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UMBC is proud of all of our graduates.

On May 21 and 22, we honor bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degree recipients at our Graduate School and Undergraduate Commencement ceremonies. This year, our Graduate School marks a special milestone: surpassing 100 doctoral degrees in one year for the first time! Meet a few of our exceptional students and discover what the future has in store for the Class of 2014.

  • Chinwendu Amazu

    Chinwendu Amazu

    This is an image of a seat engraving for LaMont Toliver, the late director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, in UMBC’s proscenium theatre. He was a key person in my decision to matriculate at UMBC, and the reason that I became interested in my career aspirations.

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  • Charlotte Keniston

    Charlotte Keniston

    For my MFA thesis, I hosted workshops with over 300 participants. Each painted a ceramic dinner plate with their personal story of food. This image shows several of the painters pointing out their plates and sharing their stories with each other.

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  • Samantha Hawkins

    Samantha Hawkins

    On National Pancake Day, I had the opportunity to serve pancakes at the Dundalk IHOP to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Baltimore.

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  • Amy Connor

    Amy Connor

    My art is equally as important to me as my science and I feel that these two fields can benefit each other in wonderful ways. Creativity is innovation, which is of the utmost importance in science, leading to new solutions and discoveries.

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  • Mitchell Donovan

    Mitchell Donovan

    This photo captured a UMBC friend and myself after successfully leading a hike to the summit of Mt. Tongariro in New Zealand as part of a study abroad leadership development course.

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  • Blossom Tewelde

    Blossom Tewelde

    This photo is from a coffeehouse hosted by Enigma Artists Society. I have written poetry my whole life, but I only truly became comfortable sharing my work publicly while at UMBC, where I constantly had opportunities to perform.

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  • Kat Schuster

    Kat Schuster

    I spent seven of my eight semesters dedicated to the costume shop on campus, where I learned so many of my skills and gained so much passion for my craft.

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  • Justin Jacobsa

    Justin Jacobs

    I appear in this photo with President Barack Obama on April 14, 2014 after receiving the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) for my work in geonavigation algorithms and modeling development. The award is the highest U.S. government honor for scientists in their first five years of independent research.

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  • Mark Bennett

    Mark Bennett

    Dr. George La Noue and I presented a co-authored paper at the Southern Economics Association 82nd Annual Meeting in Louisiana.

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  • Damon Bradley

    Damon Bradley

    This is the team I led to develop the Soil-Moisture Active-Passive Radiometer Digital Signal Processing (DSP) System. It is the most sophisticated DSP system ever built; it is scheduled to launch as part of the SMAP mission in November 2014. UMBC alumnus Mark Wong is also on this team, and this work represents the start of my Ph.D. research topic as well.

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  • Caitlyn Leiter-Mason

    Caitlyn Leiter-Mason

    This picture is from the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was elected to represent my home Congressional district because of my political activism in high school and my leadership in college. Being a part of the political process in this way–alongside lifelong activists, elected officials and other political leaders–was an incredible culmination of my studies and extracurricular activities, and inspired me to continue to pursue politics as a career.

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  • >Meghan Carpenter

    Meghan Carpenter

    In this photo I (at right) joined Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley at an event discussing the affordability of higher education. I spearheaded the Retrievers for Affordability advocacy campaign, a student-driven response to a 2012 budget scenario that would have drastically increased tuition for students and brought financial hardship on the university as a whole.

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  • Melissa Lomax

    Melissa Lomax

    Out of the nine disabled American youth selected to travel to Damascus, Syria for the Open Hands Youth Abilities Summit, I was one of two blind students. We worked with 25 disabled Syrian youth to better understand the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

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  • Emily Scheerer

    Emily Scheerer

    This image is from Homecoming 2012 and demonstrates UMBC’s unique kind of school spirit. My sister, Rebecca, and I are proudly showing our UMBC colors in our matching Honors College t-shirts, highlighting the academic pride of UMBC students.

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  • Kabish Shah

    Kabish Shah

    This photo celebrates last day of my NASA Engineering Exploration Training (NExT) robotics class, where students proudly present the robots they have been working on over the past four weeks.

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  • Ke “Coco” Tang<

    Ke “Coco” Tang

    In December 2013, following Typhoon Haiyan, I assisted with disaster relief on the island of Ormoc in the Philippines, a few hours from the port of Talcoban. This area was among the hardest hit by the typhoon.

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  • Cho Fung Chim

    Cho Fung Chim

    During URCAD, I presented my honors thesis research on the relation between spouses' perceptions of each other’s behaviors and their marital satisfaction. Here I am pictured with my mentor Robin Barry, assistant professor of psychology.

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  • Taylor Good

    Taylor Good

    This picture was taken at Camps Bay during my study abroad at the University of Cape Town in spring 2013. During my time overseas, I saw firsthand a state struggling to heal from deep ethnic divisions, and I interacted with people who, despite overwhelming poverty, still maintained motivation to succeed in life.

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  • Kelsey Krach

    Kelsey Krach

    While studying abroad in South America, I had the opportunity to attend classes and participate in service, as well as travel throughout Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Here, I just finished peaking Huayna Picchu at Machu Picchu, one of the most exhilarating moments of my life.

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  • Mary Hester

    Mary Hester

    My time at UMBC taught me how to combine my passions for dancing and advocacy. Here I am on the UMBC stage.

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  • Sebastian Snowberger

    Sebastian Snowberger

    This photograph shows me taking a sample from my UV reactor to test for the kinetics of fluoroquinolone antibiotics. I have been researching treatment methods for pharmaceuticals for the last two years and I am excited to publish my work soon!

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  • Melissa Hartman

    Melissa Hartman

    This is an image of me and Dr. Carolyn Knight at last year’s Social Work graduation tea. I was the very first recipient of the Susan Bernstein Scholarship. What a huge honor!

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  • Kim Berghaus

    Kim Berghaus

    Playing tennis was my initial motivation to come to the United States and it has led me to my second home here at UMBC. This picture shows me hitting a backhand volley while I am competing for UMBC.

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  • Tabitha Haverkamp

    Tabitha Haverkamp

    During the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) “Spring Into Leadership” event, more than 100 students, faculty/staff, and industry professionals gathered in the UC Ballroom to learn more about leadership through networking, mentoring and hands-on activities. As a host for the evening, I introduced topics for brainstorming and ensured all attendees left with ideas for becoming better leaders in their communities. Having the opportunity to represent UMBC on such a large scale was an absolute pleasure and great learning experience.

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  • Dalton Hughes

    Dalton Hughes

    Dr. Lee Blaney and I appear here with Evelyn Ayuma and her family, residents of Isongo, Kenya whom we met during an assessment trip to the area for Engineers Without Borders. In hopes of bringing clean water to this village, we tested water quality and conducted household interviews.

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  • Heather Linville

    Heather Linville

    It has always been the community at UMBC that is most important to me. When asked to select a photo representing my UMBC experience, I chose a picture of me and my mentor, advisor and friend Dr. Beverly Bickel at my Ph.D. candidacy ceremony in Fall 2012.

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  • Brandan McGee

    Brandan McGee

    This photo captures the UMBC cross country team after we won the America East Conference championship last fall. It was the pinnacle of my career to see my efforts pay off after running 80 or more miles per week, every week of the year.

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