2 Timothy 2:11-13 (NIV) - “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”

Sometimes, there is a song in your head that you just can’t get out whether it was playing on the radio at work or someone was playing it in the car. But, usually, we find ourselves singing the chorus or that one catchy phrase from that song. For those of us who like the 80’s, we remember singing U2’s “with or without you…I can’t live with or without you…”  By singing that one phrase, we get the gist of what the song is all about.

In this 4^th trustworthy saying that Paul gives in his pastoral letter to Timothy, he summarizes the foundations of the gospel and its effect, and ends with a big bang chorus that we want to remember for a life time - “if we are faithless, he remains faithful.” And, we are left with the gist - it is all about God and his faithfulness (his faithful love to his people) from the beginning and for all time.

What a difference this would make if we could remember this all through out the day and perhaps, it will be something “catchy” that we will remember and can’t get out of our heads so that we can be renewed in this truth over and over again and all throughout today.

Let’s prayerfully sing along with this song, “Great Is Your Faithfulness”, by Martin Smith:
https://youtu.be/Hx5i8XgDZjA

-EK

The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has published a new article by UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and Peter Henderson, senior advisor to the president, emphasizing the need for more scientists from underrepresented minority groups in research and health careers. The piece also details how UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program serves as a gold-standard model in addressing this national need.

Recent AAMC data reveal that UMBC is the #1 producer of African American undergraduates who go on to enroll in M.D./Ph.D. programs, and the Meyerhoff Scholars Program is a major factor in that achievement. Meyerhoff alumni are more than five times as likely to graduate from or be enrolled in a STEM Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. program as students who were accepted to the program but chose not to attend, say Pres. Hrabowski and Henderson.

“Our program is successful in part because of its core principle,” they suggest. “The university is responsible for supporting student success, not weeding students out.”

The Meyerhoff Scholars Program emphasizes mentorship, student research, and a sense of community, while also providing financial support. “These components help students develop a vision of themselves based on high expectations,” the authors explain.

The program invites applicants from all underrepresented groups in STEM, including low-income and first-generation college students. Among over 1,000 Meyerhoff alumni are more than 230 who have already completed Ph.D.s.

Program alumni include people like Kafui Dzirasa ’01, chemical engineering, now an assistant professor at Duke University and recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama. Dzirasa will return to UMBC February 20 to kick off Engineers Week, along with his brother Delali Dzirasa ’04, computer engineering, a Meyerhoff alumnus whose cybersecurity company, housed in the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park, was named 2016 Design/Development Firm of the Year at Baltimore Innovation Week.

The Meyerhoff Scholars Program has also increasingly had an impact beyond the students it touches directly. A 2011 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that two-thirds of all students left a STEM major within the first two years, even if they were high achievers previously. With this knowledge in mind, UMBC has created a range of new student programs that offer supports found to be successful in the Meyerhoff Scholars Program to students across populations and disciplines, from the Center for Women in Technology Scholars to UMBC’s intensive, research-driven version of the national MARC U*STAR Scholars program.

Recently, STEM BUILD launched at UMBC with an $18 million grant from the NIH. The initiative’s motto? “Think 500, not 50.” Beyond being a program that offers student support, BUILD is a research study working to create a model for universities to provide comprehensive support on a large scale without requiring a high level of additional resources.

The Meyerhoff Scholars Program has also served as a model to other institutions. Penn State and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill have been working since 2014 to adapt the program to their universities, through support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Michael Summers, Robert E. Meyerhoff Chair for Excellence in Research and Mentoring and University Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UMBC, has played a major role in this expansion of the vision for the scholars program, and he’s driven by the massive societal impacts he believes it can achieve.

“Significant racial/ethnic health disparities persist,” Summers says, “and African American research scientists are the ones most likely to tackle diseases that disproportionately affect the black community.”

“The ultimate goal,” write Pres. Hrabowski and Henderson, in their AAMC article, “is to help these students eventually improve the health of African American and other minority communities, as well as the nation as a whole.”

Read “How undergraduate programs can boost minority success in medical school.”

Image: President Hrabowski talks with a UMBC student in the Retriever Learning Center; photo Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Barbara Hill and Ancelmo Lopes were drawn to UMBC by the university’s commitment to providing holistic support for students from all backgrounds. On January 13, 2017, UMBC celebrated the launch of the new Hill-Lopes Scholars Program to support high-potential women in specific STEM majors where women remain underrepresented, with a reception for the first cohort of students, their families, and their faculty mentors.

The new scholars program, made possible through a generous gift from Hill and Lopes, draws inspiration from the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, nationally-lauded as the “gold-standard” for supporting underrepresented minority students in STEM. To support students’ persistence and success, the Hill-Lopes Scholars Program provides financial assistance and connects participating scholars with faculty mentors and campus services that can propel them toward their degrees.

The six UMBC students selected as the first class of Hill-Lopes Scholars have a broad range of intellectual interests, but all have their eye on advanced degrees and careers in highly competitive STEM fields.

Heather Frank ’17, biochemistry and molecular biology, conducts research in the lab of University Distinguished Professor Michael Summers and just published a first-author paper in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Karla Negrete ’19, mechanical engineering, began her work in research as a high school student and has focused on finding and creating opportunities to progress toward a career in bioengineering. Her next step will be an internship with BGE this summer.

Jada Damond ’19, environmental engineering, will soon travel to Nicaragua to work on a water quality project. She is also particularly interested in alternative energy sources.

Johanna Tsang ‘18, mechanical engineering, will intern at Northrop Grumman this summer in the Calibration and Quality Engineering division.

Blair Landon ’19, chemical engineering, plans to pursue graduate school in biochemical or biomedical engineering and, at UMBC, she is already a learning assistant for general chemistry.

Stormy Hill ’17, statistics, plans to pursue a career as an actuary with a focus on large-scale risk analysis. “This program is exceptional because it goes above and beyond to help its scholars,” Hill says, “beyond college, into our internships and careers.”

Faculty mentors Jennie Leach, chemical engineering; Anne Spence, mechanical engineering; Elsa Garcin, chemistry and biochemistry; and Anindya Roy, mathematics and statistics, will play a key role in the program.

“Being smart is not enough” to achieve success, UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski reflected. “There needs to be someone to say, ‘Give this person a chance.’” He described how faculty in the program will not only mentor the students, but also advocate for them.

In describing the power of mentorship, Pres. Hrabowski cited the success of UMBC’s ADVANCE program, which works to increase the number of women faculty at UMBC, particularly in STEM areas. Since that program’s inception in 2003, the number of female tenure-track faculty at UMBC has increased 73.3% – a boost in representation beneficial for UMBC’s new Hill-Lopes Scholars.

Speaking directly to the scholars at the inaugural reception, Pres. Hrabowski encouraged them to learn from their mentors by listening to their personal stories, “and then, imagine how, in time, you can help other people.”

His focus on support, mentorship, advocacy, and role models echoed how Hill and Lopes described their own sense of the UMBC community. Lopes commented, “This place has a reputation for helping students be the best they can be.”

“We’re very proud to be part of the UMBC community,” shared Hill. “We couldn’t think of a better home for this program.”

Banner image: The inaugural Hill-Lopes Scholars with Barbara Hill (far right) and Ancelmo Lopes (far left). Students from left to right: Stormy Hill ’17, Heather Frank ’17, Karla Negrete ’19, Jada Damond ’19, Blair Landon ’19. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Need extra credit?

Any course ending in Y includes a weekly Honors University seminar. Designed for students in their first year, the Honors University seminar reinforces the lecture through study skills, exam preparation, time management, and other key skills. Most courses meet general education requirements. These courses carry one credit and focus on enhancing skills that pertain to college life.

HIST 101Y
(SS) GEP, (SS) GFR

Major topics include colonial America, the American Revolution, the Constitution, the federal period, sectional conflict, and the Civil War and the Reconstruction. Emphasis on differing interpretations of controversial issues.

Need extra credit?

Any course ending in Y includes a weekly Honors University seminar. Designed for students in their first year, the Honors University seminar reinforces the lecture through study skills, exam preparation, time management, and other key skills. Most courses meet general education requirements. These courses carry one credit and focus on enhancing skills that pertain to college life.

ANTH 211Y
(AH) GEP, (AH) GFR
(Department Consent Required)

An introduction to the central concepts and issues in cultural anthropology. The course employs a worldwide comparative perspective that examines topics such as: the concept of culture, cultural-ecological systems and family organization; magic, religion and witchcraft; socialization, personality and mental illness; conflict resolution and warfare.

Seeking an administrative assistant for arts development project in Baltimore City

Le Mondo is an artist-owned-and-driven project creating a multi-use community hub for music, theater, and performing arts in Baltimore. Comprised of three buildings on Baltimore’s historic Howard Street corridor, the project will champion a diverse community of arts and community organizations, individual artists, curators, and arts-lovers in the city.