Students from across all of UMBC’s colleges and schools are graduating this week having taken advantage of the unique undergraduate research opportunities and supportive mentorship UMBC offers. They’re poised to take their research to the next level and move on to new challenges through graduate school and careers.

For example, Davis Cappabianca ’21 is recommending reforms to better coordinate multi-agency disaster relief efforts. Hana Flores ’21is conducting cutting-edge HIV studies. Keren Herrán ’21, M29, is incorporating environmental science to improve public health. Ali Abdolrahmani, Ph.D. ’21, is developing innovative assistive technologies for the blind community, and Briscoe Turner ’21 is reimagining public safety with an eye to community empowerment. 

Big breakthroughs

Cappabianca took advantage of UMBC’s individualized study program (INDS) to tailor his degree around his interests. As a U.S. Navy veteran, Cappabianca knows that coordination between the military and civilian relief groups in the aftermath of disasters is often clumsy. He also expects, as an aspiring Navy medical doctor, that he will be involved in these situations in the future. He wanted to find a way to improve outcomes in these situations, because, he says, “The end goal [is] helping the most people possible in the most effective way.”

Davis Cappabianca ’21 in his U.S. Navy uniform. Photo courtesy of Cappabianca.

“I realized that my background in the U.S. Navy provided me with a lot of unique experiences,” he shares, “and what I found in INDS was a way for me to bring those experiences into my education and claim my own degree.” His two degree mentors, Stephen Kosloski, joint director of Naval ROTC at UMBC and University of Maryland, College Park and Joby Taylor, director of the Peaceworker Program at UMBC, brought very different perspectives to his research.

“More often than not, the melding of their ideas was what got me to major breakthroughs in my research,” Cappabianca says. Learning to always consider multiple perspectives was one of the most valuable takeaways from his INDS degree, he adds. “I think it will fundamentally change the way you approach problems, even if it’s subconsciously.” He plans to pursue medical school or a master’s degree in emergency management.

Environmental science meets public health

Herrán also designed her degree around her experiences. Answering a call for more Spanish-speaking participants, she spent spring break of her first year at UMBC in Nicaragua with the UMBC chapter of Global Medical Brigades, a student-run organization committed to implementing sustainable health systems worldwide.

She noticed the relationship between water quality and community health in Nicaragua, and reflected on similar challenges she observed during her childhood summers in Puerto Rico and El Salvador (the birthplaces of her parents). “Coming back to UMBC, I thought, this is what I want to dedicate my life to,” she says.

Her degree has included courses in environmental science, sociology, research methods, and writing—even cartography. Why? Herrán sees significant overlap between study of the environment and public health, but, in practice, doesn’t see the fields as very connected in today’s world. She says, “I want to be in that overlap.”

“I think INDS has been crucial to my acceptance to graduate school, because it’s given me the opportunity to be intentional in my choice of classes, and to claim my education,” Herrán notes. “I knew that I wanted to pursue research and partner with communities, not just come in and tell them what to do,” she says. She has had the opportunity to take that approach in her undergraduate work.

This fall, Herrán will begin a Ph.D. at University of South Carolina as a Presidential Fellow in health promotion, education, and behavior.

Keren Herrán in her graduation regalia, spring 2021. Photo courtesy of Herrán.

Asking challenging questions

Turner and Abdolrahmani also focused on issues close to their hearts. As a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar and psychology major, Turner has studied community building in the context of reimagining public safety and justice. 

“I’m really interested in the community aspect, alternatives to policing, and understanding how you build as a community and solve these problems without the use of force—with understanding and restorative practices,” she says. “I’ve grown in that way, and thought about, ‘What does abolition look like? How do we expand our thinking and make sure that we’re tapping into new ideas of how we operate with each other, and how we communicate with each other, and how we treat each other, rather than sticking to historical practices?’”

Her current research with Bronwyn Hunter, assistant professor of psychology, focuses on college students who have had parents incarcerated or struggle with substance use, and understanding the students’ ideas of what justice looks like. In addition to her work with Hunter, a Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute at Princeton University “opened my eyes to how public policy works,” Turner says. Now, she’s asking big questions: “I’m trying to understand what the world could look like, and how do we get there?”

This summer, Turner is headed to Brown University to pursue a master’s of public affairs. “I’ve really enjoyed my UMBC experience. That’s why I picked Brown,” she says. “I felt like it had a lot of similar aspects to it as UMBC, so I want to continue that community feel and the support that I got here.”

Inclusive design

Abdolrahmani has spent the last seven years investigating and developing assistive technologies for the blind community in the human-centered computing Ph.D. program. He decided to pursue a Ph.D. after being exposed to the field of assistive technology while working in his home country to improve the internet banking experience for blind customers. Intrigued and wanting to make a bigger contribution to the field, Abdolrahmani, who is legally blind, moved to the U.S. with his wife at age 36 to study with UMBC faculty in information systems.

“I wanted to understand how I could develop technologies to improve the independent living of the blind community or other people with disabilities,” Abdolrahmani says. He first worked on a project to develop a wearable indoor navigation assistive device. Later, he worked to enhance the user experience of mainstream voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google assistant for the blind. And, finally, he brought the two together for his thesis project, which focused on the use of mainstream voice assistants for navigating airports.

Along the way, he learned that not only did blind people appreciate the technologies he was developing, but so did sighted people and members of other groups. His research “shows that these technologies have great potential for future use for different groups of users in different contexts,” he explains.

Now, Abdolrahmani is looking for roles where he can have an even more direct impact as a member of a product design team, “so that I can inspire more accessibility and inclusive design in products, to see that products are designed in such a way that people with different abilities can use them right away out of the box.”

Becoming a scientist

A culture of supportive mentorship has helped sustain all of these students on their path to commencement. For Hana Flores, her first mentor on campus was none other than President Freeman Hrabowski.

Hana Flores ’21, center, with Phyllis Robinson, right, and Ernestine Baker, after Floes received an award for her presentation at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in 2019. Photo courtesy of Flores.

The CEO of Prince George’s County Public Schools connected Flores with Hrabowski after hearing her deliver the valedictorian address at Bowie High School and learning that she would attend UMBC. On the day of their meeting, when Flores heard Hrabowski’s booming voice from the anteroom to his office, she was nervous. “But once he entered the room, any nerves I had went away,” she recalls. “He was so interested, and genuinely wanted to know what my goals and aspirations were.”

Soon thereafter, she joined the lab of Michael Summers, Distinguished University Professor of chemistry and biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. And she’s been conducting research with his team on the structure of HIV since. 

Postdoc Pengfei Ding, in particular, spurred her growth by encouraging his mentees to contribute to the intellectual direction of the research, rather than simply teaching them specific laboratory techniques. “Dr. Pengfei Ding essentially was a catalyst for me to grow into a more independent researcher,” Flores says.

Her many professors in chemical engineering also had a role to play. “They are really focused on students being able to achieve. I felt comfortable going to office hours,” she says. “And I feel like they didn’t just care about me accomplishing in my classes, they also cared about how I was as a person.”

Flores has presented at national conferences, conducted summer research at MIT, and joined the UMBC Honors College and U-RISE Program. Shes also a contributing author for one published and two pending research articles. This fall, she’ll begin a Ph.D. at MIT as a Dean of Science Fellow, where she hopes to pursue interests in protein engineering and regeneration.

Hana Flores ’21. Photo courtesy Flores.

The power of mentoring

Herrán had support from research mentor Dawn Biehler, associate professor of geography and environmental systems, as well as her INDS and Meyerhoff Scholar communities. Biehler “is invested in her mentees and their growth and development, and she’s just incredibly kind and supportive,” Herrán says. 

On her Meyerhoff experience, Herrán reflects, “I’m a minority in many aspects, and Meyerhoff is so beautiful, because it’s so rare to be in a cohort of more than 50 other students who are also minorities, who are also trailblazers within their families and their cultural communities. You relate to one another, you support one another—it’s a family for life.”

Abdolrahmani also received support from multiple angles. Stacey Branham, formerly of UMBC and now on the faculty at University of California, Irvine, “had a very deep trust in me and my abilities and my creativity for different research projects that we collaborated on together,” he says. Ravi Kuber, associate professor of information systems, was his primary advisor and “the first one who trusted me when I arrived in 2014.”

Keren Herrán ’21, right, at the University of Pennsylvania, where she gave a poster presentation on research completed during the Leadership Alliance Summer Research – Early Identification Program in 2018. Photo courtesy Herrán.

A strong believer in peer mentoring, Abdolrahmani thinks back to the supportive relationships he developed with both graduate and undergraduate students. With the undergrads, in particular, “I trained them academically, but also how to interact with me as a blind person, what kind of support I need,” Abdolrahmani says, “so I had the support that Ph.D. students need through the collaboration of my mentors and colleagues in the team.”

Circle of support

Turner’s research mentor, Hunter, offered valuable insights beyond their specific research project, supporting Turner as a whole person. “I’ve learned a lot from her about criminal justice and research and just about life,” Turner says of Hunter.

That support included walking her through the graduate school application process and providing an emotional anchor point. “I really appreciated her and the graduate students sharing their experiences,” Turner says. “She would also check in with me during our one-on-one meetings to see how I was doing throughout the process, given how difficult this past year has been.” 

Briscoe Turner ’21 in graduation regalia. Photo courtesy Turner.

Faculty in the Sondheim Scholars and Honors College programs completed Turner’s circle of support. “All of them have been there for me, which I really appreciate, for personal growth and also my career goals,” she reflects.

Connections and pathways

Other graduating students, too, have benefited from strong mentorship and rich research experiences. Caleb Robelle ’21, M29, mathematics and computer science, had the opportunity to connect with research mentors across UMBC, Rutgers, Texas A&M, and Johns Hopkins, and was accepted into all 17 of the Ph.D. programs he applied to. He will pursue his Ph.D. in theoretical computer science at MIT. Olumide Fagboyegun ’21, M29, biochemistry, will pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience at Harvard as a Herchel Smith and NSF Graduate Research Fellow after completing neurological research with Erin Green, assistant professor of biological sciences. 

Jordan Troutman ’21, M29, computer science and mathematics, is UMBC’s first Knight-Hennessy Scholar. He will pursue a Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford. And Samuel Patterson ’21, economics and mathematics, will attend Oxford as the second Rhodes Scholar in UMBC’s history, with a focus on transportation economics.

Thinking ahead

In UMBC tradition, on the eve of their graduation these students are already thinking about how they can support those coming after them. Flores, for example, benefited from being paired with a graduate student as part of her summer research experience at MIT. She’s planning to become a mentor once she arrives on campus to begin her Ph.D. 

They all agree that community connections matter. “It’s powerful to give people the platform to share their stories, their lives, their hopes, their dreams,” Turner says. “There’s a lot of power in community—building with each other and climbing as you go.”

Banner image: Hana Flores, left, and Keren Herrán, right, on campus. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Meghan Grenier joined the UMBC faculty as a clinical assistant professor in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program in 2018. In two years, she has already left her mark on the program and its students. Now, she’s received national recognition for work with UMBC’s NROTC midshipmen.

“With her unlimited enthusiasm, upbeat attitude, expertise, and strong dedication to the Naval ROTC mission, she is an ideal role model for her students and peers alike,” says U.S. Navy Captain Troy Mong, professor of naval science and the commanding officer for UMBC NROTC. “Her superb mentorship and very involved academic advising of our midshipmen has enabled our students to excel in their leadership development and academic performance.”

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Meghan Grenier. Photo courtesy Meghan Grenier.

Mong isn’t the only one who noticed Grenier’s commitment to the Navy and her students. This spring, the Naval Education and Training Command selected Grenier as the NROTC Instructor of the Year out of all NROTC instructors across the U.S.

In further recognition of Grenier’s leadership skill and potential, she recently took on a competitive flag aide position for Rear Admiral Doug Vermissimo, the commander of Carrier Strike Group Nine, a group of naval vessels stationed out of San Diego, CA. Flag aides work directly with an admiral and help manage their affairs while becoming more familiar with the leadership structure and duties in the Navy. These challenging positions are designed for junior officers with outstanding performance records.  

Training the Navy’s next leaders

The UMBC NROTC program was founded in 2015 as the first in the state of Maryland. It is part of the Maryland NROTC consortium, which also includes the University of Maryland, College Park. The program graduated its first students in May 2019, and they were commissioned as officers in the U.S. Navy the day after commencement.

“I am very appreciative of the opportunity to instruct the future Navy and Marine Corps officers here at the Maryland NROTC program. They are an impressive group of individuals who will go on to serve as excellent Navy and Marine Corps officers,” Grenier says. “I hope what they have learned from me and the NROTC program will enable them to find success out in the fleet and prepare them for the challenges of leadership in our Navy.”

Mong is certain she will accomplish just that. “Megan has had a significant impact in training and developing our midshipmen into the next generation of future naval officers who will lead well from their first days in the fleet.”

Banner image: UMBC NROTC inductees in 2016 with UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski (center), Rear Admiral Stephen Evans (center right), and UMBC NROTC faculty members Captain Troy Mong (center left), Lieutenant John O’Brien (third to left from center), Commander Stew Wennersten (front row, third from center on right), and Lieutenant Michael Tenaglia (front row, far left). Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

When Bill LaCourse became dean of UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS) in 2012, he had three top priorities in mind: innovate undergraduate science education to boost learning outcomes, forge new partnerships, and develop and support a diverse group of faculty. This year, the college took several steps forward in realizing this vision.

“The college has laid the foundation, and now is really in a strong position for growth,” LaCourse says. “It’s all about paying attention to the people and their needs,” he explains, so faculty, staff, and students can do their best work and create a thriving community together.

Student success at the center

This year, CNMS received a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation for Improving Undergraduate Science Education. Faculty at UMBC and community college partners will use the funding to improve the undergraduate experience in biology—the major of one in six UMBC students. This includes focus areas like enhancing the alignment of curriculum across institutions and making sure advising meets the needs of transfer students, both before and after they come to UMBC.

The CNMS Active Science Teaching and Learning Environment (CASTLE) is a classroom designed for team-based instruction. It has tables to facilitate group work, devices set up for screen sharing with large screens at the front and back of the room, and walls covered with whiteboards.

“We’re building community, trust, and relationships with the community colleges,” LaCourse says, and that has huge benefits for students.

The Active Learning Inquiry Teaching (ALIT) certificate offered to UMBC STEM faculty is another growing partnership focused on supporting students. It includes CNMS, the College of Engineering and Information Technology, the Faculty Development Center, and CNMS’s Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) program. To earn the ALIT certificate, faculty attend a series of workshops on teaching in an active learning style, which has been shown to more effectively engage students and boost performance. They also participate in a teaching observation and other activities.

Initiatives like the Science and Mathematics Advising Resource Team (SMART) are also coming into full swing now. “The program formalizes the relationship between pre-professional advisors, CNMS advisors, and faculty advisors,” explains SMART director Michelle Bulger. “Everyone knows a little about everything,” so no matter which resource they start with, students get the support they need to find their best path through UMBC and into a career.

Celebrating student pioneers

The UMBC STEM BUILD program reached an exciting milestone this academic year: graduating its first program participant, Alexis Waller, in December 2018. Additional BUILD students earned their degrees in May 2019.

BUILD Trainees Ashley Majekodunmi ’21 (center left) and Avantika Krishna ’21 (center right) work in the lab with their faculty mentor, Weihong Lin (right).

BUILD is a CNMS initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health. It is designed to help UMBC learn best practices for engaging large numbers of students in mentored research and other practices that support student success in STEM. At some institutions, mentored research experiences are reserved for a select few, often in scholars programs. At UMBC, faculty and staff are actively working to make research accessible to all students.

Three students just became the first to complete another new path through UMBC. Just one day after graduating from UMBC, they were commissioned as officers in the U.S. military. CNMS administers UMBC’s Naval science department, which supports the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program. UMBC’s NROTC program was the first of its kind in Maryland when it was launched in 2015.

This spring, ENS Ghazi Nazzal ’19, business technology administration, and ENS Ryan Simpson ’19, environmental science, were commissioned as officers in the U.S. Navy. 2nd Lt Benjamin Dunlap, modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“We’re proud to have them on campus,” says LaCourse, who has a family history of Navy service.

Ghazi Nazzal ’19 (right) assists another midshipman in using UMBC’s state-of-the-art virtual reality naval training system.

Connecting every angle

One of the most exciting CNMS partnerships emerging this year—with the potential to significantly impact students and employers in the region—has a complex name: the Translational Life Science Technology (TLST) program. The program focuses on preparing UMBC students at the Universities at Shady Grove for careers in Montgomery County’s rapidly growing biotech industry. TLST is UMBC’s first undergraduate STEM program at Shady Grove, and this year welcomed its first students.

“With this program as well as the professional master’s degree in biotechnology, CNMS is pioneering UMBC’s expansion at the Shady Grove campus to serve the over one million people in Montgomery County,” says Annica Wayman ’99, M6, mechanical engineering, the new associate dean for Shady Grove affairs for CNMS.

Dean Bill LaCourse (left), Annica Wayman ’99 (right), and some of the first students in the TLST program.

LaCourse sees the new program as the beginning of “a new way of working with Shady Grove.” He shares, “It puts us in a position to bring applied STEM programs to the doorstep of businesses in Montgomery County.”

Constructing collaboration

Perhaps the most visible representation of the college’s commitment to forging partnerships is the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building (ILSB), now in the final phases of construction. It will open for classes in fall 2019.

The building includes spacious and bright teaching labs, open faculty laboratory space that promotes collaboration, and classrooms designed for active teaching and learning. Unlike other buildings on campus, faculty who wish to conduct research in the ILSB must propose interdisciplinary projects to be completed there, and the lab spaces are designed to facilitate a variety of kinds of work equally well, from genetics to environmental engineering.

An artist’s rendering of the completed Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building.

The new building will also house UMBC’s second Maryland Public Art installation: a colorful sculpture that emerges from a large wall and features abstractions of elements found in UMBC research, from bird flight to microscope images of individual cells.

The ILSB is open for use by any department on campus, and is administered by CNMS. “It’s exciting for me to be involved in the operations of the ILSB,” says building manager Dennis Cuddy. “It will be a transformative facility and allow UMBC scientists and students to do important work and cutting edge research in a flexible, state-of-the-art facility.”

Josh Wilhide, manager of UMBC’s Molecular Characterization and Analysis Complex, is particularly excited about new research equipment in the ILSB. One instrument will streamline the process of generating information about the proteins in a sample. It will be “used for drug discovery and genetic exploration for researchers ranging in fields from chemistry to biology to engineering,” Wilhide says. “The ILSB truly is a building designed to drive multi-discipline research.”

Faculty forward

CNMS has also made significant structural changes in the last year to better recruit and support a diverse faculty, and to enhance advancement opportunities and research support for faculty at every level. In addition to Wayman’s new role as associate dean, Kathleen Hoffman, professor of mathematics, now also serves as the CNMS associate dean for faculty advancement. Chuck Bieberich, professor of biological sciences, serves as the associate dean for research.

CNMS Associate Dean for Research Chuck Bieberich

“Our college has a strong history of performing cutting-edge research. However, in recent years, the federal funding climate has created new challenges for even the most seasoned researchers,” Bieberich says. “So one dimension of my role as associate dean is to connect our faculty, both newly hired and long-serving, with resources that can increase the likelihood of funding success.”

Hoffman has been supporting faculty advancement, particularly for women in science, for years. She was a key player in developing UMBC’s ADVANCE program, an initiative funded by an NSF Institutional Transformation Grant in 2003 that has led to a 60 percent increase in the number of women faculty in STEM. At a more granular level, ADVANCE has led to a 75 percent increase in women at the associate professor level and a 140 percent increase at full professor.

CNMS Associate Dean for Faculty Advancement Kathleen Hoffman

As of fall 2018, 24 percent of faculty in STEM at UMBC are women, which shows both how much progress has been made and how much growth is still needed.

“In this position, I will support CNMS faculty through college-wide workshops and initiatives focused on faculty success,” Hoffman says. She adds that she and Bieberich “will ensure that CNMS faculty have the support they need to fulfill their potential as faculty members in their departments, in the college, and as members of the university community.”

Diversity drives success

This year, CNMS hired two more pre-professoriate fellows. The fellows program is designed to enhance the diversity of CNMS faculty to better reflect the college’s diverse student body and actively welcome faculty who prioritize the value of diversity. Adriana Lima will join physics, and Joseph Bennett will join chemistry and biochemistry.

The biological sciences department led the way with this program, having previously hired Fernando Vonhoff and assistant professor Mercedes Burns. Mathematics and statistics followed with the hire of Yehenew Kifle, who had previously spent a year at UMBC as a visiting professor. Vonhoff and Kifle will successfully convert to assistant professors in August 2019.

Arachnologist and evolutionary biologist Mercedes Burns (right) and her postdoc, Sarah Stellwagen, transfer a harvestman (commonly known as daddy-long-legs) between them.

“We want to make sure that UMBC can be a good home for faculty from all backgrounds,” says LaCourse. The pre-professoriate program offers incoming faculty two-year appointments as research assistant professors, with structured mentoring and other scaffolds for success. There is the option to convert the fellowship to an assistant professor position.

This year UMBC also partnered in the launch of the PROMISE Academy. This new initiative will draw on the expertise of universities around the nation and evidence-based best practices to recruit and retain a diverse group of faculty members in STEM fields.

With the 15th anniversary of its formation just one year away, “CNMS is coming into its own,” LaCourse says. “We’re ready to move to the next level.”

Banner image: CNMS pre-professoriate fellow Fernando Vonhoff works in the lab with Abby Cruz ’18.

All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

A delegation from Portugal visited UMBC earlier this month to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlining plans to develop collaborative exchange programs for teaching, learning, and research between the Portuguese Naval Academy (PNA) and UMBC. Initial projects will focus on cybersecurity, an area of strength for both schools.

Antonio Moreira, vice provost for academic affairs at UMBC, earlier named an “advisor of Portugal in the world” by that nation’s president, spearheaded the formal collaboration after meeting Admiral Torres Sobral from the Portuguese National Security Agency at a conference in Lisbon. Similarities emerged between the PNA and UMBC in their conversation, especially in cybersecurity and naval science. Moreira shared, “It became natural to focus on collaborations between the two institutions.”

High-level Portuguese officials have embraced the collaboration. “I think it is important to be here and be aware of what’s happening in our two countries,” said Navy Captain Afonso Galrito, Portugal naval and air attaché, at the signing event. “As soon as I heard we were taking this next step I asked, ‘Can I go?’”

The newly formalized relationship, which will initially last five years and is slated for automatic renewal, will support faculty exchanges for research and teaching, student exchanges at the undergraduate and graduate levels, joint seminars and conferences, and collaborative publication efforts.

UMBC is particularly excited to collaborate with the PNA this year, as the university’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program kicks off. “It is fitting we are signing on the first day of classes and on the first day of our new NROTC program,” Moreira said. In addition, UMBC has strong ties with the U.S. Naval Academy, and the PNA signed an MOU with the Annapolis, MD institution in February 2016, providing opportunities for triangular collaboration.

UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski emphasized to the Portuguese dignitaries that an NROTC program within the University System of Maryland offers local students a compelling new path to military service and leadership development. “I am so proud of getting this program,” Hrabowski shared, having worked for many years to bring NROTC to UMBC.

While the initial collaborative focus is on cybersecurity, “What we sign here is just a start of the collaboration between these two institutions,” said Commodore Henriques Gomes, superintendent of the Portuguese Naval Academy, “We look forward to expanding it to other fields.”

Image: Antonio Moreira (r), UMBC’s vice provost for academic affairs, and Commodore Henriques Gomes (l),  superintendent of the Portuguese Naval Academy, shake hands after signing the MOU between their two institutions in the presence of other UMBC and PNA representatives. Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

On Monday, November 30, 2015, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy Dennis McGinn and U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski joined President Freeman Hrabowski for a ceremony to formally celebrate the establishment at UMBC of Maryland’s first Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) program.

The program, which is part of the new Maryland NROTC consortium that includes the University of Maryland, College Park, provides an opportunity for students to earn a commission in the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps while completing their undergraduate degrees.

During the event, McGinn spoke highly of UMBC as an institution with exceptional leadership and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Through this collaboration, the U.S. Navy will attract individuals from diverse backgrounds and talents to become the leaders of the future, he said.

Hrabowski commended the longstanding relationship between UMBC and the Navy, which began two decades ago through initial conversations about the potential for partnership. Many UMBC graduates already work for the Navy, and many more will do so through this program, said Hrabowski.

The NROTC program is currently accepting applications and naval science courses are expected to begin in fall 2016.

Hrabowski attributed the university’s strong partnership with the Navy to Sen. Mikulski, whose support has been instrumental in the growth of UMBC and its impact on the community, the state and the nation.

“We quite simply would not be here today without the leadership and support of Sen. Mikulski. She has been an amazing champion for the country, for Maryland, and for the work we are doing at UMBC,” said Hrabowski.

A highlight of the event came when the Secretary of the Navy recognized Sen. Mikulski with the Distinguished Public Service Award for her exceptional leadership in service to Maryland and the United States. The award came just days after Sen. Mikulski accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House for accomplishments during her career as the longest serving woman in U.S. Congress.

Sen. Mikulski expressed her pride in witnessing the establishment of the NROTC at UMBC. By bringing the program to campus, she said, we open many new pathways for talented graduates from science, technology, and the arts to become the next leaders of our country.

“We are investing in the people of the future that will lead our Navy and our Marine Corps, and they will lead it with a tremendous background that starts right here [at UMBC],” said McGinn.

“There could be no better campus in the entire country to do this.”

Image: Senator Mikulski, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy Dennis McGinn, and President Freeman Hrabowski sign the ceremonial proclamation. Photo by Marlayna Demond’ 11 for UMBC.