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, and 2008 marks its 20th year on the UMBC campus. 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 was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, recognizing innovative and effective community service and service-learning programs.

UMBC’s Golden Key chapter achieved a Gold chapter standing, the highest reporting standard in the Golden Key International Honour Society. UMBC was recognized for this honor at the 2008 Golden Key International Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

UMBC's Center for History Education has received five $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. The Center will work with elementary, middle and high school teachers in Anne Arundel County Public Schools to improve the teaching and learning by students of American history. 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.

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 sit on the higher education in the arts task forces, the fine arts education advisory panel of the Maryland State Department of Education and the Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance (AEMS). President Freeman Hrabowski is the chair of the AEMS Presidents’ Council.

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.

College of Engineering and Information Technology

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.  

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.

Athletics

The UMBC Athletics Community Outreach Program promotes a positive relationship between our student-athletes and communities surrounding the university. In recent academic years, UMBC athletes performed more than 5,000 hours of community service.

*Last updated 12/18/2008