One of the things that makes UMBC great is how wonderful our alumni, students, faculty, and staff are. Because of these amazing people, UMBC often finds itself “in the news,” so each week, we’ll be sharing with you a round-up of the most newsworthy achievements from our community.

• Maurice Berger, CADVC, Latest “Race Story” in The New York Times
• Kavita Krishnaswamy, CSEE Ph.D. student, Featured on National Science Foundation Website
• Eileen Meyer and Markos Georganopoulos, Physics, Use Hubble Telescope to Observe Rare “Shock Collision”

Read more at UMBC Insights!

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Highlights & Notes

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President Hrabowski recently visited Andrea Mitchell Reports, The Marc Steiner Show, and The Root to discuss his new book, Holding Fast To Dreams: Empowering Youth from the Civil Rights Crusade to STEM Achievement, and the importance of education and mentorship for Baltimore youth.

In his interviews, Dr. Hrabowski shared his experiences growing up in Birmingham, Alabama and how his desire for a better education inspired him to participate in the 1963 Children’s March. “The experience taught me a number of things… don’t let anyone else define who you are… that you can be empowered to make a difference in your own life,” he told Marc Steiner. He also spoke with Marc Steiner and The Root about UMBC’s work in supporting students of all backgrounds. He said to The Root, “Dr. King’s dream, and America’s dream should be, that students of all races, those from this country and people who come to this country from other places, will learn how to work effectively together to solve the problems of the world.”

Click here to listen to Dr. Hrabowski on The Marc Steiner Show and here to read “How 1 Man Is Using the Unity of the Civil Rights Movement to Empower Black Students in STEM” on The Root.

Dr. Hrabowski also spoke to Andrea Mitchell about the importance of education and mentorship for Baltimore youth in the wake of recent protests. “If we can educate people, we can have a better country,” he said. “That’s what children in Baltimore are saying right now- that they want a good education.”

Click here to watch Dr. Hrabowski on Andrea Mitchell Reports.

Dr. Hrabowski was also featured in a video by The Education Trust about how universities need to support low-income students in their education and careers. Click here to watch “Building a healthier democracy through high quality college education.”

Gib Mason, chief operating officer of UMBC Training Centers, published an article on Entrepreneur this week, sharing tips for professional resilience for long-term business survival. Entrepreneur is a monthly magazine about small business management, business opportunities, and entrepreneurship.

In the article, Mason drew on his 35 years of experience across 10 industries to list five steps for professional resilience. He encouraged entrepreneurs to be uncomfortable and transparent, along with embracing ambiguity, putting their team’s needs first, and being open to changing their mindset. “Resilience is never achieved,” Mason shared. “it’s a continuum that starts with developing a resilient self, then working toward developing a resilient organization.”

Click here to read “5 Ways to Build the Resilience You Need to Succeed” in Entrepreneur.

Following the recent arrests of FIFA officials, Sunil Dasgupta, director of UMBC’s political science program at the Universities of Shady Grove, wrote an article for International Relations and Security Network (ISN) News about the arrests illustrating a key feature of American soft power.

“Rather than blaming the media or the public for paying more attention to a sporting controversy than to developments in the South China Sea, this unlikely legal move by the U.S. Department of Justice should be taken as evidence of the symbolic nature of power in contemporary international politics. On the symbolic terrain of soft power, the governance of football may indeed be more important than the geopolitics of Chinese island construction projects. If so, the FIFA arrests may indicate that the United States is more capable of shaping certain elements of the international system than reports of its decline have suggested,” Dasgupta wrote.

In the article, he also discussed what the FIFA controversy says about governing on an global scale: “…the football controversy promises to define new rules for governing non-state international organizations—a type of entity left outside the post-World War II institutional order. It also offers a new methodology for solving problems: state action on behalf of a global, rather than a national, public, which is a novel and potentially exciting model for reorganizing the international system.”

To read the full article titled “Football or Atolls? Why Football Matters More than Chinese Island Construction for World Politics,” click here.

Following a series of stories in City Paper about The Wire, WEAA’s The Marc Steiner Show held a panel discussion on June 9 to examine the television show and its representation of Baltimore. Kate Drabinski, lecturer of gender and women’s studies, was a guest on the program and discussed the importance of watching the show with a critical mind.

“Part of me worries that The Wire is so good in terms of drama that people think watching the show means that they understand the depth of what’s happening in Baltimore and the complexities of the histories here and the complexity of the lives that are lived here,” Drabinski said.

In a separate program on June 4, Kimberly Moffitt, an associate professor of American studies, was a guest host for a segment on budget cuts and restructuring at Baltimore City Schools in response to the announcement that 159 staff positions were eliminated. Moffitt facilitated a discussion with Dr. Roni Ellington, associate professor of mathematics education at Morgan State University; Bobbi Macdonald, executive director of the City Neighbors Foundation; and Jimmy Gittings, president of Public School Administrators and Supervisors Association (PSASA), AFSA Local 25, who began his career with BCPS in 1971.

On June 16, Moffitt was co-host for an in-depth, two-hour segment on education in Baltimore including discussions about layoffs, the school budget, community schools, and alternatives to the current school system.

To listen to the segments in their entirety, click below:
Wrestling with the Wire
Baltimore City Schools: What Will be the Impact of Budget Cuts and Restructuring at North Avenue?
Education in Baltimore: Two-Hour Special