UMBC’s new Make Your Research Come Alive (MyRCA) program is helping faculty translate their scholarship into compelling stories that resonate across disciplines, sectors, and audiences. Launched in November 2025, the program wrapped up its inaugural cohort with a May showcase.

“We created the MyRCA program to help faculty strengthen their research communication skills and effectively convey the significance and real-world impact of their work beyond traditional academic audiences and funding pathways,” says Christine Mallinson, assistant vice president for research and scholarly impact. “It also encourages faculty to think strategically and creatively about visibility, partnerships, collaboration, and long-term impact,” she adds.

Led by the Division of Research and Creative Achievement in partnership with the Office of Institutional Advancement, MyRCA brought together 14 faculty members for twice-monthly workshops and working group sessions, a January mini-retreat, and the culminating showcase. The program focused on identifying and articulating research impact, translating specialized scholarship for broad audiences, developing compelling narratives and pitches, understanding funding landscapes, exploring pathways for engagement with corporate, community, and philanthropic partners, and strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration.

“The value of this program is in connecting with each other,” cohort member Foad Hamidi, associate professor of information systems, shared at the showcase. “Strong research communication and collaboration can help our research come alive,” adds Dong Li, another cohort member and assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering. Li added, “We are not just researchers, we are telling our story to our audience.”

The value of connection

The program intentionally grouped faculty into smaller interdisciplinary teams organized around broad themes such as health, youth, and the environment. These connections quickly sparked new ideas and collaborations.

For instance, Lauren Clay, professor and chair of emergency and disaster health systems, connected with Li, after learning about his work on wearable health-monitoring devices. Clay wondered how Li’s technology could support a colleague’s research on paramedic response during extreme heat events, including monitoring heat stroke risks for marathon runners.

A group including Gabriella Weiss, postdoctoral researcher with the Center for Spaces Sciences and Technology; Marie-Christine Daniel, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry; and Sophie Comer-Warner, assistant professor of geography and environmental systems, examined remediation strategies for microplastics, heavy metals, and volatile organic compounds with a focus on wetlands. Their collaboration pointed to promising local funding opportunities with Maryland Sea Grant and Chesapeake Bay organizations.

Ellen Kohl, assistant professor of geography and environmental systems, strengthened a new science communication course with the skills she gained, and Shuling Yang, assistant professor of education, advanced her research using generative AI and Chinese pop music for biliteracy development. Brian Kaufman, professor of music, built on the UMBC Create Music Festival, which brings collaborative problem-solving into a typically performance-based discipline. 

By the showcase, participants had developed polished pitches, public-facing materials, and broader impact narratives ready for funding proposals, donor outreach, and the media. Each received $500 in research support, along with new cross-campus and external connections.

MyRCA stretches faculty beyond their comfort zones

Mallinson has been excited to see the 14 faculty “stretch beyond their usual disciplinary comfort zones and immediately begin putting the skills and approaches they were learning into practice—developing cross-disciplinary proposals, crafting pitches, appearing in videos and podcasts, participating in panels, and bringing what they learned in the program back to their graduate students and colleagues.” 

Linda Kidder Yarlott, associate director for corporate research partnerships, highlighted the value of the partnership between the Division of Research and Creative Achievement and the Office of Institutional Advancement. “While federal funding agencies are looking for highly technical, methodology-driven proposals, it’s visionary, outcome-oriented narratives that clearly articulate the human impact and real-world return on investment that entice corporate and philanthropic partners,” Yarlott says.

Yarlott and Jocelyn Kehl, major gift officer for the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, worked with the cohort on practical skills—from strategic networking and optimizing LinkedIn profiles to crafting stories that resonate with donors and foundations. “Mentoring this cohort has been an incredibly rewarding experience, culminating in a spectacular program showcase where faculty teams powerfully demonstrated new communication skills that will help unlock new philanthropic pathways,” Yarlott shares. 

For more information and to learn about the full 2025 – 2026 cohort, visit research.umbc.edu/myrca.

Two Retriever-led video game design teams were selected to present their games at Super MAGFest (short for “Music And Gaming Festival”), one of the largest and most prominent fan-driven festivals in the U.S. dedicated to celebrating the gaming community. The event, which runs 24 hours a day, was held January 8 – 11 at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Maryland, and attracted tens of thousands of game enthusiasts.

Evan McRae ’25, computer science and individualized studies, was a member of both teams. The first team presented a game called King Scribble, in which the player must help the main character—a doodle from a notebook—find his way back to his kingdom by drawing (or erasing) platforms and objects to traverse sketched landscapes and solve physics puzzles. The second team presented the game Phantom Feline, in which the titular ghost cat character navigates through 32 haunting levels by controlling lights and turning into a shadow to scale illuminated walls.

Both teams found support for their creative and technical endeavors in UMBC’s vibrant game development classes and clubs. Computer science majors can choose to follow the game development track, and any interested student can join the Game Developers Club. In 2025, UMBC was ranked #1 in Maryland and #20 on the East Coast in game design education by Animation Career Review.

The Game Developers Club is advised by computer science associate professor Marc Olano, who pioneered the procedural shading algorithms that are used to generate color, texture, and lighting in real-time on graphics hardware and are now a standard feature on every PC and game platform.

It was in Olano’s Capstone Games Group Project class that King Scribble first took shape. The class includes both student artists in the animation track and programmers in the game development track. McRae pitched the King Scribble idea—which he had first thought up in first grade—to his classmates, who selected it as one of four games to develop. Since the end of the class, the King Scribble team has continued improving the game. They started a limited liability company and have plans to ultimately commercialize the game. People can currently wishlist the game on Steam, a large digital distribution platform for PC gaming.

Phantom Feline was first developed during the Game Developers Club 2025 Spring Game Jam, and is free to play on Windows and Linux.

Creating the games “has been a dream come true,” says McRae. “I owe so much to the teams for coming together to make them a playable reality.” In addition to McRae, the King Scribble team members are Jay Cina ’25, computer science; Brian Lawser ’25, computer science; Colby Frashure ’25, computer science; Sormeh Jaribion ’25, computer science; Justin Gaylord ’25, visual arts; and Ginger Sealy, Halle Onyeador, and Anthony Bonilla Duron, all current visual arts students. The Phantom Feline team includes McRae and Scott Serafin ’25, computer science; Aidan Brown ’25, computer science; Jet Thompson ’25, computer science; and Joshua Epstein, a current student in music technology and music composition.

On December 5, the campus celebrated this year’s Arts+ initiative with five concurrent events featuring UMBC students, faculty, and guest artists. In a sold out concert in Linehan Concert Hall, the UMBC Symphony Orchestra and String Chamber Orchestra, directed by assistant professor Philip Mann, performed Alexander Glazunov’s Violin Concerto, featuring professor Airi Yoshioka, and works by professor Linda Dusman and Rich Sigwald ’03, music.

Down the hall in the Black Box Theatre, UMBC Theatre presented Street Scenes, with text by Langston Hughes and his contemporaries, with music by Kurt Weill, adapted and directed by associate professor Eve Muson, with musical direction by adjunct professor Andrew Hann—also to a sold out house.

The Department of Dance presented the Fall Dance Showcase on the stage of the Proscenium Theatre, featuring striking capstone works by senior students and independent student research.

The PAHB lecture hall was home to a Film and Animation Showcase, featuring works by 18 students and recent graduates of UMBC’s Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) program.

The Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture presented a collaboration between 2023 MacArthur Fellow María Magdalena Campos-Pons and musician Kamaal Malak, known collectively as KaMag. Their work, entitled Vignettes in 3 Sessions: An Immersive Ancestral Experience, delighted a capacity audience and was followed by the launch of a new public projection by KaMag, I Am Soil — My Tears Are Water, in the Fine Arts Building amphitheatre.

The Arts+ initiative will continue in spring 2026 with performances by Baltimore Dance Project and Orange Grove Dance, a faculty art exhibition, a lecture by visual artist Lynda Barry, a production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and more than a dozen music concerts by faculty and guest artists. A full schedule will be available in January 2026.

Before Joy Gabrielle Ware walked off the Commencement stage, she stopped mid-stage to face her peers and shouted, “UM!” prompting a booming “BC!” response from the undergraduates and their families who packed the arena last week at UMBC’s 84th Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony. Ware, an individualized study major, was awarded the historic 100,000th degree since UMBC’s first Commencement class in 1970, which had 241 students—a stark contrast to the 1,528 undergraduate and over 700 graduate degrees awarded to the Class of 2025.

To celebrate this historic moment, President Valerie Sheares Ashby paid tribute to the alumni known as the Founding Four, who represented graduates of the first four undergraduate classes from 1970 to 1973.

“What a profound impact UMBC has had on the state of Maryland and the world,” said Sheares Ashby. “Each one of our alumni has made a difference in some way, many of them as leaders and pathbreakers—in the public and private sectors, in the arts, in education, in research, in public service, and in their communities.”

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Gratitude

The Class of 2025 celebrated and cheered for each other. However, thunderous applause rippled across UMBC’s Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena every time a speaker asked the students to thank those who made their dreams come true. The stands were filled with roommates, classmates, mentors, and families who kept pointing the way when graduation seemed out of reach.

Celebrating graduation day! (Brad Ziegler/UMBC)

“You took risks when you chose to pursue this graduate degree. You stumbled and struggled and faced down your fears and insecurities,” said Graduate Student Association President Jessica Burstrem, Ph.D. ’25, language, literacy, and culture, in her address to her peers at the Graduate School Commencement ceremony.

“That bravery is why you celebrate today. Those are the kinds of people the world always needs—people who do the right thing even if they are afraid. People of integrity and bravery. People who stand together,” said Burstrem. 

The path of service

College wasn’t Tina Garcia’s first path, even after becoming the first in her family to graduate from high school. She served nearly a decade in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of staff sergeant, before continuing her service within the government. After serving her country, Garcia chose to honor her family once again—this time by becoming the first to earn a college degree. She drew on her experience as a veteran and her majors in social work and psychology to co-found and serve as vice president of UMBC’s Student Service Members, Veterans, and Families organization.

“UMBC is where I found my community, and with it, a renewed sense of purpose to continue serving Veterans. I’m so grateful to everyone who continues this work, who shows up for veterans every day, and who refuses to let that momentum fade,” said Garcia, as one of two undergraduate valedictorians. “When we find belonging, we thrive. When we thrive, we create space for others to do the same. May you always find places where you belong and never let anyone convince you that you don’t.”

UMBC welcomes all

For international students, the meaning of community transcended physical boundaries, cultures, and languages, with graduate students representing 27 nations across five continents and Central America, and undergraduates representing 35 countries across six continents and the Caribbean, including Jamaican native, Akellia Bernard, a music performance major with a concentration in voice. Bernard, a member of UMBC’s Choir and Camerata, performed the national anthem for the three commencement ceremonies. This summer, Bernard plans to join the Choir and Camerata in Paris and Prague, where they have been invited to perform with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.

Praise Lasekan, a biological science major, whose family watched his valedictorian speech virtually back home in Ondo, Nigeria, was adamant about how the Retriever community became the vessel for his growth, acceptance, and joy.

“The person you see standing in front of you today was once called a failure. People made fun of me. There were times I almost quit. But mentors, community, and the grace of God reminded me: Dreams don’t die, they just need to be stirred again,” said Lasekan. This fall, he will begin his Ph.D. at Brown University in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry. “UMBC showed me that community isn’t just who you’re around, it’s who holds you up when life feels heavy.” His journey resonated with the celebratory crowd and earned a standing ovation from the full house. 

As Retrievers crossed their tassels from right to left, President Sheares Ashby reminded them that while the pursuit of their dreams might have had similar zig zags, they, “will be the ones who will listen to all the voices, fight for the needs of others, not just yourself, unite, not divide, bring calm to chaos, open doors, and see new ways forward.” 

Listen to Akellia Bernard sing the Star-Spangled Banner, Governor Wes Moore’s message to the Class of 2025, and watch all three ceremonies at commencement.umbc.edu.

At UMBC, undergraduate students are redefining the boundaries of scientific and artistic pursuits. From a chemical engineer who graces the stage with his cello to a bioinformatician who paints and a biochemist who ignites the dance floor with Latin rhythms, these scholars thrive in an environment that celebrates their diverse passions. 

This spring, several U-RISE Scholars—the National Institutes of Heath’s Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement—shared their multidisciplinary interests with Jacqueline King, associate director of the U-RISE program, and Mariano Sto. Domingo, associate director of research and evaluation within the Meyerhoff Scholars Program. As a result, King and Sto. Domingo started researching how the arts and science blend in these students’ lives, and presented their findings at an academic conference this spring. What they learned was that here, rigorous research and creative expression intertwine, fostering a vibrant community where students explore every dimension of their talents.

Ajeetha Aruchandran, a seniorbioinformatics and computational biology major, studies how the neural tube—a precursor to the spinal cord—forms in zebrafish embryos with Rachel Brewster, professor of biological sciences.

The development of the embryos, which are transparent, “is a very visual process,” Aruchandran says. Her artistic skills have allowed her to generate beautiful and accurate diagrams that communicate her research, she says. “When you’re not able to communicate science well, then the meaning is lost. So I think my art has really strengthened that aspect of my science. The connection has surprised and delighted me, because for a long time I thought my science and my art had to be separate.”

Aruchandran began with drawing, but has transitioned to painting. “There’s something so special about the freeness of a brushstroke,” she says. The two pursuits “create balance in my life, because when I need more structure, I have research and the scientific method, but when I need to feel more free, I have my art.”

Rhythm and harmony

Lesley Hernandez, a senior majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, is hunting for factors that regulate how viruses like HIV multiply in cells with Michael Summers, University Distinguished Professor of Cchemistry and Bbiochemistry. The ultimate goal is to disrupt the viruses’ replication. She also loves to dance. 

“My family is from the Dominican Republic, so I grew up surrounded by music and movement. I decided to embrace that part of my culture at UMBC by joining the Latin Dance Club, where I could perform and share my love for dance with others,” Hernandez says. “I love incorporating dance into the workspace by sharing a laugh with my peers and dancing between experiments.  It fosters stronger connections and creates an enjoyable work environment.”

And, when the science gets intense, “I can go to my dance class and come back with a refreshed mind,” Hernandez says. Her attention to detail benefits both her science and her dance. Being “a calculated person” helps her pick up rhythmically complex dance moves more quickly, for example. Both activities also require creativity, whether in trouble-shooting an experiment that’s not working or coming up with new dance routines.

In the Summers lab, “We are all really into science, but what is fun for you outside of that? Everyone in my lab has their own outlet, and that is encouraged,” Hernandez says.   

For Daisy Parry, a senior majoring in biological sciences, that outlet is singing. “I’ve had a lot of interests that have come and gone, but singing has been a constant thread throughout my life. It’s very important and very centering to me,” Parry says. Her music minor has created dedicated times that provide a respite from the demands of science, she says.

Parry is a member of The Stilettos, an all-woman a cappella group at UMBC, and her church choir. She arranges songs for The Stilettos to perform, which permits taking some creative license with the original work. “I like changing up the rhythms and dynamics to add depth to the music, and I think’s encouraged me to think a bit outside the box with my science, too, in terms of trying new experimental techniques.”

For now, her work on cell migration in fruit fly embryos with Michelle Starz-Gaiano, professor of biological sciences, her classes, and her music keep her busy, but Parry is looking forward to pursuing a master’s in public health after UMBC. She emphasizes how the concept of harmony—so central to music—carries over to the kind of work she wants to do. Factors such as research, clinical care, public policy, economics, the environment, and how they intersect are all relevant to public health outcomes, she explains.

‘It makes me whole’

Ella Reinders, a junior biological sciences major, also likes to tackle projects—scientific or artistic—from many angles. Watercolor and acrylic paints, sketching and drawing, handicrafts, sewing, and ballet have all captured her interest. “There are all different kinds of random things that I think are fun,” Reinders says.

In the lab, “I am able to come up with different ways of thinking about something because I’ve taken so many different approaches,” she says. 

Reinders does behavioral research with Tara LeGates, assistant professor of biological sciences. The lab needed a new piece of equipment, but it was too expensive to buy off the shelf. “So I decided, why not create our own?” Reinders recalls. 

She sketched it out, learned how to render it on the computer, how to 3D print it at the UMBC library, and then how to wire it. “And now I’ve actually been using it, and it works,” she says. “It was really exciting. I love turning something from my brain into something that I’m actually holding.”

There is also direct overlap between Reinders’ science and her art. “I’ve done imaging of neurons, and being able to turn them into this piece of artwork that you want to hang on your wall is really exciting. Moving through life with both scientific and artistic interests just makes everything more interesting and feels like a way to express all sides of myself.”

For Joshua Dayie, a senior chemical engineering major, both discipline and creativity are required for his research and his art—playing the cello. “You really have to strike a balance between them to make any meaningful progress,” he says. Practicing cello requires hours of repetition, until technical passages flow out of his fingers from muscle memory alone. In the lab, sometimes experiments must be repeated many times before they’re successful—that’s the discipline. 

Dayie applies that discipline to his research with Mark Marten, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, on characterizing signaling pathways in fungi that activate in response to environmental stressors.

Then comes the creativity. Only after someone masters the fundamentals can they explore nuance in the tone or emotion conveyed on the cello, Dayie says. Similarly, in science “a lot of the innovation that you generate is really only meaningful after you’ve spent a lot of time understanding the core scientific concepts behind everything.”  

“I think that’s been the most surprising thing: The creativity that comes from a very sound foundation of discipline is something that is translatable pretty much anywhere,” Dayie reflects. 

As an added bonus, “Music has been a really nice outlet for me to use a different part of my brain, just to express myself in a different way,” he adds. “I feel like it makes me a little bit more whole.”

On May 2 and 3, the campus celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Linehan Artist Scholars Program with two days of festivities attended by dozens of alumni, current scholars, and incoming students.

Exhibitions and performances featured works by scholars from across the years, including choreography by Ryan Bailey, LAS ’16, a theatrical performance by Grace Marsh, LAS ’28, music performances by Michelle Purdy, LAS ’10 and Christian Hartman, LAS ’20, artwork by Petra Janka, LAS ’25 and Riley Payne, LAS ’29, and creativity by many other alumni and students. Featured speakers included Cameron Slayden, LAS ’99, from the very first LAS cohort and now CEO of Microverse Studios, James Dorsey, LAS ’05, a music teacher in Prince George’s County Public Schools, and Courtney Culp, LAS ’20, a designer with Warner Brothers Discovery.

Left: Brechtel and Haynes are greeted by UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby following their performance, joined by Shaness Kemp, assistant professor of dance. Right: Christian Hartman plays the cello, while Ryan Bailey and Clarisse Lukban dance on stage in Linehan Concert Hall.

“The Linehan Program has strengthened my passions for new music and interdisciplinary collaboration, and I am so grateful to the program for supporting me as an artist and providing me with so many opportunities to create and collaborate,” says Hartman, who played the cello for the event. “I was so thrilled to get the opportunity to perform once again on the stage I called home for four years, and to work with Clarisse and Ryan. I didn’t see their choreography or the projections until the day of the performance, and to see it all come together was such a breathtaking experience.”

Left to right: Darielle and Earl Linehan at the post-celebration luncheon; Jillian Casey, LAS ’27 with her mom at the post-celebration luncheon; Ann Sofie Clemmensen, director of the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, poses with Petra Janka, LAS ’25.

“Earl and Darielle Linehan’s commitment to UMBC and the Linehan Artist Scholars Program has created transformative learning experiences for hundreds of talented undergraduates majoring in the visual and performing arts,” says Ann Sofie Clemmensen, director of the program. “Our focus for the celebration was to highlight the past and the future of the Linehan Artist Scholars program, and what makes our program and community unique and essential to the undergraduate rigor at UMBC.”

Juju Ayoub, LAS ’25, and Sarah McHale perform a dance duet, accompanied by music sung by Jacob Perry, LAS ’14, with visual projections by Jillian Casey, LAS ’28.

With a deeply held belief in the importance of the arts in society, Earl and Darielle Linehan launched the Linehan Artist Scholars Program with a generous gift in the 1990s. (To this day, Earl Linehan loves to recount that he and Darielle met UMBC President Emeritus Freeman Hrabowski on a bus in Israel, and that Hrabowski asked them right then for their support.) In 2015 the Linehans fully endowed the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, ensuring its future ability to continue and grow. Now, its graduates in dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts number almost 400.

Left to right: An audience cheers on dance and music performances in the Theatre atrium; a group of Linehan Artist Scholars pose for a group photo during the post-celebration luncheon; Marlayna Demond, LAS ’11, center, talks with her husband, Adam Rhoads, and Tom Moore, director of arts and culture.

“Artists are the leading edge of creativity in our society,” says Earl Linehan. “They inspire our thinking and enrich our lives. But how can we encourage more young people to turn their talents into a career? Young artists seem to thrive best in an atmosphere that blends critical study with creative expressions—the kind of interdisciplinary environment that UMBC has always fostered.”

See more photos from the two-day celebration. Learn more about the Linehan Artist Scholars Program.

All musicians start out as absolute beginners. Some might progress as self-taught, others might have private music lessons, and many will pick up their first instrument in school. But without a musical pathway—consistent access to physical instruments and dedicated music educators year after year—budding musicians will falter on their journey. 

For Nema Robinson, and the thousands of other Baltimore City student musicians who have benefited from extra-curricular, free, equitable music education through programs like the Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids and Peabody Institute’s Tuned-In program, these communities have opened musical doors to a professional career in music and so much more. Now on track to graduate with a music education degree, Robinson has reached a full circle moment to teach at the programs that set the stage for her own success.

The first violinist plays a long, drawn out A. The other musicians settle their feet against the stage floor and their backs hover near, but don’t quite touch the backs of their chairs. Suddenly, the noise of the orchestra breaks across your ears—briefly discordant and separate—but as the players all search for the same A, the notes weave together into a pleasing buzz of anticipated energy. In tune together, they look expectantly at the conductor. 

Among the Uggs and Vans and Crocs and Nikes nestled under the music stands are Nema Robinson’s double-buckled black platform Mary Janes. Robinson, a fourth-year music education student and Linehan Artist Scholar, is at one of her teaching gigs that supplement and complement her degree. Today, she’s in Friedberg Hall at the Peabody Institute in Mt. Vernon, Baltimore, as part of Tuned-In, a free musical study and youth development program for Baltimore-area students. The elegant marble relief sculptures that flank either side of the stage and the gentle curve of the stairs leading to the second story seating section are just the background to the real art on the stage: Middle and high schoolers are making music.

In Baltimore City, only 60 percent of public schools have some type of musical component, says Nick Skinner, the vice president and founding team member of BSO OrchKids—which also offers free, community-based, high-quality music instruction and programming in the city. Of that, only 12 percent of city schools have instrument programs, compared to nearly 100 percent in nearby Baltimore, Howard, and Montgomery county schools. “There’s no musical pathway. So if you’re lucky enough to have music in your elementary school, you may not be able to continue that music study sequentially into middle or high school,” says Skinner. “It’s a really patchwork model of how students can progress musically through their education.” 

When former BSO conductor Marin Alsop began her tenure in the city, she saw a need to fill this gap, and in 2007 founded BSO OrchKids. As Skinner tells it, Alsop saw that “many of our students here in the city were locked out of these opportunities to have the power of music in their life—to benefit from the inherent value of playing an instrument and the benefits that come from the study and the artistic process of learning an instrument.”

Asked to lead

When Robinson was a kid, she was walking around Artscape with her mom waiting to see her cousin perform on stage. Artscape in Baltimore City is the nation’s largest free outdoor arts festival, famously held on whatever is the hottest weekend in the summer. Robinson recalls getting to the event early and waiting in the unbearable heat. They found a place to sit and wait for her cousin’s opera performance and during that period OrchKids took the stage. “And my mom was like, ‘Oh my God, all these Black musicians playing classical music.’ We immediately got applications, and all of this started from there.”

Young Nema Robinson playing the violin and with a group of BSO OrchKids. Robinson is crouching in purple, and fellow UMBC student Rickerra Bassett is standing in front with a teal shirt. Photos courtesy of Robinson.

In fourth grade, Robinson joined OrchKids and thought she wanted to play the tuba. Her mom shot that down for practical reasons, like 11-year-old Nema being able to even carry the instrument. “I’m still too small to play the tuba,” says Robinson. Her instrument of (second) choice was the violin, and through the daily after-school sessions at OrchKids and the all-day Saturdays at Tuned-In, along with numerous other musical opportunities she’s taken part in, Robinson has far surpassed the lauded 10,000 hours on her way to becoming an expert.

On stage in the Linehan Concert Hall rehearsing with UMBC’s Chamber Ensemble, Robinson stands in a semi-circle with a dozen other musicians. At this point, she’s been playing for 10 years. As the group launches into a slow baroque minor key waltz, Philip Mann, the conductor and assistant professor of music, stops them short. “Let’s move closer,” he says to the collection of string instrumentalists. With a shuffle of music stands, the ensemble tightens the circle. Black leather Doc Martens now firmly planted beneath her, Robinson leans into the music with her instrument familiarly tucked beneath her chin.

Before UMBC had a chamber orchestra—an intimate group of musicians—Robinson played in UMBC’s Symphony Orchestra, which is open to staff, students, and community members. She was a section leader her first year at UMBC. “I had to make sure I was locked in because this was a really big deal in a university just starting out. I think for me it was definitely nerve wracking, like, ‘Oh, I can’t mess up. But the conductor said, “You’re doing great. Just play.’” As time went on Robinson saw that as a music major and a Linehan Scholar, she was being asked to lead. 

“I slowly adapted,” says Robinson, “and then I started to realize that music majors—maybe that’s why we are the section leaders—because we are setting an example for the community members.”

Listen to different nuances

Ann Sofie Clemmensen, director of the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, knows this was intentional. “Across the arts, we do lean on scholars to lead some assignments because they are receiving resources that others are not. In the music department, in dance and theater, and visual arts, we’re identifying leaders and those who can become leaders. And I think that’s what UMBC is very good at.”

This May, the Linehan Artist Scholars Program is celebrating three decades of supporting an arts-focused community at UMBC. Founded with support from Earl and Darielle Linehan, the scholarship supports students with an exceptional interest in the arts. Specifically, the program “acknowledges the importance of artists as leaders. As artists, we understand that a production or an orchestra is a component of many things that have to have some sort of organizational aspect,” says Clemmensen. “You have to listen to the different nuances.”

Robinson has found the scholars community to be uplifting and collaborative. “Insanely great,” to use her exact words. “It’s really cool to see how everyone else is very invested in their art, and it made me realize how it’s all tied together,” Robinson says. When she heard fellow OrchKid and Tuned-In student, Rickerra Bassett, was thinking about UMBC, Robinson immediately connected the young violist to Linehan, where she is now a first-year double major music education and performance scholar. 

This is the dream

Bassett started at BSO OrchKids during kindergarten, practically still a baby, she says. She stayed through her senior year, and like Robinson, has continued to work for the program as a graduate. Despite the camaraderie and the support BSO OrchKids offers, Bassett said it is rare that a student stay in the program for their full K-12 experience. “The main reason why I stuck with it is, well, I enjoyed it. I also realized how high demand violas are—there’s not as much competition for me to participate in orchestras compared with violin, so I feel like I’ve gotten way more opportunities because I play viola.”

“Rickerra and Nema are in so many ways, shape, and form what we always hope OrchKids to be,” says Skinner. “We’re always striving to improve, but looking at their trajectory—that is the dream in a lot of ways.” OrchKids has paved and paid the way for Robinson, Bassett, and many other musicians to attend prestigious music camps in other states, perform on the BSO’s Meyerhoff stage with world-class professional musicians, participate in the YOLA National Festival in Los Angeles, and so many other opportunities in addition to their daily musicianship classes and other education supports. And now they’re at UMBC, learning to mentor the next generation of musicians. 

“In so many ways,” Skinner says, “they are the definition of what OrchKids is hoping to achieve.”

Watching other young people discover the joy of sticking with an instrument gave Bassett, who also played with Tuned-In, the idea to double major in music education. “Seeing the younger students get so excited about things that we would probably think of as small was just the sweetest thing,” says Bassett. “I was seeing myself in them since I started that young. And I’m just hoping that they keep going. I want to motivate them to keep going.”

Music as social transformation

It’s not just about the music. Or rather, the music is more than the music classes. “I can’t believe how much the musical development and the social development are connected,” says Daniel Trahey, who co-founded Tuned-In at Peabody in 2007, coincidentally the same year he was a founding team member at OrchKids. “When you see someone like Nema—when she saw what she was able to do—her confidence level just skyrocketed once she started practicing. And this is so key to all of our kids, we need our kids to be thinking about themselves and investing in themselves in order to be better for others. And the thing that’s the most amazing to me is to see someone like Nema start to invest in herself, start to map out time for only themselves to sit down and practice when their other friends are off doing other things.”

Skinner puts it similarly: “When learning an instrument, you’re developing skills that you don’t even really realize that you’re forming—creativity and collaboration, leadership, the responsibility of practicing your instrument or making sure you have your music for a rehearsal. These are skill sets that our students are forming from a very young age that become embedded in them and can then easily be reapplied. There’s a tremendous amount of research that’s been coming out over the past decade about the power of music and how it impacts the brain. There’s almost nothing like playing an instrument when it comes to really enhanced brain function and activity, cognitive development, and executive function capabilities.”

Rickerra Bassett has been playing the viola since kindergarten in programs like OrchKids and Tuned-In. Photos courtesy of Bassett.

For Robinson, the structure and consistency of the programs she played in was key. They gave shape to her education and the expectation of practice and performances, and ultimately shaped her talent and her work ethic that shines through her myriad teaching roles. 

Trahey stops mid-sentence to brag on this young professional. “Nema is what, 20 years old? She has the best attendance, the best timeliness. She is the most professional at sending emails. She takes her job so dang seriously, it is inspiring to me. And Nema plays a very important role at Tuned-In because for our high school kids, who are really sick of hearing from me, they’re listening to Nema because Nema’s got real world experience.”

Trahey’s hopes—and part of Tuned-In’s goals—is that the program would be fully staffed one day by graduates of the program. Commitment to continuum is how they put it: students become the teachers. “By valuing the community the student comes from, the student will want to come back and work toward creating an even healthier community,” says Trahey. 

In the big picture view, the musicianship classes and camps and performances—they’re all leading toward social transformation, but Trahey doesn’t want that to mean that the students leave their communities behind along the way. “I hope for most of the kids, to do what they want to do, and then find a way to also give back to their communities. We’re already seeing this where our students have gone on to get political science degrees or medical degrees, and then they become our largest advocates, and so for many of the communities that we’re working in.”

“We are really looking at how we can use music as a vehicle to open up the world to our students,” says Skinner.

Robinson saw music education in action by watching Brian Kaufman, associate professor of music education, teach at BSO OrchKids. He helped her discover music education as a major and the idea to pursue it at UMBC. “He was just very passionate about it. And you can just see it in the work and the community he created,” she says. “And when I visited, UMBC felt so welcoming.”

From his years of watching her as a student and then as an assistant, Trahey says, “Nema’s always had it, but I think UMBC and the music education program has really helped her get a more global perspective. Before she would concentrate on maybe one kid’s problem or two kids’ problems. And now I’m seeing her be able to really serve the needs and hear the voices of every single child in her ensemble or in the room that she’s working in, and that’s been a huge growth point for her since being at UMBC.”

Not an everyday type of thing

Back in the marbled hall at the Peabody Institute, Robinson is threading through the music stands on stage to offer encouragement and correction to the young people on stage. The lead instructor has stepped away to give the reins to Robinson. 

Mi’onte McGhee, a high school violinist who has been playing with Tuned-In for four years, says, “Nema is such a big help to us. She’s really good if you ask her a question about technique—you don’t even have to ask sometimes, she just comes up and says I can help you with that, but she’s really nice about it. She never makes you feel like you can’t play. She’s really kind and knowing that she’s gone through all this before helps me relate to her.”

For Robinson, there’s nothing like the feeling of creating music with people. “It’s like you’re in a different zone, if that makes sense. It’s not necessarily an everyday type of thing, she says. “You definitely have to have a good intention and really put your all toward it. It’s doing something you’re very passionate about and then putting it forward. It doesn’t always make sense, but when you do it, it feels right.”

On a sunny October afternoon, a faint melody emerges from a stand of trees just beyond the Fine Arts Building and within hearing distance of the Performing Arts and Humanities Building. We leave the paved pathway and follow our ears up the hill to find first-year music education student Luke Heichlinger leaning into the keys of a lone piano, playing what turns out to be “Ein Heldenleben” (“A Hero’s Life”) by Richard Strauss.

“I always look for a practice room with a window, but sometimes I can’t get one,” he says, explaining that he and his friend, Hannah, originally joked that the piano in the woods might be a hallucination. Thankfully, it wasn’t—so they came back the next day prepared with sheet music. 

Installed just days before, “Piano Garden” is the latest “performance” of New Zealand-born composer Annea Lockwood’s ever-growing outdoor series of “Piano Transplants” compositions in which, since 1969, defunct pianos are burned, submerged in water, or—as is the case at UMBC— left to be taken over by trees and plant life. In the days and weeks following the installation at UMBC, the unofficial path to the piano became well-worn as students like Heichlinger brought their best tunes, additional instruments, and voices, and performed—very often—just for themselves. 

Lockwood, later, visited campus as part of the annual Livewire music festival and listened while Linehan Artist Scholar and piano performance major Ida Dierker improvised in the woods for all to enjoy.

“UMBC has all these beautiful outdoor spaces,” says Linda Dusman, Livewire director, professor, and longtime Lockwood fan. “Stumbling upon a piano in the woods…kind of wakes you up to the experience of your environment. And also helps you remember what a piano does: that music can wake you up to the moment, even if you’re not   directly hearing it.”

On the day we found Heichlinger, we learn he purposefully chose a romantic era composition that might fit in well with his surroundings. The dappled shadows flitted across the keyboard as he played.

“This is a really nice setting,” he said. “Nature and music go together so well, and this is the perfect example of that.”

Oliver Crossland has fond childhood memories of many fun trips to Salzburg, Austria, from growing up a few hours away in the small town of Sindelfingen in southern Germany. Although his family moved to the U.S. when he was 10 years old, he still remembers Salzburg’s food, people, and candies like Kracher, a large sugar-coated chewy bean-shaped candy with a fizzy powder filling. “I had forgotten entirely about them until I saw them in the grocery store near my hostel and had to purchase them,” says Crossland.

Before beginning his senior year at UMBC, Crossland, music and global studies, took a trip down memory lane and created some new memories through a summer education abroad experience in Salzburg, thanks to the support of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) Dean’s Education Abroad Scholarship.

“I enjoyed the chance to re-engage with aspects of my childhood that were unique to Austrian and German communities. This included food and sweets I have not been able to eat in years and a chance to speak with people in German every day,” says Crossland who speaks German fluently, which helped him research and write a paper on Mozart’s significance in Austrian and Western music. “As a trombone player with a music performance major, living in Salzburg and exploring Mozart’s work in his birthplace and first home was important for me too.”

Crossland is one of 24 recipients of the inaugural CAHSS Dean’s Education Abroad Scholarship, which guarantees $100,000 per year for the following three years to help offset the financial costs of studying abroad. Undergraduate and graduate students with at least one major in CAHSS, and who need additional financial support to study abroad, can apply for awards ranging from $1,500 to $5,000.

“This is a pivotal moment for education abroad at UMBC. The CAHSS Dean’s Scholarship for Education Abroad is the most significant investment in increasing access to study abroad in UMBC’s history,” says Katherine Heird, director of education abroad and global learning at UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement. “If you are a student who wants to study overseas but finances are holding you back, please come and speak with me. We want to make this a reality for you!”

A year of immersion

Thanks to the scholarship, Retrievers spent their summer learning and engaging with communities in Ghana, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Italy, England, Amsterdam, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. But the scholarship isn’t limited to a season or semester. Samuel Nason, a political science sophomore, set off to Swansea University in Wales, United Kingdom, this fall, and Jessie Gordon, a biochemistry senior, is studying Korean language and culture at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, for the entire 2024 – 2025 academic year. 

“I am immensely grateful for this scholarship, which is allowing me more opportunities to enrich my study abroad experience in Korea,” says Gordon, a biochemistry major and a 2024 UMBC public policy undergraduate summer research fellow. Her research focuses on the accessibility and utilization of healthcare resources by immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries and the Korean Peninsula.

Gordon chose to study in Korea to achieve a similar level of understanding of the Korean language and culture that she has of the Spanish language and Latinx/Hispanic culture. “It is amazing to learn about historic events in the classroom and then be able to physically visit the actual sites. Thanks to this scholarship, I have some extra funds I can devote solely to extra experiences like these!”

There are dozens of education abroad scholarships and education abroad programs available through UMBC. But, with great opportunity comes great responsibility. Crossland has some practical tips for students interested in education abroad, “Stay on top of forms and documents when registering or paying for this experience,” he cautions. “It will prevent you from missing important deadlines.” And no matter where you go, he says, “Be sure to do your research on which sights are to be seen and what foods are to be eaten so that you can plan around your courses and get the very most out of your stay.”

Learn more about the CAHSS Dean’s Education Abroad Scholarship application deadlines:

• February 10, 2025, for the 2025 – 2026 summer, fall, academic year, winter, and spring program. 
• September 10, 2025, for the 2026 – 2027 upcoming winter, spring, summer, and fall semesters 
• Applicants who are not selected may reapply in the next application cycle. 

Aidan Taylor ’25, history, whittles rush stalks, exposing the spongy pith for use as a candle substitute. Halima Jama ’25, English, works with a mortar and pestle, grinding herbs for a medicinal tincture. Hannah Looman ’26, history, writes with a goose-feather quill and handmade ink, while two faculty instructors troubleshoot at a loom. 

It’s just another day in ARCH 365: Experimental Archeology, a new summer course offered by the ancient studies department at UMBC. A mix of handiwork and historical research into craft traditions of the past, the course teaches students about the daily life of premodern individuals from a range of cultures. Each student then investigates their own research question about historic ways of life for a capstone project.

From left: A visit to the UMBC community garden; grinding herbs with a mortar and pestle; troubleshooting at the loom. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

“We’re using art and hands-on activities to research the past,” says Molly Jones-Lewis, senior lecturer of ancient studies and an instructor for Experimental Archeology. “It’s a way of bringing working people’s lives back into the curriculum.” 

“Putting your body through the motions people did hundreds of years ago” is a valuable educational tool, adds Jones-Lewis’ co-instructor, Lindsay Johnson, senior lecturer of music. 

The course exposes students to some of the challenges premodern people faced in everyday life, and the innovative ways they addressed them. “Some things are just mind-blowing,” Looman shares. “The creativity people had to have to think of things to survive is a completely different way of thinking and being in your environment.”

History from the bottom up

The course included experiences foraging on campus, creating musical instruments with found materials, cooking and preserving food, creating natural textiles and dyes, archery, and more. In the final week, the students offered a “community day” near the UMBC Community Garden, where the students demonstrated the skills they’d learned and explained their research projects to a small crowd. 

Sarah Itzel, a returning student in ancient studies, shared her recipes for premodern electrolyte drinks, while Jama explained how she adapted an old family herbal recipe for treating mild illnesses. Looman showed off an embroidery project, and visitors got to taste foraged berries fermented with honey from campus bees. 

Clockwise from top left: Fermented berries soak in a jar; Molly Jones-Lewis works on creating a depression in a piece of wood that will eventually become a ladle; rushes soak in water before being peeled to reveal the pith within; a close-up on the class’s loom; students work with quill pens. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

The course invited students to interact with the campus environment in a new way, including involving UMBC grounds maintenance staff and the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Health and Safety. “We found community resources we didn’t know existed,” Jones-Lewis added. “There is a ton of expertise and knowledge among the staff.”

Jones-Lewis and Johnson see the course as part of a “history from the bottom up movement,” where the focus is on the lives and contributions of ordinary people throughout history. Overall, the students came away with what the instructors call “heritage skills” while developing a foundation in research methodology that will serve them as they move through the rest of their coursework and into careers.  

Reflecting on the experience of working with one’s hands in the class versus a world mediated through screens, Itzel says, “It’s an old-new way for the brain to work.”

Lindsay Johnson demonstrates how to use a bow. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)