As UMBC welcomes its largest freshman class ever this fall, Retrievers have three more reasons to feel confident in their college choice: The 2018 U.S. News & World Report college guide ranks UMBC the #7 Most Innovative university in the nation, #13 top national university for Strong Commitment to Undergraduate Teaching, and one of the nation’s top universities overall on the Best National Universities list.

“UMBC’s most recent recognition truly displays how our excellence is not by accident,” says UMBC Student Government Association President Joshua E. Massey ’18, computer engineering. “The time and effort our community puts into developing high-value research and learning experiences, plus engaging student life on campus, is worthy of national attention.”

For students, families, and educators following UMBC’s rise to prominence as a top public research university, these lists will sound familiar. U.S. News has now recognized UMBC as a higher ed trailblazer for a decade, first on its Up-and-Coming list and now on its newer Most Innovative list. This year, UMBC appears alongside Arizona State University, Stanford, MIT, Georgia State University, Carnegie Mellon, and Harvard.

The U.S. News innovation metric incorporates everything from research and technology to curriculum and campus life, while the Undergraduate Teaching list hones in more specifically on the core classroom experience.

“These rankings reflect the respect thought leaders across the country have for our university, and they speak to our strength as an institution focused on both research and the undergraduate educational experience,” says President Freeman Hrabowski. “We are proud to be included on both lists.”

UMBC’s recognition for Strong Commitment to Undergraduate Teaching for the past several years demonstrates consistency in high quality teaching, with a firm emphasis on student support and inclusive excellence. The 2018 list highlights UMBC’s educational excellence alongside such universities as Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, Rice, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Duke, and Yale.

“UMBC faculty are dedicated to providing each student with a distinctive educational experience,” says Katharine H. Cole, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs. “UMBC creates an enriching environment for students to explore new ideas, and develop into effective and compassionate global leaders.”

This U.S. News recognition comes on the tail of several other major rankings and honors for UMBC. In summer 2017, Princeton Review again featured UMBC in its popular undergraduate guide, The Best 328 Colleges. Like U.S. News, the publication’s UMBC profile highlights the quality of teaching found at the university and UMBC faculty’s deep commitment to student success.

UMBC has also been featured on several lists of top-value national universities that balance quality and affordability, such as Forbes and Money magazines and Princeton Review’s 2017 Colleges That Pay You Back guide, which includes the top U.S. colleges that balance “a superb education with great career preparation at an affordable price.”

For more details on the latest rankings news, see the UMBC News rankings page.

During the summer months, hundreds of UMBC students immersed themselves in high-value internships at companies, nonprofits, and government agencies. There, they learned about new fields, developed skills, and expanded their connections, taking advantage of UMBC’s strong network of emerging and established professionals who value both leadership and mentorship.

Over the past 18 years, Wanda Keyes Heard ‘79, political science, an associate judge in the Baltimore City Circuit Court, has mentored 25 UMBC students as interns in her courtroom. Randall Ainsworth ‘20, philosophy, spent this summer working with Heard. Receiving permission to join her on the bench during court proceedings offered him a bird’s-eye view of the round courtroom in the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse.

Through her experience supervising interns over the years, Heard says that UMBC students have consistently exceeded her expectations and have delivered high-quality work. “This is real life. I am not giving [interns] busy work, I am giving them meaningful work,” she says. One of Ainsworth’s primary assignments has been to make recommendations for non-hearing motions based on what defendants request, and Heard notes that she has proceeded with many of his suggested actions.

Ainsworth has particularly valued the chance to see the unique way Heard handles monthly “collateral days,” which have changed his perception of how the judicial system operates. Rather than only bringing people on probation into her courtroom after they have violated their probation, Heard began using collateral days to bring probationers in to check on their progress hitting the milestones required by their probation. Heard realized that some of the people who came into her courtroom were unable to read or lacked the education or skills needed to meet the job requirements of their probation. In response, she compiled a list of resources that people on probation can use to find jobs or advance their skills.

“It’s a very satisfying feeling to see someone turn their life around, and contribute to society,” she says. For his part, Ainsworth has tremendously valued the chance to see how such a firm commitment to supporting people’s growth, even in difficult circumstances, plays out in the courtroom.

Justyna Kurbiel ‘18, visual arts, spent the summer interning at Image Factory D.C. (IFDC), a full-service design and production agency in Silver Spring, Maryland. Kurbiel learned of IFDC through her work at UMBC’s Commonvision studio, and then connected with IFDC senior designer and animator Andy Hsu ‘06, visual arts, M.F.A. ‘10, imaging and visual arts, through a UMBC visual arts project class.

Kurbiel took advantage of the Career Center’s portfolio review services before reaching out to Hsu to submit her application materials. Her initiative and polished portfolio combined helped her land the IFDC’s first-ever student internship. She says that working alongside Hsu and two other UMBC alumni has helped her access valuable critiques of her work and has helped her learn about the design industry, workflow, and how to engage with clients.

“The project I’ve been working on has made an impact, which I think is the most important part of having a paid internship,” Kurbiel reflected. “I do feel like I am working here and that I’m part of the team because my contributions matter.”

For her mentors at IFDC, Kurbiel’s initiative, enthusiasm, and drive has made all the difference. “My advice to students is to try obtaining that internship and not be intimidated,” says Hsu. “You may get a few rejections but if you never try, you’ll never land one.”

At the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Norina McAuliffe ‘18, mathematics, worked with Christopher Truffer ‘00, mathematics, a deputy group director on a team that reviewed Medicare and Medicaid spending and budgets from individual states. Truffer works to project Medicaid spending, budget and enrollment, and predicts the impact that proposed legislation could have on the program. He also reviews rates that states and private insurance companies negotiate and establish to ensure that they are actuarially sound, and comply with CMS and federal policies.

McAuliffe was able to contribute substantively to this work thanks to rigorous math coursework at UMBC. It was also math and statistics faculty who connected her with the CMS internship in the first place, identifying it as a valuable opportunity for students interested in actuarial science. At CMS, “everyone wants you to do interesting work…They want you to learn something,” she says. “Everyone is really helpful. They care about your opinion.”

That’s all part of the mindset of CMS, Truffer explains, noting that it’s important to keep learning and remain open to fresh perspectives and approaches. Even in a midst of highly complex, technical project, says Truffer, “Be open to trying something new and different.”

Like McAuliffe, Evan Avila ‘19, economics, also spent the summer interning at a federal agency, supervised by Angela Delano ‘95, mathematics, at the U.S. Census Bureau. He learned of the opportunity through the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), a nonprofit organization that works with government agencies to increase diversity in the federal workforce, and, after applying, was selected for an internship by the head of the U.S. Census branch.

Avila worked with the Residential Construction office in the Economics Indicators division of the agency, which handles surveys and monthly reports about permits in cities across the country. Avila’s internship focused on big data—how to collect and process survey responses in the most efficient and precise way possible. Having more automated systems to collect, process, and display the data “would cut out the middleman,” he explains. Delano valued his novel perspective and fresh ideas and reflected, “He has taught me some shortcuts, so the knowledge flows both ways.”

Through HACU, Avila, a Sondheim Scholar, lived in Washington D.C. during his internship. He says that the experience of living in D.C. and working at the bureau—where he’s had the chance to connect with interns from across the country—emphasized for him the quality of his UMBC education. “I’ve met people who go to Ivy League schools, and I can say, unequivocally, that the education I have received at UMBC has been world-class, and been on par with the other people I have worked with at the Census Bureau,” he says.

Cyber Scholar Priyanka Ranade ‘18, information systems, spent the summer at Northrop Grumman as a cyber strategy intern, under the mentorship of Lauren Mazzoli ‘15, computer science, M.S. ‘17, computer science. Mazzoli herself was mentored by Chris Valentino ‘02, information systems management, M.S. ‘06, information systems management, as an intern during her undergraduate days, and is now on his team at Northrop Grumman.

Ranade heard about the internship opportunity through a Cyber Practicum course offered at UMBC, and embraced the chance to learn more about the varied facets of the cybersecurity field. “When people think about cybersecurity, they usually think about tools and cyber warfare, but a lot of times people fail to think about the business,” she says. As an intern, Ranade had a chance to build, review, and update business briefings, examine corporate policy and goals, and review white papers.

“[Lauren] always encourages me to connect with different people and take up different opportunities, so I have kind of built my own rotation,” she explains. “I do strategy, but I also get to work in the Cyber Operations Center, and I also get to work on different business projects and engineering-related tasks.”

As her internship supervisor, Mazzoli values Ranade’s drive and curiosity. “Priyanka exemplifies a UMBC student—the fire in the belly, willing to work hard, never taking anything for granted,” says Mazzoli. “When she started on our team, I had no doubt in my mind that she wasn’t going to succeed. She went in there, she worked hard, she proved herself, and kept taking on more and more tasks…[Colleagues] recognized her as a natural leader. That is something that I keep seeing time and time again with UMBC students.”

Zach Dzielinski ‘19, information systems, interned with Dan Hood ‘01, computer science, at ClearEdge IT after learning about the company at a UMBC career fair. He focused on setting up software used by in-house developers to perform various analytical tasks, and he particularly valued the chance to gain experience with industry-specific tools. “The amount of resources available at ClearEdge IT gives me the opportunity to work with a lot of things that I might not be able to [work with] somewhere else,” he said.

Hood has supervised several interns from UMBC during his time with the company. He focuses on getting a sense of “the particular skills they are coming in with, and where the gaps might be,” to make sure he provides an internship experience that will “leverage the strengths and close the weaknesses as much as possible.” Dzielinski is keen to continue using the new skills he has developed as he grows his expertise.

Geeta Shanbhag ‘18, media and communications, initially connected with the National Family Resiliency Center in Columbia, Maryland, as a volunteer, supporting their mission to provide programs and counseling services to children and adults who are working through divorce and other changes within their families. As an intern, she gained an opportunity to boost the organization’s visibility through marketing, outreach, and social media. “A lot of times people know about NFRC through smaller networks, but those networks don’t quite intersect in a way that would be beneficial to getting the word out about the Center,” Shanbhag explains.

Kathy Helt ‘87, health science and policy, associate director at the NFRC, supervised Shanbhag and says that she aims to give interns comprehensive overview of the Center and have them “experience as much hands-on work as possible.” By getting a broader sense of the supports the NFRC offers, Shanbhag was able create more effective communications to reflect the experiences of families at the Center in a relatable way.

CWIT Scholar Theodora Martin ‘18, chemical engineering, interned in the hydroprocessing unit of the W.R. Grace chemical plant in Baltimore, where she frequently collaborated with processing engineer Mike Dzingeleski ‘91, chemical engineering. The company makes silica gels and catalysts that are incorporated into toothpastes, plastic gallon containers, paints, medicine, and spices. In toothpastes, the silicas are the abrasive agents that clean teeth, and in spices and herbs, silicas prevent caking.

Martin first connect with W.R. Grace through a tour of their Columbia, Maryland, headquarters, coordinated through UMBC’s Career Center. She chose to pursue an internship to gain industry experience that would complement her previous work in the classroom and academic labs, sharing, “I just finished my third year of chemical engineering, and my past experiences were research, research, research. I wanted to see what it would be like to work in an industry.”

One of rewards an internship can offer a student, Dzingeleski reflects, is a chance to get a sense of what type of job is a good match for their interests and strengths. “It’s just as important to find out what’s not a good fit as what is a good fit,” he says. For her part, Martin tremendously enjoyed the chance to see what she learned in class be put into action at the W.R. Grace plant. The experience is helping her reimagine her possible career paths in new ways, and with fresh enthusiasm.

For more information on how to prepare and apply for internships, and to connect with employers, visit the UMBC Career Center. Find photos of more student summer internship experiences—from Apple, Microsoft, and Cisco to law offices, chemistry labs, and construction sites—on Twitter with #UMBCintern.

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Banner image: Randall Ainsworth, and Hon. Wanda Keyes Heard. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

The U.S. Senate has formally confirmed Jerome Adams ’97, M4, biochemistry and molecular biology, for the position of U.S. surgeon general. He replaces Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams Ph.D. ’06, public policy, who served as acting U.S. surgeon general beginning in late April. Both alumni have prioritized serving vulnerable populations and maintaining connections with local communities throughout their accomplished careers.

In the opening statement for his nomination hearing, Jerome Adams took care to demonstrate his commitment to partnerships and relationship-building, writing that the “Top Doctor” nickname for the surgeon general “doesn’t do justice to the diversity of professions represented in the Health Corps—nurses, pharmacists, therapists, scientists, and many others, in addition to some of the country’s best doctors.”

He has had the opportunity to work with and learn from these varied professionals in his roles as a practicing anesthesiologist, associate professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and state health commissioner under then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Adams shared in his statement, “In this dual role as both clinician and educator, I see the impact of health policy decisions on both providers and the patients we serve.”

Adams plans to emphasize active engagement with communities as surgeon general, focusing on a need to “learn about their obstacles and successes, share best practices, and help empower them to implement local solutions to their toughest problems.”

Former colleagues attest to Adams’ record in this area. “He has his hands on the pulse of what’s going on in communities,” Virginia Caine, director of the Marin County Health Department, told the Indy Star. “He gets right out there at the grass roots level and really identifies with the folks he needs to serve.”

As surgeon general, Adams intends to focus on the opioid crisis—a problem he’s familiar with from his work in Indiana. There, he advocated for legislation that would give family members of people struggling with opioid addiction access to Naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of opioid overdose. He wrote in his statement to the senate committee, “The addictive properties of prescription opioids is a scourge in America and it must be stopped.”

Reflecting on his undergraduate years at UMBC as a Meyerhoff scholar, Adams shared with UMBC, “one of my biggest mentors was Dr. Hrabowski, and I still stay in touch with many of my Meyerhoff colleagues and rely on them as a professional support network.” He also pays that support forward, according to Joey Fox, who worked as his legislative director in Indiana. Fox described Adams as a “compassionate leader” and told the Indy Star, “He was always willing to have his door open.”

See previous coverage of Adams’s nomination and additional information on Sylvia Trent-Adams in UMBC News.

Header image: Fully restored U.S. Capitol Rotunda interior, completed in 2016. Photo by Architect of the Capitol.

Princeton Review has again featured UMBC as one of the nation’s top universities in its popular undergraduate guide, The Best 382 Colleges, published this week. Put simply, Princeton Review Editor-in-Chief Robert Franek says, “We chose UMBC for this book because it offers outstanding academics.”

UMBC fit into the top 15% of 2,500 colleges Princeton Review considered. Their analysis included 137,000 student ratings of colleges and universities across dozens of categories, from financial aid to career services and the classroom experience. It also incorporated feedback from college administrators and from Princeton Review visits to participating campuses.

Princeton Review’s UMBC profile particularly highlights the quality of teaching found at the university, and faculty’s deep commitment to supporting student success. One student shared that UMBC is home to “extremely intelligent professors that have a knack for inspiring the students.” Others noted, “this is a university where teaching comes first” and “most of the professors are so helpful” when it comes to offering students additional support through office hours.

The guide recognizes UMBC’s solid reputation as a place where “students take education seriously,” referencing the common feeling across the university that “UMBC is a place where it is cool to be smart.” But this level of student engagement isn’t limited to academics, Princeton Review emphasizes. One UMBC undergraduate shared, “almost every student at UMBC is involved with at least a couple of extracurricular activities, which connect them to the campus.”

“Overall, it seems, ‘People fit in [at UMBC] by being intellectually creative and finding a community,'” The Best 382 Colleges guide notes.

Reflecting further on the college experience, one student shared, “UMBC wants to see every student succeed—they provide you with the tools, people, and resources to make sure you get where you want to go in life.” The guide also points out that UMBC “has a strong reputation for diversity and students feel ‘it enriches our school and everyone gets to know everyone despite culture or ethnicity.'”

Specific UMBC programs highlighted in the guide range from the sciences and mathematics to the performing arts, with special recognition going to UMBC’s “technologically advanced” Performing Arts and Humanities Building. The university’s convenient location just outside of Baltimore, near Washington D.C., also received high marks.

In January of this year, Princeton Review also featured UMBC in its 2017 Colleges That Pay You Back guide, which includes the nation’s top colleges that balance “a superb education with great career preparation and at an affordable price.” Most recently, Forbes and Money magazines recognized UMBC as a “great investment” for students, and The Chronicle of Higher Education named UMBC one of the nation’s top academic workplaces for the eighth year in a row. That ranking distinguished UMBC as an “honor roll” institution, as one of just ten large universities nationwide to excel in nearly every measured category.

Header image: UMBC’s Orientation Peer Advisors, summer 2017. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Each year, Maryland Incubator Company of the Year (ICOY) Awards recognize the achievements of current and past incubator companies in the state. In 2017, three bwtech@UMBCincubator companies at won their respective award categories, bringing bwtech@UMBC’s total ICOY winners to two twenty since the award program begin in 2002. The honorees, as well as several award nominees from bwtech@UMBC, were recognized at a special awards ceremony held at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

“We are thrilled that three of our bwtech@UMBC companies were recognized for their outstanding efforts by winning Incubator Company of the Year awards in their respective industry categories,” says Jennifer Reynolds, director of venture creation at bwtech@UMBC. “These awards represent the incredible effort and drive that our entrepreneurs have, and we are honored and humbled to play a part in their success.”

Fearless Solutions, a software company that primarily develops applications to presents content visually, won the award for best service/consulting company category. Delali Dzirasa ‘04, computer engineering, president and CEO of Fearless Solutions, headquartered in the Spark Coworking Space in Baltimore with additional office space in bwtech, reflected on how meaningful the award was for him, noting:

“We work hard to build software that has an impact on our community, partly because our community has helped so much in getting us to where we are today. It’s incredibly humbling to be recognized alongside so many other outstanding companies, and we’re really grateful for all of the support that we’ve received from both bwtech@UMBC and Spark—we wouldn’t be here without them!”

FZata, a company that develops therapeutic and preventive medicines using antibody technology, won the best life sciences company category. The company is currently developing a compound to fight against Clostridium difficile, a bacteria that disrupts normal, healthy colons and can be very challenging to treat, even in highly advanced medical care facilities. In the U.S., C. diff causes more than half a million infections, and nearly 30,000 deaths, each year.

Zhiyong Yang, co-founder and CEO of FZata, reflects, “Ever since the launch in bwtech@UMBC in November 2015, FZata has earned quite a few significant government grants, including a very recent $5.8M RO1 grant, which represents the recognition from our scientific peers. Now being selected as Best Life Sciences Company reflects the recognition from our business peers,” says Yang. “It is a great honor to us.”

Leverage, a software company that specializes in developing new technologies that can impact society, won the best software company category. Eric Conn ‘85, computer science, co-founder and CEO of Leverage, says that the support from bwtech@UMBC has played a large part in the success of the company, and he calls the ICOY award “validation of the hard work that our entire team has put in for nearly three years now.”

“Our Internet of Things (IoT) software platform and companion educational website ‘IoT For All’ are quickly becoming the preferred tools for IoT projects large and small,” says Conn. “Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are already having a large impact on people’s lives and we hope to strike the right balance between the efficiencies that technology can bring and the preservation of satisfying, high-paying jobs for future generations.”

Since 2002, more than a dozen incubator companies at bwtech@UMBC had won awards at the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards.

In June, Mike Wagner ‘97, information systems management, ‘98, computer science, vice president of WaveStrike, was recently recognized by Ernst & Young at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year Maryland Awards. He was recognized as an entrepreneur in the technology services category for WaveStrike, a software engineering company that develops systems that protect national security.

Read “These startups won Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards” in Technical.ly Baltimore, and “EY honors Entrepreneur of the Year Maryland winners” in Baltimore Business Journal. 

Both Forbes and Money magazines have again recognized UMBC as one of the top value universities nationwide, providing one of the best investments that students and their families can make in higher education.

The Forbes 2017 Best Value College ranking assesses which schools “deliver the best bang for the tuition buck based on tuition costs, school quality, post-grad earnings, student debt and graduation success,” using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and the PayScale salary database. Forbes ranks UMBC as one of the top 200 of all universities nationwide and one of the top 75 public U.S. universities in value.

UMBC’s Forbes profile highlights the university’s unique programs in game development, Asian studies, and naval science. It also notes UMBC’s strengths across a wide diversity of fields, from a major research partnership with NASA to the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture.

Money’s 2017 Best Colleges for Your Money ranking, released this week, evaluates 2,400 U.S. colleges and universities across 27 factors, and names UMBC one of the nation’s top 300.

Jeffrey Selingo writes in The Washington Post, “Money magazine was one of the first to use data on the employment outcomes of graduates, and its rankings remain among the best for students and parents to consider.” The measure assesses educational quality, affordability, and alumni success to identify schools that represent a “great investment.”

UMBC “is a young school, but it has built an impressive record since its founding in 1966,” Money’s profile of the university notes. It emphasizes, “UMBC prides itself on its diverse campus and student body.”

Like Forbes, Money highlights UMBC’s diverse array of academic offerings, including graduate programs in human-centered computing, atmospheric physics, and interdisciplinary language, literacy, and culture, and particularly popular undergraduate programs in biology, computer science, and the social sciences. It also highlights the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park’s strengths in the life sciences, clean energy, and cybersecurity; over a dozen research and academic centers across technology, science, policy, and the arts; and a number of living-learning communities for students.

“Professors at UMBC are truly passionate about what they teach and make it a point to help the students understand each and every topic,” notes one student, in the Money profile. Another student calls academics “really where this school shines,” commenting that at UMBC “professors are absolutely great” and the “variety of courses here is unbelievable.”

One student comment focuses specifically on UMBC’s sense of community, sharing, “This school is very much like a cultural melting pot. There are so many different events/organizations to get involved with. This university is very academically focused, however it can also be a lot of fun.”

They also note, “The brightest students in the area come to this school, which is great because you can have meaningful dialogue with people here. […] It’s easy to network and make connections with people within the school, and companies/organizations in the area (we have a great reputation).”

UMBC is joined in Money’s top 300 by three other University System of Maryland schools: Towson University, Salisbury University, and the University of Maryland, College Park.