Six finalists pitched creative business ideas to a panel of judges during UMBC’s fifth annual Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition (CBIC), held on April 25, 2018 in the new UMBC Event Center. The business ideas ranged from online tools and apps to products with medical applications.

The Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition is for undergraduate and graduate students who are serious about starting a business, explains Vivian Armor ’73, American studies, director of the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at UMBC. Throughout the course of the competition, each team is paired with an industry mentor who provides guidance and professional advice ahead of a final Shark Tank-style event. The structure of the event and its focus on mentorship are inspired by the vision of entrepreneur Greg Cangialosi ‘96, English, reflecting on his own undergraduate days at UMBC and what he has learned in the years since then about moving from an idea to a successful company.

Miranda Marvel, Ph.D. ‘19, marine estuarine environmental sciences, shared SensorFish, which took third place in the competition. She explained how fish mortality due to stress is a common problem that fish owners face. SensorFish are special type of zebrafish bred to change color based on common stressors that fish commonly encounter, such as poor water quality or particular illnesses. Because the fish change color immediately when they are experiencing a problem in the tank, their owners can more quickly work to fix the problem, keeping the fish healthy.

Tenzin Yangchen

Italian Politics in Siena, Italy

Global Studies (International Affairs)

Pre-Departure:

I like traveling, in fact I love it so much that I tend to be on the move whenever I can because not experiencing adventure, or even new places makes my thoughts and perspective annnd life in general to stagnate. This is the second time that I will be prioritizing travel over buying a car (like many millennials these days), and I have zero regrets because I see traveling as an investment. Broadening my perspective on life, meeting new people, and experiencing new cultures and languages are only a handful of the rewards of traveling.

The first time I traveled alone was at the age of 19. It was a  liberating and an empowering experience. I flew across to the west coast to meet my friends in San Francisco. The following year, I traveled to India to study yoga, and also meanwhile summoning up the courage to explore London during my short layover.

            Italy will be my first european country as I will be traveling there for study abroad instead of a short layover. I am as anxious as I am excited, but does that mean I will be wasting my time panicking? Absolutely not - I will be journaling away my thoughts and emotions for the most part. And if this method does not work entirely, I will remind myself of my destination where one has access to all the mouthwatering gelatos in the world, alongside authentic italian pastas and pizzas! Oh and not to forget the authenticity of the country that is so rich in art and history! 

#UMBCAbroad #UMBCInternational #tintintravels #tintintraveldiaries #liddlemissasian @liddlemissasain 

With John Klausmeier ’04, mechanical engineering

As a boy, John Klausmeier ’04, mechanical engineering, dreamed of working in the racing industry. He began working toward his current role as crew chief at Stewart-Haas when he was a student at UMBC, where he was able to take classes that would allow him to develop the skills needed to succeed in the motorsports industry. Shortly after graduating he began a full-time position at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, and since then, Klausmeier has ascended the ranks from intern to crew chief. Today, he is responsible for a whole team and making sure that race day runs smoothly.

Each Sunday during the racing season, you can find Klausmeier behind the pit wall, on top of what is called the pit box. There, Klausmeier and his team have the best view of the racetrack and race car so they can work on race strategy and plan for necessary adjustments as the race cars whiz by at speeds well over 190 miles per hour.

With so much at stake with each race, how does Klausmeier keep himself cool? The answer: When you’re under pressure, remember your training and rely on your plan.

Step 1: DEVELOP A PLAN.

About one month before any given competition, Klausmeier and his team begin drafting a rough plan for the race, including logistics and strategies. Between then and race day, the plan undergoes many edits and changes. “Every track is different,” he says, explaining that it is important to pay attention to details when developing scenarios. “Different race cars go to different tracks. Different tracks require different things. We race at tracks where the handling is most important so we emphasize the shocks, springs, and increasing the aerodynamic downforce on the car. Other tracks require the least amount of aerodynamic drag, so we focus on streamlining the body and engine horsepower.”

One week before the race, Klausmeier and his team meet with each of the departments to get briefed on the latest developments for the upcoming event. Klausmeier, a crew chief at Stewart-Haas, is in charge of bringing each element of the race together and putting the best car on the racetrack.

“I’m basically like the head coach in football — bringing all of the hard work of the team together and making sure we’re putting the best product on the track in order to win races and championships,” he says.

Step 2: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

Klausmeier explains that the team spends Tuesday and Wednesday of race week “populating a play book,” which outlines scenarios that the driver and team may encounter during the race. During the practice phase, each specialty department, such as fabrication, aerodynamics, and engine, runs through the demands of the race from their perspective, and the team interfaces with the driver to make sure their need in the race car are met.

There are many hours of practicing pit stops at the Stewart-Haas pit training facility. This is a practice area that mimics the pit stall layout at the track. The team performs mock pit stop scenarios four days a week prior to the event giving the pit crew repetitions to execute tire changes in seconds.

The team typically travels to the race location the Thursday before race day and completes qualifying sessions on Friday. Saturday is primarily reserved for practice sessions and preparing for the competition the following day. The practice sessions give Klausmeier and his team the opportunity to run through the race strategy, compare notes with the driver, and address any challenges that came up during the practice sessions.

Step 3: STAY FLEXIBLE ON RACE DAY.

On race day, Klausmeier can be found on the “pit box,” which sits behind the pit wall. His team works through race strategies, makes adjustments, and coordinates what will be modified during pit stops. “After two days of practice, the morning before the race you are bolting in what you think is the ultimate set up,” he explains. “You present the car for the final race inspection and that’s when we’ll start the race. That’s where all of the strategy planning and the handling adjustments take over to keep the driver in position to win.”

Race cars do not have fuel gauges, which means that the race engineers perform the calculations by hand to determine how much fuel the car has left and how many more laps can be completed on that amount of fuel. “When winning the race comes down to a few ounces of fuel, it definitely adds another element of excitement,” says Klausmeier. “It’s definitely an adrenaline rush because every decision that you make affects so many things.”

Step 4: LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES.

Klausmeier and his team are responsible for preventing and addressing mistakes during the race. They rely on checks and balances to make sure that mistakes are not a frequent occurrence on the racetrack. “Sometimes there’s going to be a parts failure, there’s going to be an engine failure or something that you can’t control. So, you really have to make a lot of on-the-fly decisions depending on what happens to get the best possible outcome,” he explains.

The day after the race, the entire team meets to discuss and debrief with the driver. Klausmeier says that the team reviews a lengthy checklist of items and addresses any issues that came up during the race. “There are a lot of things that go into it. But at the end, obviously, the goal is to win races and championships,” he says. “When it’s all said and done, we are going for the best aerodynamics, the best horsepower, the fastest pit crews, and that’s what wins races with a good driver.”

— Megan Hanks

Photos courtesy of Stewart-Haas

Dear Retrievers,

The day after the men’s basketball team made history with their surprise win over UVA, I unglued myself from my laptop and headed to the grocery store to pick up an ice cream cake for my five-year-old’s birthday party. Like so many staff members working behind the scenes that weekend, I was a bit of a sleep-deprived mess. (A happy mess, but a mess nonetheless.) I hadn’t showered, so I covered my hair with my trusty UMBC ballcap and ventured into town as I had a million times before, hoping to get in and out of the store without anyone noticing me.

Well, that didn’t happen.

On that particular Saturday, as I walked through the aisles, folks noticed that hat. Strangers carrying jugs of milk said, “Hey, UMBC!” and high fived me, as if I had anything to do with the win. A lady in line behind me mentioned that her husband, a UVA alumnus, was devastated by the upset — before confiding softly that she was really excited for us. And that was just day one.

I’m so glad they’re noticing, and that what they’re seeing goes so far beyond basketball. The nation is seeing a school that earnestly and playfully celebrates its wins — both athletic and academic, as we have on this issue’s cover. They’re seeing a community of people who know who they are, and who know what UMBC stands for beyond all the clever acronyms the “madness” gave us. And they’re understanding that using a hashtag like #RetrieverNation isn’t just a rallying cry for a few extra points on the scoreboard, but a show of solidarity between scholars and friends across the globe.

I’m glad the guys won; they deserve every bit of attention they’re getting. But, what excites me most is that the world is finally coming to understand the special place that is our University of a Million Brackets Crushed — er, home sweet home. It’s a win for us all.

— Jenny O’Grady
Editor, UMBC Magazine

Though he never set foot on UMBC’s field as a player, the lacrosse career of Lloyd Carter ’97, M.S. ’09, emergency health services, began years before his time as a Retriever, and continues today through his role as head coach of Hampton University’s Division I squad.

Carter, who for years balanced coaching jobs with a lengthy leadership career in firefighting for Baltimore City, founded the program at Hampton just three years ago, making it the only team of its kind among the historically black college and university (HBCU) system.

It’s a fitting position for a man who spent much of his life making lacrosse accessible for anyone who might like to play it. “I have had a (lacrosse) stick in my hands since the 1960s,” says Carter, who grew up in Edmonson Village, just miles from campus. “My brother Bennett was nine years older, and he used to bring his stick home, and I would play with it around the house. That is how I got introduced to the sport. In my neighborhood in west Baltimore sports was our biggest outlet.”

Lacrosse Star Rising

Coming out of high school, Carter set his sights on a career in emergency services. He began his studies at Morgan State in 1977 and played lacrosse there for three seasons before the program folded in the early 1980s. While a frustrating turn of events, the loss of the program at Morgan forced Carter to put more emphasis on his future career as a firefighter in the EMS field.

“I went to Baltimore City College to get my certificate and then I was hired by the Baltimore fire department in 1983,” Carter says. “Once I got promoted in the fire department I went back and started going to UMBC to get my bachelor’s. Then I went back and got my master’s at UMBC.”

While a student at UMBC, Carter attended Retriever lacrosse games whenever he could. As he moved up in the ranks of the fire department, he continued to keep lacrosse in his life, coaching at Northwestern High for several years. Carter was named Baltimore City Lacrosse Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2011-13.

Still coaching at Northwestern, in 2002 Carter founded Blax Lax Inc., a club-level organization for high school and college players designed to promote diversity in lacrosse, improve exposure to the game, and create more opportunities in the African-American community. As Carter’s star continued to rise in the lacrosse community, a call from a stranger made his next steps clear.

Building a Lacrosse Program at Hampton

By chance, Carter became acquainted with the family of Michael Crawford, a lacrosse player who had been in the process of starting a team at Hampton before he passed away. As the family grieved and considered Crawford’s legacy, a Google search by Crawford’s mother brought the two together.

“She decided to keep his dream alive. She Googled ‘black lacrosse coach’ and my name came up. We had a real emotional conversation,” says Carter, who began commuting on weekends to Hampton from Baltimore for a stretch of about 18 months to help bring Crawford’s vision to life.

“I kind of fell in love with the area,” says Carter. “When I retired from the fire department (in Baltimore in 2014) I wanted to pursue a career in emergency services. I got an offer from Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton and when I retired I relocated to Hampton to teach.”

He was successful in building up the club lacrosse program — so successful, in fact, that the team moved up to Division I in 2016. The team was 0-5 in its first season and was outscored 100-20 by the likes of Roberts Wesleyan, Thiel, Wagner, Ohio Valley, and Virginia Military Institute, but last season posted its first ever win over Greensboro of North Carolina.

A Growing Process

“It has been a growing process,” Carter says of the Hampton program. “We are starting to get guys who are going to Hampton who are really lacrosse players. It comes down to having the talent. The program is growing. The university is investing a lot of resources. We are right on time with my expectations. I would rather be undefeated and beat (the likes of) Syracuse and Notre Dame, but we are not there yet.”

One of Carter’s midfielders, Jacob Woodard, says what Carter has done is meaningful both for the school and for black lacrosse players in general.

“Overall it is a great experience to be part of history,” says Woodard. “To be honest, it is great just to have an opportunity to play lacrosse. It lets other kids know it doesn’t matter where you come from.”

— David Driver

Photo courtesy of Hampton University

Eight of UMBC’s explorers, dreamers, teachers, and thinkers will soon travel to countries across Europe and Asia as 2018 – 19 U.S. Fulbright Scholars. The grantees are all graduates of UMBC’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), representing majors in modern languages, linguistics and intercultural communication, history, english ancient studies, economics, political science, and global studies. They will research and teach English in China, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Lithuania, Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Romania.

“This year’s Fulbright Scholars demonstrate the excellence of the humanities and social sciences at UMBC, as well as the centrality of global understanding to a contemporary liberal arts education,” says Scott Casper, dean of CAHSS.

UMBC’s Fulbright History

The United States government established the Fulbright Program in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between people of the U.S. and other nations around the world. Today, this “flagship international educational exchange program” is active in over 160 countries. It is highly competitive, receiving over 11,000 applications each year. Recipients are chosen based on academic or professional achievement and demonstrated leadership potential.

UMBC began participating in the Fulbright Program in 1970. Since then, Fulbright has chosen 70 UMBC students to represent the United States through research, teaching English, or pursuing graduate studies internationally. UMBC has been particularly successful in the past 5 – 10 years, seeing a major increase in the number of Retrievers—students and alumni—recognized as Fulbright Scholars.

“In the last ten years we have had 51 Fulbright recipients, with three students choosing other competitive options,” explains Brian Souders Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy, and culture, Fulbright Program advisor. “In general, we have gone from one to three recipients a year to seven to eight annually over the past five years.”

Supporting Students

UMBC’s increasing success rate is thanks to dedicated support from faculty and staff, as well as the International Education Office’s Fulbright Boot Camp. Participating students receive guidance and advice throughout the application process and access to a supportive network of peers and mentors as they plan for their journeys.

David Di Maria, associate vice provost for international education, is excited that UMBC is connecting more and more students with transformative learning experiences. In Fulbright applications over the past year, he notes, “UMBC demonstrates a higher success rate than 123 of 183 top institutions, including half of the eight Ivy Leagues.”

Di Maria believes UMBC’s substantial foreign language offerings, intercultural learning opportunities, and focus on community engagement inspire and prepare students to pursue Fulbright experiences. This year’s recipients are exploring a broad range of fields through a global lens, from urban planning to music and dance, to women’s leadership.

UMBC’s New Fulbright Scholars

Morgan Chadderton ’18, modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, will teach English in Kyrgyzstan while continuing to strengthen her Russian language skills. Chadderton, a Humanities Scholar, previously studied in Kyrgyzstan as a Gilman Scholar in 2016. She looks forward to her Fulbright experience as the next step toward a foreign service career.

“I plan to work with American Corners, a program associated with the United States Embassy,” says Chadderton. “I want to create a book club, host film screenings of popular American films, and plan cooking classes.” She notes, “It’s important to me to create an immersive, informal, and educational environment similar to my first experience in Kyrgyzstan that helped me to better understand the language and culture.”

Kelly Daughtridge ’14, history, ’17 M.A., historical studies, will teach English in Macedonia. She has already visited Turkey, Greece, Malta, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, and is fascinated by the cultures of the region. In addition to teaching English, Daugherty will conduct independent research on contemporary perspectives on tombs in Orthodox churches.

Inspired by her father’s cross-cultural work in the U.S. Marine Corps, Sophia Lopresti ’18, global studies, has already led humanitarian and educational trips to Nicaragua and Panama. She looks forward to teaching English in Indonesia as a Fulbright Scholar and hopes to continue her work there supporting access to oral health care.

“Helping others at home and abroad has allowed me to reflect extensively on the many privileges I have in the United States,” says Lopresti, focusing in particular on access to education and healthcare. Following her Fulbright, she will pursue graduate education in nursing or public health.

Growing up in Howard County, Maryland, Manisha Vepa ’18, economics and global studies, developed an understanding of her Indian-American identity through dance. She also found common ground with classmates from other cultural heritages, particularly Chinese- and Korean-Americans, through the arts, including orchestra. As their friendships developed, they shared food, religious, and cultural traditions. “Instead of focusing on my ‘otherness,’ I started to recognize and become comfortable with the similarities we shared and the differences that made us unique,” says Vepa.

What started as a personal interest became an academic and professional one. As a Fulbright Scholar teaching English in South Korea, Vepa hopes to use popular music as a teaching tool. She also looks forward to learning traditional Korean dance. Vepa plans to enroll in a graduate program on East Asian Affairs upon her return.

Jessica Willis ’17, modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, is passionate about women’s leadership development. As a young woman, Willis enjoyed growing as a leader through the Girl Scouts, which eventually granted her its highest honors, the Gold Award. For the past year, she has served in the Maryland Conservation Corps, an AmeriCorps program focused on protecting natural resources. She hopes to apply skills learned through both experiences to her work teaching English in Sri Lanka as a Fulbright Scholar. While there, she will also work with young women in the Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association and other women’s groups.

Morgan Zepp ’18, global studies and English, developed a deep interest in Lithuanian culture through growing up in a community with a significant Lithuanian-American population. She looks forward to expanding her cross-cultural communications skills by teaching English in Lithuania as a Fulbright Scholar.

As a Humanities Scholar, senior editor of UMBC’s creative arts journal Bartelby, and a longtime tutor at UMBC’s Writing Center, Zepp wants to share her passion for writing to broaden students’ understanding of the English language. She shares, “I am enthusiastic about creating public workshops open to the Lithuanian community based on any kind of writing, where people can assist one another in writing and reading English-language documents.”

Flora Kirk ’18, ancient studies, will be conducting research on Roman coins at Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB) in Romania. Her Fulbright Study/Research Award follows preliminary research conducted in Great Britain.

Kirk has traveled extensively throughout Europe, including researching and interning at museums and archaeological sites in Romania, the United Kingdom, and Italy. She has knowledge of Italian and advanced Latin. In addition to continuing her research through local museums and libraries, she looks forward to developing her Romanian conversation skills, while helping Romanian students perfect their English.

Marc Schultz ’18, political science and global studies, will return to China through a Fulbright Study/Research Award focused on urban development after previously studying at the Harbin Institute of Technology as a Boren Scholar. He will take intensive Sichuanese Mandarin language courses funded through the Critical Language Enhancement Award to help him better conduct research in the Sichuan province.

The Sichuan province was heavily impacted by a deadly earthquake in 2008. Schultz hopes to explore how Sichuan residents are using innovative urban development practices to address issues of inequity and displacement following the earthquake. “Living in Baltimore has deepened my awareness of the massive effect that the urban environment has to uplift or further oppress its residents,” says Schultz.

Following his Fulbright experience, Schultz plans to complete a graduate degree in international studies in preparation for a foreign service career.

UMBC’s International Education Services office encourages students interested in the next Fulbright cycle to attend Fulbright Boot Camps starting in late June. These workshops support current students and recent alumni in choosing an appropriate program and honing competitive essays for their application.

Banner image: (L to R) Morgan Chadderton, Flora Kirk, Kelly Daughtridge, Morgan Zepp, Jessica Willis, Manisha Vepa, Marc Schultz, Sophia Lopresti.

All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. Video by Corey Jennings ’10  for UMBC.