Interested in the future of microcredentials at UMBC? Join us for an orientation to the Microcredential Advisory Committee (MAC) and learn more about how UMBC is working to strengthen and expand its microcredential ecosystem.

The MAC brings together partners from across UMBC to help inform the strategic development of microcredentials and support a thoughtful, sustainable approach to digital credentials across the university.

During this session, we will:

• Learn about the MAC, its purpose, history, and role in UMBC’s broader microcredential ecosystem
• Explore our work to date, including how the MAC has helped shape the development of microcredentials at UMBC
• Introduce this year’s three strategic subcommittees and the areas of work they will focus on during the 2026–27 academic year
• Discuss opportunities for collaboration and engagement across the UMBC community
• Look ahead at where we hope to take microcredentialing at UMBC in the coming year

Whether you’re already involved in microcredentials, curious how they might support your learners or programs, or simply interested in learning more about this emerging area of work, you’re welcome to join us.

All members of the UMBC community are welcome to attend! Faculty, staff, students, and extended community members — if you’re interested in learning more about microcredentials or getting involved with the MAC’s work, we’d love to have you join us.

RSVP

Interested in attending or a copy of the recording? Click "Sign Up" in the myUMBC event and be sure to add it to your calendar! Registered participants will receive a calendar invitation.

We will record the session for those who can't attend live.

Questions? Interested in getting involved? Reach out to Collin Sullivan, Program Director for Digital Credential Innovation, at collinsullivan@umbc.edu

Posted on behalf of the Microcredential Advisory Committee. 

Repost:

The UMBC Career Center is excited to offer virtual training sessions specifically for UMBC faculty and staff responsible for posting on-campus student jobs in Handshake.

These trainings are designed to walk hiring managers and departmental staff through:

• How to create an employer account in Handshake

• How to post and manage on-campus student jobs in Handshake

• Tips for reaching and engaging UMBC student talent

• Common troubleshooting questions

Whether you're new to Handshake or looking for a refresher, these sessions will help streamline your student hiring process and ensure your opportunities are visible to students.

Training Dates: 

• Thursday, September 24 at 10am

• Tuesday, October 27 at 2pm
• Wednesday, December 2 at 12pm

Sign up for training today!  Calendar invites will be sent out after you register.

Before the training, check out our resources for posting on-campus jobs.

For questions or special requests, please contact Annie Byrd, Assistant Director in the Career Center at anniebyrd@umbc.edu.

Please join us for the AFST Fall Welcome Reception on September 2, 2026, in the Fine Arts Building, Room 559, from 12 pm to 12:50 pm. Students, faculty, and staff are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will also be provided.

The UMBC Career Center is excited to offer virtual training sessions specifically for UMBC faculty and staff responsible for posting on-campus student jobs in Handshake.

These trainings are designed to walk hiring managers and departmental staff through:

• How to create an employer account in Handshake

• How to post and manage on-campus student jobs in Handshake

• Tips for reaching and engaging UMBC student talent

• Common troubleshooting questions

Whether you're new to Handshake or looking for a refresher, these sessions will help streamline your student hiring process and ensure your opportunities are visible to students.

Training Dates: 

• Thursday, September 24 at 10am

• Tuesday, October 27 at 2pm
• Wednesday, December 2 at 12pm

Sign up for training today!  Calendar invites will be sent out after you register.

Before the training, check out our resources for posting on-campus jobs.

For questions or special requests, please contact Annie Byrd, Assistant Director in the Career Center at anniebyrd@umbc.edu.

There will be NO Daily Mass, Confession, or Adoration on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday this week.

Stay tuned for updates on our upcoming liturgy schedule.

Welcome Back to Campus!

The Education Abroad Office is excited to welcome you to UMBC for the Fall 2026 Semester! We are glad you are here, and we are excited to help you find ways to extend your education abroad! It has been a busy summer in our office as we sent seven faculty-led programs and a total of 85 students abroad! If you want to read about some student experiences, make sure you check out their Abroad Blogs! We have also been preparing students to go abroad for the current Fall 2026 semester and we are currently accepting applications and advising for Winter, Spring Semester, and Spring Break programs. Deadlines for these programs are fast approaching, so make sure that you get yours in! Wishing everyone a great first day!

Mark Your Calendars for the G.O. Fair!

• September 2, 2026  | 11 AM–2 PM | Commons Main Street
  Join Education Abroad staff, study abroad program directors, and returned study abroad students on Main Street in the Commons for our Global Opportunities Fair! You will get to learn about how you can explore the world while making progress towards your UMBC degree.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines

• September 21st: Winter and Spring Break 2027 Faculty-Led Applications Due

• October 10th: Winter and Spring Semester Non-Faculty-Led Applications Due (Except UMBC Exchange in Nanzan University and ISEP Exchange)

• Study Abroad 101 Sessions
  Monday | 11am-12pm | Virtual
  Tuesday | 2:30pm-3:30pm | Virtual
  Friday | 11am-12pm | Virtual

• Advising for Winter and Spring 2027 study abroad programs is now available! After you have attended a Study Abroad 101 session, email educationabroad@umbc.edu to schedule your meeting!

The Graduate Student Association (GSA) is recruiting 3 graduate students to join the Equity of Funds (EoF) Committee for the 2026–2027 academic year!

As an EoF Committee member, you will play a critical role in ensuring GSA funds are distributed fairly and transparently while tracking member performance and compliance.

Key Responsibilities:
• Review GSA-funded events and programs
• Track GSA member performance and accountability
• Maintain financial records and submit committee reports
• Attend all committee meetings (Time commitment: 3–4 hrs/week)

Why Join?
• Gain valuable leadership and governance experience
• Build skills in reporting, auditing, and policy enforcement
• Make a direct impact on how student resources are managed at UMBC

Interested in promoting equity and transparency on campus? Apply now to join the team!

Submit your application here!
https://forms.gle/y8NxS7Hx1cPkZKnL7

Happy First Day of Classes!

OHP will be open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

The Office of Health Promotion and all events are open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

Welcome back--visionaries and future founders!  Whether you’re returning to campus with a notebook full of new ideas or exploring the entrepreneur ecosystem for the very first time, get ready for a great semester! 

Come hear about the progress our student ventures that participated in the Launchpad Accelerator made this summer at Launchpad Demo Day in September!

At our speakers and workshops this semester you’ll hear about Building a Business with a Purpose, Unexpected Pivoting, How to Sell, and Why How You Think.

Finally, come to Idea Pitch Day and share your ideas, then submit one for the Idea and Innovation Challenge.

This semester is going to be full of opportunities!  Be sure to take advantage of them!

Name: Atharv Kulkarni

Pronouns: He/him

Semester of Internship: Fall 2025

Major: Cybersecurity

Current Class Level: Master's Student

This semester I completed a(n)...:  Co-op

Internship, Co-op, or Research Site (Company/Organization Name): Ardent Privacy

Location of the Organization (City, State): Arbutus, MD

Title of position: AI Security Engineer

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities:

I'm an AI Security Engineer at Ardent Privacy, a data privacy and AI governance startup based in Baltimore that builds software to help organizations operationalize regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and India's DPDPA. My work sits at the intersection of AI governance and software development. Day to day, I build product features that translate dense regulatory requirements into working software: adaptive compliance workflows, evidence collection pipelines, and policy controls that govern how AI agents are allowed to act on sensitive data. A lot of the job is reading the actual law closely, mapping each requirement to a concrete technical control, and then shipping the code that enforces it. On a given week I might be writing TypeScript or Python across the stack, designing the data model for a new compliance module, threat modeling how an AI feature could mishandle personal data, or researching how emerging AI governance frameworks should shape what we build next. The role rewards being equally fluent in the policy and the engineering, which means I get to own a feature from the regulatory question all the way to production.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I first heard about the role at the bwtech career fair, where I met the Ardent Privacy team and talked with them about the work they were doing in data privacy and AI governance. The conversation made it clear the position lined up well with my background in cybersecurity and software development, so I followed up and submitted my application shortly after the fair. From there the process moved into interviews focused on both my technical skills and how I thought about security and compliance problems, and not long after I was offered the position. The whole thing started from a single conversation at the fair rather than a cold online application, which is what made it work.

What resources did you use to find your current experience?

UMBC Career Center, Networking events (UMBC Connects, Info Sessions, Arts With a Purpose, etc.)

What have you enjoyed the most about your position and organization?

What I've enjoyed most is the level of autonomy. At a startup this size, I'm not handed narrow tickets; I get to own problems end to end, from the regulatory question to the architecture to the code in production. The most rewarding part has been building a new compliance product from the ground up, where I've had real input into how it's designed rather than just implementing someone else's spec. I've also enjoyed the work of bringing AI into an existing product without compromising its security, which is harder than it sounds. Bolting an AI agent onto a system that handles sensitive personal data forces you to think carefully about what the agent is allowed to touch, how its actions are authorized, and how you prove all of that to an auditor later. Getting to make those calls, and to be trusted with them, is what has made the position genuinely engaging.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

The clearest impact has been shipping things that the organization now relies on rather than prototypes that sit on a shelf. By building compliance automation, I've taken work that used to be slow and manual, like mapping a regulation to controls and gathering evidence for an audit, and turned it into software that does it in a fraction of the time. That directly shapes what the company can offer its customers. On the AI side, the guardrail and authorization work I've done is part of what lets us add AI features to a product that handles sensitive personal data without taking on unacceptable risk, which is a prerequisite for the company moving in that direction at all. Beyond the code, I think I've had an impact on how we reason about these problems internally, by framing the security of AI agents as a question of what they are authorized to do rather than what inputs we can filter. Being early enough that those decisions stick is where I feel I've contributed the most.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

Stay current, because this field moves faster than any curriculum can keep up with. The most useful thing I did was treat learning about new tools and trends as part of the job, not something extra, since what is cutting edge today is table stakes a few months later. My second piece of advice is to keep showing up to networking events even when it feels pointless. A surprising number of opportunities come from a single conversation rather than an application portal, and you only get those conversations by being in the room. Finally, apply even when you are convinced you are underqualified. The bar for getting your resume looked at is usually lower than you assume, and the people deciding would rather talk to someone hungry and still learning than pass on them over a checklist. The worst case is a no, which costs you nothing. Most of the breaks I got came from ignoring the voice telling me I was not ready yet.