The Future of Information Sharing

As the world embraces Web 2.0, the effects of social media are on the minds of several researchers at UMBC.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Zeynep Tufekci studies the impact that technology, gender and inequality have on new media. Two of her current research projects specifically examine online social networks. The first project studies how these networks are situated within social practices. The other project, funded by the National Science Foundation, examines interactions between gender, race, social class and technology in relation to career choice and inequality. A former computer programmer, Tufekci studies social media with a sociological eye.

“Connecting is a deep human need,” said Tufekci. “Social networking is scratching a strong itch by providing individuals with the ability to always stay connected.”

When looking to the future, Tufekci sees an “ultra-connected world.” She predicts the cell phone will be more interactive than networking sites like Facebook, providing users with an opportunity to geographically locate friends.

“It would have pluses and minuses,” she said. “There would be more interconnectivity, but it would certainly raise surveillance.”

Like Tufekci, Professor of Computer Science Tim Finin also studies the effects of social media but instead focuses on blogs. One of his team’s ongoing projects includes mining sentiments about different topics (movies, politics, etc.) to sense trends and patterns to evaluate the effectiveness of online advertising through blogs. The team is also learning how to use Wikipedia as a knowledge base to support computer tasks. When looking to the future, Finin sees great changes for the computer.

“In 50 years, I predict people and computers will share a common experience,” he said. “An event will happen in the world, and our computers will know about it.”

In the more immediate future, Finin sees extensive information sharing and a dramatic shift in libraries and record-keeping mechanisms.

Molly Heroux ’09 was one of the first students to enroll in the Media and Communication Studies (MCS) program. Combining her studies in MCS with psychology, Heroux accepted a summer 2008 internship at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Heroux worked toward identifying gaps in Wyeth’s current team communication and collaboration in order to propose alternatives to addressing communication issues using cyber tools. She conducted this research not only to enhance communication among current employees but also to attract a new generation of employees who grew up with these tools. Heroux administered surveys to gather her research, and Wyeth intends to update her survey and conduct it again on a larger scale through an Internet platform.

“There is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of online media and a general lack of familiarity with the new modes of cyber communication,” she said. “Oftentimes, there is a one-way flow of communication from top to bottom.”

Heroux looks to social networking to solve some of these communication problems. Her list of recommendations includes instant messaging, internal social networking, one-to-one video conferencing, social news tools, online suggestion forums and fluid notions of workplace and scheduling.

“Encouraging part-time and full-time telecommuting not only cut office costs but also supports women and families.”

(2/6/09)

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

The Perfect Pitch

When Mike Pesci ’12 was young, he had goals few kids his age had. Like his peers, he played sports – baseball since the age of four – and his studies were important. But it was helping people that mattered most to him. By the time he was 18 years old, he had not only started a non-profit, he had also raised $100,000.  

It started with a home run derby that Pesci helped organize to raise money for charity when he was 11 years old. The event captured the two passions Pesci held close: baseball and philanthropy, and soon turned into a non-profit organization called Perfect Pitch HRD, Inc. Pesci’s non-profit has now raised over $180,000 for mentally and physically handicapped children and young adults and for the sports programs of disadvantaged youth.

“When Perfect Pitch was starting up, I had a lot of support from family and friends,” Pesci said. “So many people were willing to spread the word, and they believed in the organization – they were willing to help us do anything to help others.”

And the good word has spread far. Pesci was recently recognized nationally for his accomplishments by being named an “All Star Among Us” by Major League Baseball and People Magazine. Pesci shares the honor with his sister, Christina Pesci, who is president of Bridging the Generation Gap, an outreach organization which promotes friendship between young people and senior citizens. Helping others is something that runs in the family.

“My father organizes a ‘Cruise for Kids’ motorcycle run to raise money for abused children,” said Pesci. “He leads by example and has always helped others.”

At UMBC, Pesci maintains the organization on top of playing baseball for the Retrievers and working toward his interdisciplinary studies degree with a focus in business and non-profit administration. Despite the distance between Maryland and his hometown, Parsippany, New Jersey, Pesci still helps organize raffles organization and maintains relationships with previous donors.

“It’s hard while I’m not at home,” he said. “It’s difficult, but I’ve realized the importance of doing this while I’m in school; it’s a passion I have.”

When the organization first started, Pesci organized and volunteered at a baseball game for mentally and physically handicapped children. It was Pesci’s job to help the impaired children get around the bases. He assisted a girl on crutches, and when she reached home plate her smile was “incredible.”

“Scoring a run has always been a good feeling for me – but for her, it was a really big deal.”

About five years later, Pesci helped a young woman with spina bifida who needed a new wheelchair but was financially unable. Perfect Pitch provided her with a titanium wheelchair.

“It turned out to the same girl I helped around the bases,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. We continue to sponsor her today.”

This story is just one of the reasons why Pesci knows he needs to work in the non-profit field when he graduates.

“I want Perfect Pitch to continue to grow and build a career out of it,” he said. “I want to make a living while helping others in the process.”

Pesci recently received the 2009 Joseph and Frieda Faiman Eisenberg/VPC Endowed Scholarship, given by the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. The Joseph and Frieda Faiman Eisenberg/VPC Endowed Scholarship was established by Eli Eisenberg ’86 for an outstanding UMBC undergraduate interested in becoming an entrepreneur.

More information on Perfect Pitch HRD, Inc. is available online.  

(12/4/09)

The Stuff of Legend

As a former Associated Press reporter, Christopher Corbett knows how to spot a good story. So when he noticed that although thousands of Chinese had come to America during the gold rush, none of them were interred in boom town cemeteries, he followed the lead.

“I asked this old lady who had a store in the town, ‘Where is the Chinese cemetery?’ And she said, ‘The bone collectors came and took them back to China,’” he recalled. “I had never heard that the Chinese repatriated their dead, and my curiosity about that led me to this book.”

The book is The Poker Bride (Atlantic Monthly Press), in which Corbett tells the story of the Chinese in the West through the life of one such immigrant, Polly Bemis. Polly was sold by her famine-stricken parents, smuggled into San Francisco by her master, and won in a poker game by the man who would eventually become her husband. She lived an isolated life until 1923, when she came down from her home in the Idaho hills to tell her story.

At least, that’s how the legend goes. “You’re in what they call the borderland of fable once you cross the Missouri, so it’s one of those stories that’s rooted in fact and layered with a lot of embellishment,” said Corbett, a professor of the practice in English.

Whether or not the story is one hundred percent true, it’s been getting a lot of praise. The Baltimore Sun called it “a juicy combination of social history and deconstructed myth,” and the Wall Street Journal said the tale “reflects the essence of the American immigrant experience.”

“I think the response in part is indicative of the interest in the Chinese experience in the 19th century West. People are curious about it,” said Corbett.

For Corbett, the book’s biggest accomplishment is that it tells the story of these forgotten immigrants. Most Chinese returned to their homeland after the gold rush, taking their stories as well as their countrymen’s bones with them, and left behind few traces of their presence.

“The larger matter is that we know something about Polly,” explained Corbett. “She’s the human face on this immigrant experience that we know so little about.”

This book wasn’t the author’s first foray into the Wild West. His 2003 book Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express (Random House/Broadway Books) gained him notice as one of the premier scholars on the iconic service. That book was recently reissued as a paperback.

The Pony Express will celebrate its 150th Anniversary on April 3, and Corbett’s calendar is already filling up with invitations to discuss his work. Most notably, he will be the keynote speaker for the anniversary celebrations at St. Joseph, Missouri’s Patee House, which housed the Pony Express.

With two books demanding his attention in addition to his regular duties of teaching English and mentoring the Retriever Weekly staff, Corbett acknowledges that “things are slightly wild”—just like they were in the Old West.

Corbett will speak at the Poe Room at the Enoch Pratt Free Library on February 24 at 6 p.m., and at UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery on March 9 at 4 p.m.

(2/19/10)

Turning Knowledge into Action

Women Involved in Learning and Leadership (WILL) at UMBC, part of the Gender and Women’s Studies program, is one of eight groups nationwide participating in a week-long global health event funded by a grant from Americans for Informed Democracy (AID). “Global Women’s Health Action Week: Healthy Women, Healthy World” will run April 27 through May 1.

Jen Keeter ’09, one of the lead organizers of the event, received information about an available grant through AID and was immediately drawn to the idea of helping women. WILL members wrote the proposal together and submitted it in fall 2008. The team decided to highlight global women’s health in five distinct areas by focusing on one each day: environmental justice, reproductive justice, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), maternal and children’s health and holistic health. Events run 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for five days, and each day is filled with interactive games, exhibits, speakers and giveaways.  

Eva Jannotta ’12, was involved with planning the holistic health day and said there will be gift baskets, giveaways, alternative health products and a Wii Fit Yoga demonstration in The Commons. WILL kicks off the week with a guest speaker from MADRE, a renowned transnational feminist organization that WILL is raising money for during the week. Communications Director Yifat Susskind will speak on Monday, April 27, at 4:30, in the University Center, Room 312.

Other days will hold similar activities including tours of a constructed mock kitchen (environmental justice), advice from a doula (maternal and children’s health) and a sexual health Jeopardy game (STIs), hosted by the Peer Health Advocates from University Health Services (UHS). Free, anonymous and confidential HIV screenings through UHS will be available on Thursday morning. Participants will also have the opportunity to contribute their voices to help form a set of health-related concerns that will be sent to President Barack Obama and other national and local decision-makers.

The health action week will operate in a similar manner as WILL, through teamwork and strong effort. The leadership program is academically connected to UMBC’s Gender and Women’s Studies program, designed to be co-curricular and guided by students.

“Everyone in WILL collaborates and makes decisions as a community,” said Jodi Kelber-Kaye, gender and women’s studies faculty member and director of WILL. “The heath action week will highlight not only how each day’s themes are interrelated when examining issues of women’s health, but also show what amazing things can be done when WILL students apply their intellectual work in gender and women’s studies to grassroots activism.”

But WILL’s work will not be finished after the health action week. They will submit a short video detailing the preparation and execution of the event to AID, who will highlight the videos on its Web site. Viewers cast votes for the best video, and the group will receive an additional $500 if they win. If other campuses would like to replicate the same campaign, they will also be funded $750 (the same amount WILL received for the event).

The event not only affects the present but also the future of WILL and the students involved.

“WILL is about leadership development and taking those skills into your own work,” said Kelber-Kaye. “I think this event will allow us to showcase the dedication and commitment of the WILL students and enable us to continue to build important and meaningful partnerships across campus.”

After graduating in December 2009, Keeter hopes to utilize the skills gained through WILL by organizing and advocating for services on the community level in Baltimore.  

For Jannotta, her career at UMBC is just beginning. She hopes to continue working toward creating change and will remain a member of WILL in upcoming years.

For more information on the Global Women’s Health Action Week: Healthy Women, Healthy World, contact Jen Keeter at jen21@umbc.edu.

4/23/09

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

Two UMBC Professors Win NSF CAREER Awards

Two UMBC scientists were recently recognized as among the nation’s top young faculty in their fields by the National Science Foundation (NSF), receiving the NSF’s CAREER award, an honor that comes with five years of research funding and support.

Theodosia Gougousi, assistant professor of physics, is helping to find the next-generation hearts of consumer electronics. Haijun Su, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, uses 3-D virtual reality to make design innovations faster and cheaper for manufacturers.

Nano-scale Paving Stones
Without the expertise of physicists like Gougousi, beloved consumer electronics like iPhones, Blackberries and iPods would drain their batteries in half an hour. “Silicon-based technology has reached its limit,” Gougousi said. “Gallium Arsenide is a possible next-generation material.” 

The Thessaloniki, Greece native studies the properties of nano-scale insulating materials suitable to integrate in Gallium-Arsenide-based transistors, a small but vital part of computer chips. The materials must be in the form of very thin films – 1,000 to 10,000 times thinner than human hair – and are made with a process she compares to building a patio at the atomic level.

“It’s somewhat like putting down paving stones to make a patio; we stack layers of atoms one on top of the other. Our stones and glue are organic molecules and water. Our goal is to understand the interactions of these materials at the atomic level and develop techniques to produce a dependable, good quality film.”

For Gougousi, the CAREER award is justification for years of effort, but more importantly, it provides an opportunity to focus more time in the lab, the classroom and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students.

“Show Me the Motion”
Su uses virtual reality to save companies real money. His particular passion is on the early design stages of small, precise machine parts that need almost human levels of flexibility and movement.

 “We use virtual reality, or VR, as a tool to design machine systems, especially those with flexible parts,” Su said. Su’s toolkit, known as the VR design environment, adds a crucial third dimension to early-stage design and prototyping.

“You need a lot of freedom to explore for the designer. Typical computer-aided design (CAD) software is bounded on a two dimensional screen and operated with a two dimensional mouse. So I say, okay, show me the motion.”

Su and his students use a virtual reality helmet, interactive glove and a pen-like gizmo known as a haptic device, which lets users feel a virtual prototype. Their goal is designing machine parts capable of precise – sometimes delicate – motions at the different scales.

His lab helps design complex and crucial parts for vehicles, robotics, precision or medical instruments, and even power tools.

“An example is the tip of a robot’s grasper arm in a factory assembly line,” said Su. “It has to be able to be flexible in order to accommodate errors. If it’s too rigid, it doesn’t work correctly.”

The key for Su’s lab is using VR to cut overall product development costs in the early, concept-design stage which itself costs little but is responsible for 75 percent of product development expenses. “The earlier you make changes, the more money you save,” Su said.

Su is honored by the CAREER award, and hopes it will enable him to spend time on another passion: educating the next generation of engineers. Hosting and teaching a two-week summer course for high school students was part of his award proposal.

Gougousi and Su are the latest in a growing number of UMBC faculty members to receive the prestigious NSF CAREER award. Half of the chemical and biochemical engineering faculty have received the honor, and since 2001, the university has had 12 honorees. 

 (3/31/2009)

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

UMBC Alumnus Becomes President of West Virginia University

According to Google Maps, it takes a little over three hours to get from Catonsville to Morgantown, West Virginia. For James P. Clements ’85, computer science, and ’91 M.S. and ’93 Ph.D., operations analysis, the journey has taken a little bit longer than that – about 27 years, in fact.

But the destination has been worth the drive, which also took detours through The Johns Hopkins University (where he took an M.S. in computer science in 1988) and Towson University, where he has served as provost and vice president for academic affairs for the past two years. On June 30, Clements will arrive in Morgantown to become West Virginia University’s 23rd president.

It’s not hard to see why West Virginia University tapped Clements, whose career as a scholar and researcher took wing quickly after he received his Ph.D. from UMBC in 1993. He was tenured at Towson University only two years after receiving his doctorate.

His ascent in academic leadership has been even more dizzying – including stints as vice president of Towson’s Economic and Community Outreach division, as provost, and a key role in devising and monitoring that university’s 2010 Strategic Plan.

Clements says that the first strides of his time on the fast track began at UMBC. Like many students of his era, he chose UMBC for factors of proximity and cost – and found an unexpectedly rich academic experience in Catonsville.

Clements says that he realized the quality of the education he got when he went out into the workforce. “When I came out, and went to work for industry – I worked for a company called General Physics, which is run by Robert W. Deutsch, who has been very generous to UMBC – I felt so prepared. I was working with people who’d been at some of the top institutions in the country, and I felt that I had an equal level of education to anyone in that building.”

When Clements did finally end up in academia as a professor at Towson University, he says that he found it to be “probably the best job in the world. I love to teach. I love writing papers. I love doing research. I love working with the students.”

Yet he soon acquired the itch to try his hand at administration. Clements discovered that he had a knack for the coordination and fundraising that goes along with academic leadership – and also that he liked it. And those talents led him all the way to Morgantown.

Looking back at UMBC from across more than two decades (and across town from his perch at Towson University), Clements feels a lot of pride and appreciation at the growth of his alma mater.

“Let me put it this way: Every time I see [UMBC’s president Freeman A. Hrabowski, III], I thank him for raising the value of my degree,” Clements says with a laugh. “It’s true. Freeman is so dynamic and so charismatic. And it’s not just him. The institution has great faculty members. Great administrators. It has just continued to climb up and up and up. And for me, even though I work at Towson, I love UMBC. It’s been great watching it skyrocket into one of the hottest universities in the country.”

A longer version of this story first appeared in the summer issue of UMBC Magazine.

Visit Clements’ WVU Web site at http:/president.wvu.edu/.

(7/2/09)

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

UMBC Darwin Expert Speaks at Library of Congress

When UMBC history professor Sandra Herbert first saw the Charles Darwin Archives at Christ’s College, Cambridge as a graduate student, “It was like finding out Shakespeare had left unpublished plays behind,” she said.

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth on February 12, Herbert, one of the world’s leading authorities on Darwin, will give a lecture at the Library of Congress at 11:30 a.m. February 18. She will discuss her book “Charles Darwin, Geologist,” which explores how geology changed Darwin and how Darwin changed science.

As a distinguished visiting scholar for 2006-07 at Christ’s College in Cambridge, Herbert assisted the university with its plans to celebrate Darwin’s bicentennial and the 150th anniversary of his seminal work “On the Origin of Species.”

Like most students, Herbert, an expert on the history of science, first studied Darwin in high school. “Back then his work was buried in our textbooks,” she said. “I became interested in how evolution affects all things, especially human nature.”

While writing a graduate school paper, she came across one of Darwin’s notebooks. Her curiosity grew, leading to a Ph.D. dissertation and finally a trip to Cambridge to see other Darwin manuscripts.

Along the way she was surprised to find that the naturalist often most associated with biology was actually more of a geologist as a young man. This discovery led to Herbert’s recent book “Charles Darwin, Geologist,” which won the Geological Society of America’s Mary C. Rabbitt Award, the American Historical Association’s George L. Mosse Prize and the History of Science Society’s Levinson Prize for Historical Work in the Life Sciences as well as the Albion Book Prize given by the North American Conference on British Studies.

“Sandra is simply one of the world’s leading authorities on Darwin and one of UMBC’s preeminent scholars,” said John Jeffries, Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at UMBC.

When asked her thoughts on Darwin’s lasting legacy and the ongoing challenges to his theories across the globe, Herbert referred to one of her favorite Darwin writings from his 1838 “Notebook B.” In it, Darwin refers to animals as “our fellow brethren” and muses that “we may be all netted together.”

“Darwin is seen as a hero and a villain,” she said. “The reason we react so strongly is because of the profound implications of his work on our understanding of human nature. I agree with his sentiment that we are all netted together. We are closer to animals than we sometimes think.”

Herbert recently retired as director of the program “the Human Context of Science and Technology” and professor of history at UMBC.  She is also editor of the “Red Notebook of Charles Darwin” (1979) and “Charles Darwin’s Notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries” (1987).

Herbert’s lecture at the Library of Congress will be held in the Pickford Theater on the third floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, DC  A book-signing will follow the lecture, and the science reference staff will display Darwin items from the Library’s collections.  The event is free and open to the public; tickets or reservations are not needed. More information is available online.

(2/12/09)

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

UMBC Honors Outstanding Alumni

The UMBC Alumni Association will present Outstanding Alumnus/a and Distinguished Service Awards to six exceptional alumni at the 2007 UMBC Alumni of the Year Awards Ceremony and UMBC Annapolis Reception on Feb. 7 at the Loews Hotel in Annapolis. The honorees have demonstrated unwavering service to the University and achieved distinguished professional and personal accomplishments. The award recipients are:

2007 Outstanding Alumnus in Engineering and Information Technology
Robert S. Marshall ’88, Mechanical Engineering

As president and CEO of AWS Convergence Technologies, better known as “WeatherBug,” Marshall pioneered the networking of weather instrumentation and cameras using the Internet, making it the largest exclusive weather network in the world. “WeatherBug” delivers real-time, local weather to broadcast television stations, schools, businesses, local, state and federal government agencies, including the National Weather Service.

2007 Outstanding Alumna in Humanities
Patricia A. Smith ’74, Ancient Studies

A distinguished attorney, Smith has served as an advocate and advisor for the State of Maryland and its citizens. Smith has acted as People’s Counsel for the State of Maryland, a special solicitor and chief counsel to the Baltimore Police Department for the City of Baltimore and as an administrative law judge in the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings. Smith also held the positions of assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland and assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Maryland.

2007 Outstanding Alumnus in Natural and Mathematical Sciences
Joseph P. McCloskey ’81 M.S., ’83 Ph.D., Applied Mathematics

For nearly 40 years, McCloskey has been employed with the National Security Agency where he works as a senior cryptologic mathematician. McCloskey has received numerous citations, including the prestigious Presidential Rank Award in 2006 and the President’s Award from the Crypto-Mathematics Institute, the agency’s oldest learned society, in 2001. An author of more than 80 professional papers, he has taught one course each semester at UMBC for 20 years.

2007 Outstanding Alumnus in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Eric A. Carlton ’91, Africana Studies

At age 29, Carlton made history when he became the youngest high school principal in the nation. Since then, he has directed his passion for education in launching the Banner Schools, a private company that partners with public school districts to provide a successful educational environment for at-risk youth. With three schools – one in Chicago, Miami and another to open in Detroit, the company assists nearly 500 middle-and-high school students from troubled environments. A former UMBC SGA vice president and president, member of the men’s soccer team and tutor for the Shriver Center’s Choice Program, Carlton has received numerous accolades for his services as an educator.

2007 Outstanding Alumna in Visual and Performing Arts
Sheila López ’92, Visual and Performing Arts -Theatre

After earning her M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama, López founded Antecesores, a non-profit organization in Buffalo, NY, that advances, nurtures and celebrates Latino cultures through theatre. Antecesores (translated as “ancestors”) focuses in particular on programs for children, to allow them to explore and discover their cultural heritage.

2007 Distinguished Service Award
Eli Eisenberg ’86, Interdisciplinary Studies

Eisenberg is connected to UMBC through both service and philanthropy, as a member of the board of UMBC’s Alex. Brown Entrepreneurship Center, the “Exceptional by Example” Alumni Campaign Committee and the 2016 Alumni Strategic Planning Committee. In addition, he has endowed a scholarship in the name of his parents that supports two students per year. Eisenberg is founder and principal of VPC, Inc., a company providing multimedia production services, event management and studio and technology systems design. Guests at UMBC’s Commencement ceremonies and the 40th Anniversary celebration have seen VPC’s technical expertise at work.

To register for the UMBC Annapolis Reception and obtain more information, visit http://retrievernet.umbc.edu/annapolis or contact UMBC’s Office of Alumni Relations at alum@umbc.edu or 410-455-ALUM.

(1/22/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

UMBC Mama�s Boys Celebrate Five-Year Anniversary

When they entered UMBC as freshmen, Jordan Hadfield ’07 and James “Jeeves” Murphy ’08 were searching for the right singing group. Both had performed in a cappella groups in high school and wanted to strengthen their backgrounds in singing. But there wasn’t a group on UMBC’s campus.  

Meanwhile, in the basement of Potomac Hall, freshmen Ray Remesch ’08 and former student Chett Miller ’07 were also discussing the possibility of starting up an a cappella group. Remesch had been in his high school choir along with a few rock bands and Miller was interested in contemporary a cappella.

Through instant messaging, the two duos found one another and decided to go to lunch together. Just like that, a singing group was born on campus.  

“In the beginning, we solicited everywhere,” said Hadfield. “We met singer Joe Garifo ‘09 when he was coming down to do his laundry.”

In the beginning, the Mama’s Boys (whose name was almost “Fetch”), was more focused on entertaining than singing. Hadfield said they were intentional about entertaining and being humorous.

“We were really better entertainers than vocalists,” said Hadfield. “We were really proud of it though because we were authentic.”

Things seemed to move quickly for the Mama’s Boys during their first year on campus. They played several shows and were embraced by UMBC audiences. By the end of the spring semester, they were recognized as an official student group.

In the past five years, the Mama’s Boys has grown into a strong vocal community. Auditions are more competitive, and the group sings regularly at events. They’ve played shows in Scituate, Massachusetts; New York, New York; Ocean City, Maryland; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, including many others. Their rigorous practice schedule (three times a week for two hours) and commitment to performance has led to popularity on- and off-campus. They now play four large seasonal shows on campus along with a myriad of smaller events.  They’ve even inspired some other groups on campus to start their own singing groups: the Cleftomaniacs, the Stilettos and Taal-Capella, a newly-formed male Indian group.

“We invite each other to performances and collaborate on songs with each other,” said Steve Gilmore ’09, music director. “Our audiences love it.”

From the start, the group has valued their friendship with one another as much as singing.

“I’ve made a great group of friends,” said Gilmore, “and not just in the group but through the members and their outside friends.”

In honor of their five-year anniversary, the Mama’s Boys will perform a founder’s day celebration and luau on Saturday, May 9, 6 p.m., in the Engineering building, Lecture Hall 5. They will play a mix of new and old music, and the Cleftomanics and Stilettos will also perform. The event will be in the Engineering building, Lecture Hall 5.

For more information, visit www.umbcmamasboys.org.

To watch videos of the UMBC Mama’s Boys, visit www.youtube.com/user/umbcmamasboys.

(5/1/09)

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

UMBC Named One of Nation�s �Best Value� Public Universities

The Princeton Review has included UMBC in its “Best Value Colleges for 2009” list. UMBC is one of 50 public institutions in the United States recognized for offering a combination of educational excellence and affordability.

The honor is the second major national distinction UMBC has received from leading higher-education rankings publications this academic year. UMBC is among the Top 5 national universities recognized as innovators by U.S.News & World Report Best Colleges Guide, along with George Mason, Clemson, University of Southern California and Arizona State University. Other schools on the list include Drexel, Northeastern, University of California – Irvine and Ohio State.

The Princeton Review recognized UMBC, a 12,000-student research university, for attracting serious students and supporting them with undergraduate research opportunities throughout the Baltimore region. The campus location near BWI-Marshall Airport gives students access to internships with government agencies, nonprofits and leading private-sector companies in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. markets.

Seventy-three percent of students at UMBC receive some financial aid in the form of scholarships, loans and grants. The average amount of debt for graduating students is $20,572.

“UMBC attracts outstanding students who compete well for outstanding graduate schools and professional opportunities. We’re delighted to see this recognized by The Princeton Review’s list of ‘Best Value Colleges,’ ” said UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III.

The Princeton Review selected schools by using institutional data and student opinion surveys. Broadly speaking, it examined factors covering undergraduate academics, costs and financial aid. A school’s academic rating was derived from admissions and other institutional data and student opinion surveys. A school’s financial aid rating was based on data about tuition, fees, room and board and need-based financial aid packages and student opinion surveys regarding award packages and the service provided by a school’s financial aid office.

Dale Bittinger, director of undergraduate admissions and orientation, said, “Being named to the ‘Best Value Colleges’ list tells others what we already know, that UMBC offers an exceptional undergraduate education across the disciplines for high achieving students.”

In August 2008, The Princeton Review ranked UMBC second on its “Most Diverse Student Body” list in its annual college rankings book, The Best 368 Colleges: 2009 Edition.

(1/8/09)

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