Retrievers for life, that’s UMBC’s promise, and a  group of residents at Charlestown’s senior living community are keeping their end of the bargain. Located two miles away from UMBC’s Catonsville campus, 60 or so retired and current faculty, staff, alumni, and friends at Charlestown are enjoying the ongoing cultural and educational perks of the two institutions. Several of these “Friends of UMBC” are laying the groundwork for continued exchange and connection—jazz concerts, classes about gender and sexuality, high-profile speakers—leaving a legacy for future generations to follow.

Art Johnson, professor emeritus, enjoys a jazz concert at Charlestown.

Around the café tables, heads are bobbing in rhythm tonight.

A duo of UMBC jazz students—Henry Smith ’24, on alto saxophone, and Leo Hickman ’27, on electric mandolin—are deep into their own takes on jazz standards. “Caravan,” “Misty,” and “There is No Greater Love” pour jauntily from their instruments.
 
The seniors here at Charlestown Senior Living know those tunes. Every song the UMBC jazz duo played was composed long before the student musicians were born, but just in the sweet spot for the audience. In the café where many have just eaten their crab soup and burgers for dinner, more than 100 Charlestown residents, including at least six who have tight connections to UMBC, clapped for the efforts of the young jazz players. 

After the two finished playing “All of Me,” the crowd erupted in applause. 

“That was ‘All of Me,’” Smith said into the microphone. “I feel like lots of you know that one. We’re having a great time playing for you. This is super fun!”

By 8 p.m. the crowd was stuffing dollar bills and fivers into the musicians’ tip jar by the mic and in paper bags held by volunteers at each exit. Then the seniors headed back to their apartments at the end of long corridors and in different buildings, very much like college dorms for older folks. 

Strengthening Connections

A dedicated group of nearly 60 retired and current faculty and staff, alumni, or relatives have formed to promote connections between UMBC and Charlestown, a sprawling senior community with 2,000 residents. Thanks to their efforts, UMBC professors are teaching classes at the senior living community, Charlestown residents are traveling to UMBC for events, and  helping the senior community’s restaurant staff with scholarship applications, funded by Charlestown residents, to UMBC and other Maryland colleges. 

“That’s what I’m trying to do here, make connections,” said Art Johnson, provost emeritus who retired in 2019 from his position as political science professor and director of the Sondheim Scholars program. He moved to Charlestown in 2022 and since then, like a first-year student in search of college social groups, he has been indefatigably recruiting residents to join the Friends of UMBC at Charlestown.

“It helps maintain my connection to UMBC and lets me brag a little bit about UMBC,” Johnson said, laughing. “I meet people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. As provost, I used to promote UMBC all over. This is just an extension of that.”

Johnson met Lucy McKean on the bocce court, learned one of her kids went to UMBC, and reeled her into the group. 

“Any connection will do,” Johnson said. “That’s how you build a long mailing list.”

Sitting at a dinner table on the Charlestown campus, McKean and Johnson laughed together. Thanks to the Friends of UMBC group, she’s now attending jazz concerts, which she never thought she would do.

The idea for a formal-ish group sprang from a walk that Johnson and Sam Lomonaco, computer science and electrical engineering professor, took around Charlestown in the fall of 2022. They wanted to create a web of connections between UMBC and Charlestown. 

Lomonaco, who has lived at Charlestown for three years, still teaches at UMBC. His commute is nicely short, he said, and having a partnership between UMBC and Charlestown offers “a good chance to do things together. I meet a lot of interesting people I would not have met otherwise. And,” he said with a grin, “I’ve gotten interested in jazz.”

Johnson and Lomonaco started small, with a social for UMBC-connected folks at Charlestown. They’ve grown to arrange trips to programs by UMBC’s arts and culture departments, as well as the Wisdom Institute (the association for retired UMBC faculty and staff), and those monthly jazz concerts. As well, Johnson and others publish a newsletter and are recruiting UMBC faculty to teach courses at Charlestown through ELLIC (Elderhostel’s Lifelong Learning Institute at Charlestown), including classes on galaxies, genes, and gender. 

“Art has been a binder, keeping us together,” said Bernice De Bels ’76, English, the first Black honors graduate at UMBC, who later worked in the foreign language department and now lives at Charlestown. “With UMBC we should explore what we have to offer them and what they have to offer us.”

Keeping Memory Alive

Diane Lee hugs Pamela Morgan, the former director of the Office of Field Experiences and Clinical Practice in UMBC’s education department and a Wisdom Institute Board Member.

Of the many courses offered at Charlestown’s ELLIC program, nine are taught by UMBC faculty. That’s not a coincidence. Though the connections between Charlestown and UMBC have been sporadic, the institutions do have history. 

John Erickson, who founded Erickson Living, which owns Charlestown, has long worked with UMBC to promote the study of getting older. Through joint efforts of Erickson and then-president Freeman Hrabowski, in 2004 the state funded the Erickson School of Aging Studies at UMBC, and Erickson Living donated $5 million for the school’s development.

Jeff Watson, who is on the faculty for the Erickson School of Aging Studies and serves as Erickson’s director of operations, also researches geriatric cognition.

“The literature and growing academic consensus is that whatever is good for the heart is good for the lungs is good for the brain,” Watson said. “Thus a healthy lifestyle, reducing inflammation and injury, while increasing physical and cognitive strength, and engaging in life, builds better brain health.”

Erickson researchers have published a study in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry testing UCLA Longevity Center researchers’ findings about memory fitness on two of Erickson’s campuses, Riderwood and Oak Crest. Watson said they found that “eating wisely, exercising daily, learning consistently, relaxing meaningfully, and connecting socially” is optimal for a healthy lifestyle for seniors.  

The Friends of UMBC are all about learning and socializing while they’re matchmaking between UMBC and Charlestown. For years, Johnson said, UMBC talked about collaborating with Charlestown, but it never really manifested to the extent they envisioned.

“One of our long-term goals is to try to bring the two institutions closer together,” Johnson said. “We could cooperate on issues: sustainability, local transportation, good health care…. We talked about it years ago when I was at UMBC, but it never happened.”

Same Goals, From Different Directions

UMBC’s Wisdom Institute is trying to accomplish the same community-building as the UMBC group at the senior village. But now, they’re working together.

Johnson, who serves on the Wisdom Institute’s board, is the hub, said Diane Lee, director of the UMBC organization for retirees. 

“He brilliantly brought people together,” Lee said. “What a wonderful way to reconnect with these folks.” 

The Wisdom Institute is printing extra copies of its newsletters for distribution at Charlestown, and for a recent event, the institute rented out the Charlestown bus to bring UMBC-curious residents to a lunch and keynote by WJZ-TV anchor Denise Koch. The institute plans to invite Charlestown residents to other events, including observatory tours in UMBC’s Physics Building, monthly lunches, discussions, and concerts. 

“We really want to forge this tie,” Lee said. “We like the idea of reciprocity.”

For 30 years, Lee taught at UMBC in the education department and worked in the administration. “I came as a visiting assistant professor with no intention of staying. But it was an exciting place and an exciting time to be there.”

She, like many of the longtime UMBC staff and faculty who now live at Charlestown, helped build UMBC from the ground up into the institution it is today. 

“It’s a wonderful place to be,” Lee said. The work was demanding but energizing, she said. “And people cared. We’re trying to capture the spirit, to continue that sense of self and community and the kind of work we did together. UMBC was not just a campus. We talked about one another as family.”

Dream Students

Donna Martin, Kate Drabinski, and students Marcus Ross, Sage Zoz, and August Wichman pose together after a class about gender and sexuality through the Enjoy Lifelong Learning in Charlestown program. Photo courtesy of Drabinski.

Kate Drabinski, principal lecturer in gender and women’s and sexuality studies, has visited Charlestown eight times to teach over three years. She jokes that if she teaches two more classes, she’ll earn a punch card for a free meal at Charlestown’s restaurant.

“It’s been some of the most valuable teaching I’ve done,” Drabinski said of the senior students learning through the ELLIC program, Enjoy Lifelong Learning in Charlestown. “They are rapt, they take notes, they ask questions. It’s a dream setup.”

On a spring Tuesday, Drabinski brought UMBC students who identify as gay, transgender, and nonbinary to the senior living community to tell their coming out stories, along with their struggles and joys around gender and sexuality. 

“It’s been really moving for us, and also for the residents, to make these connections,” Drabinski said.

One student, who performs in drag shows, grew up on the same block as one of the residents, Drabinski said. The resident stood up and said she was proud of the student, Drabinski said, “for being brave and sharing her story.”

At least one of the Charlestown residents has a nonbinary grandchild, Drabinski said. “They probably feel uncomfortable asking their grandchild these questions,” she continued, but were curious and asked many questions of the students without the fear of rejection from a family member.

And she asked the students a question in front of the residents: “What do you wish your grandparents had said to you when you told them your coming out story? They said, ‘I want you to be part of my life—I trust you and this is a gift I’m giving.’”

They also discussed the generational misunderstandings, Drabinski said, “hot-button issues.” One resident asked why drag queens were reading stories at libraries. Students were worried about the question, but Drabinski said she maneuvered the fear in the room and, ultimately, they had a “fantastic discussion, the kind of discussion you only have when you have dedicated intergenerational space.”

Drabinski said her students came away from the interaction enriched. “Just because people are old doesn’t mean they are hostile. It was a huge benefit to students to get to practice telling their stories, to build confidence, and to learn from the questions the seniors are asking. It was a really positive experience.”

Familiar Tunes in a New Way

Now that he’s retired, Johnson has time to fulfill the goal of bringing UMBC and Charlestown closer. 

One evening before the jazz concert, Johnson pulled together members of his group of UMBC folks to chat in the atrium of one of Charlestown’s buildings. 

Pat Bettridge, who came to UMBC in 1966 and did graduate work in English, was married to English professor William Bettridge, and remembers UMBC in the 1960s as “a hole in the ground.” Bettridge, who has lived at Charlestown for 11 years, helped bring UMBC artists, dancers and theater productions to the senior living community over the years. 

“It’s a good idea to get us together, to continue what we started 10 years ago,” Bettridge said.

Sebastian Petix, organizer of Charlestown’s jazz club and a friend of the Friends of UMBC, has worked with Matt Belzer, senior lecturer in jazz studies at UMBC, to bring the jazz groups to Charlestown. Petix, who played piano and trumpet and organized concert series before retirement, formed the Charlestown Jazz Club, and quickly signed onto the idea of bringing Retriever musicians onto Charlestown’s campus. 

Art Johnson, Diane Lee, and Denise Koch chat with community members at the Wisdom Institute’s Signature Event in April 2024

“The audiences have really loved them,” Petix said. His jazz club, including some UMBC members, are planning a trip to see the UMBC semester’s final jazz recitals.

Valerie Woolston, whose husband Charles started as UMBC’s admissions director in 1968, helps edit the Friends of UMBC newsletter. She’s attended every jazz concert.

“They’re terrific,” Woolston said, nodding at the duo warming up in front of the crowd. “It’s really great to see how young people develop. They write their own music,” she said, almost as proud as a grandparent.

“I’m really pulled to UMBC,” said Woolston. “I’m really proud of it.”
Then she settled down with friends to watch the students play old, familiar tunes in a new way. 

“I’m really pulled to UMBC,” said Woolston. “I’m really proud of it.”

Then she settled down with friends to watch the students play old, familiar tunes in a new way.

International travel offers ample opportunities to stretch yourself—one minute you may be the expert and the next, completely clueless about how something works. Retrievers currently in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program—teaching English or researching around the globe—find themselves oscillating between their teaching and student roles on a daily or hourly basis. By engaging their host communities through openness and cultural humility (and many shared cups of tea or coffee), these Fulbrighters are finding their balance along the way.

All eyes are on Milan Richardson ’23 as she helps her co-teacher keep score in a Jeopardy-like game her students are playing. Richardson teaches English to several classes of first through sixth-grade students at Jinsha Elementary School in Kinmen County, Taiwan. As she completes the Mandarin character for the numeral 5, a wave of giggles and chatter flows through the room. 

Similar to a U.S. tally—four strokes and a strike though, the Mandarin character has 5 strokes total and needs to be written a certain way to represent 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. “The students were so confused because I wrote the character strokes in the wrong order,” says Richardson, who is used to solving complex math as a Meyerhoff Scholar having earned a bachelor’s degree in bioinformatics and computational biology and minors in computer science and modern, languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication. 

“I wanted to write the character correctly. I asked, and they showed me the proper order to write the strokes,” says Richardson, a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA). “They started clapping once I got it right. This was one of the many cool moments where my students were able to teach me.”

While she may be new to teaching in Taiwan, Richardson brings with her four years as an English and math tutor and a minor in Mandarin. “Taiwan was so different from any place I’ve ever been to. I was overwhelmed at first,” says Richardson. “I like it a lot, now. In my second month, I applied for a scooter license. Now I ride around the island and have taken my scooter other places on trips.”

Diplomas earned. Visas in hand. Vaccines completed. Luggage packed. Destination confirmed. Last summer, UMBC’s eight participants in the 2023 – 2024 Fulbright U.S. Student Program checked off all the important items on their to-do lists. The only thing left was to get to their placements on islands and in landlocked countries, cities, and countrysides across East Asia and Eastern Europe. It’s easier written than done. To adapt well to a new community, job, language, and culture, they must practice the art of humility and flexibility as their roles shift regularly from teacher to student.

Leading the Fulbright charge

All technicalities aside, the Fulbright experience is the beginning of building an international network of teachers and researchers who share the diversity and possibility of the U.S. with the world. In return, across the globe, communities welcome the next generation of leaders into their cities, neighborhoods, schools, and homes to share their country’s history, innovations, and culture. Since Fulbright’s inception in 1946, these reciprocal acts of kindness have created multiple paths forward to lifelong worldwide collaboration and understanding based on the simple act of giving someone different than yourself a chance.

“The Fulbright Program truly demonstrates public diplomacy in action,” says Brian Souders, M.A.’19, TESOL, and Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy, and culture, the associate director of global learning at UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement. In this role, Souders, who received a 2023 Fulbright International Education Administrator award to Germany, has led hundreds of Retrievers through the Fulbright application process as UMBC’s Fulbright Program advisor. “Whether in the classroom as teachers, students, or researchers, recipients learn about the world as much as they share what it means to be from the U.S. and UMBC alumni,” says Souders. 

Thanks to Souders’ guidance, UMBC is one of 57 doctoral universities nationwide and three in Maryland to receive a Fulbright Top Producing Institution designation for 2023 – 2024, for the third time in the last five years. In the last decade, more than 80 UMBC alumni have received  Fulbright awards. Out of the 10 Retrievers who received a 2023 – 2024 Fulbright, eight are currently placed internationally, seven are ETAs and one is on a research grant.

The hard work of play

There are U.S. Fulbright student scholars in more than 100 countries worldwide. Three Retrievers were placed in Taiwan—they keep in touch regularly, see each other at ETA trainings, and are planning to travel together during their Fulbright year. But they all arrived in Taiwan separately and faced different challenges settling in. 

“I arrived in Taiwan and immediately changed my plans because the airline lost my luggage,” says Humanities Scholar Kara Gavin ’20, English. She was grateful to have a carry-on. “It was chaotic. I was taking it all in,” says Gavin. A day and a 50-minute plane ride later, she arrived in Penghu County, Taiwan, an archipelago of about 90 islands between China and the main island of Taiwan. “The little beach town is in its own little world,” says Gavin. “The smell of the sand gave me comfort.”

Gavin teaches beginner English at two local junior high schools. New to Asia and Mandarin, Gavin’s thinking cap is on 24 – 7, including learning Mandarin in between teaching classes. “Living independently for the first time is hard on its own, but doing it in a foreign country is a whole other ball game,” says Gavin. “I’m acquiring many new life skills that will last me a lifetime.” 

One of those is sympathizing with her students and anyone learning a new language and culture. “I teach the English pronunciation and spelling of a word,” says Gavin. “Then, they like to share the Mandarin equivalent with me. It’s all about patience, balance, and trust.” She also models intercultural teamwork by developing and teaching lessons with her bilingual (Mandarin/English) Taiwanese co-teacher to foster student engagement and enrichment.

For Fulbright Scholars, it is equally important to engage with communities beyond the classroom. When they apply for the grant, the Fulbright Program asks them to develop ideas to share their passions and skills in a community project. For Gavin, this meant adding a little drama to have a lot of fun. As a performing artist, Gavin knows the theatre can be a powerful community-building outlet. “I wanted to encourage students and other community members to express themselves and share their culture with me and others,” says Gavin. 

She found a kindred spirit in a professor at a local university. They formed a drama club at the university for English language learners at all levels to explore American play formats with Taiwanese traditions and histories.“Writing original bilingual plays, in English and Mandarin, based on folktales about island traditions is creating an artistic and fun cultural exchange and understanding outside of my ETA duties,” says Gavin. 

Finding the right pace

For fellow Humanities Scholar Nailah-Benā Chambers ’23, global studies, a Fulbright award to Taiwan was a natural next step. Chambers began learning Mandarin and all things Taiwanese in sixth grade at a Taiwanese Mandarin language immersion school in her hometown of Richmond, Virginia. As her Mandarin improved, she tutored other English speakers. This oscillating pattern of being a student and a teacher makes Chambers adaptable and persistent, she says. 

But it hasn’t always been easy. When she first visited Taipei, Taiwan, in the spring of 2023 on a Mandarin language-intensive study abroad program, “I was so confident. I walked into a 7-Eleven to shop. No one could understand me,” says Chambers. “It was a bit embarrassing. Even with my language and cultural skills, I had a long way to go to mastering Mandarin.”

Now on her Fulbright ETA grant, Chambers arrived on solid ground, both culturally and linguistically. “I felt such a sense of calm and familiarity. Taiwan is so welcoming,” says Chambers. “It calms you down. Things are much slower here than in the U.S.” Soon enough, Chambers was balancing classrooms at Huludun Elementary and Fu Chun Elementary in Taichung City, on the main island of Taiwan, with students at both schools on the extreme spectrum of English proficiency.

The upside of working with proficient English language learners is connecting on more advanced topics and sticking to Fulbright’s English-only immersion model. At one of her schools, the students are beginning English language learners, and the administrators only speak Mandarin. “My experience as a bilingual teacher and learner with a high level of understanding of the local language and culture has helped with classroom management and fostering powerful connections with students and administrators,” says Chambers. “It also helps to advance their grasp of the nuances of American English, especially when there are gray areas or misunderstandings.”  

Keeping your ears open

Watching anime, reading manga, (Japanese graphic novels), and participating in their fandom inspired Paul Ocone ’22, individualized study, a Linehan Artist Scholar, to research these subjects and learn Japanese. “I have deeply engaged in fan social life and communities—from leading an anime club to participating in and running conventions to moderating online communities—my affinity for and interest in anime fan spaces runs deep,” says Ocone. Part of Ocone’s observations include witnessing how some fan subcultures limit their membership in fear that a broader fanbase would weaken their subculture identity. In contrast, he says, other fan subcultures are more flexible while maintaining their identity.

Interested in adding to his initial research in U.S. fan spaces, Ocone is now at the epicenter of anime and manga culture as a Fulbright Student Researcher doing anthropological research with Morikawa Kaichirō, a leading scholar in this field at Meiji University’s School of Global Japanese Studies in Tokyo, also home to the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures.

“I have had some amazing experiences participating in anime pilgrimage or anime tourism, including learning much from other fans and benefitting from their generosity,” says Ocone. “My Japanese is conversational—sometimes it’s challenging to understand specialized topics, but this has not deterred me from adding anime and manga tourism as a second research project.” In January, Ocone presented his work at the Popular Culture Tourism Stakeholders Summit in Japan.

Ocone is a sort of tourist himself, enjoying various aspects of Japanese pop culture. The daily musicality of Tokyo teaches him about enjoying the rhythm of the day. “Each train station plays a unique melody when the train departs,” says Ocone. These melodies or “hassha merodii,” are catchy and echo around in his brain like the convenience store jingles that also greet customers. “I was happily surprised when I heard a loudspeaker playing a symphony in my neighborhood,” says Ocone. “Another one played the following day and the next. I learned this was a daily sunset ritual.” He knows these sound experiences will play in his head long after returning to the U.S.

Learning new languages

This is not the first time David Bullman ’22, ancient studies, visited North Macedonia. He first went in 1995 as a performing musician and public affairs representative for the U.S. Army.

“North Macedonia was very different coming out of the Cold War,” says Bullman. “The infrastructure and general state of repair of public spaces and businesses is much better than I recall from that time.”

Now, as an ETA, Bullman teaches British civilization and American civilization in addition to three different levels of English at the University of Totovo in the Republic of North Macedonia, a landlocked country north of Greece. In Totovo, students begin learning English in elementary school and are fluent by the time they reach college. “I thought I would be teaching English basics,” says Bullman, “but it’s been great to teach a complex subject in the context of where my students live.” 

His students are equally glad to help him with the local language. Macedonian and Albanian are the country’s two official languages. Bullman began learning some key Macedonian phrases in preparation for his trip. However, Albanian is the preferred language in Tetovo. After traveling with the Army to more than 15 countries on three continents, Bullman is used to rapidly switching gears and accepting help.

He eagerly takes on the student role when it comes to learning about new foods. Bullman’s apartment faces the Hapësira Socio-Kulturore Tetovë, a community center where locals and the nearby Peace Corps Volunteers sometimes organize activities, like an ajvar-making gathering. Ajvar is a delicacy across the Balkans made every fall. It’s a tradition passed down through centuries with many recipe variations. “Ajvar is made by charring red bell peppers that are then peeled, minced, seasoned, and cooked for hours,” says Bullman. It boils down to a relish that can be preserved for months, but locals tell Bullman that’s rare because it’s too good to keep for even one week. After participating in the preparation and getting to take home a few jars,  Bullman agrees with the locals. Ajvar is now his go-to condiment on eggs, pasta, toast—anything goes.

Albanian and cooking are not the only languages Bullman tapped into while in Tetovo. As a lifelong clarinet player, Bullman hoped to create a musical exchange with local musicians. The opportunity presented itself when the dean of the Faculty of Art wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving. Bullman collaborated with the music faculty, the orchestra director, and students to create a concert of six songs. “I’m glad I returned to North Macedonia. The people are as warm and friendly as I remembered them to be,” says Bullman. “I wanted to come back and experience it myself again.”

Tapping into curiosity

On her way to her Fulbright placement, Sianna Serio ’23, computer science, went city hopping. “I was headed to Žilina, Slovakia, east of Austria and south of Poland,” says Serio. “I flew into Vienna, Austria, then I took a one-hour bus ride crossing Austria’s eastern border into Slovakia to get to Bratislava, the capital.“ There she met other ETAs for orientation. “A week later, I hopped on a two-hour train ride to my teaching placement in Žilina and I met my wonderful mentor, Maria Veršova, who became my second mom.”

Serio teaches at the Hotel Academy, Žilina. The academy focuses on hotel management, gastronomy, and tourism. “My students are beginning English language learners,” says Serio. “I teach what the class is interested in, like American pop culture, because they rarely meet a native English speaker.” During outings with her students, they ask about a wide range of topics. “There are many topics that I would not have thought to cover if it were not for time spent outside of the classroom,” says Serio, “Some of those conversations became formal lessons, like the lesson on the three branches of the U. S. government.”

Serio appreciates her students’ curiosity. She tapped into her love of website development and design to improve her students’ confidence in writing and speaking English and prepare for their Maturita exam, a national high school exit exam. “Some of my students are helping me design a class webpage for them where I will showcase their class and post some of their practice writing in English,” says Serio. “These posts will include topics covered in the Maturita exam, information about their school, and answers to questions about Slovakia.”

Serio’s mentor Maria Veršova, head of the English department, is her motivation. She guides her through lesson planning, class schedules, and the challenges of relocating to a new country. “When my original housing plans fell through, Maria found housing for me five minutes from her house,” says Serio. “She helped me find health insurance and open a bank account. Her husband set up my internet.” They have welcomed Serio almost daily into their home for dinner, tea, coffee, or wine. Serio is a gracious guest and lent her graphic design expertise to help Veršova design invitation cards for her 50th birthday party. Veršova tells Serio she will always have a place to stay in Žilina.

Fulbright: The next generation

Teaching has defined the last decade for Tiffany Powell, a master’s student in UMBC’s TESOL program, a passion she invested in as an English language learner teacher in Seoul and in Miryang City, South Korea, for five years, and in Florida this past year. Now, she is in Iași, Romania, southwest of Ukraine, at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University teaching American studies. Powell is committed to bridging culture, community, and belonging by bringing technology into the classroom. 

Powell also decided to bring the research and cultural understanding closer to home by partnering with Romanian teachers to develop a five-part series on African American women’s history. “We talked about Black women in science in the context of the movie Hidden Figures and discussed Hollywood’s portrayal of Black life,” says Powell. The class is now creating a series on Romanian women. Helping students better understand the similarities and differences between U.S. and Romanian cultures has been an eye-opening experience for Powell.

She sees the impact of a country formerly under communism. In Iași, sometimes the internet doesn’t work and, in her school, there are no clubs or student organizations to gain the skills needed to earn a Fulbright award. “My students have given me a new perspective. You may want to come in and make changes, but you must understand where they’re coming from. There is a saying in Iași, ‘It’s not impossible. It’s just difficult,’” says Powell. She is trying to help with the difficult part by leading Fulbright application and leadership workshops. 

Powell, like the other Fulbrighters, will bring her experiences home with her and wherever she ends up teaching English next. When their Fulbright year ends, these Retriever ambassadors will find themselves as emissaries yet again, returning to their hometowns, sharing the good news of ajvar made in community, the freedom of a scooter ride along a Taiwanese beach, or the correct stroke order for writing the Mandarin number five. The lessons their students and host families passed along—including pausing to take a breath and appreciate their international successes small and large—will continue to form and shape the way they see the world.

“Having a flexible mindset and under-standing the historical context of your placement is key,” says Powell. “I carry myself as a U.S. representative. Living abroad teaches humility, adaptability, and open-mindedness to press on through challenging times.”

International travel offers ample opportunities to stretch yourself—one minute you may be the expert and the next, completely clueless about how something works. Retrievers currently in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program—teaching English or researching around the globe—find themselves oscillating between their teaching and student roles on a daily or hourly basis. By engaging their host communities through openness and cultural humility (and many shared cups of tea or coffee), these Fulbrighters are finding their balance along the way.

All eyes are on Milan Richardson ’23 as she helps her co-teacher keep score in a Jeopardy-like game her students are playing. Richardson teaches English to several classes of first through sixth-grade students at Jinsha Elementary School in Kinmen County, Taiwan. As she completes the Mandarin character for the numeral 5, a wave of giggles and chatter flows through the room. 

Similar to a U.S. tally—four strokes and a strike though, the Mandarin character has 5 strokes total and needs to be written a certain way to represent 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. “The students were so confused because I wrote the character strokes in the wrong order,” says Richardson, who is used to solving complex math as a Meyerhoff Scholar having earned a bachelor’s degree in bioinformatics and computational biology and minors in computer science and modern, languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication. 

“I wanted to write the character correctly. I asked, and they showed me the proper order to write the strokes,” says Richardson, a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA). “They started clapping once I got it right. This was one of the many cool moments where my students were able to teach me.”

While she may be new to teaching in Taiwan, Richardson brings with her four years as an English and math tutor and a minor in Mandarin. “Taiwan was so different from any place I’ve ever been to. I was overwhelmed at first,” says Richardson. “I like it a lot, now. In my second month, I applied for a scooter license. Now I ride around the island and have taken my scooter other places on trips.”

Diplomas earned. Visas in hand. Vaccines completed. Luggage packed. Destination confirmed. Last summer, UMBC’s eight participants in the 2023 – 2024 Fulbright U.S. Student Program checked off all the important items on their to-do lists. The only thing left was to get to their placements on islands and in landlocked countries, cities, and countrysides across East Asia and Eastern Europe. It’s easier written than done. To adapt well to a new community, job, language, and culture, they must practice the art of humility and flexibility as their roles shift regularly from teacher to student.

Leading the Fulbright charge

All technicalities aside, the Fulbright experience is the beginning of building an international network of teachers and researchers who share the diversity and possibility of the U.S. with the world. In return, across the globe, communities welcome the next generation of leaders into their cities, neighborhoods, schools, and homes to share their country’s history, innovations, and culture. Since Fulbright’s inception in 1946, these reciprocal acts of kindness have created multiple paths forward to lifelong worldwide collaboration and understanding based on the simple act of giving someone different than yourself a chance.

“The Fulbright Program truly demonstrates public diplomacy in action,” says Brian Souders, M.A.’19, TESOL, and Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy, and culture, the associate director of global learning at UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement. In this role, Souders, who received a 2023 Fulbright International Education Administrator award to Germany, has led hundreds of Retrievers through the Fulbright application process as UMBC’s Fulbright Program advisor. “Whether in the classroom as teachers, students, or researchers, recipients learn about the world as much as they share what it means to be from the U.S. and UMBC alumni,” says Souders. 

Thanks to Souders’ guidance, UMBC is one of 57 doctoral universities nationwide and three in Maryland to receive a Fulbright Top Producing Institution designation for 2023 – 2024, for the third time in the last five years. In the last decade, more than 80 UMBC alumni have received  Fulbright awards. Out of the 10 Retrievers who received a 2023 – 2024 Fulbright, eight are currently placed internationally, seven are ETAs and one is on a research grant.

The hard work of play

There are U.S. Fulbright student scholars in more than 100 countries worldwide. Three Retrievers were placed in Taiwan—they keep in touch regularly, see each other at ETA trainings, and are planning to travel together during their Fulbright year. But they all arrived in Taiwan separately and faced different challenges settling in. 

“I arrived in Taiwan and immediately changed my plans because the airline lost my luggage,” says Humanities Scholar Kara Gavin ’20, English. She was grateful to have a carry-on. “It was chaotic. I was taking it all in,” says Gavin. A day and a 50-minute plane ride later, she arrived in Penghu County, Taiwan, an archipelago of about 90 islands between China and the main island of Taiwan. “The little beach town is in its own little world,” says Gavin. “The smell of the sand gave me comfort.”

Gavin teaches beginner English at two local junior high schools. New to Asia and Mandarin, Gavin’s thinking cap is on 24 – 7, including learning Mandarin in between teaching classes. “Living independently for the first time is hard on its own, but doing it in a foreign country is a whole other ball game,” says Gavin. “I’m acquiring many new life skills that will last me a lifetime.” 

One of those is sympathizing with her students and anyone learning a new language and culture. “I teach the English pronunciation and spelling of a word,” says Gavin. “Then, they like to share the Mandarin equivalent with me. It’s all about patience, balance, and trust.” She also models intercultural teamwork by developing and teaching lessons with her bilingual (Mandarin/English) Taiwanese co-teacher to foster student engagement and enrichment.

For Fulbright Scholars, it is equally important to engage with communities beyond the classroom. When they apply for the grant, the Fulbright Program asks them to develop ideas to share their passions and skills in a community project. For Gavin, this meant adding a little drama to have a lot of fun. As a performing artist, Gavin knows the theatre can be a powerful community-building outlet. “I wanted to encourage students and other community members to express themselves and share their culture with me and others,” says Gavin. 

She found a kindred spirit in a professor at a local university. They formed a drama club at the university for English language learners at all levels to explore American play formats with Taiwanese traditions and histories.“Writing original bilingual plays, in English and Mandarin, based on folktales about island traditions is creating an artistic and fun cultural exchange and understanding outside of my ETA duties,” says Gavin. 

Finding the right pace

For fellow Humanities Scholar Nailah-Benā Chambers ’23, global studies, a Fulbright award to Taiwan was a natural next step. Chambers began learning Mandarin and all things Taiwanese in sixth grade at a Taiwanese Mandarin language immersion school in her hometown of Richmond, Virginia. As her Mandarin improved, she tutored other English speakers. This oscillating pattern of being a student and a teacher makes Chambers adaptable and persistent, she says. 

But it hasn’t always been easy. When she first visited Taipei, Taiwan, in the spring of 2023 on a Mandarin language-intensive study abroad program, “I was so confident. I walked into a 7-Eleven to shop. No one could understand me,” says Chambers. “It was a bit embarrassing. Even with my language and cultural skills, I had a long way to go to mastering Mandarin.”

Now on her Fulbright ETA grant, Chambers arrived on solid ground, both culturally and linguistically. “I felt such a sense of calm and familiarity. Taiwan is so welcoming,” says Chambers. “It calms you down. Things are much slower here than in the U.S.” Soon enough, Chambers was balancing classrooms at Huludun Elementary and Fu Chun Elementary in Taichung City, on the main island of Taiwan, with students at both schools on the extreme spectrum of English proficiency.

The upside of working with proficient English language learners is connecting on more advanced topics and sticking to Fulbright’s English-only immersion model. At one of her schools, the students are beginning English language learners, and the administrators only speak Mandarin. “My experience as a bilingual teacher and learner with a high level of understanding of the local language and culture has helped with classroom management and fostering powerful connections with students and administrators,” says Chambers. “It also helps to advance their grasp of the nuances of American English, especially when there are gray areas or misunderstandings.”  

Keeping your ears open

Watching anime, reading manga, (Japanese graphic novels), and participating in their fandom inspired Paul Ocone ’22, individualized study, a Linehan Artist Scholar, to research these subjects and learn Japanese. “I have deeply engaged in fan social life and communities—from leading an anime club to participating in and running conventions to moderating online communities—my affinity for and interest in anime fan spaces runs deep,” says Ocone. Part of Ocone’s observations include witnessing how some fan subcultures limit their membership in fear that a broader fanbase would weaken their subculture identity. In contrast, he says, other fan subcultures are more flexible while maintaining their identity.

Interested in adding to his initial research in U.S. fan spaces, Ocone is now at the epicenter of anime and manga culture as a Fulbright Student Researcher doing anthropological research with Morikawa Kaichirō, a leading scholar in this field at Meiji University’s School of Global Japanese Studies in Tokyo, also home to the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures.

“I have had some amazing experiences participating in anime pilgrimage or anime tourism, including learning much from other fans and benefitting from their generosity,” says Ocone. “My Japanese is conversational—sometimes it’s challenging to understand specialized topics, but this has not deterred me from adding anime and manga tourism as a second research project.” In January, Ocone presented his work at the Popular Culture Tourism Stakeholders Summit in Japan.

Ocone is a sort of tourist himself, enjoying various aspects of Japanese pop culture. The daily musicality of Tokyo teaches him about enjoying the rhythm of the day. “Each train station plays a unique melody when the train departs,” says Ocone. These melodies or “hassha merodii,” are catchy and echo around in his brain like the convenience store jingles that also greet customers. “I was happily surprised when I heard a loudspeaker playing a symphony in my neighborhood,” says Ocone. “Another one played the following day and the next. I learned this was a daily sunset ritual.” He knows these sound experiences will play in his head long after returning to the U.S.

Learning new languages

This is not the first time David Bullman ’22, ancient studies, visited North Macedonia. He first went in 1995 as a performing musician and public affairs representative for the U.S. Army.

“North Macedonia was very different coming out of the Cold War,” says Bullman. “The infrastructure and general state of repair of public spaces and businesses is much better than I recall from that time.”

Now, as an ETA, Bullman teaches British civilization and American civilization in addition to three different levels of English at the University of Totovo in the Republic of North Macedonia, a landlocked country north of Greece. In Totovo, students begin learning English in elementary school and are fluent by the time they reach college. “I thought I would be teaching English basics,” says Bullman, “but it’s been great to teach a complex subject in the context of where my students live.” 

His students are equally glad to help him with the local language. Macedonian and Albanian are the country’s two official languages. Bullman began learning some key Macedonian phrases in preparation for his trip. However, Albanian is the preferred language in Tetovo. After traveling with the Army to more than 15 countries on three continents, Bullman is used to rapidly switching gears and accepting help.

He eagerly takes on the student role when it comes to learning about new foods. Bullman’s apartment faces the Hapësira Socio-Kulturore Tetovë, a community center where locals and the nearby Peace Corps Volunteers sometimes organize activities, like an ajvar-making gathering. Ajvar is a delicacy across the Balkans made every fall. It’s a tradition passed down through centuries with many recipe variations. “Ajvar is made by charring red bell peppers that are then peeled, minced, seasoned, and cooked for hours,” says Bullman. It boils down to a relish that can be preserved for months, but locals tell Bullman that’s rare because it’s too good to keep for even one week. After participating in the preparation and getting to take home a few jars,  Bullman agrees with the locals. Ajvar is now his go-to condiment on eggs, pasta, toast—anything goes.

Albanian and cooking are not the only languages Bullman tapped into while in Tetovo. As a lifelong clarinet player, Bullman hoped to create a musical exchange with local musicians. The opportunity presented itself when the dean of the Faculty of Art wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving. Bullman collaborated with the music faculty, the orchestra director, and students to create a concert of six songs. “I’m glad I returned to North Macedonia. The people are as warm and friendly as I remembered them to be,” says Bullman. “I wanted to come back and experience it myself again.”

Tapping into curiosity

On her way to her Fulbright placement, Sianna Serio ’23, computer science, went city hopping. “I was headed to Žilina, Slovakia, east of Austria and south of Poland,” says Serio. “I flew into Vienna, Austria, then I took a one-hour bus ride crossing Austria’s eastern border into Slovakia to get to Bratislava, the capital.“ There she met other ETAs for orientation. “A week later, I hopped on a two-hour train ride to my teaching placement in Žilina and I met my wonderful mentor, Maria Veršova, who became my second mom.”

Serio teaches at the Hotel Academy, Žilina. The academy focuses on hotel management, gastronomy, and tourism. “My students are beginning English language learners,” says Serio. “I teach what the class is interested in, like American pop culture, because they rarely meet a native English speaker.” During outings with her students, they ask about a wide range of topics. “There are many topics that I would not have thought to cover if it were not for time spent outside of the classroom,” says Serio, “Some of those conversations became formal lessons, like the lesson on the three branches of the U. S. government.”

Serio appreciates her students’ curiosity. She tapped into her love of website development and design to improve her students’ confidence in writing and speaking English and prepare for their Maturita exam, a national high school exit exam. “Some of my students are helping me design a class webpage for them where I will showcase their class and post some of their practice writing in English,” says Serio. “These posts will include topics covered in the Maturita exam, information about their school, and answers to questions about Slovakia.”

Serio’s mentor Maria Veršova, head of the English department, is her motivation. She guides her through lesson planning, class schedules, and the challenges of relocating to a new country. “When my original housing plans fell through, Maria found housing for me five minutes from her house,” says Serio. “She helped me find health insurance and open a bank account. Her husband set up my internet.” They have welcomed Serio almost daily into their home for dinner, tea, coffee, or wine. Serio is a gracious guest and lent her graphic design expertise to help Veršova design invitation cards for her 50th birthday party. Veršova tells Serio she will always have a place to stay in Žilina.

Fulbright: The next generation

Teaching has defined the last decade for Tiffany Powell, a master’s student in UMBC’s TESOL program, a passion she invested in as an English language learner teacher in Seoul and in Miryang City, South Korea, for five years, and in Florida this past year. Now, she is in Iași, Romania, southwest of Ukraine, at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University teaching American studies. Powell is committed to bridging culture, community, and belonging by bringing technology into the classroom. 

Powell also decided to bring the research and cultural understanding closer to home by partnering with Romanian teachers to develop a five-part series on African American women’s history. “We talked about Black women in science in the context of the movie Hidden Figures and discussed Hollywood’s portrayal of Black life,” says Powell. The class is now creating a series on Romanian women. Helping students better understand the similarities and differences between U.S. and Romanian cultures has been an eye-opening experience for Powell.

She sees the impact of a country formerly under communism. In Iași, sometimes the internet doesn’t work and, in her school, there are no clubs or student organizations to gain the skills needed to earn a Fulbright award. “My students have given me a new perspective. You may want to come in and make changes, but you must understand where they’re coming from. There is a saying in Iași, ‘It’s not impossible. It’s just difficult,’” says Powell. She is trying to help with the difficult part by leading Fulbright application and leadership workshops. 

Powell, like the other Fulbrighters, will bring her experiences home with her and wherever she ends up teaching English next. When their Fulbright year ends, these Retriever ambassadors will find themselves as emissaries yet again, returning to their hometowns, sharing the good news of ajvar made in community, the freedom of a scooter ride along a Taiwanese beach, or the correct stroke order for writing the Mandarin number five. The lessons their students and host families passed along—including pausing to take a breath and appreciate their international successes small and large—will continue to form and shape the way they see the world.

“Having a flexible mindset and under-standing the historical context of your placement is key,” says Powell. “I carry myself as a U.S. representative. Living abroad teaches humility, adaptability, and open-mindedness to press on through challenging times.”

CBEE IN THE NEWS: 

Chesapeake Quarterly‘s Complicated Contaminants: Finding PFAS in the Chesapeake Bay,  Volume 23, Number 1 | May 2024

EXCERPT FROM: Strong, Sticky, and Tricky to Measure

By Madeleine Jepsen | April 25, 2024

….

A Breakdown of the Chemicals that Don’t Break Down 

The namesake chemical bond found in all PFAS—a fluorine atom bonded to a carbon atom—is one of the strongest organic bonds found in nature. The strength of this bond is the main reason why PFAS can linger in the water or soil and make their way into fish tissue—and into the birds or humans eating those fish.

Although plants like marigolds can produce toxic pesticides naturally as a defense mechanism against deer and other predators, there’s a natural pathway for these molecules to break down. Then, the molecule’s components can be reassembled and recycled for other uses.

“All of these chemicals that are produced in nature have a pathway of recycling where the carbon goes back to carbon dioxide, the hydrogen and oxygen goes back to water, and then something else reproduces those chemicals from the basic elements,” says Upal Ghosh, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Unlike other human-introduced contaminants in the environment, such as hydrophobic PCBs that only accumulate in fish fat, many of the common PFAS also have components that allow them to interact with both water and fats. 

PFAS with eight or more carbon atoms linked together to form a molecular “tail” have been found to accumulate in fish and humans more readily and can interfere with human health. There are two main components of these longer PFAS—the molecule’s “head” with the carbon-fluorine bond that can interact with water, and the chain of carbons that form the “tail.” Combined, these traits allow PFAS to move through soils and waterways into organisms without breaking down.

In this way, PFAS are almost like a strong magnet, with two sides that each have opposite pulls. This allows PFAS to interact with a wider variety of molecules in fish and humans—in particular, proteins and blood. Unlike most pesticides, whose shapes are designed to bind to specific proteins and inhibit specific functions, PFAS can bind to many proteins.

…. 

Passive Sampling Provides a Panoramic Picture of PFAS

To get a more holistic sense of the average PFAS concentrations in a water body over time, environmental engineer Lee Blaney and his laboratory are developing passive samplers. These circular devices remain in the water for a longer stretch of time. As the samplers remain in the water, they record PFAS concentrations in the water that reflect a longer stretch of time: a panorama compared to the one-time snapshot of a grab sample.

The ion-exchange membranes Blaney’s team uses contain positive charges that are anchored to a membrane on the device. Initially, the fixed positive charges in the membrane contain chloride, an ion commonly found in Bay water. When the passive sampler is set in the water, PFAS molecules with a higher affinity for the positively charged sites replace chloride and bind to the membrane. This same ion-exchange chemistry is employed in some filters to treat PFAS-impacted drinking water.

Back in the lab, researchers use the corresponding chemical reactions to release PFAS from the sampler, measure PFAS levels, and back-calculate the PFAS concentrations in the water body where the sampler was deployed.

Part of the challenge is developing passive samplers that accumulate all PFAS of concern. Short-chain PFAS don’t have the same affinity for conventional passive samplers that work well to capture long-chain PFAS. Blaney and his lab are testing new ion-exchange membranes that improve uptake of short-chain PFAS, so that their concentrations in water bodies can be more accurately and sensitively measured. 

To develop additional compounds that can catch PFAS in passive samplers, Upal Ghosh has taken another chemical engineering approach. Ghosh has used molecules that are known to bind to PFAS in organisms, like components of pig blood, isolated these compounds, and used them to bind PFAS in passive samplers.

While passive samplers provide researchers with a better understanding of overall PFAS levels in a water body, they aren’t perfect. They require calibration, since the researchers calculate the concentrations of PFAS in the water based on chemical reaction rates of PFAS binding to the passive sampler, which depend on temperature, flow, pH, and salinity of the water.

Passive samplers can also smooth out “spikes” in PFAS levels, meaning the peaks in PFAS levels that are recorded by the sampler are not as large as the true peak level in the water body. Still, Lee says, passive samplers have a higher chance of capturing a spike in PFAS levels than a one-off grab sample because of their longer timeframe in the water.

….

Back in the Lab

Not all labs are equipped to process PFAS samples—and those that can have undergone rigorous review to ensure that any PFAS they detect are coming from the samples they process, and not residual PFAS from the equipment they’re using.

The “gold standard” of analysis used by federal agencies, commercial labs, and most academic labs for detecting and identifying PFAS is liquid chromatography paired with tandem mass spectrometry. These two analytical methods combined, often referred to as LC-MS/MS, allow researchers to separate out the different molecular components of a sample, and then analyze the mass of a particular molecule to determine its chemical structure and quantity in the sample.

Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry allows researchers to measure how much of a particular PFAS is in a sample, even in very small quantities. To identify and distinguish different compounds, researchers compare their samples against standards with pure, known quantities of specific PFAS. Researchers can also use these standards to compare against an unknown sample to determine the exact concentrations of PFAS in field samples. This method can be useful for researchers like Blaney, who needs to identify the different types of PFAS present in a sample.

“One of the things I'm really interested in is sampling from places where you don't expect to find contaminants, because maybe there's something there that we're missing,” Blaney says.

A limiting factor in PFAS analysis is that there are thousands of variations of PFAS, but standards for only about 200 specific compounds. Although these standards include many of the PFAS that are known to affect human health, additional standards could help researchers gain a more holistic understanding of the compounds circulating in the water or sediment. Researchers can run the standards through their own instruments so they know exactly how each PFAS would appear in the readouts, adding additional certainty to their measurements.

For even more refined analysis, some researchers like Carrie McDonough, an assistant professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, turn to another spectrometry method called high-resolution mass spectrometry. This method allows researchers to differentiate between molecules with similar masses, and can help to identify compounds that don’t have analytical standards, like many types of PFAS. Similar to how a microscope at higher resolution allows researchers to get a more in-depth view, high-resolution mass spectrometry gives researchers more refined peaks from their samples. The refined analysis also allows researchers to work toward identifying unknown PFAS without a standard.

Through new field sampling methods like passive sampling and detailed laboratory analysis, researchers are gaining a better understanding of PFAS in the Bay. With these technological developments, PFAS are steadily becoming less tricky to measure.

Read full article

Photo Credit: Chesapeake Quarterly Cover photo by Jay Fleming

Meet Merryll Kallungal, a brand new graduate of the translational life science technology program at UMBC at the Universities at Shady Grove. In this program, students like Merryll learn hands-on skills through biotechnology labs and other applied experiences. We’re excited to hear all about her experience. Take it away, Merryll!

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I majored in translational life science technology (TLST). I mainly attended the USG campus. I was part of the Peer Advisory Team. Outside of classes, I am interested in dancing, reading, and enjoying time with family.

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: All of the professors have been so wonderful in helping me with any questions i had, whether it be about classes or internship. Your advisors will always be helpful in figuring out what steps you have to take when it comes to registering for classes and also when looking for internships.

Q: What did you love most about the translational life sciences program at UMBC-Shady Grove?

A: What I love about the TLST program is how close the students are with each other since we are smaller major. Also, how I was able to have that one-on-one relationship with my advisor who is also my professor.

Q: What brought you to UMBC in the first place?

A: I came to UMBC at USG because the program that I was interested was only offered at USG. Plus at USG, the smaller classes allowed me to interact with my professor and get any help I need.

Q: Were you a student leader? What did you like most about it? What advice would you give incoming students?

A: Aside from being the Vice President of the Biotech Club, I was also part of the USG student council, and both these leadership experiences have helped me immensely to become a better student and also improve my leadership skills.

Q: Where are you headed from here, now that you’ve graduated?

A: My post graduation plans are to enter the work field and join a biotech company where I was an intern for the past year, then slowly think about joining graduate school for my master’s.

* * * * *

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.

Post from: UMBC News

Lee Blaney awarded funding to develop new ways to remove “forever chemicals” from water

By: Catherine Meyers | Published: May 16, 2024 

Professor Lee Blaney, in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering, received $750,000 in funding from the Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) to develop new ways to remove substances dubbed “forever chemicals” from water.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are used in products ranging from cleaning products and clothing to fire-fighting foam. They earned the nickname “forever chemicals” because of the way they persist in the environment. PFAS have been linked to decreased fertility in women, developmental effects in children, reduced immune function, and increased risk of cancer and obesity. The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced limitations on the amount of certain PFAS in drinking water. 

Current technology such as activated carbon and anion-exchange resins can effectively remove the most common PFAS found in water, but do not perform well at removing short- and ultrashort-chain PFAS (which have fewer than eight carbon atoms in their chemical structure.)

The award from SERDP will fund Blaney’s work to develop materials called adsorbents specifically designed for treatment of these short-chain PFAS. Blaney’s colleagues on the project include Ke He, Ph.D. ’17, chemical and biochemical engineering, an assistant research scientist at UMBC, Wenqing Xu, an associate professor in civil and environmental engineering at Villanova University, and Jessica Ray, an assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington.

Photo Credit: Lee Blaney (Marlayna Demond '11/UMBC)