Four UMBC alums competed in Major League Lacrosse’s Championship Weekend, held at Harvard University Stadium in Boston, Mass.

Attackman Drew Westervelt ’09, economics, is a member of the 2012 champion Chesapeake Bayhawks, while Brendan Mundorf ’06, sociology, Peet Poillon ’10, INDS, and Terry Kimener ’09, American studies, competed for the runner-up Denver Outlaws. All four former Retrievers finished the 2012 season ranked in the top-20 in the MLL scoring race.

Westervelt played for the Denver squad in his first five years in the league. A Third Team All-American for UMBC in 2007, the Bel Air, Md. native tied for 20^th in the league with 33 points and has 209 points (134-69-209) in his six years in MLL.

Mundorf was named 2012 Bud Light MLL Season Most Valuable Player just prior to the championship weekend. He also was named to his second All-MLL Team (2009, 2012) as the attackman finished second in the league with 59 points (32-27-59). Denver’s all-time leading scorer has 206 goals, 100 assists and 306 total points in seven league seasons.

The Mount St. Joseph graduate earned America East Player of the Year honors and All-America citations in 2005 and 2006. He suffered an ankle injury in practice on Friday, did not play in the semifinal victory over Long Island and scored a goal in limited action on Sunday vs. Denver.

Westervelt and Mundorf both represented the victorious United States squad in the 2010 FIL World Championships.

Poillon scored three goals in the Outlaws’ come-from-behind victory over the Lizards, including the game-tying goal early in the fourth quarter. The sharp-shooting midfielder tied for ninth in scoring in 2012 with 40 points (24-13-40) and surpassed the 100-point plateau (75-32-113) in his fifth MLL season in 2012.

The Cranberry Township, Pa. native was a Second Team All-American for UMBC in 2009.

Kimener just completed his most successful of six MLL campaigns, sparking Denver with 17 goals and 18 assists for 36 total points from his midfield position. The Oakton, Va. native earned three All-America citations at UMBC in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

To learn more about the MLL Championship, click here.

This story was first published on the UMBC Athletics site.

Four UMBC alums competed in Major League Lacrosse’s Championship Weekend, held at Harvard University Stadium in Boston, Mass on August 25 and 26, 2012.

Attackman Drew Westervelt is a member of the 2012 champion Chesapeake Bayhawks, while Brendan Mundorf, Peet Poillon and Terry Kimener competed for the runner-up Denver Outlaws. All four former Retrievers finished the 2012 season ranked in the top-20 in the MLL scoring race.

Westervelt played for the Denver squad in his first five years in the league. A Third Team All-American for UMBC in 2007, the Bel Air, Md. native tied for 20th in the league with 33 points and has 209 points (134-69-209) in his six years in MLL.

Mundorf was named 2012 Bud Light MLL Season Most Valuable Player just prior to the championship weekend. He also was named to his second All-MLL Team (2009, 2012) as the attackman finished second in the league with 59 points (32-27-59). Denver’s all-time leading scorer has 206 goals, 100 assists and 306 total points in seven league seasons.

The Mount St. Joseph graduate earned America East Player of the Year honors and All-America citations in 2005 and 2006. He suffered an ankle injury in practice on Friday, did not play in the semifinal victory over Long Island and scored a goal in limited action on Sunday vs. Denver.

Westervelt and Mundorf both represented the victorious United States squad in the 2010 FIL World Championships.

Poillon scored three goals in the Outlaws’ come-from-behind victory over the Lizards, including the game-tying goal early in the fourth quarter. The sharp-shooting midfielder tied for ninth in scoring in 2012 with 40 points (24-13-40) and surpassed the 100-point plateau (75-32-113) in his fifth MLL season in 2012.

The Cranberry Township, Pa. native was a Second Team All-American for UMBC in 2009.

Kimener just completed his most successful of six MLL campaigns, sparking Denver with 17 goals and 18 assists for 36 total points from his midfield position. The Oakton, Va. native earned three All-America citations at UMBC in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Thank you to the alumni volunteers who helped welcome a new class of Retrievers (and move their stuff!) at UMBC’s Move-In Day, August 25. Pictured below (L-R): Corris Davis ’98 of the Meyerhoff Alumni Chapter; Melissa Evans ’07, president of the Chapter of Young Alumni; Bennett Moe ’88, president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors; Donnie Downey ’85 of the Alumni Association Board of Directors; and Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88 of the Chapter of Black and Latino Alumni.

See more photos from Move-In Day on UMBC’s Alumni Flickr site.

All-World

A UMBC lacrosse alumnus has been named to the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) All-World team. Brendan Mundorf ’06, sociology, scored two goals against Canada in the FIL championship game, and scored a total of 17 goals in the six-game tournament. Team USA earned the World Lacrosse title.

Mundorf had the fourth most productive freshman season in the history of UMBC’s Division I lacrosse history. He also received All City-County honors from the Baltimore Sun during his senior season.

Drew Westervelt ’09, interdisciplinary studies, who is also a former member of the UMBC lacrosse team, scored 12 goals in six games with Team USA. Westervelt is a Baltimore Sun All Metro selection, and was co-player of the year in Harford County in 2003.

�It’s absolutely fantastic,� said Don Zimmerman, head coach of the men’s lacrosse program. �It is one thing to have one player to represent UMBC on a national team, but have two is extraordinary. I couldn’t ask for two better alums to represent us. When they were here they were leaders. They had great attitudes and worked hard.�

Mundorf and Westervelt, who currently play for the Denver Outlaws, will compete for a Major Lacrosse League title this month.

(8/20/10)

Missouri representative Todd Akin’s claims regarding “legitimate rape” served as the inspiration for political science professor Tom Schaller’s latest column inThe Baltimore Sun.

In “Todd Akin rape claim is just the tip of the GOP wacko iceberg,” published August 21st, Schaller noted that regardless of how offensive and strange the views of the embattled Missouri senatorial candidate are, they are not so atypical when compared with other views held by far right politicians regarding sex, contraception, abortion, feminism, economic policy, climate change and race.

Schaller concluded the column by making note of Akin’s support for repealing the 17th Amendement, which allows for the direct election of candidates to the United States Senate by popular vote:

“If we followed their reckless advice, imagine what cohort of crazy House Republicans might be appointed by their state legislatures to the Senate — the chamber our founders designed to serve as the saucer to cool the hot passions of the House. Or don’t. Just thinking about it may drive you crazy.”

Innovation Generation

UMBC embraces the potential of all students to become innovative problem solvers, resource creators and boundary busters in their fields. Matching students with opportunities to learn through practice is one key way the Shriver Center helps them realize that potential.

This summer, nearly 700 UMBC students enrolled in the Shriver Center’s internship, co-op and research practica at sites across the United States. These experiences go beyond on-the-job skills training. They enable our students to articulate their passions, envision their futures, and break ground on unique professional paths—all while making a visible impact, whether they are at the White House or a Baltimore hospital.

Research Program Coordinator Carly Hunt of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center writes, “Over the past several years, UMBC interns have contributed immensely to our research on psychological and psychosocial recovery following severe burn injury.”

In a 2012 Shriver Center survey, approximately 90% of respondents said that their placement increased the clarity of their career goals, their self-confidence and their ability to make decisions—essential qualities for effective agents of change in any field. Further, 77% wrote that their leadership skills improved as a direct result of their internship, co-op, or research experience.

UMBC students have applied this leadership in an incredibly diverse range of ways. They have worked with non-profits to lead community service initiatives and spread their organizations’ reach through media campaigns. They have made companies more efficient and effective at serving clients and have offered fresh insight on scientific research. They have broken down preconceptions and cultivated new partnerships.

Timothy Potteiger ’14, computer engineering, writes that his White House internship program “really adopted an entrepreneurial mindset encouraging everyone on the team to be proactive.” He was thrilled to hit the ground running and meet the office’s high expectations.

This is gratifying news for Christine Routzahn, Director of Professional Practice at the Shriver Center. Routzahn says, “Our goal is that all UMBC students engage in applied learning and graduate with the knowledge and experience they need to find empowerment and success in their careers.”

Here we feature student interns from across UMBC who are making tangible impacts on their fields and the world.

• (8/22/12)

At the Annual Meeting of the National Association of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Educators (NAEMSE), held on August 8, 2012, at the Walt Disney World Coronado Springs Resort in Orland, Florida, Bruce J. Walz, PhD, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Walz is professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Health Services.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is a special award selected and approved by the NAEMSE Board of Directors to recognize a member who has made a significant long-term contribution to NAEMSE and the larger EMS community.

Dr. Walz is a charter member of NAEMSE and a past president. He has served on various committees and with numerous association projects. Most notably, he represented NAEMSE and EMS educators in general as legislative liaison and as president and a board member of Advocates for EMS. He was involved with the development of the National EMS Education Standards and currently serves on the NAEMSE Governance Committee. He is a contributing author to the association’s principle publication, Foundations of Education: An EMS Approach. He is frequently called upon to represent NAEMSE at federal and national association meetings in the Washington, DC area.

On August 15, The Baltimore Sun‘s free weekly B published a “Baltimore College Guide”, in which students from area universities provided insights into their schools. UMBC student Kate Godwin ’13, media and communications studies, discussed a number of on-campus and off-campus highlights and offered some advice to incoming students to help them navigate the school year successfully.

Godwin recommended Atwater’s for off-campus wi-fi and quality chai tea; Patapsco Valley State Park for a chance to get outside for a weekend or day trip for some hiking and any other physical activity; the annual QuadMania event for students; and the upper floors of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery for some quiet study time, along with “the best hot chocolate on campus” from the ground-floor cafe.

Godwin recommended that incoling students “[d]evelop a good dialogue with your adviser” and to use on-campus resources like the Shriver Center to obtain rewarding internships. The senior also said that classes she would recommend included those in communications, gender and womens studies and American studies, which she felt had a large degree of personal relevance to her own life.

The full guide can be found here.

Public Policy PhD student Cheryl Camillo (Health Policy) was quoted in an Associated Press story about who qualifies for Medicaid.

What’s largely unknown to many Americans is who is left out of the safety net, said Cheryl Camillo, a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. “A huge chunk of the populace is not covered, even by Medicaid,” she said.

Cheryl is a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research.

Welcome to our new home. Page, that is.

If you�re new to UMBC, we hope our new homepage will show you what our university is all about. If, on the other hand, www.umbc.edu is one of your old favorites � the new homepage preserves the features our research showed you loved, like easy access to myUMBC and the directory.

The new homepage also adds enhanced features to better help you find campus resources, stay informed about news and events and, generally, make the most of your time at UMBC.

You can take a brief, guided tour of the new homepage below. Here are a few of the principles you�ll see at work:

1. Homepages are no longer gatekeepers, but storytellers. People increasingly navigate the web by search. So, while it�s still important that information be clearly laid out, something that�s more than a click or two away isn�t necessarily hidden. And a homepage, rather than just serving as a map to information, should tell the story of a place. We hope ours does.

2. You matter. The new homepage provides content tailored for certain audiences, recognizing that not everybody is looking for the same thing. Personalized is the way of the web. So, we�ve introduced content tabs that let you see what�s most relevant to you, whether you�re a prospective student, current student, parent or family member, faculty or staff member, alum or supporter, business or employer.

3. We needed a friendlier site. Mobile-friendly that is. The new homepage is designed to play nice with just about any device � from a desktop or laptop to a tablet or smart phone. This recognizes what we have heard repeatedly from experts on and off campus: mobile is the new normal.

We hope you�ll love the new homepage, but you might still be wondering, �Why now?�

First, you should know that the new homepage is one step in a broad, multi-year process to overhaul UMBC�s web presence, thinking critically and strategically about how and what we do. Faculty, staff, students and alumni have been involved in a number of discussions about how to improve our web experience, and those conversations will continue.

However, members of the UMBC community and, especially, campus experts advised us of a number of improvements important to make now. Our marketing and recruitment efforts demand a cutting edge homepage, and the innovation and expertise of our faculty in the computer science, information technology and visual design fields further raise the bar. In the constantly evolving environment of the web, we simply can�t stand still.

Of course, this is a work in progress. So, if there�s something different you�d like to see, let us know at homepage@umbc.edu. Likewise, if you love something, let us know too. We hope that the guided tour below will answer most of the questions you have about how to navigate the new homepage, but we�ll keep an eye out for frequently asked questions and provide updates as needed. And we will be paying attention to your broader feedback, although we may not be able to respond personally to every note.

Again, this is just the first step in what will be a multi-year process, and your feedback is not only valued, but crucial.

View As One PageView As Slideshow

There are three primary ways to navigate from the new homepage into the rest of the UMBC website (see red arrows):
The search function and directory bar
The top level navigation, with dropdown menus
The new audience-specific sections, with content for prospective students, current students, parents & family, faculty & staff, alumni & supporters, and businesses & employers

Looking for myUMBC? You�ll find it in a number of places (see red circles):
Above the search function, in the directory bar
In the Current Student and Faculty & Staff audience sections, under �Top Tools�

Looking for news & events? You�ll find them just below the new �audience section.�

Events can also be found above the search bar, in the directory bar (see red circle).

(8/20/12)