bwtech@UMBC, UMBC's on-campus research and technology park, has announced that two new corporate tenants will relocate to the park's second building, 5523 Research Park Drive.

The new tenants are the healthcare communications and technology firm Physicians Practice, Inc., formerly of Glen Burnie, and the engineering/design firm Edwards and Kelcey, which moves its Baltimore office to UMBC from Caton Avenue.

Physicians Practice is publisher of Physicians Practice: The Business Journal for Physicians, the most widely circulated practice management journal for physicians in the country. The firm is also known for its award-winning Web site, www.PhysiciansPractice.com, and a weekly e-mail newsletter, Physicians Practice Pearls.

Physicians Practice comes to UMBC thanks in part to the close ties to the University by president, co-founder and UMBC alumnus Scott Weber, who graduated in 1985 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies. Weber, a former president of the UMBC Alumni Association, continues to advise students in UMBC's Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship on starting up and running a successful business. The company, which will occupy most of the second floor, currently employs 45 people.

"UMBC offers an excellent strategic location for us to grow our business, with its thriving technology environment, wealth of intellectual capital, and convenient proximity to transportation," said Gerry Hartung, chief executive officer and co-founder of Physicians Practice. "We look forward to partnering with UMBC as our business continues to grow throughout the region and country."

Edwards and Kelcey is a nationally recognized engineering, design, planning and construction management firm which has been in business since 1946. Headquartered in Morristown, NJ, Edwards and Kelcey has 900 employees, 23 regional offices and is ranked 68th among the Top 500 U.S. Design Firms by Engineering News-Record (ENR). Edwards and Kelcey employs 25 transportation engineers and planners locally, and is currently providing services to the Maryland Aviation Administration, Maryland State Highway Administration, City of Baltimore, and other local DOTs.

K.R. Marshall, EK's Baltimore office manager said, "Our new location at UMBC will allow us to optimally service our transportation clients in the Baltimore region. With convenient access to BWI and downtown Baltimore, coupled with partnership opportunities with the UMBC engineering department, Edwards and Kelcey looks forward to continued success in the Maryland market."

bwtech@UMBC's first two buildings were developed by Grosvenor, one of the largest private real estate companies in the world with a global property portfolio of $7 billion. The park's 62,000 square-foot first building has been leased by the information technology firm RWD Technologies since 2001.

(7/05)

"In scholarly literature, there is a lot of interest about inner suburbs, those older suburban communities near the central city. We found that these areas suffer from increasing poverty and declining incomes. Therefore, we set off to better understand these urban dynamics," said Bernadette Hanlon, a public policy Ph.D. candidate at UMBC and one of two authors of "The State of the Inner Suburbs," an analysis of the urban decline surrounding Baltimore.

"There is room for public policy to intervene, to stop this decline, to process and revitalize the suburban communities," said co-author Thomas J. Vicino, public policy Ph.D. candidate. "We're at a crossroads, where the suburbs haven't declined as far as old Baltimore, and there is hope."

Both Hanlon and Vicino are researchers at UMBC's Center for Urban and Environmental Research and Education (CUERE). After a year of compiling massive amounts of data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Vicino and Hanlon developed a new system for classifying the suburbs that ring Baltimore's beltway.

"Because the inner suburbs are juxtaposed by outer suburbs, there's a lot of talk in Maryland of 'smart growth,' and where to direct new development," said Vicino.

"The State of the Inner Suburbs" is currently under consideration for publication in the Journal of Urban Affairs. The data was presented at the national Urban Affairs Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, and to a group of state legislators, politicians and other academics. It was also a front page story in the Baltimore Sun.

The report is potentially useful to legislators, from the migration of work and the composition of the work force to the deflation of property values. "I'd like to see the community and policy makers look to our research as a way to target investment in the communities," said Vicino, while Hanlon added, "We've done analysis on Baltimore, and we hope to continue our research in a comparative context in other urban areas throughout the country."

"The State of the Inner Suburbs" is available for download at: www.umbc.edu/cuere/inner_ring .

(7/05)

Spring usually brings Kevin Omland attention since he studies Maryland's State bird, the Baltimore Oriole, which migrate back to our region near the start of the season for the baseball playing O's. The assistant professor of biological sciences was recently interviewed on National Public Radio and in the Baltimore Sun about the search for new animal species.

What are the criteria for determining whether an organism is a new species?

We look for three or five pieces of evidence. For example, distinct appearance, plumage, color differentiation, an especially distinct pattern or marking, and so on, plus we also sequence DNA.

Our raven work is the closest we've come to finding a new species. We studied a form of raven in California that was so genetically different from ravens elsewhere in the world but gave absolutely no hint of that in its exterior appearance, behavior, or calls. In the end we found that if the only thing that's distinct is DNA, then it's not enough to be a new species.

How long does DNA sequencing take and can you do it here at UMBC?

Yes, our lab manages the DNA sequencing facility for whole university. Our undergraduate and graduate students learn all the skills required to sequence. In fact, one of our graduate students runs the DNA sequencing equipment and does about 99 percent of the sequencing work for UMBC.

You can teach a bright undergraduate student to sequence DNA in about two weeks, from the first feather or muscle sample to editing the final data on the computer.

Your previous work with ravens has shown that they are remarkably resilient, clever and adaptable to the encroachment of mankind on their habitat. Could you give some examples?

Well, ravens in the Mojave Desert really take advantage of dairy farms as a water source - they've learned to drink from cattle troughs. Ravens in urban areas are also very willing to do dumpster diving for everything from Pizza Hut crusts to parking lot French fries. Of course ravens also cruise up and down highways for miles in search of road kill.

Will you and your students be in the field this summer?

Yes. Baltimore Orioles returned to Maryland from wintering in Mexico and Latin America around May 1.

Where's the best Oriole watching site at UMBC?

We are studying Baltimore Orioles on campus near Pig Pen Pond. They stay high up in the treetops but they'll be there.

I've always thought that the pond next to the UMBC Library was another good habitat with its big trees and water source, but they don't use it. Orioles can be like humans, I guess, in that they seem to use each other as an index of which neighborhood is a good place to settle.

Were you a birdwatcher growing up?

Yes, I grew up in the country in Vermont and my parents were always camping and hiking with us. We always had a bird feeder in the yard or would gather around the back window to see deer or wild turkeys. I've always been drawn to the outdoors and wildlife.

Why did you decide to study orioles and ravens in particular?

We picked the Baltimore Oriole because it has such interesting feather coloration. The male has that wonderful, bright, almost fluorescent orange color. In contrast there's the orchard oriole which is much more chestnut colored.

I wondered why there's such color variation in oriole males from one species to other and why female Baltimore orioles are so dull colored. Both sexes of tropical oriole species found in Mexico have very bright coloring. We have a five-year National Science Foundation grant to study oriole coloration, particularly in females.

We thought ravens were perfect for studying speciation since they're found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The Common Raven is found from Siberia through Alaska, Norway, Canada and on to the U.S. Because of this wide distribution, we suspected this species might show high levels of genetic diversity.

We also correctly suspected that the Chihuahuan Raven of the U.S. Southwest wasn't genetically distinct from the Common Raven. For our fast breaking paper, we showed that of the 2,000 animal species we surveyed, 23 percent didn't have distinct mitochondrial DNA. So ravens are the bird poster child of why DNA distinction is not enough to declare a new species.

So where are your favorite bird watching spots in the region?

On campus I'd say Pig Pen Pond or CERA. You can spot great birds at UMBC-owls, wood ducks and of course the most charismatic bird of all, the Baltimore Oriole.

Another good place is the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge off the Baltimore Washington Parkway. The National Wildlife Visitors Center there is a great place to go.

(7/05)

By Patrick Coyle, UMBC

Since its inception in 1987, artists and researchers across disciplines have collaborated in the creative environment of UMBC's Imaging Research Center (IRC), a state-of-the-art R&D studio for digital media, animation and visualization.

One of the IRC's most recent projects is Euphoria, a full-length feature film about the pursuit of happiness. Written, directed and narrated by Lee Boot, the IRC's associate director, Euphoria received a gold medal for best documentary at the WorldFest-Houston festival and had its Baltimore premiere at the Maryland Film Festival in May. (Watch a trailer for the film online.)

As a teacher with 15 years experience, a classically trained artist with a degree in painting and owner of the Baltimore-based educational media company InfoCulture, Boot is in a unique position to bring his life experience to the role of director, researcher, artist, but above all, educator. Here, he talks about the IRC's research mission and the making of Euphoria.

Would you describe the IRC as a comprehensive imaging lab?

Yes, but we take that word "imaging" and we stretch it a lot, and I think that's important. One of the reasons the IRC is more than a traditional imaging lab is that we don't want to be just a service bureau or technical design shop. We do research, that's our mission.

We produced a high-end kiosk for the Baltimore Museum of Art, digitally recreating the Cone sisters' incomparable collection of early 20th Century painting. Now a lot of museums want us to create something similar for them. But I say no, because to repeat ourselves doesn't constitute a research challenge, but a production challenge, and that's not our goal.

Is this imaging in a philosophical sense?

It is. In fact, a major goal of the IRC is to be a part of research that increases our ability to track the way research affects culture.

Euphoria is a full-length film, with graphics and editing done by the IRC, that will hopefully revolutionize the approach to education films. How is it different?

Euphoria is an attempt to create an "information-based film" for entertainment. Specially, it's a film that conveys what we know about what creates long-term fulfillment, happiness, euphoria-including neuroscience, psychology, the history of the pursuit, etc.

The story is told by juxtaposing visual metaphors against information-based narration, so essentially the story is told with metaphors, a very different way to approach this information. Initially some worried that it would be too challenging for teenage audience members, but nobody thinks twice in high school about teaching difficult texts and artwork like Shakespeare, Faulkner, Van Gogh. They're not considered beyond the high school mind. We'd like to raise this media to a higher form of art. We count on the teacher to deconstruct them. So we're asking, "Why should an informational film always be understood completely in real time?"

What was the research process for the film?

Similar to the way a researcher might proceed with a science grant, I targeted a program at the National Institutes of Health that promoted neuroscience education, and began to assemble a team. I was able to recruit two neuroscientists, one oriented toward the physiology of the neuron and another with a more global orientation to the brain, an addiction psychiatrist, a science-media expert, a great anthropologist and two people from different ends of the film business.

Then I set out to learn how to write the research grant, which was very hard and new for me because my background is not in science-I'd never done it. The grant came in two phases, the first to prove feasibility and the second to produce the full film and evaluate its effect on teenagers' beliefs, attitudes and intentions. Sometimes I find that people think we were paid by the NIH to make a film. That's not true. The NIH supported a research question which asked: is our plan a way to make a different kind of science education film that teenagers will find engaging enough to really hear the information and allow it to help them find a way to feel good without drugs?

How would you describe Euphoria's potential effects on culture?

Euphoria is funded by the National Institutes of Health, in particular, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, because they believe that by talking about what does create "euphoria" in a believable way, it could go a long way toward preventing kids from becoming dependent on substances. They also like our approach that we're aiming for something beyond a typical educational film. There's also an extensive Web site that teachers can use at www.TheEuphoriaProject.com .

* * *

The IRC is currently working on a new project called Fieldtrip, a plan to use an array of media to help students and their parents better understand a range of issues related to learning, so they can make informed choices and take a more active role in education.. This will likely include the IRC's first-ever video game, which will complement the Fieldtrip Web site and film.

Learn more about the IRC at www.irc.umbc.edu .

Watch a Maryland Public Television feature on the IRC.

(7/05)

Assistant Professor of History Kate Brown recently received two significant awards for A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland (Harvard University Press, 2004). The book received the American Historical Association's prestigious George Louis Beer Prize, given for outstanding historical writing on any phase of European international history since 1895. She previously received the Heldt Prize awarded by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.

"Kate Brown is already an extraordinarily accomplished scholar, one of the rare historians to win one of the profession's major prizes so early in a career," said John Jeffries, professor and chair of the history department. "She also deserves recognition as an innovative teacher who is committed to enhancing student engagement and learning in her classes."

A Biography of No Place is a travelogue, an unusual genre for a study of archival history. "I wrote this history as a travelogue because it is about marginalized people who did not leave a mark in archives, and so the historian must go in search of the traces they left behind," said Brown.

In her book Brown describes her travels throughout the borderland between Russia and Poland, where people later identified as Poles, Germans, Jews, Ukrainians and Russians lived side by side in 1925. Over the next three decades, these cultures were homogenized out of existence, the result of Soviet and Nazi rule. By the 1950's, this "no place" emerged as an ethnically-pure Ukrainian heartland, because the diversity that defined the region was destroyed. Combined with ethnography and research in recently opened archives, her experiences and oral interviews provide a poignant story of the annihilation of a rich, culturally complex borderland.

"If we widen the scope of history to include people at the margins of society, we can see the destruction that lies in the wake of progress," said Brown. "The deportees are some of the most inspiring people I've ever met in my life. They are amazed that someone cared about their stories, but they're not bitter; despite deportation and a life in exile, they carry on."

(7/05)

A New Look for UMBC’s Homepage

Update: Stepping Back and Looking Forward
(9/8/05)

Okay, we heard you, and here are ways you said the new UMBC homepage and website could be improved:

• Launch both together;
• Improve design to reflect UMBC’s energy and quality;
• Use more campus photos, similar to the new About UMBC;
• Make myUMBC a more prominent homepage link;
• Consider vertical scrolling layout;
• Study peers and competitors;
• Tighten programming to adhere to contemporary web standards.

So, we’re stepping back and will launch a new UMBC web presence in Summer 2006—homepage and all. We’ve turned off comments to the original story below, but if you’d like to learn what we plan to do (and offer new comments) click here. Future updates will appear on the Webteam blog and be linked to About This Site on the current homepage.

---

In late September, UMBC’s homepage will have a brand new design. While the existing navigation and features will not change, the new homepage will have a fresher look and more information about University events and news, as well as photos of the campus. This week, we’re providing a sneak preview of the new homepage at http://www.umbc.edu/index_new.html and an opportunity for the campus community to submit comments at www.umbc.edu/oit/webdev/news.

Designed by Jim Lord ‘99, associate director of creative services, the homepage is the result of conversations between eMedia, the University’s interdepartmental Web team, and the campus community. These conversations were the first phase of discussions with the UMBC community about a redesign of the entire UMBC Web site—including site structure, navigation, consistency and content—that will take place over the next 2005-06 academic year.

The new homepage includes expanded Campus Life and What’s New sections, and photos that promote upcoming events and highlight the campus, in response to comments from the UMBC community that the site should be more welcoming and include more campus images and information that supports the University’s many events and accomplishments. There’s also a new About UMBC site—designed by Michelle Jordan ’93, interactive designer and Jim Lord—with resources for both internal and external audiences, including facts, recent achievements and information on campus governance and administration.

“With the new homepage design and the upcoming site-wide redesign, we hope to improve the quality of content for our users, from facts to features that tell the UMBC story,”said Eleanor Lewis, assistant director of online information, who oversees content development and management for UMBC’s site. “I see my job as a partnership with members of the UMBC community, working closely with them so that I can provide up-to-date information and promote their events and achievements throughout our Web site.”

A similar redesign is occurring with myUMBC, the campus Web portal, to better serve current students, faculty and staff. Launched in 1999, myUMBC was one of the first generation campus portals in higher education. But the site needs a new technical infrastructure to support current and future needs, so the Office of Information Technology will be releasing a working beta version on or around September 19, and plans to launch a new myUMBC by the spring ’06 semester.

“College and university Web sites are challenging because they have to serve internal members of the community who know their institution better than many prospective, external users who don’t,”said John Fritz, director of New Media Learning & Development, and a member of the original Web teams that launched UMBC’s main site and portal. “We’re trying to redesign how all users experience UMBC’s Web presence.”

To help, Fritz and OIT have hired Jackie Ward as UMBC’s first-ever campus Web architect (and full-time Web employee). Ward will have lead responsibility for managing the top-level organization, navigation, usability and content management policies of the University’s main Web site and portal, informed by Web steering and advisory committees consisting of selected campus departments or stakeholders. She will also serve as the primary support staff member for departmental web developers to provide guidance, training and support to help improve their sites.

If you did not participate in our previous discussions about UMBC’s Web site or portal, there are still opportunities to provide input, and we’d love to hear from you. OIT and OIA are launching a UMBC Webteam blog where you can comment about the redesign of each site throughout the year. Alternately, you can send e-mail to webteam@umbc.edu.

(8/30/05)

 

 

 

 

 

Homeland Security for H20

It’s a post-9-11 scenario that most homeland security experts agree is not a matter of if but when: a “dirty bomb” attack in the United States.

Technically known as radiation dispersal devices or RDDs, dirty bombs combine conventional explosives with radioactive material, most likely cesium or cobalt stolen or scavenged from medical or industrial use. Often confused by the public with nuclear weapons, a dirty bomb’s primary impact is psychological, since while they could render an entire city block uninhabitable for quite some time, overall damage would be limited beyond that area.

Like many scientists since 9/11, Brian E. Reed, William and Lillian Hackerman Chair of Engineering and Chair of UMBC’s Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department, has studied how his field can contribute to homeland security. Reed has recently studied a serious side effect of dirty bombs: the toxic trickledown effect on the environment and water supply in the aftermath of an attack.

“If an RDD attack happened in our region, first responders would use water to extinguish fires and control dust at a detonation site, and the contaminants could ultimately end up in the Chesapeake Bay watershed,” said Reed. “The public health and environmental impact would vary depending on the type and potency of the attack, but the mass psychological impact would be significant, requiring a focused and immediate response.”

Reed realized that many available advanced technologies for cleaning up and limiting damage by dirty bombs were too complex and expensive to be practical in an emergency. He found that adsorbents ­ materials that cause the molecules of liquids, gases, and dissolved substances to adhere to the surfaces of solids ­ offered a more robust response and easier disposal of contaminants.

Under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant, Reed and his graduate students are testing adsorbent materials in CEE laboratories located at UMBC’s Technology Research Center (TRC).

The civil and environmental engineering department (CEE) is part of a growing cluster of collaborative environmental research entities headquartered at UMBC, including the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) (led by CEE colleague Claire Welty) and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES).

A native of Buffalo, NY, Reed came to UMBC in 2002 from the University of Missouri-Columbia to help build on the success of department founder the late Dr. Severino “Bino” Koh and Reed’s CEE colleague Dr. Jack Gwo, a challenge that has him energized.

“It’s a great chance to build a new department that is not constrained by how civil and environmental engineering departments have operated in the past,” Reed said. “Our goal is to produce a different type of environmental engineer – one who is able to work closely with scientists and policy professionals in solving the complex environmental problems facing the nation. Working closely with CUERE, BES and departments such as geography and environmental systems gives our students a much broader outlook on how environmental problems are addressed.”

(9/12/05)

A New Look for UMBC’s Homepage

Update: Stepping Back and Looking Forward
(9/8/05)

Okay, we heard you, and here are ways you said the new UMBC homepage and website could be improved:

• Launch both together;
• Improve design to reflect UMBC’s energy and quality;
• Use more campus photos, similar to the new About UMBC;
• Make myUMBC a more prominent homepage link;
• Consider vertical scrolling layout;
• Study peers and competitors;
• Tighten programming to adhere to contemporary web standards.

So, we’re stepping back and will launch a new UMBC web presence in Summer 2006—homepage and all. We’ve turned off comments to the original story below, but if you’d like to learn what we plan to do (and offer new comments) click here. Future updates will appear on the Webteam blog and be linked to About This Site on the current homepage.

---

In late September, UMBC’s homepage will have a brand new design. While the existing navigation and features will not change, the new homepage will have a fresher look and more information about University events and news, as well as photos of the campus. This week, we’re providing a sneak preview of the new homepage at http://www.umbc.edu/index_new.html and an opportunity for the campus community to submit comments at www.umbc.edu/oit/webdev/news.

Designed by Jim Lord ‘99, associate director of creative services, the homepage is the result of conversations between eMedia, the University’s interdepartmental Web team, and the campus community. These conversations were the first phase of discussions with the UMBC community about a redesign of the entire UMBC Web site—including site structure, navigation, consistency and content—that will take place over the next 2005-06 academic year.

The new homepage includes expanded Campus Life and What’s New sections, and photos that promote upcoming events and highlight the campus, in response to comments from the UMBC community that the site should be more welcoming and include more campus images and information that supports the University’s many events and accomplishments. There’s also a new About UMBC site—designed by Michelle Jordan ’93, interactive designer and Jim Lord—with resources for both internal and external audiences, including facts, recent achievements and information on campus governance and administration.

“With the new homepage design and the upcoming site-wide redesign, we hope to improve the quality of content for our users, from facts to features that tell the UMBC story,”said Eleanor Lewis, assistant director of online information, who oversees content development and management for UMBC’s site. “I see my job as a partnership with members of the UMBC community, working closely with them so that I can provide up-to-date information and promote their events and achievements throughout our Web site.”

A similar redesign is occurring with myUMBC, the campus Web portal, to better serve current students, faculty and staff. Launched in 1999, myUMBC was one of the first generation campus portals in higher education. But the site needs a new technical infrastructure to support current and future needs, so the Office of Information Technology will be releasing a working beta version on or around September 19, and plans to launch a new myUMBC by the spring ’06 semester.

“College and university Web sites are challenging because they have to serve internal members of the community who know their institution better than many prospective, external users who don’t,”said John Fritz, director of New Media Learning & Development, and a member of the original Web teams that launched UMBC’s main site and portal. “We’re trying to redesign how all users experience UMBC’s Web presence.”

To help, Fritz and OIT have hired Jackie Ward as UMBC’s first-ever campus Web architect (and full-time Web employee). Ward will have lead responsibility for managing the top-level organization, navigation, usability and content management policies of the University’s main Web site and portal, informed by Web steering and advisory committees consisting of selected campus departments or stakeholders. She will also serve as the primary support staff member for departmental web developers to provide guidance, training and support to help improve their sites.

If you did not participate in our previous discussions about UMBC’s Web site or portal, there are still opportunities to provide input, and we’d love to hear from you. OIT and OIA are launching a UMBC Webteam blog where you can comment about the redesign of each site throughout the year. Alternately, you can send e-mail to webteam@umbc.edu.

(8/30/05)

 

 

 

 

 

Making the Most of Summer

 

Employers are more interested than ever in hiring UMBC talent: this year, the Shriver Center coordinated and secured nearly 800 internship and co-op placements in over 360 organizations, an increase of over 20 percent in a two-year period, said Christine Routzahn, the Center’s associate director of professional practice.

These programs help students gain professional skills and insight into a specific industry and establish a network of contacts.

This summer, 210 UMBC students participated in internships or co-ops through the Shriver Center. In their own words, here are just a few of the students who made the most of their summer:

Henrietta Akintoye, biochemistry, Meyerhoff Scholar

Internship: Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Collegeville, Pennsylvania

“Wyeth is truly amazing! I am working on a project related to osteoporosis in the Women’s Health Research Institute. In addition to learning a variety of new skills, I am also gaining a fresh perspective and appreciation for research. Every time a drug gets placed on the market, I can see firsthand how research provides for many, new and innovative health solutions.

“I am also learning a great deal outside of the laboratory scene. I have been able to connect with many Wyeth employees, hear of how they have worked to succeed in the pharmaceutical industry, and also receive pertinent advice as to how I can reach and fulfill my personal goals.”

Jonathan Bratt and Eleanor Pittinger, emergency health services

Internship: London Ambulance Service (LAS), London, England

Bratt and Pittinger worked with the LAS about a month before the London bombings. “We were able to study and experience first-hand the deployment of LAS’ Emergency Medical Services System throughout London,” said Bratt. “We were also given the rare opportunity to ride with London’s Multi-Agency Initial Assessment Team (MAIAT), a specialized team of firefighters, paramedics and police officers that have been trained—around the world—in all types of disaster, WMD and rescue situations. It was an experience like no other, and was definitely one of the most interesting aspects of our trip.

“When we graduate, we will have an excellent resource in our toolbox: the ability to describe and possibly implement another way of organizing emergency services in the U.S,” Bratt added.

“Jon and I have a lot to take back to UMBC and to our respective emergency organizations,” said Pittinger. “The similarities between patients and providers in the U.S. and the U.K. are so hard to ignore that it makes sense for our countries to exchange ideas, theories and methods.”

Cora Morrison, political science, and Edward Warner, M.A. program in intercultural communication

Internship: Maryland Department of Agriculture, Maryland Agriculture Land Preservation Foundation, Annapolis, Maryland

“As a political science major, working with a government agency gives me a valuable experience for future employment,” said Morrison. “I learned several new skills, including cartography and oracle databases, which may also prove helpful. I know that this experience has prepared me for future opportunities in my career and even graduate school.”

“My future academic plans are to attend law school,” said Warner. “In addition, my professional goal is to use my foreign language skills and understanding of intercultural and legal issues to help the needy. In my summer internship I’ve seen how statutes, leadership and security are all connected….I’ve learned the importance of the agricultural industry for societal, political and economic success.”

(8/15/05)