In today’s U.S. News article “Why Our Homes Make Us Happy,” UMBC professor Robert Rubinstein (Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology) argues that having a connection to home is important for our well-being throughout the life course and particularly in later life. “We live in a society that is concerned with freedom,” Rubinstein says. He argues “being able to make a space for yourself, and having a central place from which to look out at the world” is central to personal development in American culture, which highly values independence, autonomy and control.

Rubinstein offered particular insight for the meaning of home among older adults. He suggests transitioning to a new environment “can be very difficult for older people who have lived in a place for 40 or 50 years” and that they might benefit from counseling before moving into a smaller home or an assisted care facility.

Disha Patel ’15, English, has an essay posted on NPR’s “This I Believe” website.

“I believe that being a family is about more than sharing blood,” begins Patel, who is currently enrolled in an ENGL 291 course taught by Michael Fallon.

“Family is a word that to most would evoke images of faces that are similar to their own. People who share the same DNA, the same blood type, eye color, hair color, skin color. I on the other hand, see the faces of people, who if it weren’t for a change of geography, I would never had the pleasure of meeting, nor the honor of calling my family,” Patel writes. “Some people say ‘blood is thicker than water.’ I say love is more powerful than blood. Love is what makes a family.”

Her full essay can be read here.

Bill Shewbridge ’80, history, director of UMBC’s New Media Studio, spoke to Urbanite about the role technology plays on campus and in the lives of students.

“There is a tendency to think that students are digital natives,” says Bill Shewbridge, the director of the new media studio at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). “But uploading a picture to Facebook doesn’t make you a producer, much less an informed consumer.”

A television producer-turned-professor, Shewbridge discovered this after embarking on UMBC’s digital storytelling project eight years ago. To tell digital stories—short videos, usually for a particular class, that combine scriptwriting, interviewing, and research—students first needed to be taught video editing, audio recording, and image processing. Now, UMBC offers a multimedia literacy lab, a one-credit course taken concurrently with another class, where students learn those skills.

The article, “The Wired Campus,” appeared March 30 in Urbanite. Read the full story here.

Two information systems alumni are using their entrepreneurial spirit to make happy hour just a little bit happier.

As reported in the Arbutus Patch, alums Ryan Bricklemyer ’04, M.S. ’06, and Sean Kennedy ’06, have launched a website called BeerGivr that allows users to buy a beer — or an entire round — for friends at Baltimore bars without being present to pay the tab.

“There’s tons of different applications. I’m going to miss a party; I lost a bet. There’s tons of ways… beer is kind of like its own little currency,” said Bricklemyer, who noted that 16 Baltimore-area bars are participating so far, with more on the way.

“In consulting you constantly say ‘I owe you a beer.’ It is this thing that everybody says.  I think I owe cases of beer to people because I’ve said it so much.”

Read the full story in the Arbutus Patch.

David H. Murray, a 20-year-old UMBC economics major and Sondheim Scholar, has advanced to the general election for a Prince George’s County Board of Education seat (District 1) after receiving roughly 1,500 more votes than candidate Zabrina Epps in the April 3rd primary. ‘I’m extremely pleased, very happy,” said Murray, in news coverage of the election. “I didn’t take it for granted. I worked for every single vote.” Murray earned 56% of the vote, while Epps, an academic advisor at CCBC, earned 31%.

UMBC sophomore Edward Burroughs, who was running for school board in District 8, was also successful in his primary bid. The Prince George’s County incumbent ran against four other candidates for two general election slots and received 67% of the vote.

Marc Zupan an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering has been named a Fulbright Scholar, 2012-2013, to teach and conduct research at the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Portugal.

According to the program’s web site, “The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the US government.” The goal of the Fulbright program is, “to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.” The majority of the funding comes from an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

During his fellowship Zupan will be developing novel course and student assessment tools as well as expanding his already established research collaborations with FEUP faculty.

“The fellowship,” says Zupan, “will allow me to jointly design and implement a trans-national course focused on the novel concepts of Global Engineering.” This course will be integrated into the UMBC undergraduate engineering curriculum with students from UMBC and FEUP interacting and working with each other through-out the course.

Zupan’s research is focused on emerging hybrid materials that are important for structures in the next generation marine, air, and land-based vehicles — materials that are minimum volume, light, durable, and multifunctional.

“This expanded global enterprise in both research and teaching,” says Zupan, “between UMBC and FEUP will help both universities enhance the competitiveness of our graduates and allow us to develop new technologies.”

“Mitt Romney has been treated rather roughly, even unfairly, by the national media,” suggests UMBC political science professor Thomas Schaller in his latest Baltimore Sun column. The article, “Worry about Romney’s positions, not his gaffes,” argues that it’s time for the national media and voters to focus on Romney’s policy platforms, rather than his relatability.

“What Mr. Romney would actually do in the White House matters more than how personally awkward he may be,” writes Schaller, “And on this count, his long list of social issue flip-flops and his troubling economic proposals are sufficient cause for concern.”

Matthew Reilly ’13, social work and psychology, took a roundabout route to UMBC: after graduating from Townsend Harris High School in Queens, New York, he worked various jobs and took classes as several universities before enlisting in the army in 2005, with the hopes that it would help him pay for college.

When he was injured in service and sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Reilly discovered a passion that eventually led him to UMBC. When other injured soldiers arrived at the hospital, Reilly was often the one to talk with them and tell them about the services at the hospital. Those experiences eventually led him to pursue dual degrees in psychology and social work at UMBC.

Before coming to UMBC, Reilly earned his an associate degree from Montgomery College.  When he enrolled in 2009, he had a difficult transition.  He says that he had difficulty reading because of his brain injuries, and his patience with other students was short. He tried to strike a balance between playing down his status as a veteran and talking about it.

During Reilly’s last few months at the community college, Esther Schwartz-Mc­Kinzie, a professor of English who had grown interested in veterans’ issues, produced a documentary, In Their Own Words, about student veterans there.  Reilly is one of a dozen veterans featured in the film, and in it he sums up his attitude toward college.

“I have class to go to, I have homework to do, I have reading to do, I have an assignment to do,” he says on screen. “That’s my mission. Those are my goals.”

Reilly is now in his second semester at UMBC, and will graduate with a degree in social work and psychology next spring. He hopes to attend graduate school and pursue a career in psychotherapy.

Reilly’s story appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education on April 1 in a story entitled “An Ex-Soldier Finds a New Mission.”

K. Jill Barr, assistant dean for Graduate Enrollment Management, recently returned from a consulting trip to Qatar University. Barr was asked by the American Bar Association to provide guidance on the development of student services and a career services office for the law school at Qatar University. She will return this fall for a follow-up visit.

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, recently returned from Belgrade, Serbia, where she spoke on her book “Art and Psyche.”  The book was recently translated to Serbian.

While in Belgrade, Spitz lectured at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade; the Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad; the Institute for Mental Health, Belgrade; and Kolarac Hall.  The themes of her discussion were art and psychoanalysis, and children, space, and imagination.

Stories about Spitz’s visit appeared in the Serbian press both before and after her visit.  An example of a story can be seen here.