New science faculty come to UMBC as experts in their fields, often with a decade of research experience. What may be less familiar is how to manage a large laboratory, from the ground up. How do you balance time spent teaching, researching, and mentoring students? Should you buy that useful but expensive piece of equipment? If, through your research, you discover something that could be commercially viable, how do you get it to market?

UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS) is helping faculty learn how to answer these questions through a new five-day Entrepreneurial Skills Training (EST) program at the UMBC Training Centers. This winter, a pilot of the program, developed by Gib Mason ‘95, economics, and executive director of the Center for Leadership and Innovation at the UMBC Training Centers, taught 16 faculty members in biology, chemistry, physics, math, and marine biotech essential skills to grow their labs. Participants learned about leadership styles, maintaining work-life balance, and project management approaches, as well as entrepreneurial skills like marketing, negotiating, and intellectual property development.

“When a newly-hired assistant professor arrives on campus, we provide them with start-up funds, office and laboratory space, classes to teach, committee assignments, and the list goes on. Similar to an entrepreneur, they take upon themselves the full responsibility (including the liabilities) of starting a research enterprise,” says CNMS Dean Bill LaCourse. “This Entrepreneurial Skills Training program provides them with the tools they need to set up and operate a productive research program while living a more balanced life.”

“The things that we’ve been taught here, you aren’t taught in a traditional scientific career pathway,” said Fernando Vonhoff, assistant professor of biological sciences, at the end of the week-long training. He plans to apply philosophies he learned in the program, such as Agile Project Management, in his lab.

Like Vonhoff, Erin Green, assistant professor of biological sciences, appreciated expanding her project management skillset, as well as learning about the importance of emotional intelligence and how to develop a short, accessible description of her work. By developing business plan blueprints and elevator pitches, she and her colleagues learned how to more effectively explain to investors and the general public why their research matters—research from neurodevelopment to next-generation energy storage, from quantum computing to epigenetics.

LaCourse sees the cost of providing the Entrepreneurial Skills Training for new faculty as an investment in their career success—a way to help faculty effectively take on the challenges of leading research groups in a world where funding for basic science can be scarce. Ultimately, says Michelle Starz-Gaiano, associate professor of biological sciences, “The training has set us up to better seize opportunities as they arise.”

Mason and LaCourse are already planning future EST opportunities for new faculty, adjusting the program based on feedback from the pilot. One ongoing challenge remains how to make sure the training can help faculty answer the different kinds of management questions that might emerge in different settings, given the diversity of CNMS research. By continuing to refine the program, LaCourse is excited to develop a model that other institutions could emulate and grow further, helping to propel even more science faculty toward successful careers.

Image: Gib Mason instructs an entrepreneurship course at the UMBC Training Centers. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky recently joined the ranks of educators on strike for better wages. The latest demonstrations come on the heels of success in West Virginia, where the strikes lasted nine days.

The protests are about more than winning raises for teachers, however. Participants are dedicated to increasing funding and support for public schools, and officials need to listen.

“I’m glad that people are standing up for their pay, because teaching is really hard,” says Cheryl North, who serves as program director for secondary education at UMBC.

Indeed, instructing a classroom full of students is a tall order even for a teacher in a well-funded school system. It becomes nearly impossible when schools are starved of resources.

“I think it’s reaching a boiling point,” says North. “You can’t just keep cutting, cutting, cutting … schools have been running on a shoestring for way too long.”

It is no coincidence that the states in which teachers are striking have seen some of the nation’s largest budget cuts to education in recent years. Textbook shortages, dilapidated facilities and overstuffed classrooms abound. In Oklahoma, twenty percent of public schools only remain open four days a week — as long as they can afford to.

While the problem is clear, debate surrounds the strike as a solution. The West Virginia protests shut down every public school in the state for nearly two weeks. Some wonder whether the demands for funding justify such a massive disruption.

Jonathan Singer, chair of UMBC’s education department, recognizes the complexity of the issue. “They don’t want to be disrupting education, or to be viewed as being harmful to the students or anything.”

He explains: “Teachers are at a point where they’re frustrated, and they feel like their voices aren’t being heard, and the only way to be heard, and to get the attention of the public, is to do something drastic.”

Teachers in three states now have come out in full force, and Arizona educators, among the lowest paid in the country, are threatening to strike if their demands are not met. The time for change is now, but the sheer magnitude of the situation makes it clear there will not be a quick fix.

In addition to meeting the teachers’ requests for increased funding and wages, Singer suggests a crucial step to preclude such widespread discontent in the future: “Voices of teachers at the decision table,” he says. “When it comes to … curriculum, and assessment practices, and a whole host of issues.”

As for steps teachers can take short of striking, Linda Oliva, associate chair of UMBC’s education department, has a few ideas. “I think that teachers can be really powerful advocates of their students,” she says, “… by being involved in local policy-making, their school board.” She also describes her firm belief in teachers encouraging student activism.

After all, students are at the heart of the strikes. Teachers deserve good pay, but the strikers have let the world know that this is about the education they can afford to give students.

As such, Oliva looks forward to the teachers returning to what  they do best. “That’s the most important thing,” she says. “How can we support teachers to get back to their classrooms as quickly as possible, and also… have been heard?”

If you’re deciding to go back to school, one of the largest obstacles may be figuring out how you’re going to finance graduate education. There are countless resources out there to assist you in finding thousands of dollars in scholarships, grants, and loans. You just have to know where to look.

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Scholarships are an ideal way to help finance graduate education because they do not require any form of repayment. Thousands of them are available every year, offered by universities, companies, nonprofits, social or professional groups, individuals, and more. Based on funding in the area, specific major programs often offer scholarships. Many scholarships are available for those in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, and healthcare.

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