Kevin Heffner
M.A., Management of Aging Services
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Reisterstown, Maryland
Plans: Continuing as Erickson School Director of External Relations

The Erickson School’s interdisciplinary approach to leadership in aging services is unique. The school has helped me to address challenges in an integrated fashion, examining them from a variety of viewpoints in order to determine the best solutions to complex problems.

Kevin Heffner joined the Erickson School at UMBC in 2006 and in the past decade has built numerous partnerships, created new scholarship opportunities, and led the undergraduate, graduate, and executive education recruitment team. Currently the school’s director of external relations, he is graduating in the newest cohort of the management of aging services master’s program.

Heffner is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society and earned a 4.0 GPA. The M.A. program in management of aging services has taught him to approach complex problems in an integrated and interdisciplinary fashion by studying them from a variety of viewpoints. With his graduate degree, Heffner would like to make the Erickson School at UMBC “the most significant agent for leadership development and change, anywhere in the word, in the growing field of aging services.”

Images: Kevin Heffner pictured with the most internationally diverse cohort in the Erickson School’s history, with students from India, Pakistan, Honduras, Ghana, Nigeria, and the U.S.; photo courtesy of Kevin Heffner. Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Anthony Jankoski
B.A., English
Magna Cum Laude
Hometown: Silver Spring, Maryland
Plans: J.D., Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law

My professors and faculty mentors have helped me to become a critical thinker and an active voice on campus. These skills have proved invaluable during my tenure as president of student government and will assist me greatly in law school.

Anthony Jankoski has made the most of opportunities to excel academically and take on important leadership positions while at UMBC. He was president of the Student Government Association (SGA) during the 2015-16 academic year and previously served as SGA treasurer. He has learned to provide support and guidance to fellow students who are interested in becoming involved in student government and making a positive impact in the UMBC community.

Jankoski’s academic pursuits have led him to develop an interest in criminal law and he has plans to attend Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. He is inspired by helping people who may be faced with legal challenges and using his knowledge of the criminal justice system and services available to assist those in need of support.

Image: Anthony Jankosi. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. 

Escape Artists is seeking an intern.

This Sunday as part of Quadmania, the UMBC Chess Program will present a Blindfold Chess Spectacular. UMBC alum International Grandmaster Timur Gareyev will:

• 9am – simultaneously play ten challengers while blindfolded
• 1pm – explain how he does it
• 2-6pm – play a knockout match against UMBC’s top three players where
  everyone will be blindfolded.

The event is free and open to the public.

Gareyev is preparing to break the world record this fall in Prague by playing and defeating 50 challengers while he is blindfolded (the world record is 46).

UMBC students AbhilashPuranik (CSEE) and Nathanial Wong will play and help with the chess technology. Using four DGT boards, we will display four games and broadcast them live to the Internet (via the website chess24). In the DGT technology, each piece has an RFID chip broadcasting its identify. Antennas under each row and column receive the signals. Software interpolates the positions, generates a graphical display, and expresses the move in standard PGN notation.

Pieter Heesters, a 6th grader who won a scholarship to UMBC by winning the 2016 Maryland Scholastic Chess Championship, will also play.