The sun is pouring through the large windows in the Performing Arts & Humanities third floor dance studio. About 20 girls, 7th – 9th graders, are sprawled out on mats following the movements of the yoga instructor at the front of the room. They are learning about flexibility, how to “think outside the box, kind of like there’s no set answer to the question.”

These girls are not at UMBC exclusively to learn yoga, however, but rather to challenge their computing skills. How Girls Code: Mind, Body, and Coding summer camp at UMBC is an extension of the after-school program in Howard County Public Schools co-founded by Lisa Schlossnagle and Katie Egan ’94, history. In its third year, the camp operates with the goal of raising the percentage of women involved in computing work.

“Everything we do these days, everybody uses a computer somehow,” observes Claudia Pearce ’89 M.S., ’94 Ph.D., computer science, following her presentation as one of the guest speakers during the camp. “And understanding how computers work, I think, will help everybody,” said Pearce, now the senior cloud strategist and computer science authority for NSA.

The girls practice a variety of computing skills using a range of softwares and tools. In a WeDo/ EV3 Robots class, for example, the girls were challenged to program their robots to dance to music by using software to code the instructions for each robot’s movements. “We’re making a ballerina,” explains one of the girls.

How does the yoga instruction fit into this program? Yoga “brings all the benefits of stress management, and we know that computing is a difficult field,” says Schlossnagle. The girls learn to slow down and open their minds to new possibilities; they learn to be flexible, both in their physical movements and their computing abilities.

Since its beginning, the camp has grown from about 40 to 140 girls. This growth is promising, but as Tynker instructor Lorene Cannella says, the key is getting the girls “to stay in it.” “We’re just very hopeful that we can continue to raise this awareness and engage more girls and their families into seeking out these types of opportunities,” adds Schlossnagle.

— Allison Cruz ’18

For most in sports media, working for ESPN is a dream, but UMBC has made that dream a reality for several students. Through a partnership with the America East Conference, UMBC’s Department of Athletics streams many athletic events live on the online channel ESPN 3, and students make up a large part of the broadcast team.

Starting in 2016, UMBC’s Director of Athletics Tim Hall and head of athletic communications Steve Levy ’85, interdisciplinary studies, reached out to UMBC alum Eli Eisenberg ’86, interdisciplinary studies, the president of VPC (a video production company based in Owings Mills, Md.), to create a broadcast of events that met the high-standards of ESPN. However, the endeavor became much more than just a way to bring UMBC’s games to a larger audience; it also gives students first-hand experience in the broadcasting field, and at the highest level.

According to Eisenberg, UMBC and VPC’s project started with an 80-percent professional and 20-percent student makeup of workers. Behind the professionals, the students observed and took notes. As the season continued, the students eventually took over the active duties, and the professionals became the guides in the background, “giving direction, critique, and recommendations to the student staff.” A student even produced a game – women’s basketball versus New Hampshire – from the broadcast truck last season.

Meg Giunta ’16, media and communication studies, worked as a video engineer last season. Since graduating she is already a top media coordinator for Global Catholic Network.

“This opportunity we had with ESPN3 helped open a lot of doors,” she said. “To be able to sit on the truck and work every game and have the opportunity to make it my show, it was a good learning experience.”

Senior Kevin Harris worked as an audio technician last year. While working games he connected with a member of the Baltimore Ravens organization and was set to begin an internship with them this fall.

“To get your first experience with a company like ESPN, you can’t get better training than that,” he said. “Combined with VPC, it’s just a great combination to work.”

— Corey Johns ’11 

Images and video by Dustin Roddy ’14, American studies

A white box the size of a refrigerator, called Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM), headed to the International Space Station (ISS) in August, thanks to the work of UMBC astrophysicist Jason Link and colleagues. Inside, four scientific detectors will work together to detect cosmic rays coming from far flung regions of the universe. The instruments will transmit the data from the ISS to Earth, to scientists reckoning with the tantalizing question, “What is the universe made of?”

Link, an astrophysicist with UMBC’s Center for Space Science and Technology, part of the recently-renewed Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science & Technology consortium, is a co-investigator on the project and the technical lead for one of the detectors. Cosmic rays, particles from beyond the solar system, arrive with hundreds of times more energy than the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator can produce, Link explains. Some of these particles will pass through the detector and interact inside, where they break up into a “shower of subatomic particles.” CREAM’s goal is to measure the composition and energy of individual particles, which will help scientists deduce where the rays came from and what phenomena caused them to accelerate so much.

Link has been working for more than 15 years on hardware to detect cosmic rays, including a version of CREAM that has taken seven balloon flights above Antarctica. Sending instruments to space poses new challenges, and also creates new opportunities.

“Balloons have a relatively short mission life” of a few dozen days, Link shares. “But going up on the space station, you’re now talking about years.” Also, “when particles enter Earth’s atmosphere, they start to interact,” Link says. That means data analyses must incorporate a correction factor to account for these interactions, which introduces error. That’s much less of a problem in space.

Research instruments traveling to the ISS must reckon with constraints on size and mass, and be able to withstand extreme vibration. Link’s balloon-based instruments didn’t fit these constraints, so he and colleagues from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Penn State, and Northern Kentucky University undertook the challenge of building a new detector, based on the balloon detectors, that could safely survive the rigors of a rocket launch and deploy on the ISS.

The new detector can also collect additional scientific measurements, and distinguish between negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons, based on the way they interact inside the detector.

“Designing a new detector from scratch on the limited budget for building balloon hardware required creativity, innovation, and a bit of luck,” notes Link. Together with a detector built by colleagues from Kyungpook National University in South Korea, the machines provide a powerful way to distinguish between electrons and protons, and to quickly verify findings, specifically because they use different techniques.

Link looks forward to diving into the data the instruments send from outer space. “If we see an excess of electrons,” he says, “that suggests that there is a local source of cosmic rays. That’s not something we expect.”

Scientists are often heavily involved in designing instruments and analyzing the resulting data, but most of the time the actual construction of space instrumentation is handed over to engineers and technicians with specialized expertise. Not this time. “Yes, I actually tightened bolts and wired sensors on the detector,” Link is proud to report, “and it’s going to fly in space.”

— Sarah Hansen M.S. ’15

Image: Sunrise from the International Space Station. Photo provided by NASA, captured by a member of the Expedition 52 crew

The Lion Brothers Building, part of the southwest Baltimore landscape for over 130 years, was once used for sewing Girl Scout patches and screen printing. Now the former factory space is a physical tie between downtown and UMBC. The exposed brick walls and floor-to-ceiling windows house spaces to learn, create, exhibit, and connect to the culture that is unique to Baltimore.

Academic programs in the arts, humanities, and social sciences now have a designated space to experience civic engagement, service learning, and cultural exploration outside of a traditional campus setting. Located just off MLK Boulevard, the building has provided unique opportunities to UMBC’s dynamic Summer and Winter Programs, using Baltimore City as a classroom in courses focused on topics of urban anthropology, health policy, and Baltimore soundscapes.

Areas within the building, created for studio use and exhibit space, are the new downtown home for Intermedia + Digital Art graduate students. The location places the students in a culturally rich, diverse, and inspired setting, and is especially convenient to visiting artists and critics.

“We are very pleased that our graduate students have the opportunity to work in close proximity to the greater Baltimore arts community, and for that community to come in closer contact with our IMDA graduate students,” says Vin Grabill, associate professor and interim IMDA graduate program director.

The use of the Lion Brothers Building, listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, continues to strengthen the relationship between UMBC, the city of Baltimore, and University System of Maryland partners who also share a footprint in southwest Baltimore – while providing a unique setting for learning.

— Alice Crogan 

The story of Christos FC and its unlikely ascent into the national U.S. Open soccer tournament in June is truly the stuff of fairy tales – especially considering the fact that the amateur team lacks a home field, and does not practice.

And yet, the team – a third of which played for UMBC as students – not only blasted into the fourth round of the tournament, but gave the professional players of D.C. United quite a scare before ultimately losing 4-1.

“The players were good on the team, but it was a men’s league team that really just got together and plays on Sundays and [has] fun still,” said UMBC assistant coach Pete Caringi III ’15, psychology. “It really was a crazy couple of weeks. We felt like we were professional players when, in reality, we were going to work and then taking off just to play soccer.”

Everything started when Christos scored a 3-0 victory over Fredericksburg FC in their first game in early May in a tournament featuring nearly 99 amateur and professional teams. They next faced the Richmond Kickers from the United Soccer League, a professional team. Former Retriever Geaton Caltabiano ’14, psychology, scored a late goal that gave Christos a 1-0 victory.

In the third round of tournament play, Christos headed to Chicago to play Chicago FC United, a team that competes in the top amateur level. Christos won that game 1-0 and earned a $15,000 prize for being the final amateur team left in the tournament.

D.C. United – the professional team from Washington – came next, along with tons of publicity. The game took place at Maryland SoccerPlex where another former UMBC player, Mamadou Kansaye ’15, psychology, scored to give UMBC an early 1-0 lead, sending many of the 5,286 fans (according to the Washington Post) into a frenzy.

“That was some of the most fun soccer I’ve ever played.” – Goalie Phil Saunders ’13

The game stayed close, but D.C. United took charge with two late goals for a 4-1 victory. Even with the loss, the Christos team enjoyed more attention than they ever would have expected. Named for the local liquor store that sponsors the team, Christos gained worldwide coverage during the tournament, including the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, ESPN, USA TODAY, and more. The team scored an Adidas apparel deal, and its bright green uniforms caught the eye of many more.

By the time Christos took on D.C. United, even people who did not follow soccer regularly knew about the team and its 15 minutes of fame. Seemingly anyone who loved soccer, and many who didn’t, wanted to know the story of this unlikely team.

Goalie Phil Saunders, who played for UMBC until 2013 and is the new men’s soccer coach at CCBC-Catonsville, laughed when talking about the publicity, saying he received more in this run than during his professional playing days (one season with the Baltimore Blast and two years in Iceland).

More than anything, he enjoyed playing with his buddies.

“Going to those away trips and hanging out with friends; that was pretty much as ideal as it gets,” he said. “It was perfect. That was some of the most fun soccer I’ve ever played.”

“It was the amateurs versus the pros. We felt that attachment. We felt this was sort of a UMBC story, too,” said Retriever coach Pete Caringi, Jr. “This is a group of players that… liked playing with one another. It’s a great reflection on the players that went through the [Retriever] program. It made us all proud.”

— Jeff Seidel ’85

Image: Permission from The Baltimore Sun. Top Row, farthest L-R: Joseph Glos ’15, Phil Saunders ’13, Pete Caringi III ’15; Bottom, second from left, Levi Houapeu ’15; far right: Mamadou Kansaye ’15

UMBC Athletics Director Tim Hall has been named the new president of the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association (ADA) for the 2017–18 academic year. Hall, who recently entered his fifth year as the Retrievers’ athletics director, previously served as ADA 1st vice president in 2016 – 17. The organization serves more than 1,600 institutions.

“There are so many critical issues that athletic directors face in today’s climate and this group has always put the studentathlete in the center of its bulls-eye,” said Hall. “I am anxious to get started guiding this committed group of leaders.”

Hall currently serves on the NCAA volleyball rules committee and previously served on the national Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Division I-AAA Executive Committee. He also chaired the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics (CWA) for fall 2014, after serving on that committee since 2011, and previously chaired the Disability Subcommittee of the CWA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee, 2012 – 14.

Under Hall, the Retrievers have experienced unparalleled success in women’s and men’s soccer, multiple consecutive conference titles in men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and America East titles in men’s cross country (2013) and baseball (2017). He has hired new head coaches in men’s basketball and men’s lacrosse, Ryan Odom and Ryan Moran, who have led their teams through strong initial campaigns.

— Dinah Winnick

Several alumni have recently taken top government positions, bringing their expertise to national groups overseeing health and justice, as well as Maryland’s top office.

The U.S. Senate has formally confirmed Jerome Adams ’97, M4, biochemistry and molecular biology, for the position of U.S. surgeon general. He replaces Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams Ph.D. ’06, public policy, who served as acting U.S. surgeon general beginning in late April. Both alumni have prioritized serving vulnerable populations and maintaining connections with local communities throughout their careers.

In the opening statement for his nomination hearing, Adams, who has served as a practicing anesthesiologist, associate professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and state health commissioner under then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence, shared, “In this dual role as both clinician and educator, I see the impact of health policy decisions on both providers and the patients we serve.”

Adams plans to emphasize active engagement with communities as surgeon general, focusing on a need to “learn about their obstacles and successes, share best practices, and help empower them to implement local solutions to their toughest problems.” He intends to focus on the opioid crisis in particular – a problem he’s familiar with from his work in Indiana.

Reflecting on his undergraduate years at UMBC as a Meyerhoff scholar, Adams shared with UMBC, “one of my biggest mentors was Dr. Hrabowski, and I still stay in touch with many of my Meyerhoff colleagues and rely on them as a professional support network.” He also pays that support forward, according to Joey Fox, who worked as his legislative director in Indiana. Fox described Adams as a “compassionate leader” and told the Indy Star, “He was always willing to have his door open.”

In July, President Donald Trump announced the appointment of David Muhlhausen M.P.R. ’99, Ph.D. ’04, public policy, a veteran analyst in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, as Director of the National Institute of Justice, Department of Justice. In that role, he will work with that agency to improve knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues through science, and provide objective, independent knowledge and tools to inform the decision-making of the criminal justice community.

In Maryland, Matthew Clark ’00, history, former communications director for Governor Larry Hogan, will return to the state’s capitol to serve as chief of staff. He spent the previous year as managing director with D.C.-based FTI Consulting.

— Dinah Winnick and Jenny O’Grady

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has selected UMBC as one of 10 institutions nationwide to participate in a bold, new initiative designed to “educate, prepare, and inspire the next generation of leaders to advance justice and build equitable communities.”

Participating colleges and universities will establish Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers to engage campus and community stakeholders around issues impacting racial equity, such as conscious and unconscious bias. AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella shares that this is the first piece of a broader vision “to ensure that higher education is playing a leadership role in promoting racial and social justice” through a future national network of 150 such centers.

Frank Anderson, assistant director of The Choice Program at UMBC, coordinated UMBC’s TRHT proposal, with support from Zeevelle Nottingham-Lemon, associate director. The Choice Program has served more than 25,000 youth from Maryland’s most underserved communities for nearly 30 years, providing 24/7 wrap-around support. The program is based in UMBC’s Shriver Center, which works to realize the vision of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver to mobilize higher education to confront and solve major challenges facing urban America today.

“The Shriver Center’s Choice Program at UMBC recognizes that now, more than ever, there exists a need to create platforms for Baltimore City youth, UMBC service-learners, and our communities to voice their truth about systemic racism, and to seek opportunities for transformation,” says Anderson.

UMBC’s proposal focuses on the Shriver Center’s service-learning and community engagement work with youth, artists, advocates, and community-serving organizations in and around Baltimore. It also incorporates plans for youth-led community conversations, at UMBC and in Baltimore, around racial equality and transformation. The $30,000 AAC&U grant will support The Choice Program’s Youth in Action group, which unites students and service-learners at UMBC with youth in Baltimore through art and social justice, and college night programming for Baltimore City school students, among other activities.

The UMBC TRHT Campus Center team includes Eric Ford, associate director of the Choice Program; Beverly Bickel M.A. ’94 IDS, Ph.D. ’05, LLC, clinical associate professor of language literacy and culture; Keisha Allen, assistant professor of education; Charlotte Keniston M.F.A. ’14 IMDA, associate director of the Peaceworker Program; and Eloise Grose, program coordinator for service-learning in the Shriver Center, in addition to Anderson and Nottingham-Lemon.

— Dinah Winnick

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski takes your questions.

Q: A majority of our alumni live in Maryland. How does the university plan to leverage that population to expand UMBC’s community impact in the coming years?

— Nicole Smith ’10, modern languages and linguistics, and president of the Chapter of Young Alumni

A: The exciting news is that we already are working in a number of ways with thousands of alumni who live in the Baltimore-Washington corridor and across the State. We bring alumni back to give us advice on everything involving the university, from the academic side to the future of the institution’s relationships. In fact, alumni played key roles in working to help UMBC develop its most recent strategic plan.

Our alumni affairs office works to collect information about alumni who are working in different professions, from education and the arts to engineering and science to policy and social work. From these connections, we host receptions with different groups and invite them to various meetings, and we ask that they get involved in our Alumni Association.

Alumni increasingly are key to our efforts to help students secure internships and jobs, as they are working to connect our students with job opportunities, and are supporting our partnerships with different companies and agencies. Most important, large numbers of alumni are on campus regularly supporting our students – and the welfare of our students is our number one responsibility.

Coming out of the 50th anniversary, we have developed a useful framework that will help us continue to increase the ways alumni connect to campus. They will be asked to engage in ways that make the most sense for their lives, no matter where they live. With the “Get Involved, Stay Involved” program, the Office of Alumni Relations will be finding ways to engage our alumni by encouraging them to attend cultural, networking, and athletic events on campus; share their love for UMBC on social media and by word of mouth; update our offices with information about their professional successes, family, and stories from beyond the loop; volunteer for events at UMBC and in other cities; hire other alumni at their places of work; and support UMBC annually.

As important, we are supporting new and ongoing connections between alumni and faculty and program staff, who often have the deepest connections to our graduates. The more we can work together as a community, the more we will be able to use these strengths to our advantage.

Q: The new Event Center looks fantastic and will be a great home for the future of UMBC athletics. What parts of our history and traditions do you plan on representing in the building?

— Christopher Strong ’86, interdisciplinary studies, and former member of the men’s basketball team

A: The Event Center provides a great opportunity to celebrate some of our traditions and past successes, while also elevating the environment for our Division I athletics programs and giving us a venue for new activities to build tradition. Everyone is excited about building on our athletic department’s reputation. We are known for recruiting athletes who are solid academically and talented athletically and this facility will allow us to build on that reputation because of its attractiveness. Of course our championship banners will be hung in the Center, and we will display trophies and memorabilia in different ways throughout the building. I understand there are also conceptual plans for a “hall of fame” display that will require private donations to be fully realized.

In addition to athletics, we will be bringing Commencement back to campus. This had been a very rich tradition at UMBC until the space became too limited for the size of the class. Now we’ll be able to bring Commencement back, and that will give everyone an added source of pride.

Do you have a question for UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski? Send it to magazine@umbc.edu, and it may appear in a future issue of UMBC Magazine.

Pictured: Dr. Hrabowski talks with students on the Administration Building’s new green roof, made possible by a $1 million gift from the France-Merrick Foundation.

Upon entering the UMBC campus, visitors arriving at the drop-off circle in front of the Administration Building are greeted in a way that’s uniquely UMBC — with bricks saying “Welcome” in dozens of languages from around the world. The greetings are subtle but plentiful, displayed on the grey areas of the brick pavement.

This is but a small example of the many ways that diversity is celebrated on this campus, including the numerous flags of the world on display in The Commons, the variety of culturally-based clubs and organizations, and more. And, UMBC is always finding new ways to welcome international students to our campus, including participation in a nation-wide social media campaign.

The #YouAreWelcomeHere campaign is a message from United States higher education to welcome international students from all around the globe to attend our schools. According to the campaign website, the idea for #YouAreWelcomeHere started in 2016 with this short video from Study Group and some of their university clients:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61YgRD_B6FY]

Temple University soon made their own video with the hashtag #YouAreWelcomeHere and then extended the campaign for U.S. higher education. Today, the campaign is growing with more than 250 institutions participating. UMBC is now one of them.

So, what does #YouAreWelcomeHere look like at UMBC? Since the start of this Fall 2017 semester, the large screen outside the RAC has displayed this #YouAreWelcomeHere image for all entering UMBC to see.

UMBC’s English Language Institute (ELI) has also produced a series of videos featuring welcomes from members of the UMBC community. Check out those videos here.

“I think UMBC is a special place because we really are a community of people from all over the world that come together to work and learn and share our ideas and backgrounds,” says Ryan Sheldon M.A. ’15, ELI Assistant Director. “And this, to me, is why YOU are welcome here and why UMBC is special.”

— Allison Cruz ’18