If there’s one thing UMBC knows, it’s that odds aren’t everything. Months ago, UMBC softball was predicted to finish last in the America East preseason poll. Apparently nobody told them that.

For the first time ever, UMBC softball has been crowned the America East champions after sweeping the tournament. While others spent Saturday sleeping in and running errands, the Retrievers were cementing their place in the record books, cruising past Stony Brook with a 4-0 victory.

It's time to celebrate @UMBCsoftball!#AESB | #AEChamps pic.twitter.com/eyfpuJqWru

— America East Game Day (@AEGameDay) May 11, 2019

This historic title win guaranteed UMBC an automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA softball tournament, the team’s first since 2002. Last night’s Selection Sunday announcement revealed that the Retrievers will be taking on No. 1 overall seed Oklahoma in the Norman Regional of the NCAA Tournament.

Freshman Courtney Coppersmith, chemistry, has been knocking it out of the park since she got to campus. She’s the first player in America East history to be named Rookie of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in the same season.

Saturday marked Coppersmith’s third shutout of the championship and earned her Most Outstanding Player honors. She is joined on the All-Championship team by teammates Julia Keffler ‘21, biology; Sierra Pierce ‘21, visual arts; and Kaly Winslow ‘21, sociology.

As evidenced by her remarkable work both in the classroom and on the field, Kennedy Lamb ‘20, English, was awarded the America East’s Elite 18 award. This award is recognizes the student-athlete with the highest GPA in each America East championship game.

It’s been a tremendous year for UMBC athletics, clinching four America East titles overall— men’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s swimming/diving, and softball. The 2018-2019 season ties for the most number of championships in UMBC’s 16-year America East history.

Looking at what they’ve accomplished this season, Coppersmith says, “It is definitely an indescribable feeling with so many different emotions, but the success we have had has all been together. As long as we stay together, no matter what happens, whether we win or lose in the NCAA tournament, we will always have each other and can be beyond proud of everything that we have done for the program in just one season.”

The Retrievers take on Oklahoma on Friday, May 17 at 9:30 p.m. EST on ESPN 2. UMBC will play again on Saturday, May 18, facing either Notre Dame or Wisconsin, depending on the outcome of Friday’s games.

Banner image: UMBC softball celebrates following the team’s America East victory. All photos courtesy of UMBC athletics marketing unless otherwise noted.

Townhouse Master Bedroom $650 per month

Access to entire house, deck, and backyard.

2 1/2 Baths

Mattress, desk and dresser included

WI-FI FREE.

Cash or Zelle bank transfer preferred.

Utilities are split between all roommates. (4)

Rooms are available now.

First to pay security deposit secures the room.

Email to set up time to visit the property

Washer and Dryer included

Close in proximity to: Weis, Giant, Walmart, Dollar store, Liqour store, and America's Best Wing

If interested or you have any more questions please contact me via email Raymond8@umbc.edu or text me 3015380321

Kelly Wan ’18, global studies and financial economics, and Humanities Scholar is one of fourteen UMBC students and recent alumni to receive Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards — a new university record.

During her junior year, the Ellicott City local, who is Chinese-American, studied abroad in Shanghai to learn more about Chinese language and culture. There, she became acutely aware of the challenges of managing different identities. “As a Chinese American I encountered misconceptions that Chinese citizens and foreigners alike had about who could be considered an American based on an individual’s physical features,” explains Wan. Through her Fulbright experience in South Korea, she’ll further explore Asian and Asian-American identities.

Wan is currently a graduate student of American studies at Columbia University. Through her Fulbright teaching assistantship, she will gain more insight about South Korea’s political, social, and cultural history. She’ll also seek to understand how Asian Americans construct their identities while reconciling both their Asian and American heritage.

As she connects with students in South Korea, Wan shares, “My hope is to dispel the stereotypes that people often associate with the United States and demonstrate that anyone, regardless of physical appearance, can be American.”

Wan’s story resonates with UMBC’s other Fulbright recipients, the university’s largest group to date. As students prepare to leave over the coming months to connect with people around the world, they share how they hope to challenge stereotypes and encourage peace-building through a shared humanity.

A history of international excellence

UMBC began participating in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program in 1970. Since then, Fulbright has chosen more than 70 UMBC students and recent alumni to represent the United States through conducting research, teaching English, or pursuing graduate studies internationally. UMBC has been particularly successful in the past five to ten years. In the last decade, UMBC has had 65 recipients.

The United States government established the Fulbright Program in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between people of the U.S. and other nations around the world. Today, this “flagship international educational exchange program” is active in over 160 countries. It is highly competitive, receiving over 11,000 applications each year. Recipients are chosen based on academic or professional achievement and demonstrated leadership potential.

Brian Souders Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy, and culture, has been a key leader in collaborating with faculty across campus to identify qualified students in all majors. He then provides one-on-one support for students beginning the summer before the Fulbright announcement and continues providing placement, academic, and social support while students are abroad. As the Fulbright program coordinator, Souders’s attention to detail and passion for connecting Retrievers with this prestigious experience has resulted in a steady increase of recipients over the last ten years.

Embracing different languages and identities

As a linguistics major, Bryce Moore ’19, modern language, linguistics, and intercultural communications (MLLI), is most at home surrounded by people who speak a variety of languages and traveling to countries unfamiliar to him. While studying abroad in Portugal he learned Portuguese and traveled to the U.K., Spain, and Germany. “I have not been anywhere east of Germany,” explains Moore. “Teaching in Kazakhstan is an opportunity to learn Russian and understand more about surrounding countries, each with their own unique identities.”

Dymond Elliott, ’19, psychology and MLLI, also accepted a Fulbright placement in a country unfamiliar to her: Malaysia. Elliott has studied Japanese culture and language extensively through her minor and her study abroad experience. Malaysia presents an opportunity to expand her knowledge of Asian cultures.

“I don’t speak Malay but I am excited to learn and deeply interested in immersing myself in a culture that doesn’t expect assimilation but embraces immigrant identities,” says Elliott.

Deepening cultural ties

After teaching English for two years in Costa Rica, Michael Schapiro, M.A. ’19, TESOL, is ready to apply those skills in Colombia. He is particularly excited about the opportunity for cultural exchange.

“The Latin American people I have met in the U.S and abroad have been very friendly, welcoming, and hospitable,” says Schapiro. “I enjoy that type of rapport and want to continue to build more relationships throughout the continent as I become more fluent.”

Similarly, Corey Simon’s prior experiences in Barcelona and Uruguay, supporting community education organizations, inspired her to explore teaching English further. “I chose Uruguay because I was already familiar with the language, culture, and country so I could jump right in and be most effective with the time I have,” shares Simon ‘18, MLLI, and M.A. ‘19, intercultural communication. “But more than anything I want to give back to the country that has given me such a great experience.”

An experienced world traveler, Rebekah Kempske sees the exchange of ideas as the most pivotal takeaway of her upcoming Fulbright adventure. Kempske ’19, mechanical engineering, joined her family during breaks and holidays to travel the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Latin America. Through her travels, she saw different applications of engineering concepts, which sparked an interest in global engineering.

Kempske chose to learn more about global engineering through a master’s in industrial design at Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. She believes engineering is successful when technical skills and people skills are combined maximizing different working styles and ideas. “International collaboration based on respect takes engineering from a concept to an applicable change agent,” says Kempske, “improving the quality of life for the people who need it the most all over the world.”

A full list of UMBC’s 2019 Fulbright U.S. Student Program awardees for graduate study, English teaching assistantships, and research is below. UMBC’s Fulbright semifinalist story from earlier this spring includes additional student features.

Research Assistant Awards

• Jessica Linus ’19, health administration and policy, Rwanda

English Teaching Assistant Awards

• Jennifer Bohlman ’19, M.A., ESOL, Germany
  
• Liam Connor ’19, information systems, Vietnam
• Dymond Elliot ’19, psychology and MLLI, Malaysia
• Chanler Harris ’19, ancient studies, Taiwan
  
• Leah Ginty ‘14, modern languages, linguistics and intercultural communication, and M.A. ‘19, TESOL
• Bryce Moore ’19, MLLI, Kazakhstan
  
• Manneha Qazi ’18, biological sciences, Uzbekistan
• Michael Schapiro ’19, M.A., TESOL, Colombia
  
• Corey Simon, ’18, MLLI, and M.A. ’19, intercultural communication, Uruguay
• Kelly Wan ’18, global studies and financial economics, South Korea

M.A./M.S. Study Awards

• Rebekah Kempske ’19, mechanical engineering, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
• Jacob Schubbe ‘18, mechanical engineering, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland
• Julian Tash ’19, Asian studies and history, Taiwan

Banner image: UMBC Fulbright recipients hold flags of countries from their respective placements. Images by Marlayna Demond for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

The Retriever Room in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions: 12pm-1pm!

  Alexia Petasis is a student staff member at the Women’s Center. Alexia is pursuing an individualized studies degree with a concentration on social justice and dance. She is a co-facilitator for Pop-Culture Pop-Ups.

Originally with this blog I wanted to to explore the ways in which the gender wage gap could be mitigated by giving fathers the same parental leave policies as new mothers. However, as I started researching I found that there many more benefits than pay equity; more equitable parental leave policies have the capacity to end the traditional gendered division of labor.

In order to talk about this issue through an intersectional feminist lens, I want to add a disclaimer about the language I use in this blog post. I will be referring to mothers as those who give birth and fathers as those who co-parent with mothers; however, this is a heteronormative and cisgender-centered assumption. There are many different people who give birth who may or may not identify with the label of “mother.” In spite of this, our language for parental leave policies has remained stagnant which is a problem in and of itself. I will be dividing my conversation among “maternal” and “paternal” conceptions of leave as they are articulated by policy, but I hope that I can also offer space to challenge those conceptions and show the diversity in sets of parents that exist in the world.

Let me start with explaining what paid paternity and maternity leave is and what our policies are here in the United States. Paid paternity and maternity leave is when new parents have access to a select amount of paid time off after having children. Obviously, the time given off for new mothers or those who give birth fluctuates based on their employment and which state they live. On average, based on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), maternity leave can ensure up to 12 unpaid weeks off. In the United States, we currently do not have any policies in place to give mothers paid time off or fathers any time off, paid or unpaid. This discourages new parents from taking any time off work after having a child. Having only the mother stay at home with the new-born child perpetuates the stereotype that the father is the breadwinner of the family (this is further complicated when we think about lesbian and gay couples raising children). Mothers might only take a limited period of time off, they might take off and then stay home for a while and rejoin the workforce, but regardless there are usually consequences to any time off they take. Women in the workforce also face pregnancy discrimination, which results in being fired, not hired, or otherwise discriminated against due to being pregnant or intending to become pregnant.

To give some context to how this is related to eliminating the wage gap, experts argue that the wage gap is not only due to women getting paid less on the dollar than men, but because of the “motherhood penalty.” This penalty is the effect of the time women take off from their work after having children and the negative impact it has on their ability to get promotions, get raises, or gain more years of professional experience. While there are plenty of women that go back to work soon after they have children, women are often still the ones who engage in childcare work or unpaid domestic labor while still doing professional work, known as the “second-shift.”  

For an issue as complex as this one seems, it actually is not too hard to see how gender norms are deeply ingrained in us growing up and how the policies then reflect that. For example, growing up I am sure you were relegated to play with certain types of toys based on your assigned gender. For me, that meant playing the stay-at-home mom with the very realistic baby doll I had, being gifted an ironing board playset, and spending my free time pretending to be an elementary school teacher. Clearly, all these toys and pretend games had a theme; they were all things I had seen the women in my life doing. They were tasks that involved staying in the home, taking up childcare responsibilities, and embodying the caring and nurturing traits that women were expected to hone and perfect.  In contrast, my brother had a range of different Superman, Batman, and Spiderman costumes he would dress-up with alongside a collection of hot-wheels race cars. Now, if we think about the gendered division of toys and play, we can understand what society expects out of us solely based on our gender.

Reflecting on this dichotomy as a 21-year-old, I cannot help but also note the irony of how I have grown into an adult woman:  the fields in which I have the most work experience are babysitting and teaching.

I use this as an example to demonstrate the harm that arises when we grow up thinking our talents, abilities, and traits are determined by our gender and the expectations that we believe we have to abide by when wanting to have a family. I’d also like to bring up the hetero-normative structure of these policies since the expectation is having a mom and dad, but the reality could be having two moms, two dads, a single parent, or two non-binary parents. Instead of the division of labor being equal and both parents being confident in their ability to stay at home and raise a child, that responsibility is socially cemented as women’s work. In doing so, men stay at their job and advance their career while moms face the consequences of their time off, and those fathers actually receive higher wages after having a child, known as the “fatherhood bonus.”

Regardless of whether the mom stays home for a bit, goes right back to work, or the parents hire a nanny, working mothers almost always engage in the second shift, something  I have seen in my countless years of babysitting. Mothers and fathers might work the same amount of hours a week but whereas a father is only expected to work and then come home, the mother makes sure dinner is made, the house is cleaned, the kids are picked up, and everyone in the family and home is in order (which often involves a heavy emotional and mental burden).

Paid paternity leave policies would not only benefit new-fathers in hetero-sexual relationships it also benefits new fathers in non-heterosexual relationships, where both parents are fathers and in relationships where the father is the one giving birth. In Soraya Chemaly’s book, “Rage Becomes Her:The Power of Women’s Anger” she discusses how in LGBTQ relationships, parenting relationships are usually more egalitarian unless there’s a stronger butch/femme expression of gender, in which case the disparity of parental duties begins to resemble heterosexual partnerships more clearly. Giving all new parents paid leave, no matter their relationship to their partner, could result in cultural shifts that give space for all types of parents to be present in the beginning of their children’s lives.

I was motivated to write this piece as a personal way to reflect on parental relationships that I have seen who did not divide childcare responsibilities equally and observed the unfair expectations for mothers to “do-it-all.” I wanted to tie in how that mentality hinders any progress for an equitable home and workforce.To do so, I had to look back on how my gender shaped so many aspects of my personality and how I always thought the traits of caring and nurturing just came easily for me. This realization pushes me to consider how I will raise my children in a way that rejects this gendered expectations of emotional labor, childcare, and professional work. Moving forward, my hopes are that an equitable parenting relationship is respected by my partner and my workplaces.

This gets me back to my main point. In order to create equality in the workforce and at home, policies should ensure that both mothers and fathers receive equal paid time off after having children. This would reward and motivate parents to take their time off and engage in the responsibilities of being parents. It would also mitigate the motherhood penalty and pregnancy discrimination as now both men and women would be expected to leave their place of work when they have a child. Furthermore, it would create a new generation of men that will not shy away from care-taking and embrace their abilities to be nurturing.

Check out these resources to learn more about the topics that were covered in the blog:

The Impact of Equal Pay on Poverty and the Economy

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/01/the-daddy-track/355746/