On May 23, UMBC’s alumni community grew by more than 2000 members at the university’s 41st annual spring commencement ceremonies. UMBC Magazine would like to introduce you to four graduates who have joined the select ranks of Retriever alumni – and encourage you to check out more at our Class of 2011 website (umbc.edu/classof2011).

Phillip Fitzgerald, this year’s salutatorian, worked as a researcher with Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, professor of biological sciences, studying tumor immunology.

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Kevin Cepelak ’05, political science, has a job that comes with a pass that gets him into any Major League Baseball (MLB) park. And when he gets to his office near New York City’s Grand Central Station each day, he rubs elbows with former greats of the game and a chance to work with former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and former New York City Police Department investigators. And he spends his days compiling reports that help MLB officials tackle problem issues in professional sports ranging from steroids to gambling.

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How does a student 1,500 miles from home cope when disaster strikes? How does he offer help and hope across an ocean?

Huguens Jean ’12, Ph.D., electrical engineering, flew to Haiti in March 2010 to find Port-au-Prince still reeling from a devastating earthquake. The streets surrounding his childhood home felt foreign and distorted – unusually silent, filled with unfamiliar smells and crumbling buildings.

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Sometimes a small act of kindness can lead to big results.

One year into her undergraduate education, Kara Freeman ’91, engineering and information technology, was doing well at UMBC. Unbeknownst to her, however, her parents were fretting how to pay for the next semester. A grade school principal of Freeman’s contacted then-vice provost Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, to ask for help.

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