What if the answer wasn’t the goal? What if the joy was found in asking a better question? Individualized Study instructors Stephen Freeland and Eric Brown eagerly invite their students to delve into the mystery and wonder of the world, balancing that awe with an intrepid curiosity that doesn’t accept surface-level explanations. What can we learn about ourselves, they ask, when we don’t expect a ready-made answer to our questions?

Stephen Freeland and Eric Brown ’93, M1, interdisciplinary studies, stand off to either side of the Fine Arts classroom. Playfully adversarial, the two Leos know how to pull each other’s levers. The question on the whiteboard asks the students in Brown’s Human Context of Science and Technology class to reconsider life as they know it: the origins of life, the evolution of life, the label “intelligent life”—and not just here on our blue marble, but in galaxies far, far away.

Freeland and Brown are not scared away by “what if” questions. Freeland, an evolutionary biologist, and Brown, with a background in the history of science, both find their homes in UMBC’s Department of Individualized Study (INDS). The pair seems like they would thrive under the interrogation of any 4-year-old’s barrage of “whys.” But this childlike curiosity isn’t aimless (it never is). Instead, the colleagues of almost a decade take great pleasure in finding ways to question established scientific norms and help students eschew culturally constructed labels that might accidentally shield them from further scientific discovery.

Some of the students eagerly step into the scrum. Being asked to question something as fundamental to her biology studies as the moment of the origin of life clearly takes Emma Galambos ’23, psychology, aback. 

As she wraps her head around what Freeland is positing, Galambos peppers him with questions about a basic tenet in most biology textbooks. Developed as an idea in the 1960s, the “RNA World” hypothesis states that life began with a simple RNA molecule that could copy itself without help from other molecules, like DNA and proteins. And somewhere in this RNA-only universe, the origin of life happened. It’s a commonly featured point on famous graphs that claim to explain the pre-biotic origins of the universe. 

Freeland thinks, to put it simply, this is rubbish. But despite Freeland’s extensive background in evolutionary biology, Galambos has a few things to push back on—which is something Brown actively fosters with his students. 

“I was taught the RNA World hypothesis in previous courses, that RNA was the precursor for life,” says Galambos, reflecting on the exchange after the class concluded. Currently an EMT who plans to attend nursing school after graduation, Galambos says, “I’ve been taught that there was a distinct origin of life and Dr. Freeland’s concept goes against this idea, but I find his explanations and ideas very fascinating.” Brown facilitates the in-class conversation by occasionally prodding Freeland to expound on his alternative take.

Freeland goes on to outline his proposal on the board with a few simple x-y axes, changing what looks like a sharp vertical upswing into a more nuanced diagonal line (to indicate there may have been one or more stages before RNA, from which RNA later evolved). “Something that grows out of the natural way I do science, and what has made me a scientist,” says Freeland, INDS director, “is to imagine the counterfactual. You imagine what it isn’t, in order to see more clearly what it is.”

He’s currently trying to publish a paper that questions the dominant paradigm of the RNA World hypothesis while also working on a review for a different manuscript that criticizes the well-accepted theory. He emphasizes the word trying, “as it’s sort of proven to be strangely unpublishable,” he says with a wry smile, “at least within the U.S.”

Regardless of any professional hurdles, the joy that Freeland and Brown bring to this scientific tug-of-war is evident in their ease with each other and the way they eagerly invite the students into the mystery and wonder of the world with reverence—and a healthy dose of skepticism.  

The alien problem

Similarly unpublishable to an extent is genuine scientific inquiry into the existence of extraterrestrial life. Not that it’s stopping Avi Loeb, chair of Harvard’s astronomy department. Loeb is the jumping off point for Freeland and Brown’s classroom conversation: how does a well-respected astrophysicist earn the ire and interest of colleagues across the globe? Belief in aliens is the short answer, and the slightly longer version is by sincerely positing the likelihood of communicative life near and far using an equation developed in 1961 by Frank Drake.

Brown jots a formula on the board. Known as the Drake equation, it attempts to solve for the numbers of technologically advanced civilizations in the galaxy, using factors like the average number of planets in the Milky Way that can potentially support life per star that has planets, the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life, the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space, etc. 

It’s more of a thought experiment than a mathematical formula, but it’s had broad implications for how astrophysicists consider extraterrestrial life. Brown wraps up the exchange with what could be a loaded question to his colleague: “So, your estimation then is that there’s a lot of life in the galaxy?” 

“Yes,” Freeland gamely replies. “But I’m growing more careful to say that there has been a lot of life in the galaxy.”

“It could be a cosmic graveyard out there,” Brown follows up. “Yes, life comes about and then life disappears. It could be that one of these terms in the Drake equation is a really, really small number.”

There are other even more banal and prosaic reasons we haven’t discovered signs of life elsewhere, says Freeland. We haven’t tried. 

“Our state of actual scientific knowledge about our own cosmic backyard and neighboring planets is minimal, zero,” says Freeland. “Our species has only conducted three full experiments to test for the existence of life outside of Earth, and they were all on Mars and they were all in 1977. One of those three is still up for debate because by the standards that they began the experiment, it demonstrated there was life. The consensus was to re-explain the outcome.”

“All of that is to say,” says Freeland, “don’t mistake this: there is an absence of evidence, not an evidence of absence. That would be my biggest point to you.”

Upsetting the established balance 

Freeland and Brown are using the example of extraterrestrial life as a starting point in their discussion, but they’re not just interested in the possibility of little green people arriving in spaceships—although they wouldn’t turn them away. Freeland and Brown see the opportunity to open students’ minds to question self-reinforcing patterns: something is “discovered,” then put in a textbook, then taught for decades, and now it is true. This could be said about well-regarded theories of the origin point of life to other entrenched systems like white patriarchy, Freeland gives as an example.

“It comes to this vicious circle where we’ve created a culture that can’t remember to see it other than the way our culture sees it,” says Freeland. “And as time goes on, it actually gets progressively harder and harder for alternatives to penetrate that.”

“Part of the reason why I don’t believe in capital T truth,” Brown addresses his students, “is because I think humans are good at tricking ourselves into believing that we have discovered the truth about the world. And then, in 100 years when that’s no longer the truth, we’re also very good at telling retroactive stories about how those people were just mistaken.”

So what is true?

Brown’s and Freeland’s shared astrological sign popped up earlier in the class when they asked the students if they put any stock in the zodiac. The students were wary of aligning themselves with the stars, but Freeland and Brown are quite happy to explore what the social ramifications are of always hearing about being a Leo actually contributing to their natural sense of self-assurance. In this way, something becomes (lowercase-t) “true,” a truth defined by shared experience as opposed to objectivity. 

Many things students dutifully copy from lectures and textbooks and assume are truthful building blocks are actually obsolete concepts at this point, Brown and Freeland point out. Like scientific discoveries of old, it’s difficult for society to adjust to new information. Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment for his heliocentric views—in our age maybe that looks like a denied tenure package or rejected manuscripts for questioning the scientific norm. 

“What’s interesting about this to me,” says Brown, “is that it seems so anti-scientific, that I can’t believe something or I can’t argue something because this other proposed theory has won the current approval, even if I have evidence otherwise. Ought it not be that it’s the evidence that guides you?”

“The danger here,” replies Freeland, “is if we mistake the model that we are using and the labels that we’ve all grown familiar with—if we mistake them for objective reality…then we’re never going to see past those labels.” Freeland points to UMBC’s Kevin Omland, professor of biological sciences and expert on the evolutionary biology of birds, to make his point. “Omland is finding that actually the more we study, the less there is an objective line to say where one species begins and another one ends. That’s not to say that labels can’t be useful, but they mean different things, depending on what question you’re asking.”

Freeland brings that back around to his own research—debunking the moment of the origin of life. Pointing again to his alternative theory, the diagonal line representing gradual interplay of RNA and DNA, Freeland says, “what is interesting to me about that diagonal line is that there’s nowhere on that to call the moment of the origin of life. The origin of life is actually a seamless part of the unraveling of the universe, the way that time and energy can make the universe go. That’s a much more interesting universe, really.” 

Asking better questions

What purpose is there in asking big questions we’ll (probably) never know the answers to? Aristotle famously addresses this human tendency in the first sentence of Metaphysics: “All men by nature desire understanding.” For some, that understanding leads down an unfamiliar but fulfilling path that might make your colleagues—or your students—uncomfortable with the destination.  

Galambos says that Brown doesn’t hesitate to share “that a student changed his perception or will continue to ask the student further questions about how they got to the idea” because he seems naturally intrigued by his students’ responses. Freeland and Brown are not alone in their mission to revive and share their students’ natural curiosity about the world—or at the very least help them learn how to ask better questions. It’s one of the pillars of UMBC’s mission to welcome all students to our community of inquiring minds. 

“And the further I go,” says Freeland of his 25-plus year research career, “the more I’m convinced, like all good research, what you learn is where the question was wrong, and the question gets better rather than getting an answer.” 

*****
Illustrations by Michelle Rudman.

After three decades of transformational leadership at UMBC, President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III has announced his plan to retire at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year.

President Hrabowski is nationally celebrated for his results-driven commitment to inclusive excellence, collaborative approach to leadership, and mentorship that pairs high expectations with strong support. Through his time at UMBC, these qualities have become core to the university’s unique culture and community. They have also inspired national and global recognition. 

During President Hrabowski’s tenure, UMBC has ascended in the national rankings. U.S. News ranked UMBC the nation’s #1 “Up and Coming” university for six years, 2009-14. In 2015 they transitioned to recognizing the nation’s “most innovative” national universities, featuring UMBC every year since the list launched. For the past decade, U.S. News has also consistently ranked UMBC among the nation’s leading institutions for Best Undergraduate Teaching. 

Visitors to campus often see President Hrabowski walking down Academic Row. He greets students by name, asking about their classes and post-grad plans, listening, and offering encouragement. That personal level of care has become part of UMBC’s DNA. It’s a quality that draws thousands of new students to UMBC each year and inspires UMBC’s national recognition as a model for supporting student success.

Advocating for students

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1950, Hrabowski was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He graduated from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics, and earned his M.A. in mathematics and Ph.D. in higher education administration/statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

President Hrabowski came to UMBC as vice provost in 1987, when UMBC was just two decades old, and has served as president since 1992. He is a national leader in science and math education, with an emphasis on the participation and achievement of underrepresented minority students. 

Among many high-profile, high-impact leadership roles, President Hrabowski chaired the National Academies’ committee that produced a landmark 2011 report on expanding underrepresented minority participation in STEM. Barack Obama named him to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans in 2012. The following year, his TED talk “Four Pillars of College Success in Science” made waves worldwide, going on to receive more than one million views.

He emphasizes, “collaborative strategies have been at the core of it all.”

Learning from Meyerhoff

At the national level, President Hrabowski is also known for partnering with Robert Meyerhoff to found the Meyerhoff Scholars Program in 1988, to increase the diversity of STEM leaders. Science describes the program as the “gold standard for providing a path into academic research” for students from underrepresented groups. 

So far, UMBC has graduated more than 1,400 Meyerhoff Scholars with STEM degrees. More than 800 have already earned graduate or professional degrees. According to NSF data, UMBC is now the nation’s top producer of Black graduates who go on to a Ph.D. in the natural sciences and engineering. 

These graduates include alumni like COVID-19 vaccine developer Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett ’08, M16, now an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard. More than a dozen other institutions have replicated the Meyerhoff program, from Penn State and UNC to UC Berkeley and UCSD (supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative).

Supporting scholars

Meyerhoff has also had ripple effects within UMBC. Through the program, UMBC faculty and staff learned about what kinds of support most benefit students: hands-on research experience, intensive (even intrusive) advising and mentorship, and mutual peer support built on a cohort model. These findings have inspired programs like UMBC’s Center for Women in Technology Scholars and STEM BUILD at UMBC, reaching an ever-expanding number of students.

UMBC’s focus on providing a distinctive educational experience is evident across disciplines. The Linehan Artist Scholars, Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars, Humanities Scholars, Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars and several other programs provide hands-on learning, thoughtful reflection, and community support, preparing future leaders.

Whether they stay in Maryland or travel the world, UMBC’s 85,000 alumni carry with them a unique approach to co-creating communities. That approach is grounded in mutual respect and support, intellectual curiosity, and achievement through collaboration.

“Excellence is never an accident“

Behind UMBC’s accolades are students persevering every day to achieve their dreams, supported by caring faculty and staff. Over the last decade, UMBC has increased its six-year graduation rate for full-time freshmen from 55.7% to 69.2%. And UMBC has become known for welcoming and supporting transfer students, including a large number of first-generation college students. 

This year, the pioneering University Innovation Alliance selected UMBC as a member. This public research university consortium works to boost student success through sharing and scaling approaches that work.

National stage

At UMBC, Retrievers quickly learn what’s possible in a community that pairs high expectations and robust support, and empowers students to pursue their passions. UMBC is the reigning national mock trial champion, defeating Yale in last year’s finals, and UMBC’s Cyber Dawgs have won national and regional championships. UMBC has won or tied for first place ten times at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. 

In 2018, UMBC made basketball history as the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in an NCAA men’s tournament. In addition to conference championships in several sports during President Hrabowski’s tenure, men’s soccer rose to the NCAA semifinals and UMBC produced top national athletes in swimming and track and field. 

Retrievers are regularly recognized as some of the world’s leading emerging researchers, as Rhodes Scholars and Goldwater Scholars. They explore the world as Fulbright Scholars and partner to support communities as Newman Civic Fellows.

“The UMBC story is one of excitement about learning and learning how to work with people different from oneself,” says President Hrabowski. “We are saying to the country and to young people that you don’t have to be rich to be the very best. Middle class institutions can produce some of the best thinkers in the world.”

Inspired by students

Over three decades, President Hrabowski has set the bar for educational leadership and earned the highest national honors a university president can receive. He’s written four books and mentored fellow university presidents through a Harvard leadership program. More than 40 universities nationwide—from Harvard and Princeton to University of Michigan and Arizona State—have granted him honorary degrees. But UMBC students are the legacy that makes him feel most proud and inspired. 

“We have shown the country that we are a model of inclusive excellence,” President Hrabowski shares. “UMBC is just 55 years old, but we have worked very hard to make history. And we will always be a part of this nation’s history because we produce leaders, including thousands of teachers, lawyers, social workers, and entrepreneurs shaping our communities.”

“Our students, from undergraduate to Ph.D., represent best in class,” he says. “When you think about the UMBC alumni who serve as the head of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab, the president of Clemson, the speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, and the first Black woman to create a vaccine in the history of the world, you can’t help but think of how well UMBC prepared them for those roles.”

Setting the standard

University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents Chair Linda Gooden shares, “People seek out Freeman’s advice because they understand that, in many ways, he’s set the standard for supporting students to success—and I mean all students: students from every background, every race and ethnicity, every income level.” 

This carries through to other areas of his leadership, she notes. “He’s set the standard for collaborative leadership and continuous organizational improvement,” says Gooden. “He’s set the standard for creating a culture that brings out people’s best character and best effort. We’ve known every day of his long career how profoundly lucky we are to have him.”

Ongoing growth

Looking ahead, President Hrabowski is excited to see what UMBC will become and achieve. 

Cumulative investment in campus construction has grown from $118 million to $1.2 billion over the past three decades. This includes the addition of the Performing Arts and Humanities Building, Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building, Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena, and research and teaching spaces in downtown Baltimore. UMBC also has a vibrant presence—12 programs and more than 600 students—at the Universities at Shady Grove.

The bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park houses 131 companies and organizations that employ nearly 1,900 people. And UMBC’s research and development expenditures now surpass $84 million annually. 

“Students and student achievement are at the center of everything we do,” President Hrabowski reflects. “At the same time, we support all people as they grow, including our faculty and staff. The dreams and aspirations of everyone in our community inspire us to keep working to be our best selves. There are so many amazingly talented people at UMBC, and we will continue to attract amazingly talented people at every level.”

Next steps

The USM Board of Regents and Chancellor Perman will soon launch a national search for the next president of UMBC, with details announced as they are available. President Hrabowski notes, “I have no doubt that they will work with the campus to attract a leader who appreciates UMBC values and shares our passion for being the very best at what we do.”

Chancellor Perman says of President Hrabowski, “I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who so powerfully inspires excellence. And that’s exactly what his legacy is—a commitment to inclusive excellence that lives on in UMBC, its students, faculty, staff, and alumni.”

UMBC anticipates welcoming its next president in early 2022. Still, says President Hrabowski, “UMBC will always be a part of me. It has helped to define who I am. Wherever I am, I will be talking about the wonderful place that is UMBC.”

For more information, visit umbc.edu/president.

Featured Image: President Hrabowski speaks with UMBC students on campus, under the flags in The Commons. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

In music, science, and theatre classes, in research labs, in conservation efforts, and almost every corner of academia, there’s a growing awareness and dedication to community-engaged scholarship. How are different disciplines training up social justice-minded students to do no harm to the communities they work in? With one thriving relationship at a time.

A tree grows in Baltimore. Its roots push against the surface, its newly budding canopy blocks some of the dreary rain on this last day in March. The aphorism promises flowers soon, but the daffodils are already here, lush and golden against the wet grass. Rooted in this environment, the tree struggles to absorb water in a heavily-paved area. It faces possible invasive species, the whims of developers, a strike of lightning or disease.

These outside influences affect the flourishing of this tree, and the flourishing of the neighborhood it’s rooted in is just as interconnected. A tension, a balance, a system of reciprocity.  

In Franklin Square Park, on a parcel of land donated by developers to the southwest Baltimore neighborhood in 1839, this tree and 96 others were recently surveyed by UMBC students at the request of the Franklin Square Neighborhood Association. They wanted a catalog of their natural resources, but also a record of what they’ve lost—only seven of the original 149 trees on a 1916 map of the park remain.

Working with members of the neighborhood, Mariya Shcheglovitova, Ph.D. ’20, geography and environmental systems, and Bee Brown ’21, environmental science, and other UMBC student researchers began their work. Their project would rapidly expand from an arboreal park survey to a community-focused project that invited local kids to participate in a scavenger hunt and other activities to build on the students’ existing connection to the park. As Shcheglovitova and Brown discovered, “understanding park quality is dynamic and can only be partially captured in a survey of the park features. Historic accounts and a focus on what happens in a park can enrich our understanding of park quality.”

What began in Franklin Square as an effort to catalog trees—separate trunks with roots and canopies equally intermingling—broadened to encompass the community who interacts with the park the most. Acknowledging this interconnectedness in research of all types at UMBC is not new to academia but is becoming a more prominent approach to research as different disciplines wrestle with ways to train up social justice-minded students and do no harm to the communities they work in.

Bridging campus and community

Community-engaged research gives a name to this method. At UMBC, most service-learning and community engagement experiences are facilitated through The Shriver Center, which was founded nearly 30 years ago. Director Michele Wolff explains that in the early days, the Center emphasized “that higher ed institutions shouldn’t tell communities what they need. The partnership should be one of mutuality and reciprocity. So our focus should be listening to community partners, hearing where their gaps are and then being a resource to work with them to fill the gaps.”

This is still the Center’s primary mission, and in January 2020, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching honored UMBC with its distinguished Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, acknowledging UMBC faculty, staff, students, and partners for their deep commitment to strengthening the bonds between campus and community. 

As part of the application process, more than 120 campus partners and dozens of community partners underwent a rigorous self-study. Along the way, they found that in music, science, and theatre classes, in research labs, in conservation efforts, and almost every corner of academia, there’s a growing awareness and dedication to community-engaged scholarship. Wolff sees this movement come alongside “an increased appreciation of disparities, racial inequities, and other social justice issues. At the same time, people have been working on increasing appreciation and inclusion of community members as experts, or thinking about what counts as scholarly work.”

Some departments are working on ways to adopt these methods, and others have this ethos baked into their core. American studies, one of the original majors at UMBC, calls community-based research and engagement one of the “signatures” of the major. With its joint focus on “coupled natural and human systems,” geography and environmental systems (GES) is another department that recognizes the necessity and power of community-engaged scholarship.

Slow scholarship

“In the field of environmental justice, it’s absolutely assumed and expected that you’re going to do community-engaged research,” says Dawn Biehler, a GES professor who first became aware of the concept as a graduate student. “More and more people are realizing that this is important and a good way of doing research, but to do it really well takes so much time and you have to be brave, in a way.” 

As an academic, says Biehler, you have to honestly assess if your career—the timing of publications and tenure-track expectations—will suffer from this process. “It takes time to build genuine relationships with the community,” she continues. After engagement and research, then you still need to publish, and all of this takes more time than many instructors have allotted in their balance of research and teaching. “The other thing you have to recognize is that the people in the community you’re working with, they’re exposed to risks all the time, just a different set of risks,” says Biehler.

Institutionally, UMBC is changing to reflect community-engaged research as a priority. In May 2019, the Faculty Senate successfully proposed new language to include evaluation of community-engaged scholarship in the promotion and tenure policy for all departments, says Donald Snyder, chair of the committee that spearheaded the policy change and a lecturer in media and communications studies.

Still, even with the university’s acknowledgement of this methodology, why would professors or students voluntarily choose the inherently riskier, if not just slower, approach to research? 

Wolff highlights two affective or social emotional competencies she hopes students take from their time in community work—perspective taking and shared humanness. “What better place to develop and grow (those competencies) than in experiences where you have the opportunity to work with others who are different from yourself and in contexts that are different from the ones you’re used to?” asks Wolff.

Intersectional research

As a doctoral student, Shcheglovitova was known as “the person who cared about trees and social justice in the city,” so she wasn’t surprised when undergraduate student Bee Brown approached her to collaborate on a research project that interwove those topics.

Biehler’s multi-year connection with the Franklin Square community, says Shcheglovitova, gave neighborhood folks someone to approach who was willing to listen and respond about local environmental issues and allowed her and Brown to more easily gain the trust of the people involved.

Scott Kashnow, vice president of the Franklin Square Neighborhood Association, wanted an updated survey of the park’s trees that could inform future plantings in the park. Looking at historical photos and a 1916 map of the park, it’s clear a lot has changed in the past 100 years. Park features have disappeared or degraded—the once bubbling fountain is planted over, the park bathroom is boarded shut, and many of the area’s ash trees were decimated by an invasive insect species. 

After the survey was completed, Kashnow came up with the idea to invite students from a local school to celebrate the work and take part in the ongoing research. Shcheglovitova, Brown, and Biehler took the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding into community relationships with the park space.

“This is a way research can actually be helpful to the community,” says Kashnow, a Franklin Square resident for 14 years. “Through various organizations, we’ve been studied so much and oftentimes the studies don’t make any tangible difference in people’s lives. And people are still very happy to participate, you know, everybody has opinions, they love to talk about them. But does the research actually translate to some difference in people’s lives?”

Orchestrating social change

Regardless of the discipline, successful community-engaged scholarship depends on sustained relationships over time. Brian Kaufman, associate professor of music, sees grade school music teachers as great examples of this practice. Unlike other academic subjects in grade school where students have new instructors each year, music teachers interact with the same student musicians year after year. So it naturally follows for Kaufman that his music education students at UMBC should commit to a school for longer than a semester. 

Through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra initiative OrchKids (and with the support of The Shriver Center), UMBC students work with Kaufman at Booker T. Washington Middle School in West Baltimore for two years at a time. “It’s unusual for student teachers to spend four semesters at the same school, but to really build relationships with students, to see them develop, this is necessary,” Kaufman says, not just for the middle school students, but his UMBC students as well. 

Pre-COVID, (although they have continued the program virtually) this would mean seven to 10 site visits to the school per semester. UMBC students spend the first half of the visit observing the teacher or engaging with the class, and the last hour spent in guided reflection. 

“To me,” shares Kaufman, “that’s where the juicy part comes in.” Before heading back to campus in a Shriver Center van, Kaufman says, “we sit down and talk about what we learned. And we really try to unpack our experience and make connections to some bigger issues—issues of equity, and these larger discussions about teaching in the field and service-learning in the city and how these things tie together. That’s where the real richness comes in for the students.”

Science on the stage

If music education lends itself naturally to following a community-engaged process, what about cross-disciplinary initiatives like Erin Lavik and Lynn Watson’s project Theatre Arts and Communicating Science? Lavik, professor in the department of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, and Watson, a theatre professor, collaborated with Arbutus Middle School science teachers to use theatre skills—playwriting, improvisation, and voice/speech—to help their young students tell stories about their capstone science projects.

Lavik had personally experienced the powerful interplay between STEM and theatre in her own studies, she says, “So I wanted to create a program that helped college students tell the story of their science and let them engage with students in middle school who were vulnerable to losing their passion in science.” When she approached Watson about the idea, the theatre professor was  thrilled. “We shared an understanding of the power of theatrical storytelling that can bring communities of people together,” says Watson.

Prior to the program, the UMBC undergraduate and graduate engineering and theatre students spent a preparatory weekend workshopping with science teachers at Arbutus Middle School. Lavik and Watson saw the Retrievers’ confidence and community-building efforts gain steam over the weekend which led to a more successful outcome when they worked with the middle schoolers.

The students ultimately used a playwriting exercise to understand the plight of endangered species and improv scenarios to demonstrate the real world effects of Newton’s Laws of Motion—all of this performed with joy, says Watson. She noticed that the experience also “had a tremendous impact on the UMBC students in terms of confidence in their abilities as leaders and their ability to take action in contributing to the wider community, including outside the university.”

Before their joint project in January 2020, Lavik and Watson were both interested in the concept of community-engaged programming, but they attribute the successful launch of their vision to The Shriver Center. After the fact, Lavik observed that community-engaged scholarship can increase student retention—the stipends attached to the program, made possible by a Charlesmead Initiative for Arts Education grant, afforded students the time to participate. “I hope that over time, we will be able to show that programs that integrate arts and science can help students thrive at UMBC, and bringing these programs to our communities can increase the number of students, particularly from underrepresented populations, who can begin to see themselves as scientists and engineers with joy.”

Changing university culture

UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life has been instrumental in creating a campus culture of an engaged community—promoting equitable off-campus partnerships while emphasizing the importance of starting that process within the communities at UMBC. The Center’s Director David Hoffman, Ph.D. ’13, language, literacy, and culture, and Assistant Director Romy Hübler ’09, MLL, M.A. ’11, intercultural communications, Ph.D. ’15, LLC, say that an initiative that precedes the formalization of the Center is the BreakingGround grant program.

The origins of BreakingGround came from an effort to organize a UMBC Civic Year in 2012, says Hoffman, when “we discovered all of these people who were doing amazing things.” Greg Simmons, M.P.P. ’04, vice president of institutional advancement, challenged the group to think bigger, remembers Hoffman. “He said, ‘you know, you’re talking about this as a year, but this really is about UMBC’s identity. This is a place where we come together because we want to change the world and we want to change it in particular ways that align with values like inclusive excellence.’”

Hoffman, along with Wolff and others, recognized that community-engaged work was happening in classrooms, at service-learning sites, and in other campus settings, but there wasn’t a unifying structure for like-minded people to find each other easily. Through a sustaining grant from the provost’s office, BreakingGround has offered grants to 80 applicants to infuse courses and programs with opportunities for students to develop civic agency, and to shape their experiences so they’re not “just a one-off community service project, but an opportunity for lasting community engagement,” says Hoffman.

Hübler joined the BreakingGround working group in 2012 as the community liaison for the Graduate Student Association, and as a result of her involvement changed the topic of her dissertation. “I noticed among graduate students from all these different disciplines that many of us were drawn to our topics of study because we either had personal experience with them or we lived in communities where we would observe the effects of bad policy on people and centuries of oppression and marginalization.”

In 2013, UMBC began sending delegations to the Imagining America conference, which, according to the group’s mission, brings together people in higher education, non profit organizations, and activists to “imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world.” Imagining America’s leaders were struck by the holistic vision described by UMBC participants. “They saw how we were changing the university’s culture,” says Hübler. “Like this was not just one faculty member doing this in this discipline and another one over here, and they’re not communicating, but they could see that this was an organized effort.” 

As a result, UMBC was asked to bring the 2015 conference to Baltimore. Hübler and others began to reach out to partners to co-organize workshops around the city. “What is the story that we want to tell of Baltimore?” Hübler would ask. “We didn’t want it to be UMBC saying, ‘this is the story,’ right? But we came up with the story together.” In between planning the conference and the actualization of the work, Freddie Gray died in police custody in April 2015. Uprisings shook the city and caused UMBC to conduct a campus-wide inventory of Baltimore-based engagement, and that accounting ultimately strengthened the intentionality to focus community-based activities on racial equity. One of the most significant outcomes of that reckoning would come in 2017, with the establishment of the Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation Campus Center at UMBC, which works to break down racial hierarchies with a focus on the university’s service-learning and community-engagement partnerships in Baltimore City.

Importantly, Hübler notes that UMBC is, in fact, its own community and should apply the same community-engaged best practices internally. “There are challenges we have,” she says, “and UMBC can be better. We are constantly making and co-creating UMBC. Students are not just customers floating through to get a degree, but we all have responsibility for our own community. And if we want to co-create our space, there are skills, knowledge, and dispositions that we need that are pretty much the same as what we need when we work with communities elsewhere.”

Good stewardship

Alumna Briana Yancy always envisioned herself following a typical research path, as she thought of it, a scientist in a lab. So she was surprised when she found herself on her third trip to the Bahamas as a part of biological sciences Professor Kevin Omland’s lab studying the Bahama Oriole. Yancy and the other students working with Omland partnered with The Bahamas National Trust, and she says the local community was always excited to talk about their orioles, showing them nests and asking insightful questions.

“I started to see how important this community connection is,” says Yancy, now the diversity work group staffer at the Chesapeake Bay Program, a collective of organizations whose shared mission is to protect the Chesapeake Bay. “It’s important that scientists and researchers learn how to work with local communities and how to talk about the things that they’re working on, especially for the environmental field, because it impacts everybody. If you can’t articulate that, people aren’t going to care and they’re not going to try to make a difference or get involved.”

Yancy ’19, M27, environmental science, says Omland set an example in the Bahamas that she’s tried to emulate since in her own work. “He always made sure to invite people along, to take the time to explain things to people, and also stop to get their insight,” says Yancy. As an intern at the National Aquarium checking water quality in the harbor, Yancy remembers, “people would always come up to me and be like, ‘Oh, what are you doing?’ And I would take the time to explain to them, ‘I’m doing this. This is what this machine is called. And this is how I do it, the numbers I’m looking for, and why it’s important.’” 

In her current position, Yancy sees an increased attention toward community-engaged research as organizations like the Chesapeake Bay Program ask themselves how they can reach a more diverse audience. “If we keep getting engagement from the same people from the same walks of life, we’re going to miss things,” says Yancy. “And we really can’t afford to miss anything. Climate change is now and the environment is struggling. And I think that, especially with COVID, we’re seeing more clearly the intricate connection between environmental health and public health.”

Moving toward the ideal

What does it mean to engage in relationships that encourage mutual flourishing? How can the roots and the canopy both benefit and nourish the good of the one tree? This is a question The Shriver Center and their partners at UMBC have been asking themselves and the thousands of students who use the Center’s service-learning structure to engage with the surrounding Baltimore County and City communities for the past 30 years.

Wolff sees community-engaged scholarship as a step away from transactional partnerships to transformational ones. The ideal, she says, should be to include the community from start to finish so everyone benefits.

“We’re recognizing community members as experts and moving forward with a goal of reciprocity and mutuality in our work,” says Wolff. “Part of the ideal is having community members be a part of every aspect of the activity. That’s where we want to get to. I think we’re moving toward that ideal.”

*****
Illustrations by Rebecca Bradley.

Dimmed lights, Twizzlers, and a big bowl of popcorn. Most of us may not have had the traditional movie theatre experience this year, but in living rooms across the country this year, many have found much-needed solace and escape through television and movies. Behind the scenes, Retrievers working in Hollywood as writers, producers, and directors have embraced the challenges of the moment—and remained ever-thankful for their audiences and creative roots. UMBC Magazine editor Jenny O’Grady sat down with five alumni working in entertainment to hear more about how they got their start, and what has kept them going creatively during this unusual time. 

UMBC Magazine: What has it been like to continue working during the pandemic in order to keep up with demand for entertainment? What does that look like? 

Name: Kara Corthron ’99, theatre
Job:  Author, playwright, and TV writer
About: Author of The Truth of Right Now and Daughters of Jubilation. Plays include What Are You Worth?, Welcome to Fear City, AliceGraceAnon, and Holly Down in Heaven. Writes for the TV drama-thrillers You (Netflix), The Flight Attendant (HBO-Max), and M. Night Shyamalan’s Servant (Apple TV+). A multiyear MacDowell Fellow and resident playwright at New Dramatists.
Where do you turn for inspiration? Toni Morrison, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler. Korean horror films.
Your favorite creative spot at UMBC? AOK Library’s “colorful Alice in Wonderland chairs” 
Fave pandemic entertainment? Search Party, Schitt’s Creek, Gilmore Girls

Kara Corthron: Well, I’ll just say, I feel really fortunate that I’ve been able to work, because 40 percent of our country is experiencing food insecurity. But, the biggest shift for me in TV writing was that everything became Zoom meetings…and I still am not in love with it. We’ve found a way to make it work and be productive, but I still would much rather be with humans, and I miss that a lot.

Brandon Spells: On the network side, making that transition from our office on Sunset Boulevard, to taking pitches on Zoom, it’s just a different energy when you’re in the room with talent, and taking pitches and getting excited about things…it’s just different. Initially we stopped all productions, so that was tough. Once we got the green light, we first started productions in countries overseas, and then slowly, during the summer, we started picking up back in America. Last fall we were going nonstop, trying to catch up, because there was a gap from when we stopped. This year, you’re probably going to see that things kind of slow down, as far as the launch cadence. But maybe that’s not a bad thing, because we come out with something every week, and maybe we don’t need to launch a million things in one weekend. 

Brian Dannelly: For me, when the virus came on, we were writing all the scripts, prepping everything, trying to figure out the COVID situation and trying to be ahead of it, so that when we were able to get back on set we’d be ready to go. We had no idea when we were going back, and so during that time period I had a physical, and my doctor didn’t want me flying, so I had to give up the show (In the Dark), which was terrible and sad…and really scary, too. I went into the pandemic with the hopes of coming out a better person, a better creator. We’re so lucky because there are so many people who are really struggling, so you’re trying to balance that with how you can use this time for good. And so I helped In the Dark transition to the third season, and then I just started writing like a crazy person. I became a whole food plant-based vegan, I learned how to cook. I’m adopted, so I found all my brothers and sisters—there’s nine of them. And I just really tried to kind of reconnect with who I was when I started the business, who I was when I was at UMBC, and what got me into the business, and I feel like so far I’ve come out in a place that’s really good.

Cat Mihos: For me, it’s been fascinating watching the budgets balloon for COVID compliance. We have two shows in pre-production for Amazon right now that are going to be filmed in Scotland, so we were trying to share things, like catering, so we have one bubble, also trying to make new workarounds so we use the same COVID compliance officers—we’re trying to work smarter. It’s been a year. Brandon, I get it, Netflix has definitely been our biggest supporter, and we love working with them. It comes down to Zoom meetings, our writer rooms are all remote, so if there’s any technical glitch…where you’re just frozen on a screen, ugh. It’s learning to cope, that’s the best skill on any set that you can have. I did work on Brian’s first couple films when he was in AFI (American Film Institute), so we have quite an old friendship. We’re old. But it’s lovely to have that support just right down the street. 

UMBC Magazine: Is there anyone who particularly influenced you, or some other takeaway from your time at UMBC, that you still look to now in your careers?

Name: Brian Dannelly ’97, visual arts
Job: Writer, director, and producer
About:  Executive producer and the producing director on The CW’s sleeper hit, In the Dark. Directed shows for Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, MTV, ABC, and CBS, including Scream, Sweet Vicious, Haters Back Off, Pushing Daisies, United States of Tara, and Weeds. Co-wrote and directed the cult teen film, Saved, and directed Struck by Lightning. Currently co-creating an animated series called Humperdinck.
Where do you turn for inspiration? Whatever personal crisis I’m going through at the moment. 
Your favorite creative spot at UMBC? Kathy O’Dell’s office. 
Fave pandemic entertainment? GENERA+ION on HBO Max

Dannelly: You know, I was a little broken when I got there, which is interesting because UMBC really put me back together again. My first college was Morgan State University, so it was there I made my first film at a satellite program that they had in Towson. I went from being vice president of my class to failing out because I was so freaked out about making this film. And so I struggled for like two years. It didn’t make sense that I could do this, because at the time we didn’t have internet, and we weren’t connected all over the world. It was like, I’m in this small town, how do I go from here to Hollywood? 

I knew that John Waters edited his early films at UMBC, and I knew they had a lot of film equipment. I went to a meeting there, I was so scared. And so UMBC said come on in, come do this. And I had teachers like Kathy O’Dell, Holly Rubenstein, Jill Johnson—these women carried me. In fact, I was so broken when I went there, when it came to applying for a master’s degree, I applied to all of the film schools that I thought I could get into, and Kathy O’Dell sat me down and said, “You apply to the best schools.” And I applied to AFI (the American Film Institute) literally running to the train station in Washington, D.C., to put my application in the mail, because I was late and it had to be in by that night. And I never thought in a million years that I would get into that school. So, not only did they help me tap into my creativity and be who I am, but they helped put me back together again.

McKenzie Chinn: For me, part of my identity as a creative person is working in multiple spaces, in multiple disciplines. I’m still an actor, but I’ve forged more space for my own projects, my own writing. I have a poetry collective. And all of these things I do in equal measure. When I was at UMBC, I was an actor, in a very conservatory-like program. And I think the thing that I learned the most, was a level of discipline that allowed me to succeed as much as I have thus far, and that work ethic was reinforced by all my instructors in the Theatre Department. But I think it has been applying that discipline to carving out space for my own ideas and my own stories, and taking my own agency as an artist, especially as a Black person and a woman in this world, that have really benefited me as an artist and advanced my career beyond what I imagined it could be. And it has been that rebellion, frankly, that I think has allowed me to be able to pivot in the ways that I have during the pandemic. Theater is on pause right now, and so we’re all finding ways to do what we do in a different space.

Corthron: In my senior year, I was part of a group that just started writing, and were kind of performing our own works and listening. And we’re like it would be really cool to have a playwriting class, but we don’t have one. So we went to the department head who was Wendy Salkind at that time, who is lovely. We told her we were really interested in writing, and she created a class for us. She found a teacher, and they added it to the curriculum. It was really cool. I feel like she saw that what we were getting wasn’t quite enough, so she thought let’s try and figure out a way to make it enough.

I’ve never thought of myself as one thing, either, which is hard, because people really want you to do your one thing, stay in your lane. And eventually I realized I’m a writer, so I write. But whether that’s playwriting, whether that’s novels—I write young adult fiction—or it’s TV or film, I finally got to a place that’s taken a long time, to realize I can do all of it, it’s my choice if I want to be exhausted. It’s really up to me. So I think that some of that was instilled in me at UMBC.

Name: Brandon Spells ’14, media and communication studies
Job: Creative assistant at Netflix, unscripted content
About: Worked on BET’s “106 & Park” in New York City and on productions with Nat Geo, Sirens Media, and E! In L.A., produced shows like The Doctors, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and The Bachelor. Today, develops and produces impactful global content for Netflix.
Where do you turn for inspiration? My mom! She is the reason I never gave up on my goals.
Your favorite creative spot at UMBC? Professor Kimberly Moffitt’s “Baltimore in Film” classroom
Fave pandemic entertainment? My favorite reality show The Real World

Spells:So my freshman year, I was a graphic design major, and I was supposed to do this portfolio, but of course being a freshman, I procrastinated and I threw something together and submitted it to the program. And I didn’t get in. I wanted to be a cartoonist, graphic design—that was always what I was going to do. And so when I didn’t get into the program, it was a crossroads moment.What other things do I like to do? What are my other passions?

And I remembered me and my friends would shoot and edit YouTube videos and stuff, and so I was like I kind of like entertainment, but I don’t know anyone who is in the entertainment industry. I don’t even know how you get into making films, or any of that stuff. Nobody in my family ever did that. And so I started going into media communications. And the first class that I took was Baltimore Film with Kimberly Moffitt. I enjoyed it, but I just wasn’t looking at film or television in a very analytical way. Professor Moffitt, she broke things down in such a creative way, it really helped me see things I hadn’t thought of before. And I literally use those techniques today. Giving notes on a cut, and kind of using the analytical eye to look at things creatively, I use that everyday. And I honestly think it started with that class, because watching The Wire, watching Crybaby, she was breaking each scene down and why this led to this, and I’m like how? I would never have thought of something like that. And so it was really a full circle moment for me.

Mihos: I was a photography major. I worked in the darkroom at UMBC, and Alan Rutberg was one of my teachers, and I was very sad to hear we lost him two years ago. When I was 12; I built a darkroom with my dad. So it was always about analog film, and poor Alan, really I put him through the paces. I was adamant, why do I have to learn digital, there’s still going to be film. He said nope, and he pulled me into the digital age. He was great, he was challenging. Chris Peregoy, as well, was excellent. Very different teachers, but they both contributed important parts of my photographic life, which I do still use. I’ve done photo shows, I need to return to that. Digital is still not my true love. I had sort of two dads telling me digital is the future, get with it, forget complaining about it, just go. And Peregoy was like no, keep your analog film love, because it is still there, it’s just almost gone.

UMBC Magazine: Why do you think entertainment has been such a unifying force during the pandemic, and what are you hearing from people that keeps you going creatively?

Spells:I feel like some of our stuff has definitely provided people with escapism, because everyone’s cooped up in their house, they’re not traveling, not experiencing things. And so being able to just get out of your little box and put yourself somewhere else for a little bit is always helpful. Love is Blind, for instance, people loved that show. And I feel like people were unified in people’s misery, craziness, misfortune. They’re like this is so crazy, this is so wild. But having that connectivity with people, especially when you feel so far away from them, is always nice.

Corthron: Yeah, I totally agree, I think we’d all love a little bit of a vacation from what’s going on. These shows have helped a lot. I also think not only is it giving us something to connect about, because of the past year, it was giving people a reason to connect over something that wasn’t politics. I feel like there was so much going on that was painful, that it was a way not to have to, at least for like a moment, to have a conversation that wasn’t about how stressed we should be. It was a stressful year.

Name:  McKenzie Chinn ’06, theatre
Job:  Filmmaker, actor, and poet
About: Writer, producer, and lead actor of Olympia. Acted in the FOX pilot The Big Leap, Empire, CBS’s The Red Line, and onstage with Goodman and Steppenwolf Theatres, The Second City, and others. Part of Growing Concerns Poetry Collective whose releases include two albums—Big Dark Bright Futures and We Here: Thank You For Noticing.
Where do you turn for inspiration? Currently, ideas around Afrofuturism. 
Your favorite creative spot while at UMBC?  Room 318 of the theatre building, which acting students shared with the Registrar.
Fave pandemic entertainment?  I’ve been very drawn to cult documentaries.

Chinn: I agree with both of you, Brandon and Kara, the world is a lot right now. Even now, if I just think too hard about it, I get really overwhelmed. And I think as creative people we have sensitivity, where we are deeply impacted by things going on around us, and the suffering of others. But in order to be able to show up for ourselves and our families, we need to be able to dispel some of that anxiety, some of that sorrow, some of that tension, because it is so strong.

And so having these various forms of entertainment from prestige television to the trashiest of the trash, has been, I think, for me, been a lifesaver…. I’ve had this really amazing experience over the last year, where my movie, Olympia, got distributed and hit streaming platforms in 2019. And then everything stopped, and so people were watching more media than they ever had. And so I think smaller indie films that maybe would not have gotten as much attention were suddenly being watched by a lot of people, mine included. And my movie is mostly Black people and people of color, and it’s a comedy. It’s got some heavier moments, some heartfelt moments, but it is a lighter movie….I remember thinking, does anybody need this movie right now? Little did I know, that was exactly what people would need during this time. And I got an experience I’m so grateful for, where I’ve had just so many Black people, specifically Black women sliding in my DMs just to thank me for the movie, from all over. And every time it happens, I’m just beside myself with gratitude.

Dannelly: One thing I don’t think people realize is that people making film and TV, they work 16 hours a day. Everyone works so hard, they’re away from their families….The other thing I always say to people, is that Hollywood is just a bunch of people from small towns and cities. It’s not like a bunch of people from L.A. Cat and I came from a little small town, and we didn’t go there as Hollywood people, and I’m sure you guys have the same experience—you go there because that’s where you go to make films and TV. 

Mihos:Well, I wanted to add on that note, my dad came from Greece, he came over when he was 16. I went home to see him recently with great concern, because I thought I don’t want to get him sick, he’s 90, and he’s like, please come home. I asked him, “Dad, should I be doing this? Should I be doing this with my life?” He said, “You know what, we need to laugh, we need entertainment!” His 90-year-old wisdom just kind of turned my brain around, because I was thinking, what really is this? Is this going to matter in the big picture? Shouldn’t I be out there fighting for people, healing people, doing something more important? I really appreciated that from my dad, because you never know what you’re giving back to the world. 

Dannelly: This is what I love about our business. Yes, we entertain people, that’s part of our job. I think hopefully we’re doing it for good, even if it’s a laugh. But also, we have the ability to affect every single person we work with. We have the ability to change culture by inclusiveness, by who we choose to hire. So it’s like this sort of weird external thing, where we entertain people on many different levels, and it’s also this very active, internal mechanism for change, which I love. I’m always going into a project with an agenda, always, always.

UMBC Magazine: So, what advice would you give a student or recent grad who’s trying to get into this business?

Name: Cat Mihos ’00, visual and performing arts (photography)
Job: Producer/writer, photographer, former roadie
About: Met author Neil Gaiman while on tour with Tori Amos in 2002. Toured full time with bands like Tool, Mötley Crüe, Soundgarden, and Gaga until 2016 when she set up Gaiman’s production company, which she currently manages on the Jim Henson Studio lot. Worked on American Gods, Good Omens, and managed several book tours. Authored Comic Book Tattoo Tales Inspired by Tori Amos. Writing a graphic novel for Z2 Comics about Vikings titled Lore of the Havamal.
Where do you turn for inspiration? I flip through old comics.
Your favorite creative spot while at UMBC? Fells Point, where I opened my little shop 9th Life.
Fave pandemic entertainment?  The Wire, X Files, 30 Rock

Mihos: I think what’s really important in life is you come up with your people. The other assistants, the people working with you on the ground. It’s important to keep checking in with people, even if you have nothing to say, no news, just be like, “how are you doing?” I do so many little mentorships, because I didn’t have much of that, and I didn’t know how to find it. There’s no rule book, and I think the younger kids, they do seem to be fine with asking. I just never thought you were supposed to ask. So please, be generous with your time.

Dannelly: While you’re there at school, understand who you are and what kind of stories you want to tell. Really connect with why you’re at UMBC. Take a lot of different classes outside of the arts department, because no one wants to make projects with people who only have a theater degree. Whatever other interests you have, spend time doing that. Create as much content as you can. Short films, Tik Toks, YouTube. I can’t tell you how many people I discover on Tik Tok and I’m like, that person is interesting, I wonder what they would be like in a film or show.

And then the other thing that’s hugely important, and I think McKenzie and Kara, you touched on this so well, is write. The fastest way to have a career is to have something that you’ve written that somebody wants. You don’t have to do anything but have this thing that you’ve written that you want to direct. And I guess the final thing I would say is don’t sell yourself short, like I did. 

Chinn: This year, what I come back to is what a wonderful opportunity this was to enrich yourself as an artist, as a creative person. Before things got surprisingly busy again, I was just like, oh my gosh, I’m going to read so many books. I’m going to watch so many movies that have been on my list. I’m going to grow things in my apartment. I was actually quite excited for the opportunity to connect with the other parts of myself that feed my artistry, that give me something to even talk about, that give me a perspective to have in the world that I bring with me when I sit down at my laptop, or when I walk onto a set. I feel like I need space. I need literal time and space in the world, and also in my head and my heart, to realize what it is that I have to say. And I think if there’s an opportunity like one the pandemic has presented for some people to have that time and space. Or, rest, right? We don’t always have to be productive. We don’t always have to be in making mode. We can also just take a nap, that’s also important work.

Corthron: I’m just going to go with what everybody said, particularly Brian. Write, and write scripts that cannot be ignored. 

Mihos: And a P.S. on that, hold onto your intellectual property. Don’t give it away, be careful with that. Starting out, especially. I see it happen so often.

Spells:And like Cat said, relationships are just so important, not only in this industry, but obviously in every industry. A lot of it is about what you can do, but it’s also about who you are and how you connect with the people around you and work with the people around you. And then networking, it’s also not bad to ask for help. When I was just graduating, I quickly found out that no one has made it on their own. And the moment I started connecting with other people, and asking for help, is the moment that they saw how genuine I was, and I saw how genuine they were, and we made those connections. And I was able to help them along the way, and they helped me. And so it’s all a collaborative effort. 

Corbett in the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building on campus in April 2021. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Everyone who’s ever met Kizzmekia Corbett ’08, M16, biological sciences and sociology, gets it.

Sue Florence, one of the few Black teachers in the Hillsborough, North Carolina, school district where Corbett went to elementary and middle school, got it. Rhonda Brooks, Corbett’s mother, remembers Florence saying, when Corbett was in third grade, “She’s got a gift. You’d better seek into it.”

Florence’s comments pushed Brooks to make sure expectations were high for Corbett in school, and to encourage—no, require—15-year-old “Kizzy” to find a scholarly internship rather than a position in retail when she wanted a summer job in high school.

So, at her mother’s behest, Corbett got involved in Project SEED, a program that offers research experiences to talented high school students from underrepresented groups in STEM. Her first program mentor was James Morken, who was on the chemistry faculty at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the time.

He got it, too.

“When Kizzy started in my laboratory, she didn’t have much hands-on research experience, but she had loads of curiosity, a drive to learn what she didn’t know, and a very strong work ethic,” Morken says. “It was abundantly clear she would be successful in whatever she chose to do.”

Today, Corbett is an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, after leading the team behind the successful effort to create a vaccine for COVID-19 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Working with the pharmaceutical company Moderna, Corbett’s achievements on the global stage benefit all of us. Now, we get it, too.

“She can do anything”

As a Meyerhoff Scholar and NIH Scholar at UMBC, Corbett worked in Barney Graham’s lab at the Vaccine Research Center at the NIH. He’s also her boss today. 

“Kizzmekia’s spirit was noticeable even from a young age,” Graham says. “New people who come into the lab have always quickly realized that she was a person who had bigger things in her future.”

Corbett met Jessica Kelley, a UMBC assistant professor of sociology at the time, when Corbett took her Introduction to Sociology course. “She was a standout in that large lecture class from the beginning,” Kelley recalls. Later, Corbett took Kelley’s course on applied community research, and conducted research with Kelley as part of a National Institute on Aging study on healthy aging in diverse neighborhoods.

Photos kindly provided by Kizzmekia Corbett, unless otherwise noted.

The work with Kelley inspired Corbett’s double major and her approach to all of her future work. Corbett even became the only undergraduate enrolled in one of Kelley’s graduate-level courses. “She kept the graduate students on their toes,” Kelley says.

“When she’s got her mind set on something, it’s set,” Brooks says. “She can do anything.”

A leading role 

Today, Corbett has proven them all right. As the scientific lead of the Vaccine Research Center’s coronavirus team at the NIH, she developed a new technology for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and others, and as a result, she has played a leading role in one of the most important measures to end the pandemic. She has also become the first Black woman in the world to create a vaccine.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and one of the most trusted voices about the pandemic around the world, described Corbett as “widely recognized in the immunology community as a rising star,” when he nominated her for TIME magazine’s TIME100 Next list. Based on her leadership of COVID-19 vaccine development at NIAID, he added, “Her work will have a substantial impact on ending the worst respiratory-disease pandemic in more than 100 years.”

People drive the research 

Perhaps just as important as her scientific accomplishments, Corbett has burst onto the public stage as the face of a diverse and rising generation of talented scientists who will transform the world. She is a stellar science communicator, explaining the vaccine and the virus in highly accessible ways to media outlets, her family, two U.S. presidents, and more. She is an inspiration to children who may now imagine becoming scientists.

Corbett visits a lab on campus in April 2021. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

“Dr. Corbett’s voice has been particularly important this year,” Graham says, “and going forward, her ability to inspire and to educate and motivate young people to see science as something feasible and even to see science as something fun will be part of her legacy.”

And yet, amid her newfound celebrity status and her vast scientific acumen, somehow she has managed to remain unabashedly human.

“I am still Kizzy. I’m still the little girl you met when I was 17 and being recruited into the Meyerhoff program,” she told UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski during a conversation in February 2021, when they were both being recognized at the Kaiser Permanente and Reginald F. Lewis Museum 2nd Annual African American Health Care Awards.

“Actually, before a scientist, I’m a Christian, and I’m sassy, and I’m bright, and I’m fashionable…” she says, “and I’m Southern, and I’m empathetic, and I’m all of these things that make me into this person, that make me a better scientist. I think that is the most important part of the story—that people drive the research.”

The genuine thing 

First there was Sue Florence. Then there was James Morken and others with the SEED Project. All through her childhood, there was her mother, Rhonda Brooks, cheering her on. Combine that support structure with Corbett’s own deep-seated determination to succeed, and by the time she was looking at colleges, Corbett had lots of options. But when she, her parents, and her grandmother visited UMBC, it felt like home. The first reason? The grain silo along UMBC Boulevard.

“It reminded me of being back at home in the country,” Brooks remembers. When they began touring campus, Brooks thought, “Oh man, this is really her,” but, “I needed her to see it was her. So I didn’t even say anything.” There was no need. By the end of Meyerhoff Selection Weekend in 2004, Kizzy was glowing.

Beyond the welcoming silo were all the welcoming faces. “Everybody was so friendly,” Brooks says. “You think when you go visit campuses that people have to be this way because they’re trying to get students to come, but as a person who’s been in the education field for so long, I can weed out who’s genuine and who isn’t.” And, Brooks says, despite the emphasis on Meyerhoff cohort numbers, of which Kizzy belonged to M16, “it just felt like she would be not just a number.”

Equaling the playing field 

In the February conversation with Hrabowski, Corbett recalls her father telling her that she should “go where she would be loved.” UMBC became that place.

Asked to describe the value of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, she said, “It is simply one word: resources. It is equaling the playing field for people who have generally been under-resourced, and those are communities of color and people from underrepresented minority groups. And the Meyerhoff Program does that.”

Corbett with fellow Meyerhoff alumni at a 2017 on-campus event. Photo courtesy of Keith Harmon, director, Meyerhoff Scholars Program.

The Meyerhoff Scholars Program, founded in 1989, is considered the gold standard of programs designed to support students from underrepresented groups in STEM. Hundreds of alumni have gone on to standout careers, including U.S. Surgeon General, Baltimore City health commissioner, and professorships at the nation’s top-tier universities. 

The Meyerhoff Scholars Program “is a place where every single person was special and would be loved. The goal is not to fail you out, but to lift you up,” Corbett says. And for underrepresented students in STEM, living in a world that too often still doesn’t expect people who look like them to excel as researchers, the Meyerhoff Program “provided a niche for us to just be, to be comfortable, and to just thrive.”

A mother’s touch 

It wasn’t always easy, though. Brooks remembers when Kizzy received her first C. “Being on the phone with her just didn’t help,” Brooks remembers. “So I got in my car, and I drove all the way to Maryland. I was trying to tell her it was going to be alright, but it was just heartbreaking, because she never had that C. I told her, it’s gonna be tough—you might get more than one C.”

Even world-class, world-saving scientists sometimes get Cs and need their moms.

And even now, Brooks is ready to support Corbett as she navigates this new chapter in her life. “If she needs me now, if she’s feeling stressed,” Brooks says, “if she picks up the phone, I don’t care what time of night it is, I pick it up.”

On Corbett’s college bedside also sat a Bible—another lasting connection to her family and her faith, which Corbett brings up often in her interviews. Brooks gave each of her children a Bible as they left for college. “I say take this Bible with you. Even if you don’t look at it, keep it next to your bed. I don’t care if you don’t open it. But if you touch it, it will make you feel a whole lot better.”

Corbett and her mother, though apart during the pandemic, have stayed connected by attending online services from the same church in Texas. Their first travel plans post-pandemic? A trip to attend the service in person.

Lifting others up

Whether it’s her faith, an innate empathy, 35 years of experience as a Black woman in the U.S., or other factors, Corbett’s dedication to lifting people up goes far beyond her work in the laboratory. Her commitment to equity has demanded that she speak out to address vaccine hesitancy, especially in communities hit hardest by the virus, and champion the participation of minorities in science and research, both as scientists and as participants in clinical trials.

“She has always, even as a young student, brought an energy and curiosity and love of science that made our lab a better place,” Graham says. “She has also always been very devoted to making things better for people around her, particularly younger people coming behind her.”

Brooks says that Corbett has always had a selfless nature. One day she brought home a classmate who had no place to go after school and asked if she could stay with the family. Brooks was uncertain at first, “but we did it,” she says. “And we’ve been taking kids in ever since.”

Fighting for the public good 

Corbett’s study of sociology at UMBC enhanced and sharpened her innate desires to help people and promote fairness into a commitment to consider social factors throughout her scientific career. For example, when the Moderna vaccine was in clinical trials, Corbett pushed hard to make sure that there were more people of color among the study population.

Corbett at a Rally for Medical Research event in Washington, D.C.

“You have to start things equitably to finish them that way,” she told Hrabowski at the February event. “We slowed down the phase three clinical trial until we got to a point where we felt the numbers were respectable. We wanted 13 percent, to represent the proportion of Black people in the country,” she said, but they didn’t quite make it. Still, she says, “I have other vaccines heading into trials, so we will take care of it then.”

Kelley, her sociology instructor and research mentor at UMBC, reflects on how Corbett has developed over time. “Kizzmekia’s training in both biology and sociology has helped her become both a scientist working at the cutting-edge of vaccine development to provide a universal public good and a humanist who understands that historically and structurally not all groups have had access to these public goods,” she says. 

Corbett has faced her own challenges throughout her career, some of which have predictably intensified since she became more of a public figure.  

Kizzmekia, whose name is a combination of “Kizzy” from the character in Alex Haley’s Roots and “-mekia” from Brooks’s own imagination, has been teased since childhood and continues to be harassed about her name. When Kizzy showed her mother a particularly hurtful social media post, “I told her, tell them to call your mama,” Brooks recalls, “because your mama chose your name for a reason, because you’re a gift from God to me.”

As a child, even Kizzy’s strong interest in academic success was sometimes looked down upon by her peers, but “she just went beyond,” Brooks says. 

Corbett (center, front) with her NIAID research team, including Olubukola Abiona ’17, M25, biochemistry and molecular biology (center, back).

Corbett has also experienced sexism and racism as a scientist. Brooks says sometimes men have skipped over Corbett and instead approached her boss, but “that’s why I like her boss, [Barney Graham] so much, because he’s always been behind her back,” she says—pointing people right back to Corbett. 

Finding your champions

Corbett has taken her mother’s message to heart. “You just have to believe in yourself and believe in your work,” she says. Important, too, is having your own champions. “I always had someone in the space who was looking out for me,” she said—people like Sue Florence, Freeman Hrabowski, and Barney Graham. “Find those people and seek them out. You want someone to be as invested in you, as you are in you.”

High expectations and support from all those people who “got it,” cheering for her and setting the bar high from elementary school onward, combined with Corbett’s inner determination—and a dash of spunk—have fueled her success. If you had met a childhood Kizzy, she would have said, “Hi, I’m Kizzmekia Corbett, and I’m going to be the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine.”

Verbalizing one’s goals is a risk, because people will know if you fail. But it’s also a critical step toward turning them into reality. Little Kizzy knew it as a kid. “It speaks to putting yourself where you want to be, and really speaking the words to the universe,” she told Hrabowski. Even if she hasn’t reached her childhood goal yet, she’s happy with what she’s been able to accomplish so far.

“I haven’t won a Nobel prize, and I don’t know if I will,” she says, “but I think helping to ‘save the world,’ so to speak, is good enough.”

For now.

Read more about other ways Retrievers are giving their time and efforts to help others access the vaccine.

*****

Header image of Corbett on campus in April 2021 by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Today, the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) announced UMBC as its newest member. The pioneering consortium of public research universities boosts student success through sharing and scaling approaches that work. UMBC and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) are the first two universities selected to join the network since its founding in 2014.

Increasing graduation rates

During President Barack Obama’s College Opportunity Summit in 2014, the UIA’s eleven founding institutions set a target of graduating 68,000 additional students over ten years, including half from low-income backgrounds. In just six years, they have already exceeded that goal. Together, they have graduated more than 73,000 additional students, increasing graduates from low-income backgrounds by 36 percent and graduates of color by 73 percent. 

Now, the UIA is on track to reach double its original goal by 2023. Supporting this increase will be fresh, data-driven ideas from UMBC and N.C. A&T. 

Both institutions have a long history of supporting students from underrepresented groups, including low-income and first-generation students and students of color. In ten years, UMBC increased its six-year graduation rate for full-time freshmen from 55.7% for the fall 2005 cohort to 69.2% for the fall 2014 cohort.

“We have seen very positive trends in UMBC’s student retention and graduation rates, but this is an important opportunity to dive deeper into our data, and to look at how we can better support students who are struggling,” says Katharine H. Cole, UMBC’s vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs. “It’s our responsibility to understand the challenges students face at the most granular level possible, and to provide resources to help them reach their goals.”

Leaders in student support and achievement

In the next phase of its work, the UIA will focus on eliminating disparities in educational outcomes based on race and ethnicity, in addition to disparities by income, first-generation college student status, gender, and geography. The UIA has described the addition of “like-minded institutions” UMBC and N.C. A&T as core to this expanded focus.

UMBC opened in 1966 as the first public university in Maryland to include students of all races, and is federally designated as a minority-serving institution. The university prioritizes experiential learning opportunities, including internships, service-learning, and research. Eighty-seven percent of UMBC graduates head directly into a job, advanced degree, or both. A majority of those employed interned or worked for their employer as UMBC students. 

Yvette Mozie-Ross. Photo courtesy of Mozie-Ross.

“As a historically diverse institution that has had success in supporting and promoting underrepresented student achievement, we look forward to bringing our experiences and insight to this critical work as part of the UIA collaborative,” says Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88, UMBC’s vice provost for Enrollment Management and Planning.

N.C. A&T is the nation’s largest public Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The university graduates large numbers of Black students in mathematics, statistics, engineering, and agriculture. 

U.S. News & World Report has named both UMBC and N.C A&T leaders in innovation and in undergraduate teaching. According to the National Science Foundation, UMBC and N.C. A&T are also the #1 and #2 universities in the nation, respectively, in producing Black graduates who go on to earn a Ph.D. in the natural sciences and engineering.

Sharing insights and tools

“When thinking about the next chapter of the UIA, we reviewed the outcomes and mission of every R1 and R2 institution in the country,” says UIA Executive Director Bridget Burns, referring to U.S. universities with top Carnegie Classifications for research activity. “A&T and UMBC immediately stood out for their leadership and demonstrated commitment to student success,” she notes.

Living out this commitment through the UIA will include sharing data on the efficacy of different approaches to supporting students. It will also include sustained focus to implement, test, and refine strategies to remove impediments to student success.

“I have long admired the ambitious work of the University Innovation Alliance,” says UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. “Over the last two decades we have worked tirelessly to create a culture that is committed to innovative teaching, relevant research, and creating a supportive community to help inspire students, and we are excited to share our insights and tools with the UIA community.” 

Featured image: Amanda Knapp and Katharine Cole speak with students in UMBC’s Academic Success Center, 2019. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 unless otherwise noted.

Cover of the new Chronicle report.

A new report from the Chronicle of Higher Education features UMBC’s peer-based work to boost faculty diversity. For decades, UMBC’s strong reputation for inclusive excellence has focused on student diversity. The new UMBC case study in “Diversifying Our Campus: Key Insights and Models for Change” expands that conversation.

The article notes that UMBC received National Science Foundation support to “revamp hiring processes, write more-inclusive job postings, and craft diversity plans for hiring and recruiting” in 2003. This $3.2 million Institutional Transformation Grant sought to promote the recruitment and advancement of women in STEM, and UMBC saw a 70% increase in women tenure-track STEM faculty. At the same time, the university’s recruitment of scholars from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups lagged.

UMBC adopted a new model called STRIDE: Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence, developed at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. A half-dozen faculty now serve as STRIDE fellows, working directly with search committees and departments to improve their processes. 

Frank conversations

As the article notes, “fellows have frank conversations with hiring committee members about how to retool their searches.” They bring in competing institutions’ job ads and have hiring committee members critique old UMBC job listings. They also help departments shift gears from recruiting for individual faculty openings to continuously recruiting by building relationships with emerging scholars in their fields.

STRIDE Fellow Nilanjan Banerjee, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, describes in the article how he shared data with his department on the connection between more diverse faculty and greater research funding and productivity. He then helped the department retool their process to advertise positions more widely and dig deeper into the CVs of candidates.

Seeing results

Autumn Reed, assistant vice provost for faculty affairs, directs the STRIDE program. She notes that initially, “there was a lot of resistance and a lot of skepticism” about STRIDE fellows connecting with hiring committees. But now that departments see other units successfully hiring candidates from underrepresented groups, they want to connect.

The article also highlights UMBC’s faculty diversity postdoc programs, through which 12 former fellows have been converted into tenure-track faculty members at UMBC.

Keisha McIntosh Allen is one of several scholars recruited to UMBC as a postdoctoral fellow for faculty diversity. She is now an assistant professor of education. Her research focuses on how race, culture, and identity influence the educational experiences of Black and Brown youth, including how teachers can engage students through asset-based and humanizing pedagogies.

Together, UMBC’s efforts to hire and retain more racially and ethnically diverse faculty have had an impact. In 2011-12, 9% of tenured and tenure-track faculty were Black, Latinx, or Native American. That increased to 15% in 2020-21.

Student Affairs leadership

Earlier this month, the Chronicle featured Nancy Young, vice president for student affairs, in a virtual roundtable on the Future of Student Affairs. The forum reached a national audience of more than 2,000 registrants. 

Viewers were eager to learn about how the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened or made more visible students’ needs for support, particularly students from disadvantaged, underrepresented, and vulnerable communities. The event was designed to “bring together student-affairs leaders to explore how the profession is adapting to new demands and the evolving campus landscape.”

Focus on connections

Young shared UMBC’s approach to campus safety during the pandemic and the transition back to more on-campus activities. Speaking more broadly about the future, she shared, “I think that what we’re seeing right now is an acceleration of many trends that were already underway,” whether in online learning, the kinds of careers students are preparing for, or the support they need.

At the same time, Young noted, “there are also many things that are going to stay the same, and that people can’t wait to get back to” post-COVID. In particular, she says, students just want to hang out with their friends. 

With this in mind, Young and her team have been working closely with student leaders and student groups. They’ve sought to better understand how the university can support students’ work to connect with each other, and to engage first-year students in particular. 

At a time when we are “no longer able to bump into people in the hallways,” she says, this means there is “more intentionality” and more active listening. And these thoughtful approaches have built lasting connections that will bolster the university community for years to come.

Banner image: Nilanjan Banerjee. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

THE LONG GAME

For several decades, Diane Bell-McKoy ’73, sociology and social work, has worked to make African American individuals and families in need become economically self-sufficient and to infuse philanthropic organizations with policies that create positive outcomes for people of color. UMBC Magazine talked with Bell-McKoy, CEO of Associated Black Charities and the Greater Baltimore Committee’s 2020 Regional Visionary awardee, about why making long-term change takes both patience and perseverance but is always worth it.

Diane Bell-McKoy ‘73, sociology and social work. Image courtesy of Associated Black Charities.

UMBC Magazine: What are you trying to achieve through your work with philanthropic organizations, public policy makers, employers, trainers, and educators?

Bell-McKoy: Our goal is to shift the lens to provide the facts, the history, and the current policies to let people begin to really see how we ended up where we are today. Because it was very intentional—and going forward we can make different decisions to change the outcomes and the workforce ecosystem as it relates to systemic racism as a root barrier. When Black and brown people have the opportunity to move up, the greater economic opportunity means that they can also buy a house, they can start a business, and they can contribute a great deal more to their families and to the economy.

So my days are always around educating, around influencing, around advocating, around sharing our policy….It’s about meeting with our fellow philanthropists, helping them see the world differently and then giving them the desire to go deeper into those policies, their practice, and their culture.

UMBC Magazine: Your organization’s “10 Essential Questions” guide really forces folks to look at their operations through an equity lens. Is this as eye-opening as it sounds?

Bell-McKoy: I keep thinking, is that rocket science? Doesn’t this benefit all of us? But it feels like rocket science some days in having the conversation because you’re really asking people to rethink, to relearn how they were taught in terms of that history that wasn’t given to citizens. A lot of the positive history hasn’t been available about Black and brown people. I find myself on a reading journey right now learning as much as I can more about the history of black and brown people in this country.

And it’s important…for us to do the hard work now because we’re now awake much more across the country. That’s why I’m passionate about it. It’s been my journey all of my life. It was my journey at UMBC. It’s been my journey around what can I do, how can I make a difference for Black and white people?

UMBC Magazine: You’ve been doing this work for so long. What do you tell young people who are looking to make change?

Bell-McKoy: There are many ways that you can help in the now, including doing your own reading, your own research about why this exists. There are lots of opportunities locally—particularly now that we’re in a virtual world—to join lots of webinars and conversations across the country so that you can more deeply educate yourself. And because we have the ability to touch people all across the globe through the virtual environment, there are opportunities for students to be a mentor, for them to add some value to someone’s life. 

Continue to use creativity, continue to use all your genius to make a difference in people’s lives. But understand that also—as you get to the next stage in your career coming out of UMBC and you’re becoming a millionaire—you need to invest back in all those organizations trying to change the system knowing that you can become a part of the patient capital needed to achieve system changes that then benefit a greater number of persons. You do have to steel yourself for the incremental. This may mean when the big change comes, many of us may not be here to benefit from it, but…that’s a part of it. It has to be an intentional journey.

RIPPLE EFFECT

For Jason Grant ’10, M17, a defining moment happened on a bus ride to a Meyerhoff Scholars event at UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski’s house his freshman year. 

A senior asked Grant about his major (computer engineering) and then proceeded to pepper him with specific questions about his classes and his plans for graduate studies. That brotherly interest, says Grant, turned out to be the norm, not the exception. 

“People kept telling me,” remembers Grant, now an assistant professor of computer science at Middlebury College, “if you go to UMBC and join the Meyerhoff program, you’re going to have a community of people. I didn’t actually realize how important that was, but it turned out to be extremely critical.”

In their careers, Grant and many other Meyerhoff alumni are replicating that family atmosphere—valuing the unique contributions of each member and raising up others alongside them around the country.

Immanuel Williams ’11, M18, mathematics, grew up doing math worksheet after math worksheet, his father handing him new problems to solve and instilling a desire to understand complicated equations. So later in life, when his colleagues made assumptions about how as a Black man, his father must have been missing from his life—he stopped them short.

He and his wife Kelley Williams ’13, environmental studies, wrote a book called The Adventure of Jamear: Shapes All Around, which celebrates the relationship of a father helping his son discover math. For Williams, a lecturer at California Polytechnic State University, the book launched his work at six Boys & Girls clubs around Los Angeles and San Francisco, providing math boot camps for hundreds of elementary school students for the past three summers.

Williams taps his own college students as volunteers to help personalize all the feedback students receive. “We’re reaching marginalized communities in terms of race and economic status,” says Williams, “so that feels really good.”

Grant has carried the Meyerhoff vision to Vermont, where he’s taken on leadership roles for the small population of students of color at Middlebury to see a face that looks like them. As advisor for the Black Student Union, “it allows me to network and to get a feel for the climate of all students of color here in this predominantly white institution, and how they’re trying to navigate that space,” says Grant, current president of the Meyerhoff Alumni Advisory Board.  

This year at the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference, Grant served as deputy chair for research competition and poster competition. “This made me put my money where my mouth is,” says Grant. “Telling students to go to the conference was one thing, but them seeing me on the conference program allowed me to be a vocal leader in that space as a professor.”

Nicole Parker ’11, M19, biochemistry and molecular biology, now works as a lobbyist, connecting research institutions with federal dollars. She sees her role to advance policies that broaden minority participation in STEM and increase diversity in science and engineering careers. She puts it plainly: “I’m passionate about making changes so that the entire biomedical research enterprise operates like the Meyerhoff program.”

The ripple effect of the Meyerhoff program is clear—whether in K–5 after-school programing, at rural universities where representation is crucial, or lobbying Congress to fund research programs for scientists from diverse backgrounds. 

“In four years at UMBC, those Meyerhoff values are so ingrained in us every day,” says Parker. “You can’t forget it when you go on to the next place.”

— Randianne Leyshon ’09

SUPPORT SYSTEM

As protests sprung up in cities across the country this spring, alumni like public historian Allison Seyler ’10, M.A. ’12, history, and computer programmer Carlos Lalimarmo ’11, computer science, found themselves compelled to participate. Today, as the nation continues to contemplate ways of making change, they, like so many others, are thinking deeply about how to be good allies to people of color.

People march in Baltimore protesting police violence. Photo by Lalimarmo.

UMBC Magazine: What ultimately drives you to participate? 

Seyler:  As someone who deeply loves Baltimore City, I try to stay informed about the issues our community faces; one of those issues is police brutality. The longer I have lived here, the more I learned the necessity of making time to listen to Black leaders—women and men—who wholeheartedly devote themselves to this city; they have been calling for police reform for years. So for me, the choices I’ve made to protest this year were linked to that. I felt in order for me to show up for the Black community in Minneapolis who are mourning George Floyd, the Black community in Louisville who are mourning Breonna Taylor, and really, to show up for Black folk across the nation, I needed to show up for Baltimore.

• Photo courtesy of Lalimarmo.
• Photo courtesy of Seyler.

I had these eerie flashbacks to marching for Freddie Gray and felt an all too familiar sadness that families have lost their sons, daughters, fathers, sisters so unnecessarily. As I felt a sensation of “this is happening again,” my heart just dropped. How could we be at the same point we were in 2015? I think I’m driven to participate as a human being who cares intensely for others, but also because I believe that collectively, protestors can use their voices and actions in sustainable ways to force real change to happen. 

UMBC Magazine: What do you see as your role as an ally and how do you hope it will be seen by others? 

Lalimarmo: I think being informed is the baseline for participation, whether you agree with demonstrators’ message or not. You can’t participate responsibly without being informed. The protests themselves have become an issue, and the best way to understand them is to experience them firsthand. So I go when I can. When I think I understand and agree with the message of a particular protest, I’ll stand or march with the group to show support.

UMBC Magazine: What would you say to someone who isn’t sure of how to get involved but would like to? 

Lalimarmo:  I think a lot of people who would like to be more involved but aren’t sure how are probably more involved than they realize. Supporting the people close to them is important work that I’m sure they’re already doing. If not, strengthening personal relationships is a solid place to start.

Seyler: Honestly, I would remind them that there’s no better time. And I would channel two mantras that are said often, but get to the core of this work: This is a marathon, not a sprint. This is a movement, not a moment. If someone wants to get involved and is looking for a starting point, I would suggest starting with something small and human: read memoirs by Black authors like D. Watkins, Kondwani Fidel, and Chris Wilson. Pick up a copy of A Beautiful Ghetto by photographer Devin Allen and fill your mind with images that show the beauty of other peoples’ humanity. Sign up for a workshop by activist Britney Oliver to learn about being anti-racist in your actions and words. Your actions and involvement makes a difference.

ADVOCATES FOR CHANGE

Recently, there have been calls across the United States to defund the police and correctional facilities in response to the continued violence from police toward the Black community. But what exactly does defunding the police mean for youth currently in the juvenile justice system and for those most at risk of entering? 

For 30 years, UMBC’s Choice Program has engaged, mentored, trained, and advocated for more than 25,000 youth in Maryland. It provides a series of programs to disentangle young people from the juvenile justice system and to strengthen youth and family ties to the community through increased educational and vocational opportunities.

Eric Ford, first on the right, and Choice Program members unveil a mural created at Lane Manor Recreation center in partnership with Artivate Inc. Image courtesy of Ford.

UMBC’s Eric Ford, director of The Choice Program, and Frank Anderson, a doctoral student in language, literacy, and culture and the associate director of programs, talk about how the Choice model can provide a complex answer to a complex problem.

Anderson: What is defunding the police and what does that mean for Choice?

Ford: Defunding the police means reallocating funds to diversion programs so that youth will not get involved in the criminal justice system. It means investing in providing training to first responders in communities across America around restorative practices or providing additional mental health and substance abuse support for young people. Reallocating funds to these programs means communities will be able to provide the interventions and supports needed to individuals who are now being criminalized. 

What do you think, Frank? What is our moral responsibility in this work?

Anderson: It’s important for me to reflect about what my moral and ethical responsibility is and whether my moral checkbook balances out at the end of each day. Am I creating more opportunities than what I’m taking? Am I working to share and distribute more resources than what I am taking? If not, then maybe it’s time for me to move to the side. I’m grateful you and peers are there to hold me accountable to keep pushing myself everyday to understand my role within the greater community.

What personal value of yours makes this work so important?

Ford: Truth. Being able to build on our Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) framework has been such a rewarding experience for me. It has validated a lot of my personal beliefs, personal goals, and what I learned at Hampton University. For so long discussing the truth about what has happened in the past to marginalized people has been taboo in certain spaces. Being able to share the truth about my ancestors and people who have come before me and have it embraced has been transformational for me. This is exactly what our TRHT work aims to do. We support communities and a process to foster important difficult conversations around race equity and transformation. I am thankful for it every day.

Anderson: You are the longest-standing person of color to lead Choice. What about that makes the job difficult? What about that excites you?

Ford: My first position at Choice was as a caseworker. That experience led me to other opportunities. I returned to Choice to be assistant director and worked my way through the ranks. Ascending to the director of Choice is something I am very proud of. As a man of color, you always carry the weight of your racial or ethnic group and the weight and pressure to be successful. Coming into this position, I experienced some imposter syndrome sitting in spaces that I had not been before and wondering whether I belonged in those spaces. Over time I have gained confidence through feedback I have received from my peers, my mentors, and my family. 

It has been a wonderful experience to not only represent Black men and represent all the participants of color and young men of color. I represent a possibility for them. One of my proudest moments at Choice was when an AmeriCorps member was introduced to me in my office. He was a young Black man. He looked around my office and was in awe. He said, ‘Wow, this could be me one day.’ It hit me that it’s not just about reports, proposals, and grant writing but it is also what I represent for Black men throughout the country.

INCLUSION MATTERS

Created in June, the UMBC Inclusion Council brings together faculty, staff, students, and alumni from all across campus to help address issues of equity and inclusion at UMBC. UMBC Magazine talked with the council co-chairs, Keith J. Bowman, dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, and Ariana Arnold, director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion about what’s ahead for this group.

UMBC Magazine:  What have the first meetings of this group been like? How would you describe the energy in the (virtual) room?

Bowman:  We began with several weeks wherein everyone could talk about their experiences, visible and non-visible elements of their backgrounds, and their commitment to the work. It was an incredible set of meetings where folks expressed their passion for the work of the Inclusion Council.  It made me feel truly proud of our UMBC community and its commitment to social justice.

Arnold: It was extremely meaningful…because we never met until we were already virtual. So we felt like it was really important to make those personal connections. I think that really started us on a good path for people being able to be honest when having discussions about sometimes difficult topics, as well as being compassionate towards each other, which is really what we’re trying to build here.

UMBC Magazine:  The Council no doubt has a lot to think about and plan (everything from curriculum, faculty and staff diversity, to intersectionality and restorative practices, etc.). What issue or project are you personally most excited to work on, and why?

Arnold:  I would love to be on all of the committees…but I’m really excited about the work of the faculty and student retention and belonging groups. We had 146 people interested in being part of those working groups, which was amazing. And these are both places where we can have a significant impact on the campus.

Bowman:  I am most excited about being able to provide a platform and mechanisms to elevate the work that many have been doing more towards substantive actions.  

UMBC Magazine:  What do you hope people will be saying about this work a year from now? Or five years down the road?

Arnold: What I’d like to be able to say a year from now is that we are doing the work and not just, you know, talking about the work. And that five years from now we’ve had a measurable impact on campus in terms of both inclusivity…meaning that people from all political, racial, ethnic, religious, cultural backgrounds, abilities, and nationalities have become engaged and that we’ve improved the sense of inclusion and belonging on campus.

Bowman:  I hope they can see visible and defined changes, but I also hope they continue to have expectations since we know success is never final at UMBC. 

CALL TO ACTION 

In 2017, Christine Osazuwa ’11, interdisciplinary studies, left the country. She eventually settled in London—a place where she says she’s never seen quite so much natural integration of people of all races, cultures, and walks of life. Even so, when the news of the death of George Floyd reached her this spring, Osazuwa, director of data and insights for Warner Music Group, never felt quite comfortable expressing her feelings in the form of public protest.   

“There’s nothing like a pandemic to remind you that you’re an immigrant…. I’m a guest in someone else’s country,” she says, noting she can’t vote, either.

Christine Osazuwa ’11, interdisciplinary studies. Photo of Christine Osazuwa by Out Since Tuesday.

So, instead, she did what she does best—she wrote about it. What started as a short series of Facebook posts fueled by her own life and experiences eventually became a longform essay titled “How To Be a Better Ally.” In five steps—consume content and goods made by Black people, question your employers and your privilege, for instance—Osazuwa implores her white friends, ultimately, to take the time to familiarize themselves with the Black experience.

Osazuwa grew up within a first-generation Nigerian American family in a predominantly white suburb of Baltimore.

“I know all about Hanukkah, I can pronounce the last names of my Polish friends, I know basically every word to Mean Girls, I can dance to “Cotton Eyed Joe,” I can sing along to “Sweet Home Alabama,” I can name all of the Kardashians, and I’ve had my fair share of meatloaf and coleslaw…. Obviously, these are mostly trivial, stereotypical examples but the point is, I have grown up surrounded by white culture,” she writes. In creating this piece, she hopes to give readers a push to learn about Black culture without adding to the weight [Black people are] already carrying.

“As a white person, you can get through life completely fine without ever understanding another person’s culture,” she explains. “There was no expectation the other way around. I had to know your shows and mine. I had to read your books and mine. I had to know your history and my own. And now, we say it is not our job to educate you because we’ve spent our entire lives learning and doing everything twice.”

Read Osazuwa’s full piece on LinkedIn.

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Stories and interviews by UMBC staff. Illustrations, including story header, by Elise Peterson.

For UMBC alum Nathan Kurtz, the only thing scarier than a surprise visit from a polar bear is a melting ice cap. 

When the Polarstern set sail from northern Norway in September 2019, it was looking to get stuck in the ice. But this goal—a death knell for so many historic exploration ships—would be much harder for this modern research vessel to accomplish due to a shrinking ice pack.

The Polarstern was embarking on history’s largest scientific expedition to the Arctic to date. But before the first wave of scientists could start their research, they had to find a suitably robust ice pack, known as a floe, to make their home. This is harder than it sounds in the rapidly warming Arctic. An increasing amount of ice doesn’t survive the summer, which means boats have to travel further north in search of suitably thick ice. But after a nearly two-week journey from Norway, the Polarstern had found its mark. 

And this is how Nathan Kurtz, M.S. ’07, Ph.D. ’09, atmospheric physics, ended up standing guard on some floating ice 300 miles from the North Pole armed with a rifle and a mandate to keep an eye out for polar bears. 

Kurtz, pictured on the ice next to research apparatus, courtesy of Kurtz.

Kurtz was part of the first wave of more than 600 scientists from 20 different countries who over the course of the year cycled through the ship as it drifted more than 1500 miles locked in a massive sheet of ice. The goal of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition was to better understand the link between the Arctic environment and climate change.

Polar bear lookout was “not something I saw myself doing when I was in grad school,” says Kurtz, who didn’t see any bears that day, but by the time he returned to civilization a month later he’d had his fill. “However, UMBC really did prepare me to face challenges,” says Kurtz. “For me, grad school was hard, but it helped me with self-confidence—that this can be done and I can do this.” 

Neither Kurtz nor his shipmates had traveled all the way to the Arctic to be polar bear sentinels. It was just a necessary part of the journey that allowed them to do their real job: collecting massive amounts of data on the woefully understudied polar environment. Over the course of its Arctic sojourn, the Polarstern hosted scientists studying everything from zooplankton beneath the ice to the clouds floating above it. 

But for Kurtz, the ice itself was the main attraction. 

From Icy Moons to Polar Ice Caps

Kurtz’s arrival in the Arctic was the culmination of over a decade of research studying Arctic floes from afar. But his original focus was ice even farther away—the icy moons of Jupiter. A shift in funding from NASA had Kurtz pivot his focus from astrophysics to earth sciences. “But physics applies to the moons of Jupiter and to the Earth,” Kurtz puts it dryly, “so it wasn’t so difficult to switch my focus.”

One of Kurtz’s advisors at UMBC, Raymond Hoff, professor emeritus, says UMBC students are uniquely positioned to lead in atmospheric physics, considered a unique subset in a field that often prioritizes astronomy or astrophysics. UMBC’s relationship with the Earth Science Division of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to form the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology allows students to play an active role in ongoing research.

Scientific teams conduct research at a coring site on MOSAiC ice floe. Alfred-Wegener-Institute / Esther Horvath (CC-BY 4.0)

Hoff himself brought valuable Arctic experience to his classroom, and Kurtz remembers being struck by his advisor’s journeys to the Arctic in the early 1980s. “What amazed me about the Arctic was the stark and pristine beauty of the landscape,” says Hoff. “Even at -45ºF, you would find yourself outside marvelling at the ice crystals which fell out of clear blue skies as any water vapor there would freeze and fall out on your parka.” For about 20 years, Hoff measured pollution at Alert, Northwest Territories, Canada, about as far north as he could get on land. There, researchers discovered that sulfur pollution from Europe and Russia was getting into the high Arctic.

“As a result of our work,” shares Hoff, “the Arctic nations brought in scientific agreements to reduce the inputs of mid-latitudinal pollution going to the Arctic. Some of those pollutants were really surprising since they were pesticides which were used in the tropics. It brought home how small our planet is.”

Kurtz’s work four decades later would continue to rely on the cooperation of numerous stakeholders, as scientists collaborated to study—and perhaps stymie—global warming. 

Bridging the Ice Knowledge Gap

As a graduate student, Kurtz worked on methods for determining sea ice thickness based on data from NASA’s ICESat, a polar observation satellite launched in 2003. After earning his Ph.D., Kurtz has continued his work on the properties of polar ice as a scientist at NASA Goddard’s Cryospheric Sciences Branch. 

To understand how ice around the poles is changing and what this can tell us about the climate,  Kurtz and his colleagues relied heavily on laser data from ICESat, a satellite that passed over the poles bouncing laser light off the ice 40 times per second to get a high resolution map of the sea ice thickness. But when ICESat’s last laser failed in 2009, NASA was left without a dedicated satellite to study the ice caps. 

Three scientists and a bear guard land on a new floe in a transportation device called a “mummy chair” to scout its potential for setting up research stations. Alfred-Wegener Institute / Lianna Nixon (CC-BY 4.0)

NASA’s solution was slightly more hands-on than a satellite—following the laser failure, NASA launched Operation IceBridge. Like ICESat, IceBridge used laser altimeters and radar to observe the Arctic ice sheet, except now they’d use a manned turboprop plane to accomplish the same thing.

Kurtz took over Operation IceBridge in 2015 and helmed the mission until 2018. Hoff shares a story of tuning in to NASA TV to see a story labeled incorrectly on the TV Guide channel as “Ice Bride.” It was really about IceBridge. “You have to laugh,” says Hoff. “I was happy to watch that story and see Nate standing on the ice in the Arctic talking about how important ice thickness is to our understanding of the progression of global warming.”

Each season, Kurtz would travel to the poles for weeks at a time to survey the ice from the air. In the Arctic, Kurtz and his team would depart from an airbase in Greenland and spend upward of eight hours per day in the fuselage of a plane as it zig-zagged back and forth across the Arctic Circle. They would pass the time monitoring the instruments, watching movies, or simply taking in the alien landscape below. 

“The scenery outside was really amazing,” Kurtz says. “I never got tired of looking out the window.”

Even if Kurtz wanted to spend more time in the IceBridge plane, the extreme polar weather limited operations to about three months out of the year, which made it difficult to comprehensively survey the polar regions. The upshot was the plane could carry far more instruments than ICESat, including ice penetrating radars that could only work at low altitudes. In this sense IceBridge drastically improved NASA’s understanding of the dynamics of polar ice—but Kurtz wanted to get closer still. 

Since 2018, Kurtz has been studying polar ice data sent back by NASA’s shiny new orbiter, ICESat-2, at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. But when he heard about the MOSAiC mission, Kurtz saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I had done the airborne work, but on the ground field work is so different,” he says. “Being there would give me a totally different view of how the ice forms and help inspire me to use airborne and satellite data in a different way.”

A New Era of Polar Exploration

One does not simply book a ticket on a month-long trip to the Arctic, of course. After securing the funding to participate in MOSAiC’s research program, Kurtz was required to participate in extensive training in New Hampshire and northern Alaska before departure. Over the course of several weeks in summer 2019, Kurtz along with fellow scientists learned how to shoot a rifle and a flare gun, escape from a sinking helicopter, orchestrate a sea rescue, and protect themselves from polar bears. They were also trained in the art of doing science in the Arctic, learning how to use a giant drill to extract an ice core and drive a snowmobile. 

The extensive training was necessary to prepare the scientists for the brutal environment. During the Arctic winter, temperatures can dip dozens of degrees below zero and starting in mid-October the Polarstern would witness five months of total darkness. 

Arctic sea ice in September 2019. Alfred-Wegener-Institute / Sebastian Grote (CC-BY 4.0)

Kurtz recalls reading novels like Endurance, which chronicles explorer Ernest Shackleton’s harrowing efforts to reach the South Pole in 1914. “This book kept sticking in my head even though I felt safe on the ship. There were all kinds of modern communication in case we needed help or ran out of something or if there was some kind of emergency—we could at least talk to someone,” says Kurtz. “Shackleton and his group had none of that. I can’t even imagine.”

In this modern journey, participants would face some of the same challenges as past expeditions—unstable ice sheets, the threat of frostbite, the prospect of hungry bears, diminishing stores of fresh produce—along with new ones: they were limited to just 50 kilobytes of email data per day—barely enough to send a photo. But aside from a brief bout of seasickness during the passage from Norway, Kurtz quickly adapted to the life of a polar seafarer. 

A Fresh Perspective on the Ice

To be sure, the days were both literally and figuratively long. When Kurtz and his crewmates arrived in the Arctic at the tail end of summer, the sun was hanging just below the horizon, casting the already alien landscape in a perpetual twilight glow. But given how much work there was to do, the extended daylight was a blessing. As the first of six expedition teams that cycled through the Polarstern that year, Kurtz and his colleagues were responsible for setting up dozens of experiments and research infrastructure that would be used by other scientists over the course of the year. 

The nature of the field experiments that surrounded the ship speaks to the diverse expertise of the crew. Some of MOSAiC’s more far flung field sites were up to 30 miles away, accessible only by helicopter. Others took place thousands of feet above and below the ship, where dirigibles or underwater robots collected data and relayed it back to the surface. 

Polar bear mother and cub on starboard side of Polarstern curiously looks at the ship. Alfred-Wegener-Institute / Lianna Nixon (CC-BY 4.0)

Kurtz’s experiments were just a few minutes’ walk from the Polarstern. They were designed to measure changes in the ice’s thickness, density, thermal conductivity, and other properties, which will serve as a ground truth for polar measurements taken from space. The dynamics of the Arctic floe have a lot to tell us about our planet; Kurtz’s experiments are helping us decipher its language. 

Being on the ice gave Kurtz a refreshed perspective of an area he could previously only appreciate from satellite data or the window of a plane, both in terms of the immense scale and barren beauty of the Arctic landscape, and what it means to study the ice. 

“Science by its nature is very dry and technical, so you’re not necessarily thinking about why something is important when you’re solving an equation, you just do it,” Kurtz says. “But going to take these measurements to make sure we understand what’s happening and what it means for the future put a very different context on the work I do.”

Kurtz says he was struck by the realization that his two elementary school-aged children—who loved to hear stories about his polar bear interactions again and again—will likely never see what he saw during his trip. The Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the world and its ice sheet is receding at an alarming rate. Over the past few decades it has lost enough winter ice to cover Alaska, Texas, and Montana combined, and many of the regions that used to stay frozen during the summer are now ice-free. Scientists are only just beginning to understand how the Arctic affects and is affected by climate change, but the work of Kurtz and other MOSAiC scientists will fill in a crucial gap in that knowledge. 

Kurtz’s retired advisor Hoff adds, “One thing UMBC can be very proud of is the number of its graduates and alumni who are contributing to decision making and making important decisions about the most critical issues which will affect the planet.”

—By Daniel Oberhaus

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Learn more about other ways UMBC staff and students are using their research to study and combat the effects of climate change.

Header Image: RV Polarstern in the Arctic. During the MOSAiC expedition the German research icebreaker Polarstern, which is operated by the Alfred Weggener Institute, drifts with the sea ice for a whole year, experiencing several months of polar night. Alfred-Wegener-Institute / Markus Rex (CC-BY 4.0)

An exhibit in unusual circumstances

Headshot provided by Hannah Basher.

As Hannah Bashar ’20, art history and biology, worked to curate pieces for campus-adjacent coffee shop OCA Mocha’s Art During the Time of COVID-19 exhibit, she found herself inspired by the unique ways the contributing artists had drawn from the isolation and monotony of recent months to create impactful art.

“Some artists find inspiration in their new and changed landscapes and environments,” says Bashar, OCA Mocha’s former arts intern. She cites pieces by photographer Julie Miller, which depict the strikingly empty urban areas that the artist passed in her walks through Silver Spring.

Other works featured in the exhibit were influenced by changes in routine; during the pandemic, Miller picked up the practice of joomchi, a centuries-old Korean art medium that involves layering paper in order to create unique shapes and textures. Miller’s artist statement describes the process of joomchi as meditative and “perfect for a day of isolation.”

Bashar wasn’t necessarily seeking art that made deep philosophical arguments about the pandemic. Instead, she wanted to display works that she thought viewers could relate to. “OCA Mocha stands for the community and it’s a strong force within the Arbutus community, so I want people to walk in and feel as though they can relate to what is on the walls,” she explains.

Artist Julie Miller picked up the practice of joomchi, a centuries-old Korean art medium that involves layering paper in order to create unique shapes and textures. Photo courtesy of OCA Mocha.

This means the exhibit ranges from powerful celebrations of Black women’s resiliency in textured acrylic paintings by Kathleen McPartland to playful textiles, like a diploma box filled with a yarn rug made to look like a pizza by April Berardi ’16, modern languages and linguistics.   

Bashar, who plans to pursue a career not in curation but emergency medicine, says that the unusual circumstances of this show made it an especially meaningful one to end her two-semester-long internship. “My own experience curating this show paralleled the theme of the exhibition, which is about how COVID has caused us to adapt and change with the times,” she says. “I felt like my experience curating the show was, in fact, part of the show itself.”
— Johanna Alonso ’20

Comic relief 

Umar Khan knew he had a chance with the crowd when he kicked off his stand-up comedy career a decade ago as a student—most of the faces in the audience were his friends and fellow Retrievers, gathered around the Sports Center stage on the second floor of The Commons. “I think there were like eight people there, and I remember walking away thinking it went well, although I’m sure if I watched it now…” Khan trails off. 

“All comics will tell you this, but we have to be some of the most delusional people in the world,” laughs Khan ’10, psychology. “What person in their right mind thinks they can captivate an audience of strangers for a set amount of time and on top of that make them audibly laugh?”

• Khan performing at a backyard comedy show in August 2020. Photos courtesy of Khan.
• 

Armed with a notebook full of jokes he cringes at now, Khan performed at UMBC a few more times during his senior year. He kept going after that, making inroads into the DC comedy scene, maturing his content and honing his stage presence, filming his own special, performing shows almost every night while pursuing his day job as an elementary/middle school psychologist in Baltimore City. Fast forward 10 years, and COVID-19 hit comedy like so many other arts and industries. 

“Now with COVID, everyone is having to take steps back,” says Khan. “If you used to sell out theaters, well, when is anyone going to pack a theater again? So now you’re going into comedy clubs. And the people headlining comedy clubs are getting pushed down to the next level. And it just keeps going.”

“I’m so thankful I have a career—my immigrant parents were right,” Khan laughs, “dreams are stupid. You gotta get a government job with benefits and a pension.” 

In August, Khan was able to return to the stage, in a backyard show following pandemic protocols. “People are so hungry for entertainment and there’s so much going on in the world right now, says Khan. “We were pushing the line and people were loving it. It was so fun.”

“You can tell people just want to feel some sense of community and a comedy show offers you that community because you’re all laughing at the same thing. And you can leave and talk about the show—sharing the experience. It will be one of those shows we’ll look back on and be like, ‘oh remember when we had to do that during COVID?’”
— Randianne Leyshon ’09

Chocopies for world peace 

In an era where simply eating inside a restaurant is considered risky behavior, there was no way an art installation that invites thousands of guests to share in consuming a huge pile of South Korean snack cakes could go on as planned.

Thus, Mina Cheon’s Eat Chocopie Together project, which was shown physically at the Busan Biennale 2018 in South Korea and had been slated to open at the Lincoln Center in June 2020, had to be postponed. But Cheon, M.F.A. ’02, imaging and digital arts, and her collaborators knew that, as the pandemic raged on around the world, the installation’s themes of love, peace, and unity were more relevant than ever.

Cheon shows a map of North and South Korea, where people in both countries participated in the art project. Photo courtesy of Cheon.

To safely bring the project into the age of COVID-19, Cheon created a website, EatChocopieTogether.com, that allows friends to email one another digital versions of the marshmallow-filled treat. The chocopies are represented by graphics modeled after real chocopie wrappers but newly designed by the artist and emblazoned with one of five words: love, peace, share, eat, or unite. The recipient can “eat” the snack by clicking the graphic, and each chocopie sent and received contributes $2 to the Korean American Community Foundation COVID-19 Action Fund. 

“It’s an extended version of the original. It’s taking all the inspiration, the sentiment, the spirit of Eat Chocopie Together, but going virtual allowed us to explore the different packaging with the multiple themes” and to fundraise, Cheon says. As of September, the project reached its $5,000 goal.

The original meaning of the installation lies in the history of the chocopie; the confection is incredibly popular in both South Korea and North Korea, despite being banned in the latter country. Sharing chocopies is “meant to bring awareness of the two Koreas working towards peace and unification,” according to a press release published by Asia Society Triennal. 

Cheon stands in front of 100,000 chocopies at a 2018 exhibit in South Korea. Photo courtesy of Cheon.

The virtual version of the project emphasizes an even more global message, according to Cheon. “We are socially distanced and separated, but we can still connect,” she says. “That was such a big, empowering idea, that we could still heal through our virtual connection.”
— Johanna Alonso ’20

Art by appointment

Bonnie Crawford describes looking at art like a religious experience. So when COVID-19 interrupted her life, she realized that what she missed most was experiencing art with her friends. Over the course of a month, Crawford, M.F.A. ’08, imaging and digital arts, invited people by appointment to view her work of dental floss weavings in the shed in her backyard. 

“There’s a unique mindset when someone is looking at art,” says Crawford, who didn’t want people to lose out on that opportunity during the various stages of lockdown.

Bonnie Crawford’s dental floss weavings ranged in size from a quilt to a pocket
square. She displayed the art in her emptied out shed. Photo courtesy of Crawford.

Crawford was worried at the beginning of the pandemic that she would possibly never make art again; she was finding it meaningless. Her weavings had usually been a way for her to channel creative energy, so she reinvisioned how to share her work with others which gave her renewed purpose.

Crawford’s dental floss weavings grew from the work she does on her Instagram feed, @brushhouse, where she shares pictures of her family brushing their teeth, sometimes including a guest appearance from a friend. The weavings extended from her desire to do more formal work. They range from small enough to fit in a wallet to a tall floss weaving that hangs like a tapestry. 

“I would go to my studio until I had to use the bathroom,” Crawford laughs. This meant driving across the city to go at home, wanting to err on the side of caution in the face of a novel virus. In this way, Crawford slowly made progress on her largest dental floss weaving. When she was finished, she asked her sons and boyfriend to clear out their things from the shed and then got to installing.

The exhibition was up for about a month, available for viewing on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Using an app to schedule appointment slots, in total 90 people came to see her work. “I hoped that it fulfilled that spiritual need for others like it did for me,” she says. 
— Imani Spence ’16

All the world’s a digital stage

Like most things that cannot be held in person due to the coronavirus pandemic, theater has found its virtual home on Zoom.

These digital performances can be quite similar to the existing practice of staged readings, in which actors deliver their lines with little to no sets or costumes, often while sitting. But to tell some uniquely 2020 stories, some actors, playwrights, and directors have taken this medium to a new level.

Among them is Jurdan “JC” Payne ’21, theatre, who has spent the past few months performing in virtual plays featuring casts located throughout the country. Most recently, in a ten-minute play called High, Low, Uh-Oh, Payne is one of two characters on a video chat. He calls to wish a friend happy birthday, unable to celebrate in person due to COVID-19. 

Payne looks forward to the return to a real stage, but is making most of the virtual options during the pandemic. Photo courtesy of Payne.

It was the first time Payne had ever used his own house as a set and his own possessions—ketchup mixed with water to simulate blood and a sock puppet through which he sang “Happy birthday,” for example—as props. Most of the props weren’t listed in the script; instead, Payne used whatever he had laying around the house to supplement the existing material.

(And yes, that does mean he already owned a sock puppet with googly eyes).

“It was kind of new territory for me,” he says. “It’s different from being on stage, but also really different from filming a short film or a commercial.”

Pre-pandemic stage photo courtesy of Payne.

Another element of working in theater that has changed in recent months are auditions, says Payne. Whereas actors were once expected to dedicate 8- to 10-hour-long days to auditioning, the pandemic has solidified the fact that virtual auditions can be just as effective and informative as in-person ones, signaling a welcome shift from the traditional long audition days. 

“I hope that eventually theaters will adopt that practice moving forward,” Payne says. Still, he notes that a self-tape, as they’re called in the industry, can be challenging because it requires the auditioner to act as lightning designer, cinematographer, and director, all while trying to perform.

“It’s like learning a new language,” he says.
— Johanna Alonso ’20

Community of poets

Calista Ogburn ’21, health administration and policy, began writing poetry as a way to orient herself in a new environment. As a high school sophomore in Seoul, South Korea—after moving from Vietnam—Ogburn was looking for community so she joined a public speaking club that introduced her to speech tournaments and poetry readings. 

At UMBC, Ogburn has continued to use poetry as a means of making a home for herself. She credits Lia Purpura, writer in residence at UMBC, with helping her reimagine her poetry and her process as a writer. Ogburn, who is the communications director for the Student Government Association, also connected with other students in the Retriever Poets, a student group that encourages poetry through open mics and workshops. Ogburn’s first book of poetry, a splash of yellow, edited by fellow Retriever Morgan Mullings, media and communications studies, was published just for Ogburn and her friends; a project to prove to herself what she could accomplish. 

Ogburn poses with her books of poetry. Photo from calista-ogburn.com.

Ogburn’s second book of poetry was for a broader audience. Written in the beginning stages of COVID-19, this is it addresses racism towards Asian Americans, on personal and institutional levels as misunderstandings about the virus have influenced people. As a senior health administration and policy major watching a public health and political crisis, she felt called to action.

“My hope,” Ogburn shares, “is that these poems can touch those who are feeling loss, loneliness, or the combined grief and rage of experiencing racism.”

Promotional book photo courtesy of Ogburn.

this is it was a group effort, says Ogburn, praising Mullings, who also edited this volume. Support from other Retriever Poets helped push Ogburn to truly confront the emotions that she was feeling, and gave confidence to her voice. Since her time in South Korea,Ogburn realizes that she’s “always had a community of poets.”
— Imani Spence ’16

Meant to be connected

To counter her anxiety in the time of COVID, Jill Fannon, M.F.A. ’11, imaging and digital arts, decided to photograph people who are responding to the pandemic directly—healthcare workers. Her collection, Care in the Garden, features these essential workers in quiet intimate moments outside of the hospital. 

“We’re meant to be connected and we affect each other, deeply,” says Fannon, who doesn’t see this project about the art of photography as much as about capturing a moment. She has found herself asking “What will we want to know about COVID-19 50 years from now?”

When Fannon began her project in April 2020, many people didn’t expect that the country would still be facing a pandemic half a year later. Her work, Fannon says, has kept her from experiencing what many people are calling “quarantine fatigue.” 

It’s been a special experience, Fannon shares, for her to meet these medical professionals in these intimate moments. While most people are working from home, healthcare workers are forced to do everything possible to keep their work from coming home with them, mentally and physically. For these healthcare workers, concerned about transmission to their families, this has transformed their spaces drastically. One of the subjects of the photo series described to Fannon how she would take all her clothes off outside her home, throw them in the laundry, and shower before touching her family.

Photography has always been a way Fannon expresses herself and finds joy, but in this moment, she wanted to use them for the greater good—showing the humanity of essential personnel even hidden behind their PPE. The contrast between their face shields, scrubs, and the lush scenery tells a powerful story about how people are finding stillness and peace during a health crisis. 
— Imani Spence ’16

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Header image by Jill Fannon, M.F.A. ’11.