Elections can tell us the number of people who voted for a candidate or ballot initiative, but not how those voters made up their minds. To understand voting behavior, experts turn to exit polling, a careful and methodical process of surveying voters as they leave polling places. For the 2024 election, many Baltimore County voters were greeted outside their polling place by UMBC students conducting the UMBC Battleground Exit Poll, a hands-on educational experience created by Ian Anson, an associate professor in political science. 

For students, this was an opportunity to participate in the high-stakes world of Maryland politics. For their professor, it was an opportunity to see his students successfully draw on classroom skills as they engaged with the community.

“Students really found their voices,” says Anson. “Students who I felt were pretty reserved and quiet in class were reaching out to voters in very bold ways and finding that perfect pitch to get them to take the poll. “ 

Going beyond the classroom context

Anson, who also serves as associate director of the new UMBC Institute of Politics (IoP), collaborated with students to design and implement the Battleground Exit Poll. He worked with over 50 undergraduate students enrolled in his upper-level American voting behavior class to develop bias-free questions for the survey. The Battleground Exit Poll is the second exit poll Anson has developed with undergraduate students. During the 2018 midterm primaries, Anson’s voting and polling class students designed the UMBC Retriever Exit Poll.

“My guiding philosophy is to create applied-learning projects that have legs—that go beyond the classroom context,” said Anson. “I want students to experience how political science theories and applications impact communities.”

Understanding the data

The poll gauged the attitudes of 1,119 Baltimore County voters who cast their ballots in person during early voting and on Election Day. Voters answered questions about various topics, including the presidential, U.S. Senate, and congressional elections; adding “The Right to Reproductive Freedom” amendment to the Maryland Constitution; and the economy. 

Among the findings, the data showed that the top five issues Baltimore County voters said they considered when making their voting decisions were abortion, inflation, the trustworthiness of politicians, civil rights, and immigration. 

There were some surprising results hidden beneath the surface of these toplines—Anson’s students discovered in their conversations with voters a shared sense of values—regardless of party preference or votes cast (60 percent of Baltimore County voters voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and 36 percent for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance).

“Everybody I talked to—both for Harris and for Trump—were saying similar things for what they wanted for the country,” says Ayaan Rizvi, a first-year student in UMBC’s Sondheim Public Affaris Scholars program, who plans to major in political science. “It’s really interesting to see the mental calculus that goes on in people’s brains when they make a choice of how they will vote.”

Rizvi says most voters said they wanted themselves and others to live comfortably and to be able to live peacefully in their communities.

A highlight for Anson is watching his polling students gain a perspective into elections that goes deeper than what they can get in the classroom or from watching the news.

“We often see ourselves as this very divided country,” says Anson. “But when you go to the polling place and stand there for four hours, you get a much different glimpse. I think students really left the experience feeling the warmth of that.”

The UMBC Battleground Exit Poll was covered widely by state and local news outlets, including CBS, ABC DC News Now, Fox 45 News, and WBAL-TV.

Learn more about UMBC’s Department of Political Science.

UMBC is approaching 30 years of collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a partnership that largely culminates under the university’s three major cooperative agreements with the agency. According to the NSF’s latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey, UMBC is among the nation’s top 10 universities receiving federal funding from NASA. In 2024, UMBC scientists, researchers, interns, and engineers have reached new levels of achievement in connection to this partnership—some even going as far as to the surface of the Moon…in a few years. 

Take a look back at five ways UMBC collaborated with NASA in 2024:

UMBC goes to the Moon

Planetary scientist Mehdi Benna of UMBC’s Center for Space Sciences Technology is leading the team designing one of the lunar instruments chosen for implementation and deployment in NASA’s forthcoming Artemis III mission, humanity’s first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years. The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) was selected as one of the first three candidate payloads to be a part of Artemis III, NASA’s mission that will send astronauts to explore the region near the lunar South Pole. Artemis III, currently planned to launch in 2026, will be the first time humans will return to the Moon’s surface since the historic Apollo program in 1969 – 1972. 

HARP2 launches into space

The UMBC-designed Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP2) wide-angle imaging polarimeter instrument is part of NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) spacecraft mission, which launched into space in February. The PACE satellite provides insight into ocean health, air quality, and the effects of a changing climate. PACE’s mission data, which includes data captured by the HARP2 instrument, is now available for public access. The HARP2 team, which includes a host of students and alumni, is led by Vanderlei Martins, professor of physics, who is also the director of the NASA-affiliated Earth and Space Institute, based out of UMBC’s Physics Building.

AXIS X-ray telescope selected for final round  

Nearly a year ago, a group of engineers and scientists including UMBC physicists became one of 10 teams to successfully submit a proposal to NASA to develop the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS). In October 2024, the AXIS team was selected as one of the final two instrument designs selected for further development. The team will receive $5 million to flesh out their plans as part of what NASA calls a “Phase A study.” Adi Foord, assistant professor of physics, and Eileen Meyer, associate professor of physics, serve on the AXIS leadership team, and during the proposal development phase, Foord co-led the sub-team focused on supermassive black hole evolution.

NASA comes to campus

The university collaborated with the Goddard Space Flight Center to host the “NASA-UMBC Interaction Days,” an interactive, three-day series that took a closer look into the agency’s current research activity across a range of fields, with insight into how UMBC faculty, staff, and students can continue to work with Goddard scientists and engineers. The event series attracted more than 250 registrants. 

UMBC-NASA earth science center awarded $47 million extension

The UMBC-led Goddard Earth Science Technology and Research (GESTAR) II center was awarded a two-year, $47 million extension this year to continue its cooperative agreement with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Since launching in 2021, GESTAR II has employed more than 150 scientists who are distributed across nearly all of GSFC’s earth science division laboratories.  Over the years, GESTAR II researchers have been a part of teams that have developed an instrument that monitors water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, studied the environmental impacts of megafire smoke plumes, generated the first global map of cargo ship pollution, and much more. 

More on UMBC’s partnership with NASA

Mohamed Younis, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, has been honored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Communications Society for his significant and lasting contributions to the advancement of modern communication technologies. The award was announced December 9 at the society’s Global Communications Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. In particular, Younis was honored by the IEEE technical committee on internet of things, ad hoc, and sensor networks for his impactful contributions to these frontier areas of communications. 

The proliferation of mobile phones, smart devices, and sensors such as cameras has transformed the communications landscape in recent decades. Oftentimes, diverse devices, such as autonomous vehicles and wearable sensors, talk to other devices without relying on pre-existing communications infrastructure such as routers, a set-up called an ad hoc network.

Younis’ work has advanced the expanding scope of communications technology, while also working to keep these methods reliable and secure. He has developed algorithms for networks of moveable sensor nodes, for example drones on a search-and-rescue mission, to recover from the failure of individual nodes; has created new ways to send signals directly from air to underwater; and has studied ways to protect the privacy of data sent from medical devices and sensors, among many other contributions.

“This award was a surprise to me—it made me happy,” says Younis, who traveled to South Africa to receive it. “It’s a recognition from the community that means a lot.”

Recent data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) highlights the exceptional career readiness of UMBC graduates. “UMBC continues to surpass national career outcome rates across all degree levels,” said Christine Routzahn, director of the Career Center.

Bachelor’s degree outcomes

Nationwide, nearly 85 percent of Class of 2023 bachelor’s degree graduates were employed or pursuing further education within six months of graduation, according to NACE’s First Destinations report. UMBC stands out with an impressive career outcome rate of 93 percent.

Nationally, 57.2 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients were employed full-time within six months, compared to UMBC’s 65 percent. While 20.2 percent of graduates nationwide pursued further education, UMBC’s rate was higher at 24 percent.

Graduate degree outcomes

UMBC’s graduate degree holders also excelled beyond national averages. For master’s degree graduates, the national career outcome rate—defined as being employed or pursuing further education within six months—was 89.4 percent according to NACE’s report. UMBC outpaces this with a career outcome rate of 90.8 percent for master’s recipients.

Doctoral graduates nationwide had a 92.5 percent outcome rate, but UMBC achieved an exceptional 100 percent.

These results reflect our strong academic programs and the collective efforts of the UMBC community in fostering student achievement. “Our collective work empowers UMBC students to achieve meaningful career paths and long-term success,” Routzahn emphasized.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Meet Chris Serafin, electric trades supervisor in UMBC’s Facilities Management (FM). Serafin has been at UMBC for 9 years and was recently awarded a USM Board of Regents’ Staff Award for his exceptional work, including a high voltage electrical switch replacement in the Engineering Building that ended up saving the university a half a million dollars in contractor’s fees.

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I enjoy my job as electric supervisor and have a great group of high voltage electricians that work hard every day to ensure the stability of the UMBC power system. I received my management studies degree in 2020 from the University of Maryland Global Campus, taking full advantage of the tuition remission program provided by the State of Maryland. I enjoy building furniture and playing guitar in my free time.

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired you or supported you, and how they did it.

A: John Zahor [AVP for FM]  has been extremely supportive in my career at UMBC. He has been a hands off boss and has allowed me to make critical changes to how the UMBC electric shop is run, which has greatly improved the efficiency of daily operations.

Q: What part of your job do you enjoy the most and why?

A: Leadership has allowed me to be proactive, creative, and think outside the box when exploring the fascinating world of electrical theory.

Q: Tell us about the people who have helped you at UMBC.

A: Lenn Caron [acting vice president, Administration and Finance], John Zahor, and Valerie RiChard in Facilities Management have allowed me to run the UMBC electric shop the way I think in needs to be run to provide the electrical requirements of administrators, faculty, staff, and students at UMBC.

Collin Sullivan ’19, information systems and economics, M.P.P. ’21, is the program director for digital credential innovation in the Division of Professional Studies. While he started as a student worker in 2015 for the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), working with faculty to leverage the use of clickers in the classroom, he now leads university efforts to offer in-demand microcredentials, such as the Greater Washington Partnership Digital Tech credential. Two things have been constant in Collin’s career: his interest in technology and his love of the UMBC community. 

Q: What led you to your current role? 

A: In many ways, my professional time at UMBC found me. I began as an undergraduate student worker in Instructional Technology with DoIT. I started by supporting classroom clickers in classes all across campus. I’ve always been interested in educational technology, so I was incredibly fortunate and lucky to have had that opportunity during my undergrad. 

When I was about to graduate, like many rising seniors, I was really unsure of where I was going to go. I was feeling uneasy about looking for jobs because I knew the values of UMBC and the community that exists here, and I had a hard time thinking about other places to work that would have the same feeling. My passion for educational technology never waned, and in the end I found an opportunity at UMBC.

Q: How many hats do you wear at UMBC?

A: I have had many roles here at UMBC: undergraduate student, graduate student, alumnus, staff, and adjunct faculty member. I’ve studied information systems, economics, and public policy. I began my career in the Division of Information Technology, and now I am in Extended Studies with the Division of Professional Studies. It is without question that I am who I am, and where I am, because of UMBC. 

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired you.

A: There are way too many people to name! The first person who comes to mind is Craig Berger, my Student Government Association advisor when I was an undergrad. There is no other way to put it other than Craig is the best. During my first few days at UMBC, I made my way to the Campus Life office, and Craig always made me feel welcomed and, later, truly empowered me to feel like I could make a difference on campus and beyond the loop. He taught me that even during times that feel particularly challenging, the world is still malleable. A different perspective and level-headed, strategic approach often is a meaningful path forward.

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who hasn’t joined the UMBC community to know about the support you find here?

A: In many ways, UMBC is a small town. It feels like a close-knit community where it’s easy to make meaningful connections with people from diverse backgrounds who genuinely care about each other. While we strive for excellence, there’s no sense of competition—everyone supports one another in achieving personal and collective success, whether in academics, work, or relationships.

Q: Tell us about an organization you’re involved in as part of your work.

A: I’ve had the privilege of being involved with 1EdTech, a national education technology organization, where I serve as co-chair of the Digital Credential Innovation Leadership Network. Our goal is to ensure that everyone who earns digital credentials can confidently showcase their verified competencies and achievements, using them in ways that best support whatever is next in life.

Q: What’s your favorite place on campus to relax or meet friends? 

A: My favorite spot has changed over the years—from the tables by the Library pond to the area outside the RAC and the Forum sculpture at the PAHB. But honestly, my go-to answer has to be the coveted comfy chairs at Starbucks! I’ve had so many amazing conversations with friends, mentors, and colleagues there. Plus, you never know who you’ll bump into. There’s just something about the possibilities of chatting over a cup of coffee.

Q: What part of your job do you enjoy the most and why?

A: Working with faculty and staff to create new pathways for learners to reach their goals. It’s easy to get caught up in our own worlds and forget to pause and reflect on the progress we’re all making. I love that I get to collaborate with others to create space for those reflections, where we can really think about what we want learners to achieve. The best part? Seeing the end result—acknowledging all the hard work, both seen and unseen, that helps learners improve their lives and take the next step in their journey.

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Anyone trying to soothe a fussy toddler has their work cut out for them under normal circumstances. Add 379 feet of earth above your head and about 30 other tourists to the equation and you’ve got a potential disaster on your hands. But for Jeff Garcia, an interpretive park ranger at Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota, it’s just another day on the job. At any point into his hour and thirty minute below ground scenic tour of one of the world’s longest caves, Garcia might need to interrupt his historical and geological discourse (and steady stream of jokes) to address questions, the restroom needs of his party, or someone faced with a sudden bout of claustrophobia. The wonders of the cave make all the accompanying human foibles an afterthought for Garcia, who prior to his two summers at Jewel Cave had never been below the surface before.

Tools of the Trade:
Flashlight
Minimal fears when it comes to the dark or enclosed spaces
A love of history and geology
Convenience baggies (you don’t want to know)
Backup flashlight

Step 1: Know your audience

Garcia didn’t anticipate spending multiple summers guiding people underground in the most complete darkness he’d ever seen, but he took to it quickly. Born and raised in Montgomery County, Maryland, Garcia anticipated he’d do an internship for his historical studies master’s program at UMBC somewhere close by—the nation’s capital, for example. But when he applied to the Latino Heritage Internship Program and they asked if he’d be open to going to South Dakota, he took the plunge. “I just wanted the opportunity to work with the public and teach history,” says Garcia, who knows from experience that learning history in the classroom is not nearly as effective as learning it on-site. “When people go to museums, when they go to archives, when they go to parks, they really absorb the knowledge,” he says.

All sorts of people come to ooh and aah over the nailhead spar and dogtooth spar calcite crystals, the so-called jewels of Jewel Cave. At the beginning of his tour, Garcia assesses his group of tourists by warming them up with a history lesson and throwing in some jokes to see how they respond—that gives him a bellwether to know how the next 90 minutes will go. “You have to be mindful of the audience,” says Garcia. “I realized early on that seniors really like the dad jokes. So you kind of lean into those a bit more. When you have a lot of kids, they’re really just going to absorb it. So I’d get out the black light or a UV light onto some of the formations and it looks really cool—purple or greenish. So the kids are just going, ‘Whoa.’” 

Step 2: Leave no trace

As Garcia often reminds his tour groups: In the caves, there are no cell service, food, or bathrooms, so take care of what you need before heading underground. But the persistent drip-drop sound of water—indeed the very substance that influences the formations of stalactites, stalagmites, boxwork, cave popcorn, flowstone, draperies, and a long ribbon drapery called the cave bacon—occasionally reminds visitors to heed the call of nature themselves. What then?

Garcia removes from his ever-present Ranger-issued fanny pack an innocuously named “convenience baggie.” Visitors then thank their unseeable lucky stars for the blackout conditions to ease their human needs. It then becomes their responsibility to tote their convenient baggie along until the lone trash can appears in the middle of the tour. 

Step: 3 Avoid the low points

Originally when Frank and Albert Michaud filed a mining claim for “Jewel Tunnel” in 1900, they were hoping their cave was filled with minable treasure—gold or diamonds. Instead, they found calcite crystals, which Garcia quips to his groups, “Are about as strong as your fingernails and worth the same amount.” Not quite sure how to monetize their claim, the Michaud brothers invited the U.S. Forest Service to the caves, and due to the “objects of scientific interest,” in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt declared Jewel Cave a National Monument.

At the Dugout, the lowest geographical point of the tour, Garcia reminds the visitors that, “There should be no low points emotionally.” Likewise at the Torture Room stop, the congenial guide walks the group through the naming process, which had nothing to do with torture. “It’s more of a funny story,” says Garcia, who explains that Jan and Herb Conn—the couple who mapped out more than 65 miles of the cave including the entire route of the Scenic Tour—were following the echoey sound of dripping water looking for a drink, but when they discovered the source, it was too high for them to reach.

Step 4: See yourself in history

“It wasn’t part of my family’s lifestyle to go to national parks,” says Garcia. “It wasn’t until Professor Melissa Blair’s History of Baltimore class when I went to Hampton National Historic Site in north Baltimore County that I can remember visiting something like that.” 

In 2023, Garcia went to Jewel Cave through the Latino Heritage Internship Program, which not only introduces young folks to professional roles in the National Park Service, says Garcia, “but also allows visitors to see someone who is of your background and be like, ‘Hey, I can picture myself being in that position!’ Representation matters, and so I thought, ‘I could be that person for someone in the future.’” 

In 2024, he was invited back to South Dakota as summer park ranger, complete with the hat and uniform. Garcia plans to graduate in May 2025, but this January he starts his new position with the National Parks Service a little closer to home—the National Mall in Washington, D.C. “I’ll still get to work with the public and hopefully have them leave me more informed than they were before or have them think a bit differently. That’s all that matters,” says Garcia.

Listening has defined the early years of President Valerie Sheares Ashby’s tenure at UMBC, starting with her series of Bold Conversations to hear the many diverse Retriever voices. She continues to offer office hours for students, setting an example for other campus leaders to create similar opportunities in their own spaces. Meghna Chandrasekaran, Student Government Association (SGA) president, has extended the practice in her role as a programming intern at The Mosaic via “Chai Chats,” an opportunity for South Asian Retrievers to connect over their shared heritage. The biological sciences and political science senior and Sheares Ashby talk about the discomfort that leadership can bring along with the ultimate flourishing that results in finding what you were meant to do.

Meghna Chandrasekaran: As a young SGA officer, I always thought that I would have to talk a lot to make my presence known. But over time, I realized I needed to take a step back and listen. And it wasn’t listening just to listen—but listening to understand, especially lived experiences. After STRiVE [an intensive and engaging leadership for public purpose program at UMBC] and my work with the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, I’m able to assess spaces in a way that I know when I can keep engaging and when I should just take a step back and sit with possible discomfort. I’ve learned a lot about listening with intentionality.

President Sheares Ashby: I am more and more comfortable with discomfort because I have developed a practice for myself. I have decided with intent that whenever I feel anxious, I will just sit up and lean slightly forward, because I do not want to pull back from the conversation. And that is my way of saying, “Just lean in. Everybody is okay.”

Chandrasekaran: I’ve been in this SGA space since middle school. I was always told certain steps and guidelines to follow in order to be a leader. And when I came to UMBC, I thought, again: I’ll follow the guidelines. But then I went to STRiVE, and that shook up my entire worldview, to be totally honest. I learned I needed to be myself, my unapologetic self. Previously in SGA spaces, I would never bring up cultural heritage because I saw that as unprofessional. 

At the same time, I was a Leadership Peer Facilitator, and I started to understand my own personal values. Now it’s become second nature to show up in spaces as myself. That’s where the Chai Chats started—I really wanted to do something to keep me in touch with my cultural heritage, which is extremely important to me as a Tamil American student.

There have been some times when my friends have complained that I’m being “SGA president” with them and not “Meghna,” but that’s not the case anymore. It is now a part of who I am, and I just show up this way everywhere I go.

Sheares Ashby: Leaders continue to grow every day. You have a conversation like, “Ooh, I did not realize I was thinking about it that way,” or “I did not realize I had that bias,” or “I did not realize that I was not communicating clearly.” You learn something about yourself every single day, and you are growing. You show up as yourself every day and try to be the best version you could be. That is actually all anyone is asking you to do. 

It is a beautifully calming thing [to know you] do not have to have all the answers. I do not have to know anything magical. I do not have to be right—and I am probably not going to be right. All I have to do is be me. 

What is next for you, Meghna?

Chandrasekaran: I’m applying for a master’s in public policy, with a concentration in higher ed, in part because I’ve experienced something that feels unique to UMBC, especially with regards to shared governance. I talk to my peers at different institutions, and when I tell them what our SGA does, they’re like, “Whoa, what? You have a seat at the table? You’re managing a $1.1 million budget?” And I’m like, “That’s just the norm here.” I can see how the structures of our institution are set in place to allow for student involvement, and I think the end goal is agency among the entire campus. 

Sheares Ashby: You do not know how much all of that gives me joy. It is so fun to watch you. This is why I have the best job in the world. I get to watch you all become who you were intended to be. In spite of how hard it is to be a leader, I watch you do it with joy. Everyone here is trying to figure out who they actually are and how that aligns with the life that they want. You did it. 

On a sunny October afternoon, a faint melody emerges from a stand of trees just beyond the Fine Arts Building and within hearing distance of the Performing Arts and Humanities Building. We leave the paved pathway and follow our ears up the hill to find first-year music education student Luke Heichlinger leaning into the keys of a lone piano, playing what turns out to be “Ein Heldenleben” (“A Hero’s Life”) by Richard Strauss.

“I always look for a practice room with a window, but sometimes I can’t get one,” he says, explaining that he and his friend, Hannah, originally joked that the piano in the woods might be a hallucination. Thankfully, it wasn’t—so they came back the next day prepared with sheet music. 

Installed just days before, “Piano Garden” is the latest “performance” of New Zealand-born composer Annea Lockwood’s ever-growing outdoor series of “Piano Transplants” compositions in which, since 1969, defunct pianos are burned, submerged in water, or—as is the case at UMBC— left to be taken over by trees and plant life. In the days and weeks following the installation at UMBC, the unofficial path to the piano became well-worn as students like Heichlinger brought their best tunes, additional instruments, and voices, and performed—very often—just for themselves. 

Lockwood, later, visited campus as part of the annual Livewire music festival and listened while Linehan Artist Scholar and piano performance major Ida Dierker improvised in the woods for all to enjoy.

“UMBC has all these beautiful outdoor spaces,” says Linda Dusman, Livewire director, professor, and longtime Lockwood fan. “Stumbling upon a piano in the woods…kind of wakes you up to the experience of your environment. And also helps you remember what a piano does: that music can wake you up to the moment, even if you’re not   directly hearing it.”

On the day we found Heichlinger, we learn he purposefully chose a romantic era composition that might fit in well with his surroundings. The dappled shadows flitted across the keyboard as he played.

“This is a really nice setting,” he said. “Nature and music go together so well, and this is the perfect example of that.”