Corey Carter ’08, biological sciences, ’10 M.A.T., has been selected as 2016 Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) Teacher of the Year. The recognition was announced during an April 20th ceremony at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology in Towson.

Carter currently teaches science and co-founded the My Brother’s Keeper Mentoring program at Old Court Middle School in Pikesville. He previously taught for three years at Rayner Brown Elementary Middle School in Baltimore.

“Corey Carter sets a wonderful example of what teaching in Baltimore County looks like,” BCPS Superintendent Dallas Dance said in a news release announcing the award. “He concentrates on the whole child and fosters relationships with each and every student who comes through his door. Not only that, but he gives students the tools and confidence they need to be in charge of their own learning, and places an emphasis on critical thinking.”

“Every day, teachers must blend life lessons, content, assessments, feedback, and a sprinkling of high-fives all in pursuit of impacting a young life. But the true impact of educating others is as much about sharing knowledge as it is learning from them,” Carter said in the news release. “In fact, teaching has been most rewarding when showing others what they have taught me. My students push me to listen more, celebrate more, and to show them why I love what I do.”

At UMBC, Carter was a Sherman Scholar and is an active alumnus and member of the Sherman Program Alumni Advisory Board. As BCPS Teacher of the Year, he will compete for the honor of Maryland State Teacher of the Year.

“Corey’s journey is a wonderful example of why the support provided by the Sherman Scholars Program, both during a student’s time at UMBC and during their first few years teaching, is so important,” explained Rehana Shafi, director of the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program.

For more information, read “Baltimore County names Teacher of the Year” in The Baltimore Sun.

Earlier this month, Shalonda Holt ’07 biological sciences, teaching certificate in education, was named the 2016 Washington Post Teacher of the Year and Howard County Teacher of the Year.

Update: Carter was featured in an Education Post article on June 6, 2016. Read the full article “Here’s a Baltimore teacher who champions students inside and outside of the classroom.”  

Sayre Posey
B.A., History, Education Certificate
Magna Cum Laude
Hometown: Myersville, Maryland
Plans: 9th grade U.S. history teacher in Baltimore City

I am passionate about eliminating inequalities in low-income communities and opening students’ eyes to the amazing world of possibilities available to them, like going to college. UMBC has provided me with ample opportunities to both mentor students in Baltimore and study the achievement gap in high-needs school districts.

Sayre Posey is a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar and Honors College member graduating with an exceptional academic record and big plans to serve Baltimore City as a history teacher.

Posey has received numerous honors and awards, including the 2016 Joseph Reese Best Essay Prize from the history department; Samson, Rosetta A., and Saddie Feldman Award for demonstrating citizenship through community service; and 2016 Maryland Teacher of Promise award from the Maryland State Department of Education.

A freshman year volunteer experience with The Choice Program at Augusta Fells Savage Institute in Harlem Park helped Posey realized “the only career I wanted…was teaching.” Since then she has served in a several afterschool and summer programs designed to provide enrichment and support for Baltimore students. She has mentored at-risk high school girls with The Choice Program, tutored Burmese students through Refugee Youth Project, spent a year teaching reading and mathematics to elementary and middle school students at the Y of Central Maryland’s College Gardens Youth Program, and worked at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.

“Volunteering at after-school programs in Baltimore was a central part of my UMBC experience, and I can credit the myriad of service opportunities through The Shriver Center for sparking my passion for teaching,” says Posey.

This spring Posey completes her student teaching internship at Patapsco Middle School, teaching 8th grade U.S. history. She has accepted a placement to teach 9th grade U.S. history in the fall at Edmondson-Westside High School, a Baltimore City public school.

Images: Sayre Posey with her students at the College Gardens Youth Program before the annual Turkey Trot around the Irvington/Beechfield neighborhood; photo courtesy Sayre Posey. Portrait by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

Samuel “Sam” Winnie
B.A., Music Composition
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Joppa, Maryland
Plans: Graduate studies in music composition at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht

UMBC has provided countless opportunities for me to travel, learn, collaborate, and develop my craft.

Sam Winnie is a trombonist, bass player, and composer—a multi-talented musician who has collaborated with dancers, filmmakers, and game developers. His work has been recognized by fellow musicians in his field. Most recently, the jury of the National Student Electronic Music Event accepted a piece of his for performance at the University of Oklahoma.

Winnie is Linehan Artist Scholar, recipient of the UMBC Achievement Award, and member of Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

For his study abroad experience he attended the Conservatorio G. Nicolini in Piacenza, Italy. Since then he has worked in UMBC’s Study Abroad office, assisting other students in developing their plans for enriching study abroad experiences. Winnie will return to Europe for graduate studies in music composition at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht in the Netherlands this fall.

Images: Sam Winnie and cellist Chanel Whitehead at the University of Oklahoma, performing a work for solo cello and live electronics for the National Student Electronic Music Event; photo courtesy Sam Winnie. Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Sara “Cheli” Arussy
B.S., Chemical Engineering
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Plans: Ph.D, Stanford University

UMBC students and faculty members hold themselves to the highest standards of academic excellence and research rigor, but at the same time foster an environment of support and camaraderie. This culture has made it fun to pursue my research interests and extracurricular passions, and it’s certainly prepared me for my future career.

Cheli Arussy came to UMBC with an interest in medicine following a year volunteering at the Pediatric Dialysis Center at Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. After hours of hard work in UMBC faculty labs, that spark grew into a clear career plan to become a medical researcher and professor.

Once on campus, Arussy jumped right in, pursuing her degree in chemical engineering while doing research in the lab of Mark Marten, chemical and biochemical engineering. She quickly became a leader in the lab, training nearly 20 new lab members. Arussy then went on to work on prostate cancer research with Chuck Bieberich, biology, and spent two summers as a student researcher at MIT.

Arussy is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the honors engineering society, and a recipient of the national Tau Beta Pi scholarship and the Carmi Award at UMBC. She is a Meyerhoff Scholars Program affiliate, member of the Honors College, and has presented at six research fora. She has also earned notable recognition for her research, including UMBC’s Undergraduate Research Assistantship Support Award and Undergraduate Research Award, and became a member of Sigma Xi, the national honor society for scientific research.

This fall Arussy will pursue her Ph.D. at Stanford University, where she hopes to create electronic, wearable materials to help patients restore their sense of touch.

Image: Cheli Arussy, center, pictured with her faculty mentors from the MIT summer research program, which she participated in twice; photo courtesy of Cheli Arussy. Portrait by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

Kiante Brantley
Plans: Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park
M.S., Computer Science
Magna Cum Laude
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland

UMBC has prepared me for my next goals in life, both academically and professionally. A person’s environment has a huge impact on helping them achieve their goals. UMBC’s environment has provided me with a very enriching atmosphere to help me explore my interest in data science.

Kiante Brantley ’15, computer science, began his college career at the Community College of Baltimore County before coming to UMBC, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in just two years as a participant in the NSF-funded Transfer Scholars in Information Technology and Engineering (T-SITE) program. Brantley has continued on to complete his M.S. in computer science in one year, and he is now preparing to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science, with a focus on machine learning, at the University of Maryland, College Park.

As a highly successful, driven, self-directed learner, Brantley has become a role model for transfer students and computer majors from underrepresented groups. He credits UMBC with helping prepare him for his next set of goals, both academically and professionally.

Through high-level coursework, lab research, and mentoring opportunities, Brantley has cultivated both technical skills in computer science, machine learning, and data science, and soft skills in public speaking and professional writing. He has given back to the T-SITE community as a mentor for transfer students pursuing computer science degrees.

Brantley currently works at the U.S. Department of Defense, which he plans to continue through his Ph.D. studies.

Image: Portrait by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

For any UMBC students interested in working at Flat Tuesdays during the Fall 2016 semester, please e-mail your resume and cover letter to flattuesdays@gmail.com. Interviews will be conducted before the end of the semester.

Applicants must have a GPA above 2.5 to be considered for employment. Customer service experience in the restaurant industry or related field is beneficial.

Travis Dennis
B.S., Chemical Engineering
Hometown: Bowie, Maryland
Plans: Manufacturing Leadership Program, W.R. Grace & Co.

[UMBC] has given me the knowledge and critical thinking skills needed to solve any problem. It has taught me to be versatile…and to persevere in the midst of adversity.

During his time on UMBC’s men’s soccer team, Travis Dennis has been part three America East Conference Championships and one memorable NCAA College Cup, making it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in December 2014. Dennis credits UMBC with helping him learn how to be versatile, work hard, and persevere through challenges.

When not on the soccer field, Dennis has been involved with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, National Society of Black Engineers, Black Student Union, and Meyerhoff Scholars Program, as an affiliate member. In Summer 2015 he worked for McCormick as a process engineer. He excelled in a part-time position at W.R. Grace & Co. prior to being offered a full-time position at the company, in its Manufacturing Leadership Program, to begin after graduation.

Image: Travis Dennis and his UMBC’s men’s soccer teammates after they won the 2013 America East Championship title, with President Hrabowski; photo courtesy of Travis Dennis. Portrait by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

Michael Bishoff
Plans: Software engineer at Lyft
B.S., Computer Science
Cum Laude
Hometown: Clarksville, Maryland

UMBC has opened my mind to what I can accomplish in my career. I would honestly not be where I am today if it wasn’t for the amazing faculty, staff, and friends at UMBC. Everyone is very passionate about what they do and we fuel each other to achieve greater goals.

Michael Bishoff found his passion for hackathons during his years at UMBC. He is a co-founder and president of HackUMBC, a 400-member strong student organization that hosts a 24-hour programming competition on campus each year. He has also been recognized at eight hack events worldwide, with awards from “best use of technology on the move” to “best use of virtual reality with robotics from Oculus.”

After taking the bronze at MHacks, a major student programming competition at the University of Michigan, for a haptic feedback suit that makes virtual reality more immersive, Bishoff’s team was invited to participate at the Global Hackathon in South Korea.

Bishoff is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honors society, and received a Northrop Grumman Scholarship and TIAG Scholarship. He has interned at Google and the U.S. Department of Defense. He also completed a summer undergraduate research fellowship through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and served as a research assistant in the MAPLE Lab and an undergraduate teaching assistant in computer science.

Soon after graduation Bishoff will start as a software engineer for the rideshare company Lyft.

Image: Michael Bishoff, second from the left, with fellow HackUMBC organizers during the closing ceremonies of the competition; photo courtesy of Michael Bishoff. Portrait by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

For anyone needing an extra push to make it through the final few weeks of spring semester, UMBC’s annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day offers a healthy dose of extra energy and a contagious sense of curiosity. This year, the must-see, campus-wide event celebrates its 20th anniversary on April 27th with a diverse array of performances, film screenings, exhibits, posters, and talks.

“Creating a vibrant community of scholars is a major goal at UMBC, and URCAD is a realization of that goal,” says Diane Lee, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education.

“Undergraduates in every field share the knowledge they have gained,” Lee explains. “Beyond the talks and performances we all look forward to, through conducting and sharing their research and creative work, our students develop habits of mind that will serve them well in the future.”

Andreas Seas ’17, chemical engineering, agrees wholeheartedly. “Being involved in this research has really shaped what I want to do after I graduate from UMBC,” he says. “It has provided clarity as well as given me something that I can channel my passion into.”

Seas’s research focuses on risk factors for strain to femoral arteries, as part of a larger project in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Seas’s experience at the medical center combined research and clinical work. He says, “Working with UNMC has definitely helped me focus in on what I am passionate about—improving patient care by developing more effective treatment techniques.”

This Goldwater Scholar still has one more year as an undergraduate researcher before pursuing an M.D./Ph.D. degree. For now, he encourages all of his classmates to attend URCAD if they can: “Not only is it really cool to see what everybody is doing, you never know what will spark your interest or what you can contribute to someone’s work.”

Nneka Opara ’16, psychology, began attending URCAD as a freshman. “It’s been a very inspirational event to attend every year and see the [work] students just like me are doing. It left me with the sense that I could achieve just as much as they were if I put my mind to it.”

For many UMBC students, who want to tackle tough questions that reach across different fields, URCAD is a chance to see up close what interdisciplinary research looks like and to learn about opportunities to do research that has real, positive outcomes.

Brittney Kramer ’16, English, shares that URCAD “is a way for all of the disciplines to come together and see what everyone is doing. It’s a way of showing how much research impacts every aspect of our lives.”

“A lot of times when you go into an English major, you think research is something [for science students],” Kramer says, “but this is a chance to really see how [all kinds of] research has an impact.” This includes Kramer’s own contributions to building a digital exhibit on women working in American textile mills during the nineteenth century, in collaboration with the American Antiquarian Society.

Filmmaker Paul Oh ’17, visual arts, describes URCAD as a helpful opportunity for creative students who want to begin connecting with audiences, but can’t yet access big festivals or performance opportunities. “It’s great that URCAD displays undergraduate work and allows people like myself…to exhibit their work for other students and peers,” he says.

Visit the URCAD website to access the brief event schedule and full schedule with abstracts, to learn about the featured speaker, or to see sneak peeks of select research projects. Guests can support participating students by asking them about their research during the event, and by sharing photos and messages on social media with #URCAD, #UMBC50, and #UMBCproud.

“Support is so important,” says URCAD presenter Austin Maduka ’17, biochemistry. “The support I received as an undergraduate pursuing my own research career has transformed my life,” he shares. For Maduka and his fellow student researchers, URCAD is a day to honor that transformation.