The list of required props for Irish dramatist Martin McDonagh’s black comedy The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001) indicates just what murderous mayhem awaits its audience: “Dead black cat; Dead ginger cat; 3 guns; Wooden cross; Dismembered corpses.”

By the end of Inishmore, both the stage and the actors are drenched in sanguinary slaughter. Yet the play is a comedy – absurd, hilarious, and aimed at stripping away the glory from Ireland’s senseless sectarian violence.

In a much-acclaimed recent production of Inishmore by Northern Virginia’s Signature Theatre, Matthew McGloin ’05, theatre, garnered critical raves for his performance as Davey – a hapless lad trapped in a bloodbath set off by the death of a revolutionary sociopath’s beloved cat. In the course of the play’s events, Davey is bullied, tied up, shot (twice) and shorn of his long red locks. (The latter event horrifies him most of all.)

“He’s such an innocent character,” says McGloin. “He’s the one who is really affected by the things that happen to him.”

Actors may be tempted to play Davey as a village idiot-in-training, but McGloin chose a different path – portraying a young man so sensitive and single-minded that he is perpetually startled by any occurrence, mundane or malevolent.

McGloin gives credit to his director, Jeremy Skidmore, for locating Davey in a fog of daft dizziness.

“It’s too easy,” he says. “It’s pandering to the seemingly obvious on the page. That he is stupid. I think he’s just very invested at one thing at one moment in time, so invested that he misses things that might be picked up by other people. But he also picks up things that other people don’t pick up on.”

Inishmore held other challenges for McGloin and the rest of the cast. The play stretches the boundaries of realistic stage violence to their furthest limits, including multiple gunshots, animals (live and dead), body parts, and buckets of blood.

“The whole gore aspect was difficult at first,” McGloin says. “It was even physically uncomfortable, and would take me out of the scene.”

The blood, he adds, was particularly difficult to navigate. “If it’s too thin, it doesn’t feel right,” McGloin says. “If it’s too thick, you feel covered in Jello.”

McGloin has won a number of professional roles since graduating summa cum laude in 2005, including appearances at the Kennedy Center, the Folger Theater, Synetic Theatre and the Virginia Shakespeare Festival.

“I loved the Theater Department,” McGloin says. “It was the first time I’d received formal training. It was a birth into the world of theater and finding out what it’s like….Theater socialization is its own weird thing, because you work and play with the same people. And then it ends. And you go off and do it again. But your work is your play.”

McGloin recalls that his first acting role at UMBC was in a March 2002 production of the Christopher Durang play, The Baby with the Bathwater. But he says that the range of productions in which he appeared as a student – including productions of Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano and Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing – provided a challenging range of genre for a young actor.

“Surrealism, realism, absurdism, puppetry and Shakespeare,” says McGloin. “That’s a pretty good gamut as far as I’m concerned.”

With Inishmore now a bloody memory, McGloin is now appearing at the Kennedy Center in a much cheerier production: Unleashed: The Secret Lives of White House Pets.

“I play a Chihuahua,” says McGloin with a grin.

– Richard Byrne ’86

Sondheim Scholar Ari Ne’eman has plunged headlong into the maelstrom of controversy over autism. His goal? To give autistics – including himself – a significant voice in the debate.

By Mat Edelson

Staring over a plate of Crispy Beef, Ari Ne’eman is contemplating extinction. Not only his own extinction, but that of everyone just like him.

Everyone with autism.

Ne’eman is dead serious. So much so that he created the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) to take on the medical establishment’s thinking about one of the most complex and contentious diagnostic categories in contemporary medicine.

“We’re willing to spend millions to ‘cure’ autism,” says Ne’eman, who started ASAN as a freshman at UMBC. “There’s a high possibility this research will lead to pre-natal tests and selective abortions.” To back up his assertion, he cites studies showing that 90 percent of pregnancies are terminated when the pre-natal fetuses test positive for Down’s syndrome, Spina Bifida, and other developmental conditions.

Now a junior at the university, Ne’eman has built his network into a prominent voice in the autism wars. Too often, he says, the voices of those with autism are supplanted or diminished by those who do not have it. Ne’eman is especially troubled by those who argue that autism is a disorder to be eradicated – and not a culture to be embraced.

“Nothing about us without us,” is ASAN’s motto. And it is a message that Ne’eman has taken nationwide with an evangelistic fervor that has surprised his mentors and administrators.

“He’s incredibly impressive,” says Carolyn Forestiere, an assistant professor of political science at UMBC. “It feels like every other week, Ari’s in some magazine or on a news program. I’m not talking local; I’m talking national coverage.”

Indeed, Ne’eman’s activism has him flying around the country appearing before educators, legislators…anyone whom he feels needs to hear his message. And National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and New York magazine are among the news organizations that have provided a forum for a young man they’ve described as being at the forefront of the autism advocacy movement.

Ne’eman, 21, says he is compelled to speak so often to so many for a simple reason: He knows what it’s like to have been spoken for.

It doesn’t work.

Exile from Mainstream

By the time he was 14 years-old, Ari Ne’eman came to a realization: If he didn’t start advocating for himself, he recalls, he was “going to rot.”

Ne’eman recounts his story in a nearly deserted Chinese restaurant on Frederick Road that is edging towards closing time. Though his voice is quiet and measured, his matter-of-fact recitation only seems to amplify the pain woven into his tale.

In 2000, Ne’eman was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. It was a term relatively new to the established autistic spectrum at that time. Unlike so-called ‘high functioning’ autistics, who are often diagnosed as toddlers, many individuals with Asperger’s often are identified much later in their development. (In Ari’s case, the diagnosis did not come until he was nearly out of elementary school.)

Clumsiness is one tip-off to Aspberger’s. The ability to speak well, and yet still perform below par in school, is another. And the social dysfunction that accompanies it, though not nearly as marked as it is in so-called “low functioning” autistic children – many of whom shriek constantly and can be uncontrollable – can still be disabling without extensive assistance and therapy.

Such classifications may help clinicians and therapists, but Ne’eman and many others with autism find such labels problematic.

“I never like the terms ‘high’ and ‘low’ functioning,” he says. “If you state that the ‘high functioning’ people are better than the ‘low functioning’ people, then the implicit message is that the ‘normal’ people are better than all of them.”

The most profound consequence of the Aspberger’s diagnosis for Ari was a three-hour roundtrip journey each day to a New Jersey public high school populated by kids with every emotional and mental diagnosis under the sun.

Ari’s mother, Rina Ne’eman, says that the decision to send her son to that particular school – which emphasized social skills over academics – was agonizing. Her son was struggling tremendously in a mainstreamed high school, and extensive research on Rina’s part to find a better environment for Ari came down to two no-win alternatives.

“It became rapidly apparent that it was next to impossible to find a placement that could cater to Ari’s social needs and his outstanding academic intellect,” she recalls. “We had to make a choice. It was unfortunate.” She observes that Ari’s deficiencies in recognizing non-verbal communication were akin to the problem that dyslexic children have processing written language. “Dyslexic children have to work extra hard to learn language cues. Kids with Asperger’s have to do the same with social cues.”

In retrospect, Ari says he did get obtain some benefit from the school. But at the time, he saw it as nothing short of a dumping ground for kids for whom the system’s highest goal was “normalization.” One look at his classmates, kids who never quite ‘fit’ the norm, and he felt the subtext of the place pulse through his bones like dissonant tympani: Forget your own wants, your own desires and dreams; we’re here to teach you how to stay the heck out of the way.

Staying out of the way – or fitting in – had always been hard. As a small boy in private school, his laser-like and inquisitive mind was already light-years ahead of his mates. But Ari was operating in only two dimensions, and his as-yet unrecognized autism wreaked havoc on his social and emotional development.

“He was horribly bullied,” recalls Rina Ne’eman.

Compounding Ari’s problems were a hodgepodge of misdiagnoses common to autistics –including attention deficit disorder – that left him confused and frustrated and carrying a bulls-eye on his back in the schoolyard.

“I was ostracized. I didn’t understand why,” he says. But time has given him some perspective on his young classmates. “To be fair, my interests were vastly different than theirs,” he says. “I wanted to talk about paleontology. It was one of my earliest perseverations. I brought a newspaper to school. In the first grade. They just wanted to talk about when they had seen on TV last night.”

Ne’eman felt himself slowly being pulled away from mainstream education. When the Jewish day school he attended couldn’t easily provide the full range of speech, occupational, and psychological services that can help autistic students realize their potential, Ne’eman moved into public junior high schools.

Much was promised to Ari and his concerned and involved parents in the way of services and support. “Ari was given an aide who shadowed him his first year, helping him in social situations,” says Rina Ne’eman. But it soon became apparent that a shadow wasn’t a substitute for an integrative supportive program. In truth, his public school administrators were insuring that Ne’eman was on his way to becoming, in author Douglas Adams’ insightful acronym, an S.E.P.: Somebody Else’s Problem.

Ari’s transfer to the special-ed high school two years later only confirmed his suspicions that he was being academically exiled. “I was moved into an environment that wasn’t designed to help me,” says Ne’eman. “We were being written off because of what society expects of people with disabilities. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The assumption was ‘these are special education students; they’re not going to be able to achieve at the same level so we’re not going to provide them with access to the same kind of opportunities academically. We’re going to focus on teaching them how to act normal, using a heavy social skills curriculum.’ In reality, it amounted more to day care than a real education.”

A Way Back In

If the system was attempting to put Ari into check, it underestimated its opponent. In the end, his masterful manipulation of the pieces available to him—his teachers, case workers, and administrators—got him back in the academic game.

Playing various professionals in his educational ecosystem off against each other, Ne’eman and his parents had two case managers dismissed until landing a more sympathetic manager.

Then Ari plead his case to school officials to take just one class at the mainstream high school near his home. In the face of his determination, officials acquiesced.

With one foot in the door of that high school, Ari arranged for his mainstream class to be the last one of the day. Thus, he could quietly slip into extracurricular activities including Model U.N, the economics team, and other academic competitions. Soon the faculty advisors to these clubs were wondering who this wunderkind was. And, better yet, would Ari like to take regular classes with them?

“Sure,” answered Ne’eman, coyly adding that it would sure be helpful if the teachers would pass their request directly to his case manager.

By the 11th grade, Ne’eman was fully mainstreamed again. Almost. His advisors felt it was unrealistic for a special education student to take any Advanced Placement courses. But he argued in his way into two such classes and studied three more on his own, scoring five out of five in a menu of A.P. courses including comparative politics, European and American history, and English Literature.

At the same time, Ari became more adept at negotiating social conventions. Soon, he felt comfortable enough to take his first steps as an activist. Ne’eman’s parents hired a consultant to help him transition back into the mainstream. The consultant was planning to attend an educational conference on special education reform at the College of New Jersey, and knowing Ari’s erudition, he invited Ne’eman to sit on a panel and address the attendees.

“I was nervous, but I knew what I wanted to say,” recalls Ne’eman. “I wrote out a speech before hand but I kept making revisions. At the last minute I tossed it out and just spoke for fifteen minutes off the cuff, and it worked out really well.”

That’s an understatement. Ari left the conference with a Blackberry full of speaking engagements and a path to his eventual appointment by New Jersey’s governor, Jon Corzine, to the New Jersey Special Education Review Commission.

But as his mother picked him from the conference, they had a more immediate journey in mind. They were heading down I-95 that evening, to visit a university that had caught Ari’s eye.

They were headed to Catonsville. There, the offer of a Sondheim Scholarship, a political science/public policy education, and the chance to publish research as an undergraduate was an irresistible lure, a place—perhaps the place–that would allow his activism to blossom.

Ari Ne’eman knew that at UMBC, his voice would be heard.

Debating Difference

“I am abnormal,” admits Ari Ne’eman, between sips of green tea at the restaurant. “I don’t have a problem with that.”

How abnormal Ne’eman and others with Asperger’s Syndrome are is the cause of considerable debate. (See “Stormy Spectrum.”) But he argues that such debate misses the point entirely.

Some medical professionals feel that Asperger’s is closer to a social learning disorder than it is to the sensory hypersensitivity and language issues more aligned with classic autism. But talking to Ne’eman over dinner, it becomes clear that the diagnostic lines are fuzzy.

It is not that Ari sounds or acts differently than—and here’s that subjective word again—”normal” folk, but he’s had to work at it. On the sensory side, he observes that certain random input used to drive him to utter distraction. As a kid, for instance, the fabric on the roof of the interior of his dad’s car used to make him cringe, but he was unable to ignore it.

“It drove me nuts,” he says. “I hated riding in that car.”

Other issues dealt more with language interpretation. Extreme literalism is an Asperger’s trait, and though Ne’eman can laugh about it now, certain idioms used to baffle him.

“It’s common for many of us. When I was younger, I found the phrase ‘raining cats and dogs’ an extremely bizarre expression,” says Ari. “One time I read in a TV magazine the phrase ‘Rumor has it that a character will disappear during the next season.’ So I thought that a villain named ‘Rumor’ was going to make this other guy disappear.’ It was a problem at the time.”

That it isn’t a problem now is at the heart of Ne’eman’s proselytizing for what he calls neuro-diversity. In short, neuro-diversity advocates argue that instead of trying to medically eliminate autism (and, by proxy, Asperger’s itself), resources and research should be redirected towards providing education, therapy, skills, and services, regardless of where someone is found along the autism spectrum.

Given his druthers, Ari would replace labels and restrictive systems with integrated medical, technological and academic support that lets people with autism dictate their career and life paths. Instead of ranking people, says Ne’eman, “I’d rather put forth a model where we assess people on the basis of their objective traits and their needs.

Not surprisingly, there is a vast chasm between Ne’eman and other neuro-diversity advocates and the parents of children so severely affected by autism that the family’s waking life consists of endless shrieking tantrums, relentless hyperactivity, and an almost-complete disconnect from the world.

When asked why scientists shouldn’t devise methods to prevent this kind of disorder in developing children, Ne’eman deflects the question away from prevention and toward his own concern for those who have already been diagnosed – and who may be diagnosed before they are even born. While people with autism do have high rates of mood disorders, he says, the answer is to treat those symptoms, not eliminate the patient.

“We think there’s value in addressing how many of us are more likely to be severely depressed, [and/or] suffer from tremendous anxiety,” argues Ne’eman. “But the way to address that isn’t in saying: “Well, we’re going to take a certain class of people and prevent them from existing. These things don’t come out of nowhere. There’s a susceptibility because of biochemistry, but also we’re anxious because of the significant number of communication issues and social rules that we’re expected to perceive and follow.”

Ne’eman places great faith in advances in communication technology that may redefine the capabilities of people with autism. He points out that across the autism spectrum, keyboard-oriented communication devices have allowed non-verbal people with autism to prove that lack of verbal skills does not equal impaired intelligence. Such results have compelled educators to reassess what disabled people are capable of achieving, he says.

“A friend of mine with autism, up until age 12, was assumed to be… the term then was ‘mentally retarded,'” he says. “That evolved into ‘has mental retardation.’ That evolved into ‘has an intellectual disability.'”

Ne’eman breaks into a smile. “Now he’s graduated from Syracuse University. He’s expressed his ability by being able to communicate.”

Clear parallels between the autistic and deaf communities also intrigue Ne’eman. To those looking in from the outside, both groups appear to be laboring under severe handicaps. Yet many in the deaf community consider themselves not to be disabled, but rather part of a unique culture with its own form of complete communication. (In the deaf community’s case, American Sign Language.) Wipe out their disability, they claim, and you’ve committed the medical equivalent of genocide.

Neuro-diversity proponents make a similar contention. People with autism have much to offer the world just as they are, these advocates insist. The spotlight should be on helping them to communicate their unique ideas, creativity, and viewpoints.

There’s little doubt that Ne’eman has succeeded in getting his message out. Ari chose UMBC over schools such as New York University, he says, because he was convinced that his outside advocacy work could flourish while he studied the intricacies of public policy and government.

His instincts were correct: In his role as president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Ne’eman has been interviewed and featured in numerous media outlets: ABC’s Good Morning America, Salon, Education Week and in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary titled Positively Autistic.

Ne’eman’s closest mentors at UMBC see him as an amazing intellect – and as a work in progress. “He’s one of the brightest students we’ve ever seen. Uncommonly prepared,” says Carolyn Forestiere, with whom Ari conducted comparative politics research as a freshman.

He’s since presented his own position papers on autism at several educational forums. His article on how popular culture portrays people with autism will soon be published in the International Journal of Inclusive Education.

Listening to Ne’eman is much like being in the presence of a tenured professor capable of deftly marshalling facts to support his position. And his assurance in the rightness of that position can be fierce and unyielding to the point of impatience with alternative arguments.

When a talk show host openly wondered why Ne’eman wouldn’t take a pill if he could to cure his autism, Ne’eman could hardly hide his disgust. “That’s an unfortunate perspective,” Ne’eman told the host. “(Autism is) part of who we are. I think there’s something deeply unethical and very troubling with rewiring the fundamental aspects of how somebody thinks and perceives the world.”

“He doesn’t suffer those he considers to be fools gladly,” says mentor Simon Stacey of UMBC’s Honors College. Stacey points specifically to Ne’eman’s dismissal of many parents who claim that their infants developed autism as a result of childhood vaccinations. While almost all medical evidence rules out a link between the two, Ari cuts little slack to parents who still seek to establish such a connection.

“If you get him started on [these parents’ concerns], he’s really quite vitriolic, almost,” says Stacey. “He needs to temper his comments a little bit. This is a big movement that he needs to get on his side and behind him.”

Ne’eman acknowledges he’s gradually becoming more politic as he progresses toward his degree and life after college. But he is no less focused on his future goals. He has just received an appointment to Maryland governor Martin O’Malley’s Maryland Youth Advisory Council, and he is beginning to look to his post-UMBC career. Law school, applying for a Rhodes Scholarship, post-grad work in International Relations…all are possibilities.

What is definite is Ari’s desire to remain what he calls ‘a change agent’ – someone helping to redefine the face and the future of people with autism.

“I feel like I’ve set up a good foundation,” says Ne’eman, of both his advocacy and his education. “As long as I stick to my ideals, the core values that I hold, I’ll be able to continue to make a difference. That’s really what I’ve always aimed to do.

“I think that’s one of the most important things anyone can do in this world.”

Mat Edelson is a national award-winning freelance medical and investigative journalist based in Fells Point. His current book, with Chef Rebecca Katz, is One Bite at a Time: Nourishing Recipes for People with Cancer, Survivors, and Their Caregivers (Second Edition, Ten Speed Press).

Winter �08 Graduate to Become Youngest Student at Boston Doctoral Program

When Seth Vacek ’08 was younger, no one thought he’d go to UMBC. They never thought he’d go college, period, or even graduate from high school. But Vacek, who has cerebral palsy, was determined to pursue his education fully, despite what anyone said.

“I didn’t let anything stop me from achieving the goals I’ve set,” he said.

Vacek’s condition affects his fine motor skills and impairs both his speech and walking. Everyday tasks, such as tying his shoes, can be extremely challenging. Despite these physical barriers, Vacek did graduate from high school and at the top of his class.

He continued his education at Anne Arundel Community College, where he graduated with an associate’s degree in general studies. At age 19, he applied to UMBC, and now, at age 20, he graduates and will move on to Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis to pursue a doctoral degree as the youngest accepted applicant in the school’s history.

Vacek entered UMBC as a psychology major, a field he was encouraged to pursue after taking a course with UMBC Assistant Professor and AACC Adjunct Professor Peter Resta. While at UMBC, he engaged in independent research. One of his research studies examined tattoos and why people get them. He presented his findings at UMBC’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) in spring 2008. Another research interest Vacek undertook was examining moshing, a violent form of dance that occurs at live music performances.

“I was always interested in those topics but it was UMBC that helped shape them into research ideas,” he said. “I plan to continue studying both topics in the future.”

In addition to the encouragement he received from the psychology department, Vacek also found great support through the Honors College.

“The environment provided so much intellectual stimulation,” he said. “You’re able to think about and discuss topics outside your major, like philosophy and politics. My professors taught me to really apply critical thinking skills to those subjects.”

Of his professors at UMBC, Vacek said everyone helped him to succeed. In order to graduate, Vacek needed to pass a language course. Wanting a challenge, he decided to study Latin. Learning another language was extremely difficult for him, but his professors went the extra mile to help him.

“Dr. Jay Freyman and I would meet one-on-one in his office and would just go over word after word,” he said. “He really took his time and helped me learn the language.”

Vacek plans on coming back to Maryland after he receives his doctoral degree and would eventually like to teach at the collegiate level and practice psychoanalysis in a hospital setting. He’d also like to open up his own practice.

Although he has mixed feelings about leaving UMBC, Vacek is excited for the next step in his journey.

“I’m nervous about leaving, and, in a way, I don’t want it to end,” he said. “But that’s what happens when your reach your goals. You need to set more.”

(12/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Award-Winning Contributions to Baltimore�s Business Community

Since its inception in 1989, more than 100 companies have been supported by bwtech@UMBC Incubator and Accelerator. Eighty percent of these companies are still in business, and 85 percent are located in Maryland. The Incubator and Accelerator recently received the 2008 New Directions Award for its positive contributions to Baltimore County’s economy through the many successful companies it has launched. Presented by the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce, this award honors a company or organization that exemplifies the quality of Baltimore County businesses.

Half of the Incubator and Accelerator’s 35 companies are in the life sciences and nearly all are developing innovative technologies. Of the 250 employees at the Incubator and Accelerator, 22 are UMBC alumni and 75 percent of its companies have hired UMBC student interns. A recent “Techpreneur” internship and job fair, held in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week, brought students and CEOs together for a night of networking and career exploration.

bwtech@UMBC’s strength is its natural synergy with the university’s research-oriented environment. Current companies have engaged in more than 100 formal research collaborations, joint grant funding opportunities, formal or informal consulting agreements, adjunct appointments, technology license agreements, CEO/founder relationships or have utilized faculty or facilities at UMBC research centers.

The bwtech@UMBC incubator program is an active component of entrepreneurship training programs across the UMBC campus. The bwtech staff, including Executive Director Ellen Hemmerly, has been a key component in the successful ACTiVATE program,which trains mid-career women to form businesses based on technologies developed at area universities and research institutions. In its first three full years of the program, ACTiVATE has trained 72 women and launched 15 companies.

(12/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Students and Staff Provide a Choice for Youth from At-Risk Environments

To hear about The Choice Program from a former fellow, click the play button below.

Over the past two decades, The Choice Program at UMBC’s Shriver Center has served more than 18,000 youth and their families in some of Maryland’s most challenged communities. The staff, fellows and mentors of The Choice Program have provided continuous support to youth from at-risk environments in the Baltimore area through intensive supervision and case management services. The program is recognized nationally by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

“Eighty percent of our youth remain in the community at the completion of their program, and 85% do not acquire new delinquent charges,” said Lamar Davis, director of the Choice Program. “But numbers tell only part of the story. Choice stories are stories of struggle and challenge but above all, they are stories of achievement, triumph and hope. Past and present staff have thousands of individual accounts that speak to the hard work and resiliency of our youth and families.”

Along with staff and Choice fellows, UMBC students also have the opportunity to work as mentors at College Night, a weekly event that brings Choice program participants to the campus for a night of activities. Students volunteer to be mentors for a variety of reasons, and for some, it helps solidify their professional goals.

“College Night really appealed to me because I knew I’d be working with older kids,” said Stephanie Tkaczyk ’10, a Choice Program intern and secondary education major. “At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go into teaching. But after serving as a mentor I realized I wanted to teach, and this is giving me the best experience I can get.”

Like Tkaczyk, Jynease Emerson ’11 is also an education major who became interested in volunteering with the program. She and Tkaczyk serve as the program’s interns.

“This program has given me such a different perspective,” Emerson said. “You don’t know anything until you experience that first semester as a mentor.”

Rian Russell ’10, amaster’s student studying public policy and coordinator for College Night, said the event is different for every participant but has a similar outcome.

“This can be a really positive environment,” Russell said. “Participants are exposed to a college campus, and many of them haven’t thought or talked about college before. We aim to foster caring adult relationships and a sense of stability through College Night.”

For many of the staff and volunteers involved with Choice, that element of transformation encourages them to stay involved with the program by mentoring at-risk youth.  

“I am dedicated to Choice because it’s an organization that believes in each person’s ability to transform their lives and change their direction,” said Davis. “Choice encourages a can-do attitude among youth, families, staff, community members and volunteers.”

This year The Choice Program celebrates its 20th year at UMBC. They have also installed and displayed “Choosing to Make a Difference,” a mural created by lead artist Joey Tomassoni and ten youth from the Choice Program’s Capitol Heights office near Washington D.C. Parents and Choice Program staff also collaborated on the concept and imagery of the mural, which grew out of discussions about the program’s positive impact on participants. The mural can be seen on the wall near commonvision in The Commons.

For more information on The Choice Program, visit http://www.choiceprograms.org/.

(12/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

The Beat of a Different Drum

When Steven McAlpine, assistant director of interdisciplinary studies, and Gregory Schroeder ’09 met for academic advising, neither one knew they’d soon be playing drums every Friday outside the University Center (UC) during free hour – with more than 10 other drummers and dancers.

“I met with Steve as a new interdisciplinary studies major,” Schroeder said. “We would talk about music a lot and the fact that we both liked to play the drums. We decided we should play outdoors sometime, and for a while it was just him and I playing in front of the UC or in the back of The Commons.”

That first outdoor show was nearly two years ago, and the drum circle (now called “Straight Up Tribal”) has around 10-15 members who regularly play drums and other instruments, sing and dance. Most members say that fall 2008 was the “tipping point” in terms of size.

“This is the first time that we have really started to grow and connect with other UMBC students,” said Trey Kulp ‘09, a regular hand drummer. “The drum circle now has a mini festival atmosphere, especially with the hoola hoops and our MCs on the mic.”

Getting involved with the drum circle is as easy as walking by the UC between noon and 1 p.m.

“I was running an errand in the UC Ballroom and when I came back out, there were two drummers playing a nice groove,” said Kulp. “A drum was available, so I asked if I could join in.”

Like Kulp, other drummers enjoyed the drum circle vibe and kept coming back every Friday. As the drummers increased, so did other forms of art and music. Dancers showed up in September 2008, along with singers. The growth in numbers also spurred a growth in diversity. There is now a vocalist from India, an African-American rapper who competes in “Battle of the Bands” contests, a Peruvian who grew up playing the cajon (box drum) and an Asian-American who mainly drums but also experiments with the hoola hoop.

“There’s a special quality about UMBC and its students that allows something like this to happen organically,” McAlpine said. “I think students are hungry for venues to share their own work.”

Straight Up Tribal is now performing at more events on campus. They recently performed as the opening act at the Global Women’s Health Benefit. Kim and Reggie Harris, artists from upstate New York, were originally slotted to be the main act but had to cancel at the last minute. Straight Up Tribal decided to put the concert together, including serving as the opening act, and only had 24 hours to do so.

They also hope to become an official student organization in the future.

For more information on Straight Up Tribal, contact McAlpine at mcalpine@umbc.edu or stop by the space in front of the UC between noon and 1 p.m. (free hour) every Friday.

(12/12/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Lucia Zegarra �11 Chosen as a �Leader on the Rise�

Challenging situations, encouragement from family and spirituality have all led Peruvian native Lucia Zegarra ’11, biological sciences, to a life of serving. And it was that life of serving that led her to winning the Hispanic Heritage Award sponsored by Governor Martin O’Malley’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs for being a “Leader on the Rise” in October 2008.

“I was so flattered to win the award that I almost cried,” she said. “So many other people have gone through so many things; I didn’t think I deserved it.”

While her peers talked about the bombings taking place in Lima, Peru, in the 1980s, Zegarra experienced them firsthand. Zegarra’s parents valued education, sending her to several private schools so she could have a broad understanding of culture. But even though she attended school in a safe neighborhood, Zegarra lived in an area of terrorism where The Shining Path (a Maoist guerilla organization also known as the Communist Party of Peru) was still very powerful.

“There were a lot of bombings in the rural areas where I lived,” she said. “Kids that I went to school with didn’t even know about the bombs. They didn’t experience what I did while going to school.”

Despite the conflict inflicted by the Shining Path, Zegarra and her family survived. But challenging situations seemed to follow her. She was affected by domestic violence at a young age, not recognizing it until later.

“I had to grow up right then,” she said. “Because of that experience, helping others who’ve been victims of domestic abuse is very dear to my heart.”

She began reaching out to others, visiting children’s hospitals in Peru every weekend to play with abandoned children. Later she became the coordinator of a social help project for a school confirmation program tutoring children of uneducated parents. “I would go to the rural areas with band-aids, but I just couldn’t do it all without money,” she said. “That’s when I decided I needed to become a doctor.”

When her father moved to the United States to make money, Zegarra waited for her opportunity to attend medical school in America. Her family relocated separately, her father first then followed by Zegarra and her siblings and finally her mother. It cost $800 per person, and the application process took 13 years.

In 2002, Lucia moved to California and started her volunteer work in the States by volunteering at Tahoe Women’s Services and Hospice. She partnered with her mother obtaining a crisis intervention certification to help other women as well as children who witnessed violence.

She eventually relocated to Silver Spring, Maryland, in Montgomery County, where she began working toward a degree at Montgomery College. Two years later, she applied as a pre-med biological sciences major at UMBC and was accepted.

Although Zegarra is on a path of success, challenges continue to crop up. She was recently diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, a chronic pain disease. Because the pain occurs primarily in her hands, it makes it difficult for her to write and type. But she makes the best of it, focusing primarily on getting through her studies.

Zegarra currently works part-time for the Catholic Charities for Homeless as a rehabilitation counselor in Washington, DC. Her long-term goal is to establish a non-profit organization to provide free bilingual mental and physical health services not only to the underprivileged members of the local community, but also to third world countries.

When talking about the future, she has realistic expectations.

“I’m not Jesus. I’m not God,” she said. “But maybe I can help someone.”

(12/5/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Model for 21st Century Art

Spanning all six concentrations � animation/interactive media, art history and theory, film/video, graphic design, photography and print media � UMBC’s 2008 Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition is a opportunity to learn what the university’s faculty are thinking about and what methods and processes they are using.

“We focus on contemporary tools and technologies,” said Vin Grabill, interim chair of the visual arts department and a film/video artist. “It’s kept us on the cutting edge in the region, and the challenge is to continue to push that forward and set a model for how 21st century artists continue to utilize these practices for the benefit of establishing relevant visual culture.”

 UMBC’s internationally recognized visual arts faculty are also committed to research. “This is a visual arts department at a research university, so all of our faculty are actively working as practicing artists and researchers. They really prefer this – they are afforded the time to pursue research, which benefits our students, who pick up on the energy that results from ongoing creative research,” Grabill added.

Kelley Bell ’06, MFA, Imaging and Digital Arts, who recently joined the visual arts faculty, appreciates the diversity of artwork and views in the visual arts department. “There’s such a wide range of work and research going on in the department – I’m really affected by the things other faculty are working on, hearing different points of view about what art is.”

Bell, a graphic designer who also works in animation and interactive media, enjoys her new role at the front of the classroom. “I try to engender a healthy respect and consciousness about doing design,” she said. “Design has a lot to do with educating yourself, having a keen intellectual curiosity and being able to synthesize information.”

Visual arts faculty members consistently receive recognition for their work in and outside of Baltimore. Their art  has been exhibited at a variety of venues, including: the American Academy in Rome, Andy Warhol Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Biennial of Seville, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Chelsea Art Museum, the Contemporary (Baltimore), Georges Pompidou Center (Vienna), Los Angeles County Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Biennial and many others. They have been recognized with numerous awards including Fulbright Fellowships, the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, J. Paul Getty Post-doctoral Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants, among other honors, in addition to film/video festival awards and artist residencies.

More information on the Faculty Exhibition is available online.

Watch Vin Grabill’s Mexico Painting and Barcelona Mosaics.

Learn more about UMBC’s undergraduate and graduate visual arts programs.

(12/2/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Professor’s Breakthrough Highlighted in Nature Chemical Biology

A proper balance of nitric oxide (NO), the body’s highly reactive, gas-based signaling molecule and the stuff that makes Viagra work, is crucial to health. Too much NO production caused by one particular enzyme has been linked to inflammation, arthritis, cancer and other illnesses. But NO also has its beneficial side, with closely related enzymes responsible for maintaining enough NO to regulate blood pressure and allow proper blood flow to different organs.

Elsa Garcin, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was co-author of a recent Nature Chemical Biology article that described a new method to specifically target harmful NO production while preserving beneficial NO levels. Garcin, who came to UMBC from the Scripps Research Institute, co-authored “Anchored plasticity opens doors for selective inhibitor design in nitric oxide synthase” with her former Scripps colleague, Elizabeth Getzoff.

Garcin, a native of France, has a personal motivation in her work. “My family has a long history of cardiovascular disease despite a typical French diet that includes red wine, garlic, olive oil and other foods that help to prevent those conditions, so I’ve always been interested in new ways to improve cardiovascular health.”

“Nitric oxide is vital to many important functions such as blood pressure and neurotransmission related to brain function and learning,” said Garcin. “There are three different enzymes that produce NO: one for blood pressure, one for brain function/neurotransmission and one for defense against attacks by bacteria or tumor cells. But when the immune system-related enzyme gets out of balance, you can get inflammation, arthritis and other pathological conditions.”

Garcin and her colleagues looked at the binding of various drugs that inhibit these enzymes by using x-ray crystallography. Their research could provide new solutions for the development of selective drugs for a variety of health problems.

“We can actually design drugs that could help with arthritis and other inflammatory diseases,” said Garcin. “These findings could also be useful for people who are seeking to specifically target one harmful biochemical function but leave the beneficial ones untouched, to treat HIV or cancer, for example.”

To watch a video related to Garcin’s paper, go to http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/v4/n11/extref/nchembio.115-S2.mov.

(11/26/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Taking the Lead on Climate Change

Clean energy, green jobs and sustainable resources will be among the topics John Doyle ’09 will be advocating for with his peers at the UN Climate Negotiations in Poznań, Poland, as a SustainUS youth delegate. As one of 23 young environmental activists chosen through a competitive nation-wide process, Doyle and the U.S. youth delegation will meet before the conference with 70-80 international youth to strategize and unify their positions on climate change issues. While in Poland, the youth delegates serve as observers, meeting with representatives from the U.S. State Department and advocating for positions they believe best represent the interests of the world’s youth.

Doyle’s personal stance on the climate crisis is focused on change.

“We need to make fundamental changes in our consumption habits and land use. As the rest of the world develops, we need to recognize that America is not the right model to emulate. Sprawling suburbs and a 1:1 ratio of cars to people is not sustainable. Instead of asking the rest of the world to change, we need to take the lead and be better role models,” he said.

Originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, Doyle’s passion for sustainability grew his junior year during a semester abroad at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa. At the UKZN, Doyle spent much of his time in the development studies department.

“My professors taught me about the intrinsic relationship between environmental justice and social justice and the simple but profound truth that ‘alternatives are not inherently compromises,’” he said.

His study abroad led Doyle to internships related to environmentalism. This past summer he interned with the U.S. Green Building Council, helping to develop their Green Campus Campaign. Most recently, he co-coordinated UMBC’s Power Vote campaign with leaders from Students for Environmental Awareness. Power Vote is a national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition and is endorsed by the Maryland Student Climate Coalition. UMBC contributed 1,320 of the 341,127 pledges nationwide calling for “clean and just energy” to be a top priority in the 2008 Election.

Along with Doyle’s international and national work, he has also worked on a local level. Coming to UMBC as a baseball pitcher, an injury his freshman year put him out of commission for the remainder of his years at UMBC. He then began devoting his time to volunteer work with the Shriver Center by assisting with an after-school program in Baltimore. Shortly after, he visited the Study Abroad Office and left for South Africa, returning with a more defined set of interests. 

Doyle also serves as the environmental affairs advisor for the Student Government Association and is an undergraduate representative on a number of campus task forces. In spring 2009, he will be heading abroad again, this time traveling to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for an internship with Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team. He recently took the LSAT and plans to attend law school upon his return to study environmental law.

The UN Climate Conference runs from Monday, December 1, to Friday, December 12. For more information on the U.S. Youth Network for Sustainable Development, visit www.sustainus.org.

Keep tabs on Doyle and other U.S. representatives at the UN Climate Conference at www.itsgettinghotinhere.org/, where Doyle and others will blog “their dispatches” from the Youth Climate Movement.

(11/21/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �