A Goodwill Ambassador

By Denise Elizabeth Lee Philosophy and Sociology '83

First, he told his employer. For eight years, while a human resources manager with AT&T, Herpel was responsible for recruiting new graduates to work in positions in computer science, electrical engineering and information systems. He worked first at AT&T headquarters in New Jersey, and then in their Northern Virginia office.

UMBC is one of the key feeder schools for AT&T in the Mid-Atlantic region. "I knew that I could get graduates from UMBC who could walk in the door and start to make an impact right away," says Herpel. He recruited six UMBC alumni to AT&T this past summer alone, before accepting a position as a human resources manager with SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare in New Jersey.

Herpel also tells high school students about UMBC. "I attend recruitment functions as a goodwill ambassador," says Herpel. Energetic and enthusiastic, Herpel also serves on the UMBC Alumni Association board and he is the proud father of Emily Herpel.

When Herpel's daughter was considering colleges, he tried not to pressure her, despite his enthusiasm. "We looked at a lot of schools, and visited a lot of campuses," he says. "I wanted it to be her choice."

"I've been happy there," says Emily Herpel. "I've liked all my classes, and I've made a lot of friends through my sorority." She loves to write and has especially enjoyed her English classes.

Herpel remembers his own early days at UMBC. He had started college elsewhere in Baltimore, but he was not impressed. "Someone told me about UMBC. At the time, it was a pretty new school," he says. "From the first, I was challenged, and then it really impacted me when I went into the graduate program."

In 1974, Herpel was taking one of his first graduate psychology seminars. The professor was Charles Catania, who Herpel says has a reputation as being "very tough, very demanding, but respected by the students. I did my midterm and handed it in," says Herpel. "The next class, I got it back and Dr. Cantania said, `This is not A work. You are capable of doing A work, and I expect A work.' He gave me some suggestions and said to hand it back when I had redone it." Herpel re-did the exam, earned his A and gained confidence in his intellectual abilities and a new approach to academics.

"That," says Herpel, "was a defining point in my life." As a result, he says, the most important lesson he took away from UMBC was the value of critical thinking. "I realized that it was learning how to approach a problem that counted."

It's that quality of critical thinking that Herpel looks for when he recruits new college graduates to work for him.

Herpel enjoys coming back to UMBC for the spring recruitment fairs arranged by Career Development and Placement. "I know I'll see people who have gotten the same good quality education there that I did."

Two recent graduates recruited by Herpel for AT&T are Maggie Cheng, information systems '98, and Ed Fowlkes, Jr., computer science '98. Both say that Herpel made them feel comfortable, and they liked the shared UMBC connection. Cheng says, "He was nice and I could tell that the people at AT&T were friendly." Fowlkes said that Herpel talked with him about UMBC. "I liked it," says Fowlkes, "we had something in common."

Cheng and Fowlkes agree that they received a quality education at UMBC that prepared them for their current jobs. "It was a good program," says Fowlkes. "When you get out, you are pretty much ready to learn whatever they throw at you." They both interviewed with other companies before choosing AT&T. "I liked the job," says Cheng. "It's in my field, database administration, they offered a good salary and it's a big company with lots of opportunities."

Opportunities for learning are everywhere at UMBC, says Herpel. "UMBC is known to be strong in technical fields like engineering and computer science," he says, "but I know they have that same approach to academics in all areas_in science, the arts and humanities. You can go there and get a good education."

Denise Elizabeth Lee is an editor with the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.