Here at UMBC, we take pride in what our alums accomplish after graduation. Take a moment to see which Retrievers have been on the move and making news!

Alumnus Jaimes Mayhew ‘10, imaging and digital arts, Icelandic Fulbright Scholar and IMDA MFA, will participate in an imaging and digital arts event along with Neja Tomšič, taking place on Thursday, November 6, from noon to 1 p.m. In 2008, Tomšič founded the Museum of Transitory Art in Solvenia. She deals with creating open platform media, public art projects, along with publications and interviews with international artists. Her goal is to bring more engagement with this genre of art forms to the U.S. Read more.

With almost 20 years of human resources experience in the senior living and healthcare industry, Shelli Giardino ’94, political science, has recently been recognized as the new Director of Human Resources at Devonshire at PGA National. She began working for Erickson Living in September 2003 as a senior human resources manager at Charlestown in Catonsville, Md. Over the years she worked her way up to becoming Director of Human Resources. At Devonshire she will be focused on improving the community’s employee environment. Read the full article.

Recently deciding to depart as executive director of Free State Legal, Aaron Merki ’05, political science, has taken on the role to work with the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. As a co-founder of Free State Legal, Merki has been involved with numerous accomplishments relating to legal services of low-income Baltimore residents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. At the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Merki will focus on improving living for the city’s aging population. Read more.

In an interview with the U.K.’s Mirror, Matthew VanDyke ’02, political science, speaks about the tragic story of his friend, journalist James Foley. Foley went missing near Aleppo, Syria, in November 2012 where he was pursuing his passion as a conflicts journalist, and was tragically killed after being held captive. VanDyke pays tribute to his friend, while also discussing the danger and risks that come along with being a journalist in a country such as Syria or Iraq, even when taking all possible precautions. Read VanDyke’s full story.

Have a story of your own to share? Submit a class note.

Name: Edgar Douanla Nzokwe

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: FINRA

Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Engineering

Expected Graduation Year: May 2015

Briefly describe your internship, co-op, research, or service-learning opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

Interning at FINRA has allowed/granted me the opportunity to participate in and undertake various different tasks. For example, one of my very first tasks was to update the department's wiki page, which I did using HTML, SQL, Javascript and CSS to display information on the web page. However, I also participated in some more challenging tasks such as rebooting FINRA's servers after an upgrade. Actually, participating in this reboot let me see just how interrelated the departments are and how much coordination is required to ensure all services get restored. One more task, in fact my favorite one, was writing a program that parses a 20000 line data file and stores the information in Microsoft Excel worksheets and workbooks. Currently, I am working on writing scripts to automate part of the deployment process (getting applications to run on the cloud so that users can access it through the FINRA website).

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

First, I got my resume reviewed by the UMBC Career Center. My resume was 2 pages long when I took it to them but they help me reduce it to a single page with very rich content.

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience?

Career Center, Career Fairs, UMBCworks, Networking Events (Corporate Visibility Days, Info Sessions, Arts with A Purpose,etc.) 

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

I had the chance to work with a wonderful team. Everyone was always happy to answer my questions. I also visited the server room and got to see servers and watch administrators troubleshooting them.

What have you gained from your experience that you could not have gained from another opportunity?

I had the opportunity to work on a variety of tasks which required me to learn new languages such as batch programming, SQL, and Jquery.

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

Get your resume reviewed by the Career Center. Go for a mock interview to learn about your strengths and weaknesses Apply for internships Before Career Fairs, check out companies you like and apply for their internship through their website. Visit them during the fair, talk more about the company and tell them you already applied. Do not get discouraged when you get denied an internship. Just keep applying for more.

Please provide a short quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / the internship placement process.

Never be afraid to express your opinion. It is better to say the wrong thing and be corrected than to never know if your opinion was wrong or right.

For three days beginning September 6 the White House Educational Game Jam invited a select set of professional game developers and academics to create innovative educational game prototypes over single weekend, with the resulting games presented at the White House Executive Office Building.

There were 23 teams and about 100 participants. The team sizes ranged from 1 to 9, with most around 4-5. It was a mix of major companies and schools. Examples of large companies were: Ubisoft, Sony and Rovio. Small companies were: BrainPop, GlassLab and RocketMind. Academic teams included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Melon University, American University, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the Smithsonian and UMBC.

“Our game came out quite well, and we got a bunch of great comments,” says Marc Olano, faculty advisor and associate professor of computer science and engineering.

• Eliot Carney-Seim, BS, Computer Science, Junior
• Paul Tschirgi, BA, Visual Arts, Senior
• Calvin Kumagai, BA, Visual Arts, Senior
• Alex Grube, BS, Computer Science, 2012