Stop by Coffee Mondays to grab a free cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate and take a breather between classes.

Whether you're coming to study, chat, or just refuel, this is your weekly reminder to slow down and connect with fellow grad students.

Where? Office of Graduate Student Life (Commons 308)
When? Every Monday | 10am - 2pm
Come as you are — pajamas, laptops, and coffee orders welcome.

Applications are now being accepted for the Center for Social Science Scholarship Summer Fellowship.  The purpose of this fellowship is to support significant social science research by tenure-track or tenured faculty in the UMBC College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, resulting in a submittable product by December 2026.  Up to two fellows will receive a $6,000 award during the summer of 2026. 

The digital landscape of government is changing rapidly, and the State of Maryland is taking proactive steps to ensure it has the talent to keep pace. At the heart of this effort is the Maryland Institute for Innovative Computing (MIIC) program, a vital initiative administered by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's (UMBC) Career Center and supported by state funding.

The MIIC concept was spearheaded by Jack Suess, UMBC's Vice President and Chief Information Officer, who recognized the critical need to create a dedicated pipeline for technical talent within state agencies. His vision has been instrumental in making this program a reality.

More than just an internship program, MIIC is a comprehensive strategy to recruit, compensate, mentor, and ultimately retain top college students in impactful technical careers right here in Maryland.

Between the summer of 2024 and the summer of 2025, MIIC successfully funded 34 technical internships across eight Maryland state agencies, representing an investment of nearly $174,000 in the state's emerging workforce. In total 178 interns have been supported by the program since its inception in 2022, totaling over $805,000 in state funds. 

This commitment to fostering a local talent pipeline has yielded significant results. Every single participating agency—including the Maryland Department of Information Technology (MD DoIT), the Comptroller of Maryland, and the Maryland State Archives—reported that their intern contributed directly to organizational improvement.

Agencies are quick to highlight the dual benefit. Not only does the program allow them to "discover and retain new talent," but it also provides crucial financial relief. One agency head noted the program provides "extra dollars saved" that can be redirected toward "other strategic security goals." Another supervisor praised the added efficiency, stating the intern helped them "tackle some administrative burdens."

The 34 students who participated came from a diverse mix of backgrounds, boasting a strong average GPA of 3.59 and representing seven in-state and two out-of-state institutions. Their majors read like a blueprint for the modern technical workforce: Cybersecurity, Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, and Software Engineering.

For these students, the internships were a critical bridge between academic theory and real-world application.

"This internship has been an extremely valuable experience for me as an Information Systems major. It has allowed me to gain hands-on experience in a field that I am passionate about and has helped me to develop both professionally and personally."
- MIIC Intern

In short, MIIC is not just finding great students; it's actively helping agencies become more secure, efficient, and productive.

Congratulations to Megan Jackson and Christina Cuglovici Abrao for being awarded a BreakingGround grant! Their project – "Maryland Public Service Scholars Training Program" – will contribute to UMBC's continued commitment to fostering collective thriving and civic agency.

The Maryland Public Service Scholars Training Program will provide a cohort of UMBC students early exposure to public service careers through a spring semester pilot combining weekly service site placements, professional development seminars, and industry mentorship. The program offers stipends to ensure equitable access while students serve at partner sites and attend weekly seminars featuring guest speakers from government and nonprofit sectors. Students will develop foundational professional skills, learn asset-based service approaches, and build networks through formal mentorship to prepare them for competitive opportunities in public service careers.

Megan Jackson said about this project:

Offering this training program is a pivotal moment for MPSS, opening up our 39-year-old program to freshmen and sophomores for the first time and providing crucial early-career public service opportunities. We are delighted to begin this work with these UMBC students, and we are incredibly grateful to Breaking Ground for their support of this pilot!

The BreakingGround initiative provides grants of up to $2,500 to UMBC faculty, staff, and students who want to launch or strengthen educational and community-building projects. These projects should, as a part of their work, foster civic agency: the ability to initiate and make meaningful contributions to social change. For more information, visit the BreakingGround website at civiclife.umbc.edu/breakingground.