UMBC students have passionately contributed to shaping the fabric of UMBC's policies and practices to green the campus and the community. Here are some of the many students who have devoted themselves to environmental sustainability.
“UMBC has allowed me to pursue two seemingly unrelated interests and find ways to connect my passions. I’ve incorporated environmental ideas into my dance choreography while at UMBC, and I hope to continue building upon this in the future.”
Molissa Udevitz
Plans: Environmental Educator, San Joaquin Outdoor School
B.A., Environmental Studies; B.A., Dance
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Eagle River, Alaska
A Linehan Artist Scholar, Molissa has been recognized in both of her fields, receiving the dance department’s Outstanding Senior in Choreography Award and the geography and environmental systems (GES) department’s Outstanding Senior Award. A dance she choreographed for her senior capstone project was selected to be performed at the American College Dance Festival Association Mid-Atlantic conference in spring 2015. Molissa began working as a research assistant in environmental health during her freshman year, and went on to serve as a UMBC eco-ambassador, helping to educate the campus about sustainability. Molissa studied abroad for a semester with a sustainability program in Costa Rica and spent two summers presenting educational programs to the public as an interpretation intern for Lake Clark National Park in Alaska. She is also a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and the Gamma Theta Upsilon International Geographic Honor Society.
“This university has helped me find my voice through immense emotional and mental support and compassionate mentoring from professors, advisors, and dedicated administrators. My ability to be an engaged scholar is intimately tied to the commitment UMBC administration has to students.”
Kelsey Donnellan
Plans: MPH in Maternal and Child Health, George Washington University
B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies (Community Health and Nutrition)
Hometown: San Jose, CaliforniaKelsey founded Just Food UMBC to promote a sustainable and just food system at UMBC by connecting our campus dining to the local agricultural community.
A McNair Scholar, Kelsey has received two BreakingGround grants to launch and extend community initiatives with impact. One supported a seed saving effort in The Garden at UMBC, a community learning space that Kelsey co-founded, where she has served as director of academics. The other grant supported a cooking class with the SUCCESS program that serves young adults with intellectual disabilities. In 2014, Kelsey was also awarded an Undergraduate Research Award to study vegetable and fruit consumption of UMBC students, and co-wrote a winning proposal for the Prove It! competition. She was also selected as UMBC’s nominee for the nationally prestigious Truman Scholarship. This year she has been honored as a Shattuck Family Scholarship recipient and received the Mary Jo Kleiner Award for Outstanding Service to Interdisciplinary Studies. Kelsey has also supported and mentored students as a resident assistant at Harbor Hall and the Walker Avenue Apartments.
Andres Camacho
Plans: Food Systems Researcher
B.A., Entrepreneurship and Digital Communication in Interdisciplinary Studies
Hometown: Montgomery Village, Maryland
Andres founded True Greens, which grows micro greens and salad greens in on-campus greenhouses which are then served at Wild Greens, the salad bar in the Commons, and at local restaurants.
Andres is a two-time winner of the Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship Idea Competition, Shattuck Family Entrepreneurial Fellow, and was a finalist in the 2015 Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition. For UMBC's 2012 Idea Competition, he and his collaborators won the top award for Banana Bones, a campus wayfinding mobile app they developed and later sold to Tecore Networks. The team donated a portion of the revenue to help build UMBC’s Entre-space, which is specifically designated to support students as they develop skills in entrepreneurship. For the 2014 Idea Competition, he pitched True Greens, which empowers students to shape their own campus food system. Andres was also the recipient of the 2014 Joseph and Frieda Faiman Eisenberg/VPC Endowed Scholarship.
“UMBC has prepared me for a world with complex challenges that require an entrepreneurial mindset and true interdisciplinary collaboration. UMBC's commitment to undergraduates and civic agency has allowed me to gain first-hand experience on how to launch an organization.”
Plans: NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology, University of Pittsburgh
Ph.D., Geography and Environmental Systems
Magna Cum Laude
Hometown: Orrtanna, Pennsylvania
Over the course of her graduate studies at UMBC, Anna has combined her love of gardening with her research interests to have a lasting impact through improving Baltimore’s urban environment and serving an important–and often overlooked—population. As an active participant in the Maryland Green Prisons Initiative, Anna worked with inmates at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women to understand how different plants interact with weeds in vacant lots to improve urban ecology. She has received significant recognition and support for her work as an NSF IGERT Trainee through the UMBC Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education and as a Phipps Botany-in-Action Fellow. She received a Maryland Native Plant Society Research Grant award and served as the Baltimore Ecosystem Study graduate student representative. During her two-year NSF post-doctoral fellowship in biology, she will use herbarium specimens to reconstruct historic plant-pollinator interaction networks, mentored by Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman at the University of Pittsburgh.
"At UMBC I have consistently been challenged, not only academically, but also through opportunities to improve my leadership, time management, teamwork, and communication skills."
Susanna Campbell
Plans: M.S., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
Cum Laude
B.S., Biological Sciences
Hometown: Towson, Maryland
“UMBC has allowed me to pursue two seemingly unrelated interests and find ways to connect my passions. I’ve incorporated environmental ideas into my dance choreography while at UMBC, and I hope to continue building upon this in the future.”
Molissa Udevitz
Plans: Environmental Educator, San Joaquin Outdoor School
B.A., Environmental Studies; B.A., Dance
Summa Cum Laude
Hometown: Eagle River, Alaska
A Linehan Artist Scholar, Molissa has been recognized in both of her fields, receiving the dance department’s Outstanding Senior in Choreography Award and the geography and environmental systems (GES) department’s Outstanding Senior Award. A dance she choreographed for her senior capstone project was selected to be performed at the American College Dance Festival Association Mid-Atlantic conference in spring 2015. Molissa began working as a research assistant in environmental health during her freshman year, and went on to serve as a UMBC eco-ambassador, helping to educate the campus about sustainability. Molissa studied abroad for a semester with a sustainability program in Costa Rica and spent two summers presenting educational programs to the public as an interpretation intern for Lake Clark National Park in Alaska. She is also a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and the Gamma Theta Upsilon International Geographic Honor Society.
“This university has helped me find my voice through immense emotional and mental support and compassionate mentoring from professors, advisors, and dedicated administrators. My ability to be an engaged scholar is intimately tied to the commitment UMBC administration has to students.”
Kelsey Donnellan
Plans: MPH in Maternal and Child Health, George Washington University
B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies (Community Health and Nutrition)
Hometown: San Jose, CaliforniaKelsey founded Just Food UMBC to promote a sustainable and just food system at UMBC by connecting our campus dining to the local agricultural community.
A McNair Scholar, Kelsey has received two BreakingGround grants to launch and extend community initiatives with impact. One supported a seed saving effort in The Garden at UMBC, a community learning space that Kelsey co-founded, where she has served as director of academics. The other grant supported a cooking class with the SUCCESS program that serves young adults with intellectual disabilities. In 2014, Kelsey was also awarded an Undergraduate Research Award to study vegetable and fruit consumption of UMBC students, and co-wrote a winning proposal for the Prove It! competition. She was also selected as UMBC’s nominee for the nationally prestigious Truman Scholarship. This year she has been honored as a Shattuck Family Scholarship recipient and received the Mary Jo Kleiner Award for Outstanding Service to Interdisciplinary Studies. Kelsey has also supported and mentored students as a resident assistant at Harbor Hall and the Walker Avenue Apartments.
Andres Camacho
Plans: Food Systems Researcher
B.A., Entrepreneurship and Digital Communication in Interdisciplinary Studies
Hometown: Montgomery Village, Maryland
Andres founded True Greens, which grows micro greens and salad greens in on-campus greenhouses which are then served at Wild Greens, the salad bar in the Commons, and at local restaurants.
Andres is a two-time winner of the Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship Idea Competition, Shattuck Family Entrepreneurial Fellow, and was a finalist in the 2015 Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition. For UMBC's 2012 Idea Competition, he and his collaborators won the top award for Banana Bones, a campus wayfinding mobile app they developed and later sold to Tecore Networks. The team donated a portion of the revenue to help build UMBC’s Entre-space, which is specifically designated to support students as they develop skills in entrepreneurship. For the 2014 Idea Competition, he pitched True Greens, which empowers students to shape their own campus food system. Andres was also the recipient of the 2014 Joseph and Frieda Faiman Eisenberg/VPC Endowed Scholarship.
“UMBC has prepared me for a world with complex challenges that require an entrepreneurial mindset and true interdisciplinary collaboration. UMBC's commitment to undergraduates and civic agency has allowed me to gain first-hand experience on how to launch an organization.”
- “UMBC has allowed me the flexibility to engage with the broader non-academic community and conduct interdisciplinary research by being supportive of non-traditional projects, such as my work with Maryland prison sustainability efforts.”
Plans: NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology, University of Pittsburgh
Ph.D., Geography and Environmental Systems
Magna Cum Laude
Hometown: Orrtanna, Pennsylvania
Over the course of her graduate studies at UMBC, Anna has combined her love of gardening with her research interests to have a lasting impact through improving Baltimore’s urban environment and serving an important–and often overlooked—population. As an active participant in the Maryland Green Prisons Initiative, Anna worked with inmates at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women to understand how different plants interact with weeds in vacant lots to improve urban ecology. She has received significant recognition and support for her work as an NSF IGERT Trainee through the UMBC Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education and as a Phipps Botany-in-Action Fellow. She received a Maryland Native Plant Society Research Grant award and served as the Baltimore Ecosystem Study graduate student representative. During her two-year NSF post-doctoral fellowship in biology, she will use herbarium specimens to reconstruct historic plant-pollinator interaction networks, mentored by Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman at the University of Pittsburgh.
Susanna Campbell
Plans: M.S., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
Cum Laude
B.S., Biological Sciences
Hometown: Towson, Maryland
After a conversation with her freshman advisor, Dr. Kevin Omland, MARC U*STAR scholar Susanna discovered her passion for evolutionary biology research. She started working in Dr. Omland's lab and traveled to Puerto Rico with a research team to study the birdsong of the female Puerto Rican oriole. That freshman experience had a profound impact on her undergraduate career, leading Susanna to research in Puerto Rico every year, win top poster prizes at several academic conferences, and receive two Undergraduate Research Awards, as well as honors from the biological sciences department. Susanna is also a leader in several student organizations, serving as the president of the Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority and vice president of UMBC’s Women of Color Coalition.
