Manav Narendra’s story has been shaped by constant motion. A math and computer science double major, who graduated from UMBC this spring, Narendra grew up moving frequently between India and the United States, adapting to new schools, cultures, and environments every few years. Raised by a single mother who was always striving to create a better life for them, Narendra grew accustomed to change—but also to the challenges that come with it.

Coming to UMBC marked a turning point. Narendra sought out a smaller, close-knit academic environment where he could build community, form lasting friendships, and explore what it means to belong somewhere. In this Office Hour, President Valerie Sheares Ashby—who has also been at UMBC for four years—and Narendra reflect on growing rooted to a place and what effect those lasting connections can have.

UMBC Magazine: Manav, tell us about your background and what brought you to UMBC. 

Manav Narendra: I’m originally from India, and I’ve spent about half my life there and half in the U.S. Growing up, I moved a lot because my mom would switch jobs for better opportunities. By my senior year of high school, we had just moved to Maryland. I applied to a vast array of colleges, but I ultimately chose UMBC because I wanted a smaller, more personal environment where I wouldn’t feel lost.

And here, I’ve met people in so many different ways—through classes, the Honors College, tutoring, tennis, even the Career Fair. It’s been really meaningful.

President Valerie Sheares Ashby: You wanted a place where you could feel seen—that is powerful. And these smaller communities within UMBC can really shape your experience.

UMBC Magazine: How did moving so often affect your ability to build relationships?

Narendra: It was difficult. I became more introverted over time because you don’t really get the chance to build lasting friendships when you’re always leaving. I just didn’t realize how much I was missing in terms of long-term connections until I got here. Nevertheless, I’m forever grateful to have met so many incredible people from such beautifully different walks of life—they’ve all shaped who I am today.

President Sheares Ashby: I understand that. I am an introvert, too, and I think those kinds of experiences can really shape how you connect with people. It is not always easy to keep starting over. When I moved to Baltimore, I did not know anyone here, but from experience, I knew what I needed to put in place in order to feel like I am grounded and rooted in community. I learned how to do that when I was your age. In college and in graduate school, I started to ask myself: “What is it that I need to feel grounded?” And then I would go get it—I do not wait for it to happen.

UMBC Magazine: How has UMBC shaped your conception of community?

Narendra: I’ve made friendships that have lasted all four years, which still surprises me. I’ll see someone on campus and think, “Wow, I’ve known you for so long.”

President Sheares Ashby: That is such a special realization. I always tell students that those relationships are one of the most important parts of college. You learn so much in the classroom, but those connections—those are what stay with you.

UMBC Magazine: What does “home” mean to you now, after having moved so much?

Narendra: Growing up, home was my mom. Wherever she was, that’s where home was. She was the only constant in my life. I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 13, and my mom and I went through it together. I dealt with the physical pain, but she carried the brunt of the emotional and mental burden. She quit her job to take care of me. I couldn’t have done it without her. Now, I feel like I have another home here. I have a place where I belong, where I feel valued. It’s comforting to be in one place and not have everything constantly changing.

UMBC Magazine: How did that experience influence your future goals?

Narendra: It’s made me want to give back. I’m looking at various roles, ranging from data and actuarial science to software and astrophysics—seeing where I can best utilize my skills to make a difference: something that helps people and advances our collective understanding of the world. I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I want to use it well.

President Sheares Ashby: Often, our experiences guide us toward that sense of purpose. There is this idea of finding where your talents meet the greatest need—that is where meaningful work happens.

“You are a valued and important voice.” “UMBC cares and listens.” “The diversity on UMBC’s campus helps to bring out the best in everyone.” Along with an eye-catching color gradient, these words adorn the walls of the Mezzanine Gallery in The Commons. And while the phrases may sound like something President Valerie Sheares Ashby would (and does) say quite often, they are actually part of an Arts+ initiative, student-sourced art installation that asked students: “Inclusive excellence: What does it mean to you?”

Created by students in the spring 2025 class Professional Practices in Graphic Design, the installation transforms the Mezzanine Gallery and nearby breezeway into spaces that reflect UMBC’s welcoming community. Funded by Student Affairs Communications and Marketing, the project included Petra Janka ’25, graphic design and modern languages and linguistics, and a current human-centered computing master’s student. In this Q&A, Janka and President Sheares Ashby talk about student-led inclusive excellence and the ways that UMBC welcomes people into its community.

President Valerie Sheares Ashby: How did your class approach this project? 

Petra Janka: Our class was asked to help to reimagine and transform two spaces in The Commons: The Mezzanine Gallery and the entrance near the breezeway. We wanted students to interact with something enjoyable and inspirational. So our design approach focused on creating a multi-perspective experience.

There are three specific views you can take in this installation. From one side, you see this colorful gradient representing the diversity of residential life on campus. From the other angle, you can see the black and gold gradient symbolizing academic life at the university. If you look at it straight on, you can see the quotes included in the installation and the digital signage, which highlights additional answers. We sourced these quotes by surveying students about their connections, their advice, their challenges, their experiences on campus, and so on.

Sheares Ashby: This is fantastic. It is a brilliant idea on multiple levels. I talk about inclusive excellence all the time because it is a core value of the institution, but hearing students’ experience lets me know we are doing something right. It also lets me know there is more for us to do, right? These quotes inspire me to keep going—to try to make the place even more inclusive for everyone.

It is one thing for me to say it, but to know that your student peer is saying—”Give everyone a chance”—well, that is far more powerful than if I were using my voice. When I read the quotes on the wall, I think, “Oh, that is different. That is more powerful. That is more meaningful.”

Janka: The motto of our group was: “From the students, for the students.” We wanted everyone who passes by to stop, read, and feel seen, heard, and valued, and I think we achieved that.

Sheares Ashby: This is a unique institution. It is a very different thing to be at an institution that has been around for more than 150 years, and one that has been around for 59. Older institutions are pretty hard to change. Students certainly have an impact everywhere they go, but you are not creating that institution anymore, not fundamentally changing the DNA.

But, here, we are still in a space where we are becoming clear about our values, but we are flexible and humble enough to recognize there is still more input to receive, still more growth to experience, still new ideas to include. We can be better and different, and it is our clarity about our core principle of inclusive excellence that enables us to do that.

Janka: Last spring, when we were scouting out the space, we saw how many people pass through because this is a place to eat, study, and meet friends. We wanted to add something that becomes part of that everyday experience at UMBC. And now the colors draw your eyes to it, and then you read the messages, and you feel connected, and you’re like, “Oh, this is nice. I feel inspired to do better, to give everyone a chance.” I hope it stays up for a long time.

Sheares Ashby: We are clearly better because you are here. This is what students do. Each time a new student joins us, UMBC gets better.

The project, part of UMBC’s Arts+ initiative, was completed and installed by commonvision, UMBC Student Design and Print Center students Shomapti Hussein ‘25 and Thomas Hammond ‘25, under the print and installation guidance of Tori Richner ‘22, general associate: print production, and the supervision of SACM staff. The Commons Facilities and Operations team installed the panels and screen in the Mezzanine Gallery, and were integral partners in this project.

On a windy April day, President Valerie Sheares Ashby arrived at UMBC at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) for her regular student office hours on the Rockville, Maryland, campus. Established in 2000, USG unites nine public universities in one convenient location, creating Retriever degree pathways for folks who might not otherwise be able to make it around the beltway for classes in Catonsville. James “Jimmy” Seavey, Jr. sits across from the president today. Seavey is a second-generation firefighter in the D.C. area in his first semester at UMBC-Shady Grove studying political science. Seavey, who comes from a long line of public servants, discusses the growing importance of public service and education with President Sheares Ashby.  

James Seavey: So, like I said, my name’s Jimmy.

President Valerie Sheares Ashby: By the way, Jimmy. My dad was James. My brother is James. My nephew is James. My son is James. And Jimmy is what my oldest brother goes by. So, the name means something to me.

Seavey: That hits right at home because I’m a junior, my father and I were named after my great uncle. James goes back seven generations in my family.

Sheares Ashby: I love it, and I will take it one step further. My mother’s maiden name was James. So she was Shirley James and my dad was James Sheares. So it just goes on and on. Tell me about yourself.

Seavey: I’m an adult full-time student, and I work as a lieutenant for a fire department in the D.C. Metropolitan area. Outside of that, I have volunteered locally for over twenty years. I have found sincere passion in advocacy work, primarily on occupational cancer death benefits and basically expanding rightful benefits for public safety officials overall. 

I came to UMBC from Montgomery College. I’m on a little more of a slow roll than a conventional student because of my full-time job. In public safety and sometimes in academia too, I feel the weight of assumptions about who we are and why we do things. Do you feel that as president?

Sheares Ashby: I really consider this role to be two things—which may seem like opposites but are not really. One: It is a privilege, because for me, leadership is service. What you do, that service—it is a privilege to serve a community. The second thing, I keep telling people, “I just have a job, like you do.” Those things are both true. It is a privilege to lead, and it’s just a job.

Seavey: I can certainly understand the weight of that privilege. Outside of my profession, there’s not many times that people will open their door and blindly tell you, “Please come in and help me.” When an Amazon package comes to your house, they leave it outside. When you order delivery, it gets left outside. But if there’s a problem in your home—electrical fire or medical issue with a family member or yourself—immediately you’re encouraging someone like me to come inside. There’s a large amount of responsibility not readily visible.

Sheares Ashby: They are trusting you. They are trusting that you are going to be what the role says. You’re going to be respectful, caring, a person of integrity, somebody with some professional expertise.

Seavey: My father always felt like he had something to prove, because he went into public safety rather than alternatively higher paying careers. But as a junior to his senior going into work in the same vocation, I definitely knew that I needed to work harder and make sure that my name separates in a good way. But losing my dad, unfortunately, six years ago was a key change in my life to say, “You know what? The money in my current career provides for me, but it isn’t everything which I find currency in.” And that’s when I started looking into what else brings joy to my life and found advocacy, which led me back to education.

Can I ask, what does public service mean to you as the university president?

Sheares Ashby: It literally means that we serve the people. It means when I wake up every day, I have to be asking: How are we serving the people of Maryland? And here is the key, not the people who are my students, but the whole state of Maryland. Because the people of Maryland actually pay for the university—we get state dollars. We are serving the people of our state and the nation, whether they ever come to UMBC or not. The research we do should make the lives of people in the state better. The students we send out into your communities, who are going to be the lieutenant of the fire department, those students should go in there and be extraordinary for that community. I literally work for everybody in Maryland. And by the way, everybody in Maryland thinks I work for them too. And that feels good to me, because you actually feel like it is the people’s university. 

I particularly love that UMBC has a home here in Shady Grove. We are in a place where students do not have to pay room and board, because we are embedded in the community. That is cutting the cost of education in half already. Think about people who have full lives, full families, full jobs—it is hard to make education happen on top of that. And then I think about the composition of the student body here—it is a reflection of the composition of this community and the surrounding counties. 

The other piece is that because of proximity to D.C., a lot of students are attracted to this location. So many Marylanders have lost their jobs in the federal government—these changes have definitely had the greatest impact on the state of Maryland. One of the things I am proud of that UMBC is doing is we have launched something called Paws and Pivot through the Division of Professional Studies and our Career Center, providing resources for all these folks, particularly our alums, who are needing to actually pause and pivot. Some of these people have not interviewed in decades, so we are thinking about resume assistance, job opportunities, and certificate programs. I am really proud that we were able to be responsive to that. There is so much that a university does beyond just the four-year degree. 

Seavey: Arguably, I would not be a student at all, much less potentially re-endeavoring to complete another degree if I had to pick a university with a traditional location outside of my community. I really wanted to continue studying political science. But I kept asking myself, “Well, am I going to be able to do that at rush hour? Am I going to be able to do that on my days off? What sacrifice will my family need to endure? Is the faculty going to be understanding of an adult student?” So having the flexible schedule we have here, and plainly, the school being exactly where it is, afforded me that opportunity.

As a Marylander, and as a public servant myself, it was about it being realistic and available. So the availability here made it realistic. Imagine the people that have the fire inside them right now that want to do it. Then they say, “But I can’t get there.”

Sheares Ashby: That is the work that we have to continue to do—to take away the financial barriers, the geographic barriers, whatever it may be—to take that barrier down.

Listening has defined the early years of President Valerie Sheares Ashby’s tenure at UMBC, starting with her series of Bold Conversations to hear the many diverse Retriever voices. She continues to offer office hours for students, setting an example for other campus leaders to create similar opportunities in their own spaces. Meghna Chandrasekaran, Student Government Association (SGA) president, has extended the practice in her role as a programming intern at The Mosaic via “Chai Chats,” an opportunity for South Asian Retrievers to connect over their shared heritage. The biological sciences and political science senior and Sheares Ashby talk about the discomfort that leadership can bring along with the ultimate flourishing that results in finding what you were meant to do.

Meghna Chandrasekaran: As a young SGA officer, I always thought that I would have to talk a lot to make my presence known. But over time, I realized I needed to take a step back and listen. And it wasn’t listening just to listen—but listening to understand, especially lived experiences. After STRiVE [an intensive and engaging leadership for public purpose program at UMBC] and my work with the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, I’m able to assess spaces in a way that I know when I can keep engaging and when I should just take a step back and sit with possible discomfort. I’ve learned a lot about listening with intentionality.

President Sheares Ashby: I am more and more comfortable with discomfort because I have developed a practice for myself. I have decided with intent that whenever I feel anxious, I will just sit up and lean slightly forward, because I do not want to pull back from the conversation. And that is my way of saying, “Just lean in. Everybody is okay.”

Chandrasekaran: I’ve been in this SGA space since middle school. I was always told certain steps and guidelines to follow in order to be a leader. And when I came to UMBC, I thought, again: I’ll follow the guidelines. But then I went to STRiVE, and that shook up my entire worldview, to be totally honest. I learned I needed to be myself, my unapologetic self. Previously in SGA spaces, I would never bring up cultural heritage because I saw that as unprofessional. 

At the same time, I was a Leadership Peer Facilitator, and I started to understand my own personal values. Now it’s become second nature to show up in spaces as myself. That’s where the Chai Chats started—I really wanted to do something to keep me in touch with my cultural heritage, which is extremely important to me as a Tamil American student.

There have been some times when my friends have complained that I’m being “SGA president” with them and not “Meghna,” but that’s not the case anymore. It is now a part of who I am, and I just show up this way everywhere I go.

Sheares Ashby: Leaders continue to grow every day. You have a conversation like, “Ooh, I did not realize I was thinking about it that way,” or “I did not realize I had that bias,” or “I did not realize that I was not communicating clearly.” You learn something about yourself every single day, and you are growing. You show up as yourself every day and try to be the best version you could be. That is actually all anyone is asking you to do. 

It is a beautifully calming thing [to know you] do not have to have all the answers. I do not have to know anything magical. I do not have to be right—and I am probably not going to be right. All I have to do is be me. 

What is next for you, Meghna?

Chandrasekaran: I’m applying for a master’s in public policy, with a concentration in higher ed, in part because I’ve experienced something that feels unique to UMBC, especially with regards to shared governance. I talk to my peers at different institutions, and when I tell them what our SGA does, they’re like, “Whoa, what? You have a seat at the table? You’re managing a $1.1 million budget?” And I’m like, “That’s just the norm here.” I can see how the structures of our institution are set in place to allow for student involvement, and I think the end goal is agency among the entire campus. 

Sheares Ashby: You do not know how much all of that gives me joy. It is so fun to watch you. This is why I have the best job in the world. I get to watch you all become who you were intended to be. In spite of how hard it is to be a leader, I watch you do it with joy. Everyone here is trying to figure out who they actually are and how that aligns with the life that they want. You did it. 

During her office hours, President Valerie Sheares Ashby makes it a point to meet weekly with students and hear about their UMBC experiences and their aspirations for life after UMBC. Today, Jenna Beshara, a senior English and visual arts double major, shares her Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) project with the president. Beshara, who spent last summer on a study abroad program in Wales, painted a series of Welsh watercolor landscapes with paints she made herself using only natural ingredients. In this excerpt of their conversation, she and President Sheares Ashby discuss the importance of pursuing art and research through a sustainability lens.

President Sheares Ashby: These paintings are just beautiful. I feel like the water is just coming off the page. Is that the way you painted it or is it actually texture?

Jenna Beshara: Thank you! It’s a little bit of both, because the pigment—no matter how much you grind it or sift it—it’s still going to be a little bit coarse and gritty. I found out that it takes about a week to make one batch of pigment. You start with flowers or vegetables or plants—red cabbage actually makes the best blue—and you put them in a pot and pour boiling water over it. Then it’s a sequence of simmering and letting it rest. After you strain out all the materials, you add in a salt compound and baking soda. You grind what’s left, which turns into a mud-like consistency. It needs a week to dry and then you grind it and strain it several times. 

But to make the paint, there’s quite a bit of chemistry involved. The idea just kind of came to me because acrylic paint is like liquid plastic. It’s really bad for the environment.

Sheares Ashby: I am a polymer chemist, so I know what you mean. I appreciate that you did watercolor and environmentally friendly materials. That is very impressive. How did you decide to start this project?

Beshara: After I came back from Wales, I knew I wanted to apply for a Fulbright student grant to do more arts research. My mentor, Timothy Nohe, a professor in visual arts, suggested I use URCAD as a jumping-off point for my research project.  He supports me in everything that I do. I’ll come to him and I’m like, “Hey, I want to do this.” And he’s like, “Awesome, do it.” 

At one point in this project, I was so frustrated because I wanted to make oil paintings. The homemade oil wasn’t drying, and it looked so gritty. So I went to Professor Nohe and said, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” And he said, “Well, if the medium isn’t working, just change it.” And that blew my mind, and I was like, “Whoa, I can do that?”

Sheares Ashby: When I look at these paintings of these beautiful landscapes, it reminds me that from an environmental framework that if we do not care for this, it will not continue to look like this. This beauty that you have captured is not guaranteed. We have a responsibility to keep this as beautiful as it is.

Beshara: I’m applying for an Undergraduate Research Award to keep studying this because the supplies to make the paint can get a little pricey. But it’s so important, with climate change, that sustainability and art can go hand-in-hand.

Sheares Ashby: I love UMBC because our students are so focused on making some version of difference in the world, no matter the discipline. It is rare that I run into a student who doesn’t think about whatever they care about in an interdisciplinary way. Most of my students—like you—are thinking about how they are going to change something in the world to make it better. 

Each week during her student-facing office hours, UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby meets with students to chat about their lives and experiences at UMBC. Today, she’s speaking with Okechukwu Tabugbo ’25, computer engineering, president of UMBC’s Black Men’s Society, a group that provides mentorship, skills training, and community to students while trying to eliminate negative narratives and stigma around what it means to be a Black man in America.

Okechukwu Tabugbo: I found out about UMBC’s Black Men’s Society when I was in my first year. I knew Marvin Onwukwe, the club secretary at the time. He was always walking around campus smiling, and I would ask him, “Why are you smiling so much, Marvin?” He would say, “It’s because I have my life together. I have everything going for me. So what reason do I have to frown?” I would say, “Why do you have everything going for you?” He said, “Because I’m on top of my work. I can help you out, too. You should come to Black Men’s Society so that we can all be on top of our work.”

President Sheares Ashby: Oh, that is so good.

Tabugbo: But, in all honesty, I did not go to the first one. Then Amery Thompson…the current advisor, told me that I should come out, and I have to be honest, I did not go at that time either. [Laughs.] Then, finally, our current vice president, Israel Funmilayo…invited me, and he said, “It’s about financial literacy…I just need you to come out.” I looked at my bank account, and I said, “Okay.” 

After getting there, I sat down. Amery was giving the introduction on financial literacy and telling us everything that we need to know. It honestly just made me feel at home and appreciated, the fact that someone took the time out of their day to teach me something that I constantly left on the back burner. I took that for what the club is.

I take it especially as a safe space for Black men on campus—to make them feel appreciated, to give them the time they need to grow in a world that rushes them so often. I appreciate the overall aspect of giving Black people on campus a space for professional development that they may not have had before and giving us a space to talk about issues surrounding the community. The Society allows everyone, despite their views, to be understood and to have time to understand others.

Sheares Ashby: That is amazing. And what is so interesting to me is the mentorship of the more senior students to the younger students because I see it all the time. I see the senior students saying, “Hey, come on over here. This is where we are. This is what we’re doing. This is how we can support you.” They’re really living out the mentorship in ways that are so important. And it is so wonderful to see the younger students come in and then become those mentors to other people. I can see that growth even in a year.

Tabugbo: Exactly. And on that note of mentorship, that’s why we wanted to start moving toward outreach programs, especially to local high schools and middle schools. This effort is spearheaded by our secretary, Daniel Bajulaiye. If we can get to these students early and make them know that they’re appreciated, make them know that they can be heard, that will be important in fostering a good relationship, especially as they come into UMBC. Just letting people know that you’re there for them is so important because a lot of people, especially on this campus, don’t know their potential.

Sheares Ashby: I one hundred percent agree. One of the things I’m really excited about for UMBC is the work that we continue to do in Baltimore. We’re right here, and we know that there are a lot of Black men, young men, in Baltimore who would benefit. I don’t think too many Black men in Baltimore walk around feeling appreciated.

Tabugbo: Even when I did get the role [as president of Black Men’s Society], I still had imposter syndrome. I didn’t truly feel I belonged until actually stepping into the shoes and having to take over. Talking to my brother all summer, the amount of encouragement he had to give me to say just, “You can do this. You are here for a reason.” Hearing it from Amery, hearing it from Israel, it took a lot to be able to have the confidence to come and do this again and again every day.

Sheares Ashby: Mentorship has always been important. Sometimes it just takes somebody to look at you and tell you, “I see you, and I think you’re pretty special,” or, “I see this gift or talent that you have,” and it can change somebody’s life just like that. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t need encouragement.

Each week, UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby invites students to her office hours to chat about their lives and their experiences at UMBC. Today, she’s speaking with Viridiana Colosio-Martinez ’22, modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, and M.A. ’24, intercultural communication, who emigrated from Mexico and is currently working on community-engaged research with immigrant communities in Baltimore’s Highlandtown neighborhood. Read more about Colosio-Martinez’s life and work in Shared Stories, Shared Purpose.

UMBC Magazine: Viridiana, you have such a compelling personal story. When you first met Dr. Sheares Ashby, what was the most important thing you wanted to convey to her about your story and why?

Colosio-Martinez: President Sheares Ashby has been very inspiring to me. Because in my experience as a student and also as a Latino woman in the U.S., through the many institutions I’ve attended…I haven’t seen the presence of women, especially in positions like this. For me, it’s really inspiring and it gives me hope as a woman to know what is possible, because sadly in our society, we’re still dealing with a lot of discrimination and misconceptions.

Having this opportunity is really important. It makes me feel that any student—no matter if you’re Latino, or if you’re African American, or if you are Haitian American, or Asian, or international—can have the opportunity to meet people in power. You can connect and mak bridges and share your needs and experiences.

UMBC Magazine: President Sheares Ashby, you’re meeting with many students in your first months here through your regular office hours and in other ways. How does it impact you as a leader to get to know people on an individual level? 

President Sheares Ashby: I am a teacher at heart…it is in my heart and my mind. I love teaching because it gives me the opportunity to look for greatness in my students and then help them see it for themselves. And so, I love it when a student comes to me and I can get to know who they are, where they come from, and how I can be supportive.

I am sitting here looking at you [Viridiana] thinking, “Okay, who is she going to become? And what is possible for her?” And the fact is, everything is possible. She is going to run and she is going to make a big difference in the world. And now I can ask myself, “How can I support her and help her do that?” That is what my brain is always doing. And so, I love it. I love when students come to me.

Colosio-Martinez: I feel like you’re very approachable. In September, there was a meet-and-greet for the Latino/Hispanic Faculty Association. I was there supporting my professors, and I saw you there talking with every single person. I saw how you wanted to give us space and recognize our community. 

UMBC Magazine: You’re finishing up your master’s degree, Viridiana, and like the president, you’re a teacher. What will you take from UMBC with you after you graduate?

Colosio-Martinez: I would like to become a professor. When I have my office hours with students now, I’m always thinking the same thing: “Who are they? And do they need help with anything?” I want to help others…I would like to continue with my research in the Latinx community, to make space for the wonderful stories of people who are doing good things and all the challenges that our communities experience.

And what will I take with me? I will take all the passion, all the knowledge from my professors and mentors, like my mentor Tania Lizarazo, and all of the skills. I will take the friendships of my classmates…and the wonderful experience of teaching undergrads. I’m taking every single experience and I will remember every single student, and I’m taking all of those things with me to make sure that I use them in the future. 

President Sheares Ashby: You are so inspiring, Viridiana. Thank you for sharing your story!

President Valerie Sheares Ashby is a people person. You can see her eyes light up while she talks with folks. 

On her very first day as president of UMBC, Sheares Ashby made it clear that she wants to be available to students. Right off the bat, in true professor form, she set up weekly student office hours to do just that. 

As you might expect, her office hours are already very popular, so we decided to reflect her friendly open-door philosophy in this regular president’s column. Sheares Ashby is also engaging in a listening tour to hear from faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners across campus and beyond in the coming month. We look forward to sharing highlights from the tour in future issues.

UMBC Magazine: How would you describe your first few months at UMBC, and what has it been like getting to know this community?

President Sheares Ashby: These first few months have been energizing, inspiring, and joyful. The more people I meet, and the more I start to make connections, the more I love this place. You can love something from a distance because of its values. But when you meet the people, and they embody those values, your love grows even deeper. It has been especially rewarding to engage with students, see who they already are, and imagine what they will become as a result of their experiences at UMBC.

And then, what is most inspiring for me is that it’s becoming more clear every day what the possibilities are for what we can do together going forward.

UMBC Magazine: That’s a terrific segue! What would you like alumni to know about your thoughts on UMBC’s future and how you hope they will be involved?

President Sheares Ashby: Well, right now, as you know, I’m holding listening sessions with members of the community, and I want as many alumni as possible to participate. As we do this, I know that I will discover even more about our collective purpose and the possibilities for UMBC. I have said to alumni that I don’t know what I’m going to ask them to do yet, but when I feel like I’ve got something that’s worthy of their time and effort and the difference that they can make, I will bring it to them. And there will be something that I need our alums to do, for sure, because they are such an important part of UMBC’s future. 

I had the opportunity recently to meet with the executive committee of the Alumni Board of Directors and then, of course, many, many more alumni during Homecoming. As they introduced themselves, they talked about what they are doing and what they loved most about their UMBC education. It was wonderful because I could hear how they are living out the values of the institution wherever their careers and lives have taken them.

I heard people talk about civic engagement and social justice and the things that we believe deep in our core. They’re out there in the world exemplifying what UMBC is, in business, professions, public service, and the arts, and that is just incredible. The more people see our alumni doing this, the more we will continue to attract excellent students, and UMBC will only grow stronger.