UMBC intellectual sports programs were featured in the fall Baltimore Sun Education supplement, published on Oct. 15. The article, "More than just having fun: Being active in student organizations has long-reaching benefits," includes an interview with Lesa Goodhue.

"'UMBC's use of 'intellectual sports' as a category is unique,' says Lesa Goodhue, special assistant to the AVP, intellectual sports and applied learning. 'While other universities have similar groups, outside of UMBC those groups are often separated and 'owned' by their respective academic departments or colleges. At UMBC, on the other hand, intellectual sports are student organizations recognized by the Student Government Association (SGA). Being an SGA entity ensures that all of our undergraduate students have the opportunity to be a member.'"

"According to Goodhue, student organizations are viewed by the university as ideal spaces for students to develop as leaders, build communities of peers, collaborate across interests and acquire power skills. She notes that UMBC student organizations write constitutions, attend regular roundtables, have access to scheduled professional development workshops, follow budgeting timelines, and adhere to processes designed to maximize equity and ensure their safety."

The article, which begins on page 1, also includes the full interview with Goodhue and quotes from Mock Trial member Samisha Connor '25, financial economics, and American Institute for Chemical Engineers member Benjamin Welling '25, chemical engineering.

ORIGINAL POST: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/vpsa/posts/136468

When James Dorsey arrived at UMBC in 2002 to major in music performance and composition, becoming an educator was not the original plan. But when opportunity knocked, Dorsey answered the call to teach. 

In the intervening years, Dorsey’s interactive, empowering methods of teaching music to kids have made him popular, and this fall he marks his 19^th year of teaching music and performance to the elementary school students in the Prince George’s County Public School system. And if that wasn’t enough, Dorsey ’05, music, is back at UMBC, sharing his pedagogical experience with a new generation of musicians and educators.

“I didn’t have pedagogy as part of my undergrad experience when I started at UMBC. The music education department was just beginning, so there were things that I just missed,” says Dorsey, who will receive UMBC’s 2023 alumni award for the performing and visual arts this Thursday, October 26. “But it’s great to enter education from a non-traditional pathway, because I really had to rely on my artistry, to help me connect with young learners and help them grow musically.”

A detour-turned-career

Dorsey entered the resident teacher program with Prince George’s County while still an undergrad at UMBC. After six years of apprentice teaching and taking summer classes, he was certified, launching an esteemed career that has made him a sought-after resource in musical education—and a key to that success has been in helping students tap into their creativity.

“Throughout my teaching career, as I have studied pedagogy and methods more carefully, I’m consistently working with people through the lens of ‘How can I help them create and connect with the world around them?’” says Dorsey. “How can I help them understand that music is a way to respond to what’s happening around them?”

With this approach to musical pedagogy, Dorsey has expanded his reach beyond the elementary classroom. In addition to his ordinary course load in the Prince George’s County school system, Dorsey also teaches music educators at Loyola—where he received his master’s degree—and back at UMBC, where Brian Kaufman, director of the UMBC Wind Ensemble, invited to Dorsey to coach the ensemble in creating original music for their programs.

“It’s really a full circle moment,” Dorsey says.“I’ve gotten to reimagine what music education looks like in elementary and secondary settings, and now I’m working with teachers who want to help their students create. I get to be a facilitator to help other people through that program, and not only am I helping them pedagogically, I also feel like I’m growing as a person and as an artist.”

“Making Music That Sounds Like Me”

Dorsey believes that a key to his success in teaching music to young people is allowing them room to fully express themselves. Every year, rather than selecting and rehearsing an existing musical play, Dorsey guides his students in writing and producing an original musical, a process which he finds to be both effective in teaching students how to be artists, and in honing his own craft.

“I don’t think of creativity as something that belongs to only a select group of people. I think creativity is something that everyone deserves to do,” Dorsey says. “And I’m included in that. Teaching has really taught me how to be a better artist.”

By putting the tools of creating a musical into the hands of his students, Dorsey has enjoyed watching them flourish, while exercising his compositional skills to create original electronic music with their direction. 

“When people think of a musical, they have an idea of what that’s supposed to sound like,” he says. “But with the musicals we create, I really get the chance to make music that I enjoy and that students really relate to, organized around prevalent rhythms and the style and vocal delivery that goes with it. They can say, ‘I got to make music that sounds like me.’ Just by teaching, I have seen so much evidence that trusting the process and making decisions based on an idea is a comfortable pathway to going from idea, to creating, and then realizing, ‘I can do that.’”

Dorsey’s pedagogical successes caught the attention of the Maryland State Department of Education Fine Arts office, who tapped him to begin offering professional development classes for other teachers centered around the creative process. To this end, he currently serves as a roster artist for Maryland Centers for Creative Classrooms (MC3), supporting arts educators in developing skills and knowledge in providing quality arts-based instruction.

In this role, Dorsey facilitates sessions for instructors to think through their teaching strategies for helping people create, and along the way, they get the chance to create something. The result is powerful, says Dorsey. ”They know from their own experience creating music what they need to do to help other people feel comfortable. We really need to give everyone a chance to express their ideas through what they create.”

Find out more about the 2023 Alumni Awards and past award winners.

New research published in September in the Journal of the American Medical Association of Internal Medicine reported pricing discrepancies at top hospitals almost two years after the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created the Price Transparency Requirements for Hospitals to Make Standard Charges Public rule. The rule requires all non-federal, non-tribal hospitals that are licensed in each state to list their standard charges for all items and services provided. 

The goal of the rule was to create greater transparency in the prices that hospitals charge to patients and payers. In theory, this data should help the public make the most informed decisions about where to receive their care, as reported by The New York Times with data support from Morgan Henderson, principal data scientist, and Morgane Mouslim, advanced policy analyst, at The Hilltop Institute at UMBC.

“Hospitals have been required to post this data for almost three years, and most hospitals are posting something,” says Henderson, a co-author of the paper along with colleagues from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, Rice University, and business entrepreneur Mark Cuban. “However, very little attention has been paid to the extent to which the prices appear to be accurate.”

Secret shoppers, different prices

The new cross-sectional study compares 60 U.S. hospitals’ online cash prices with their over-the-phone cash prices for vaginal childbirth and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The data was collected between August and October 2022 from “secret shopper” phone calls to 20 top-ranked hospitals as well as 20 safety-net hospitals (which accept patients who cannot pay) and 20 non-top-ranked, non-safety-net hospitals.

The study found that the online prices hospitals are required to post were missing for 47 percent  of hospitals for childbirth and 10 percent for MRIs, said Merina Thomas, a doctoral student at UTMB at Galveston, who was the lead author of the paper.

“Among those hospitals where prices were available online, the online price often did not match the prices provided over the phone,” Thomas said to utmb Health. “For example, a hospital might have an online price for an MRI of $2,000 but give a phone price of $5,000, or an online childbirth price of $20,000 but a phone price of $10,000.”

This research is among the first to attempt to investigate the validity of hospitals’ pricing transparency data relative to other pricing benchmarks. “While this study doesn’t explicitly assess the accuracy of these price transparency data files,” says Henderson, “by comparing them to telephone-based price estimates, we demonstrate that something (either the accuracy of the price transparency data, or the accuracy of telephone estimates, or both) isn’t working.”

The paper was authored by Thomas; Peter Cram, professor of internal medicine at UTMB; Cuban; James Flaherty, UTMB medical student; Jiefei Wang, assistant professor of biostatistics and data sciences at UTMB; Henderson; and Vivian Ho, professor of economics at The Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University.

Henderson and Mouslim have conducted several studies on price transparency. Learn more about this research at The Hilltop Institute.

By Roni Rosenthal

For those who grew up—or still are—spellbound by movies like Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, and The Lion King, you are part of what some historians dub the “Disney Generation.” Your childhood joins forces with a collective nostalgia that weaves Disney’s enchanting tales into our very own identities. In a country with many competing cultural icons, Disney—for better or worse—remains a singular unifying brand for anyone who spent their childhood in the U.S.

Smithsonian museum specialist and curator Bethanee Bemis ’09, history and anthropology, M.A. ’11, history, is an expert in weaving narratives with identity and a storyteller at heart. Her work shines best when married to her earliest passion—Disney.

Where the magic all started

In her newly published book Disney Theme Parks and America’s National Narratives: Mirror, Mirror for Us All, Bemis shares her journey with Disney. She was brought home from the hospital to a Disney-themed nursery, went to Disney World at age two, and around that age, watched The Little Mermaid for the first time, marking her enchantment. Bemis acknowledges her mother’s infatuation with Disney World in the 1970s as the catalyst for her own passion and appreciation of the imaginary world. 

This profound connection with Disney would eventually shape Bemis’ academic and then career path. During a recent installation of a Smithsonian exhibition on American democracy, Bemis recalls, “The central inquiry revolved around who holds the authority to narrate America’s tales. Must our collective narrative be uniform for national unity? Can such unity even exist? That’s when it hit me—Disney! Disney is the narrator of American stories.”

As the curator of the exhibit “Mirror, Mirror: Reflections of America in Disney Parks” at the National Museum of American History, Bemis explores Disney’s impact on American culture and reminds us of the significance of cultural artifacts like movies, dolls, and historical items. These artifacts can inspire conversations, challenge assumptions, and even drive change.

“A great way to launch”

Bemis used her time at UMBC to fuse her early fascination with storytelling and her dedication to exploring the intricate threads of history.

Reflecting on her UMBC days, she remembers the transformative role of Seth Messinger, then an associate professor of sociology and anthropology at UMBC. “Initially, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Dr. Messinger, my undergraduate advisor, believed in me,” says Bemis. “He was convinced that I could achieve success with a little extra effort. He pushed me to go outside my comfort zone and grow, which I appreciated….Well, later on, not in the moment.” 

On campus, Bemis felt that she could unfold her wings and explore her interests. “I really appreciated how the community at UMBC was a safe space to experiment and think about the person I wanted to be when I finished college,” says Bemis, who met her husband Benjamin D’Alessio ’10, M.S. ’11, chemical engineering, when they were both grad students on campus. “It’s a lifetime community if you want it to be,” she smiles. “It’s not just a school.” Though only seven years old, her daughter already talks about being a Retriever someday. 

With mentors like Messinger, Denise Meringolo, associate professor of history, and Amy Froide, professor and chair of history, Bemis found herself propelled beyond her comfort zone, guided to embrace challenges and expand her horizons. The influence of these educators was not confined to her university years; it stretched into the present day, with continued support and advice shaping her path.

Messinger, who has kept in touch with Bemis after they both moved on from UMBC, says Bemis has made him so proud. “In addition to taking my classes, she served as a research assistant for me. She’s very detail oriented and organized, as well as warm and kind as a person. I’ve loved watching her family and career flourish.”

Bemis’s journey through academia led her to a pivotal connection with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. What began as an internship at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History grew into a career mission to uncover stories hidden within the museum’s vast collections. Over the years, she moved from intern to curator, specializing in political history and weaving narratives that resonate with the pulse of the nation.

In fact, she says, “I think that the key to finding success in my chosen field was internships and taking advantage of all the opportunities that UMBC provided as a student. Finding a job is often about who you know, and UMBC offers a safe space to grow your network. It is a great way to launch.”

Keep telling stories and making space

In an era when entertainment is not just about escapism but also about challenging norms, forming identities, and prompting thought-provoking conversations, the Barbie movie emerges as a recent and unifying testament to the evolving storytelling landscape. 

Although Barbie isn’t a Disney creation, Bemis says, “I think that our pop culture has always held the story of us. It isn’t just about entertainment; it’s a reflection of societal values, norms, and aspirations.”

Bemis is proud of her achievements but reminds us that “there’s so much more that needs to be done.” She plans to continue working in the public history field and to tell untold and uninvestigated stories, especially stories that are underrepresented in the public history field.

“We must keep telling the stories and make space in the museum for people to tell their own stories,” says Bemis. “I hope that whatever I do will contribute to that somehow.”