Shana Palmer, an MFA candidate with Visual Arts for 2015, is participated in the Invisible Time exhibition at the MUU Gallery based in Helsinki, Finland. Palmer contributed  to the track “Lunar Storm” from her band Secret Secrets’s latest album Chiromagica, to the “Wall of Sound” portion of the exhibit, alongside ten other track by other participating artists. Secret Secrets is a duo of Palmer on vocals and electronics with drums provided by Melissa Moore.

Invisible Time opened at the MUU Gallery on June 8th and closed on June 21st. More information on the exhibit and its participants can be found here.

Josephine Kalema, a senior dance major, will have her piece Past, Present, and Future performed at the Washington, D.C. performance space Dance Place as part of the  annual New Release Choreographer’s Showcase this coming July.

It will feature dancers Arnesha Reives, Jonique Holcomb, Alexis Renee, Candice Grace, and Jasmynn Speight, and  mixes traditional and modern African dance. Kalema dedicates Past, Present, and Future to her Ugandan family, as well as “every culture that has gone through life changing barriers,” according to Dance Place’s website.

The dates for the New Release Choreographer’s Showcase are July 7th at 8 p.m., and July 8th at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at Dance Place’s webpage for the event, located here.

More than 70 alumni and friends enjoyed pizza and drinks at the 2012 IT & Engineering Happy Hour. The event, which  welcomed all UMBC alumni with a special focus on those from the College of Engineering and Information Technology, was sponsored by the UMBC Training Centers and held at Pub Dog of Columbia. Alumni enjoyed the chance to unwind after work while connecting with fellow Retrievers.

Check out all the great photos from this event on Flickr or Facebook.

About Our Sponsor
UMBC Training Centers extends the academic excellence of UMBC to working professionals and organizations through the delivery of professional, scientific and technical training. As a training partner with the industry’s leading technology providers and a Prometric and VUE certified testing facility, Training Centers provides training and certification preparation to thousands of students in IT, cybersecurity, and engineering. Training Centers recently expanded to a new facility in Columbia, MD on Columbia Gateway Drive. More information can be found online at www.umbc.edu/trainctr/cyber.

President Freeman Hrabowski has been named one of five inaugural inductees into the U.S. News STEM Leadership Hall of Fame, recognizing UMBC’s work advancing science education on campus, throughout Maryland and across the country.

Here’s what Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News & World Report, had to say: “Freeman Hrabowski is one of STEM’s brightest luminaries. His work at UMBC focusing on STEM is a true success story. Talk about filling the pipeline—Freeman turned UMBC into one of the country’s top producers of science, math, and engineering grads.”

That is a testament not just to leadership — but more importantly, to the vision, creativity and dedication of UMBC’s faculty and staff. It is also a testament to our partners, whose expertise and financial support have made UMBC’s successes possible.

On Friday, President Hrabowski joins business executives, philanthropists, policymakers and other educators at the U.S. News STEM Solutions 2012 Summit, an unprecedented gathering focused on one critical objective: creating a national consensus on the development of a STEM workforce.

As UMBC continues to address that pressing issue, the expertise and commitment of our faculty, staff, alumni and partners will be as crucial as ever. We are grateful for all you’ve already done and hope you share in our excitement about this honor.

UMBC’s Secondary Teacher Education and Professional Training for English Language Learners (or STEP T for ELLs) program has been awarded an additional year of funding by the U.S. Department of Education. The program is funded through the Office of English Language Acquisition.

The STEP T for ELLs Program helps secondary teachers of math, science, and social studies to provide effective instruction to ESOL students. This program provides professional development in areas such as teaching strategies and cross-cultural communications.

The program has surpassed its original goal of training 880 in-service teachers and 60 teacher leaders in the state of Maryland. The program has already trained 1,040 in-service teachers (math, science, social studies, and ESOL) and 273 teacher leaders.  These teacher leaders in Montgomery County Public Schools, Howard County Public School System, and Frederick County Public Schools will be training teachers in their school systems using STEP T for ELLs Program modules.  In addition, the program leaders are developing online professional development modules to be offered in the Maryland State Department of Education.

This program builds an understanding of who ELLs are and how to communicate across cultures effectively. More information about the program can be found here.

On June 24, The Washington Post published an Associated press article entitled “Md. governor struggles at home while critics say he’s too focused elsewhere.” O’Malley’s critics have claimed he has been delinquent in his obligations at home and that he is treating Maryland as a weigh station to a national office.

Donald Norris, chair of public policy, said that O’Malley’s recent difficulties regarding the expansion of gambling in the state reflected more on the dynamics between Maryland’s Senate and House leaders.

“This is the strongest gubernatorial office in the country and this particular governor is a strong governor, so my guess is if he wanted this badly enough and he thought the timing was right, he’d pull out all the stops, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Norris said.

News that Dresher Center for the Humanities director Rebecca Boehling’s was recently named Director of the International Tracing Service, has recently been covered in several news outlets.

On June 22,  The Baltimore Jewish Times published a story entitled “Professor To Head International Tracing Service,” which explored Boehling’s background and that of the ITS. Boehling spoke on a number of topics which ranged from anecdotal experiences related to the ITS’s profile and the shifting discourse within Germany on the war to the possible advantage of being an American “outsider” holding such a sensitive post as hers. As to her plans for the ITS during her expected 2 1/2 year tenure in Germany, Boehling said that “[t]he ITS is burgeoning… but I’m going to make sure it burgeons more.”

Boehling was also a guest on WYPR’s Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast on June 26th, where she spoke on her appointment to the ITS, its evolution from its original purpose of tracing and reuniting family members and other survivors of the Holocaust to incorporate more scholarly research, and being the first American appointed to its directorship.

On June 26, Kate Drabinski, lecturer in gender and women’s studies and director of UMBC’s Women Involved in Learning and Leadership (WILL) program, was a guest on the Marc Steiner show for a discussion on the dynamics of gender in contemporary society and whether the differences between the genders are innate or socially constucted. Drabinski was joined by former American Psychological Association (APA) head Diane Halpern and Goucher College women’s studies visiting associate professor Jennifer Williams.

“In feminist theory the debate about the difference between sex and gender is an old one, sex being biological and gender being social,” Drabinski said. “But there’s no way to isolate the biological from the social because the second we ask the question we’re bringing our social world into it.”

The full conversation can be heard here.

From Ben Lowenthal, Associate VP, Financial Services and Charlene Hughins Uhl, Director of Budget and Resource Analysis, Financial Services

Financial Services and the Office of Budget and Resource Analysis are very pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Marlo Zeroth as Assistant Director of Budget and Resource Analysis in Financial Services, effective July 2, 2012.

Marlo has over twenty-nine years of experience in financial and budgetary analysis and application that spans the public and private sectors. He comes to UMBC from the Maryland State Treasurer’s Office, where he was the Deputy Director of Banking Services. He also worked in the financial offices of two former but well-known Maryland companies – Hechinger’s and Woodward & Lothrop, as well as at the top ranked auditing firm of Arthur Andersen & Company. Marlo received his Bachelor of Sciences degree in accounting from the University of Maryland, College Park and earned the prestigious EW Sells Award ranking him among the top 100 scores in the country on the CPA exam. His accounting and budgeting background, data management skills, and experience in solving complex business problems will be valuable to UMBC in the years to come.

We are fortunate to have such an experienced accounting professional joining our team. Marlo will be located in the Budget Office; 3rd floor, Administration Building. He can be reached at mzeroth@umbc.edu or 5-2627. Please join us in giving Marlo a warm welcome to UMBC.

Every day, we in the office of Alumni Relations hear about students making the most of their time here at UMBC…and beyond! However, many of these students wouldn’t be able to attend UMBC without the scholarship support they receive.

There are students like Jeremy, who fell in love with the poetry of Marlowe and Donne and took acting classes at UMBC. We just found out he got a great job in publishing after graduation — congratulations, Jeremy!

There are students like dance major Paige, whose life was turned around by the chance to volunteer in Haiti as junior. We got to see the amazing piece she choreographed during Undergraduate Research & Achievement Day — well done!

And, there’s Gift — a member of the class of 2012 who plans to study cardiology next year, and who hopes to someday open a free clinic in his native India. Clearly, he was aptly named!

Students like Jeremy, Paige, Gift — and so many others — thrive at UMBC because of the community, the challenges, and the learning experiences they find in such great abundance here. But, without scholarships, many would not have the chance to even start.

Please make your gift to UMBC before the end of the fiscal year (June 30). You can support student scholarships, your favorite academic department, a sports team, or the university’s greatest need. Every gift counts!