As the fall 2025 semester takes off at UMBC, the campus hums with the energy of our largest-ever incoming class, reflecting a Retriever spirit that draws talent from near and far. With total undergraduate enrollment rising 2.6 percent, this fall UMBC welcomed 2,280 first-time, first-year students and over 870 new transfer students. In addition, an increased first-year retention rate shows UMBC’s supportive environment helps students thrive and stay the course toward their goals.

“We are thrilled to welcome another record-breaking first-year class,” shares Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88, vice provost for enrollment management and planning. “What excites us most is this year’s geographically diverse student body, with more international, out-of-state, and Baltimore City undergraduates, fostering a vibrant campus community.”

Diving into community

Welcome, Retrievers kicked off on August 23 with the excitement of move-in day, where family, friends, faculty, and staff helped Retrievers settle into their home away from home. As new arrivals hauled storage bins, they bonded with roommates and volunteers through laughter and shared anticipation. Commuting students connected with each other at Commuter Welcome Day. 

Among the many activities that set the stage for the year ahead, Involvement Fest drew hundreds of students. Filling the Retriever Activities Center, more than 200 student organizations invited students to join academic clubs, sports, Greek life, service groups, and more. These activities give all students the chance to explore their interests and find new ones while developing lasting friendships. 

“I’m looking forward to meeting new people and also spending time with my friends,” shared Annamarie Walther, a senior financial economics major, at Involvement Fest. As the communications lead for the Catholic Retrievers, “I’m excited to serve,” she added. 

An institution where you belong

A few days earlier at UMBC’s Fall Opening Meeting, first-year student Andrew Whipple shared that attending college was never a given for him. “Being here at UMBC is about more than just academics,” Whipple, a visual arts major and a Linehan Artist Scholar, shared. “It’s about breaking barriers and creating a future for myself that I can be proud of.”

Archana Thakkar, an incoming transfer student pursuing a degree in business technology administration, also shared hopes held by many students. “I am excited to join UMBC and become part of a community that thrives on collaboration and innovation. I look forward to building connections with professors and classmates, engaging in student organizations, and taking part in opportunities that encourage both personal and academic growth,” Thakkar says. “More than anything, I am eager to contribute to the vibrant spirit of UMBC while learning from the diverse perspectives that make this university so special.” 

At Convocation, UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby officially ushered in the start of a new school year. She shared an uplifting message with students, faculty, and staff, promising all would be supported as they pursued their potential. “I want you to know that you have come to an institution that wants you here and that is sure that you belong and that you can be successful,” she said, “even if you are not so sure yourself yet.” 

After Convocation, attendees spilled out of the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena and toward a lively cookout on the Quad. As conversation and lemonade flowed, strangers began to turn into friends, setting the tone for a year of achievement among community.

“Recipes are like an address to a homeland, but they’re also very personal to your own story,” said Karla T. Vasquez, author of The SalviSoul Cookbook, in True Grit’s Test Kitchen. Celia Bonilla, a business technology administration sophomore, grinned and nodded—the addresses for her own recipes come from El Salvador and Maryland. Bonilla joined other UMBC students earlier this fall for the “More than Pupusas” cooking demonstration, sponsored by the Dresher Center for the Humanities, to learn how to cook Salvadoran street food.

Bonilla sat at one of two tables set with brown butcher paper with her classmates, Stephania Fonseca, a social work sophomore, and Jeffrey Molina Soriano, a computer science junior. They also have roots in Maryland and El Salvador. “Pastelitos [pah-steh-lee-tos] means little pie and it’s the Salvadoran version of empanadas [em-pah-nah-dahs],” said Vasquez. “Empanadas are well known all over Latin America. Greeks, Italians, and other Europeans make meat pies, too.”

Like many Salvadoran students at UMBC, their journeys to UMBC are as complex as the ingredients they use for this meal. “Sometimes Hispanic Heritage Month events portray Latinx culture as a monolith, often focusing on the Caribbean or Mexican American experience,” said Courtney C. Hobson ’10, M.A. ’14, history, program manager at the James T. and Virginia M. Dresher Center for the Humanities. “I grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where a significant part of the Latinx immigrant community comes from Central America, specifically El Salvador. Many of our Latinx students have roots in Central America—I wanted to organize an event that celebrated the rich culture they represent.”

“I came here when I was six years old from El Salvador,” said Bonilla, who attended the event as part of an assignment for the Spanish for Heritage Spanish Speakers class. Students must participate in two on-campus and two off-campus cultural events that celebrate Hispanic/Latinx culture. While Bonilla is familiar with campus events as the parent of a UMBC alum Jasmine Esmeralda Bonilla ’21, chemical engineering, this event felt different. “This class gives me a chance to learn more about my culture and language by engaging with people from various countries and age groups.”

Culinary traditions

Most students at the event said they had eaten pupusas (puh-poo-suhz) at home or at a restaurant. This flat corn flour cake, stuffed with cheese, beans, and sometimes meat is the national dish of El Salvador. “I have an aunt who is from El Salvador. She taught my mom, and then my mom taught me how to make pupusas with my sister,” said Fonseca. “My dad is from El Salvador, and my mom is from Mexico. We learned to make pupusas together as a family. So it became a typical food from my home.”

As students kneaded the dough into a palm-sized disc, filled it with sautéed mushrooms, and pinched the edges to seal the pastelitos, they also shared what food meant to them in the context of their family and student life. A clear theme emerged, culinary traditions can extend beyond the kitchen. “We have the Philly pretzel factory. I’ve never been able to find a soft pretzel as good as the Philly Pretzel Factory,” said Ashley Gutshall about her hometown of Royersford, Pennsylvania. Gutshall, a history and Spanish sophomore, shares, “It’s our family tradition to get Philly soft pretzels after doctor’s appointments.”

Snack routines also create taste memories. “I was born in El Salvador during the Civil War [1980-1992] but was raised in Los Angeles. I would often fantasize about the routines my family would have had if they had been able to stay in their homeland,” said Vasquez, as she cooked down strawberries that she used to sweeten a large container of water filled with chan seeds—similar to chia seeds in texture and nutrition. “Fresco de chan satisfied that question for me because it’s a drink students have after school,” said Vasquez. 

Food as a cultural bridge

Dishes are a fingerprint of a family’s traditions and tastes that can also serve as a timeline marking the evolution of ingredients locally and globally. “When my mom hears of these new trending food ingredients like chia seeds or quinoa,” says Vasquez, “she argues that they have been used in El Salvador and Central American communities for a long time.” 

Whether savory or sweet, the names of foods and spices across Latin America, and the dishes they inspire, are rooted in indigenous, African, and European languages and culinary traditions often fused to create unique dishes with local variations. Vasquez noted that achiote [ah-chee-oh-teh], the spice used to season and enhance the yellow color of the corn flour dough for the pastelitos, is a Nahuat word. Nahuat is a widely spoken indigenous language in Mexico and Central America. The rich legacy of Salvadoran food is seldom recognized alongside Western cuisine, even though many of its ingredients are sourced from the Global South—reinforcing cultural divisions. The Dresher Center’s “More than Pupusas” cooking event aimed to bridge this gap and celebrate the cultural footprint of Salvadoran cuisine.

“I interviewed more than 100 women while I’ve been working on this project. It’s taken me nine years,” says Vasquez about her recent release, The SalviSoul Cookbook. “I wanted to make sure that we’re giving credit where credit is due.” 

(r): Bonilla and Molina Soriano taste the fried pastelitos. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

The tasters and aspiring chefs were grateful to be part of the long tradition of communities brought together across borders and time to learn, cook, and share a meal with new and old friends. They stamped their seal of approval with dough—a squiggly line, a star, a smile—sealing each pastelito with personal flair.

“Recipes are like an address to a homeland, but they’re also very personal to your own story,” said Karla T. Vasquez, author of The SalviSoul Cookbook, in True Grit’s Test Kitchen. Celia Bonilla, a business technology administration sophomore, grinned and nodded—the addresses for her own recipes come from El Salvador and Maryland. Bonilla joined other UMBC students earlier this fall for the “More than Pupusas” cooking demonstration, sponsored by the Dresher Center for the Humanities, to learn how to cook Salvadoran street food.

Bonilla sat at one of two tables set with brown butcher paper with her classmates, Stephania Fonseca, a social work sophomore, and Jeffrey Molina Soriano, a computer science junior. They also have roots in Maryland and El Salvador. “Pastelitos [pah-steh-lee-tos] means little pie and it’s the Salvadoran version of empanadas [em-pah-nah-dahs],” said Vasquez. “Empanadas are well known all over Latin America. Greeks, Italians, and other Europeans make meat pies, too.”

Like many Salvadoran students at UMBC, their journeys to UMBC are as complex as the ingredients they use for this meal. “Sometimes Hispanic Heritage Month events portray Latinx culture as a monolith, often focusing on the Caribbean or Mexican American experience,” said Courtney C. Hobson ’10, M.A. ’14, history, program manager at the James T. and Virginia M. Dresher Center for the Humanities. “I grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where a significant part of the Latinx immigrant community comes from Central America, specifically El Salvador. Many of our Latinx students have roots in Central America—I wanted to organize an event that celebrated the rich culture they represent.”

“I came here when I was six years old from El Salvador,” said Bonilla, who attended the event as part of an assignment for the Spanish for Heritage Spanish Speakers class. Students must participate in two on-campus and two off-campus cultural events that celebrate Hispanic/Latinx culture. While Bonilla is familiar with campus events as the parent of a UMBC alum Jasmine Esmeralda Bonilla ’21, chemical engineering, this event felt different. “This class gives me a chance to learn more about my culture and language by engaging with people from various countries and age groups.”

Culinary traditions

Most students at the event said they had eaten pupusas (puh-poo-suhz) at home or at a restaurant. This flat corn flour cake, stuffed with cheese, beans, and sometimes meat is the national dish of El Salvador. “I have an aunt who is from El Salvador. She taught my mom, and then my mom taught me how to make pupusas with my sister,” said Fonseca. “My dad is from El Salvador, and my mom is from Mexico. We learned to make pupusas together as a family. So it became a typical food from my home.”

As students kneaded the dough into a palm-sized disc, filled it with sautéed mushrooms, and pinched the edges to seal the pastelitos, they also shared what food meant to them in the context of their family and student life. A clear theme emerged, culinary traditions can extend beyond the kitchen. “We have the Philly pretzel factory. I’ve never been able to find a soft pretzel as good as the Philly Pretzel Factory,” said Ashley Gutshall about her hometown of Royersford, Pennsylvania. Gutshall, a history and Spanish sophomore, shares, “It’s our family tradition to get Philly soft pretzels after doctor’s appointments.”

Snack routines also create taste memories. “I was born in El Salvador during the Civil War [1980-1992] but was raised in Los Angeles. I would often fantasize about the routines my family would have had if they had been able to stay in their homeland,” said Vasquez, as she cooked down strawberries that she used to sweeten a large container of water filled with chan seeds—similar to chia seeds in texture and nutrition. “Fresco de chan satisfied that question for me because it’s a drink students have after school,” said Vasquez. 

Food as a cultural bridge

Dishes are a fingerprint of a family’s traditions and tastes that can also serve as a timeline marking the evolution of ingredients locally and globally. “When my mom hears of these new trending food ingredients like chia seeds or quinoa,” says Vasquez, “she argues that they have been used in El Salvador and Central American communities for a long time.” 

Whether savory or sweet, the names of foods and spices across Latin America, and the dishes they inspire, are rooted in indigenous, African, and European languages and culinary traditions often fused to create unique dishes with local variations. Vasquez noted that achiote [ah-chee-oh-teh], the spice used to season and enhance the yellow color of the corn flour dough for the pastelitos, is a Nahuat word. Nahuat is a widely spoken indigenous language in Mexico and Central America. The rich legacy of Salvadoran food is seldom recognized alongside Western cuisine, even though many of its ingredients are sourced from the Global South—reinforcing cultural divisions. The Dresher Center’s “More than Pupusas” cooking event aimed to bridge this gap and celebrate the cultural footprint of Salvadoran cuisine.

“I interviewed more than 100 women while I’ve been working on this project. It’s taken me nine years,” says Vasquez about her recent release, The SalviSoul Cookbook. “I wanted to make sure that we’re giving credit where credit is due.” 

(r): Bonilla and Molina Soriano taste the fried pastelitos. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

The tasters and aspiring chefs were grateful to be part of the long tradition of communities brought together across borders and time to learn, cook, and share a meal with new and old friends. They stamped their seal of approval with dough—a squiggly line, a star, a smile—sealing each pastelito with personal flair.

In early 2022, Nadja Franklin ‘23 was exploring summer opportunities through the UMBC Career Center when she heard about a chance to connect with tech internships at Maryland’s state agencies. As a business technology administration major, her interest was piqued. She arrived at the on-campus internship event with résumé in hand, ready to discuss her skills, and her preparation and enthusiasm paid off. 

The hiring event was hosted by the Maryland Institute for Innovative Computing (MIIC) to help state agencies expand their technical talent pipeline through intern recruitment. The MIIC is a collaboration between the University System of Maryland and partners in the public and private sectors, launched in 2021. Administered by UMBC, the MIIC addresses workforce challenges related to computing and analytics in state agencies. Students at colleges and universities across Maryland are eligible to apply for internships through the MIIC, connecting skilled students with state employers seeking fresh tech talent.

Talent meets opportunity

The MIIC is continuously growing the pipeline of tech talent ready to support state agencies in the longer term, helping them run securely and efficiently. So far, in 2022, they’ve connected nearly 40 interns with opportunities at state agencies across Maryland, including the Department of Labor, Department of Information Technology, Department of Health, Department of Transportation and the Chief Data Office within the Governor’s Office.

“The MIIC reflects Maryland’s dedication to ensuring our state agencies have the technical staffing and internal infrastructure they need,” explains Annie Weinschenk, program director of workforce initiatives in the UMBC Career Center. 

“With cyber crime on the rise, including attacks on government agencies, MIIC is helping to build a skilled workforce dedicated to service within the state of Maryland,” Weinschenk says. “MIIC internship areas range from data science, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, to geographic information systems at seven agencies across Maryland.”

Prepared to succeed

Franklin is a T-SITE Scholar in UMBC’s Center for Women in Technology who transferred to UMBC from the Community College of Baltimore County. At the MIIC event, she connected with the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) about projects that would draw on her interests and experience, and she realized the opportunity could be a great match.

Afterward, she quickly completed her application for a project management internship in MDOT’s information technology department. She also accessed other Career Center resources to help her stand out as a top candidate, including interview prep with Weinschenk and Career Center Director Christine Routzahn.

“Students come to their internship experiences with a variety of backgrounds, levels of experience, and majors,” says Weinschenk. “We work to make sure they put their best foot forward, so they can access these unique hands-on learning opportunities.” 

Meaningful connections

Franklin’s primary project with MDOT involves radio frequency identification (RFID), tagging IT and non-IT assets for use in various projects across the agency. But she has particularly enjoyed the chance to meet with MDOT’s chief information officer and deputy chief information officer. She’s also had a chance to learn about the broad range of projects across MDOT, and how project management works, through supporting directors’ meetings. 

Franklin also drew on her writing skills and creativity to help develop scripts for MDOT training videos, and she enjoyed a unique chance to participate in the video filming and production process. 

Beyond learning new skills, her favorite aspect of the internship has been MDOT’s inclusive, welcoming environment.

K-12 and higher ed partnerships

While Franklin came to UMBC interested in a career in tech, that’s not the case for many students who have the talent and skills to succeed in tech fields. With this in mind, the MIIC has also focused on expanding K-12 initiatives, to help prepare students earlier on for these high-demand careers, particularly in cybersecurity.

Earlier this year, Governor Larry Hogan announced the launch of the Maryland Cyber Range for Elevating Workforce and Education, operated by the MIIC. This $1.2 million initiative will expand cybersecurity education and training through collaboration with the Maryland Center for Computing Education (MCCE), Virginia Tech U.S. Cyber Range, and the nonprofit Teach Cyber.

This partnership will include initiatives at all educational levels, from K-12 through higher education and workforce training. The U.S. Cyber Range will provide access to a high quality simulated environment for teachers and students to learn cybersecurity. 

Overall, this collaborative effort will enable Maryland to continue to grow and strengthen the state’s cybersecurity education infrastructure, explains Jack Suess, UMBC’s vice president of information technology and chief technology officer. 

Innovating cybersecurity education 

A leader in cybersecurity education, UMBC is also advancing the field in other ways, complementing the work of the MIIC. For example, Alan T. Sherman, professor of computer science, recently received more than $260,000 of a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study and improve how cybersecurity is taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Military Academy. 

The project, Examining Pedagogy in Cybersecurity (EPIC), is collaborative with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University of Minnesota Duluth, and is funded through NSF’s Secure and Trustworthy Computing (SaTC) program. Because the academies teach cybersecurity to all first-year students, EPIC offers a large-scale opportunity to investigate how simulation-based teaching and learning affects different student populations.

In the first phase of the research, Sherman and his collaborators—including computer science Ph.D. student Andew Slack and Linda Oliva, assistant professor of education—will study how instructors at the academies structure and teach their cybersecurity courses. In the second phase, they will introduce active simulation-based learning exercises and pedagogies and assess their effectiveness. 

UMBC’s championship-winning Cyberdawgs cyberdefense team will help adapt and improve learning materials. As one quantitative measure of the new pedagogy’s effectiveness, EPIC will assess students’ conceptual understanding using the Cybersecurity Concept Inventory (CCI), developed by Sherman and his team. 

Benefits for Maryland

MIIC initiatives continue to expand in new directions. In research, The Hilltop Institute at UMBC is receiving funding to bring together health data related to opioid addiction from different state sources to more accurately identify patients’ risks for relapse. Like the MIIC’s educational initiatives, this work demonstrates how innovations in computing can benefit Maryland and its residents.

Bryan Castillo

Degree: B.A., Business Technology Administration
Hometown: Columbia, MD
Plans: Working at the intersection of arts and tech

“There’s a really good support system at UMBC for someone like me—a transfer and first-generation student. There are groups for everything. I found the best support system for me.” 

Bryan Castillo with his artwork that was displayed at OCA Mocha.

Bryan Castillo ‘22, business technology administration, came to UMBC from Howard Community College as a first-generation college student with a clear vision on how he would succeed: making connections and exploring every opportunity. He wanted to combine his interest in art with his passion for technology. He also wanted to make sure he felt supported on his college journey and could make life-long friends.

Castillo worked with the UMBC Career Center to find opportunities that would match his interests—meeting to discuss his goals and attending career fairs. He was able to access a coveted internship with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. 

“If it wasn’t for my own previous experience with databases, I would never have gotten the internship,” he says. He describes that experience as an important stepping stone to become more confident, build his resume, and grow as an in-demand professional in the field.

Still, he made time for friends, leadership activities, and developing as an artist. In addition to being active in UMBC’s Hispanic Latino Student Union and the running club, he exhibited his artwork at the OCA Mocha coffee shop and gallery near UMBC.

Bryan Castillo, third from right, with members of the UMBC Running Club. (Image courtesy of Castillo.)

At first glance, Justin Glaze ’16 seems like the quintessential UMBC alum—a graduate in business technology administration but a minor in fine arts, a track & field athlete who went on to work at T. Rowe Price. But if he looks a little more familiar than most Retrievers, it’s probably because you’ve seen so many of his facial expressions as the runner-up on season 17 (with Katie Thurston) of ABC’s The Bachelorette. Glaze sat down with UMBC Magazine to discuss the behind-the-scenes friendship of so many of the men on set and how they still keep in touch daily. He also shares some UMBC memories, like forming an unexpected connection with President Freeman Hrabowski and eventually hanging his own art in the Hrabowski’s family home.

UMBC Magazine: So, you were the runner-up on the most recent season of The Bachelorette. How’d that happen?

Justin Glaze: In November 2020, during Tayshia’s season, I was in my house eating Ben & Jerry’s—and it was COVID so you couldn’t really go out and do anything. I was single as a Pringle. I was in a group chat with some people that watch the show and we were kind of joking about applying. It just so happened to be [an episode with] an art group date, and I was like, “Wait a minute. If I was on this date right now, I feel like I’d crush this.” 

So I thought, “If it’s a short application and I can knock it out during a commercial break, why not?” Less than a week later, I got an email from a casting producer from ABC and two months later, I was getting casted.

UMBC Magazine: We loved watching the bromance develop this season. Can you share a bit about your relationship with the other guys?

Justin Glaze: Oh yes, but I don’t know where to start. But take Michael A., for example. He’s taught me no matter what life throws your way, no matter what you’re going through, to keep pushing forward. He’s experienced almost all that life has to offer, and so that’s invaluable to have as a close friend, to be able to bounce ideas off of and to kind of keep you grounded. We’ve all been able to lean on each other through tough times though. I’m super grateful for the house of guys that I had. 

UMBC Magazine: How did your time at UMBC prepare you for this experience?

Justin Glaze: At UMBC I learned about creating a strong social circle and staying true to myself, which were crucial elements of my time on the show. Being a student-athlete at UMBC, you’re all joined together through the unity of sports and the togetherness of cheering for each other, whatever team you’re on. 

Obviously UMBC’s a fantastic academic school and that, in my opinion, is what should come first and foremost, but you have to be involved in something. It really helps you to branch out and feel included and have that tight-knit feel, which I think helped me get through college. 

The other thing I felt strongly about on the show was something reinforced to me at UMBC: Stay true to yourself. Be comfortable with who you are. As long as you know who you are, you have a strong support system who knows who you are, that’s what’s most important. 

UMBC Magazine: How did you end up choosing UMBC?

Justin Glaze: UMBC is huge on inclusivity and diversity, and so it felt like a natural fit for me, but I did consider transferring because I was thinking about using my art skills to study architecture. But at a meet-and-greet my freshman year with Dr. Hrabowski, I thought, “You know what? Let me go shoot my shot and introduce myself.”

To no one’s surprise, he was super friendly—asked what my grades were like, what my major was, what I was interested in. I told him my thoughts about transferring, and he was like, “Okay, well, how about at the end of the semester, shoot me an email, we’ll set some time up, and we’ll figure something out.” I’m like, “There’s no way. I’m just a freshman, one of however many thousand.”

Long story short, I ended up meeting with him and to this day, he’s been probably one of my biggest mentors. He introduced me to the job I’m at now and took me under his wing for the remaining four years and beyond, and so he’s played a huge role in my experience.

UMBC Magazine: What’s your fondest memory with President Hrabowski?

Justin Glaze: Every time I met with him, he served me a big slice of humble pie. He gives me that tough love that I need, and that’s what I love about him. He shoots it straight and he sees the potential in me. He has this drive to always improve himself and be better, and that is something that really resonates with me. 

I have to say, it’s also pretty cool that I have a couple pieces of commissioned artwork I’ve done that he has hung up in his house.

UMBC Magazine: Wait, what? Tell us more.

Justin Glaze: I was definitely nervous, because for all my art clients, I want to give my best, but especially him—after all he’s done for me—I wanted to give my best work. I was very grateful that he had the trust in me to create some artwork for some special people in his family. So yeah, it was an honor.

UMBC Magazine: How have you been managing the return to normal life after you came back from the show?

Justin Glaze: I was a bit naïve as to what it would be like. I expected a little bit of it, but I didn’t expect the magnitude that it is. It’s still new to me how to navigate it. I’m the type of person, I’ll talk to anybody, so when people come up to me, gym, grocery store, out in public, I don’t want people to be nervous. I’m a normal, nice guy. I’ll talk to people, take pictures. It doesn’t bother me.

The biggest thing is just coming to grips with people’s expectations of you. It’s been tough trying to find that balance of staying true to who you are but also knowing that being true to who you are can be perceived in so many different ways. 

UMBC Magazine: If the season was in a post-COVID era and you were able to bring Katie [the eponymous bachelorette] to Baltimore for a hometown visit, what places or activities would you have done with her?

Justin Glaze: For the best view, I would have taken her to Federal Hill to overlook the harbor. I think that would have been a really nice place to chat and talk about home with that view. Katie is really into animals, so I would have taken her to the aquarium, maybe through the zoo. Definitely would have taught her how to pick crabs.

UMBC Magazine: If you had the chance to do it all over again, would you?

Justin Glaze: Without hesitation. The good, the bad. All of it. 100%. 

*****

Interview conducted by Tsai-Ann Yawching.

All photos courtesy of Corey Jennings ’10.

Every so often, we chat with a young alum about what they do and how they got there. Today, we’re talking with Stephen Ho ’14, business technology administration. Stephen, who played for UMBC’s Final Four soccer team as a student here, is now director of logistics and customer service at Hungry Harvest, a startup that recovers “ugly” produce from grocery stores and delivers it to subscribers weekly, donating food to the hungry for every box sold. Hungry Harvest gained national recognition after being featured on ABC’s Shark Tank earlier this year, and the company is now looking to expand from the Baltimore-Washington area into other locations on the East Coast.

Name: Stephen Ho

Job Title/Employer: Director of Logistics and Customer Service at Hungry Harvest, LLC

Major/Minor: Business Technology Administration

Grad Year: 2014

Describe your path to Hungry Harvest. How did you end up working there? After graduating from UMBC, I was not exactly sure what I wanted to do [besides] play soccer. Once that road had closed, I had a friend give me an opportunity at Hungry Harvest. I was not really sure what I was in for but enjoy working each day.

Talk me through a typical day at a startup like Hungry Harvest. A typical day at Hungry Harvest includes early mornings and late nights. We work at the Maryland Center of Entrepreneurship and are in the office from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on a daily basis and even later at times. While the workload is a lot, it is very necessary to keep growing the startup. With that being said, we have a very fun work environment and we enjoy working at the office with our small group of employees.

Your company was recently featured on Shark Tank. How has that changed things for your business? Since Shark Tank aired, we have doubled our deliveries and have hundreds of people on the waitlist from all over the country and world. We recently just expanded to Philadelphia as well.

How has your UMBC experience affected your career path? Which professors or classes stood out? While attending UMBC I had no idea I would end up in this position or role but nothing can take away from the experience and memories I had [here]. Playing soccer there is something I will never forget and I could say that my coaches and all my teachers stood out.

Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give an incoming UMBC student? Knowing what I know now, I would tell incoming UMBC students to take advantage of every day that they have there and to actually stay on campus on weekends. College will fly by and you’ll miss it once it’s all done with.

Tell us what you’ve been up to in a class note!

Every so often, we chat with a young alum about what they do and how they got there. Today, we’re talking with Stephen Ho ’14, business technology administration. Stephen, who played for UMBC’s Final Four soccer team as a student here, is now director of logistics and customer service at Hungry Harvest, a startup that recovers “ugly” produce from grocery stores and delivers it to subscribers weekly, donating food to the hungry for every box sold. Hungry Harvest gained national recognition after being featured on ABC’s Shark Tank earlier this year, and the company is now looking to expand from the Baltimore-Washington area into other locations on the East Coast.

Name: Stephen Ho

Job Title/Employer: Director of Logistics and Customer Service at Hungry Harvest, LLC

Major/Minor: Business Technology Administration

Grad Year: 2014

Describe your path to Hungry Harvest. How did you end up working there? After graduating from UMBC, I was not exactly sure what I wanted to do [besides] play soccer. Once that road had closed, I had a friend give me an opportunity at Hungry Harvest. I was not really sure what I was in for but enjoy working each day.

Talk me through a typical day at a startup like Hungry Harvest. A typical day at Hungry Harvest includes early mornings and late nights. We work at the Maryland Center of Entrepreneurship and are in the office from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on a daily basis and even later at times. While the workload is a lot, it is very necessary to keep growing the startup. With that being said, we have a very fun work environment and we enjoy working at the office with our small group of employees.

Your company was recently featured on Shark Tank. How has that changed things for your business? Since Shark Tank aired, we have doubled our deliveries and have hundreds of people on the waitlist from all over the country and world. We recently just expanded to Philadelphia as well.

How has your UMBC experience affected your career path? Which professors or classes stood out? While attending UMBC I had no idea I would end up in this position or role but nothing can take away from the experience and memories I had [here]. Playing soccer there is something I will never forget and I could say that my coaches and all my teachers stood out.

Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give an incoming UMBC student? Knowing what I know now, I would tell incoming UMBC students to take advantage of every day that they have there and to actually stay on campus on weekends. College will fly by and you’ll miss it once it’s all done with.

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