Written by Constantine Nomikos Vaporis, professor of history, UMBC

In 1980, when James Clavell’s blockbuster historical novel “Shōgun” was turned into a TV miniseries, some 33% of American households with a television tuned in. It quickly became one of the most viewed miniseries to date, second only to “Roots.”

I’m a historian of Japan who specializes in the history of the Tokugawa, or early modern era – a period from 1603 to 1868, during which the bulk of the action in “Shōgun” takes place. As a first-year graduate student, I sat glued to the television for five nights in September 1980, enthralled that someone cared enough to create a series about the period in Japan’s past that had captured my imagination.

I wasn’t alone. In 1982, historian Henry D. Smith estimated that one-fifth to one-half of students enrolled in university courses about Japan at that time had read the novel and became interested in Japan because of it.

“‘Shōgun,’” he added, “probably conveyed more information about the daily life of Japan to more people than all the combined writings of scholars, journalists, and novelists since the Pacific War.”

Some even credit the series for making sushi trendy in the U.S.

That 1980 miniseries has now been remade as FX’s “Shōgun,” a 10-episode production that is garnering rave reviews – including a near-100% rating from review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

Both miniseries closely hew to Clavell’s 1975 novel, which is a fictionalized retelling of the story of the first Englishman, Will Adams – the character John Blackthorne in the novel – to set foot in Japan.

And yet there are subtle differences in each series that reveal the zeitgeist of each era, along with America’s shifting attitudes toward Japan.

The ‘Japanese miracle’

The original 1980 series reflects both the confidence of postwar America and its fascination with its resurgent former enemy.

World War II had left Japan devastated economically and psychologically. But by the 1970s and 1980s, the country had come to dominate global markets for consumer electronic, semiconductors and the auto industry. Its gross national product per capita rose spectacularly: from less than US$200 in 1952 to $8,900 in 1980 – the year “Shōgun” appeared on television – to almost $20,000 in 1988, surpassing the United States, West Germany and France.

Many Americans wanted to know the secret to Japan’s head-spinning economic success – the so-called “Japanese miracle.” Could Japan’s history and culture offer clues?

During the 1970s and 1980s, scholars sought to understand the miracle by analyzing not just the Japanese economy but also the country’s various institutions: schools, social policy, corporate culture and policing.

In his 1979 book, “Japan as Number One: Lessons for America,” sociologist Ezra Vogel argued that the U.S. could learn a lot from Japan, whether it was through the country’s long-term economic planning, collaboration between government and industry, investments in education, and quality control of goods and services.

A window into Japan

Clavell’s expansive 1,100-page novel was released in the middle of the Japanese miracle. It sold more than 7 million copies in five years; then the series aired, which prompted the sale of another 2.5 million copies.

In it, Clavell tells the story of Blackthorne, who, shipwrecked off the coast of Japan in 1600, finds the country in a peaceful interlude after an era of civil war. But that peace is about to be shattered by competition among the five regents who have been appointed to ensure the succession of a young heir to their former lord’s position as top military leader.

In the meantime, local leaders don’t know whether to treat Blackthorne and his crew as dangerous pirates or harmless traders. His men end up being imprisoned, but Blackthorne’s knowledge of the world outside of Japan – not to mention his boatload of cannons, muskets and ammunition – save him.

He ends up offering advice and munitions to one of the regents, Lord Yoshi Toranaga, the fictional version of the real-life Tokugawa Ieyasu. With this edge, Toranaga rises to become shogun, the country’s top military leader.

Viewers of the 1980 television series witness Blackthorne slowly learning Japanese and coming to appreciate the value of Japanese culture. For example, at first, he’s resistant to bathing. Since cleanliness is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, his Japanese hosts find his refusal irrational.

Blackthorne’s, and the viewers’, gradual acclimatization to Japanese culture is complete when, late in the series, he is reunited with the crew of his Dutch ship who have been held in captivity. Blackthorne is thoroughly repulsed by their filth and demands a bath to cleanse himself from their contagion.

Blackthorne comes to see Japan as far more civilized than the West. Just like his real-life counterpart, Will Adams, he decides to remain in Japan even after being granted his freedom. He marries a Japanese woman, with whom he has two children, and ends his days on foreign soil.

From fascination to fear

However, the positive views of Japan that its economic miracle generated, and that “Shogun” reinforced, eroded as the U.S. trade deficit with Japan ballooned: from $10 billion in 1981 to $50 billion in 1985.

“Japan bashing” spread in the U.S., and visceral anger exploded when American autoworkers smashed Toyota cars in March 1983 and congressmen shattered a Toshiba boombox with sledgehammers on the Capitol lawn in 1987. That same year, the magazine Foreign Affairs warned of “The Coming U.S.-Japan Crisis.”

This backlash against Japan in the U.S. was also fueled by almost a decade of acquisitions of iconic American companies, such as Firestone, Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios, along with high-profile real estate, such as the iconic Rockefeller Center.

But the notion of Japan as a threat reached a peak in 1989, after which its economy stalled. The 1990s and early 2000s were dubbed Japan’s “lost decade.”

Yet a curiosity and love for Japanese culture persists, thanks, in part, to manga and anime. More Japanese feature films and television series are also making their way to popular streaming services, including the series “Tokyo Girl,” “Midnight Diner” and “Sanctuary.” In December 2023, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Japan was “on the precipice of a content boom.”

Widening the lens

As FX’s remake of “Shōgun” demonstrates, American viewers today apparently don’t need to be slowly introduced to Japanese culture by a European guide.

In the new series, Blackthorne is not even the sole protagonist.

Instead, he shares the spotlight with several Japanese characters, such as Lord Yoshi Toranaga, who no longer serves as a one-dimensional sidekick to Blackthorne, as he did in the original miniseries.

This change is facilitated by the fact that Japanese characters now communicate directly with the audience in Japanese, with English subtitles. In the 1980 miniseries, the Japanese dialogue went untranslated. There were English-speaking Japanese characters in the original, such as Blackthorne’s female translator, Mariko. But they spoke in a highly formalized, unrealistic English.

Along with depicting authentic costumes, combat and gestures, the show’s Japanese characters speak using the native language of the early modern era instead of using the contemporary Japanese that made the 1980 series so unpopular among Japanese viewers. (Imagine a film on the American Revolution featuring George Washington speaking like Jimmy Kimmel.)

Of course, authenticity has its limits. The producers of both television series decided to adhere closely to the original novel. In doing so, they’re perhaps unwittingly reproducing certain stereotypes about Japan.

Most strikingly, there’s the fetishization of death, as several characters have a penchant for violence and sadism, while many others commit ritual suicide, or seppuku.

Part of this may have been simply a function of author Clavell being a self-professed “storyteller, not an historian.” But this may have also reflected his experiences in World War II, when he spent three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Still, as Clavell noted, he came to deeply admire the Japanese.

His novel, as a whole, beautifully conveys this admiration. The two miniseries have, in my view, successfully followed suit, enthralling audiences in each of their times.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 250 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

Over two weeks at the end of January, six UMBC faculty woke up early to deliver lectures and lead workshops with students more than 9,000 miles away, in the small Asian nation of Brunei, located on the island of Borneo. The online talks were part of the Diversity in Cybersecurity, Brunei conference, organized jointly by Edah Hasnal, an advocate for gender diversity in the tech sector in Brunei, and Carolyn Seaman, director of the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) at UMBC.

The idea for the conference was born out of an internship that Hasnal completed with Seaman in the fall of 2021 through the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, a U.S. State Department-funded leadership development program. During the internship, which was conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hasnal created a series of short videos highlighting tech workers in Brunei. She also worked with Seaman to propose a follow-up project that ultimately turned into the Diversity in Cybersecurity, Brunei conference.

The goal of the conference was to share cybersecurity concepts and career paths with women interested in the tech sector. Out of around 50 applicants, the organizers picked 10 women with varying backgrounds. 

“We wanted to keep the conference relatively small, so that we could connect the participants with further opportunities,” Hasnal says. She says she was inspired by the stories of the women who attended, including a woman who worked as a cleaner while pursuing a tech education. Hasnal also says that Brunei is working to diversify its economy, and she sees the tech sector as a natural area of growth. 

Seaman recruited speakers from across UMBC to join the conference virtually and share their cybersecurity knowledge with attendees. Karuna Joshi, information systems, Deborah Kariuki, education, Christine Mallinson, language, literacy, and culture, Vandana Janeja, information systems, and Sreedevi Sampath, information systems, gave talks on topics ranging from cloud computing security to AI deepfake detection.

“The great thing about having women trainers who come from different backgrounds was that it was both insightful and inspiring for us all,” Hasnal says. 

It was wonderful to have CWIT’s reach extend so far through participation in the conference, Seaman says. “We’ve been dedicated to increasing gender parity in the tech industry, and we could see that many of the same issues and same goals we have are shared by people on the opposite side of the world.”

With Winona Caesar ’09, American studies and history

As a first-year student—before classes had even started—Winona Caesar ’09, American studies and history, took to heart some advice she heard at Welcome Week: Keep in touch with your loved ones. So she started writing to her grandfather who lived a few miles down the road in Baltimore City. And then, two years into their correspondence, he passed away. “His letters were amazing,” says Caesar, “a wealth of knowledge.” 

Around that same time—halfway through her time at UMBC—Caesar’s older friends began graduating and moving around the country. She kept in touch with a few of them through letters, occasionally splurging on stickers to be extra thoughtful. Now she spends a good portion of her free time corresponding regularly with 16 established pen pals, although she’s written back and forth with more than 50 interlocutors in the past two decades.

For Caesar, a sergeant in the Baltimore City Police, it’s a creative outlet. Whether hand writing a letter or using one of her seven typewriters, Caesar says the process slows her down and connects her to individuals all over the globe. As the world grows increasingly more digitized, Caesar and her pen pals are saving the lost art of keeping in touch.

Tools of the Trade:
A writing implement
Paper or postcard
Postage stamp
Envelope (handmade, if you’re serious about this)
A collection of stickers or ephemera to share

Step 1: Find a willing pen pal (or several)

For Caesar, her letter writing career started as a natural offshoot of keeping in touch with loved ones, but she has since joined two professional letter writing societies that connect new pen pals and charge a very small fee to screen participants.

Caesar says that not all matches work out but letter exchanges that hit a good groove sometimes go on indefinitely. One of her first matches was with Amy in Tennessee [pictured in the photobooth series with Caesar, left]. After seven years of corresponding, while on vacation in Tennessee, Caesar and Amy met up. Caesar says her pen pal was exactly like her letter-writing persona. “Reading her writing and meeting her in person, it was like we were best of friends. It worked,” says Caesar.

Step 2: Tap into your creativity

Caesar has been writing and sending letters long enough that she can hand make an envelope with her eyes closed, she says. In her writing nook in her apartment, Caesar keeps clear boxes stacked on each other—each organized by the correspondent’s name and send date—with thousands of letters filed inside. Nearby are her collection of typewriters, her stash of pens, her paper supplies, her stamp options, colorful washi tape, old magazines and paper samples for envelopes, so many stickers and other fun items to include in her letters. 

Seated in a command-center-like swivel chair in the middle of her supplies and the sun streaming past her collection of succulents on the window nearby, Caesar will spend as long as she needs to (and as much energy as her job leaves her) replying to friends and new acquaintances near and far. 

She says she doesn’t plan out her responses in advance. “I try to react directly to the letter and then add any extra stuff that’s coming up in my life, like, ‘Oh, I got a future trip,’ or ‘This is how I’m feeling.’” With some correspondents, she plays on-going games of hangman, scavenger hunts, mystery games, or Pictionary.

Step 3: Share as much as you want about yourself

One of Caesar’s regular pen pals, Sam, is a student from Belgium, who often sends her two letters a week, densely written on graph paper. His tight cursive isn’t easy to skim, but Caesar has grown accustomed to his handwriting over the past four years. “He’s more prolific than most,” says Caesar, and in addition to his own letters, Sam has also connected her to his mom, Christine. “Her letters were much more colorful and had lively stickers and things in them, while his are utilitarian.” 

After three or four years of letter writing with Christine, Caesar received a note this past December saying she wanted to end the correspondence. “I was sad,” Caesar said, “so I reached out to my letter writing groups and asked, ‘How do you feel when this happens?’”

Pen pal relationships have many of the same ups and downs as in-person friendships, so Caesar shares certain parts of her life more or less with some writers, but all of them know about her love of tea and the Marvel universe. Oftentimes, she’ll receive gifts of specialty tea flavors or themed-stamps, and she attempts to keep her correspondence and gifts focused on the recipients’ interests.

Step 4: Give it your stamp of approval

Getting your letter (or in Caesar’s case, sometimes dozens of letters at a time) out the door is the final step. When Caesar travels, she makes it a point to ask the local post office to add its own unique cancel stamp to her postcards or letters, so the recipients can see where she’s visited.

Once, a pen pal from New Hampshire sent Caesar a letter stamped from Valentine Station in Loveland, Colorado. Caesar was confused until she learned about a service that will send your mail through interesting named locations for a small fee. 

Thoughtful touches like these are part-and-parcel being a good pen pal, but they’re not necessary to get started writing letters. “This really does fulfill my creative spirit,” says Caesar, “especially since I don’t get to do this in my daily life—but actually this is my daily life.” 

For aspiring pen pals, Caesar says, start by writing to someone you already know and love. Who knows where your letters will take you after that.

UMBC’s Interdisciplinary Consortium for Applied Research in the Environment (ICARE) program, a cohort-based master’s program focused on local environmental research, held its first annual ICARE CoNavigator Day on Friday, February 23, in the University Center Ballroom. The all-day event consisted of research planning activities for ICARE trainees, poster sessions highlighting the trainees’ research, and a keynote address given by Jalonne White-Newsome, senior director for environmental justice in the White House Council for Environmental Quality. The Maryland deputy and assistant secretaries of the environment and representatives from the League of Conservation Voters also attended.

“ICARE is a unique training model in which master’s students in the environmental sciences and engineering are co-mentored by UMBC faculty mentors, professional scientists or engineers, and community leaders. This day brought together all the trainees and their mentors to conceptualize their research through CoNavigator and present their research in well-attended poster sessions,” shares Tamra Mendelson, ICARE director and professor of biological sciences. 

CoNavigator is a unique three-dimensional concept mapping protocol the ICARE trainees and their thesis committees used to brainstorm. The structured format encouraged creative thinking about their projects’ goals and implementation.

Danish researchers created CoNavigator in 2015, and “UMBC was a big part of the genesis of this,” shared Katrine Lindvig, one of CoNavigator’s founders who facilitated the ICARE session. UMBC was one of the first institutions to apply the unique protocol, Lindvig said.

White-Newsome said in her keynote that addressing environmental problems “takes multiple perspectives; it takes creativity; it takes ensuring that those folks who are most impacted are part of and given the space to implement and co-solve and create solutions that will benefit us all.” 

She also encouraged the ICARE trainees: “To read about the questions you’re asking, and the way you’re going about answering them— your work is so important.”

Learn more about ICARE.

By Lisa Traiger

Misty Copeland is a ballerina on a mission—and last week she brought that mission to UMBC. Renowned for both her ethereality and powerful muscularity, as well as her activism in diversifying a white-dominant field, in 2015 Copeland became the first Black woman promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, a top U.S. ballet company. And she continues to break down barriers to democratize this art form born of European privilege and monarchy.

On March 6, Copeland spent a day on campus—meeting with dance majors in the Dance Cube, speaking one-on-one with alumni and young dancers at a reception, watching student dancers perform, and participating in UMBC’s first annual Artful Conversations, a public Q&A in Linehan Concert Hall.

“You are my people,” the lithe dancer in smart slacks and stilettos told about 35 UMBC dance students and prospective students in an afternoon session. “I came into the ballet world at a late age—13,” she said, recalling her first ballet classes sponsored by a YMCA Boys and Girls Club in a gymnasium. She wore socks and shorts and had never heard classical music before. What she initially described as a “weird” experience, soon became an epiphany. “I felt so free… I was very shy. I didn’t have the tools or the confidence to say everything I wanted to say at 13, but I realized this might be the last time I had this chance,” said Copeland. “So I always took advantage of every opportunity I’ve been given.” And through ballet, she found her voice—and purpose.

Breaking ballet’s glass ceiling 

Raised by a single mother, she and her five siblings were sometimes “house-less,” as Copeland described it. The ballet studio “was the first time I felt physically protected in a space and I could be naked and vulnerable,” Copeland said. “That’s the feeling we should all have: what it’s like to be in a space of freedom and creativity and no judgment.” These days through her eponymous charitable foundation, Copeland supports programs that provide funding and classes that break ballet’s glass ceiling through diversity, equity, and inclusion activities.

Victoria Davies, a junior dance major and Linehan Artist Scholar, performed in “Boundless” by faculty member Shaness D. Kemp, one of three modern works dance students shared with Copeland and attendees during the early evening public event in the sold-out Linehan Concert Hall. “For me,” Davies said, “to see another person of color who has been very successful in her dance career and hear about all the things she went through, hopefully I can get to that point in my own career.”

Left: Capstone work by dance major Eva Mclaughlin, “Episodic Abrasion” (dancers: Sarah McHale, Cassidy Cipolla-Milchak, Ria Murphy, Katelyn O’Connor, Gwyneth Watson). Right: “Boundless” (2022) repertory work by Assistant Professor Shaness D. Kemp (dancers: India Blake, Victoria Davies, Sophia Papparotto.) (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

First-year dance major Ashley Baer said that learning more about Copeland “makes everything so much more real. She has been so influential to so many. As dancers, it’s so amazing to be able to hear her perspectives on performing and life.” Baer shared a quote she jotted down from Copeland’s talk: “’Continue to explore life and live your life…. As dancers we get so caught up in our training and we need to continue to live life.’” 

Ask for the roles you want

Students asked Copeland about her challenges, transitioning from student to professional, taking care of her body, work-life balance, and dealing with microaggressions as one of the few Black women at the top of the ballet company hierarchy. She was frank, yet gracious, in her responses, noting she moved to New York the day after graduating from high school and it took her about five years to understand the complexity of rehearsal and casting schedules. “Having a support system has always been key,” she advised. “You need people you can turn to. This [career] takes a lot out of you, physically, mentally, emotionally.”

One lesson she learned from her close friend and mentor, the late African American ballet dancer Raven Wilkinson: Do not be afraid to ask for roles you want. Copeland desired a specific role, but had never been cast. With Wilkinson’s encouragement, she approached American Ballet Theatre artistic director Kevin McKenzie and asked. His response: “Oh, I thought you had danced that role.” Then she was cast. She noted: “As a woman, as a dancer with a Black body…it felt like [my success] was this collective effort of all my ancestors. It never felt like my accomplishment singularly.”

While Copeland hasn’t been back in the studio since the birth of her son two years ago, she remains active on other fronts: as an author of now six books for children, teens, and adults, and as designer of her own line of athleisure wear, Greatness Wins, in collaboration with athlete Derek Jeter. As well, she acknowledges the ongoing importance of being a ballet dancer.

Stars aren’t made overnight

According to College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Dean Kimberly Moffitt, who moderated the public Q&A, Copeland proved the perfect choice to inaugurate Artful Conversations, which will invite a high-profile creative to campus annually. “First and foremost, I want my dance students 10 years from now to say, ‘I had the chance to interact with Misty directly,’” Moffitt said. “That’s a special moment from their academic experience here at UMBC.” She continued, “And other students who are drawn to attend will learn something really interesting about Misty’s trajectory to becoming not just another ballerina. She has a really interesting story to tell. Often, we believe that these [stars] are overnight successes. We forget how much work, effort, and energy individuals put into making it.” 

Introducing Copeland, Dawn Moore, first lady of Maryland and an advocate for the arts across the state, said, “We have gathered to celebrate the power of dance to inspire and unite…[because] dance nurtures compassion, contemplation, and healing.”

And Copeland left the dance students of all ages with this message: “As a dancer, it’s so easy to get caught up in the minutiae of daily battles, and a lot of those are within ourselves. Every day, it’s important to remind yourself why you’re doing this. I love being on stage—it’s where I feel the most free. It’s liberating. You need to remind yourself of the things that matter to you.”

Learn more about UMBC’s dance and Linehan Artist Scholars programs.

Madelyn (“Maddy”) Pollack ’24, history, is a Humanities Scholar and a member of the Honors College. She is pursuing minors in public history and Judaic studies, and she is active in Hillel and Chabad on campus. Maddy works in Undergraduate Admissions as a Grit Guide and in the UMBC Office of the President as a student archivist. When she isn’t studying or spending time with friends, she enjoys reading. Here Maddy shares the many ways she is involved on campus and why she values all of her sources of support at UMBC.

Q: Tell us what you love about your academic program or another organization you are involved in.

A: I love being part of the Honors College because it’s my home on campus. They give us all the resources we might need, like a study lounge in the library and free printing, and support us beyond that with learning opportunities, free food, and amazing interdisciplinary excursions (did someone say Hamilton at the Hippodrome?). I’m currently taking an Honors Seminar on Star Wars and puppetry, and I think it’s fantastic that we have such an amazing variety of courses. I know that I will stay connected even after I graduate, because Honors College staff have helped me grow so much academically, professionally, and personally. Plus, it’s fun to say that I’m in the Honors College at an honors university! 

Q: Why did you choose UMBC?? 

A: I came to UMBC because I wanted to have the resources of a large university and the feel of a small university. We have the best of both worlds—not too big, but not too small. I love that I can see people I know everywhere I go on campus, but I also feel so lucky to have connections with professors and mentors who can help me do anything I want after graduation.

Q: Since you’ve been a part of the UMBC community, what sources of support have you found to help you reach your goals? 

A: My professors in the history department have been the biggest help in jump-starting my future. They’ve not only provided important skills training in the classroom, but also career planning and networking advice. I even got to intern at NASA—not something you’d expect of someone so far removed from STEM disciplines!

Q: Are you currently part of a scholars program at UMBC? Tell us what you enjoy about it!

A: Being part of the Humanities Scholars Program means I get extra enrichment as a UMBC student. First, we are lucky to have multiple excursions each semester that bring us to local arts events and theatrical performances. Each spring, we get to go on a trip to New York City to visit a museum and see a show on Broadway. (I’m especially excited about this year’s tickets to Six!)

Finally, each Humanities Scholar is encouraged to study abroad, and our scholarships are transferable to our institutions abroad. We can also apply for additional study abroad scholarships to fund our experiences as we become global citizens. I just got back from a semester in London this past fall, and you can see my blogs as an ambassador for our Education Abroad office.

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who is new to the UMBC community to know?

A: Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Everyone remembers what it was like to be new to UMBC, and although the first few times you ask for help might be scary, our community is dedicated to being a family, and you’ll find your place soon!

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Meet Kisha Parker ’00. Kisha is a dual-degree alumna with a B.S. in biological sciences and a B.A. in psychology, and an active member of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors, serving as Chair of the Public Relations Committee. As a student, she was very active, taking leadership roles in several organizations, including the Student Government Association (SGA) as the director of state and national affairs, and the Lambda Kappa Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., as president. UMBC is also where Kisha found love–meeting her future husband, Kevin Parker ’99, mechanical engineering, who was also involved in Greek Life as president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Nu Kappa Chapter, and served on the SGA executive board. This alumni power couple is now married with three children and is forever grateful that their paths crossed at UMBC–their forever home. Take it away, Kisha!

Q: What is your WHY? What brought you to UMBC?

A: What led me to UMBC was the size of the classes, academic reputation, and affordability. The bonus was the amazing avenues of support and opportunities to grow once I became a student. My experience at UMBC has led to an amazing circle of friendships, partnerships, resources, and career opportunities.

Q: What’s your favorite part of being a part of Retriever Nation?

A: Retriever Nation is diverse and multi-faceted. I love bragging about our chess team and mock trial championships, just as much as sports and academic entities. I love celebrating the wide net of accomplishments our alumni are doing around the world and the history we are making with UMBC roots.

Q: Where have you found support in the UMBC community?

A: I had a mentor in LaMont Toliver of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, lived with inspiring, smart, and motivated roommates as consistent models of achievement, and became a part of a legacy of like-minded, multifaceted women in my sorority. These relationships have led to many experiences (too numerous to count…and still ongoing!) that helped me grow mentally, academically, professionally, and as a public service enthusiast.

(On the left, Kisha Parker and her Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. sisters over a 25-year span.)

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who hasn’t joined the UMBC community to know about the support you find here?

A: UMBC has a bit of everything. While strong academic programming is already established, our inclusive culture is invaluable. The support to be successful is here and in multiple forms. Whether it is in the form of day-one-ready mentorship, financial support opportunities, well-thought-out facilities to enhance the student experience and future studies, or administrative planning with students, staff, and alumni in mind, the avenues of support are multifaceted.

Q: Tell us about what you love about an organization you’re involved in.

A: I am a member of the Board of Directors of the UMBC Alumni Association. What I love about this organization is being able to further engage alumni in different ways, contribute to efforts to keep our community connected and aware, and promote UMBC’s brand. I have been able to see UMBC through a very different lens as an alum than I was as a busy and active student, and it has been integral to happily volunteering my time, financial support, and event support.

(On the right, Kisha Parker in her cap and gown on graduation day.)

Q: What drives you to support UMBC?

A: Over the years, I have supported many programs financially, but the Alumni Endowed Scholarship Fund is one I make sure to always support. It allows an avenue for the Alumni Association to award current, deserving students an opportunity to continue their education in ways they need. I have been able to see the impact of these scholarships through the personal testimonies of the recipients, witness the process of awarding these scholarships, and am confident that this donation (and many others!) is going to good and immediate use!

About the Alumni Association Board of Directors

UMBC’s Alumni Association is a non ­dues-paying organization and is led by a volunteerBoard of Directors—volunteer graduates, like Lisa, who support advancing the mission and vision of the association and, by extension, UMBC, through their visibility as alumni leaders and active participants in the ongoing work of the board and its committees.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.