All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Winter ’08 Graduate to Become Youngest Student at Boston Doctoral Program

When Seth Vacek ’08 was younger, no one thought he’d go to UMBC. They never thought he’d go college, period, or even graduate from high school. But Vacek, who has cerebral palsy, was determined to pursue his education fully, despite what anyone said.

“I didn’t let anything stop me from achieving the goals I’ve set,” he said.

Vacek’s condition affects his fine motor skills and impairs both his speech and walking. Everyday tasks, such as tying his shoes, can be extremely challenging. Despite these physical barriers, Vacek did graduate from high school and at the top of his class.

He continued his education at Anne Arundel Community College, where he graduated with an associate’s degree in general studies. At age 19, he applied to UMBC, and now, at age 20, he graduates and will move on to Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis to pursue a doctoral degree as the youngest accepted applicant in the school’s history.

Vacek entered UMBC as a psychology major, a field he was encouraged to pursue after taking a course with UMBC Assistant Professor and AACC Adjunct Professor Peter Resta. While at UMBC, he engaged in independent research. One of his research studies examined tattoos and why people get them. He presented his findings at UMBC’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) in spring 2008. Another research interest Vacek undertook was examining moshing, a violent form of dance that occurs at live music performances.

“I was always interested in those topics but it was UMBC that helped shape them into research ideas,” he said. “I plan to continue studying both topics in the future.”

In addition to the encouragement he received from the psychology department, Vacek also found great support through the Honors College.

“The environment provided so much intellectual stimulation,” he said. “You’re able to think about and discuss topics outside your major, like philosophy and politics. My professors taught me to really apply critical thinking skills to those subjects.”

Of his professors at UMBC, Vacek said everyone helped him to succeed. In order to graduate, Vacek needed to pass a language course. Wanting a challenge, he decided to study Latin. Learning another language was extremely difficult for him, but his professors went the extra mile to help him.

“Dr. Jay Freyman and I would meet one-on-one in his office and would just go over word after word,” he said. “He really took his time and helped me learn the language.”

Vacek plans on coming back to Maryland after he receives his doctoral degree and would eventually like to teach at the collegiate level and practice psychoanalysis in a hospital setting. He’d also like to open up his own practice.

Although he has mixed feelings about leaving UMBC, Vacek is excited for the next step in his journey.

“I’m nervous about leaving, and, in a way, I don’t want it to end,” he said. “But that’s what happens when your reach your goals. You need to set more.”

(12/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Students and Staff Provide a Choice for Youth from At-Risk Environments

To hear about The Choice Program from a former fellow, click the play button below.

Over the past two decades, The Choice Program at UMBC’s Shriver Center has served more than 18,000 youth and their families in some of Maryland’s most challenged communities. The staff, fellows and mentors of The Choice Program have provided continuous support to youth from at-risk environments in the Baltimore area through intensive supervision and case management services. The program is recognized nationally by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

“Eighty percent of our youth remain in the community at the completion of their program, and 85% do not acquire new delinquent charges,” said Lamar Davis, director of the Choice Program. “But numbers tell only part of the story. Choice stories are stories of struggle and challenge but above all, they are stories of achievement, triumph and hope. Past and present staff have thousands of individual accounts that speak to the hard work and resiliency of our youth and families.”

Along with staff and Choice fellows, UMBC students also have the opportunity to work as mentors at College Night, a weekly event that brings Choice program participants to the campus for a night of activities. Students volunteer to be mentors for a variety of reasons, and for some, it helps solidify their professional goals.

“College Night really appealed to me because I knew I’d be working with older kids,” said Stephanie Tkaczyk ’10, a Choice Program intern and secondary education major. “At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go into teaching. But after serving as a mentor I realized I wanted to teach, and this is giving me the best experience I can get.”

Like Tkaczyk, Jynease Emerson ’11 is also an education major who became interested in volunteering with the program. She and Tkaczyk serve as the program’s interns.

“This program has given me such a different perspective,” Emerson said. “You don’t know anything until you experience that first semester as a mentor.”

Rian Russell ’10, a master’s student studying public policy and coordinator for College Night, said the event is different for every participant but has a similar outcome.

“This can be a really positive environment,” Russell said. “Participants are exposed to a college campus, and many of them haven’t thought or talked about college before. We aim to foster caring adult relationships and a sense of stability through College Night.”

For many of the staff and volunteers involved with Choice, that element of transformation encourages them to stay involved with the program by mentoring at-risk youth.  

“I am dedicated to Choice because it’s an organization that believes in each person’s ability to transform their lives and change their direction,” said Davis. “Choice encourages a can-do attitude among youth, families, staff, community members and volunteers.”

This year The Choice Program celebrates its 20th year at UMBC. They have also installed and displayed “Choosing to Make a Difference,” a mural created by lead artist Joey Tomassoni and ten youth from the Choice Program’s Capitol Heights office near Washington D.C. Parents and Choice Program staff also collaborated on the concept and imagery of the mural, which grew out of discussions about the program’s positive impact on participants. The mural can be seen on the wall near commonvision in The Commons.

For more information on The Choice Program, visit http://www.choiceprograms.org/.

(12/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Award-Winning Contributions to Baltimore’s Business Community

Since its inception in 1989, more than 100 companies have been supported by bwtech@UMBC Incubator and Accelerator. Eighty percent of these companies are still in business, and 85 percent are located in Maryland. The Incubator and Accelerator recently received the 2008 New Directions Award for its positive contributions to Baltimore County’s economy through the many successful companies it has launched. Presented by the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce, this award honors a company or organization that exemplifies the quality of Baltimore County businesses.

Half of the Incubator and Accelerator’s 35 companies are in the life sciences and nearly all are developing innovative technologies. Of the 250 employees at the Incubator and Accelerator, 22 are UMBC alumni and 75 percent of its companies have hired UMBC student interns. A recent “Techpreneur” internship and job fair, held in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week, brought students and CEOs together for a night of networking and career exploration.

bwtech@UMBC’s strength is its natural synergy with the university’s research-oriented environment. Current companies have engaged in more than 100 formal research collaborations, joint grant funding opportunities, formal or informal consulting agreements, adjunct appointments, technology license agreements, CEO/founder relationships or have utilized faculty or facilities at UMBC research centers.

The bwtech@UMBC incubator program is an active component of entrepreneurship training programs across the UMBC campus. The bwtech staff, including Executive Director Ellen Hemmerly, has been a key component in the successful ACTiVATE program,which trains mid-career women to form businesses based on technologies developed at area universities and research institutions. In its first three full years of the program, ACTiVATE has trained 72 women and launched 15 companies.

(12/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

The Beat of a Different Drum

When Steven McAlpine, assistant director of interdisciplinary studies, and Gregory Schroeder ’09 met for academic advising, neither one knew they’d soon be playing drums every Friday outside the University Center (UC) during free hour – with more than 10 other drummers and dancers.

“I met with Steve as a new interdisciplinary studies major,” Schroeder said. “We would talk about music a lot and the fact that we both liked to play the drums. We decided we should play outdoors sometime, and for a while it was just him and I playing in front of the UC or in the back of The Commons.”

That first outdoor show was nearly two years ago, and the drum circle (now called “Straight Up Tribal”) has around 10-15 members who regularly play drums and other instruments, sing and dance. Most members say that fall 2008 was the “tipping point” in terms of size.

“This is the first time that we have really started to grow and connect with other UMBC students,” said Trey Kulp ‘09, a regular hand drummer. “The drum circle now has a mini festival atmosphere, especially with the hoola hoops and our MCs on the mic.”

Getting involved with the drum circle is as easy as walking by the UC between noon and 1 p.m.

“I was running an errand in the UC Ballroom and when I came back out, there were two drummers playing a nice groove,” said Kulp. “A drum was available, so I asked if I could join in.”

Like Kulp, other drummers enjoyed the drum circle vibe and kept coming back every Friday. As the drummers increased, so did other forms of art and music. Dancers showed up in September 2008, along with singers. The growth in numbers also spurred a growth in diversity. There is now a vocalist from India, an African-American rapper who competes in “Battle of the Bands” contests, a Peruvian who grew up playing the cajon (box drum) and an Asian-American who mainly drums but also experiments with the hoola hoop.

“There’s a special quality about UMBC and its students that allows something like this to happen organically,” McAlpine said. “I think students are hungry for venues to share their own work.”

Straight Up Tribal is now performing at more events on campus. They recently performed as the opening act at the Global Women’s Health Benefit. Kim and Reggie Harris, artists from upstate New York, were originally slotted to be the main act but had to cancel at the last minute. Straight Up Tribal decided to put the concert together, including serving as the opening act, and only had 24 hours to do so.

They also hope to become an official student organization in the future.

For more information on Straight Up Tribal, contact McAlpine at mcalpine@umbc.edu or stop by the space in front of the UC between noon and 1 p.m. (free hour) every Friday.

(12/12/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Lucia Zegarra ’11 Chosen as a “Leader on the Rise”

Challenging situations, encouragement from family and spirituality have all led Peruvian native Lucia Zegarra ’11, biological sciences, to a life of serving. And it was that life of serving that led her to winning the Hispanic Heritage Award sponsored by Governor Martin O’Malley’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs for being a “Leader on the Rise” in October 2008.

“I was so flattered to win the award that I almost cried,” she said. “So many other people have gone through so many things; I didn’t think I deserved it.”

While her peers talked about the bombings taking place in Lima, Peru, in the 1980s, Zegarra experienced them firsthand. Zegarra’s parents valued education, sending her to several private schools so she could have a broad understanding of culture. But even though she attended school in a safe neighborhood, Zegarra lived in an area of terrorism where The Shining Path (a Maoist guerilla organization also known as the Communist Party of Peru) was still very powerful.

“There were a lot of bombings in the rural areas where I lived,” she said. “Kids that I went to school with didn’t even know about the bombs. They didn’t experience what I did while going to school.”

Despite the conflict inflicted by the Shining Path, Zegarra and her family survived. But challenging situations seemed to follow her. She was affected by domestic violence at a young age, not recognizing it until later.

“I had to grow up right then,” she said. “Because of that experience, helping others who’ve been victims of domestic abuse is very dear to my heart.”

She began reaching out to others, visiting children’s hospitals in Peru every weekend to play with abandoned children. Later she became the coordinator of a social help project for a school confirmation program tutoring children of uneducated parents. “I would go to the rural areas with band-aids, but I just couldn’t do it all without money,” she said. “That’s when I decided I needed to become a doctor.”

When her father moved to the United States to make money, Zegarra waited for her opportunity to attend medical school in America. Her family relocated separately, her father first then followed by Zegarra and her siblings and finally her mother. It cost $800 per person, and the application process took 13 years.

In 2002, Lucia moved to California and started her volunteer work in the States by volunteering at Tahoe Women’s Services and Hospice. She partnered with her mother obtaining a crisis intervention certification to help other women as well as children who witnessed violence.

She eventually relocated to Silver Spring, Maryland, in Montgomery County, where she began working toward a degree at Montgomery College. Two years later, she applied as a pre-med biological sciences major at UMBC and was accepted.

Although Zegarra is on a path of success, challenges continue to crop up. She was recently diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, a chronic pain disease. Because the pain occurs primarily in her hands, it makes it difficult for her to write and type. But she makes the best of it, focusing primarily on getting through her studies.

Zegarra currently works part-time for the Catholic Charities for Homeless as a rehabilitation counselor in Washington, DC. Her long-term goal is to establish a non-profit organization to provide free bilingual mental and physical health services not only to the underprivileged members of the local community, but also to third world countries.

When talking about the future, she has realistic expectations.

“I’m not Jesus. I’m not God,” she said. “But maybe I can help someone.”

(12/5/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Model for 21st Century Art

Spanning all six concentrations — animation/interactive media, art history and theory, film/video, graphic design, photography and print media — UMBC’s 2008 Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition is a opportunity to learn what the university’s faculty are thinking about and what methods and processes they are using.

“We focus on contemporary tools and technologies,” said Vin Grabill, interim chair of the visual arts department and a film/video artist. “It’s kept us on the cutting edge in the region, and the challenge is to continue to push that forward and set a model for how 21st century artists continue to utilize these practices for the benefit of establishing relevant visual culture.”

 UMBC’s internationally recognized visual arts faculty are also committed to research. “This is a visual arts department at a research university, so all of our faculty are actively working as practicing artists and researchers. They really prefer this – they are afforded the time to pursue research, which benefits our students, who pick up on the energy that results from ongoing creative research,” Grabill added.

Kelley Bell ’06, MFA, Imaging and Digital Arts, who recently joined the visual arts faculty, appreciates the diversity of artwork and views in the visual arts department. “There’s such a wide range of work and research going on in the department – I’m really affected by the things other faculty are working on, hearing different points of view about what art is.”

Bell, a graphic designer who also works in animation and interactive media, enjoys her new role at the front of the classroom. “I try to engender a healthy respect and consciousness about doing design,” she said. “Design has a lot to do with educating yourself, having a keen intellectual curiosity and being able to synthesize information.”

Visual arts faculty members consistently receive recognition for their work in and outside of Baltimore. Their art  has been exhibited at a variety of venues, including: the American Academy in Rome, Andy Warhol Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Biennial of Seville, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Chelsea Art Museum, the Contemporary (Baltimore), Georges Pompidou Center (Vienna), Los Angeles County Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Biennial and many others. They have been recognized with numerous awards including Fulbright Fellowships, the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, J. Paul Getty Post-doctoral Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants, among other honors, in addition to film/video festival awards and artist residencies.

More information on the Faculty Exhibition is available online.

Watch Vin Grabill’s Mexico Painting and Barcelona Mosaics.

Learn more about UMBC’s undergraduate and graduate visual arts programs.

(12/2/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Professor’s Breakthrough Highlighted in Nature Chemical Biology

A proper balance of nitric oxide (NO), the body’s highly reactive, gas-based signaling molecule and the stuff that makes Viagra work, is crucial to health. Too much NO production caused by one particular enzyme has been linked to inflammation, arthritis, cancer and other illnesses. But NO also has its beneficial side, with closely related enzymes responsible for maintaining enough NO to regulate blood pressure and allow proper blood flow to different organs.

Elsa Garcin, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was co-author of a recent Nature Chemical Biology article that described a new method to specifically target harmful NO production while preserving beneficial NO levels. Garcin, who came to UMBC from the Scripps Research Institute, co-authored “Anchored plasticity opens doors for selective inhibitor design in nitric oxide synthase” with her former Scripps colleague, Elizabeth Getzoff.

Garcin, a native of France, has a personal motivation in her work. “My family has a long history of cardiovascular disease despite a typical French diet that includes red wine, garlic, olive oil and other foods that help to prevent those conditions, so I’ve always been interested in new ways to improve cardiovascular health.”

“Nitric oxide is vital to many important functions such as blood pressure and neurotransmission related to brain function and learning,” said Garcin. “There are three different enzymes that produce NO: one for blood pressure, one for brain function/neurotransmission and one for defense against attacks by bacteria or tumor cells. But when the immune system-related enzyme gets out of balance, you can get inflammation, arthritis and other pathological conditions.”

Garcin and her colleagues looked at the binding of various drugs that inhibit these enzymes by using x-ray crystallography. Their research could provide new solutions for the development of selective drugs for a variety of health problems.

“We can actually design drugs that could help with arthritis and other inflammatory diseases,” said Garcin. “These findings could also be useful for people who are seeking to specifically target one harmful biochemical function but leave the beneficial ones untouched, to treat HIV or cancer, for example.”

To watch a video related to Garcin’s paper, go to http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/v4/n11/extref/nchembio.115-S2.mov.

(11/26/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Taking the Lead on Climate Change

Clean energy, green jobs and sustainable resources will be among the topics John Doyle ’09 will be advocating for with his peers at the UN Climate Negotiations in Poznań, Poland, as a SustainUS youth delegate. As one of 23 young environmental activists chosen through a competitive nation-wide process, Doyle and the U.S. youth delegation will meet before the conference with 70-80 international youth to strategize and unify their positions on climate change issues. While in Poland, the youth delegates serve as observers, meeting with representatives from the U.S. State Department and advocating for positions they believe best represent the interests of the world’s youth.

Doyle’s personal stance on the climate crisis is focused on change.

“We need to make fundamental changes in our consumption habits and land use. As the rest of the world develops, we need to recognize that America is not the right model to emulate. Sprawling suburbs and a 1:1 ratio of cars to people is not sustainable. Instead of asking the rest of the world to change, we need to take the lead and be better role models,” he said.

Originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, Doyle’s passion for sustainability grew his junior year during a semester abroad at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa. At the UKZN, Doyle spent much of his time in the development studies department.

“My professors taught me about the intrinsic relationship between environmental justice and social justice and the simple but profound truth that ‘alternatives are not inherently compromises,’” he said.

His study abroad led Doyle to internships related to environmentalism. This past summer he interned with the U.S. Green Building Council, helping to develop their Green Campus Campaign. Most recently, he co-coordinated UMBC’s Power Vote campaign with leaders from Students for Environmental Awareness. Power Vote is a national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition and is endorsed by the Maryland Student Climate Coalition. UMBC contributed 1,320 of the 341,127 pledges nationwide calling for “clean and just energy” to be a top priority in the 2008 Election.

Along with Doyle’s international and national work, he has also worked on a local level. Coming to UMBC as a baseball pitcher, an injury his freshman year put him out of commission for the remainder of his years at UMBC. He then began devoting his time to volunteer work with the Shriver Center by assisting with an after-school program in Baltimore. Shortly after, he visited the Study Abroad Office and left for South Africa, returning with a more defined set of interests. 

Doyle also serves as the environmental affairs advisor for the Student Government Association and is an undergraduate representative on a number of campus task forces. In spring 2009, he will be heading abroad again, this time traveling to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for an internship with Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team. He recently took the LSAT and plans to attend law school upon his return to study environmental law.

The UN Climate Conference runs from Monday, December 1, to Friday, December 12. For more information on the U.S. Youth Network for Sustainable Development, visit www.sustainus.org.

Keep tabs on Doyle and other U.S. representatives at the UN Climate Conference at www.itsgettinghotinhere.org/, where Doyle and others will blog “their dispatches” from the Youth Climate Movement.

(11/21/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Quality Music, Close to Home

For 35 years, the UMBC Symphony has embraced musicians who are students, alumni and neighbors from the surrounding communities.

“Our student musicians benefit from the experience of working with a diverse group from the local community, with everyone coming together to produce quality music,” said Conductor E. Michael Richards, associate professor and chair of music.

Many of the symphony’s student musicians are attending UMBC as Linehan Artist Scholars and Humanities Scholars.

“I am especially excited to participate in this semester’s program because my family is originally from Finland, and we will be playing Sibelius’ ‘Finlandia,’” said Jonathan Lehtonen ’11, a Humanities Scholar and Honors College student who has played the bass trombone for the past 11 years.

Tim Meushaw ‘97, computer science, and a software engineer for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, has played in the symphony’s viola section for 17 years.

“My participation with the orchestra is part of a long-time connection I have to both UMBC and Catonsville, where I grew up,” Meushaw said. “The orchestra also provides a cultural experience for people in the community who appreciate the chance to hear classical music close to home, free of charge.”

Aarica Pittman, a Chevy Chase Bank vice president in her second season with the orchestra, plays the French horn.

“I am so grateful to be part of such a fine orchestra within the community,” said Pittman, a Howard County resident. “Music is our common thread. The arts are such an important part of every community, and the UMBC Symphony offers quality right at our back door.”

Although she will not perform in the upcoming concert, 89-year-old violist Frances Kleeman has played with the symphony since its second concert in 1974.

“I have spent Tuesday evenings rehearsing with the UMBC Symphony for nearly 35 years,” Kleeman said. “There has been no better way to spend those Tuesday nights. It has been a privilege to be with so many talented students and community members.”

Continuing its decades-long tradition of bringing together the campus and local community, the Symphony presents a performance of classical works Sunday, November 23, 8 p.m., highlighted by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major. The performance at the UMBC Fine Arts Recital Hall, free and open to the public, includes Bizet’s “Carmen,” Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite” and “Finlandia” by Sibelius.

Two other performances are on the UMBC Symphony schedule for 2009. The winners of the UMBC Concerto Competition will be featured Sunday, March 8. A concert Sunday, April 26, will include Mussorgsky’s“Pictures at an Exhibition.”

For more information on the Symphony and other UMBC ensembles, visit http://www.umbc.edu/music/site/ensembles.html/.

To view a calendar of arts events at UMBC, visit http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/calendar/.

(11/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

Duff Goldman ’97 is the founder and owner of Charm City Cakes. Linnyette Richardson-Hall ’84 is the creative director and principal consultant of Premiere Event Management. Bill LaCourse is chair of UMBC’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and co-founder and CEO of Aurora Analytics.

What do these three have in common? They are all entrepreneurs.

“There are many different types of entrepreneurship,” said Vivian Armor, director of the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. “There are a variety of things a person can do. Most people have no clue until they discover the entrepreneur in themselves.”

Finding their inner entrepreneurship skills proved successful for Goldman, Richardson-Hall and LaCourse. But they didn’t all start out thinking they’d someday operate their own businesses.

Goldman admitted he was a graffiti artist until a high school teacher encouraged him to use his art in a more productive way. After graduating from UMBC, he worked at a restaurant in Fell’s Point in Baltimore where he discovered baking as his true calling. He went on to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California, and then worked as an apprentice at several restaurants afterward. He returned to Baltimore in 2000 and founded Charm City Cakes, a custom cake bakery. Charm City Cakes has grown in popularity with not only a two-year waiting list for cakes but also a weekly program on the Food Network, “Ace of Cakes.”

Richardson-Hall found her inner entrepreneurship skills not through her profession in financial services but through something more personal – her wedding.

“I had a good job, but it wasn’t fulfilling,” she said.

What was fulfilling was planning her wedding in 1993. That and the “entrepreneurial spirit” she said she always had deep down. Following her interests and enthusiasm led Richardson-Hall down a path of achievement. She is now one of thirteen wedding planners featured on the Style Network’s weekly program, “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows as well as in print publications.

For Bill LaCourse, it’s about playing two different roles. 

“I like being an educator, and I like running a business. I get to live two lives,” he said.

Upon joining the chemistry and biochemistry faculty at UMBC, LaCourse pursued his research interests in pulsed electrochemical detection (PED) and its applications to bioanalytical problems in the areas of pharmacy, toxicology, forensics, and environmental and life sciences. Motivated by his desire to apply his research and work with industry, he co-founded Aurora Analytics in 2004, headquarted at bwtech@UMBC’s Incubator and Accelerator. Aurora develops and manufactures consumer and research diagnostic products. The company also assists other incubators as “helpful, good neighbors.”

“I love to tinker, discover and invent for something good. We all need a purpose for what we do. I think, for most entrepreneurs, there is a bit of altruism underneath the surface,” LaCourse said.

Goldman, LaCourse and several other entrepreneurs will be featured speakers for events at Global Entrepreneurship Week, an event hosted by the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. This week includes a variety of workshops and discussions held from Monday, November 17, to Friday, November 21. Events throughout the week promise to be insightful, engaging and filled with interested entrepreneurs. An Evening With Duff Goldman on Thursday, November 20, is already sold out.

“We’re hoping to touch different audiences and help people of all backgrounds to discover the entrepreneur in themselves,” said Armor.

This year marks the first Global Entrepreneurship Week. Last year, it was held on a national level.

For more information on Global Entrepreneurship Week, go to http://www.umbc.edu/entrepreneurship/pdf/EntrepreneurshipWeekFlier2008.pdf.

To read complete profiles of the entrepreneurs above and learn more about the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, go to http://www.umbc.edu/entrepreneurship/.

(11/10/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

UMBC Honors College Celebrates its 20th Anniversary

For two decades, the UMBC Honors College has motivated students both academically and personally – and continues to do so. It has awarded over 1,000 Certificates of Honors to graduates, provided students the chance to study and travel abroad and promoted numerous service learning opportunities and internships as formal components of its curriculum.

In its 20th year on campus, the Honors College has grown in member diversity and is in line with the diversity of the UMBC campus, something that is unusual compared to other national schools. The current membership is 68 percent Caucasian, 32 percent minority, while the campus is 63 and 37, respectively. This diverse community has reached its largest enrollment since it began funding in 1989.

“The Honors College has consistently provided students with exposure to ideas and concepts beyond their fields of expertise; the opportunity to develop exceptional writing, thinking and speaking skills; and the chance to be members of an ever more diverse and energetic academic community,” said Honors College Director Anna Shields.

That academic community, which boasts a 3.66 average GPA, has grown from 81 students in its first cohort to 433 students today. As the program has grown in numbers, it has become more selective, challenging and diverse.

“Good test scores and grades are not enough,” said Shields. “We seek well-rounded, intellectually curious students who show great interest in learning and leadership, no matter what their area of specialization may be.”

Honors College students are engaged in the honors curriculum throughout their time at UMBC through honors seminars, study abroad opportunities and service projects. Through seminars, students are able to participate in day trips to museums and historical landmarks. Students and faculty are also involved in co-curricular activities that include trips to the theatre, symphony and opera. Students also have the option of staying in the Honors College Living-Learning Community (LLC), which was recently recognized in a national study of LLCs and housed in Susquehanna Hall.

When it comes to staffing such a large and diverse group, faculty and staff play a vital role. Faculty fellows at the Honors College are selected through an application process. Once appointed, fellows teach one seminar per year for a two-year term.

“Seminars are an essential aspect of the honors curriculum, giving students and faculty a small-class setting in which to work together closely,” said Shields. “The seminars provide faculty with the chance to explore new topics and experiment with innovative teaching methods.”

The current Honors College staff includes Shields, Simon Stacey, associate director and affiliate assistant professor of political science; Maureen McCormick, program coordinator; Margaret Major, program management specialist; and Lisa Bolton, administrative assistant. The first cohort of faculty fellows (select faculty chosen to teach in the College) began teaching the Honors Seminars in fall 2008.

When looking to the future, Shields has many goals.

“We plan to increase the number of faculty fellows who teach seminars in the Honors College and to increase the variety of disciplines those courses cover,” she said. “We would like to increase our student research and study abroad awards in future years as well by growing our UMBC Foundation Fund and our Jay Freyman Scholarship Fund.”

Shields also hopes to expand the Honors College Living-Learning Community and attract more transfer students.

A special reception will be held Saturday, October 25, 3-5 p.m., in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery in honor of the program’s anniversary. To RSVP to this event, click here. 

For more information on the Honors College, go to www.umbc.edu/honors.

(10/24/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Alumni Musicians Reunite at UMBC

New Music. Experimental. Avant-garde. Contemporary.

Their music has been described in many ways, and in November Jeff Arnal ’97, John Dierker ’88, Will Redman ’98, Jonathan Vincent ’97 and former student Marc Miller, will combine their efforts as a cohesive group for the first time. The event, which promises to raise questions and welcome new discoveries, mirrors how the five musicians met – at UMBC, through music.

“This particular group has never performed together before as a quintet, but we have worked together in other capacities,” said Redman, percussionist and organizer of the event. “Even though we all work in the avant-garde or experimental realm, we have very different approaches to what we do.”

Brooklyn resident Arnal, a new father, is a percussionist who accompanies modern dance classes and teaches private lessons. Dierker, a first wave reedman, has been influencing the Baltimore music scene for more than 20 years with his improvisational, versatile style. Miller, former member of the Baltimore band Oxes, now plays with Dierker and Redman in Microkingdom, and is known for his use of a telecaster, Fender tube amp and volume pedal. Redman, also a new dad, not only plays in Microkingdom but is also a composer and teacher at Towson University and recently completed a massive graphic score, Book. Vincent, who runs a music teaching business in Washington, DC, has written an apocalyptic noise rock opera and two vaudeville musicals based on works by Jean Genet and Gore Vidal.

Linking the musicians’ connections to one another is as hard as explaining their music in one word. But one thing that brought them together was music at UMBC.

Vincent made connections with Arnal and Mike Cerri, former studio director and professor, and began experimenting. There other members of the November quintet became acquainted.

“Arnal somehow convinced Cerri to let us use an entire room in the music department. We collected recording equipment, old car parts and a broken electric piano in the room with two baby grand pianos tuned a quarter tone apart,” Vincent said.

“I slept in there, learned music I never thought I could play but eventually did, and we practiced there for many times a week with the mysterious saxophone player named John Dierker, whom we discovered playing late at night in a locked room on the third floor.”

When it comes to learning about the experimental sound perfected in that lone studio, one name was continuously mentioned.

“I think we’d all agree that studying with Professor Stuart Saunders Smith was a significant formative experience in all our musical lives,” Redman said. “I can only speak for myself when I say that Smith had an incredibly profound influence on the direction that my musical career took.”

“I played a cassette tape of my music for him, and he looked at me with an expression that suggested a mandate for an instant reappraisal of my whole world view. I literally felt alive again,” said Vincent.

Of his experience with Smith, Arnal said his world was “turned upside down” and everything “started to look and sound different.” He said Smith played a large role in his interest in improvisation and experimental music.

Smith had equal praise for this group of former students, stating it was their “strong personalities” that aided in their success.

“I encourage each student to let composition emerge from their unique self, unfeathered by commercial culture. And each of them did that,” Smith said. “Ninety-eight percent of making art is hard work, and all of these composers work hard. They always have. I’m very proud of them.”

Presented by the UMBC Department of Music’s TNT series, this performance will be Thursday, November 6, at 8 p.m., in the Fine Arts Recital Hall. To purchase tickets, order online through MissonTix or call 410-752-8959. Tickets will also be available at the door.

(10/29/08)

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