All, The high temperature hot water was sucessfully restarted this weekend and the autocleves in the building have been turned on and are operating. Hot water at the sinks in both the laboratories and wash rooms are coming up to temperature slower that I had thought, but should be back to their set points by the end of the day.

Thank you for your patence, this is important work that we have to get done each year.

Hi, my name is Jeydi Guzman. I have recently been accepted to UMBC as a graduate student, and I am looking for a roommate starting in July. I am pretty sociable but very respectful of space. If you're interested, please reach out at 2564855809 or guzmanjeydi1@gmail.com

We're excited to share the Spring 2026 Psychology newsletter! Within it, you will find some of the many recent accomplishments and publications of our students and faculty.

Read the newsletter on our website.

Friendly Reminder, OSP's In Person Training Series Continues with All About Subawards, tomorrow June 9th! Sign up can be found HERE. 

Thank you! 

OSP Training Team

The State Wellness Program aims to motivate, inspire, and educate employees through monthly wellness webinars (live and on-demand), healthy challenges, guided meditations, wellness coaching, and much more. 

June is National Employee Wellness Month

In celebration of National Employee Wellness Month, the State's Employee Benefits Division (EBD) has put together a calendar of special events and webinars designed to support employees' well-being. Celebrate with their special events!

Thursday, June 11, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Pave Your Path to Happiness
Discover the transformative powers that nature, social connection, and self-expression can have on lasting happiness and well-being with practical tips for integrating them into your life. Take charge of your well-being and start paving your path to a healthier, more fulfilling life!
Register for 6/11 Pave Your Path to Happiness

Tuesday, June 16, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Occupational Wellness
Learn practical ways to promote motivation, maintain balance, and foster a healthy relationship with work.
Register for 6/16 Occupational Wellness

Thursday, June 18, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Seated Laughing Yoga
Laughing Yoga is a fun, interactive wellness practice that combines intentional laughter exercises with deep breathing techniques inspired by yoga. Participants engage in guided laughter activities, playful movement, clapping, and breathing exercises that often lead to genuine laughter and connection - no yoga experience, flexibility, or sense of humor required!
Register for 6/18 Seated Laughing Yoga

Wednesday, June 24, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Lowering Inflammation with Food
Discover the profound connection between diet and inflammation and gain insight into how your food consumption impacts your overall well-being. Through practical tips and food recommendations, including anti-inflammatory foods and spices, this health topic encourages mindful eating and lifestyle choices for long-term wellness.
Register for 6/24 Lowering Inflammation with Food

Thursday, June 25, 10:00 am - 10:30 am and 1:00 pm - 1:30 pm: State's Wellness Program Rewards and Resources
Discover how the State’s Wellness Program helps you save money and supports your health by offering $0 PCP copays, reduced specialist copays, reduced fitness memberships and no-cost wellness coaching, weight management programs, and more. Two sessions are being offered on the same day to accommodate varying schedules. Please register separately for your preferred session.
Register for 10:00 am Session | Register for 1:00 pm Session

Mindful Mondays: Wellness at Work Series

Monday, June 15, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Staying Energized Through the Day

Say goodbye to the afternoon energy slump! Learn easy, effective ways to boost and maintain your energy throughout the day with better nutrition, movement, and hydration practices.

Register for 6/15 Staying Energized

Monday, June 22, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Boost Your Emotional Well-Being

Emotional well-being affects how you manage and respond to stress. Experts will provide practical information and simple strategies to support your emotional wellness and overall well-being.

Register for 6/22 Emotional Well-Being

Monday, June 29, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Ease Your Mind with Mindfulness

Explore simple ways to incorporate mindfulness into everyday activities to help you feel more grounded, focused, and at ease.

Register for 6/29 Ease Your Mind

Tasty Tuesdays with Chef Sandra

Tuesday, June 9, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: Chicken Milanese

Few dishes are as satisfying as a perfectly crisp Chicken Milanese. Uncover the secrets to creating a restaurant-worthy yet totally doable homemade version of this classic favorite. You’ll be ready to bring a little Italian-inspired comfort to your own kitchen.

Register for 6/9 Chicken Milanese

Tuesday, June 23, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: Caesar Salad + Homemade Croutons

The iconic Caesar salad offers bold flavor and texture. Learn how to make a caesar dressing with a perfect balance of lemon, garlic, and optional anchovies. Toss it with fresh, crisp romaine and top it with homemade croutons to add a seasonal “from-scratch” element that fits June’s fresh-food focus.

Register for 6/23 Caesar Salad + Homemade Croutons

Tuesday, June 30, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: Lemon and Raspberry Scones

Buttery, tender, and slightly sweet, lemon and raspberry scones bring in the flavors of bright citrus and berries, making them cheerful, light, and perfect for June gatherings, brunches, or outdoor dining.

Register for 6/30 Lemon and Raspberry Scones

Healthy U Wednesdays 

Wednesday, June 10, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Eat Your Rainbow!

Including a variety of colors in your meals significantly boosts your nutrition. Amy, a Registered Dietitian, will provide creative, fun, and delicious recipe ideas for your whole family.

Register for 6/10 Eat Your Rainbow!

Wednesday, June 17, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Keep Dad Healthy and Strong

Celebrate the fathers and father figures in your life by learning practical ways to support long-term health and vitality. From preventive care and healthy habits to fitness, nutrition, stress management, and sleep, you’ll gain tips to help Dad thrive year-round.

Register for 6/17 Keep Dad Healthy and Strong

Wednesday, June 24, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Men's Health Latest Updates

Experts will share the biggest trends and updates shaping men’s health in 2026 such as a renewed focus on longevity, mental health, nutrition, and timely health screenings.

Register for 6/24 Men's Health Latest Updates

Thrive Thursdays

Thursday, June 25, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Boost Your Brainpower

Discover simple daily habits and activities that keep your mind active, sharpen focus, boost memory, and support better brain health at every age.

Register for 6/25 Boost Your Brainpower

Friday Guided Meditations

Friday, June 12, 11:00 am - 11:15 am: Gratitude Circle

Embrace feelings like joy, ease, and fulfillment as you embody gratitude and gladness.

Register for 6/12 Gratitude Circle

Friday, June 26, 11:00 am - 11:15 am: The Virtual Healing Fountain

Visualizing a healing fountain may offer benefits like stress reduction, mental clarity, emotional healing, and physical relaxation.

Register for 6/26 The Healing Fountain

Tips for a Healthier You

Friday, June 12, 11:30 am - 11:45 am: Men's Health

Explore simple steps everyone can take to better understand, support, and improve men’s health and wellness.

Register for 6/12 Men's Health

Friday, June 26, 11:30 am - 11:45 am: Alcohol Use and Misuse

For many, drinking alcohol in moderation is a part of life, but consuming too much may harm health. Learn how alcohol impacts the body and get tools to support a healthier relationship with it.

Register for 6/26 Alcohol Use and Misuse

They say a rising tide lifts all ships—the idea that when an ecosystem prospers, everyone within it is propelled upward by the same powerful current. The same can be said for UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program. At least that was the experience of Alycia Marshall ’95, mathematics. The Meyerhoff tide eventually lifted her higher than she imagined: president of the Community College of Philadelphia. 

As an undergraduate student at UMBC, Marshall wasn’t a Meyerhoff Scholar by title, but she felt like one by proximity. Many of her friends were Meyerhoff Scholars. Her peers were Meyerhoff Scholars. Her line sisters Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated were Meyerhoff Scholars. Everywhere she turned, she was surrounded by Meyerhoff Scholars.

“Even though I wasn’t a Meyerhoff, I was sucked into this culture of high achievement,” says Marshall. “I call it ‘the Meyerhoff Effect.’”

Pictured above: Marshall and members of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated on campus.

Brilliance was the baseline, and everyone strived to do their absolute best. It became a friendly peer-to-peer competition. But more than that, for Marshall, it was inspiring to see so many high-achieving Black students in one place, pushing each other to be the best versions of themselves.

“I had been in talented and gifted classes my entire school career,” says Marshall. “I was used to being around high-achieving students, but I was always the one person of color in the room. I was just floored to actually see so many people that looked like me who were high achieving at one time, in one place.”

For Marshall, that “Meyerhoff Effect” caused a fundamental shift in her internal barometer for success. She began to see her own potential through a wider lens—one that would eventually take her from a shy undergraduate student at UMBC to the President’s Office at CCP.

The teaching bug

Marshall started her UMBC journey as a biology major. Math and teaching were not even on her radar as potential careers—but that all changed pretty quickly during Marshall’s first year. Her “aha moment” occurred during a Calculus 1 lecture. Marshall was doing well in the course, but she knew she could do even better. She wanted that “A.” So, when the professor offered extra credit to anyone who could go to the board and explain the solution to a problem, Marshall couldn’t help herself. While other students were intimidated by the hundreds of students in that lecture hall class, and the difficulty of the material, Marshall regularly volunteered. She found that she wasn’t just good at solving the equations—she was good at communicating the logic behind them. “I got something out of that,” she says. Before she knew it, her classmates were asking to study with her, and Marshall started tutoring a few of her peers.

“That experience encouraged me to think about mathematics and teaching as a profession,” says Marshall. 

After graduating from UMBC in 1995 with a B.S. in mathematics, Marshall began her teaching career at Bishop McNamara High School, a private school in Forestville, Maryland, before moving to Frederick Douglass High School, a public school in Prince George’s County. Around the same time, she began a master’s program at Bowie State University, eventually earning her masters of arts in teaching in 1998. Then, she got the higher education itch.

Education that changes lives

“I was very intrigued by the idea of teaching at the college level,” says Marshall, who quickly found an adjunct role at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), teaching developmental math part-time. She was teaching high school students during the day and non-traditional college students twice a week in the evenings for AACC at Fort George G. Meade, a United States Army installation in Maryland.

“That was a whole different experience for me,” says Marshall, “understanding how important education was and how people were seeking that to change their lives.”

She was hooked. So, when a full-time position opened up, Marshall jumped at the opportunity and for the next 23 years she built an impressive career at AACC. During this time, Marshall also earned a Ph.D. in mathematics education from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2007. Her career saw her move from a professor of mathematics to the first African American woman to chair the department. Eventually, she worked her way up to associate vice president of learning and academic affairs. However, the work Marshall says she is most proud of is what she’s done throughout her career to support underrepresented students in STEM and leadership—an effort to replicate aspects of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the community college level.

When the idea initially occurred to Marshall, the first thing she did was reach out to her mentor, Freeman Hrabowski, III, UMBC president emeritus. He invited Marshall and AACC leaders to UMBC to meet with him and LaMont Toliver, then the director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program and assistant dean of undergraduate education.

“It was great,” says Marshall. “That never would have happened had it not been for my connection to UMBC, my relationship with Dr. Hrabowski, and his continued interest in supporting me well beyond my graduation.”

The UMBC field trip and a National Science Foundation grant helped Marshall start the Engineering Scholars Program at AACC, connecting underrepresented students with scholarships, mentoring, and support services. Marshall also created the African American Leadership Institute to develop highly qualified, diverse leaders through targeted leadership development to improve the retention rates for this population and increase the diversity of college leadership.

For years after that, whenever Hrabowski was in a room with Marshall, he would introduce her with a bold proclamation: “This is Dr. Marshall. She’s a UMBC graduate, and she’s going to be a president one day.” 

“When Doc pours into people that way, he has a way of speaking their future into them,” says Marshall. “I leaned on that. Knowing that he knew I could do it helped me know I could do it, too.” 

Marshall left AACC in 2022 to become the provost and vice president for academic and student success at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP). And it didn’t take long for her to make an impact. Soon after joining CCP, Marshall started the Aspiring Leaders Fellowship Program for employees interested in moving into higher education leadership roles. The program, now in its third cohort, matches participants with senior leaders from different institutions who serve as mentors.

Marshall also started a new faculty onboarding program to provide newly hired faculty the tools they need to succeed—time to learn ways to enhance their pedagogical practices and build on their teaching skills in their first year at CCP—as well as a new department head onboarding program.

“There’s a similar theme with all this about professional development, continuous improvement, and making sure folks have the tools that they need,” says Marshall.

In 2025, Hrabowski’s prophecy came true. Marshall was named CCP president, the first Black woman to serve in the role in a permanent capacity.

Upon receiving the news, one of Marshall’s first calls was to the man who believed in her future before she believed it herself.

“When I told Doc I got the job…he was emotional,” says Marshall. “He was so very proud of me. It was a wonderful day.”

Want to work on real-world challenges? The Grand Challenge Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County is open to students from all majors.

The program is built around the National Academy of Engineering’s 14 Grand Challenges and is designed to address major issues in sustainability, health, security, and joy of living. Students create a personalized path through research, entrepreneurship, service, interdisciplinary learning, and global experiences focused on a chosen challenge. 

Who can apply: 

Juniors and Seniors from all disciplines who have at least three semesters to graduate.

Application deadline: June 22

Learn more and apply!

Name: Venkata Sai Harsha Kothapalli

Pronouns: He/Him

Semester of Internship: Spring 2026

Major: M.S. in Computer Science

Current Class Level: Master's Student

This semester I completed a(n)...: Internship

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site (Company/Organization Name): Platinum Business Services

Location of the Organization (City, State): Catonsville, Maryland

Title of position: Data & AI Intern

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities:

 I am currently working as a Data and AI Engineer Intern at Platinum Business Services, where I support the development and deployment of AI-powered applications for real-world business use cases. On a day-to-day basis, I collaborate with the team to build and improve intelligent systems that help clients work more efficiently. My responsibilities involve working across the full lifecycle of a project from understanding what a client needs, to helping design a solution, to testing and refining it until it works well. I spend a lot of my time communicating with teammates, reviewing how systems are performing, and making improvements based on feedback. It has been a hands-on experience that has taught me how technology projects come together in a professional setting beyond the classroom.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

 I first came across Platinum Business Services through the Maryland Technology Internship Program (MTIP), which connected me to local tech companies offering internship opportunities. Shortly after, I had the chance to meet representatives from Platinum at the UMBC Career Fair, which gave me the opportunity to make a personal connection and learn more about what the company does. That conversation left a strong impression on me, and I followed up by submitting my application shortly after the fair. The team invited me in for an interview, and I was offered the position not long after. The combination of discovering the opportunity through MTIP and then building that in-person connection at the career fair made the process feel very natural and gave me confidence going into the interview.

What resources did you use to find your current experience?

UMBC Career Center, Career Fairs, Handshake, LinkedIn or other social media

What have you enjoyed the most about your position and organization?

What I have enjoyed most about my time at Platinum Business Services is the openness and trust the team extends to its interns. From early on, I was treated as a contributing member of the team rather than just a student learning from the sidelines. I appreciated that my ideas were heard and that I was given real responsibility on projects that mattered to the organization. 

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I believe my impact has come from helping bridge the gap between complex technical capabilities and practical business needs. By contributing to AI-powered tools and applications, I have helped the team deliver solutions that save time and reduce manual effort for clients. Beyond the technical output, I also made an effort to document my work clearly and communicate progress regularly, which I believe helped keep projects organized and moving forward.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

My biggest piece of advice is to take advantage of every resource your university offers especially the Career Fair and programs like MTIP  because opportunities often come from conversations you didn't expect. Don't wait until you feel completely ready to apply, because the internship itself is where the real learning happens. And always follow up whether it's after a career fair conversation or a job interview. That one follow-up email can make all the difference.

Hi everyone!

My friend and I are two female graduate students looking for housing near UMBC. We are hoping to move in during the last week of July.

We are looking for a place that is close to campus, preferably along the Paradise route. We would also prefer female housemates if possible.

If you know of any available rooms, apartments, or housing opportunities, please feel free to reach out. Any leads would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

I am looking for an accommodation starting this July. My budget is $500 and would rather a place close to campus. Please hit me up if you are looking for a female roommate.