In the newly-released Chronicle of Higher Education report “Diverse Leadership for a New Era,” Valerie Sheares Ashby shares a powerful story of mentorship. Years ago, when Sheares Ashby was a professor of chemistry at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she came to UMBC for the first time to learn about the Meyerhoff Scholars Program. After meeting Sheares Ashby and seeing how others responded to her leadership, even in those early days, UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski turned to her and said, “You’re going to be a president.” 

It was the same prediction that Hrabowski’s predecessor, Michael K. Hooker, made to him years before. For Sheares Ashby it will become a reality on August 1 when she begins as UMBC’s next president. 

Positive impact

Like Hrabowski three decades before her, Sheares Ashby wasn’t sure what to make of the idea at first, but the comment inspired her to think in new ways about a leadership career. She loved teaching and says, to this day, “I am a teacher at heart.” But she also came to see how she could positively affect the lives of more students through university leadership.

As her career progressed, she assembled a team of mentors, including former UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp, who is now editor-in-chief of Science. Much of the new Chronicle report focuses on the essential role of mentors in supporting leaders, particularly from underrepresented groups. 

Advocacy and community

Beyond mentors, President Hrabowski notes in the report, are champions. “A champion will knock down doors for you,” he says. “When people tell you no, the champion will say, ‘We don’t accept no.’ When you want to quit, it takes a champion to say, ‘No, you won’t.’”

Effectively supporting the development of diverse leaders also takes the right community, Hrabowski notes. At UMBC, the diverse faculty members teaching the diverse students are led by a diverse administration, Hrabowski explains. “You put that team together and you see how they approach problems from very different perspectives,” he says, “and it makes for a very rich conversation.”

Through these rich conversations, universities can find the best ways to support their students, carry out high-impact research, and foster the ongoing growth of their community members—all essential elements of their mission.

The full report is available through The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The American Council on Education (ACE) announced today that UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III will serve as the inaugural ACE Centennial Fellow. Hrabowski will begin this role following his retirement as president of UMBC this summer. Through more than three decades of transformational leadership at UMBC, he has inspired thousands of students and grown UMBC into a national model for inclusive excellence and a leader in research.

“This is an amazing opportunity to continue focusing on student success and culture change,” says President Hrabowski, who will begin his ACE Centennial Fellowship on August 1. “I am looking forward to working closely with Ted Mitchell, other ACE colleagues, and educators from across the country as part of this effort to create and sustain nurturing academic environments on our campuses.”

Advocating for all students 

To guide his work as ACE’s first Centennial Fellow, President Hrabowski will draw from his results-driven commitment to inclusive excellence and his collaborative approach to leadership. He will focus on increasing opportunities for all students—particularly first-generation students, adult learners, and students from underrepresented groups—to access higher education and receive the support they need to earn their degrees.

This work directly builds on President Hrabowski’s leadership at UMBC, selected last year to join the University Innovation Alliance, a consortium of public research universities working to boost student success by sharing and scaling approaches that work. As ACE’s Centennial Fellow, he will carry forward this commitment to higher education access and success at a national level. 

Meanwhile, back at UMBC, the Freeman A. Hrabowski, III Endowment for Student Excellence will provide increased college access and affordability for incoming first-year students with financial need and a commitment to community service.

National leadership

Mitchell, president of ACE, says that Dr. Hrabowski will be instrumental in shaping the ACE Centennial Fellow position, as the first leader to hold this role. 

“There is no better-equipped person in American higher education than Freeman Hrabowski to find new and better ways for ACE and all of our institutions to best serve our students and the nation,” explains Mitchell. “We have invited him to promote the interests and needs of the entire higher education community and our students, especially those learners who are often forgotten or neglected.”

In addition to serving as ACE Centennial Fellow, Hrabowski will continue supporting the next generation of higher education leaders through teaching at the Harvard Seminar for New Presidents and mentoring current and future university presidents nationwide.

A membership organization for the leaders in higher education, ACE shapes public policy and promotes innovation. ACE represents more than 1,700 public and private two-year and four-year institutions across the United States.

Nearly 1,800 students walked across the stage at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena this week during UMBC’s 78th graduate and undergraduate commencement ceremonies. After pausing to receive their congratulatory elbow bumps from President Freeman Hrabowski and other leaders, they could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing their hard work and perseverance paid off. 

After another unprecedented year, many of the commencement speeches touched upon the resilience and drive of the Class of 2022. Their time at UMBC was marked by tradition and change, a new normal and questioning “what is normal?,” and a collective focus on supporting each other and having a positive impact.

Joel Tyson ‘18, chemical engineering, president of UMBC’s Graduate Student Association, addressed master’s and Ph.D. graduates saying, “I’ve seen you reach forward for help and for mentorship, looking ahead not just at a path of personal success, but a path in service of making the world a better place.” 

Encouraging graduates to build upon the lessons they learned at UMBC, honorary degree recipient Judge Ricardo Zwaig ‘77, Spanish, said, “Whatever your calling, the elevation of humanity should be your primary goal regardless of boundaries.”

A legacy of mentorship

This year, six Retriever alumni were awarded honorary degrees and served as distinguished speakers during the ceremonies. Now in their own established careers, they’ve continued the UMBC tradition of paying it forward as mentors. 

Kafui Dzirasa’01, M8, chemical engineering, mentioned what an impactful mentor President Hrabowski has been to him. “Every time I tripped and fell, when the world saturated me with adversity and tribulation, he would gently reach back his hand and pull me forward with a word of encouragement,” he recalled.

“As Doc’s grandmother would tell him, the higher you go, the more people will try to pull you down,” Dzirasa said. He went on to let the audience know with levity that that’s “the modern day translation of ‘haters gonna hate.’ And when they do, it’s the mentors that will be there to sustain you. They are a refuge in the midst of the storm.” 

The speakers promised to keep that legacy of support going amongst themselves, as well. In a tweet, Kaitlyn Sadtler’11, biological sciences, responded to a shout-out from fellow speaker Kizzmekia Corbett’08, M16, biological sciences and sociology, saying, “I credit you to being a huge reason why I’m on this list. Your email saying ‘Hey there’s another UMBC alum at NIH doing some COVID work’ was a catalyst. I’ll do my best to pay it forward.”

Combining potential with support

Corbett delivered her remarks by video, as she was at a meeting with Nobel Laureates at the time of commencement. She has often commented on the profound role President Hrabowski and other mentors have had on her life and career, and has carried that forward through mentoring emerging scientists.

Focusing on what people can achieve when they have support and a belief in themselves, she shared, “I hope you dare to dream so big that no one else can imagine the possibility. I hope that you take this degree and you make this world a better place. I hope for you scientists out there, that you take this degree and you cure cancer. I hope for you humanitarians that you stop world hunger. And I hope that you live and I hope that you love.” 

Co-valedictorian Shahreen Zannat ‘22, biological sciences, also spotlighted the greatness that students and communities can achieve with the right support. 

“Our journey at UMBC was not one we took alone—advisors came to our rescue during moments of panic, professors connected us with their networks for employment opportunities, and all of the support staff ensured our safety and well-being on campus,” said Zannat. “This support has helped shape leaders, resulting in international recognition of UMBC’s innovative research, creative teaching methods, and its cultural and ethnic diversity.”

Sadtler recognized that support can also come from unlikely places saying, “You will meet people that will bring out the best and worst in you. Learn from both because if you don’t get lost, you will never find your way.”

The importance of you

While many speakers touched on the idea of mutual support and “paying it forward,” others recognized the need to couple that with taking care of oneself.

Co-valedictorian Viola Lis ‘21, psychology, reminded her classmates that, “To make a difference once we leave UMBC, we have to be doing the things that bring us joy, the things we find fulfilling and meaningful. Otherwise, our imprint will be faint. In order to show up for others, you have to show up for yourself first.”

Echoing these statements, honorary degree recipient Mark Doms’86, economics and mathematics, admitted that the road would be hard for graduates, but implored them to listen to themselves and their abilities.

“You will hit roadblocks, setbacks will blindside you,” he said. “But please, don’t surrender to self-doubt. Instead, persevere. You are extremely gifted and, please, don’t deprive us of your gifts.”

Tiffany Holmes, M.F.A. ’99, imaging and digital arts,was once a student who thought she had her life figured out. But as she shared in her address, the “key message to you today is to have a plan that is endlessly adaptable. Work hard at something that brings you joy, and your path will lead you somewhere fascinating that is just right for you.”

The places you will go

The ceremonies were bittersweet—an important moment of transition for both the graduates and President Hrabowski. 

“In many ways, today we’re really celebrating two commencements: all of you, most of you, who graduated in four years. And then the second commencement is my buddy Freeman. Now, it took him 31 years to finish his work,” joked Mike Gill from the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. 

Gill went on to share the news of a significant new way in which Hrabowski’s legacy would be carried forward: the $1.5 billion Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program just launched by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Today, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) launched the Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program to help build a scientific workforce that more fully reflects our increasingly diverse country. The $1.5 billion program honors UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III for his decades of leadership in growing and diversifying the pipeline of Ph.D.-level researchers, most prominently through UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program. 

Alumni leading the way

UMBC is now the nation’s #1 producer of Black bachelor’s degree recipients who go on to earn a Ph.D. in the natural sciences and engineering, and this program builds on that legacy.

Meyerhoff Scholars alumni have earned 385 Ph.D.s, 155 medical degrees, and more than 300 master’s degrees (as of April 2022). More than 370 additional Meyerhoff alumni are currently enrolled in graduate and professional school. Students who became Meyerhoff Scholars are more than five times more likely to have completed or be currently enrolled in a STEM Ph.D. program than students who were accepted to the program but declined. Several universities across the country, including Penn State and UNC Chapel Hill, have successfully replicated the program, with support from HHMI and others.

Meyerhoff alumni include such rising stars as Kafui Dzirasa ’01, M8, chemical engineering, associate professor at Duke and an HHMI Investigator, and Kizzmekia Corbett ‘08, M16, biological sciences and sociology, lead of the NIH team that developed the technology for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, and now assistant professor at Harvard. 

Kizzmekia Corbett visited campus in 2021 for an interview with CNN. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

As it has gained momentum, the Meyerhoff program has had an important ripple effect. Many Meyerhoff alumni today are cultivating diverse, inclusive research groups of their own, where they support undergraduate and graduate students on their way to careers in STEM. 

HHMI has designed the new Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program to ensure that early career faculty have resources and support to become both leaders in their research fields and effective leaders and mentors of trainees from racial and ethnic backgrounds currently underrepresented in U.S. science. These are just the sort of researchers who may have come up through a Meyerhoff alumni-led laboratory, and will now be in a strong position to build their own research groups.

Kafui Dzirasa presents at UMBC’s GRIT-X talks in 2017. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

Changing the face of science 

With the Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program, HHMI expects to hire and support up to 150 early career faculty over the next 20 years. The program will select 30 Scholars every other year for the next decade. Each Scholar will be appointed to a five-year term, renewable once with evaluation. Scholars will receive up to $8.6 million over 10 years, including full salary, benefits, a research budget, and scientific equipment. 

In addition, Scholars will participate in professional development to advance their leadership and mentorship skills. They’ll also be included in HHMI’s community of scientists, educators, and students for scientific meetings, networking, and other opportunities.

“For academic science to thrive in an increasingly diverse world, we need to attract and support scientists from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds,” says HHMI President Erin O’Shea. “Early career faculty play a key role because they are the leaders of tomorrow. We’re excited to support talented early career scientists dedicated to a model of excellence in science that combines innovative scientific research and intentional, inclusive development of postdocs, students, and other lab members.”

It’s especially meaningful that HHMI, the largest private funder of biomedical research in the nation, has taken up this effort. President Hrabowski was moved to learn that HHMI wanted to name their latest and biggest endeavor to diversify the scientific workforce in honor of his decades of service. 

“We should all be encouraged by HHMI’s commitment to changing the face of science in America,” Hrabowski says. “This initiative shows what is possible when an institution is guided by its values and by evidence of what works. I am deeply honored to be connected with HHMI and with this new program.”

To learn more, see additional coverage from HHMI and in The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Science, WYPR, Inside Higher Ed, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

By: Susan Thornton Hobby     Illustrations by: Marissa Clayton ’21

At the start of second grade, Freeman Hrabowski’s textbook, wrapped neatly in brown paper, arrived on his desk. His teacher warned the class to keep the book covers in place. But little Freeman was always curious. He peeled off a strip of paper, then another scrap, and another, until he could see the battered cover and a stamp inside, showing that the book had been used by children in the White school nearby.

Freeman marched up to his teacher’s desk. “Why’d they give us their hand-me-down books?” he asked. His teacher’s face, Hrabowski remembered, showed both embarrassment and anger.

“What do you tell a child who’s been told by the world that the child is second class?” Hrabowski recalled. 

“She said, ‘You just remember this: You are a child of God. You are first class. The book may not be new, but the knowledge is worth getting. Just get the knowledge and you will be okay.’ So that wonderful teacher was telling me to believe in myself.”

While the hand-me-down books outraged Hrabowski, his teacher’s advice was treasured and passed along to those he has mentored: Believe in yourself. Hrabowski’s legacy is defined by mentoring, both by the parents and educators who guided him and by his hundreds of mentees. Hrabowski’s mentees are legion, whether they arrive from UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, or as the student body president, or just students he’s met on his walks around campus who then ask for his guidance.

It’s simple math. Hrabowski mentors hundreds. Those hundreds mentor thousands. Those thousands mentor hundreds of thousands. The result is Hrabowski’s exponential equation of change.

During the pandemic, Kafui Dzirasa ’01, M8, chemical engineering, texted Hrabowski, the mentor he calls Doc. “I said, ‘Your mentees are literally leading the coronavirus response, one as the U.S. surgeon general [Jerome Adams ’97, M4, biochemistry & molecular biology and psychology]. And the other one’s making a vaccine [Kizzmekia Corbett ’08, M16, biological sciences and sociology]. Your mentoring is literally going to save millions of lives. The end. That’s mentoring.’”

A Nickel and The Hard Truth 

Hrabowski’s first mentors were his parents, a college-educated pair of teachers who supported and challenged him. “From my daddy, my father, I learned the importance of remaining calm in challenging times and giving yourself the time to think through the best approach to use in attacking a problem,” Hrabowski said. “From my mother, the importance of connecting right and left brain thinking… In both cases, they were teaching me how to learn, and think, and approach the world.”

By the time he reached high school, Hrabowski was always the one who tried to solve the math problems his principal would write on the chalkboard. He would bring his solutions to the principal’s office and earn a nickel to spend on Tootsie Rolls if they were right. If his equations weren’t correct, his principal would chastise him for carelessness. Both the nickels and the hard truths stuck with him, Hrabowski said, and he uses that tough love to mentor others.    

“I’m first working with my mentees to build trust so that the mentee knows I care deeply,” Hrabowski said. “Then if I say something that is not comfortable, or something that maybe she doesn’t want to hear, I’m saying it out of love. I’m, perhaps, saying what others are thinking and won’t say. And I believe that effective mentors want to help students and their mentees to develop tough skin, to want to get constructive and honest feedback, because we can all improve.”

Kate Tracy, M.A. ’01, Ph.D. ’03, psychology, shadowed Hrabowski and was mentored by him as an American Council on Education Fellow. Hrabowski introduced her, connected her, and guided her for the 2019 to 2020 academic year. Never before, she laughed, had she given out a complete box of 500 business cards. 

“As a mentor, Freeman is continuously available…he has an amazing amount of energy and he has an incredibly generous heart,” said Tracy, who serves as a professor in the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and advises the University System of Maryland on COVID-19.

Hrabowski can offer hard truths, she said, because he demonstrates how deeply he cares. He often quotes Emily Dickinson: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” He recently gave her a “truth bomb,” Tracy said, and she thought, “he’s saying this for my own good, and if he’s willing to say it, I need to hear it.”

She was touched, Tracy said, when later in the day Hrabowski texted her, telling her how proud he was of her, and how hard it must have been to hear what he had to say.

“When you build a trusting relationship and you put relationships at the center of it, people can hear the hard truth because they know you’re doing it for their greatest good and because you believe in them,” Tracy said.

Chelsea Pinnix ’99, M7, biochemistry and molecular biology, said she learned the primacy of honesty from Hrabowski.

“It’s important to be vulnerable to your mentee,” said Pinnix, who is now the residency program director and associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Anderson Cancer Center. “Being honest about the mistakes you’ve made, about things that you wish you’d done differently. They are learning from your mistakes, but they’re also recognizing that you have these vulnerabilities and that you make mistakes. So then it’s okay for them to make mistakes, too.”

Telling Yourself a Story

Hrabowski’s early life bolstered his eager mind. When young Hrabowski received straight A’s, the entire congregation of his Birmingham church would rise for a 4.0 standing ovation. Starting at age 15, Hrabowski followed the advice of a mentor and started greeting himself in the mirror as “Dr. Hrabowski.”

At monthly family meetings for the Meyerhoff Scholars, Hrabowski instituted both ovations for good grades and the advice to address yourself in the mirror as your goal self. Have high expectations, Hrabowski said, and students will rise to them.

Dzirasa, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University who was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine, thought the mirror exercise was “weird,” he said, laughing. “And yet, we did it. It wasn’t until I became a psychiatrist that I was like, wow, there’s an incredible power to self-reinforcement. Despite all the adversity that comes later, if you tell yourself a story, you will believe it.”

The Meyerhoff story began when Robert Embry, former Baltimore City councilman and longtime president of the Abell Foundation, which works to improve the quality of life in Baltimore, met Hrabowski as a young dean at Coppin State College. Embry was impressed by Hrabowski’s intellect, energy, and high expectations.

Embry eventually connected Hrabowski with philanthropist Robert Meyerhoff, who wanted to help Black science scholars. The Meyerhoff Scholars Program emerged. Years later, Hrabowski recruited Embry to join the board at UMBC.

“It didn’t take much,” Embry said. “Anything I could do to help him and to be identified with him and his success.”

The Meyerhoff Scholars Program, with its nationally recognized success in increasing diversity in the sciences, is one of the places Hrabowski practices what he preaches about mentorship.  

In the Meyerhoff Program, Pinnix learned Hrabowski’s “superpower,” she said. “He has this profound ability to inspire. And he’s able to convince people of the things that they can accomplish before they even recognize that they can.”

“Focus, focus, focus,” Annica Wayman’99, M6, mechanical engineering, remembers Hrabowski often saying to Meyerhoff Scholars. Offered a Meyerhoff Scholarship on the spot after she introduced Hrabowski at her high school, Wayman later earned her doctorate at Georgia Tech. She worked for nearly a decade at USAID before returning to UMBC in 2018 as the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences’ associate dean for Shady Grove affairs. As she leads programs like the Translational Life Science Technology bachelor’s degree, Wayman now mentors students herself, offering them support and hard truth, and telling them to focus, focus, focus.

Master the Self

In 1987, Michael Hooker, then the president of UMBC, recruited Hrabowski to the campus and became his mentor. Hrabowski said he learned a piece of wisdom from Hooker: “The hardest task any human being has is to master self.”

Many mentees need to hear that message, Hrabowski said.

Dzirasa, now a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a neuroscientist researching how genetics interact with environmental stress to affect the brain’s functioning, recalled when he was at his lowest.

After breezing through undergrad as an engineer at UMBC, he arrived at Duke Medical School thinking he didn’t need to memorize things. Or study. He began to fail classes. Then someone stole his identity and charged $40,000 to his credit. He went to see an advisor, who told him he wasn’t used to being a small fish in a big pond. 

Feeling restless and despondent, Dzirasa started driving. He hit the Virginia state line. Then Maryland’s. Dzirasa ended up on Hrabowski’s porch, weeping and ready to drop out of medical school. Hrabowski comforted him, told him whatever choice he made would be okay. But maybe, Dzirasa recalls Doc telling him, he could drive back to Duke and try one more time.

A good mentor, Dzirasa said, dusts you off and urges you to persist, then keeps after you. Hrabowski, Dzirasa said with a laugh, loves to commend him, but then say, “you know…” and proceed to critique a portion of his performance.

Now Dzirasa returns to UMBC once a month as part of his appointment at Duke, to mentor students and to recruit Meyerhoff Scholars for his research lab.

“I basically give those kids all of myself, and in a hoodie and sweatpants,” Dzirasa said. “I look exactly like them, I talk exactly like them, I sat in exactly their chair, and I was probably more trouble than they are. It makes people’s dreams so tangible.”

Touching Eternity

Hrabowski remembers what Walter Sondheim, the Baltimore businessman and public servant, used to tell him: “Live life seriously, but don’t take it seriously.”

He thinks of that advice often. “His point was, it’s never quite as bad as you think it is, and don’t ever think you’re quite as important as people want to make you seem.… The human experience is that we leave, and others replace us, and if we’re lucky, we are connected to those people.”

Connections are vital to Hrabowski, and he still mentors current students. Sometimes though, students end up teaching the president.

Landry Digeon, M.A. ’09, intercultural communications, Ph.D. ’20, language, literacy, and culture, remembers meeting Hrabowski at the campus television studio, where he worked on videos Hrabowski was taping. The president wanted to learn Digeon’s native French. “Push me,” he told Digeon three times, before Digeon decided to take him up on it in 2014.

Ever since, Hrabowski has studied French with Digeon, who admires Hrabowski’s humility to be tutored by a student. They speak in French nearly every day, about poetry and culture, sometimes arguing about the different countries’ values.

“I learn more from him than he has learned from me,” Digeon said. “When he has a goal, he doesn’t let go. And I learn by watching how to treat people—you can be a great man, a  renowned man, and be kind. And I’ve changed Freeman’s mind occasionally. I want to be like that—open-minded.”

When Hrabowski turns in his homework, usually late at night, the president ends his emails with, “Bonne nuit, mon professeur.”

The perfect conjugation of French verbs and his connections to scientists and leaders around the world aren’t the only benefits mentorship offers Hrabowski.

“There’s a great gratification when you see people evolving, and developing, and doing well, and seeing how they overcome challenges. It inspires me to want to be better,” Hrabowski said.

Wayman believes inspiring mentorship is the first element in the equation of change.

“Saving the world is first transforming the thinking of people, to think critically, to be more open-minded,” Wayman said.

 Hrabowski, who still receives notes from people his mother taught 70 years ago, often remembers what his mother said in her dying days: “Teachers touch eternity through their students.”   

“Those of us in education, we live through our students,” Hrabowski said. “We live through the people we help because we are paying it forward. We live through them and their actions.”

Read more about Jackie Hrabowski’s approach to mentorship in Because She Can.

Today, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced the election of UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III as a member. This prestigious honor recognizes Pres. Hrabowski’s leadership in higher education—serving as president of UMBC for three decades and working to increase diversity in STEM fields, including engineering, at a national level.

President Hrabowski joins more than 2,000 leaders in engineering who have been previously elected as NAE members, including top researchers, practitioners, and educators from both the U.S. and international community. 

Membership to NAE is one of the highest honors granted within the field of engineering. The NAE describes individuals elected for membership as having made “outstanding contributions” to engineering research or practice. Members also make significant contributions to engineering literature, new and developing fields of technology, and innovative approaches to engineering education.

“It is a tremendous honor to be elected to membership of the National Academy of Engineering,” says President Hrabowski, who will retire at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year. “This recognition highlights UMBC’s distinctive approach to engineering education. It also honors the remarkable students, faculty, and staff at UMBC who are committed to increasing diversity in engineering and STEM disciplines more broadly.”

A career of leadership and innovation

“I can think of no one more deserving of this honor than President Hrabowski,” said University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay A. Perman. “Over 30 years of leadership at UMBC, he’s revolutionized engineering education—how we open access to engineering education, how we ensure equity and excellence, how we nurture students’ success.”

Keith J Bowman, dean of UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology, says that Pres. Hrabowski’s election as a member of NAE highlights the important contributions of academic leaders in the field of engineering. 

“This is simply awesome,” Bowman shares. “President Hrabowski’s election to the NAE recognizes one of the foremost figures in our country working to advance equity and inclusion in who does engineering research, who leads engineering academia, and the social responsibility inherent to our engineering fields.”

Pathways to increase diversity in STEM

Pres. Hrabowski has held many high-profile, high-impact roles, including leading President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans in 2012. Under his leadership, UMBC has become the nation’s #1 producer of Black undergraduates who go on to complete  Ph.D.s in the natural sciences and engineering.

An important driver of this success is UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which works to increase the diversity of STEM leaders by providing students from underrepresented groups with paths to academic research. Institutions across the country, from Penn State to UC Berkeley, have developed programs based on the Meyerhoff model.

“It is a pleasure to welcome President Freeman Hrabowski as a fellow member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering,” says Darryll J. Pines, president of the University of Maryland, College Park, and an aerospace engineer. “His contributions to creating a diverse STEM pipeline are unmatched.”

The newly elected member class will be formally inducted during the National Academy of Engineering’s annual meeting in October 2022.

Banner image: Dr. Hrabowski, right, with two K-12 students during an on-campus event organized within UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology in 2016. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

“I feel like I’ve waited a very long time to say this, but…welcome home.” 

Speaking at UMBC’s annual Fall Opening Meeting, Provost Philip Rous acknowledged the gravity of the moment—the first time faculty, staff, students, and friends gathered in person in over a year. Marking the official opening of the 2021-2022 academic year, campus leaders shared meaningful milestones with the community, joining from the renovated Retriever Activity Center and online. 

UMBC is on pace to welcome nearly 2,100 new first-year students, making this the largest incoming fall class in UMBC’s history. 

First-year student Ashley Gomez chose UMBC because, she says, it “allows me to be a full-time student, still work, be with my family, be a dancer, and accomplish all that I’ve dreamed of doing. UMBC allows me to make my family proud.” 

With nearly 1,000 transfer students and additional international undergraduates and graduate students enrolled, almost 4,000 total new students will join Retriever Nation this fall. Plus, more than 100 students will return to UMBC as part of the Finish Line program to complete their degrees, some more than 10 years after their academic journey began. 

Like most universities, UMBC elected to make standardized tests optional for applicants in 2021. With this in mind, the average SAT for the incoming first-year class is an impressive 1297 for those who submitted scores. 

A welcoming atmosphere for all

This year’s international student population is also looking at a record year for enrollment. 

“In spite of the unprecedented challenges posed by a global pandemic, students from around the world continue to persevere in order to begin their studies at UMBC,” says David Di Maria, senior international officer and associate vice provost for international education. “This not only speaks to the high value placed on a UMBC education, but it is also a notable demonstration of true grit.”

University rankings reflect UMBC’s success in building an international reputation for excellence and impact. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) included UMBC among the top 3.7% of universities on its global 2021-22 list. U.S. News and World Report also considers UMBC a leader on the global stage, included in their 2021 Best Global Universities list. 

“We are excited to welcome such a remarkable cohort of the world’s best and brightest to our UMBC community this semester,” says Adam Julian, director of international student and scholar services. “These students have demonstrated many incredible skills and qualities as they overcame the challenges and obstacles of the global pandemic.”

UMBC’s commitment to fostering a collaborative classroom environment is what drew many international students to the campus. Nigerian student Praise Lasekan ’25, biological sciences, can’t wait to study in an environment where students are encouraged to actively dialogue with faculty and each other.

“I was excited to learn that I can ask my professors questions at UMBC,” says Lasekan. “I’m here to learn as much as possible and want to work with professors, students, and anyone I can learn something from.”

Recognizing leadership

UMBC’s growing national and international stature is also visible among higher ed professionals. Dale Bittinger ’16, M.P.P., assistant vice provost of undergraduate admissions, orientation, and school partnerships, has for years worked closely with Common App, a national non-profit focused on college admissions. He recently became Chair-Elect of the Common App Board of Directors, and his leadership marks an important first.

“This is the first time in the Common App’s history that the position is held by someone from a public university,” says Bittinger. “I think this selection speaks to UMBC being a leader on the national stage and I look forward to representing us, as well as all other public institutions, in this capacity.”

Welcome home, Retrievers

One of the traditions new students enjoy the most is the host of UMBC Welcome Week activities. With limited students living on campus last fall, most events were held virtually. This year, UMBC is offering a hybrid schedule of Welcome Week events for both first-year students and sophomores (most of whom are now on campus for the first time) to ensure everyone gets the full experience.

This past weekend, both cohorts had dedicated move-in days, complete with their own activities. 

“The world has changed and we know COVID is part of that world. Planning student events now means taking into account more detailed health and safety requirements, as well as knowing what will make for a fun student experience,” says Jen Dress, associate director of campus life. “We’ve been looking forward to renewed energy and presence on campus and being able to continue many of our traditions.”

After unpacking their boxes and hanging their Retriever gear in their closets, new students had a chance to enjoy Retriever Fest. They made their way to Erickson Field to learn more about campus offerings, meet friends, and snag some UMBC swag. They also had the opportunity to check out the newly upgraded Retriever Activity Center (RAC). 

Exploring campus

While the doors were closed to the public last year, there was a dedicated team working inside to completely overhaul the RAC. With a budget of $28 million, approximately 77% of the building was renovated. Updates include doubling the weight training space, with seven tons of free weights and plates; quadrupling the cardio space, with 95 pieces of cardio equipment; adding a new cycle studio; and locker room renovations. 

“The newly-renovated RAC will help transform the UMBC campus. The RAC will engage students, faculty, and staff while providing far more programs and activities with a focus on fitness and wellness,” says Gary Wohlstetter, senior associate athletic director. “It will have an immediate positive impact on our current users and will be a great asset to attract new Retrievers who will be able to see the priority we place on health, wellness, and community-building.”

New Retrievers also had the opportunity to spend time in UMBC’s Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena during Convocation, the official start to the new semester. Mehrshad Fahim Devin ‘22, physics, president of UMBC’s Student Government Association, shared in personal remarks to the crowd that he had difficulty adjusting to UMBC when he first arrived, but felt compelled to see it through.

“I stayed because of a phenomenon which I like to call the ‘UMBC butterfly effect,’” he said. “I’m sure you’re all familiar with the theory that a small change could lead to a larger and more significant difference. That theory is very prevalent at UMBC and you will all experience it before the end of this year.”

For Devin, that moment was attending a meeting, a few months into his freshman year, where he realized that at UMBC, students are encouraged to co-create the campus community, in partnership with faculty and staff.

An historic year

The start of this academic year is also unique in that it marks an important transition in university history. After 30 years as president, Freeman Hrabowski announced he will retire at the close of the 2021-2022 academic year. The University System of Maryland will conduct a national search to find UMBC’s next president. Until then, Hrabowski is making the most of every campus event this year. 

Onlookers noticed Hrabowski with phone in hand during the Fall Opening Meeting, as he filmed the audience for what would be his last State of the University address. Looking at the crowd of colleagues, Hrabowski reflected on his tenure at UMBC saying, “This is the house that love has built. We show the world that we can transform lives through education.”

Featured Image: “Welcome home, Retriever Nation” signs lining a walkway with students in the background. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

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.

As a trifecta of crises upended life in 2020, the need for a diverse scientific and medical community grew ever more clear. George Floyd’s murder elicited worldwide protests against racial injustice. COVID-19 affected all of our lives and had an outsize impact on Black and brown communities. And COVID-19’s economic fallout only exacerbated extreme wealth inequality. 

At the same time, while some Black and brown people were reluctant to take the vaccine because of a negative history with the medical establishment, there was no one better than Kizzmekia Corbett ’08, M16, biological sciences and sociology, to reach out to “vaccine inquisitive” folks, as she describes them. Corbett rose to fame in 2020 as the lead of the NIH team developing the Moderna vaccine and as the first Black woman in the world to create a vaccine.

Kizzmekia Corbett, who led the team that developed the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, talks to CNN in UMBC’s Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building in April 2021. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Representation matters

It is in this context that UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and Peter Henderson, senior advisor to the president, published their latest article in Issues in Science and Technology, “Nothing succeeds like success,” which addresses the persistent and urgent need to diversify the group of professionals in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine).  

“When we have greater diversity of representation, we also have greater diversity of information, knowledge, lived experience, and perspectives—each of which enhances discovery and innovation,” Hrabowski and Henderson write. “When the science and engineering community looks like the United States, we find greater trust in and support for that community across groups in the population.”

The Meyerhoff Scholars Program at UMBC, and its more than a dozen replications elsewhere, have made great strides in supporting the success of underrepresented students in STEMM. Hrabowski and Henderson argue that the U.S. should frame the need for a diverse scientific workforce as a national priority and invest in it accordingly. Programs like the Meyerhoff Scholars that have proven their ability to move the needle, they write, should be short-listed for that investment, because “nothing succeeds like success.”

Impressive outcomes

“According to NSF data, UMBC is the number one baccalaureate institution for African American undergraduates who go on to earn Ph.D.s in the natural sciences and engineering, as well as doctorates in the life sciences, mathematics, and computer science,” Hrabowski and Henderson report. And, “according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, UMBC is the number one baccalaureate institution for African American undergraduates who go on to earn M.D./Ph.D.s.”

At the same time, “Over the past 30 years, our six-year completion rate [at UMBC for all students] has doubled, and the gap in completion rates between white and Black students has disappeared,” they write.

At UMBC, more than 1,400 undergraduate Meyerhoff Scholars, all of whom are committed to diversity in STEMM, have earned their undergraduate degrees. More than 800 of those have earned advanced degrees, and 300 more are currently completing graduate programs at top institutions across the country.

A role model

And yet, this powerful example of progress exists in a nation that has seen minimal growth, and, in some fields, a backslide in minority participation in STEMM in the last decade, Hrabowski and Henderson explain. But programs like Meyerhoff have shown that big change is possible, and how to make it happen.

For example, for over 30 years the program has offered academic, social, and financial support. UMBC instructors have also invested time in completing significant course redesigns that shift the focus from “weeding out” to promoting success, and end up helping all students. More recently, an increased focus on faculty diversity has taken shape and begun to have an impact. Those efforts have led to impressive outcomes and a profound culture shift.

The Meyerhoff Scholars program has inspired several other student success initiatives at UMBC that offer various forms of support for students, including a cohort model that enhances a sense of belonging. For example, STEM BUILD is an NIH-funded program designed to help diversify the biomedical sciences. Programs in other fields, such as the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars and the Linehan Artist Scholars, also follow some of the same principles. 

Other institutions have taken note. Programs at Pennsylvania State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have replicated the principles of the Meyerhoff Scholars with great success. UC San Diego and UC Berkeley have begun their own replication efforts. And programs at other institutions with similar principles, such as University of Florida and the historically Black Howard University, have also seen dramatic change in their graduation rates for underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Investing in the future

In early 2021, a group of scientists wrote in Sciencerecommending the formation of a new National Science and Engineering Diversity Initiative (NSEDI). They suggested NSEDI should allocate $10 billion per year for several years to improve diversity in science. “These and any other funds that target increasing diversity should be allocated judiciously,” Hrabowski and Henderson argue. “Financial resources should flow to institutions that most successfully contribute to greater diversity—regardless of institutional type.”

In the end, “producing scientists is about more than increasing the numbers. It is about changing attitudes and transforming the lives of people,” Hrabowski and Henderson write. “It is about showing our society what is possible when we invest in the talent of all our youth.”

As the pandemic, widening economic inequality, and rising demands for racial justice demonstrate, there is still much work to be done. “The message is clear,” Hrabowski and Henderson declare. “Investing in young people, replicating best practices of effective programs, and committing substantially more money to support Black and minority scientists can indeed move the needle and also tackle fundamental scientific and public health problems for humankind.”

Banner image: Scores of Meyerhoff Scholar alumni and current students with President Hrabowski (seated front, left) and Robert Meyerhoff (seated front, right). Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Learn more about the Meyerhoff Scholars Program Ripple Effect.

Dana Bradley, dean of UMBC’s Erickson School of Aging Studies, has presented President Freeman Hrabowski with a prominent honor from the nation’s preeminent organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. 

Bradley is incoming chair of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). The 2020 Administrative Leadership Honor award she presented to Hrabowski is granted through the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE), a section of the GSA. The award recognizes twenty leaders in the field of gerontology across the United States, British Columbia, and Japan. Their outstanding work represents milestones in the history and development of gerontology. 

“The award is about helping an international audience understand the impact that our scientific researchers and educators have in the field of aging,” shares Bradley.

She nominated Hrabowski for the award in collaboration with John Schumacher, associate professor of sociology, anthropology, and public health (SAHP), and Leslie Morgan, professor emerita of SAPH. Schumacher is the graduate program director of the gerontology Ph.D. program. The program is jointly offered by UMBC and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). It is complementary to the Erickson School’s bachelor’s and master’s degrees and certificate programs.

(L to R) Dana Bradley, Amy Berman,John Schumacher, and Nicole Brandt, executive director of the Lamy Center at UMB.

National leadership in aging studies

Bradley’s work in the gerontology community has created avenues and networks for scientists, educators, and students to investigate, advocate, research, and innovate in the fields of aging and longevity. This, in turn, has had a positive impact on housing, health services, community wellbeing, communication, and lifelong learning for older adults.

Bradley is a former GSA and AGHE fellow. She has long served as an elected leader within the GSA and Southern Gerontological Society. She was drawn to become dean of UMBC’s Erickson School in 2018 because of its focus “on leading and being on the edge through engaged scholarship with endless possibilities.” Hrabowski, she says, has cultivated and supported the Erickson School’s leadership in the field.

Over the last three years, Bradley has collaborated with Hrabowski, faculty, campus, and community partners to broaden and diversify UMBC’s aging services research. Last year she and Hrabowski served on a steering committee that built a partnership between UMBC and UMB to become Maryland’s first “age-friendly” universities.

They joined fifty-eight institutions worldwide that make up the Age-Friendly University Global Network, led by Dublin City University in Ireland. The “age-friendly” designation is a commitment to innovate advances in gerontology, health research, and community initiatives to support older adults in higher education.

A model for teaching, learning, and research

“Dr. Hrabowski has been at the forefront of creating and promoting a vision of how we think and talk about aging and longevity,” shares Bradley. And the inclusive, forward-looking vision that he and the Erickson School emphasize has had notable impacts, including on the student experience.

At the same time, Hrabowski shares that he sees his AGHE honor as “a reflection of the Erickson School’s innovative approach to teaching, learning, and research. I’m so proud of the work being done at the school. It has had great success preparing alumni who are now leaders in the field of aging.”

Erickson School alumni likeLauren Mortimer ‘19, and Malgorzata Bondyra ‘20, management of aging services, exemplify the innovation that UMBC fosters in their work to reach older adults in creative ways. Mortimer designed a comfort book. It provides tools for people with dementia to soothe themselves during periods of confusion and irritability. Bondyra’s internship experience in senior housing inspired her to create a virtual cooking class for the older members of her Polish community senior center.

The Erickson School has become a place where students equip themselves with the skills and knowledge to address issues in longevity care inclusively and holistically, and it continues to grow. The school is now developing a certificate in inclusion and diversity in aging services. Says Bradley, “Dr. Hrabowski inspires me to continue to envision possibilities for what the future of aging services can look like.”

Banner image: UMBC and UMB Age-Friendly University steering committee. All images by Matthew D’agostino for UMB.