**EVENTS UPDATE**

Following USM and UMBC guidance related to COVID-19, all on-campus events are canceled through April 6.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for further announcements from the Dresher Center for the Humanities, as virtual options, postponements, and/or cancellations for individual events are made.

Currently, there are no suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, at UMBC. Please visit covid19.umbc.edu for more information.

The UMBC Fulbright U.S Student Program is holding 11 information sessions during March & April discussing students opportunity to study, research and teach overseas. Make sure to come out and attend for valuable insight in how to be a part of next years competition!

Information from Fulbright U.S Student Program: 

You've likely heard that 13 of your UMBC were recipients of the Fulbright U.S. Student award to teach English, earn a Master's degree or conduct research overseas during the 2019-20 academic year. This year we have 27 semi-finalist waiting to hear whether they will continue UMBC's legacy as a Top Fulbright Producer. 

Come to one of 11 information session throughout March and April to learn how you can be part of next year's competition. Dr. Brian Souders, UMBC's Fulbright Program Advisor, will explain the ins and outs of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, tips on deciding which Fulbright program can work best for you, and advice on making your application as competitive as possible. 

Please click on one of the links below to reserve your spot at one of these information sessions, held in Sherman 113.

Monday, March 23, 3:00 pm

Wednesday, March 25, 1:00 pm

Tuesday, March 31, 1:00 pm

Wednesday, April 1, 2:00 pm

Thursday, April 2, 3:00 pm

Monday, April 6, 11:00 am

Tuesday, April 7, 3:30 pm

Wednesday, April 15, 12:00 pm

Thursday, April 16, 3:00 pm

Monday, April 20, 3:00 pm

Tuesday, April 21, 12:00 pm

Please feel free to e-mail Dr. Souders with your initial questions at <fulbright@umbc.edu>.

UMBC's Giving Day goes until 11:59 pm TONIGHT!  Help our campus reach its goal of 1,800 donors by kindly making a donation to Shriver Center-connected programs:  the broader Shriver Center, The Choice Program, and Retriever Essentials. Help us move up the Leadership Board - the competition is tough!

Find these programs and other great causes at:   

Please make sure to email educationabroad@umbc.edu with any questions you may have

Seeking students who are goal-oriented, professional, open-minded and have a passion for global work!

The Global Pathways for Students (GPS) program provides insights, global perspectives, and fresh strategies, to prepare the newest generation of emerging young leaders for an international business career in the diverse and ever-changing global marketplace. Students will visit 11 of Maryland’s top international companies and gain valuable professional development skills through a series of workshops designed to enhance their career readiness.

By participating in the GPS Program, students will enhance their professional networks and global knowledge, become more marketable, and increase their likelihood of being hired upon graduation. In fact, over 75% of the students who have gone through the program have stayed and are currently employed in Maryland, a testament of the program's success.

Candidate Pre-requisites:

·         Must be a rising sophomore, junior, or senior

·         Must be able to participate from Tuesday, May 26^th to Friday, June 5^th (11 full days)

·         Program fee of $250 (due only if accepted into program)

The application deadline is Sunday, April 5^th, 2020. Students can apply using the following link: https://www.wtci.org/albrecht-fellowships/apply/.

This story was written by Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque and first appeared on news.umbc.edu

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has honored UMBC with its distinguished Carnegie Community Engagement Classification. This classification acknowledges UMBC faculty, staff, students, and community partners for their deep commitment to strengthening the bonds between campus and community. 

UMBC is one of only 67 public colleges and universities in the U.S. just announced as receiving this honor. To date, 359 U.S. institutions hold this classification. These institutions “are doing exceptional work to forward their public purpose in and through community engagement that enriches teaching and research while also benefiting the broader community,” says Mathew Johnson, executive director of Brown University’s Swearer Center for Public Engagement, the administrative and research home for the classification. 

This achievement required a rigorous self-study of UMBC’s work with communities in Greater Baltimore and beyond. That process involved more than 120 members of the UMBC community as well as dozens of community partners. 

This recognition is a testament to UMBC’s unwavering support for increasing equity in the Baltimore region and in communities nationally and internationally through work that honors existing sources of community strength, fosters investments in communities, and actively works to address disparities in health outcomes, education, and other core issues. 

Preparing public servants

The Shriver Center has stood at the center of UMBC’s community engagement work for decades, preparing and connecting faculty, staff, and students from all academic programs with community partners. The Shriver Center’s applied learning experiences have helped thousands of students to develop as community-minded agents of change and hundreds of partner organizations to meet their goals. 

“Carnegie’s definition of community engagement emphasizes the importance of reciprocity and mutual benefits in the partnerships that are created,” explains Michele Wolff, director of the Shriver Center. “Shriver Center programs ask us to think about how we can make our partnerships more authentic, to effectively meet the needs of all involved. In this way, the longstanding approach of the Shriver Center also reflects the Carnegie Foundation’s principles of reciprocity and mutuality.”

Investing in change

BreakingGround is one long-standing UMBC community engagement initiative with significant impacts, both on and off-campus. This initiative supports work by students, staff, and faculty to address issues they care about, as innovative coalition builders, problem solvers, and agents of social transformation. Examples of projects funded by BreakingGround include environmental justice initiatives and work to improve Baltimore City’s aging water infrastructure.

The work of BreakingGround now fits within UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life, launched in late 2018.

The Baltimore Traces project, a collaborative teaching initiative in the arts and humanities, amplifies the community voices of Baltimore residents and neighborhoods through various media. This key example of community-engaged teaching, which has been recognized by the National Humanities Alliance, has produced short video documentaries, a website, an interactive map, and radio programming that aired on Baltimore’s WEAA 88.9 FM.

Scholarship and teaching rooted in community engagement also play a significant role in the social sciences at UMBC. In the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program, for example, students spend years honing their skills as future public servants and advocates in local, national, and international communities. Recent UMBC graduate Maheen Haq, global studies and economics, is a Sondheim Scholar who has worked to support communities facing discrimination, from Syria to Baltimore.

UMBC also trains future scientists and engineers to conduct community-based research. The National Science Foundation-supported Bahama Oriole Project, a collaborative research initiative with Bahamian scientists and conservationists, works to save the critically endangered Bahama Oriole. An affordable infant incubator that originated in a UMBC engineering course is now in clinical trials in India and recently won the 2019 Global Health Research Award from the Academic Pediatric Association. And UMBC’s Engineers Without Borders student group has taken trips to Kenya and Costa Rica, working collaboratively with local communities and local university students to improve access to clean water. 

UMBC is also invested in the local community immediately surrounding campus. Recently, the university celebrated the opening of OCA Mocha, the brainchild of students in an entrepreneurship class. OCA stands for Opportunities for Community Alliances. The coffee house and community activity space is located a few minutes from UMBC’s main campus and has already found success hosting UMBC and non-university groups and bringing them together in conversation.

“Thanks to the Carnegie application process, we know the extent and the depth of the community-engaged work that UMBC students, faculty, and staff have achieved over the last five decades,” shares Scott Casper, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. “The Carnegie classification is an opportunity to celebrate that work. It’s also an opportunity to keep growing—coordinating this work to understand better the impacts of our community-engaged partnerships for our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and our partners.”

“Community engagement and a strong sense of purpose are at the heart of UMBC teaching, learning, and research,” says President Freeman Hrabowski. “The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification is a reflection of our values and our character. It affirms that together we can achieve great things locally, nationally, and internationally.”

Featured photo: Sherman STEM Teacher-Scholar, Vanessa Gonzalez ’19, American studies, works with Lakeland Elementary/Middle School students. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless noted.