Austin Maduka
B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Cum Laude
Hometown: New Carrollton, Maryland
Plans: M.D./Ph.D., Duke University

UMBC has provided the best environment for me to challenge myself, discover new passions, and grow both personally and academically. I know that the network of friends and mentors I have made at UMBC will continue to support my growth for years to come.

Austin Maduka graduates from UMBC with a wealth of research experience and an ongoing commitment to supporting up and coming STEM students as they discover their passions and work through early challenges in their studies.

During his time at UMBC, Maduka worked in research labs at Johns Hopkins University for three years, in addition to spending two summers conducting research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He credits these experiences with helping him develop his confidence as a scientific researcher and his science communication skills. He further refined those skills through award-winning presentations at professional conferences, serving as a chemistry tutor at UMBC, and publishing his work as co-author of a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Maduka is a Meyerhoff Scholar and MARC U*STAR trainee at UMBC. He received the ASBMB Marion B. Sewer Scholarship for Undergraduates, recognizing his deep interest in a biochemistry and molecular biology career and his commitment to enhancing diversity in science. As a UMBC junior, he also received the Lisë K. Satterfield Scholarship, which honors an exceptional chemistry student with research experience. Additionally, he is a founding member of the Phi Delta Epsilon Medical Fraternity.

Maduka’s commitment to giving back to fellow aspiring scientists runs deep. With Daniel Ocasio [link], he co-founded Achievement and Inspiration through Mentorship (AIM), which provides long-term mentoring to underserved teens in Baltimore City. He tutors in chemistry and biology at UMBC and is a Meyerhoff peer advisor, as well as an Eagle Scout.

Writing about his own educational path, and what motivates him to mentor younger students, Maduka recently shared in ASBMB Today:

“It is crucial to realize that support can change a person’s trajectory in life, especially for people in minority, inner-city communities… Although I had a positive outcome, many like me do not. Whenever possible, be a source of support for others. It may have a bigger impact than you would expect.”

This fall, Maduka will pursue a combined M.D./Ph.D. at Duke University.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Emily Eaglin
B.F.A., Visual Arts (Cinematic arts)
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Silver Spring, Maryland
Plans: Several film, television, and photography projects

UMBC has offered me a supportive, energetic, and diverse environment where I’ve been able to thrive independently on every creative, community, or academic project undertaken… I’ve learned the importance of critical feedback, community, and making my films an “us” effort versus a “me” effort.

Entering UMBC as a Linehan Artist Scholar, Emily Eaglin has combined creative scholarship with passionate engagement on social issues to develop several projects capturing the attention of local and national audiences alike.

Eaglin has worked to hone her approach and techniques in film and video to realize cinema’s powerful potential to communicate about the complex intersections of class, gender, and race with a mass audience. She has created several film projects and a web series, Marylandia (2016), while at UMBC —receiving two competitive student awards to support the research and production of that series.

Eaglin has also been very engaged in campus life as president of the student groups People United, Black Critical Direct Action Student Union (intercollegiate), and the Critical Social Justice Student Alliance. She is a member of the Honors College, Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society, Black Student Union, and UMBC Women of Color Coalition, and taught film through the Shriver Center’s SUCCESS program. She also took the stage to welcome incoming students and their families as a New Student Visit Day featured speaker during her junior and senior years.

Connecting with a range of departments across UMBC, Eaglin assisted Bill Shewbridge, media and communication studies professor of the practice, on a film collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, served as Kate Drabinski’s teaching assistant for the “Studies in Feminist Activism” course in gender and women’s studies, and worked as a social media intern for the Imaging Research Center, UMBC Visual Arts Production Center, and UMBC Student Life.

Off campus, Eaglin worked as a production assistant and director’s assistant on Shots Fired, a FOX TV show that deals with police brutality and misconduct. This past March, she began work on an independent documentary film project in collaboration with the newly opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. The project will include Emily’s documentation of five workshop sessions she is leading at an Anacostia high school, focused on examining systemic violence. It will continue through October 2017, when Eaglin will film a major student march in Washington D.C.

Eaglin is also pursuing several other creative projects through the summer and fall. She’ll create a television series on local artists of color for NBC4 in Washington D.C., help to develop a film program at the Baltimore School for the Arts and teach a master class at the acclaimed school, and raise funds for Sankofa, an art museum in Baltimore that showcases art of the African diaspora.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Jaelyn Bos
B.A., Biological Sciences; B.S., Environmental Science
Summa Cum Laude, Certificate: Honors College
Hometown: Columbia, Maryland
Plans: Biology teacher, Peace Corps, Mozambique

My experiences with the Shriver Center were my most meaningful at UMBC, and they showed me how to incorporate social change into my future ambitions. I appreciate how UMBC encourages and empowers students to create change on and off campus.

Jaelyn Bos has long been committed to leadership through service, and throughout her time at UMBC she has sought out experiences to grow her ability to impact local and global issues, from her time in the Shriver Living Learning Community to her study abroad experience in Ecuador.

Bos served as the community outreach coordinator for Arbutus Achievers, a group that supports students at Arbutus Middle School who are striving to move past challenges. She won a BreakingGround grant to organize Service Fest, an on-campus event that brought together local non-profits with potential student volunteers. She also created the “One UMBC, One Baltimore” interactive online map to share information about Shriver Center outreach activities. By her senior year, Bos was named France-Merrick Fellow for her “exemplary commitment to service, leadership, and civic engagement on the UMBC campus and in Baltimore City.

Bos bridges her commitment to social justice with a passion for ecology, undertaking internships at the National Park Service and Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and holding a research assistant position with Matthew Baker, professor of geography and environmental systems. It is this combined interest in community engagement, ecology, and passion for learning that has inspired Bos’s next step after graduation: teaching biology to secondary school students in Mozambique as a Peace Corps fellow.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Just a heads up, next Tuesday is the LAST DAY Flat Tuesdays will be open for the semester! :(

Come visit us during our normal pub hours (4-9p) while supplies last!