2020-2021 Teaching Fellows for Maryland Scholarship Program application

Application Due July 1, 2020

The Maryland Higher Education Commission is pleased to announce that the 2020-2021 Teaching Fellows for Maryland Scholarship Program application is now available!

The Teaching Fellows for Maryland Scholarship is designed for students who pledge to work as public school or public prekindergarten teachers in the State upon completion of their studies at schools that have at least 50% of the students in the school eligible for free or reduced price meals (FRPM).­

Scholarship Award Amount

A recipient is eligible to receive an award amount as follows:

• At a Maryland public senior higher education institution, the scholarship award is equivalent to 100% of the annual tuition, mandatory fees, and room and board of a resident undergraduate student or graduate student, as appropriate.
• At a Maryland private nonprofit institution, the scholarship award is equal to the lesser of:
• 100% of the annual tuition and mandatory fees of a resident undergraduate student or graduate student, as appropriate, at the University of Maryland College Park (UMPC) and 100% of the room and board of a resident undergraduate student or graduate student, as appropriate, at the institution; or
• 50% of the annual tuition and mandatory fees of a resident undergraduate or graduate student, as appropriate, at the institution and 100% of the room and board of a resident undergraduate student or graduate student, as appropriate, at the institution.
• A private nonprofit institution must provide a matching scholarship award in an amount equal to the State award provided for tuition & fees only.  Private nonprofit institutions are not required to match State funds awarded for room and board.

For more information please visit Maryland Higher Education Commission

All,

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation.

I will be sending out a questionnaire in a few days for retrieving personal items of yours that may be in CNMS academic buildings. This will only happen upon easing of restrictions by the Governor and with coordination between UMBC police, building managers and Environmental safety and health. 

·         For the first phase, we will be making sure you can collect your items or have them shipped.

·         Do not come to campus without prior authorization. 

·         Only fill out the questionnaire if you have personal items to collect.

·         The College will come up with a schedule and make an appointment to bring you on to campus, please make sure that you bring:

o    building and room keys which may have been signed out to you 

o    file cabinet, mailbox, or desk keys

o    items such as laptops, textbooks or materials given to you for class 

o    a copy of the response sheet which will be emailed to you upon approval of your PI or Instructor indicating what has been approved for removal.

Face coverings and gloves are mandatory 

More information will be made available in the next few weeks concerning parking, traffic flow, building entry points and egress. 

Again, Face coverings and gloves are mandatory 

·         For Phase 2: a second questionnaire will be drafted to coordinate the return of UMBC Property

 o    keys, laptops, textbooks, or other materials will be coordinated at that time.

Again, thank you and congratulations on your achievements during this trying time.

This information is also attached for ease of Printing.

Graduating during a pandemic means students won’t be able to celebrate in the ways they expected, with family and friends cheering in a packed UMBC Event Center. But earning their degrees will still be a joyful achievement that honors years of hard work and opens doors. For UMBC’s adult learners in particular, including Returning Women Student (RWS) Scholars, holding that diploma will mean the achievement of dreams long deferred. 

“Once I made the first step, everything opened up”

This month Karla Gonzalez ‘20, social work, will become the first in her family to graduate from college, at age 34. For much of her life, college didn’t really seem like a possibility. She was proud to be one of the first in her family to finish high school, and to have a job that could support her three children. But as the years passed, Gonzalez realized something was missing—she had yet to reach her full potential. 

Pursuing college involved significant change in Gonzalez’s life. She ended her marriage, left full-time work, and began to prioritize her dreams for the first time. She chose a career path that would build on the skills and talents she already had, and open up new possibilities. “Returning to college was the next stepping point that would allow me to stand on my own two feet,” she explains. “Once I made the first step, everything opened up.”

Gonzalez was very conscious that as an adult learner her experience didn’t follow a traditional timeline. It was her son who reminded Karla that she would be the first in their entire extended family to graduate college. Then, other family members joined in on the refrain, “You’re the first. You’re the first!” 

“I never saw myself as a leader, but at UMBC I learned that I was one”

Gonzalez now sees her achievement not just as a brave step for herself, but as clearing the path for her family members to move forward with their own college dreams. “Even though I’m in my 30s, it is special and it should be celebrated,” Gonzalez shares. ”I am that example that will tell them they can go for whatever goals they have.”

She also celebrates the friendships she has built along the way, and how her peers and professors transformed the way she saw herself. “It isn’t just about getting a degree, but it’s also about those connections,” says Gonzalez. “I never saw myself as a leader, but at UMBC I learned that I was one.”

Gonzalez is this year’s Title IV-E Student of the Year, an honor recognizing a talented social work student who is dedicated to a career in public child welfare practice. She’ll next pursue a master’s in social work (MSW) through the advanced standing program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

“It’s been almost a 30-year journey” 

Like her classmate, Nia Latimer ‘20, social work, entered UMBC at the age of 42 as a single parent, no longer willing to defer her dreams. After graduating from high school, Latimer went right to college, but withdrew due to financial constraints. Over the years, she would re-enroll in college, but be forced to pause to focus on other life events. She shares, “It’s been almost a 30-year journey.”

Latimer has had a fulfilling job with Baltimore City Public Schools, but the dream of a college degree always remained in the back of her mind. After the death of her husband, she realized that now was the time to finish her degree, while continuing to work full-time. She began listening to the way others described her strengths and skills and decided to pursue a degree and career in social work. 

When Latimer arrived at UMBC, she shared, she finally felt like she “was home.” She felt welcomed into a community with students of all ages and was impressed by how inclusive UMBC’s social work program was for adult learners. 

“It’s never too late to do this” 

Latimer joined UMBC’s Returning Women Student Scholars + Affiliates program in her senior year. She found that other adult learners provided her with an additional layer of support that proved crucial to her success. The experience “validated that this is my time,” she says. “It’s never too late to do this.” 

Graduating this May finally “feels like closure,” Latimer shares. She will become the first of her siblings to graduate with a college degree. And she has earned an award as Outstanding BSW Student Graduate, recognizing her academic achievements. 

Latimer also knows this is just the beginning of a new chapter. She’ll soon begin an MSW through the advanced standing program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Feeling “behind,” racing to catch up, and pausing to breathe

For Jumina Ito ‘20, biochemistry, “It was never a question as to whether I would return to school, only a question of when.” 

Between the time of graduating high school and enrolling at UMBC in the fall of 2016 at the age of 26, Ito traveled across the U.S. and internationally, working on farms. Taking this time to explore her interests helped her develop a better understanding of herself, she says, but it also left her feeling “behind” when she got to college. 

Once at UMBC, she felt an urgency to blaze through, taking as many credits as possible while also working to support her family. Eventually, Ito realized this approach was not sustainable. If she was going to finish, she’d need to slow down and to find a community of support. 

“The slow and steady climb is worth it” 

Ito found her community in the Returning Women Student Scholars + Affiliates program, which also connected her with the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program. These two programs provided her space to explore new possibilities for herself, including as an educator. 

Now, she’s excited to pursue a STEM teaching career that will help her serve as a model and mentor for girls interested in science. This fall, Ito will begin teaching chemistry and aquaponics full-time at Green Street Academy, where she completed her applied learning experience as a Sheman Scholar. 

Ito will be the first of her four siblings to graduate. She hopes her graduation will be a helpful example for others, reflecting that we “inherently put limitations on ourselves, but you can rise above them.” Looking back at her life’s twists and turns over the past decade, she shares, “The slow and steady climb is worth it.”

“I could do this on my own” 

When Lauren Hall graduated with her bachelor’s degree from UMBC at the age of 29, she kept right on going to pursue a master of arts in teaching (M.A.T.). But her college path wasn’t always so clear. “If you asked me ten years ago, I never would have thought I’d have a master’s degree,” she says.

Hall ‘18, English literature, M.A.T. ‘20, became a mother at age 18, and devoted her years after high school to raising her two young children and supporting her then-husband’s pursuit of higher education. After her marriage ended, she decided to return to college. Even while feeling afraid to leave the comfort of the life she knew, she also determined, “I could do this on my own.”

Another new beginning

What began as small steps in returning to college quickly became a sprint. She took classes at the Community College of Baltimore County before transferring to UMBC. Once on campus, she focused on building a community where she could thrive even while juggling work and single parenthood. 

Lauren Hall celebrates receiving her UMBC bachelor’s degree. Photo courtesy of Hall.

Hall enjoyed the chance to connect with students of all ages through shared values, interests, and a mutual commitment to each other. She shares that some of her younger classmates not only became friends, but also an integral part of her support system, helping with childcare and carpool duty. 

Hall has been a rock for her family for years, but jokes that her master’s degree means, “Now, I’m a full grown-up!” It’s another step forward—another new beginning. She looks forward to working as an English teacher, in either Baltimore City or Howard County Public Schools, and is committed to helping students believe in their potential. 

For information about the Women’s Center and the RWS Scholars + Affiliates program that supports adult learners seeking their first undergraduate degree, visit womenscenter.umbc.edu. 

In addition to the students featured above, the Women’s Center’s RWS Scholars + Affiliates Program celebrates May 2020 graduates Shanice Bramwell, health administration and policy (HAPP); Josephine Gyasi-Baaye, social work; Samantha Homa, geography and environmental studies; Victoria Hughes, social work; Tatiana Pearson, information systems; Joanna Riley, social work; Aieda Solomon, HAPP and sociology; and Sheila Yeelon, social work. UMBC also honors the numerous other adult learners earning degrees this spring, from across the university.

Article written by Jess Myers, director of the Women’s Center at UMBC.

Featured image: RWS Scholars (including Jumina Ito and Lauren Hall) meet with President Freeman Hrabowski during fall 2018 orientation. Photo courtesy of the Women’s Center.

With Kevin Omland, professor of biological sciences

UMBC is teeming with wildlife—the infamous frenzied squirrels, the occasional wandering deer, a curious woodchuck or two, and lots and lots of birds. Melodic chirping can be heard from the wee hours of the morning all the way until the last night classes let out. And not just any birds; the areas surrounding UMBC and campus alike are home to a special species, one that is widely revered around the entire state—the Baltimore Oriole.  

Having researched orioles and ravens for decades, it’s not surprising that Kevin Omland, a biological sciences professor, calls himself the mascot biologist for the state of Maryland. Since joining UMBC in 2000, Omland’s work has almost exclusively centered on orioles. Along with members of his lab, the Presidential Research Professor studies a range of topics in avian evolution, behavior, and conservation. We asked the life-long ornithophilehow to spot the Baltimore Oriole, our state bird, in its natural habitat.

Tools of the Trade

• A good pair of binoculars
• A smartphone or tablet to access the website “All About Birds”
• A device to play an imitation of the Oriole’s song
• Patience—and lots of it!

Step One – Pick a Park

Baltimore Orioles can be found all around suburban parks in Baltimore County and City. Omland estimates that there are at least 100 oriole territories between the Inner Harbor and the Pennsylvania/Maryland border. 

“The Baltimore Oriole loves hanging out in local suburban parks,” he notes. “I’ve even seen them in the trees near the entrance to the Maryland Zoo in Druid Park. You have a good chance of seeing them in Patapsco State Park, too.”

To find a Baltimore Oriole on UMBC’s campus Omland suggests scoping out Pig Pen Pond and the Conservation Environmental Research Area (CERA) located south of bwtech, UMBC’s business park. Omland notes that it may be harder to spot Baltimore Orioles on campus due to an increase of construction here in the past twenty years, but it is still possible to find the occasional oriole flying near the green spaces on campus.

Step Two: Look (and Listen!) High in the Sky

After you’ve picked your park, it’s important to know how to find the elusive bird. According to Omland, the state bird may be harder to spot than you think. He recommends looking and listening up toward the treeline. 

“You’ll never see a Baltimore Oriole on the ground to save your life,” he joked, noting that he is also known to be the worst exaggerator in the world. “But in all seriousness, it is very rare to see [them] on the ground. Some particularly adventurous orioles may forage for food on the ground, but it’s rare.”

Omland says that your best bet is to grab a pair of binoculars and look in the tops of tall trees near rivers, ponds, and even golf courses. 

As for the signature colors, Omland says that there’s no other bird around that boasts the bright orange coloring complemented by the jet black feathers—it’s unmistakable. He notes that adult males will have vibrant, discernible colors, while females and adolescents will be a bit more muted, but still identifiable.

“You’re sure to recognize the colors. It’s the same ones on the baseball caps for the O’s team,” Omland says. “Historically speaking, it’s called Lord Baltimore’s Orange, and there’s no other bird that carries that indisputable color. If you know that color, you’re on the right track!”

Step Three: Work on Your Whistle

No less important than the distinct colorings of the Baltimore Oriole is the sound that it makes—a low, loud, clear whistle that can often be heard from far distances.

“It is difficult for humans to imitate the sounds of many other birds,” says Omland, “but for the Baltimore Oriole, it can be fairly easy to imitate if you practice. If you get really good at their whistle, there’s a chance that they will answer back!”

Step Four: Take Your Skills Farther Afield

The Baltimore Oriole is just one of more than 30 different species of orioles found all over the world, and Omland doesn’t limit himself to studying just one kind. 

Omland’s research also includes the Bahama Oriole, a critically endangered species native only to Andros Island. Thanks to an International Research Experience for Students grant funded by the National Science Foundation, Omland has been taking students to the remote island in the Bahamas since 2016 to study how climate change is impacting weather patterns and creating natural disasters that have nearly decimated the species. 

“It gives students the chance to be on the front lines of climate change,” Omland says. “This is where climate change is killing people, destroying homes, and eliminating ecosystems…the students care about what happens to these islands and want to make a difference.”

Omland extends the invitation to his students and beyond to participate in what he calls “adventure biology”—getting outdoors and sharing intimate opportunities with the surrounding wildlife, especially in readily accessible areas. “The Baltimore Orioles are one of the many spectacular birds that are here in our forests,” he said. “If people stop, look up, and start paying attention, Maryland has a lot of wonderful diversity to offer us.”

*****
Photos of Omland and his class by Marlayna Demond ’11. Oriole image courtesy of Kevin Omland.

By Michele Wojciechowski

In 1980, while spending the summer with family in South Carolina, 13-year-old Karsonya “Dr. Kaye” Wise Whitehead noticed that the corner grocery store owner had kept up the “Whites Only” and “Colored Only” signs. She was offended and wanted him to take them down. The teen decided to stage her first protest. She told her grandmother that she was going to march every day in front of his store until he took the signs down.

The proprietor took them down from the counter. But he later had them framed and put on the wall to make them “art.”

“My grandmother gave me a similar framed ‘Colored Seating Only’ sign so that I would always remember that moment in my life,” says Whitehead, Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy, and culture. 

While she didn’t get the exact result that she wanted, Whitehead did see that her actions could make a direct change in her community. This lesson would guide Whitehead as she found ways to amplify her voice.

“It changed my life,” Whitehead says of the language, literacy, and culture program. “I knew that I wanted to be in a field where I could research, write about, and teach Black women’s history.”

After living in New York City—working first at MTV and then at a PBS affiliate making documentary films—Whitehead, along with her husband Johnnie and their sons, Kofi and Amir, moved to Baltimore 16 years ago. She taught in Baltimore City middle schools for four years and was named Maryland History Teacher of the Year before she left to pursue her Ph.D. in language, literacy, and culture in 2006 at UMBC.

From teacher to student

In 2005, Whitehead was still working as a teacher when a friend sent her copies of the 1863–1865 diaries of Emilie Davis. “I started reading the diaries at night, and when I realized that I was reading the diaries of a free black woman, I knew that I wanted to transcribe and publish them,” recalls Whitehead. Because she didn’t know how to do this kind of work, she started looking into Ph.D. programs that could guide her. 

Whitehead settled on UMBC, remembering the impression President Freeman Hrabowski had made on her years before after hearing him speak at an event. “Like most people, I was amazed by the depth of his passion, his ability to take complicated issues and make them understandable, his desire to get [people] motivated to push beyond their comfort zone, and his dedication to helping Black students—and all students of color—receive their doctoral degrees,” she says. “When I decided to apply to a doctoral program, the only place I wanted to attend was UMBC.”

“Dr. Wise Whitehead’s commitment to both local and national social justice issues exhibits the best of UMBC,” says Kimberly Moffitt, associate professor and LLC program director, “and how we work to support our graduate students in their desires to excel and thrive beyond a classroom setting.” 

“It changed my life,” Whitehead says of the language, literacy, and culture program. “I knew that I wanted to be in a field where I could research, write about, and teach Black women’s history.”

And that writing Whitehead wanted to do about Emilie Davis? It became her dissertation as well as her first book, Notes from a Colored Girl: the Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis.

Taking it to the airwaves

In 2015, Whitehead was approached by Beverly Burke, then-news director of WEAA, 88.9, out of Morgan State University, about coming on to do one- or two-minute African American history spots on the station. At first, she appeared monthly, but then Whitehead began getting requests to come on other hosts’ shows and progressed to being a guest host. Three years ago, the station’s general manager Malarie Pinkard Pierre approached Whitehead with the idea of giving her an afternoon slot for her own talk show. 

Whitehead was thrilled.

Her show, “Today with Dr. Kaye” runs on WEAA, Monday through Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. “It’s unbelievable! That’s prime drive time, when you’ve got three generations in the car listening,” says Whitehead. “To be in that time slot is really exciting. The reception has been phenomenal.”

Whitehead is one of only a handful of black women in the country who have afternoon drive time radio talk shows. Building on the blocks of her early activist efforts and her continued education at UMBC, Whitehead knows that her voice has power. At the start of every show, she begins with, “We have conversations that matter.”  

“[We have] conversations that are designed to challenge us, to make us think, to make us laugh, and sometimes to make us cry,” explains Whitehead, who wants her radio show to help make changes in Baltimore. “When I got into doing this show, I made a commitment to speak to, with, and for the people of Baltimore City.”

Whitehead says that her listeners range in age from young children to 85-year-olds, and because the show is on Facebook Live, she has listeners from all over, including callers from Alaska, Canada, and Jamaica. “I tell people that we have a two-hour window where they can come and wrestle with some questions with us and join us at the kitchen table,” says Whitehead.

In addition to her radio show, Whitehead writes a bi-monthly column for the AFRO, op-eds for The Baltimore Sun, and works full-time as an associate professor of communications and African American studies at Loyola University. 

While she loves her activist work, Whitehead admits that her greatest joy is being a wife and mom. “Before I had the show, I was a black mommy activist. I was involved in a lot to help my sons…to help carve out a world where they can get home safe,” she recalls. 

“Baltimore is a city that’s in a lot of pain, and people are searching for someone who’s going to tell them the truth, listen to them, and fight for and with them. I’ve made a lot of good friends and colleagues who are willing to do battle with me,” says Whitehead. “I’ve fallen in love with this city, and I’m willing to fight to bring about changes.”

*****

All photos courtesy of Karsonya Wise Whitehead Ph.D. ’09.