Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s Hearts for the Homeless elections, whether by running for a position or casting your vote. We appreciate your dedication and involvement.
We are excited to introduce our newly elected executive board for the 2025–2026 academic year:
President: Jerusalem Mussie
Vice President: Femi Obideyi
Treasurer: Deeya Mistry
Secretary: Limaya Mapalagama
Recruitment Officer: Shanzay Fatimah
Medical Information Officers: Josh Alger and Umar Thangalvadi
Volunteer Coordinators: Marakey Gizaw and Carole Tito
Congratulations to our new leaders! We look forward to a meaningful and impactful year ahead.
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On a fall Saturday morning, Mohammad Arshad, an information systems senior, greeted clients arriving at the Erickson School of Aging Studies looking for a fresh start with the help of UMBC’s first Expungement Clinic. After completing the intake forms, Arshad passed the files to pro-bono lawyers and staff from Maryland Legal Aid and pro-bono lawyers from the Baltimore County Bar Association. They carefully reviewed each client’s criminal records to determine eligibility for clearing or sealing certain charges or offenses that can create barriers to jobs, housing, and education
When Jessica Cook, associate director of the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar Program, noticed that Loyola University has this program, she connected with Molly Timko, UMBC’s pre-law academic advisor, and discussed bringing the program to UMBC. They established the clinic with funding from UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life. As soon as a call was made for 20 student volunteers, the response was overwhelming.
Expungement clinic volunteers (l-r): Damilola Khadijat Yusuf, a philosophy sophomore; Oyinlola Oluka, a political science and philosophy senior; Desta’nae Nicole Wilson ’24, psychology; Jessica Cook, associate director of the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar Program. (center); Jean Kim, a global studies junior; Thara Pillai, a political science sophomore; Samantha Kennedy ’25, a social work senior; Cooper; Garret Miller, a financial economics sophomore; and Arshad. (Image courtesy of Timko)
Sometimes it’s hard to get internships as an undergraduate student, notes Timko. “The exposure to public interest law—doing law for the greater good—and to network with lawyers in various fields broadens students’ understanding of what being a lawyer can look like beyond arguing in a courtroom,” says Timko, a licensed attorney in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and New York. In her role at UMBC, Timko provides career pathway counseling and law school application support for UMBC students of all majors, as well as alumni.
“It was the first time I saw a law-related volunteer opportunity on campus,” said Arshad. He serves as the senate president of the Maryland Student Legislation (MSL), a model Maryland General Assembly. Currently, there are 15 college delegations, governed by the Council of States, a group of six college students elected by MSL members. Arshad serves as the lieutenant governor.
Mohammad Arshad (l) with Maryland State Delegate, Christopher Michael Griffith. (Image courtesy of Arshad)
This experiential learning experience teaches students how to draft original legislation and debate bills, navigate parliamentary procedures, and understand the legislative process. At the end of the year, all of the legislation adopted by the students is shared with members of the Maryland General Assembly for their review. “As someone interested in the legal field, I saw the Expungement Clinic as a meaningful way to deepen my understanding of the legal process.”
Oyinlola Oluka assists with a client intake at the Expungement Clinic. (Image courtesy of Timko)
The expungement clinic was streamlined to assist as many clients as possible. No appointment was needed. Lawyers arrived equipped with laptops and printers, prepared to complete and file paperwork. Angus Derbyshire, director for Pro Bono at Maryland Legal Aid, who spearheads expungement clinics across Maryland, reported that 14 clients were served at the UMBC Expungement Clinic, and 10 of them had cases that were deemed potentially eligible for expungement. “This resulted in the preparation of 24 expungement petitions, which is a meaningful outcome for both the clients and the community,” said Derbyshire.
As a first-generation college student, Arshad had never seen the legal process in action firsthand, let alone been part of it. What surprised him most was the collaboration and community focus. “I had always assumed legal work was mostly done behind the scenes, but this clinic showed me how much personal interaction and empathy are involved,” said Arshad, who plans to practice intellectual property law defending the rights of inventors, entrepreneurs, and developers. “It also gave me a better understanding of expungement and how access to legal resources can significantly improve someone’s future opportunities.”
Despite the overwhelming response from volunteers for the expungement clinic, Timko has noticed that many students still assume a political science major is required to pursue a career in law. Like Arshad, Timko is a first-generation law student with a major outside of political science. She majored in anthropology and art history, with a minor in Italian, but wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in either field. “During my master’s program in higher education and student affairs administration, I studied abroad in South Africa and took a course on social reform in post-apartheid South Africa. It sparked my interest in education and advocacy law,” says Timko.
One of Timko’s bigger goals is to help students discover their spark. “It’s important for students to know you can major in anything. There are so many ways to be a lawyer. There’s the stereotypical trial lawyer, but there are also lawyers focused on research and writing that never set foot in a courtroom,” says Timko who is also the advisor for UMBC’s Pre-Law Society that helps student prepare for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) and network with area schools. “You don’t have to be super extroverted or argumentative to be a really good lawyer.” There is also no expiration date on when you can decide to pursue a legal career.
Timko (right with gold jacket) and UMBC’s Pre-Law Society students visit nearby law schools. (Images courtesy of Timko)
This is why she was excited when Shannon Ziegler ’14, fine arts, and Alexander Langsam ’22, biology, reached out to her for guidance on applying to law school. Both had initially worked in their respective fields, which unexpectedly led them in new directions—Ziegler in the financial technology industry and Langsam in civil service, which then spurred in them an interest in law.
After completing the pre-med track at UMBC, Langsam dove into studying for the Medical College Admission Test and worked as a medical assistant. When he saw firsthand the challenges faced by providers and patients, he pivoted and decided to pursue a master’s in public health policy instead, while continuing to work in civil service. There, he spent time learning about the work of the general counsel, which confirmed for him the impact lawyers can have at the federal level.
“I had never considered law school before, so when I began to think of it as a possible career, I looked up UMBC pre-law advising and emailed Molly out of the blue. She guided me through the law school application process,” said Langsam. “If you can, expand your career options beyond your degree because there are so many things you can do in this world that may not be obvious in undergrad.” He will complete his masters in May and continue to the University of Baltimore Law School in the fall.
Ziegler is about to finish her first year of law school at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. In the decade before law school, she balanced being a business manager for Baltimore’s Center Stage by day and acting by night. She then checked off living in Chicago from her bucket list, where she worked at Venmo, launching a career at the crossroads of financial regulation and technology, the topic of her law school admissions essay.
Timko is on the Law School Admission Council directory as an undergraduate pre-law school advisor and receives an alert when an alum takes the LSAT. As soon as she was sent Ziegler’s results, she touched base with her. “It had been so long since I left UMBC that I didn’t think of reaching out. Molly gave me great advice on how to focus my application better and what to prioritize in my search,” said Ziegler. “She helped me slow down to think about what my goals are. I found that reframing really helpful.”
Megumi Fukuzawa. (Image courtesy of Fukuzawa)
At the core of the pre-law advising programming is a mission to create a supportive community where UMBC’s law school hopefuls can develop the skills, strategies, and confidence to navigate the various steps between studying for the LSAT and the first year of law school. This spring, Megumi Fukuzawa ’23, political science, who is currently studying for the LSAT, understands the need for support. Like many undergraduate students, Fukuzawa’s schedule was jam-packed. Whenever she carved out time to study for the LSAT, she felt lost and discouraged. “I needed help understanding the materials and advice about how to study effectively,” said Fukuzawa, a research assistant at the Howard County Historical Society’s Archives and Historical Center. “The only flyer I saw on campus was during my junior year, advertising a $1,000 introductory LSAT course. At that point, the LSAT felt like a massive wall I couldn’t break through.”
Thanks to a professional development grant from the American Studies Department, she was able to access study materials during her senior year. This spring, Fukuzawa asked Timko if she could lead an LSAT preparation information session.“By hosting this LSAT prep information session, providing free tutoring, and forming an online study community for UMBC LSAT students, I hope to make LSAT prep, and by extension, a legal education, more accessible to UMBC students and alumni,” said Fukuzawa. Arshad is also championing the need to help fund LSAT preparation materials, for Fukuwaza, himself, and other pre-law students who can’t afford expensive study aids. Arshad is collaborating with peers and community members on a long-term solution to establish a UMBC partnership with an LSAT coaching provider to offset LSAT preparation costs.
Advocacy and fairness are Arshad’s core values. They have defined his student work as well as his career plans to practice intellectual property law. “My background in systems and data gives me a unique perspective on how legal services, like the Expungement Clinic, can be streamlined and made more accessible through innovation,” said Arshad. “Volunteering at the expungement clinic made me think about how I can apply my tech skills to create more efficient and equitable legal solutions.”
Learn more about UMBC’s Expungement Clinic and pre-law advising.
]]>From everyone in Student Belonging and at The Mosaic, we’re excited to celebrate your achievements and wish you all the best as you begin this next chapter.
Cord Pick-Up Information – Cultural Celebration & Awards
For those who RSVP’d to our Cultural Celebration & Awards but are unable to attend, we are offering an option to pick up your cord next week in The Mosaic (Room 2B23, The Commons, Second Floor).
Pick-Up Times:
Monday, May 19: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Tuesday, May 20: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Wednesday, May 21: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Cords will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis for those who did not RSVP ahead of time. If you did not RSVP, you will be asked to provide your name and email at the time of pick-up.
Note: The following tip was shared as part of a 2/18/25 Faculty Development Center workshop, "Encouraging Academic Integrity in the Era of AI." Please feel free to adapt and make it your own.
Given faculty concerns about AI-assisted or even wholly-authored student papers, faculty could use a simple feature in any Google document, spreadsheet or presentation slide: its version history, which includes a summary or detailed date & time stamp of every addition or edit. As such, the goal is not to detect the presence of AI in student writing, which is currently very difficult due to “false positives,” but more so to detect the absence of originality.
Why & How This Might Work
Unlike the iterative, word-by-word or sentence-by-sentence approach of most original writing, students who use AI or plagiarized material are likely copying & pasting entirely ‘in-tact” content as “whole cloth” blocks, perhaps with minimal or even no changes before submitting as a final draft. If so, requiring students to submit a Google Doc for their paper will contain a version history that faculty can inspect. If version 1 – or any version – contains large blocks of text in a short period of time, one can reasonably assume the work is not original. More importantly, if students know that faculty know there’s a version history that can be inspected – and questioned about – maybe they will think twice.
Issues & Opportunities
A student could just try to emulate iterative authorship, copying one word or sentence at a time -- but likely not in a hurry before a deadline, which is the use case most common to plagiarism. Still, the attempt would result in an ironic, self-inflicted penalty, by forcing the student to take time to cheat to appear not to have done so.
Some students may complain that being required to use a Google Doc inhibits their creative writing process or doesn’t show “offline” musings written by hand or in other editors, including notes made on their mobile devices. However, faculty could say the Google Doc version history allows them to extend the conditions for how students are assessed over time on any assignment vs at the same time (e.g., answering an essay question on an exam). Also, all Google Docs have mobile apps.
For faculty who are ok with students using AI – as an aid to counter writer’s bloc or if clearly cited in the final version – a version history could be a “teachable moment” for how, where and when to do so. Students could be asked to “name” their versions as AI or “mine” or add a comment to explain where and why they changed any AI output.
Suggested Approach
Create a Google Doc template you ask students to copy and use for their written assignment. You could even make this a Google Assignment for submission in a Learning Management System (LMS) like Blackboard.
Tell students you’ll only accept their assignment if you are a named editor/collaborator (you need editing privileges to view a Google Doc’s version history).
Tell students you reserve the right to randomly inspect the version history of any Google Doc they submit as their own work. You can also require an oral interview to have students explain any version.
FYI: A sample syllabus statement on use of AI by students is below (source: John Fritz, DoIT):
Using Google Docs to Detect Students’ AI Usage from East Central College
Prove your writing is not AI-generated by tracking changes in your docs: Showing your work is not just for math problems anymore in Popular Science
With increasing AI plagiarism, write your essays on Google Docs! from Reddit discussion amongst students
Why I Use Google Docs to Teach Writing, Especially in the Age of AI blogpost by Steven D. Krause
How To Use Google Docs Secret Feature to Detect AI Content Writing by Digital Information World
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As part of UMBC’s data warehouse migration to HelioCampus, the Data Management Committee’s “Training & Outreach” working group has published a brief (8 min) video orientation on why and how to explore analytics @ UMBC.
Developed, in part, as a response to the 2006 Middle States Self Study, UMBC’s Report Exchange (REX) data warehouse was designed to help collect, integrate, report on, analyze and (importantly) act on data from a variety of campus systems such as Blackboard, PeopleSoft, and myUMBC. Not surprisingly, the current 2025-26 Middle States Self Study and UMBC 3.0 Strategic Planning initiative will also focus on continuous improvement through curated, campus-wide data to inform decision making.
In addition to the migration to HelioCampus, which constitutes REX 2.0, the orientation video also describes:
New and (likely) soon-to-be-required training on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to access campus systems like PeopleSoft and REX itself.
How to find and use free training videos about Tableau’s “viewer” role, which will be used to access predefined (“canned”) reports largely migrated from REX 1.0 that used Microsoft Reporting Services (RS) reports.
A new “Analytics @ UMBC” Blackboard community where anyone can learn more about REX, “actionable intelligence,” and (eventually) even do some hands-on, self-paced data analysis with dummy data and AI.
How to get involved with UMBC’s analytics community of practice, including the REX developers’ and users’ groups.
Chelsea Little of Fallston, MD was recently selected as one of the recipients of the 2025 Marilyn Demorest Love of Learning Award from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Chapter 022BC-University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Chelsea was selected by the awards committee for their outstanding academic excellence and active participation within the university and the broader community.In particular, the committee was impressed by Chelsea's perseverance to succeed and to live life by the PKP Motto - Philosophia Kateito Photo - Let the Love of Learning Rule Humanity. Chelsea is currently pursuing a PhD in Business Psychology.
Each spring, this chapter invites applications from its graduate student members. Two $500 awards will be distributed each year to the selected awardees. The Marilyn Demorest Love of Learning Award is bestowed in recognition of the many significant contributions made by Dr. Marilyn Demorest as a key founder and seminal leader of Chapter 22 UMBC of Phi Kappa Phi. Dr. Demorest's clear-eyed determination, detailed planning, and appreciation of both tradition and innovation infused the infant chapter with the carefully-built scaffolding needed for it to grow into the chapter we enjoy today. Marilyn's dedication to PKP and her own love of learning are the foundation for this award.
Chartered in 2010, Chapter 22BC invites the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors for membership in Phi Kappa Phi. Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.
More About Phi Kappa Phi
Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. The Society's mission is "To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others." Since its founding, more than 1.5 million members have been initiated. Some of the organization's more notable members include former President Jimmy Carter, NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence, novelist John Grisham and YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley. Each year, Phi Kappa Phi awards nearly $1 million to qualifying students and members through graduate fellowships, undergraduate study abroad grants, member and chapter awards, and grants for local and national literacy initiatives. For more information about Phi Kappa Phi, visit www.PhiKappaPhi.org.
]]>Jasmine A. Lee, MSW, PhD (she/her)
Associate Vice President, Community & Culture
Co-Director, Center for Social Justice Dialogue
jaslee@umbc.edu Connect with me via Webex Personal Room: https://umbc.webex.com/meet/jaslee | 640903142
912, Admin Building, 1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
