UMBC Honors and ACHIEVEMENTS

OUTREACH
UMBC is a leader in outreach and advocacy at the local, state and national levels.

The Shriver Center’s Choice Program has become a national model for supporting at-risk youth. This delinquency prevention program, administered by UMBC’s Shriver Center, has provided support to 18,000 children throughout Maryland. Choice has been successfully replicated in Hartford, Connecticut in 1997, San Diego, California in 1998, and Syracuse, New York in 2003.

UMBC’s Center for History Education received four $1 million grants from the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History Grant Program to invigorate the teaching of history in elementary, middle and high schools. This is the fourth grant the Center has received from the Department of Education. Over the next few years, the Center will collaborate with Baltimore County Public Schools to enable 30 elementary, middle and high school teachers of American history to become Master Teachers. The Center is a resource for educators throughout Maryland and beyond – an online library of lesson plans, created by program participants, can be accessed by teachers across the country.

A leadership gift of $5 million from George and Betsy Sherman funds UMBC’s Sherman STEM Teacher Training Program, designed to dramatically increase the number of UMBC graduates who move immediately into science, technology, engineering and math teaching careers in at-risk and challenged schools in Baltimore City and throughout Maryland. UMBC seeks to become one of the nation’s leading institutions for training STEM teachers to work in at-risk schools.

The Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program supports a diverse pool of talented undergraduates seeking to become effective leaders in government, non-profits, corporations and the community. Scholars understand and address the urgent social problems of cities and communities through service learning, internships, research opportunities and mentoring. Student service placements include Baltimore City elementary and middle schools, the Learning Bank Adult Literacy Center and the Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents, and internships include the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, Maryland Department of Budget and Management and the U.S. Congress.

As many as 750 middle school students attend UMBC’s annual Computer Mania Day, presented by UMBC’s Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT). Parents, teachers and community leaders participate in a separate program for adults to learn how to encourage girls to explore opportunities in IT and engineering.  

In fall 2006, CWIT partnered with Maryland’s Department of Business and Economic Development and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation to launch Maryland’s first women and technology forum, Global Trends in Technology:  Propelling Women into Leadership. Nearly 250 professionals from manufacturing, biotechnology, information technology and engineering attended to hear executive-level speakers and participate in panel presentations and one-on-one counseling sessions for prospective business owners.  One outcome of the event is a Baltimore-area networking association for women and technology.

CWIT’s ESTEEM Program served approximately 125 students at five local middle schools in 2006-07. The program includes after-school, weekend and summer camp components that help build girls’ (and boys’) interest in math, science and technology with a special focus on IT. Each student receives over 120 hours of contact from UMBC undergraduate and graduate students who serve as both role models and classroom consultants.

The Maryland State Department of Education asked UMBC to be the university affiliate for Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a four-year high school engineering program. UMBC provides teacher and counselor training, high school accreditation, AP-like course credit and community college articulation. Twenty-five schools in Maryland have begun teaching the courses. PLTW is led by Anne Spence, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

More than 500 middle-school youth and their families participated in the annual FIRST LEGO League State Tournament at UMBC in January 2007. The competition builds students’ ability to design and program LEGO robots, and the University provides faculty and staff support, coordinated by Anne Spence, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Spence received the 2007 Volunteer of the Year award from the FIRST LEGO League of Maryland for her work with the league, Project Lead the Way and students at UMBC.

Sari Bennett, clinical associate professor of geography and environmental systems, is coordinator for the Maryland Geographic Alliance which has worked with over 12,000 K-12 teachers since 1989. Jointly funded by the State of Maryland and the National Geographic Society, the Maryland Geographic Alliance develops lesson plans and other materials for teachers to use in their classrooms, and presents workshops and summer institutes.

UMBC’s Emergency Health Services (EHS) department provides crucial training for paramedics, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and other first responders across Maryland. While UMBC’s EHS students and graduates serve their communities at hospitals, police stations and fire houses across the state, perhaps the biggest impact of their education is felt in small towns.  The department is one of the few of its kind in the U.S. to be affiliated with a local Shock Trauma Center.

Since 1995 the Department of Dance has operated Project REACH, an outreach program that has benefited thousands of public school children and their teachers in Baltimore County and Baltimore City elementary, middle and high schools. Sponsored by the Morton and Sophia Macht Foundation, this program offers modern dance and movement workshops and performances.

The university’s two art galleries, the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) and the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, open their doors to hundreds of area school children each year for guided tours and discussions. Additionally, the CADVC and the Imaging Research Center operate outreach programs to disadvantaged communities in Baltimore City.

UMBC’s arts faculty and staff are leaders in arts education advocacy and policy-making at the local, state and national levels. They participated in the formation of Baltimore Partners for Enhanced Learning (a Ford Foundation-funded pilot program in arts integration) and sit on the higher education task forces of the national Arts Education Partnership and the statewide Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance (AEMS). Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Kathy O’Dell is chair of the AEMS Presidents’ Council.

*Last updated 3/14/2008