribution that will play an important role in ensuring that Dr. Weber’s passion for teaching continues at UMBC, as the award encourages and honors new and innovative approaches in the classroom for years to come.

For Mrs. Weber, it’s not only another measure of support in memory of her husband, it’s also a very practical matter of planning ahead. “I established the trust to support the ongoing recognition enabled by the award,” says Weber.

Learn more about planned giving.

Catherine Weber ( center)) with Dean William LaCourse and Carl Weber Excellence in Teaching Award recipients

Each year at UMBC, a faculty member is chosen to receive the Carl Weber Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching Award. It honors a faculty member from the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics for exceptional dedication to teaching as demonstrated by his or her enthusiasm, up-to-date teaching materials, effective mentoring, community service in the teaching area, approachability, rigorous learning requirements, coherent teaching philosophy and inspirational teaching style.

The award was established in 2006 by his family in memory of Dr. Weber, Assistant Professor Emeritus and founding faculty member in the UMBC Department of Biological Sciences, as a tribute to his passion for teaching.

“Carl’s enthusiasm for his teaching was infectious,” says Mrs. Weber. She adds that it’s plain to see why each award winner has been chosen throughout the years. “They’re very inspiring enthusiastic teachers. Each one has been doing something innovative as teachers.”

The award has now been given for eight years. In addition to the endowment, a number of people, including Mrs. Weber, have continued to provide annual support for the award. It has successfully created a lasting legacy for Dr. Weber, and it has also given Mrs. Weber an ongoing connection to the UMBC community.

Each year, she has a chance to meet the award recipients. “That has been very nice for me,” she explained. “It keeps his memory fresh, and it’s very gratifying to see the wonderful people who are being honored.”

Now, Mrs. Weber has taken another step to continue support for the award through a trust she created in her estate plans. It’s a contribution that will play an important role in ensuring that Dr. Weber’s passion for teaching continues at UMBC, as the award encourages and honors new and innovative approaches in the classroom for years to come.

For Mrs. Weber, it’s not only another measure of support in memory of her husband, it’s also a very practical matter of planning ahead. “I established the trust to support the ongoing recognition enabled by the award,” says Weber.

Learn more about planned giving.

Since UMBC opened its doors in September of 1966, a lot has changed. Thanks to donors like you, this place has grown and expanded in unbelievable ways. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the focus on a well-rounded college experience. From sunrise to sunset, UMBC hums with activity. Students shift from class, research and creative endeavors to sporting events, festivals and concerts. They work together everyday to build a vibrant and dynamic campus community. Just like there is no typical day at UMBC, there is no typical UMBC student. So we thought you might enjoy the chance to catch a glimpse at today’s UMBC through the eyes of one of those students, Tolu Omokehinde, a Meyerhoff Scholar and Biochemistry major with a passion for time lapse photography.

Take a moment to invest in students like Tolu.

If you spend any time at UMBC, it doesn’t take long to realize that Retrievers are remarkable people. They are smart and creative and they care about their communities.

We are so proud of and thankful for those who give of their time, talent and treasure at UMBC, in our community, and around the world. So, in honor of National Philanthropy Day, we wanted to recognize just a few of the ways that Retrievers give back:

Denene Yates ’10,  health administration
Yates, a Newcombe Scholar, has made a career of helping others. During her time at UMBC, with the aid of a professor, she founded a non-profit organization called Safe House of Hope in the Curtis Bay. Through this, Yates works to assist sex-trafficking victims and those engaged in prostitution in their efforts to become vital, healthy members of the community. Her work has been so critical that she was named a 2013 fellow of the Open Society Institute – Baltimore.

Lee Blaney, assistant professor, and the students of Engineers Without Borders-UMBC
Blaney and the student members of Engineers Without Borders are changing lives across the globe. This January, they’ll travel to Isongo, Kenya, to install a clean water system to provide sanitation and hygiene information to the residents. “Helping communities in need is exactly why the students in this group give so much of their time and energy. Engineers Without Borders projects are great because the ultimate goal is to give the project over to the community,” explains Michael Brown, a student engineer. Learn about the project (and how you can help!).

Visual arts students and associate professor Stephen Bradley
Bradley and his students became mentors and brought art into the community through a mural project with Masonville Cove and students at Benjamin Franklin High School. Students worked on various designs for the mural that would remind the visitors to MCEEC of the fragile ecology of the place and to improve the visual landscape. Throughout the creation of the mural, the UMBC students found themselves talking and making art with the BFHS students working through their anxiety and contending with other obstacles they face in their lives.  Learn more about the project.

Madie Eshete ’07, biological sciences
For many of us, a 30th birthday celebration means balloons, presents and parties with friends and family. For Eshete, however, the milestone birthday meant a lasting change for hundreds of rural Ethiopians without access to clean water. A first-generation Ethiopian-American, Eshete raised more than $10,000 for charity:water, which aims to help an estimated 800 million people worldwide without access to clean water by providing freshwater wells, rainwater catchments, sand filters and other lasting solutions. Read more.

Rugby alumni
UMBC Rugby players past and present joined together for the first UMBC Rugby Day of Service, partnering with Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake and Habitat for Humanity Sandtown to demolish and clean up one site, and to build a new home on another.  Close to 30 players from the men’s and women’s club participated. “As an organization, we were looking for an event that would allow us to bring all of the teams together, past and present, to do something positive in the greater Baltimore community,” said Tracy Williams, Jr. ’06. Learn more.

How do you give back to your community?

Tell us on Facebook or Twitter!

Every so often, we like to ask our donors why they chose to support UMBC, and what makes their connection the University special. Recently, we spoke with Professor Bimal Sinha, who founded the statistics graduate program at UMBC. Dr. Sinha also created an
endowment fund for both undergraduate and graduate statistics students entitled the Dr. Bimal and Mrs. Suchandra Sinha Endowment for Excellence in Statistics.

Every so often, we highlight the importance of student scholarships by introducing you to the very students they help to succeed. Today, we’re speaking with Polly Muangrat, information systems and English literature, who recently received the Aol Advertising.com Scholarship.

Name: Polly Muangrat ’14
Major(s): Information Systems B.S. and English Literature B.A.
Scholarship(s): NSF SFS CyberCorps Scholar, Aol Advertising.com Scholarship, COEIT Vijay Jose Scholarship, Alumni Association Award

Polly Muangrat with Charles Butler, VP of Technical Operations

Q: Why did you decide to attend UMBC?

I wanted to attend UMBC most of all because of the environment and the programs offered. By environment, I mean that when I visited, the first thing I saw was the staggeringly enormous Humans v. Zombies team thundering across Erickson Field. And I loved that. Just walking around the Commons, I saw so many different groups of people, different ethnicities and languages being spoken. I knew UMBC would be a school where you could be yourself and do the things that made you happy, which transcends across to the freedom in educational pursuits here as well. I get surprised looks during interviews when recruiters see that I’m both in STEM and Humanities, which is made possible by UMBC’s truly inspiring and challenging English courses and IS courses.

Q:  What has been the most amazing discovery you’ve made so far as a student here?

The amount of resources UMBC offers its students, especially in terms of post-graduate career seeking, internships and research opportunities. Different departments offer a lot of help, like Career Services, or the Office of Institutional Advancement. As a first generation college student, I never really knew how the corporate world worked, except for what I saw in “The Office.” My parents are not part of the corporate world, so my first internship was an invaluable experience to me. I find myself thinking about all of the career fairs and UMBCworks posts that I should be taking advantage of, and remind myself that without these resources, I would be desperately combing Craigslist or Monster.

Q:  Tell us about a class or club that has really opened your mind (and why)…

I have a great admiration for usability, interface design and the general field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), all topics covered in my IS 303 and 403 classes, taught by Dr. Ravi Kuber and Dr. Shaun Kane, respectively. I think a lot of developers and programmers forget a certain human factor in the designs of everyday hardware or software, which can lead to wasted time and unfortunate future consequences. This missing step fascinates me, and these two classes really helped me see the glaring problems in technology design, and challenged me to create solutions.

Pretty much any English Literature course I take inspires me, and really reminds me how to think and communicate. There is a way that novels can access all of the human thought process that textbooks cannot.

Q:  What do you hope to do after graduation, and why?

After graduation, I hope to obtain a position within the US Department of Defense, which is a part of my scholarship requirement. I would really love to understand more of the crucial vulnerabilities in national information security, and to be a part of generating working, long-term solutions and defenses. It will also be a great starting point for me, first to help decide whether I prefer the private or public sector.

Q:  How important is it to you as a student to get scholarship support?

Scholarship support is the reason that I can hope to receive higher education, both financially and mentally. Mentally, a scholarship acts to me as a commendation of my academic and personal achievements. Receiving an award is the support and figurative “high five” that keeps me going; it assures me that I am on the right path, that I am doing the right things. I’ll remember this feeling of gratitude and pride, and hopefully be able to give another future student, somewhere, the same feeling.

Q:  What would you say to the people at the company who provided your scholarship?

I would just like to say, first, a very warm thank you. Thank you for giving me the ability to pursue my educational goals, and for investing interest and support in me. Just knowing that hard work will pay off, and has paid off, is instrumental in motivating me forward to work harder, accomplish more achievements and set strong, reachable goals.

TO: The UMBC Campus Community

FROM: Diane Lee, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, and Greg Simmons, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

RE: Naming Academic IV for Generous Supporters of UMBC

We are delighted to announce that the USM Board of Regents have approved UMBC’s request to officially name Academic IV after George and Betsy Sherman, in honor of their generous support of the University. Over nearly 20 years, the Shermans have committed more than $10 million to help strengthen our efforts increase the number of well-prepared, highly qualified teachers committed to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in high-needs school throughout the Greater Baltimore region.

In 2007, the Shermans partnered with UMBC to start the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program, which is dedicated to growing the number of highly-qualified STEM teachers working in urban school districts by providing scholarships, intensive advising, and robust peer support and mentorship. Dozens of Sherman Scholar alumni are now working in Baltimore City Public Schools.

The Shermans’ most recent gift commitment, a $1-million pledge, will enable UMBC and the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program to deepen its connection to city schools through a multi-year partnership with Lakeland Elementary and Middle School in southwest Baltimore. Sherman Scholars, along with Shriver Center Peaceworkers and Choice Program caseworkers, will work with school leadership to develop school- and family-centered strategies that address student and community needs.

In appreciation of the Shermans’ generosity, and in recognition of our shared commitment to the power of education to transform lives, Academic IV will be renamed “Sherman Hall.” In the tradition of the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Chemistry Building and Janet and Walter Sondheim Hall, signage throughout the building will be changed and donor plaques will be introduced. Work will begin over the summer, with the building officially assuming its new name at the beginning of fall 2013.

A formal dedication ceremony will be planned for the fall, and we will share that information in a follow up communication in the coming weeks.