More than 800 degree recipients will be honored when UMBC celebrates Winter Commencement on December 20 in the Retriever Activities Center (RAC) beginning at 10 a.m. Approximately 700 undergraduate students, 100 master's candidates and 20 Ph.D. candidates will join UMBC's Class of 2001.Remarks will be delivered by President Freeman Hrabowski; Alumni Association President Anne Lepore Burger '87; William Wood, a member of the Maryland Board of Regents; Provost Arthur Johnson; and the undergraduate valedictorian, Elizabeth Mitchell.Mitchell, a computer science major, is a native of Columbia, Md."She is inquisitive, competent, confident and completely in charge of her education," said Richard Chang, associate professor of computer science in his valedictory recommendation letter.Mitchell has been working at the Department of Defense since 1999 and has alternated semesters of work and study since then. Upon graduation, she will take a month off to visit relatives and pursue her new-found passion, scuba diving. After her time off she will return to Maryland to begin working full-time for the Department of Defense as a computer scientist."She is that kind of exceptional student that you get every once in a while," said Brooke Stephens, associate dean of the College of Engineering who had Mitchell in his Scientific Computing class."Her intelligence and industrious nature are combined with a friendly and forthright personality. I feel very fortunate to have had Liz as a student."Mitchell is honored to be selected as valedictorian. "I cherish values such as hard work, dedication, and perseverance. I feel that being selected is a public recognition of the importance of those values."For more information on commencement go to http://www.umbc.edu/commencement, or call the Commencement hotline at (410) 455-3100.