Category: Spotlight

What do math, music, menus, and machinery all have in common? They’re all themes explored at the most recent UH Student Fellow Roundtable!

Each semester, a cohort of our Student Fellows share their work with the UH Faculty, Staff, and peer Fellows at a one-night-only roundtable event. This Fall, we welcomed four Fellows to the floor to present their work: Alyssa Forester, Michelle Zheng, Sabine Buccheri, and Sarah Bamba. Learn more about each of their projects below!

Alyssa Forester
Alyssa’s project, “Math-ish: Reducing Math Anxiety and Building Belonging,” focuses on the ways in which women, particularly women of color, are often pushed away from the field of mathematics. Her original Vantage Point project was to create a club targeting Black female undergrads in non-STEM courses who still had an interest in math. Upon further research and advisement, she moved to having a one-off event instead. This Math Party (complete with pizza!) will happen later this semester and aims to bring the fun back to math fundamentals.

Michelle Zheng
Michelle’s project, “Translating the Grande Buffet,” may have started out as a conversation on multimedia translation, but morphed into a tangible service project that made a local Asian restaurant legible to customers who did not speak the same language. She has already created multiple fliers, menu mockups, and a slogan for the restaurant: “Tradition on every plate. Culture in every bite.” She is now turning her attention to the creation of a new website and hopes to complete it by the end of the academic year.

Sabine Buccheri
Sabine’s project, “Part Two,” showcases an artist’s journey from ideation to creation and, finally, to production. A musician at heart, she has written roughly 40 minutes of music and is currently in the middle of recording demos for the 12 songs that will make up her album. She aims to use local spaces and artists around MD to help her in creating the final product later this year.

Sarah Bamba
Sarah’s project, “The Lamin Organization,” started with one simple goal: to make assistive technology accessible to underserved families. But that goal has proven to be much more complex as she has spent the last year not only registering as a UMD student organization, but also working toward founding her own non-profit based on their work. Her next big project is creating and facilitating their first fundraising gala this spring.

ICYMI: Our busy students are continuing to impress. Check out two recent pieces in UMD’s Maryland Today to learn more about some of our best and brightest doing amazing things!

First off, Vivian Maneval (Environmental Science & Policy, ’27) took part in the Korea Climate Corps in Seoul this summer alongside fellow terps. Read more here.

Joshua Martinez (Kinesiology, ’28), volunteered this summer as a medical assistant on a trip to San José, Honduras with UMD Global Brigades. Read more here.

Rory Kepner (Animal Science, ’30) has summited 10 of the 48 4,000-foot-tall mountains in her home state of New Hampshire. Read more here.

Katherine “Kathy” Liu (Music Performance & Economics, ’30) founded the first Oklahoma chapter of the nonprofit Back to Bach. Read more here.

Last, but not least, Lily Sieck (Architecture, ’30) is a duckpin bowling champion! Read more here.

Congratulations to all of you for your incredibly achievements. We can’t wait to see what you do next!

We’re thrilled to see so many members of the extended UH Community getting their flowers! Check out a few of the recent postings about our previous and returning faculty below.

1. Dr. Richard Bell (3-time UH Lead Fellow; Revolution, Butterfly Effects, and upcoming 2027 Cluster) was recently recognized at UMD’s Faculty/Staff Convocation as a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher! Read more here.

2. Dr. Derek Paley (previous UH Affiliate Fellow; Metamorphosis) was recently named Fellow by the ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) in recognition of his outstanding engineering achievements in advancing the field of collective dynamics and controls. Read more here.

3. Dr. Ricardo Arevalo Jr. (previous UH Affiliate Fellow; Redesigning Life) is part of a team of researchers in the University of Maryland’s Department of Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences who was recently awarded a three-year, $1.1 million grant from NASA to help create a tool that could help future space missions identify signs of life on other worlds more effectively and efficiently than ever before. Read more here.

Please join us in congratulating these members of the extended UH faculty community!

The UH Community was busy, busy, busy this summer! We asked folks to let us know what they’ve been up to and you all showed up and showed out! Hear about a few amazing summer adventures below!

*Prof. Max Barnewitz attended the Comics Studies Society’s conference in Columbus, OH to present their talk “Getting Graphic: Comics as a Resistance Pedagogy” based on their UH Change the Narrative cluster course!

*Elayna Stien was a Policy Research intern at the Comptroller of Maryland this summer!

*Dr. Alena Wigodner returned from a season of archeological fieldwork at Segesta in Sicily!

*Zaila Avant-Garde conducted virology research at Harvard Medical School and presented her research at her first symposium this summer!

*Prof. DeNeen Brown led a Summer Study Abroad course in Tanzania where her students made mini-documentaries about their research while abroad!

*Ndeye Dieng participated in the final cohort of the Summer Health Professions Program (SHPEP) where she got to be a medical track scholar!

*Jessie Reider took an Education Abroad trip to the Galápagos Islands!

*Gabriel Santiago completed the internship portion of his Hollings Scholarship at NOAA’s Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs!

Want to share your exciting adventures, experiences, awards, and more with the UH community? Tell us all about it using the form here!

A talented community of Black writers have thrived in Washington, DC for over 100 years, nurturing a rich tradition of African American intellectualism and literature predating the Harlem Renaissance. In No More Worlds to Conquer, local poet and UH Lead Fellow Brian Gilmore shares this history, writes his own life story as a poet in DC, and makes the case for the nation’s capital as a center of American literature.

Join DC History Center and The People’s Archive at MLK Library on Wednesday, September 2 to hear Gilmore in conversation with Holly Bass.

Their conversation will trace the literary life, politics, and influence of DC’s Black poets to understand the history and culture of the city. Whether you’re a poetry enthusiast, DC scholar, or interested in the city’s Black culture and history—this book talk is for you!

Learn more and register to join the conversation here!

The darkest hours of our lives are critical moments in a friendship, the times that can determine whether the relationship continues to thrive long after the moment of need has passed.

Marisa G. Franco, an assistant clinical professor of psychology based in the University of Maryland’s Honors College, says that it can be daunting to figure out how to pull off this balancing act.

The expert in human connection is the New York Times bestselling author of ”Platonic: How The Science of Attachment Can Help You Make — and Keep — Friends” and will release her second book, ”Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment,” next month. In an essay published Wednesday on CNBC, Franco shares things you should never say — and what to say and do instead—to support a struggling friend.  

Read the full Op/Ed piece here!

Eight rising juniors at the University of Maryland have been awarded Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarships from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of the premier honors for undergraduates in the field.

The students will each receive $19,000 of academic assistance and a paid summer internship with NOAA next year. The UMD cohort—the largest in the nation this year and second-highest ever at UMD—brings Maryland’s total number of Hollings Scholars since 2008 to 56.

“This best-in-the-nation result in NOAA’s most prestigious undergraduate scholarship program is a testament to Maryland’s exceptional students and our institution-wide commitment to environmental excellence,” said Francis DuVinage, director of the National Scholarships Office. “We couldn’t be prouder of our Hollings Scholars and the vital work they’re doing to meet the pressing environmental challenges of our time.”

Of the 128 new Hollings Scholars, selected from a competitive applicant pool of 829 students, two scholars include UH juniors Khushi Desai and Donovan Fry.

Read more about their work and their peer scholars here.

Two University of Maryland juniors working on environmental issues have been awarded prestigious scholarships from the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation. 

Vivian Maneval ’27 and Michelle Wang ’27 were among 65 students nationally selected to receive $7,500 Udall Undergraduate Scholarships, which recognize and support future leaders in environmental, tribal public policy and health care fields.

Learn more about these amazing students and their work, read the full article here.

Previous UH Faculty member, Dr. Jordan Johnson, recently published a new article in Edge Effects online magazine focused entirely on her innovative approach to teaching in University Honors. Her course, HNUH238R: Invasive: Feminist Perspectives on Power, Politics, and Ecosurveillance, was a hit among UH students and included a trip to Greenbelt to help remove invasive species of plants from local parks.

Read the Dr. Johnson’s full article here.

A University of Maryland junior with a passion for environmental justice has been awarded a Truman Scholarship, the nation’s most selective award for underclassmen with exceptional leadership potential, a commitment to a career in government or in the nonprofit sector, and demonstrated academic excellence.

Michelle Wang ’27, a double major in environmental science and policy along with social data science, is the 12th UMD student to earn the honor established by Congress in 1975 to memorialize President Harry S. Truman. It provides up to $30,000 for graduate studies, leadership training, career counseling, and special internship and fellowship opportunities within the federal government. 

Read the full article about Michelle’s work here.