Baltimore Choral Arts is seeking a full- time Audience Development Manager that handles Marketing, Box Office, and Administrative duties and reports to the Executive Director.

Samuel Manas for TRW

Pi Kappa Phi’s annual Ability Week ended this year in a benefit concert – or, an “Ability Jam” – co-hosted with the Mama’s Boys, a UMBC acapella group. The funds raised went to their national philanthropy, The Ability Experience, a non-profit dedicated to aiding the disabled through grants and construction. Performers included the UMBC Raascals, Major Definition, and students in SUCCESS program, a program for students with intellectual disabilities. Headlining the concert was Last to Fire, a funk/rock outfit composed of UMBC alumni.

The post The Ability Jam in photos appeared first on The Retriever.

At film festivals the flickering lights on screen get most of the attention, but film projects also almost universally begin with the written word — either a script or, for documentaries, a detailed synopsis. This essential document serves as both a road map to make the movie and a tool to hunt for necessary funding.

Entering and winning screenwriting competitions can help a film project find the backing needed to move from page to screen. Robert Pawloski ’92, visual arts, and adjunct faculty in visual arts, recently won an award at the Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition for his script Bronze, co-written with Australian writer Kerri-Anne Weston. Bronze, which was the winner in the “Feature: Inspirational” category, is based on Kerri-Anne Weston’s life story: an athletic young woman loses the use of her legs but fights back to win five swimming medals at the 1984 Summer Paralympics in Stoke Mandeville, U.K.

Pawloski, who currently teaches screenwriting, film history and the history of animation, says he met Weston through his work as a story editor, initially helping her craft some early stories she hoped to turn into screenplays.  After she worked with another editor to realize her inspirational story as a book, she returned to adapt the story into a screenplay.

Pawloski explains, “We worked together in a collaborative, back and forth fashion until we felt we had a worthy screenplay.” Asked about what happens next for the project, he says that after the festival win his agent at Zero Gravity Management sent the script to their production department for review. In addition to representing talent, the company is also a full-service production company capable of handling the development, finance, execution, and sale of projects.

Pawloski entered the Nashville Film Festival Competition for the first time in 2015 with Illuminate, a short film script that won Best Dramatic Short Screenplay. He says, “it’s a quirky but touching story of a woman who must find the lost table lamp where she’s convinced her father’s soul resides and honor his dying wishes.” He plans to produce and direct this 20-minute short himself and is preparing to fund-raise.

In addition to teaching, Pawloski is an award-winning screenwriter and story editor with 15 years of experience in Los Angeles before his return to Maryland in 2011. He is still actively writing, rewriting, and polishing screenplays and estimates that since 1996 he has evaluated over 2,000 screenplays for a wide range of clients that have included New Regency and Polygram Films studios, as well as established independent producers. In 2003, he started RP Story Consulting to provide development notes and consulting for writers, directors, and producers at all levels.

The Nashville Film Festival, which ran this year from April 14 to 23, is one of the oldest and largest film festivals in the United States and holds the important distinction of being an Academy Award qualifying festival. In 2016 the festival received over 6,000 entries over the three competitions they run in in film, web series and screenwriting, and 1,500 of those entries were in screenwriting.

Images: Portrait by Catherine Borg; Kerri-Anne Weston swimming, courtesy of Weston.

On the eve of UMBC’s 50th anniversary, the university will welcome two prominent higher education leaders as commencement speakers whose words will have particular significance in this milestone year.

Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust will speak to the Class of 2016 at UMBC’s undergraduate commencement ceremony. For UMBC—an innovative, young institution now recognized nationwide for redefining excellence in higher education—this connection with the esteemed leader of the oldest higher education institution in the nation is quite meaningful. Faust will receive an honorary degree of doctor of public service during the ceremony on Thursday, May 19, 2016.

Faust is the 28th president of Harvard University and the Lincoln Professor of History in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. As president of Harvard, Faust has expanded financial aid to improve access to Harvard College for students of all economic backgrounds and advocated for increased federal funding for scientific research. She has broadened the University’s international reach; raised the profile of the arts on campus; embraced sustainability; launched edX, an online learning partnership with MIT; and promoted collaboration across academic disciplines and administrative units. She is also the author of six books, including This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (2008), which won the 2009 Bancroft Prize and was recognized by The New York Times as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2008.”

Numerous UMBC alumni have gone on to graduate studies and faculty and staff positions at Harvard. From UMBC’s newest class of graduates, Gaurav Luthria ’16, bioinformatics, will soon begin a Ph.D. in bioinformatics and integrative biology at Harvard. Graduating summa cum laude, Luthria previously interned at the Health Sciences and Technology Division, a joint initiative between MIT and Harvard, where he used social media data to study neurodevelopmental disorders.

Clemson University President James P. Clements, a three-time alumnus of UMBC, will speak at the graduate commencement ceremony on May 18, 2016, and will receive an honorary doctor of education degree. Clements ’85, computer science, and ’91 M.S. and ’93 Ph.D., operations analysis, has shared with UMBC Magazine how much he has enjoyed watching UMBC “skyrocket into one of the hottest universities in the country,” saying, “It has just continued to climb up and up and up.”

Clements is the 15th president of Clemson University. Under his leadership Clemson has reached several key milestones, including a record number of student applications and a record-breaking year in private fundraising. A nationally recognized leader in higher education, Clements previously served as the president of West Virginia University for nearly five years, and he is past chair of the board of directors for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU). He serves on the board of directors of the American Council on Education (ACE) and on the executive committee of the APLU’s Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Prosperity. He also chairs the ACE Commission on Leadership and co-chairs the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

UMBC community members who aren’t able to attend the ceremonies can view them live through the commencement webcast, or follow them on Twitter @UMBC and through #UMBCgrad. Videos of the remarks will also be available online after the ceremonies.

Images: Spring 2015 UMBC commencement, photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC; Harvard President Drew Faust is pictured in the Harvard Art Museums at Harvard University, photo courtesy of Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer; Clemson President James Clements, photo courtesy of Clemson University.

As the academic year draws to a close, we thought we might take the time to introduce you to some of our Alumni Association Scholarship recipients. Today, we hear from Grace Kim ’16, English.

Name: Grace Kim

Major/Minor: English/Dance

Grad Year: 2016

Extracurriculars: Member of Major Definition and Reading Tutor at Arundel Elementary/Middle School

Why did you decide to attend UMBC? I fell in love with the “homey” feel of the campus. Right away, I knew I could see myself making a second home here.

What’s been the most amazing discovery you’ve made so far as a student here? I’ve discovered that I have the ability to make goals happen if I put my mind to it.

What are you most proud of accomplishing in your time at UMBC? I am proud that I’ve made my parents proud. Their support has been a huge factor in my success at UMBC.

What would you say to the people who provided your scholarship? Simply, thank you. This scholarship has allowed me to focus on my studies and not on the financial aspect. Thank you so much for your contribution to my successful college career.

What do you hope to do after graduation? I hope to attend Towson University for their Master of Arts in Teaching program for Early Childhood Education.

Please consider making a gift today to help students like Grace pursue their goals.