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

Two juniors are the recipients of Barry M. Goldwater scholarships for the 2010-2011 academic year. Geoffrey Clapp ‘11, computer science and mathematics, plans to pursue a Ph.D. in applied mathematics. Nathaniel Kim ‘11, chemistry and political science, will pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry.

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 sixth national championship in 10 years by beating the University of Texas at Dallas in 2009. The team also won the championship in 2008 and, 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.

Many UMBC students participated in the 2009 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Phoenix, Arizona, and captured awards. The following students received awards for their presentations: Patrice Starck ‘13 (oral), Kedy Edme ‘12 (poster), Sai Sachin Divakaruni ‘13 (poster), Robert Wardlow ‘13 (oral), Lydia Grmai ‘12  (oral), Nwamaka Dike ‘11 (poster), Jennifer Onyimba ‘13 (poster), Sadella Santos ‘13 (poster), Sonia Metangmo  ‘13  (poster), Lana Zhang ‘13 (poster) and Michael Jenkins, Jr ‘11  (oral).

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.

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.

“GeoMelee,” an iPhone game developed by the students in Associate Professor of Visual Arts Neal McDonald’s spring 2010 IRC Fellows class, was accepted into the 2010 “Come Out and Play Festival 2010.”

Vivian Ekey ’11 and Priyanka Oza ‘12 were awarded the National Security Education Program (NSEP) Boren scholarships. Ekey will participate on the SIT program “Public Health, Race and Human Rights,” in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil for fall 2010. Priyanka Oza will participate on the Alliance for Global Education’s yearlong program in Pune, India. An additional student was selected as an alternate recipient of the award; if awarded the scholarship, Abigail Bratcher ‘12 will study in Russia through the Middlebury Abroad program in Novgorod, Russia.

College of Engineering and Information Technology

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Mini Baja team is the number one team in the U.S., and regularly takes first place at competitions for cost-effectiveness. 

UMBC ranked number #1 among Maryland institutions for the highest number of computer and information science graduates, according to a list released in the 2009 CyberMaryland report by Governor O’Malley.

Athletics

In 2010-11, UMBC Athletics celebrated its 25th anniversary of competing in NCAA Division I athletics. Since that first fall of 1986, the growth of Retriever Athletics has been remarkable—from the quadrupling of staff size to the creation and/or renovation of all athletic facilities. Alma maters and fight songs have been penned and performed, spirit groups created and flourished, attendance records smashed, and yes, championships celebrated. Thirteen of UMBC’s varsity programs have won conference titles and ten have competed in NCAA Championship competition. The Retrievers commemorated the 25th Division I season by welcoming a new logo—one which displays the characteristics of pride and determination. The current group of 400 student-athletes and the thousands of alumni that came before them maintain those traits on the athletic fields, in the classrooms and our communities and well beyond.

In 2010-11…

The men’s soccer team won the America East Conference championship before a wildly enthusiastic home crowd. Pete Caringi’s squad knocked off No. 10 and host Princeton, 2-1, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and battled No. 9 William and Mary to a scoreless draw in the second round in Williamsburg. Earlier in the season, UMBC hosted a Fox Soccer nationally-televised game and drew a record 2,751 fans on Homecoming weekend. The Retrievers finished the season at No. 25 (of 204) in the RPI rankings.

Lacrosse alums Brendan Mundorf, Drew Westervelt and Peet Poillon earned MLL All-Star recognition in the summer of 2011. All three players compete with the Denver Outlaws, along with another former Retriever, Terry Kimener.

In professional soccer, UMBC Hall of Famer Giuliano Celenza announced his retirement after Baltimore Blast after 11 years with the team. He was a a two-time All-League selection. On the diamond, former baseball standout Zach Clark is in his sixth season in the Baltimore Orioles’ system.

The men’s swimming and diving teams repeated as conference champions, while the women recaptured the title in a meet hosted by UMBC at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center. The men have hoisted the trophy in all eight of their America East Conference seasons.

The UMBC women's basketball team won its first-ever America East Conference regular season title, racking up a school Division I-record 20 victories. Phil Stern’s squad advanced to the WNIT, where they led host Florida at intermission before falling to the host Gators. Rising senior Michelle Kurowski, who has already earned her undergraduate degree, was the conference’s Scholar-Athlete and the team was recognized on the WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for the second year in a row. The Retrievers’ 3.374 grade-point average ranked 20th among NCAA Division I schools during the 2010-11 academic year.

The women’s lacrosse team upset Boston University and reached the America East title game for the second consecutive season. Kelly Berger’s squad posted a record of 11-7, which included victories over nationally-ranked Towson and Boston U.

After winning four America East titles and finishing as runners-up in three other sports, UMBC finished in third place in the America East Stuart P. Haskell, Jr. Commissioner’s Cup standings, equaling the school’s best-ever finish in eight seasons in the conference.

Of the 77 UMBC student-athletes that graduated in May 2010, 53 were recognized on the America East Academic Honor Roll, with 29 earning Commissioner’s Honor Roll status for earning a 3.5 GPA or higher during their competition season.

A state-of-the-art lighting system was installed at UMBC Soccer Stadium last month, giving the Retrievers’ men’s and women’s soccer programs the ability to play games under the lights on its plush, Bermuda grass complex.

UMBC Athletics renamed its 3,000-square foot varsity weight room as the Michael S. Knapp Varsity Weight Room and has completed Phase I of renovations. Some of the improvements made to the facility included demolition, repair and painting of the existing walls, the addition of a new ceiling, an expanded office complex, an improved ventilation system, new rubberized floors and the purchase of new equipment.

Swimmer Keilan Freeman and track and field’s Dominic Devaud repeated as Academic All-Americans in 2011. Freeman won the 2011 MACDA Division I Post-Graduate Scholarship and will attend graduate school at Stanford University.

In 2010, Michael Pesci '12, 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 lacrosse team competed in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments (2006-09) and defeated Maryland in the 2007 tournament to reach the national quarterfinals.

In 2008, the men’s basketball team won the America East title and competed in the NCAA Tournament vs. Georgetown in Raleigh, N.C.

Graduate Students

College of Engineering and Information Technology

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Mini Baja team is the number one team in the U.S., and regularly takes first place at competitions for cost-effectiveness. 

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.

Andreia Ribeiro '13, Ph.D., chemical and biochemical engineering, received a two-year Wyeth Fellowship at UMBC.

Bhargavi Kondargunta '13, Ph.D., chemical and biochemical engineering, received the 2008 Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) Pre-Doctoral Fellowship.

College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences

Kristi Harris '10, Ph.D., 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.

*Last updated 6/15/2010