UPDATE 5/27/2022

Due to weather conditions, the partial Hilltop Road closure will be extended. Hilltop Road will remain one-way traffic between the hours of 6 AM and 4 PM through Friday, June 3rd, 2022.

UPDATE 5/18/2022

The domestic water work at Hilltop Road has been rescheduled to minimize impact on the campus community. Hilltop Road will now become one-way traffic between the hours of 6 AM and 4 PM only on the following days:

• Wednesday, May 18th 2022
• Friday, May 20th 2022
• Monday, May 23rd 2022
• Tuesday, May 24th 2022

 

ORIGINAL NOTIFICATION FROM 5/12/2022

UMBC is currently undertaking multiple utility improvements on campus. Upgrades to the campus domestic water service will require Hilltop Road to become one-way traffic at times over the next several days. Traffic between the Wilkens Avenue circle and Hilltop Circle will be one way outbound only (from Hilltop Circle to Wilkens Avenue). Vehicles entering campus via Hilltop Road should follow detour signs and direction from on-site personnel. Pedestrian access will not be impacted. Access to Lot 22 will be maintained at all times during the closures which will occur

• This Friday, May 13th 2022, 6 AM-11 AM
• Next Monday through Friday, May 16th 2022-May 20th 2022, 6 AM-4 PM 

Accessibility is part of the design process, and we work in partnership with Accessibility and Disability Services which supports faculty, staff, students and visitors with disabilities. If you have a concern about accessibility or want to inquire about a disability-based accommodation, please do so through their website.

Thank you for your patience as we work to maintain and enhance the UMBC campus.

Facilities Management

Arjun Trivedi

Degree: B.S., Mechanical Engineering
Hometown: Laurel, MD
Plans: Maritime robotics position, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab

“I’m an advocate for people in different majors meeting each other because in the real world the biggest problems are interdisciplinary. Speaking with people with different interests is a great way to broaden your horizons.”

Arjun Trivedi ‘22, M30, mechanical engineering, is passionate about engineering, computing, and connecting with people outside of his field, who have different perspectives. He wants to learn about what drives them, how they think about the world, and if they have advice that could apply to his experience. “Finding those connections and being able to take advice from everyone around you helps you grow,” he explains. 

Arjun Trivedi, right, works alongside another student in Deepa Madan’s lab.

As a leader of UMBC’s chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the nation’s oldest engineering honor society, Trivedi says that it was rewarding to be involved in the planning and execution of this year’s COEIT Engineering and Computing Week, held in February. The event offered students, faculty, staff, and alumni the opportunity to network and learn from each other.

Trivedi is a Meyerhoff Scholar, and shares that the sense of community and support that he receives from his peers and mentors is meaningful. Connections with other students in the program have led him to become involved in lab research and develop interests beyond his major. It was one of his peers who suggested to Trivedi that he consider minoring in computer science, given his interest in robotics. 

That nudge set him on the path to the research that he completed with Ankit Goel, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Keith Harmon, director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, also put Trivedi in touch with contacts at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab to explore his career options. Trivedi will soon begin a maritime robotics position at the globally renowned research center.

Melisa Argañaraz Gomez 

Degree: Ph.D., Geography and Environmental Systems
Hometown: Longchamps, Buenos Aires
Plans: Assistant professor in residence, Urban and Community Studies program, UConn Waterbury

“When I arrived in Spain as a teenager, my teachers did not expect me to go to college because I didn’t have the resources to access certain learning opportunities. Now, as a graduate student in the U.S., remembering my experience as a teenager helps me connect with the students I support and empathize with their lives.”

Melisa Argañaraz Gomez has lived and learned around the world. She was born in Argentina and moved to Granada, Spain, at the age of thirteen. There she earned a B.A. in sociology from the Universidad de Granada, before earning a master’s in sociology at the University of Amsterdam. From there she moved to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in geography and environmental systems (GES) with Dena Aufseeser, assistant professor of GES, researching the experiences of Baltimore’s immigrant adolescents.

Argañaraz Gomez’s areas of research include urban and feminist geographies and migration studies, as well as race and ethnicity. She studies migrant children and youth narratives of inclusion and (un)belonging in Baltimore. One of her projects, “PARqueología Migrante,” in collaboration with Latinas al Rescate and CASA de Maryland, received the 1st annual Spirit of Community Geography Award from the Community Geography Collective. 

The youth engagement project seeks to counter stereotypes of Latin American immigrant teens by amplifying their voices through public presentations to media, neighborhood organizations, and elected officials. It also connects students to city resources and builds communities of solidarity and care. 

Argañaraz Gomez also collaborated in UMBC’s Baltimore Field school to help build public humanities projects. The Mellon Foundation-funded project connects researchers with community organizations in developing methods for ethical research and teaching projects focused in Baltimore. 

Tess McRae

Degree: B.A., Individualized Study: Civic Renewal and Creative Expression
Hometown: Columbia, MD
Plans: Coordinator for Civic Design, UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life

“The lesson I have learned from STRiVE and from the Center for Democracy and Civic Life’s work, and from all of the people I’ve met at UMBC who have held up undistorted mirrors for me, is that I am worthy as my authentic self. That has radically altered everything I thought I knew about myself and the world, and has profoundly deepened my sense of community, connection, and purpose. And that clarity and sense of belonging are indescribably empowering and healing, even in moments of doubt.”

Tess McRae ‘22, individualized study, grew up hearing stories about her mother’s campus involvement as a UMBC student in the 1980s. She visited the campus several times as a teenager, and says “I was always entranced by how beautiful it was and how clearly I could imagine myself thriving here.” 

McRae spent a week at STRiVE, UMBC’s immersive leadership for social impact program, during her first year, and joined the Center for Democracy and Civic Life’s staff when it launched in 2018. For the next four years, she played a leading role in developing and leading the Center’s workshops and programs, weaving in her insights as an artist and as a person familiar with the kind of self-doubt that can inhibit participation in communities and social change projects. 

Along the way, she designed her own major in civic renewal and creative expression and produced the Co-Create UMBC virtual tour. And her paintings of UMBC spaces that have been co-created by students have appeared in exhibits both on campus and at the OCA Mocha coffee shop in nearby Arbutus.

McRae’s immediate post-graduation plan is to work professionally at the intersection of civic engagement and the arts. She aims to “continue co-creating an ethos of agency, self confidence, and communion felt deeply by people around the world” in ways that allow her to indulge and draw on her identity as a poet, visual artist, musician, and aspiring theater-maker.

Story by David Hoffman, Ph.D. ’13, language, literacy, and culture (LLC), director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, and Romy Hübler ’09, modern languages and linguistics, M.A. ’11, intercultural communication, Ph.D. ’15, LLC, assistant director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life.

Joshua Gray 

Degree: B.A., Dance and Media and Communication Studies
Minor: Political Science
Hometown: Hyattsville, MD
Plans: Public affairs mass communications specialist in the U.S. Army

“I am driven by knowing that I can help future generations of my family explore what the world has to offer. My work can open up opportunities for them and help them look at the world and their experiences in a different way.”

Joshua Gray dancing for the Association of Black Artists, (Image courtesy of Gray)

Dance is at the core of Joshua Gray’s life. Trained in different techniques of tap, ballet, modern, African diaspora styles, and jazz, Gray ’22, a Linehan Artist Scholar, finds that the discipline and dedication a dancer’s life demands have given him energy and purpose.

Gray is currently president of UMBC’s Student Government Association (SGA) and has served as a leader in other SGA roles including as vice president for student organizations, chief of staff, and executive vice president. 

He has also led UMBC’s Dance Council of Majors and created a new student organization, UMBC’s Association of Black Artists.

Gray is interested in expanding access to the arts and high-quality communications to marginalized communities. He will graduate with majors in both dance and media and communication studies, and a minor in political science. While this is an uncommon combination, he thrives on pushing the boundaries of his passions. 

Gray (l) with prior SGA President, Mehrshad Devin ’21, biology, and M.P.S ’22, entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. (Image courtesy of Gray)

This is one of the reasons he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a crisis communications specialist. He wants to travel to places and do work that connects him to the world stage through service. 

Charles Harris

Degree: B.A., Sociology
Hometown: Woodstock, MD
Plans: CASA of Baltimore board member and volunteer 

“Students can come to UMBC and get a whole new experience of working with different types of people on different levels, and it is a great experience. I’m very proud to be part of the school.”

Charles Harris ‘22 is graduating this month at the age of 80, after beginning his college journey and his military career in the 1970s. Reaching this lifelong goal is such an important occasion for him and his family that he and his wife postponed their 50th wedding anniversary plans to celebrate the achievement.

Charles Harris promoting CASA of Baltimore’s advocacy work. (Image courtesy of Harris)

He’s adding a sociology degree to a powerful list of achievements, including a career focused on child welfare at CASA of Baltimore and other child welfare organizations, as an IT specialist at the Social Security Administration, and in the U.S. Army (retired).

Harris and his wife of 50 years opened their home to raise over 100 children. This includes their own biological and adopted children, children under their guardianship, and many others. He has volunteered with and is on the board of CASA, which provides court-appointed special advocates to speak for the best interests of abused and neglected children involved in Baltimore’s juvenile court system.

“My wife and I, we have taken in kids that were neglected or abused and homeless. This is a commitment we made,” he shares. He also made a commitment to himself to complete his college degree. Thanks to the support of Hope Weisman, transfer academic advocate in UMBC’s Academic Success Center, and others, he is now crossing the stage to receive his bachelor’s degree.