At UB, the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences is a small college making a big impact. Thanks to student successes, faculty research, alumni achievements and much more, 2019 will be a year to remember.
I continue to be deeply impressed by our amazing students: from our Environmental Sustainability students who made the finals in a local ecological design competition, to the UB Ethics Bowl team whose first-place win at regionals qualified them for the national bowl, to the team known as the “Poegrammers” who were invited to travel to NASA’s Johnson Space Center to participate in a nationwide spacesuit augmented reality design challenge (alongside heavy-hitters like Harvard and Virginia Tech, I might add). I’m so grateful for our wonderful faculty, leading scholars and practitioners who love teaching and are deeply passionate about liberal arts. CAS faculty continued to push knowledge forward this year: publishing work in many disciplines, cementing new grants and partnerships, and bringing innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration to the classroom. And our talented alumni continue to make us proud, achieving major milestones and making significant contributions in the arts and humanities, in technology and in the sciences, locally, nationally and globally.
As we enter a new decade, please join me in celebrating some of the most noteworthy stories and accomplishments from 2019.
Christine S. Spencer
, dean
Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences
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In April, a team of UB students made up of Applied Information Technology and Simulation and Game Design majors, traveled to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX to participate in NASA's Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students, a.k.a. NASA SUITS. The SUITS challenge called for students to create an augmented reality (AR) system that would help an astronaut conduct a task while on a spacewalk. The UB team—who called themselves the '
Poegrammers
'—spent several months developing and coding their AR-based prototypes. Led by mentor and faculty adviser Associate Professor
Giovanni Vincenti
, the Poegrammers were one of 12 university teams nationwide who were invited to test their prototypes in NASA's Human Integrated Vehicles and Environments, a facility used to develop and build human interfaces for human-in-the-loop testing.
Read more about the Poegrammers' journey to NASA in the latest issue of the
UB Magazine
:
"
One Small Step for UB
."
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The UB Ethics Bowl team (
Daniel Gellasch
,
Jayla-Rae Foster
,
JC Loyd
and
Hugh Norko
) won first place at the
Southeast Regional Ethics Bowl
held in Nov. in Jacksonville, FL. The team's first-place finish qualifies them for the National Ethics Bowl, which will be held in Atlanta, GA this Feb.
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Environmental Sustainability students
Andrew Baker
and
Steven Blaes
are among
the five finalist teams in the inaugural
Hopkins Ecological Design Competition
. Organized by the Johns Hopkins Ecological Design Initiative (HEDI), the competition invites Baltimore-area undergraduate and graduate students to address problems and challenges in local and regional food systems.
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Counseling psychology graduate student
Santokh Singh
was the recipient of the 2019 Dr. George Lassen and Mrs. Jean Lassen Memorial Scholarship, awarded for academic merit and commitment to excellence in counseling psychology.
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Pamela Gibbs
, a doctoral candidate in the D.S. in Information and Interaction Design program, was named to the
board of trustees
of AnitaB.org, the leading organization for women in technology.
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On April 18, the College of Arts and Sciences held its annual merit awards ceremony recognizing undergraduate students for their outstanding academic achievements.
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Student Spotlight: Kayla Tellington
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Kayla Tellington
is a freshman majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing and publishing. A graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, she's always had a passion for baking. Once she started taking cupcake orders from her classmates during her senior year of high school, it wasn’t long before she knew that was what she wanted to do forever. She currently runs
KayTell’s Sweets
, an at-home bakery based in Baltimore, and hopes to someday combine her two passions—literature and baking—and expand her business into a bookstore with a bakery.
Talk about what your ultimate goal is and how you came to that idea.
“I got into baking because my dad used to be a chef before he became a police officer, so I would help him cook in the kitchen a lot. I liked to make the desserts because I liked icing the cake and eating the batter. Also, I started watching “Cake Boss” with Buddy [Valastro] and the first episode I watched was when he made a cake the actual size of a car and I was like, ‘I’m going to do that one day.’ And from then on, my goal never changed.
So my ultimate goal now is to own a bookstore with a bakery
and
a publishing company. I want to be a writer, but I want to own the company that publishes my work because I did a whole paper on how self-publishing is more beneficial for today's generation than traditional publishing. So I want to own the tallest building downtown for my publishing company, and my bookstore/bakery will be on the first floor—I got that inspiration from Barnes & Noble because all B&N stores have a Starbucks!”
What’s the best part about UB?
"I like that UB is really invested in their students. For example, once word got around that I had a cupcake business, everyone at UB really supported what I was doing and even helped me get the first big orders I ever did. I also like how well-connected the professors are. When they find out there’s something that you want to do, they help you connect with the right people. My professors and services like the Career Center have really helped me learn how to network and promote myself."
What’s your favorite cupcake to make?
"My favorite cupcake to make is strawberry shortcake. When I first started making them, they were really plain. But now I can do different designs, like making the strawberry into the shape of a rose or fanned out, and I use homemade strawberry syrup. They're my most popular flavor!"
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Anthony Moll
, MFA '14, writer, poet, and educator, won a
Lambda Literary Award
for his 2018 book,
Out of Step: A Memoir
, a collection of essays set toward the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" years.
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Writer and photographer,
Eva Tennant
, MFA '19, was named the winner of the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program's
2019 Plork Award
.
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Gretchen LeGrand
, M.S. '10, CEO of Code in the Schools, was named to the
Baltimore Business Journal
's
2019 "40 Under 40" Class
.
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Sandy Popp
, B.A. '04, J.D. '08, Chief of Staff, Assistant to the Chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, was selected by
The Daily Record
to receive one of the
2019 Leading Women
awards.
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Counseling Psychology Hosts Two Alumni Panel Events
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This year, the Counseling Psychology graduate program hosted two alumni panel events where alums of the program returned to share their experiences in the field as licensed mental health counselors and answer questions from current students. The spring panel welcomed alums
Cindy Mason
,
Nikki Chapple
,
Alia Merraro
,
Asia Rodriguez
,
Paul Lotz
and
Zak Mooney
. The fall event—which included the presentation of the 2019 Dr. George Lassen and Mrs. Jean Lassen Memorial Scholarship to student Santokh Singh—welcomed
Angela Frazee
,
Thomas Flis
,
Michael Fell
,
Amber Gillian
and
Grace Petit
.
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2019 Lassen Award recipient Santokh Singh (center) with Lassen family and friends (left) and counseling psychology faculty (right)
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Want to participate in the next counseling psychology alumni panel?
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Klein Family School of Communications Design faculty members
Betsy Boyd
and
Marion Winik
were both recipients of the
Maryland
State Arts Council's 2019 Individual Artist Award
. Boyd was honored for her exceptional achievement in fiction, while Winik was honored for her outstanding work in nonfiction. Prof. Winik was also the recipient of the
2019 Towson Prize for Literature
(awarded by Towson University) for her critically-acclaimed 2018 collection,
The Baltimore Book of the Dead
.
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Professors Delury and Winik, as well other UB writers, discuss their work and the creative process in "
Life on the Page
" featured in the latest issue of the
UB Magazine
.
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History Faculty Members Joshua Clark Davis and Elizabeth M. Nix Provide Insights in New Book,
Baltimore Revisited: Stories of Inequality and Resistance in an American City
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Joshua Clark Davis
, assistant professor and director of the History program, and
Elizabeth M. Nix
, associate professor and chair of the Division of Legal, Ethical and Historical Studies, along with
Aiden Faust
, associate director of Special Collections in UB's Bogomolny Library, have co-edited a new book of essays about Baltimore.
Baltimore Revisited: Stories of Inequality and Resistance in an American City
explores the traditions, myths and complicated truths about Baltimore going back nearly three centuries. "Baltimore," the editors contend, "like many other cities struggling with shifting and challenging social and economic conditions, inhabits a tense space between renaissance and revolution." The essays in this collection "take readers on a tour through the city's diverse neighborhoods, from the Lumbee Indian community in East Baltimore to the crusade for environmental justice in South Baltimore. Baltimore Revisited examines the city's past, reflects upon the city's present, and envisions the city's future."
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Each year, students in the Industrial and Organizational Psychology master's program have the opportunity to study virtually and abroad with students at the University of Barcelona. The Organizational Theory and Development course—which takes place during the winterim semester in January—comprises a face-to-face phase in the U.S., 10-day study abroad in Barcelona, and a virtual collaborative team project completed thereafter. The course is led by
Sharon Glazer
, professor and chair of the Division of Applied Behavioral Sciences, and
Tom Mitchell
, associate professor and director of the IO psych grad program.
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The College of Arts and Sciences both added and refreshed programs this year to address emerging disciplines and to strengthen current workforce competencies. New degrees include:
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What have you been up to? Let us know!
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