Beware of crushes. Especially as a 10-year-old in 1995. They might lead to a lifelong hobby, rooms of your house dedicated to your collection, a quirky and supportive community, and even a spot in an Emmy-winning documentary. Katie Chrzanowski, however, has no regrets.

After a brief crush on someone who collected PEZ, and thinking that starting her own collection would be a fun competition, she’s now the proud owner of more than several thousand PEZ dispensers, the host of the Maryland PEZ Gathering, and an extra on the set of The Pez Outlaw. But Chrzanowski ’07, visual arts, doesn’t just collect PEZ paraphernalia for the fame and glory.

She started her collection with a pumpkin head and a snowman, gifts she held onto before knowing they would snowball into a collection requiring dozens of professional plexiglass PEZ dispenser displays. (“Otherwise, they just fall over like dominos.”) Chrzanowski, who is a senior web experience/digital designer for commonvision, UMBC’s student-facing print and design shop, attributes her long connection with the fanciful candy company to the community.

When she began collecting, PEZheads (as they call themselves) were already active on the nascent internet. In addition to being active on the online forum, in the mid-1990s she signed up for a monthly print newsletter, which she still receives. “Everyone was so welcoming and engaging. It’s been amazing to be a part of for so many years.”

Like the animation major she was, Chrzanowski has a sweet system for organizing her collection, starting with the studio the licensed dispenser is from—Pixar, Disney, Blue Sky, and so on. “Then I organize it by franchise release date and then oldest on the left and newer on the right.” The result is a meticulous, museum-worthy, 360-degree PEZ accumulation that lets Chrzanowski show off her almost 30-year hobby.

For anyone interested in joining Chrzanowski, she says, “Start with what you love. Whatever makes you happy—there’s no right or wrong way to collect.”  

During her office hours, President Valerie Sheares Ashby makes it a point to meet weekly with students and hear about their UMBC experiences and their aspirations for life after UMBC. Today, Jenna Beshara, a senior English and visual arts double major, shares her Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) project with the president. Beshara, who spent last summer on a study abroad program in Wales, painted a series of Welsh watercolor landscapes with paints she made herself using only natural ingredients. In this excerpt of their conversation, she and President Sheares Ashby discuss the importance of pursuing art and research through a sustainability lens.

President Sheares Ashby: These paintings are just beautiful. I feel like the water is just coming off the page. Is that the way you painted it or is it actually texture?

Jenna Beshara: Thank you! It’s a little bit of both, because the pigment—no matter how much you grind it or sift it—it’s still going to be a little bit coarse and gritty. I found out that it takes about a week to make one batch of pigment. You start with flowers or vegetables or plants—red cabbage actually makes the best blue—and you put them in a pot and pour boiling water over it. Then it’s a sequence of simmering and letting it rest. After you strain out all the materials, you add in a salt compound and baking soda. You grind what’s left, which turns into a mud-like consistency. It needs a week to dry and then you grind it and strain it several times. 

But to make the paint, there’s quite a bit of chemistry involved. The idea just kind of came to me because acrylic paint is like liquid plastic. It’s really bad for the environment.

Sheares Ashby: I am a polymer chemist, so I know what you mean. I appreciate that you did watercolor and environmentally friendly materials. That is very impressive. How did you decide to start this project?

Beshara: After I came back from Wales, I knew I wanted to apply for a Fulbright student grant to do more arts research. My mentor, Timothy Nohe, a professor in visual arts, suggested I use URCAD as a jumping-off point for my research project.  He supports me in everything that I do. I’ll come to him and I’m like, “Hey, I want to do this.” And he’s like, “Awesome, do it.” 

At one point in this project, I was so frustrated because I wanted to make oil paintings. The homemade oil wasn’t drying, and it looked so gritty. So I went to Professor Nohe and said, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” And he said, “Well, if the medium isn’t working, just change it.” And that blew my mind, and I was like, “Whoa, I can do that?”

Sheares Ashby: When I look at these paintings of these beautiful landscapes, it reminds me that from an environmental framework that if we do not care for this, it will not continue to look like this. This beauty that you have captured is not guaranteed. We have a responsibility to keep this as beautiful as it is.

Beshara: I’m applying for an Undergraduate Research Award to keep studying this because the supplies to make the paint can get a little pricey. But it’s so important, with climate change, that sustainability and art can go hand-in-hand.

Sheares Ashby: I love UMBC because our students are so focused on making some version of difference in the world, no matter the discipline. It is rare that I run into a student who doesn’t think about whatever they care about in an interdisciplinary way. Most of my students—like you—are thinking about how they are going to change something in the world to make it better. 

As Charles “Chuck” Peake celebrated his 90th birthday late one December evening in 2022, a contingent of middle-aged investors, bankers, and academics—Retriever alumni of various decades—were present to cheer on the founder of UMBC’s economics program. As their professor and mentor, Peake had built a tight-knit but inclusive community of economics students and, half a century later, those social bonds still held strong.

“I was honored on my 90^th birthday to have several of my former students travel from around the country to celebrate our formative years together at UMBC,” says Peake. 

While sitting around the table, one of those students, Andrew Colyer ’89, economics, was inspired to ask his mentor about the early days of UMBC and the role Peake played in building the economics department.

The house that Chuck built

At UMBC, one of the benefits of being such a young university—just 57 years old—is that we are still so connected with our past and able to learn from the pioneers who helped found this university. Peake is one of those pioneers—here from the very beginning when campus consisted of just three academic buildings, plywood sidewalks, a lot of mud, and a whole lot more vision.

“Dr. Albin O. Kuhn, UMBC’s first chancellor, could be seen in his spare time using his tractor to carve out the route for the loop road that he envisioned,” recalls Peake.

“Chuck came to UMBC with the vision that the fledgling campus could become the ‘Swarthmore of Public Higher Education,’” says Marsha Goldfarb, professor emerita, economics, referring to the liberal arts college ranked No. 1 multiple times by U.S. News & World Report. 

Peake was hired as the university’s very first professor in economics and entrusted with a daunting task—building the economics department from the ground up. Peake was up for that challenge but, holding fast to his vision of what UMBC could become, he had two conditions.

Pictured right: Peake in his office in 1969.

“First, I would get a graduate assistant, and second, economics professors would not be required to give large lectures.” However, Peake, recalls, “For the first economics course offered in 1967, we expected 30 or 40 students and, to our surprise, 170 students enrolled and we were compelled to offer a large lecture.”

Peake prioritized getting to know his students and engaging them in the learning process, says Joseph Gallagher ’93, economics. “As a student, the first thing Dr. Peake did was give you agency,” recalls Gallagher. “‘Mr. Gallagher, what are your thoughts on this?’ He did this with all his students. By empowering his students, it conveyed a gravity to his classes and made you take stock of your opinions and your own retention of concepts. Dr. Peake wanted you to be engaged in his class and wanted it to be a conversation.”

Of course, this type of classroom model is not really possible in a large lecture format. So, the emphasis quickly became recruiting additional faculty members to meet demand and decrease class sizes to support greater interaction between student and teacher. Peake set his sights high and started his recruitment efforts by contacting the department chairs of the top 10 economics programs in the country.

“Our strategy was to start with young faculty members who studied at the highest quality institutions,” says Peake. “Amazingly, our first six core faculty members did their graduate study at a top 10 economics program.”

The foundation for the economics department was in place. The students were eager to learn. The faculty members were young and ready to prove themselves. There was just one thing missing—a sense of community. 

Building community beyond the classroom

“Dr. Peake was not only a great professor, role model, and mentor, but he was also very social and loved to have a good time,” says Donald Blair ’89, economics. “He definitely helped create a sense of strong culture within the economics department.”

Peake was instrumental in the formation of two student organizations: the Political Economy Club and the UMBC chapter of Omicron Delta Epsilon (ODE), an international economics honor society. He also sponsored the annual ODE banquet, when students were inducted into the honor society and awards were given out. 

“This banquet was a major social event in the life of the department,” says Goldfarb.

At the banquet, recipients were also presented with the Gerald Goldman Scholarship, established in honor of an early economics major tragically killed during a summer construction project, the Omicron Delta Scholarship, and the Charles F. Peake Fund, established in honor of Peake by the UMBC Economics and Administrative Sciences Alumni Association, Inc. (EASAA). 

Another endowment honoring Peake—the Charles F. Peake Endowment for Economics—was later started by Jack Mullen, III ’72, economics, the first UMBC alumnus to work on Wall Street, along with his wife, Carol Mullen ’70, American studies. This endowment helped establish the annual Mullen Lectures, which bring top economic minds from across the country to speak at UMBC. 

As part of his community-building project, Peake began hosting social gatherings for the Political Economy Club and ODE at his home. He would cook a ham and students would bring various dishes for what Peake called a “Tennessee-style dinner.” One summer, he held a crab feast at his home to help educate out-of-state students on the culinary benefits of the Maryland blue crab.

“He was trying very hard to make UMBC more than just a commuter school,” says Colyer who, like Blair and Gallagher, credits Peake with much of his career success. “I definitely benefited from his getting to know me,” he says.

Credit where credit is due

“My office used to be down the hall from his office, and I just recall a line of students and alumni stopping by to hang out,” says David Mitch, current UMBC economics department chair.

“Dr. Peake helped me straighten up my life,” says Colyer, who had nearly failed out of another institution before transferring to UMBC. Today, Colyer is the director of research at The Ithaka Group and still values Peake’s practical approach to advising and education. “You weren’t just going to get an econ degree,” says Colyer. “Dr. Peake took some personal responsibility in making sure you had a career after graduation.”

Blair, who is now an investment banker at Raymond James, had a similar experience at UMBC. “I give Dr. Peake tons of the credit for steering me in the direction that completely influenced my career,” he says. “I was late to the job recruitment cycle, and Dr. Peake made calls on my behalf to the big four accounting firms at the time and was able to get me an interview and eventually a job at KPMG in Baltimore.” 

“Dr. Peake’s influence went well beyond the classroom,” says Patricia Rudolph ’72, economics. “I believe that Dr. Peake’s help and guidance made my career possible. I had the vague idea that I wanted to be a college professor but I had no idea what I needed to do to achieve that goal. Dr. Peake took the time to help me through the entire process of applying for admission to a Ph.D. program.”

“He probably wrote more recommendations for grad school than any other professor,” says Colyer, who reconnected with Blair in the same MBA program at the University of Virginia.

Innovating after retirement 

Not even retirement can slow down a man like Peake. In fact, what he calls his “most important academic contribution to UMBC” didn’t even occur until 2001—two years after retiring—when the economics department launched its second major, the B.S. in financial economics, to go along with the traditional B.A. in economics.

“I spent about a decade preparing the proposed major,” says Peake. “With this credential, graduates found that it opened doors to Wall Street and other real-world pursuits well beyond academia.”

“Financial economics became extremely popular,” says Goldfarb. “And, before long, it attracted more students than the B.A.”

While Peake points to the B.S. as his most important academic contribution to UMBC, his former students know his kind nature and love for his students is his real legacy.

“He was always very supportive of his students and wanted the best for us,” says Blair.

“He always had time for everyone,” says Colyer, who was honored to have Dr. Peake attend his wedding.

“He is just a vessel of pure goodness,” adds Gallagher.

Some have dark wood and cozy corners, some have bright, natural light and textured walls—but each of Lane Harlan’s establishments can be looked at like a love letter to the people of Baltimore, thoughtfully decorated with hand-chosen, local pieces and, in some cases, even the decor from her own living room. 

The different vibes, each sumptuous in their own ways, are transporting for patrons. Harlan says that’s intentional. “I want them to feel like they’re elsewhere. They’re not in Baltimore, they’re somewhere else. I think it’s important if you can feel like you’re on an adventure.”

To say Harlan ’21, political science—the highly-accomplished restaurateur who opened W.C. Harlan, Clavel Mescaleria, Fadensonnen, the Coral Wig, and more—is well-known throughout Baltimore would be an understatement. Her acclaim continues to grow after the recent announcement that Clavel is a finalist for a coveted James Beard Award for “Outstanding Bar” (one step and one sip inside the unique taqueria and within a second, you’ll understand why). But while we all know of her success, it may come as a surprise that just like many students, she hit some academic roadblocks along the way. 

The first course

When Harlan joined UMBC as a political science major in 2005, she was already a little different than your average first-year student. Growing up in a military family, she spent her childhood often moving. After graduating high school early, Harlan took her own version of a gap year, traveling to Spain to start her informal education in the hospitality industry. Upon return to Baltimore, she decided to set down roots at UMBC and experience life as an independent adult living in the city. 

Brian Grodsky, political science chair, was one of the professors who helped Harlan connect with her major, especially in his classes about international justice.

“That class made me want to go to school forever. I felt like it was so fascinating and challenging at the same time,” says Harlan. 

Reflecting back on the student he taught nearly 15 years prior, Grodsky remembers Harlan as “one of those students for whom class didn’t just stop when she went home—she was always grappling with issues long after we walked out of the classroom.” 

But if her childhood taught her anything, Harlan knew she still had a lot of the world to explore. “Studying abroad was one of the most important things I did in college. And if I hadn’t gone to UMBC, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity,” says Harlan. 

Harlan spent a year studying abroad in France, learning the restaurant and bar business from the ground up. While she excelled academically in her upper-level courses through UMBC, she struggled with her math requirement. And so, when the opportunity to return to France through a teaching assistantship arose, she jumped at the chance and eventually decided to leave her formal education at UMBC behind. 

Recipe for success

Over the next several years, Harlan worked with partners to build her growing restaurant dynasty, starting with W.C. Harlan, a foreclosed upon former dive bar turned accidental speakeasy. But she harkened back to lessons she learned at UMBC to help her during the exhaustive process. 

“I used my sense of political science in that I was walking around with the petition to the neighbors, getting people to sign, saying that they supported the reopening of the bar, as well as taking it to the neighborhood associations and speaking with the council people,” she says. 

After all this success, how is it that Harlan found herself back in the (virtual) UMBC classroom? In short—COVID. 

“In the pandemic, businesses had to close, restaurants became carry-out operations, and suddenly there was more time in my life,” says Harlan. “I started to think about my time at UMBC, and I felt like I didn’t have closure from that period.” 

Through UMBC’s Finish Line Program, Harlan re-enrolled and found herself again coming face to face with her one-time nemesis—the math requirement. She hired a tutor to come to Clavel once a week to help her study and go over homework. And though she admits it was difficult getting back into the swing of academia after so many years away, she persisted and completed her degree. 

“I texted a photo of my diploma to my parents, and I said, ‘Dad, hang it on your wall! Be proud of me,’” she jokes. “But really, the reason I wanted to finish also was because everyone in life, you have many chapters, and I might want to have another chapter. And I knew I couldn’t do that without my undergraduate degree.” 

While Harlan spends her free time traveling the world and even expanding her business ventures globally, she’s not going anywhere any time soon. “I love Baltimore. I can’t imagine my restaurants anywhere else, actually. I think Baltimore is filled with artists and opportunities and people who do things and they own them.”

With Winona Caesar ’09, American studies and history

As a first-year student—before classes had even started—Winona Caesar ’09, American studies and history, took to heart some advice she heard at Welcome Week: Keep in touch with your loved ones. So she started writing to her grandfather who lived a few miles down the road in Baltimore City. And then, two years into their correspondence, he passed away. “His letters were amazing,” says Caesar, “a wealth of knowledge.” 

Around that same time—halfway through her time at UMBC—Caesar’s older friends began graduating and moving around the country. She kept in touch with a few of them through letters, occasionally splurging on stickers to be extra thoughtful. Now she spends a good portion of her free time corresponding regularly with 16 established pen pals, although she’s written back and forth with more than 50 interlocutors in the past two decades.

For Caesar, a sergeant in the Baltimore City Police, it’s a creative outlet. Whether hand writing a letter or using one of her seven typewriters, Caesar says the process slows her down and connects her to individuals all over the globe. As the world grows increasingly more digitized, Caesar and her pen pals are saving the lost art of keeping in touch.

Tools of the Trade:
A writing implement
Paper or postcard
Postage stamp
Envelope (handmade, if you’re serious about this)
A collection of stickers or ephemera to share

Step 1: Find a willing pen pal (or several)

For Caesar, her letter writing career started as a natural offshoot of keeping in touch with loved ones, but she has since joined two professional letter writing societies that connect new pen pals and charge a very small fee to screen participants.

Caesar says that not all matches work out but letter exchanges that hit a good groove sometimes go on indefinitely. One of her first matches was with Amy in Tennessee [pictured in the photobooth series with Caesar, left]. After seven years of corresponding, while on vacation in Tennessee, Caesar and Amy met up. Caesar says her pen pal was exactly like her letter-writing persona. “Reading her writing and meeting her in person, it was like we were best of friends. It worked,” says Caesar.

Step 2: Tap into your creativity

Caesar has been writing and sending letters long enough that she can hand make an envelope with her eyes closed, she says. In her writing nook in her apartment, Caesar keeps clear boxes stacked on each other—each organized by the correspondent’s name and send date—with thousands of letters filed inside. Nearby are her collection of typewriters, her stash of pens, her paper supplies, her stamp options, colorful washi tape, old magazines and paper samples for envelopes, so many stickers and other fun items to include in her letters. 

Seated in a command-center-like swivel chair in the middle of her supplies and the sun streaming past her collection of succulents on the window nearby, Caesar will spend as long as she needs to (and as much energy as her job leaves her) replying to friends and new acquaintances near and far. 

She says she doesn’t plan out her responses in advance. “I try to react directly to the letter and then add any extra stuff that’s coming up in my life, like, ‘Oh, I got a future trip,’ or ‘This is how I’m feeling.’” With some correspondents, she plays on-going games of hangman, scavenger hunts, mystery games, or Pictionary.

Step 3: Share as much as you want about yourself

One of Caesar’s regular pen pals, Sam, is a student from Belgium, who often sends her two letters a week, densely written on graph paper. His tight cursive isn’t easy to skim, but Caesar has grown accustomed to his handwriting over the past four years. “He’s more prolific than most,” says Caesar, and in addition to his own letters, Sam has also connected her to his mom, Christine. “Her letters were much more colorful and had lively stickers and things in them, while his are utilitarian.” 

After three or four years of letter writing with Christine, Caesar received a note this past December saying she wanted to end the correspondence. “I was sad,” Caesar said, “so I reached out to my letter writing groups and asked, ‘How do you feel when this happens?’”

Pen pal relationships have many of the same ups and downs as in-person friendships, so Caesar shares certain parts of her life more or less with some writers, but all of them know about her love of tea and the Marvel universe. Oftentimes, she’ll receive gifts of specialty tea flavors or themed-stamps, and she attempts to keep her correspondence and gifts focused on the recipients’ interests.

Step 4: Give it your stamp of approval

Getting your letter (or in Caesar’s case, sometimes dozens of letters at a time) out the door is the final step. When Caesar travels, she makes it a point to ask the local post office to add its own unique cancel stamp to her postcards or letters, so the recipients can see where she’s visited.

Once, a pen pal from New Hampshire sent Caesar a letter stamped from Valentine Station in Loveland, Colorado. Caesar was confused until she learned about a service that will send your mail through interesting named locations for a small fee. 

Thoughtful touches like these are part-and-parcel being a good pen pal, but they’re not necessary to get started writing letters. “This really does fulfill my creative spirit,” says Caesar, “especially since I don’t get to do this in my daily life—but actually this is my daily life.” 

For aspiring pen pals, Caesar says, start by writing to someone you already know and love. Who knows where your letters will take you after that.