Emily Melluso
B.A., Biological Sciences; B.A., Sociology
Magna Cum Laude
Hometown: Union Bridge, Maryland
Plans: M.A., UMBC

My experiences have shown me the importance of self-determination and the need for students to recognize their own power within their communities and beyond them.

Emily Melluso arrived at UMBC with a broad vision of serving communities facing challenges. Over the course of her undergraduate years, she refined that vision and strengthened her commitment to social justice work through on-and off-campus experiences that helped her “consider the ways in which people struggle at UMBC and in our neighboring communities in Baltimore City.”

Melluso has served fellow students through such leadership and mentorship roles as an SGA ProveIt! coordinator, IHU peer facilitator, STRiVE coach, resident assistant, and Imagining America undergraduate fellows coordinator. This year she co-led the “Seeing Baltimore” alternative spring break trip, which connected students to social justice work in the city.

In recognition of her academic excellence, Melluso has been recognized as a member of Alpha Kappa Delta (the international honors society for sociology) and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. After graduation, Melluso will pursue a master’s in applied sociology at UMBC while continuing her community education and organizing work in Baltimore.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Ryan Atkinson
B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Vacaville, California
Plans: M.D., University of Southern California School of Medicine

Playing hockey at UMBC has helped me grow so much as an individual and as a leader. The people I encountered playing hockey are a huge reason why I am heading to medical school this fall.

Ryan Atkinson has excelled as a scholar-athlete at UMBC, and also as a scientist. Atkinson served as captain and president of UMBC’s club ice hockey team during his junior and senior years, receiving UMBC Club Sport Athlete of the Year and league MVP honors, as well as the 2016 Lou Cantori Award, given to an outstanding UMBC scholar-athlete in a club sport.

While competing, Atkison also maintained a 4.0 GPA and contributed to two journal articles based on his research in Suzanne Rosenberg’s immunology lab. This fall, he will head to the University of Southern California School of Medicine on a U.S. Air Force Health Professions Scholarship.

“UMBC has helped me achieve my goals by pushing me academically while also providing the resources to explore potential career pathways until I settled on one that was right for me,” Atkinson shares. “The professors on this campus were instrumental in providing guidance and opportunities throughout my time here.”

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Da’Kuawn Johnson
B.S., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Cum Laude, Certificate: Honors College
Hometown: Baltimore City
Plans: M.D./Ph.D., University of Maryland, Baltimore

Having the guidance from the Meyerhoff program has allowed me to come in with a dream and leave with it being reality.

UMBC’s supportive environment and game-changing guidance offered by peer and faculty mentors have inspired Da’Kuawn Johnson to focus on what he could give back as a mentor to others—in the classroom, in the lab, and in campus life. “UMBC embodies students giving back to their peers,” he says. “I spent my college career in a give and take relationship where older students provided guidance, and my classmates and I worked as a team to achieve success.”

As a Meyerhoff, HHMI, MARC U*STAR, and Kevin Yang and Katelyn Niu Scholar, Johnson has taken advantage of research opportunities in Jeffrey Gardner’s bacterial physiology lab, earning an Undergraduate Research Award for his work and presenting at the Summer Undergraduate Research Fest. Meanwhile, he served as a Learning Resources Center tutor, undergraduate teaching assistant in biological sciences, and justice on the UMBC Student Hearing Board in the Office of Student Judicial Programs, which promotes “personal integrity, civility, self-responsibility, citizenship, and appreciation for diversity” at the university.

“I did all of these things because other students did them for me,” Johnson shares.

On top of his research and service, Johnson is a classical pianist. Next, he will pursue a combined M.D./Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Jacqueline Wojcik
B.F.A., Visual Arts (animation/interactive media)
Summa Cum Laude, Certificate: Honors College
Hometown: Hollywood, Maryland
Plans: Fulbright researcher, Viking Ship Museum, Norway

UMBC fostered an interdisciplinary environment that let me pursue my interest in animation, computer science, and history, ultimately combining the three into my Fulbright project.

Jacqueline Wojcik has applied an inquisitive mind to understanding animation in all its diverse aspects, including expertise in three-dimensional and two-dimensional techniques, game design, computer science (her minor), and the social context that informs animated work.

With her imagination sparked by a study abroad experience in Scotland, she applied to the U.S. Fulbright Student Program, winning a research award for 2017-18. Wojcik will spend the next academic year as a Fulbright researcher at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. Her project, “The Gokstad and Oseberg Burials in Digital Space,” will recreate artifacts from two Viking Age ship burials as they would have been used in the lives of their owners. The three-dimensional digital artifacts she creates will exist in a virtual reality game-like environment for visitors to explore.

During her time at UMBC, Wojcik was very active in the award-winning UMBC Game Developers Club, presenting for the club at UMBC’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day for two consecutive years. She also presented at Gamescape 2016 and MAGFEST 2017, and participated in the 2016 Baltimore Student Film Showcase with “Beware Bad Footing.” Her entry into UMBC’s 2015 Art Week Motion Challenge Competition won first place, and, on a regular basis, her animations reached wide audiences through work with CommonVision’s iNet display screens found across campus.

Wojcik has also excelled academically, as a member of the Honors College who has been recognized on the President’s List for every semester of her time at UMBC.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Jacob Mueller
B.A., Theatre
Cum Laude
Hometown: Easton, Maryland
Plans: Lighting designer for Catholic University of America and multiple theatre companies

UMBC has prepared me to be a multi-faceted, problem-solving artist. The well-rounded liberal arts degree training has been a catalyst for both my academic and artistic accomplishments…in my field as a theatrical lighting designer.

Jacob Mueller is a Linehan Artist Scholar who has continually distinguished himself at UMBC as a thoughtful and creative lighting designer. Mueller has worked on the student-directed Studio 3 productions Gidion’s Knott and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, and was the lighting designer for his department’s Blackbox Theatre production of Proof, a highly competitive opportunity to showcase his growing expertise.

Mueller received the 2016 Outstanding Achievement Award in Design and Production from the theatre department. He also earned a Weissberg Fellowship at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and completed an internship with the Annapolis Shakespeare Company.

Mueller credits much of his success to his experience as a Linehan Scholar, sharing, “The Linehan Artist Scholars Program fosters innovative and professional young artists and has acted as the keystone for my growth and success here at UMBC.”

Already, Mueller is working professionally as a lighting designer for several venues in Maryland, including the Catholic University of America, Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Theatre Alliance: Anacostia Playhouse, and Crashbox Theatre Company. He plans to continue working with these venues as a lighting designer after graduation, and is also in the final round of consideration for an apprenticeship with Imagination Stage in Bethesda.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Ghazaleh Keshavarz
M.F.A., Intermedia and Digital Arts
Magna Cum Laude
Hometown: Isfahan, Iran
Plans: Continuing to work as an artist in the U.S. for an additional year

As a student coming from abroad to study at UMBC, I have had a great time in the multidisciplinary environment. The knowledgeable and experienced faculty in the visual arts department have helped me adjust to life and study in America. Great facilities of the department and the wonderful archives and media sources in the library, particularly the Special Collections, gave me the chance to broaden my artistic knowledge and view.

Ghazaleh Keshavarz was invited to the United States from Iran in 2014 for UMBC’s Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) master of fine arts program after receiving a B.A. in photography from Tehran University of Art in Iran. Keshavarz receives her degree as the 2016-17 recipient of the Intermedia and Digital Arts RTKL award. She received this competitive award through a unanimous nomination by visual arts faculty for the tremendous potential of her long-term career success as an artist.

Keshavarz’s research and artistic work during the three years in the IMDA program has centered on the conception and expression of her own identity as an immigrant and her experience in unknown surroundings. In relation to her RTKL Award project Dispersed Moments, she explains that “reproducing the vulnerability and fragility of body and mind, as well as the lasting effects of moving from one place to another, I am exploring physical displacement and its psychological consequences in conjunction with the role and perception of others.”

She exhibited her thesis project Naftoon—an installation related to the profound impact of oil on culture and history in Iran in the last century—at UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in April. As the RTKL Award Recipient, she also had the opportunity to present a public lecture on that work.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Bentley Corbett-Wilson
B.A., Music (Music Education)
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
Plans: Leadership consultant, Pi Kappa Phi

UMBC has presented me with opportunities that have led me to be more open-minded, think more critically, and take action within my community.

Bentley Corbett-Wilson’s UMBC story is one of personal growth and supporting others through leadership in shared governance and campus life.

As president of UMBC’s Student Government Association (SGA) during the university’s 50th anniversary, and an active senior member of the Student Events Board (seb), Corbett-Wilson was closely involved in UMBC’s anniversary celebrations. He also offered a student perspective on major campus-wide events throughout the 50th year, from the Women’s Center’s “Take Back the Night” to SGA’s “Election Night Extravaganza,” sharing photos and reflections on UMBC’s main social media accounts and in UMBC Magazine.

For multiple years, Corbett-Wilson has has served as an (seb) event programmer, a Student Life ambassador, and senior orientation peer advisor, acclimating new students to campus and training other students as orientation peer advisors.

Corbett-Wilson is carrying forward a lifelong passion for music with career plans in music education. He has performed as a member of the UMBC Community Symphony, UMBC Wind Ensemble, and UMBC Jazz Ensemble as a trumpet player, and has served as student director of the UMBC Pep Band.

Reflecting on his time at UMBC, he shares:

I’ve been surrounded with like-minded people who have helped me foster my skills within leadership and music, and I’ve also been able to be challenged by other’s different ideas and values that have given me a more holistic view of the world. I am more educated about social issues and feel more equipped to be a part of larger conversations that contribute to promoting social equity.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Amy Berbert
B.F.A., Visual Arts (graphic design); B.A., Visual Arts (photography)
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Gaithersburg, Maryland
Plans: Media coordinator, Zinnia Films

UMBC has encouraged me to meet professionals who are already working in my fields of interest, to build relationships and gain insight and experience early in my career.

A freshman year spring break service trip through the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship planted a seed in Amy Berbert’s mind. She volunteered with non-profit organizations working in the Baltimore’s Mt. Clare neighborhood, and, though limited in time and scope, the experience gave her a clearer sense of how poverty and racism can impact communities. She reflects, “That trip is what inspired me to create the social justice work I am doing now, three years later.”

Berbert is referring to Remembering the Stains on the Sidewalk, an evocative photography project that  memorializes each of the 318 victims of homicide in Baltimore in 2016. The project’s Instagram feed @stainsonthesidewalk describes it as, “An Exploration of Homicide in Baltimore City. Same Day. Same Time. Same Place. One Year Later.” Each victim is remembered through a picture taken precisely one year later at the location of the homicide, with the goal of bringing visibility to the value of lives cut short by violence and structural inequalities.

The project immediately captured the media’s attention for its powerful impact on audiences and has been featured by SPIN, The Baltimore Sun, and ABC2 News. As Berbert’s undergraduate thesis project, Remembering the Stains on the Sidewalk will also be displayed in the 2017 Visual Arts Senior Exhibition at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture from May 23 through June 9. Berbert is dedicated to continuing the rigorous project after graduation, through the end of the year, planning her life in 2017 around the lives that were lost in Baltimore in 2016.

In addition to this major project, Berber has worked as student design manager at CommonVision. She has exhibited her work at VisArts Gallery in Rockville and Single Carrot Theater in Baltimore, and was the winner of the University System of Maryland 2013 Foundation Art Contest. Following graduation, she will work full time at the local media company Zinnia Films.

Portrait by Malayan Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Gabrielle Salib
B.S., Interdisciplinary Studies (Human-Centered Computing)
Hometown: Millersville, Maryland
Plans: Ph.D., Drexel University

Throughout my four years at UMBC, I constantly met new people who inspired me to learn more and challenge myself to be a stronger student and a more empathetic citizen of our larger communities.The beauty of UMBC is that each personal community is celebrated within the larger entity and we’re a stronger university in simply being ourselves.

As president of the Computer Science Education Club, Gabrielle Salib led UMBC’s first Hour of Code event to celebrate National Computer Science Education Week. With support from Marie desJardins, associate dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, and professor of computer science and electrical engineering, the Hour of Code brought middle school girls from Baltimore City to UMBC for hands-on activities involving circuits and coding.

Salib enjoyed seeing UMBC faculty, staff, students, and community members come together through the event, to explore, learn, and share new experiences, and it inspired her to develop new collaborations and programing focused on diversity in tech. With the Center for Women in Technology, for example, Salib organized a screening and discussion of “CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap in Computer Science.”

Salib’s interest in the intersections of computing, education, and diversity let her to develop her own interdisciplinary studies (INDS) major in human-centered computing. She conducted research with Amy Hurst, associate professor of information systems, in the Prototyping and Design Lab, culminating in a capstone project on Female Engagement in Technically-Oriented Spaces, funded by NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

The INDS department has awarded Salib the Zainab Damji Memorial Award for demonstrating leadership, service, and courage on the path to pursuing a career in education. In the fall, she will begin a Ph.D. program in human-centered computing at Drexel University with a focus on child-computer interaction, designing technology that holistically supports child development.

Photos by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.