UMBC Honors and ACHIEVEMENTS

Student Achievements
UMBC students compete with the best for awards, championships, prestigious graduate school admissions and job offers from impressive employers.

UNDERGRADUATE
GRADUATE STUDENTS  

Undergraduate

For the second year in a row, UMBC's College Bowl Team won the Regional College Bowl Tournament. The 2008 team came in first place out of 12 other universities. The team consists of the following students: Michael Fasulo, junior; Bryan Wilkinson, junior; William Krueger, sophomore; and Marc, freshman. The team advanced to the semi-finals in 2007.

The UMBC Chess team won its fifth national championship in nine years in 2009 by beating the University of Texas at Dallas. In 2006, the team earned a place in college chess history by winning the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship – the “World Series” of college chess – for a record-breaking seventh time. They also advanced to the “Final Four” of college chess in 2006.In 2007, the team took first place in the College Chess League tournament.

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Theatre student productions have been invited to perform six times at the finals of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival – more often than any other university theater program in Maryland.

Simran Noor, political science and American studies, received the 2008 Maryland Higher Education Commission's Student Service Award.

Amanda Fernandez ‘10, political science, won the title of Miss Potomac 2008. She will compete for the Miss Maryland crown in June 2009.

The UMBC Camerata was invited to participate as one of the handful of college choirs singing at the 2007 Christmas in Washington, which is attended by the President, his cabinet and other important political figures. The program also was broadcast on cable television's TNT. In April 2007, the Camerata was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall with famed English choral conductor and composer John Rutter. In December 2008, they performed with singer Kenny Rogers at the Hippodrome Theatre, during the portion of Rogers' show devoted to Christmas music.

College of Engineering and Information Technology

Four junior chemical engineering majors – Nick Selock, Marsha Walker, Donterrius Ethridge and Angelina Nealen – received funding from MTV Global Competition for Best Environmental and Sustainability Ideas from Young People Around the World. 

Athletics

The Men’s Basketball team made it to the finals of the America East Conference in 2009. In 2008, the team  advanced to the 2008 America East Championships. It was UMBC's first-ever appearance in a league title game in 22 years at the NCAA Division I level. The team advanced to the semi-finals in 2007.

The men’s basketball, men’s lacrosse and men’s swimming and diving teams competed for America East Championships in 2009. Men’s lacrosse won its fourth championship in four years and the men’s swimming and diving team won its sixth.

Six members of UMBC men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were selected to the 2009 America East Swimming and Diving All-Academic Teams: P.J. Sterba ’09, Zach Vonder Haar ’10, Keilan Freeman ’11, Daniele Surkovich ’09, Tereza Kaplanova ’10 and Lindsay Sherman ’10.

Rising sophomore Michael Pesci has been named among the 30 winners of the “All-Stars Among Us” campaign, which highlights people who have gone above and beyond to serve their communities. Each “All-Star Among Us” winner represents one major league team, and the Pescis were selected to represent the New York Yankees. Pesci is the founder of Perfect Pitch HRD Inc., a nonprofit which has raised $175,000 for people with special needs. 

The Men's Crew Novice 4+ boat won the gold medal at the Johns Hopkins Invitational on Saturday, April 18. The gold medal boat included: Michael Martin ‘10 (coxswain), Keilan Freeman ‘11, Juan M. Collazos ‘12, Pete Temple ‘11 and Dan Davieau ‘11. Eighteen alumni were on hand to watch the men take gold.

Justin Fry ’10 earned All-Academic Team recognition, becoming the first Retriever men’s basketball player to earn that honor in four years of the award.

UMBC guard Carlee Cassidy ’10 became the 16th player in Retriever history to score 1,000 career points in 2009. Cassidy is the fourth-fastest Retriever to reach the milestone as she did it in her 77th career game and just the third to accomplish the feat during her junior season.

Several UMBC women’s basketball players were named to 2009 America East teams. Carlee Cassidy ’10 was named to the America East All-Conference Second Team, while Michelle Kurowski ’12 and Erin Brown ’12 were tabbed to the All-Rookie Team and Meghan Colabella ’11 earned All-Academic Team honors.

Senior Justin Bronson broke the UMBC swimming and diving record in the 200 free and earned a gold medal in a time of 1:37.23.

Swim team member Sam Maccherola ’10 broke the America East Championship record in the 200 free at Boston University in 2009.

For the second consecutive year, four UMBC men’s lacrosse players have been selected to the 2009 U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s All-America squads. Senior midfielder Peet Poillon earned the top honor, earning Second Team honors, while senior goalkeeper Jeremy Blevins repeated as an Honorable Mention selection. Senior midfielder Alex Hopmann and junior linemate Kyle Wimer both earned honorable mention citations.

Tennis standout Cornelia Carapcea ‘09 has become the ninth student-athlete in UMBC history to earn multiple Academic All-America citations as the native of Constanta, Romania, was named to the First-Team Academic All-District II women’s at-large squad. Carapcea, who earned Third Team ESPN The Magazine Academic All American honors last spring, was UMBC’s co-salutatorian at graduation ceremonies on Thursday, May 21. She is the second women’s tennis player to earn multiple honors. Eight of UMBC’s nine honorees have been recognized since 1997.

Brad Reitz was named the 2008 America East Swimming and Diving Rookie of the Year.

Ashley Fauntleroy received the 2008 America East Most Outstanding Field Performer award.

Women’s Swimming and Diving were the only America East team to win an America East championship and post the highest GPA among the conference’s teams in 2008.

Kara Dorr and Ashley Lancer were selected to the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Division-I Academic Honor Roll.

The NCAA's most recent Academic Progress Report ranked UMBC's women's swim team and men's basketball and cross country teams in the top 10 percent of colleges and universities nationally. 

Four UMBC athletic and support teams posted grade point averages of 3.00 or higher in the spring of 2008. Forty-four percent of all students in the program (total of 441) had grade point averages of 3.00 or higher, while 20 percent were over 3.50. Twenty three program participants recorded 4.0 grade point averages in the fall. The women's swimming team has a team grade-point average of 3.31. The only team in the department with a higher GPA is women's tennis, at 3.43.

The America East Conference named UMBC men's basketball player Cavell Johnson its 2008 Male Sportsmanship Award winner.

Cornelia Carapcea was named to ESPN The Magazine's 2008 Academic All-District II women's tennis at-large first team.

Baseball's Rich Conlon was named to the 2008 America East All-Championship Team as a shortstop.

Midfielder Terry Kimener was named to the 2008 USILA All-American lacrosse Second Team, and and defenseman Bobby Atwell, goalkeeper Jeremy Blevins and attackman Ryan Smith earned honorable mentions. Kimener was also named 2008 America East Conference Menís Lacrosse Player of the Year.

Senior attack Ali Levendusky was selected to the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) 2008 Mid-Atlantic All-Region First Team.

Four baseball players were named to the 2008 America East All-Conference Team, and four players earned spots on the 2008 America East All-Academic squad. Joe Fowler and Will Delawter led the Retriever award winners with First-Team All-Conference nods for outfield and designated hitter, respectively, while Wink Nolan and Scott Peddicord earned Second-Team honors for the outfield position. Delawter was also named to the All-Academic squad along with Steve Russo and Ryan Morse and Tom Meaney.

Softball infielder Dana Shepherd was named to the ESPN the Magazine 2008 Academic All-District II University Division First Team for the third year in a row.

Alex Broadwater, interdisciplinary studies, won the 2008 National Collegiate Wrestling Association club team tournament.

graduate Students

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Vikas Behl '04, English, a student in the M.A. in Instructional Systems Design program, received a 2007 Fulbright Award to teach in Turkey.

 “In the Land of Milk and Honey,” a film by Neil Van Gorder, imaging and digital arts M.F.A. candidate, was nominated for Best of Show at the 2007 Rosebud Awards.

College of Engineering and Information Technology

Patricia Ordonez ‘15, a computer science Ph.D. student and president of the Graduate Student Association’s Women in Science and Engineering, received the Jessica Soto Perez Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Graduate Community.

Kamalika Das ‘05, computer science, a student in the Ph.D. in computer science, has received the Grace Hopper Scholarship for Women in Computing.

Andreia Ribeiro, Ph.D. candidate in chemical and biochemical engineering, was selected to receive a two-year Wyeth Fellowship at UMBC.

Bhargavi Kondargunta, Ph.D. candidate in chemical and biochemical engineering, was selected to receive the 2008 Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) Pre-Doctoral Fellowship.

College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences

Kristi Harris, Ph.D. candidate in physics, is UMBC's first Department of Energy Computational Science Fellow. The fellowship will fund her doctoral studies through 2010. Harris conducted research in nanowire technology at Sandia National Labs in New Mexico in summer 2007.

Naresh Sunkara, a Ph.D. student in chemistry and biochemistry, is the graduate student representative of the American Chemical Society's Graduate Education Advisory Board. Sunkara was chosen from 30 applicants in a nationwide search.

*Last updated 6/17/2009