When Dr. Shlomo Carmi – former Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology and professor of mechanical engineering – retired from UMBC this semester, he and his wife Rachel decided to give back to the university that has been such a big part of their lives for so many years.
Watch the video to learn more about why the Carmis give to UMBC.
In a final goodwill gesture to the Catonsville community, the recently disbanded Woman’s Club of Catonsville has donated $25,000 to establish a new endowment at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
In memory of 80 years of service to the Catonsville community, The Women’s Club of Catonsville Memorial Scholarship rewards UMBC students returning for their sophomore year and having maintained a 3.5 GPA, or higher. Preference will be given to candidates who have attended a public or private high school in the Catonsville area.
“The club has a strong history of putting money back into the Catonsville community,” said Paula Ray, former treasurer for the club. “UMBC has a very good reputation, and we are fortunate to have to such a fine institution in our back yard.”
Besides following the tradition of the Women’s Club, Ms. Ray says the donation was also a great way to memorialize the legacy of the club. “We really wanted a lasting endowment that the club would be remembered for.”
Most scholarships focus on the newly enrolled, but the members of the club wanted to highlight those students returning to campus to continue their studies. “The club wanted to see the money go to someone who had finished their first year, and done well,” said Ray.
UMBC plans to offer the scholarship to students beginning in fall 2014.
In his junior year at UMBC, Collin Wojciechowski ’13, political science, represented nearly 180,000 students within the University System of Maryland (USM) as their sole student representative on the Board of Regents. Wojciechowski advocated against “doomsday” budget cuts and tuition increases and successfully lobbied to overhaul the USM policy for assessing student fees, making students an active part of the discussion.
Without the aid of scholarships, he would never have been able to serve his fellow students in this way. We sat down with the newly graduated Sondheim Scholar to talk a little bit about the part scholarships have played in his life.
Help UMBC students do AMAZING things. Make a gift to the 30 Days/30 Scholarships campaign today!
Q: How important was it to your college career to have the support of scholarships?
A: Being the son of a firemen and a public school teacher and the oldest of three brothers who all aspire to seek higher education, having the support of a scholarship was extremely important to my college career.
Q: Can you tell us a little about what it meant to you to be able to serve as the student regent, and then to continue working with legislators?
A: If I did not have a scholarship, I would not have been able to be the USM Student Regent; it’s as simple as that. I only had the time and ability to serve at that post because I did not have to work a side job to pay for college.
Being the Student Regent was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. Representing students through such trying times as merger debate and the doomsday budget was the thrill of a lifetime. To then be able to take what I had learned on the Board and use it to represent Dr. Hrabowski in Annapolis was a dream. I have never had more fun then the Session I spent advocating for UMBC before legislators.
Q: Has that work given you added insight into education funding, and if so, can you talk a little about the significance of alumni support of education in Maryland?
A: Having been a member of the Advancement Committee of the USM Board of Regents, which oversees alumni giving, I feel I have a unique perspective on the significance that alumni support plays in higher education in Maryland. While our state, specifically Governor Martin O’Malley, has done tremendous things for public universities in terms of funding, student support and financial aid always need assistance. As students and their families continue to face economic difficulty it is up to the alumni base to ensure UMBC is a place welcoming to everyone.
Read more about Collin and his UMBC experiences on the Class of 2013 site.
FROM: Freeman Hrabowski, President, and Philip Rous, Provost
TO: The UMBC Community
RE: New Grants from the Hrabowski Fund for Innovation
We are delighted to announce the second set of projects to receive grants from the Hrabowski Fund for Innovation. These projects build on the strong commitment of our faculty to continually reimagine our students’ learning experiences.
The selection committee received a number of outstanding applications. The grant recipients were chosen by a committee comprised of faculty from each college, teaching award winners, and representatives from the Provost’s Office, Graduate School, and Office of Undergraduate Education. In selecting projects to fund, the committee sought initiatives that would address multiple courses or disciplines, respond broadly to student needs, affect student success or retention, and be sustainable.
Implementation and research grants
Seed grants
These projects join our first round of grant recipients in building on our strong history of finding novel approaches to teaching and scholarship. Established with major grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Heinz Awards, the Innovation Fund has also benefited from substantial support from alumni and friends, the local community and businesses, and state and national leaders. This support is a testament to the work we’ve already done and a vote of confidence for the national model we’re continuing to build.
The competition for the next round of Innovation Fund grants will be announced later this summer with a due date in fall. We want to thank everyone who has submitted a proposal, and encourage those whose proposals could not be funded in this round to apply again.
We are truly inspired by the creative ideas we hear each day and are delighted to be able to support more of them through this fund.
Greg Cangialosi ’96 (far right) talks with students about careers in the startup industry at the Betamore Startup Crawl, which he hosted in May.
As a master of marketing tech and entrepreneurship, UMBC alumnus Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, always seems to be two – or ten – steps ahead of pretty much everyone else. He has to be.
When many of us were still figuring out listservs, his vision for power e-marketing was already permanently changing the communications scene. When we finally started to grasp the concept of “the cloud,” he had already measured potential and created a community for big thinkers and even bigger collaboration. Follow him on Twitter, and it sometimes feels like time travel.
And yet, in the best of ways, Cangialosi is an old-fashioned guy with a timeless sense of what really matters. A generous volunteer, he embraces the three pillars of philanthropy – time, talent and treasure – and UMBC is all the better for it.
Last month month, Cangialosi made a five-year commitment to UMBC totaling $100,000 to support the creation of a business innovation competition and an endowment that will support student entrepreneurship initiatives, including everything from new courses, guest speakers and potential seed money for budding student start-ups.
“I have had wonderful experiences in all three realms of giving back and I think they are all important as they all make an impact,” said Cangialosi, who sold his start-up email marketing firm Blue Sky Factory in 2011 and recently co-founded Betamore, an 8,000 square foot “urban campus for entrepreneurship and technology, focused on three main areas, education, community and incubation” in Federal Hill.
“My recent experience, teaching, has given me the closest connection to the students, student life, and how many amazing things are happening on campus and around the university,” he said. “UMBC is moving forward, making things happen, and it’s great to be part of that momentum.”
Since his graduation in 1996, Cangialosi has played many roles as an alumnus and donor. He has judged UMBC’s annual Idea Competition, and served as a speaker for the Alex.Brown Center for Entreprenership and Career Week. A former member of the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors, he was named an Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in the Humanities in 2012. And last year, he taught “Entrepreneurial Marketing” at UMBC for the first time – an experience he found “challenging yet rewarding.”
“Greg’s relationship with campus has so many dimensions,” said Greg Simmons ’04, Vice President of Institutional Advancement.
“From his early days an entrepreneur – when he let us use his e-mail marketing platform to publicize university events like the IT Visionaries programs – to his work on the alumni board, he has always demonstrated great commitment and energy to finding ways to be supportive of UMBC. Seeing him enjoy teaching has been great. And this recent demonstration of his commitment – via philanthropy – shows a great alignment of UMBC’s efforts and his own value system.”
Cangialosi’s gift will further solidify UMBC’s entrepreneurship program, said Vivian Armor ’73, director of UMBC’s Alex.Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. She expects the Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition to become a major source of support and inspiration for students looking to become successful entrepreneuers.
“We’ll be able to create a very immersive experience for students,” including potential cash prizes for winning ideas, as well as structured mentorship opportunities, she said.
Through his teaching and connections to UMBC, Cangialosi has been able to further provide opportunities for students. Recently, Betamore hosted a “Startup Crawl” for more than 80 students from around Baltimore (including a couple dozen from UMBC) as a way of “getting students exposed to the startup scene here in Baltimore, and at the same time exposing new emerging companies to the amazing talent pool here in Baltimore,” Cangialosi said.
Twenty companies participated, all of whom were hiring either full time positions or internships. Students mixed and mingled, getting a taste for employment options they might not otherwise have considered.
“What I got out of it was great networking,” said newly-minted alumna Monica Berron ’13. “I had no idea we had a burgeoning entrepreneur community in Baltimore. I met a great group of women, for example, who have business called Drio who create website for bloggers and businesswomen, which is something I’m really interested in.”
“Aside from networking and meeting a lot of the founders, a portion of the Startup Crawl also included a session in which each company presented to all the attendees,” said senior Andrew Mavronicolas, who recently took Cangialosi’s class, and who is majoring in information systems with a minor in entrepreneurship. “From this, we not only learned about their companies, but some of the struggles they went through along the way.
Always looking ahead, Cangialosi is already hoping to host another Startup Crawl for the fall. And UMBC students will definitely be a part of it.
“I love UMBC first and foremost,” he said. “I am also a big believer in giving back and helping to make the places and the institutions that support you better and better. That happens by giving back.”
We’d just like to give a shout out and a warm THANK YOU to our amazing student callers. They’re revving up for end of fiscal year, so if your phone rings, be sure to give them a moment of your time and help them reach their goals. They’re so excited to talk with you about their beloved UMBC. 
Give our student callers a shout out of your own on the UMBC Phonathon Facebook page!
UMBC Rugby players past and present joined together for the first UMBC Rugby Day of Service, partnering with Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake and Habitat for Humanity Sandtown to demolish and clean up one site, and to build a new home on another. Close to 30 players from the men’s and women’s club participated.
“As an organization, we were looking for an event that would allow us to bring all of the teams together, past and present, to do something positive in the greater Baltimore community,” said Tracy Williams, Jr. ’06, who helped organize the event and who hopes to make this an annual event. “We were able to leverage our extensive alumni and current player network to make a long lasting difference in the lives of families in need.”
Sandtown Habitat: Back Row L-R: Tyler Tippett, Colin McGrath, Jeremy Boyer ’07, Karl Shuey, Robert Duvall ’06, Richie Campbell, Brendan McQueeny, Amha Sertsu. Front Row: Joe Letts, Hieu Truong ’05, Candice Simmons, Jasmine Cashin, Allie Alton, Soheyl Soltani-Nia, Matt Zvitkovitz, Jackson Sparrow Drury
Habitat Chesapeake: Back Row L-R: Mikhail Hershfield, Joe Bieberich ’12, James Park, Arya Koolaee, Tracy Williams ’06, Phillip Zwaig. Front Row: Andrew Gaither ’94, James Nardei, Josh Herring ’08,’11, Ricky Raccoon, Erik Anderson
