Each year, the Alumni Association Scholarship program helps amazing students succeed at UMBC. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some of their stories with you. This week, meet Melanie Dell ’12, the recipient of this year’s Alumni Association Legacy Scholarship.

Name: Melanie Dell
Major: English
Grad Year: May 2012
Hometown: Catonsville, Maryland

What are you involved in on campus? I have been an editor of the UMBC Review: Journal of Undergraduate Research for the past two years.

Please share one of your favorite memories of your time at UMBC. There are two memories of my experience at UMBC that particularly stand out. The first one was reading the New Student Book Experience autobiography The Glass Castle for my English 100 class during my freshman year and attending a book talk at UMBC given by the author, Jeannette Walls. Reading and discussing the book in class, then hearing the author speak in person about her book was just one of the many interesting and unique learning experiences I had during my time at UMBC. My other fond memory was of a Shakespeare course (English 351) I took during my sophomore year. During the last class period of the semester, all of the students had to take part in performing an act from the play King Lear outside of the Fine Arts recital hall. We had to decide who played which parts, what act we were going to perform, and what costumes we were going to wear. Engaging this closely with the play allowed me to form a new appreciation for the Shakespeare plays that we had discussed and analyzed all semester.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned here? I’ve learned the value of diverse opinions and the importance of actively pursuing subjects that interest me. UMBC has cultivated my desires to increase my knowledge.

What are your plans for after graduation (if you know them)? Or, at least, what are you hoping to do? I will pursue a Master of Library Science degree at Clarion University in fall 2012. This is an entirely online program, which will allow me to concurrently work full-time at a public library.

What’s it like having a parent who is also an alum of UMBC? Did that factor into your decision to come here? When I was younger, my father would always tell me how invaluable his education was at UMBC. Although I applied to other universities, UMBC was my top choice because of the positive comments I heard from my dad about how this university provides the best resources, professors, and environment for its students.

How has the scholarship helped you? (And, do you have others?) I have funded my own education since I started at UMBC. I was awarded the President’s Fellows merit scholarship, but since that only covered a portion of UMBC’s tuition, I still had to make up the difference each semester. I would often work many hours during the week at a nearby public library to make sure that I did not have to take out loans or graduate with debts. Because of the Alumni Association Legacy scholarship, I was able to spend less time working in my senior year and more time focusing on school.

What would you say to the alumni who helped fund your scholarship? I want to express my sincerest gratitude and thanks to the alumni who helped fund my scholarship.It was an honor to receive this award.

Meet more members of the Class of 2012 here.

The Shriver Center would like to announce that Mark Shriver will read from his book A Good Man at the Enoch Pratt Library’s Wheeler Auditorium on June 7 at 6:30 p.m.

In the intimate portrait of an extraordinary father-son relationship, Shriver discovers the moral principles that guided his legendary father and applies them to his own life.

Freeman Hrabowski will introduce Shriver. Hrabowski and Shriver worked together to headquarter the Choice program at UMBC and establish The Shriver Center.

Shriver is Senior Vice President for Save the Children’s U.S. Programs, which work to ensure a fair start for all children in the United States, including the nearly one in four living in poverty.

More information about the event can be found here.

Have Ambition, Will Travel

For a number of UMBC students, the end of the semester is just the beginning of the adventure. They’ve been invited to the 62nd annual Meeting of the Nobel Laureates, or won Boren awards and Fulbrights to pursue their academic and research ambitions across the globe.

“These are students who stretch the boundaries and want to do something different,” said Brian Souders, associate director of international education services, who helps usher students through the process of applying for Fulbright and Boren awards.

This year, UMBC students earned a record number of Fulbrights: five awards, with one student still waiting to learn if her research will be funded. The students who received Fulbright awards are Vivian Ekey ’11, political science and modern languages and linguistics, who is conducting research in Brazil; Ryan Max ’11, biochemistry, who will teach English in Laos; David Anguish ’12, political science, who will do research in Mexico; Achsah Joseph ’12, media and communication studies and interdisciplinary studies, who will teach English in Malaysia; and Elena Mawyer ’12, modern languages and linguistics, who will teach English in Spain. If selected, Madeline Hall ’12, environmental studies, will do research in New Zealand.

“I’m excited to have the opportunity for an immersive international experience in a culture markedly different from anything that I’ve known,” said Max.

The UMBC environment, Souders said, helps students develop into good candidates for Fulbright awards. “We encourage things like undergraduate research and study abroad, and the fact that the students have faculty members who are willing to help them with the content areas is so helpful,” he said.

“The reason I chose to attend UMBC in the first place was their highly integrated undergraduate language program,” said Mawyer. “I feel like I have a strong background to navigate not only the use of my second language but also any cultural differences that I may encounter during my time in Madrid.”

Fulbright winners aren’t the only students who will be traveling the world after they graduate: UMBC is also sending two graduating seniors to the 62nd Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany. Robert Wardlow ’12 and Patrice Starck ’12, both biochemistry and molecular biology, are among 500 “young researchers” invited to the conference to exchange ideas with Laureates and other young scientists.

“I was shocked that I had been chosen out of the thousands nominated,” said Starck. “It is an honor to attend such a prestigious meeting. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“For me this invitation gives me the confidence that comes from knowing that other people have taken faith in my aptitude and potential as a young scientist,” said Wardlow. His research concerns chemical signaling of heart cells and the potential therapeutic benefits of stem cells, while Starck is investigating vaccines for the HIV virus

This is the third year in a row that UMBC has sent students to the meeting; past attendees include Phillip Fitzgerald ’11, biochemistry and molecular biology, and Benyam Kinde ’10, biological sciences.

“By attending this meeting, I will interact with people that have been extremely successful and helped to shape the modern face of science in their respective fields. It will be inspirational for me to be in their company. Hopefully by making connections and learning from the other attendees, I will be able to grow to have a similar impact in whatever field I eventually choose to pursue,” said Wardlow.

Opportunities for international travel through prestigious awards aren’t only available to recent graduates, however. One award that current students can take advantage of is the Boren program, which funds U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to study and research in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests.

The Middle East is a region that I have long been fascinated by, so I decided to study Arabic when I came to UMBC,� said Stevenson Ramsey �13, political science, who received a Boren Scholarshipfor the study of advanced level Arabic in Jordan next year. “The Boren scholarship provides an avenue to further my study of the Arabic language, so it was a perfect fit for me.”

“The semester before my application, I had taken a class on U.S. national security policy. Given the nature of the Boren award, this class turned out to be immeasurably helpful in writing my application essays,” said Ke Tang ’14, visual arts, political science and history, who will also study Arabic in Jordan on a Boren Scholarship.

For the first time, UMBC also has a graduate student Boren recipient: Kate Witt �13, M.A., intercultural communication, received a Boren Fellowship to study Portuguese and conduct immigration reform studies with the Bolivian migrant community in Brazil.   

“The [intercultural communication] faculty strongly supported my interest in Boren and made themselves available for draft reviews and discussions regarding my research topic,” she said. “I’m thrilled at the opportunity to conduct my thesis research in Brazil. The Boren Fellowship makes my once far-fetched research topic possible.”

Molly Bradtke ’13, English, history and Asian studies, is an alternate for the Boren Scholarship for her planned study abroad program in Beijing and Harbin, China.

(5/31/12)

Piotr Gwiazda, associate professor of English, read at the Walters Arts Museum on March 10 as part of the Smartish Pace Reading Series. A video of his reading appears below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–AjVlrPmtI&list=UUBSIwT0uXt_RZ_v_u3RMdsg&index=9&feature=plcp]

On saturday, April 14, Michael Fallon, senior lecturer of English, read at Baltimore’s City Lit festival.  Below is a video of his reading.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irNrpMdg-lg&list=UUBSIwT0uXt_RZ_v_u3RMdsg&index=4&feature=plcp]

News of Rebecca Boehling’s appointment as director of the International Tracing Service (ITS) was been picked up on The Associated Press‘ wire service. The ITS serves victims of Nazi persecutions and their families by documenting their fate through the archives it manages.

Here’s a sampling of outlets that ran the piece:

The Washington Post – “US university professor to head Holocaust-era archive in Germany”

CBS Local – “UMBC Professor to Head Holocaust Archive”

WJTV Jackson – “US university professor to head Holocaust archive”

Arizona Daily Star – “Around the world: US professor to head Holocaust-era archive”

The Missoulian – “US university professor to head Holocaust archive”

UMBC’s announcement of Boehling’s appointment can be read here.

Nicole King, assistant professor of American studies, learned the dangers of texting while walkinghard way according to the story “Texting while walking emerging as possible danger for pedestrians, drivers,” which appeared in the Baltimore Sun on May 29.

While spending a night out-of-town for a wedding, King was typing out a message to friends when the combination of a bench and gravity came together for a less-than-ideal outcome.

“My face hit the bench on the way down,” King told the Sun, with the results including stitches and a black eye. Despite such a hard lesson, King remains a “pedtextrian,” stating that despite the experience, “I still do it… all over Baltimore.”

The Department of History is pleased to announce the addition of alumnus George Derek Musgrove to its faculty, beginning this fall.

Musgrove attended UMBC from 1993-1997, obtaining a B.A. in history. He then proceeded to obtain the 2003-2004 Anne E. Plato predoctoral fellowship at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, the 2007-2008 postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy at Carnegie Mellon University, and his Ph.D. in U.S. History at New York University in 2005. He is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: How Harassment of Black Elected Officials Shaped Post-Civil Rights America (University of George Press, 2012), and most recently was an assistant professor at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC).

“We are very excited to have… Musgrove joining our faculty because he is an especially promising historian of post-1945 US history, whose work combines political history, African-American history, the history of race relations, and urban history,” said Marjoleine Kars, chair of history.

Musgrove is equally excited at the opportunity to teach at his alma mater. “UMBC has a rich academic community,” he said.  “I hope both to contribute to and benefit from that community.  And in doing so, I hope to provide the same great learning experience that my professors gave me.”

Courses to be taught by the incoming professor include “American History: 1877-Present” (HIST102), and “The United States Since 1945″ (HIST347).

More on Musgrove and his work can be found on his website.

Originally posted in UMBC Insights.

The Department of History is pleased to announce the addition of alumnus George Derek Musgrove to its faculty, beginning this fall.

Musgrove attended UMBC from 1993-1997, obtaining a B.A. in history. He then proceeded to obtain the 2003-2004 Anne E. Plato predoctoral fellowship at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, the 2007-2008 postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy at Carnegie Mellon University, and his Ph.D. in U.S. History at New York University in 2005. He is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: How Harassment of Black Elected Officials Shaped Post-Civil Rights America (University of George Press, 2012), and most recently was an assistant professor at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC).

“We are very excited to have… Musgrove joining our faculty because he is an especially promising historian of post-1945 US history, whose work combines political history, African-American history, the history of race relations, and urban history,” said Marjoleine Kars, chair of history.

Musgrove is equally excited at the opportunity to teach at his alma mater. “UMBC has a rich academic community,” he said.  “I hope both to contribute to and benefit from that community.  And in doing so, I hope to provide the same great learning experience that my professors gave me.”

Courses to be taught by the incoming professor include “American History: 1877-Present” (HIST102), and “The United States Since 1945” (HIST347).

More on Musgrove and his work can be found on his website.

Rebecca Boehling, professor of history and director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities, has been named the next Director of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany. The ITS serves victims of Nazi persecutions and their families by documenting their fate through the archives it manages.

Boehling was appointed unanimously by the eleven-member state International Commission, which supervises the work of the ITS, at its annual meeting in Paris last week. She will take a leave of absence from UMBC and begin her directorship on January 1, 2013.

Boehling is an expert in the history of the Holocaust, World War II and the early postwar period in Germany. She served for several years on the Historical Advisory Panel to the U.S. Government’s Interagency Working Group for the Implementation of the 1998 Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Federal Disclosure Act, tasked to declassify material related to WWII war crimes.

“The treasure trove of documents in the ITS archives reveals new insights into the experience and the perspectives of the victims of Nazi persecution. It is very compelling material that we want to make more accessible for research and educational purposes by means of digitization and archival description,” she said. Boehling said that she hopes to develop internships and research opportunities for UMBC students, especially with the displaced persons files, which are mostly in English.

Read more about Boehling’s appointment here.