This summer, four UMBC students are getting hands-on experience contributing to efforts to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River, which collapsed in March 2024 after a cargo ship collided with one of its supports. This is the second year in a row that the Maryland Transportation Authority has partnered with the Maryland Higher Education Commission to run the program.

Last year, three out of nine students in the program hailed from UMBC. This year, four out of the 10 interns are Retrievers. Mechanical engineering students Bilal Faizullah and Katelyn Prasad and geography and environmental systems students James Keller and Megan (Em) Schumacher ’26 will get the opportunity to learn about topics such as project management, environmental analysis, construction oversight, and community outreach. They will also get the chance to be a part of an iconic infrastructure project for Maryland, an experience that last year’s student interns found particularly meaningful. 

“The Key Bridge Internship Program represents the very best of career-connected learning by giving students the opportunity to contribute to a project that will have a lasting impact on Maryland,” says Christine Routzahn, director of UMBC’s Career Center. “We’re incredibly proud that four UMBC students were selected for this prestigious program. Their selection reflects not only their talent and dedication, but also the strength of the partnerships that make opportunities like this possible. We are grateful to the Maryland Transportation Authority, Maryland Higher Education Commission, and its partners for investing in our students and in the state’s future workforce.”

Anyone trying to soothe a fussy toddler has their work cut out for them under normal circumstances. Add 379 feet of earth above your head and about 30 other tourists to the equation and you’ve got a potential disaster on your hands. But for Jeff Garcia, an interpretive park ranger at Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota, it’s just another day on the job. At any point into his hour and thirty minute below ground scenic tour of one of the world’s longest caves, Garcia might need to interrupt his historical and geological discourse (and steady stream of jokes) to address questions, the restroom needs of his party, or someone faced with a sudden bout of claustrophobia. The wonders of the cave make all the accompanying human foibles an afterthought for Garcia, who prior to his two summers at Jewel Cave had never been below the surface before.

Tools of the Trade:
Flashlight
Minimal fears when it comes to the dark or enclosed spaces
A love of history and geology
Convenience baggies (you don’t want to know)
Backup flashlight

Step 1: Know your audience

Garcia didn’t anticipate spending multiple summers guiding people underground in the most complete darkness he’d ever seen, but he took to it quickly. Born and raised in Montgomery County, Maryland, Garcia anticipated he’d do an internship for his historical studies master’s program at UMBC somewhere close by—the nation’s capital, for example. But when he applied to the Latino Heritage Internship Program and they asked if he’d be open to going to South Dakota, he took the plunge. “I just wanted the opportunity to work with the public and teach history,” says Garcia, who knows from experience that learning history in the classroom is not nearly as effective as learning it on-site. “When people go to museums, when they go to archives, when they go to parks, they really absorb the knowledge,” he says.

All sorts of people come to ooh and aah over the nailhead spar and dogtooth spar calcite crystals, the so-called jewels of Jewel Cave. At the beginning of his tour, Garcia assesses his group of tourists by warming them up with a history lesson and throwing in some jokes to see how they respond—that gives him a bellwether to know how the next 90 minutes will go. “You have to be mindful of the audience,” says Garcia. “I realized early on that seniors really like the dad jokes. So you kind of lean into those a bit more. When you have a lot of kids, they’re really just going to absorb it. So I’d get out the black light or a UV light onto some of the formations and it looks really cool—purple or greenish. So the kids are just going, ‘Whoa.’” 

Step 2: Leave no trace

As Garcia often reminds his tour groups: In the caves, there are no cell service, food, or bathrooms, so take care of what you need before heading underground. But the persistent drip-drop sound of water—indeed the very substance that influences the formations of stalactites, stalagmites, boxwork, cave popcorn, flowstone, draperies, and a long ribbon drapery called the cave bacon—occasionally reminds visitors to heed the call of nature themselves. What then?

Garcia removes from his ever-present Ranger-issued fanny pack an innocuously named “convenience baggie.” Visitors then thank their unseeable lucky stars for the blackout conditions to ease their human needs. It then becomes their responsibility to tote their convenient baggie along until the lone trash can appears in the middle of the tour. 

Step: 3 Avoid the low points

Originally when Frank and Albert Michaud filed a mining claim for “Jewel Tunnel” in 1900, they were hoping their cave was filled with minable treasure—gold or diamonds. Instead, they found calcite crystals, which Garcia quips to his groups, “Are about as strong as your fingernails and worth the same amount.” Not quite sure how to monetize their claim, the Michaud brothers invited the U.S. Forest Service to the caves, and due to the “objects of scientific interest,” in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt declared Jewel Cave a National Monument.

At the Dugout, the lowest geographical point of the tour, Garcia reminds the visitors that, “There should be no low points emotionally.” Likewise at the Torture Room stop, the congenial guide walks the group through the naming process, which had nothing to do with torture. “It’s more of a funny story,” says Garcia, who explains that Jan and Herb Conn—the couple who mapped out more than 65 miles of the cave including the entire route of the Scenic Tour—were following the echoey sound of dripping water looking for a drink, but when they discovered the source, it was too high for them to reach.

Step 4: See yourself in history

“It wasn’t part of my family’s lifestyle to go to national parks,” says Garcia. “It wasn’t until Professor Melissa Blair’s History of Baltimore class when I went to Hampton National Historic Site in north Baltimore County that I can remember visiting something like that.” 

In 2023, Garcia went to Jewel Cave through the Latino Heritage Internship Program, which not only introduces young folks to professional roles in the National Park Service, says Garcia, “but also allows visitors to see someone who is of your background and be like, ‘Hey, I can picture myself being in that position!’ Representation matters, and so I thought, ‘I could be that person for someone in the future.’” 

In 2024, he was invited back to South Dakota as summer park ranger, complete with the hat and uniform. Garcia plans to graduate in May 2025, but this January he starts his new position with the National Parks Service a little closer to home—the National Mall in Washington, D.C. “I’ll still get to work with the public and hopefully have them leave me more informed than they were before or have them think a bit differently. That’s all that matters,” says Garcia.

An innovative internship program run through UMBC that helps Maryland support growing technology businesses while also retaining talented college graduates in the region is set to more than double over the next year, thanks to a $700,000 budget investment from Governor Wes Moore and the Maryland General Assembly. The funding increase is effective July 1, making it available for the summer internship season and allowing for a growing number of employers to immediately take advantage of this proven and effective workforce development program. 

Launched and administered by UMBC, the Maryland Technology Internship Program (MTIP) offers financial assistance to technology-based businesses across the state to enable them to hire more interns from colleges. To date, students from 34 Maryland colleges and universities have been placed in more than 1,000 technical internships, primarily in smaller businesses, across biohealth and life sciences, engineering, IT/software solutions, cybersecurity, and manufacturing. 

“Through programs like MTIP, UMBC is driving economic development in our state, which fulfills our mission as an anchor university,” said UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby. “I want to thank Delegate Rosenberg for helping bring MTIP to fruition as well as Governor Moore for his leadership in making this MTIP expansion possible.”

MTIP was made possible as a result of House Bill 1317, 2014 legislation sponsored by state Del. Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg, who has continued to work with UMBC and the University System of Maryland to shape the program. Originally aimed at smaller businesses, MTIP was expanded through subsequent legislation to larger technology companies as well as state and local agencies. MTIP first received funding in the FY 2019 budget, and the first MTIP-supported interns began working in the fall of 2018. This new funding, on top of the current base budget of $365,000, will make MTIP a $1 million-a-year regional growth initiative.

Among the many MTIP success stories is Courtney Cavin ’22, M.S. ’23, chemical engineering, who turned an internship into a successful career with Astek Diagnostics, a medical device company based in Halethorpe, Maryland. Astek CEO Mustafa Al-Adhami, M.S. ’15, Ph.D. ’20, mechanical engineering, describes how MTIP interns grow—and grow the companies where they work.

“I came into the office during Courtney Cavin’s first week and sketched out a concept for testing urine for UTI,” said Al-Adhami. “At that point, Astek Diagnostics was just the two of us. Two years later, we’ve developed our first Alpha cartridge and she is Astek’s chief product officer.” 

“We are accepting applications for summer internships now and are ready to immediately scale up,” said Jen Spencer Heilman, UMBC program director for workforce initiatives, noting that the popular program often has a waitlist of interested companies. “We currently average about 160 internships a year. This new funding will allow us to increase matching funds to employers and support more than 300 students across the state each year. Historically, we’ve had to turn away a number of employers due to reaching funding capacity. We are thrilled for this opportunity to expand our support to more companies.”

Heilman said she looks forward to the program’s partnership with UpSurge Baltimore and the Baltimore Tech Hub Consortium as an ecosystem builder for Baltimore tech. Employers interested in receiving financial support for technical intern hires should review the MTIP eligibility and guidelines.

As a student in Towson High School’s Law and Public Policy program, Randall Ainsworth ’19, history and philosophy, created a peer mentoring program for other young African American men there. In a predominantly white school, Ainsworth envisioned a support system for students who were struggling to succeed as they dealt with violence and poverty at home and then were placed in an environment that expected them to conform. The group sought to overcome their circumstances through mentorship, brotherhood, and community service.Their motto, Ainsworth says, was, “Once you’ve been restored, go back and restore your brother.”

After a four-semester internship with Chief Judge Wanda Keyes Heard ’79, political science, of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, 8th Judicial Circuit of Maryland, Ainsworth has wrestled with what restoration might look like for each person making their way through the criminal justice system. In his first semester, Heard handed him a thick file for someone in prison. His task was to review a request to have a sentence reduced. 

“Just so you know, this is a real person. You have to look through here, see what his record is, and tell me what to do,” the judge told Ainsworth, he recalls.

These types of hands-on tasks with real-life application are par for the course for an internship with Heard. In her 20-year career as a judge, she’s mentored 26 interns from UMBC alone. 

Ainsworth says that Heard has been instrumental in holding open the door for the next generation of lawyers and judges. “She has, like, an army of little children, just all over the place, doing good work.”

Getting a foot in the door

The summer before Ainsworth began his studies at UMBC, he met Heard serendipitously at an award ceremony, where he was being honored for his high school mentoring program. Hearing about Ainsworth’s background and his acceptance to UMBC, Heard approached him with her business card and told him to get in touch, despite the fact that he hadn’t even started college yet.

“When I was coming along, the most frustrating thing was not being able to get experience,” says Heard, sitting in her wood paneled office downtown. Her mother was a nurse and her father was an educator. “But there were no lawyers in my family. There were no lawyers around that looked like me—African American and a woman—and I found it very, very difficult to get my foot in the door.”

While Heard was at UMBC in the ’70s, she went to Capitol Hill to search out internships. Discouraged but undeterred by warnings that she wouldn’t be able to secure a position, Heard approach Shirley Chisholm, the first African American in Congress and the first woman and the first African American to seek a presidential nomination from one of the two major political parties. Chisholm’s mentorship was invaluable, says Heard, who learned all the steps for how a bill gets from point A to point B, solicited co-sponsors for Chisholm’s bills, and eventually drafted her own bill—to establish a stipend for interns to receive compensation for their work.  

Seeing representation mattered, and Heard has strived to set a similar example for the interns who work in her office but also for younger children, who come into the courthouse with their classmates and recreate mock trials for scenarios like Jack and the Beanstalk. In a recent rendition, Ainsworth participated in the role of Jack, who was on trial for breaking into the giant’s house and stealing his goose that lays the golden eggs, and ultimately attempted murder of the giant by cutting down the stalk that held up his house. 

“We bring in kids from the area’s public schools and nonprofits…they are the attorneys, they serve as the judge, they’re the jurors,” says Heard. “And we show them the jobs like the clerk and the sheriff…to encourage them into careers in the law.”

“If I show young people,” continues Heard, “that there’s an alternative to what they see on the street by bringing them to the courthouse and showing them jobs or a female judge, I’m offering them an opportunity that I may not have had. That’s where my mentoring Randall comes in. He comes from a rough background, and a very rough neighborhood, but he’s brilliant. You only need to talk to him. Give him an assignment. And his brilliance shines through.” 

Heard, says Ainsworth, has been instrumental in setting him on this path. And from Heard’s perspective, “I truly feel like a mentor, because he’s outgrown my office.”

Legal bootcamp

Working with the judge is like “legal bootcamp,” says Ainsworth. “Basically, she gives you an assignment and then she’s like, ‘Go do it.’ But it’s really a hands-on thing where you’re figuring out the law, you’re also figuring out the circumstances of the case, and then you’re figuring out how it applies.”

Ainsworth has been struck and shaped by the way Heard’s passion for the law translates as a passion for helping people in the system. “She does this whole thing with her probation that’s a little different, where she gives people stipulations, but the stipulations are things like, ‘Leave town. Get a job. Go to school,’ you know? And you’ll see people that you would think are hardcore criminals come in six months, a year later, and they’re completely different people.”

The judge has also taken time with Ainsworth to go through his law school applications, providing a much needed voice of experience. “I always wanted to be an attorney, but no one in my family and no one that’s connected to my family has ever done anything like this before,” says Ainsworth, unconsciously echoing Heard’s own words about her first foray into studying law. 

“My relationship with the judge has definitely opened doors to opportunities that I didn’t think were possible,” continues Ainsworth. “Having the opportunity to gain experience with the law and network with leaders in the legal field has made me confident that I can succeed as an attorney.” 

Changing the narrative

Other formative experiences shaped Ainsworth’s pursuit of this career. On the way home from volunteering at a nursing home with members of his peer mentoring group, Ainsworth says, someone called the police on the group as they walked into a convenience store. “You know, we’re being orderly,” Ainsworth remembers explaining. “We’re not doing anything. Why are you calling the police?” Ainsworth managed to deescalate the situation, but for him, the experience underscored that “African Americans do not have the same experience with the law and the justice system as other groups of people in America.”

Ainsworth, who after graduating will work as a legislative aide in the Maryland General Assembly and apply for law school, sees his career goal clearly: “I want to help reverse a cycle of historical injustice, create opportunities for others like me, and make it easier for African Americans to have faith that the law will be just and treat them fairly.”

*****

All photos, including header, by Marlayna Demond ’11. 

Do you know a UMBC student who is a writing rock star? A student who loves connecting with people and telling their stories? A student who isn’t afraid to dive in head first to a fast-paced marketing team?

The UMBC Alumni & Development Communications team is looking to hire that student. We’re excited to offer a hands-on, paid internship for the spring semester. Our interns get real-world experience conducting interviews, writing for online and print publications, and promoting events–the kind of skills that are sought after in the professional world.

Interested or know a UMBC student who might be? Here are the full details:

Communications and Marketing Internship, Spring 2015
The Alumni & Development Communications and Marketing team is seeking an intern. This position is responsible for reporting and writing short stories for the UMBC Alumni and UMBC Giving blogs, as well as helping to compile Class Notes entries for UMBC Magazine. The ideal candidate will be a UMBC student pursuing a major in English, Media and Communication Studies or related area, and have an interest in working in the fields of journalism, marketing, or communications after graduating. The candidate should be a responsible person and a clear writer who feels comfortable contacting alumni or donors, and who holds high personal standards for accuracy.

This position will report to the offices in the UMBC Alumni House 8-15 hours per week for the Spring 2015 semester. To apply, submit a resume, cover letter, and 3-5 writing samples (you may include short form, but at least 2 must be long form). Applications may be directed to purvis@umbc.edu.