PASSION A N E W S L E T T E R F OR S U PP ORT E R S OF T H E U N I V E R S I T Y OF M A RY L A N D / D E C E M B E R 2 0 19
TO INSPIRE MARYLAND PRIDE / CURIOSITY TO DISCOVER NEW KNOWLEDGE / INSPIRATION TO TRANSFORM THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE / BOLDNESS TO TURN IMAGINATION INTO INNOVATION
Thanks to Generous Gifts, Campus Pantry Expansion Will Boost Service to Terp Community PAGE 4
Photo courtesy of Brian Kelly
“OUTSIDE OF YOUR FAMILIAR WORLD” THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND IS HOME TO BRILLIANT, CURIOUS FACULTY AND STUDENTS WHO DISCOVER AND ADVANCE NEW KNOWLEDGE.
Bequest to Give Students First Architectural Experiences Overseas By Chris Carroll
AS AN UNDERGRAD, Brian Kelly chose the University of
Step onto the University of Maryland’s campus and you’re bound to see passion around every corner. It’s evident in the energy and excitement that fills the student section at a Terps basketball game. You’ll find it on stage during a performance at The Clarice, or in a successful experiment in a chemistry lab. That passion and pride is fueled by the support of our donors. This issue highlights just a few gifts that allow our students to follow their passion, whether on campus or halfway around the world. Arnold I. and Alison L. Richman, both 1969 graduates, made a generous gift to the Incentive Awards Program to support students from Baltimore and Prince George’s County public schools who have succeeded in the face of tough obstacles. This program emphasizes the importance of these students giving back to their communities—just as the Richmans are doing now. Pamela Clark, a professor in our School of Public Health, is giving over $1 million to support its Global Health Initiative, an exciting effort to give students life-changing experiences abroad. And parents Troy and Danielle Gregory “served up” good news for the planned expansion of the Campus Pantry through their donation. It’s not easy to talk about hunger on our campus, but the University of Maryland is committed to taking big steps to combat it. There’s no better time to be a Terp. Thank you for fostering the passion of our students and faculty as they create a better world.
Jackie Lewis Vice President for University Relations President, University of Maryland College Park Foundation
Notre Dame’s architecture program in part because of its study-abroad requirement. And indeed, his year in Rome left a lasting imprint on him as an architect. “I remember going to history classes and learning about the buildings, but it’s not the same as actually experiencing the Pantheon firsthand, or walking down a street in Rome, passing a café, smelling the smells and hearing the sounds,” says Kelly, associate dean for development and faculty affairs and director of the architecture program in UMD's School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. For Kelly, going overseas helped him understand the relationship between the individual buildings that architects work on, and the aggregate of structures and culture that creates a city—a relationship central to UMD’s urban-focused architecture program. Now Kelly is ensuring that a new generation of students have that kind of experience by establishing the Brian P. Kelly, AIA Travel Abroad Fund with a $500,000 bequest, plus annual gifts for a current-use fund. They will support the school’s graduate and undergraduate students seeking to travel abroad, with a preference for students who’ve never been out of the United States. “For the past 30 years or so, I’ve been teaching in a program every other year that takes a group of students to Rome,” Kelly says. “I’ve observed in recent years that the participants in this program are less diverse than the entire school’s student body, which outpaces many other schools of architecture for diversity.” He began thinking about how he could take action while on another trip with students to Oxford, England. A student who grew up in one of Washington, D.C.’s disadvantaged neighborhoods told him the radical shift in setting to the medieval university town with its millennia-old buildings helped drive home the significance of the profession. “He told me, ‘My eyes are opened—this has really made me feel sure I’m going to be an architect,’” Kelly says.
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PROFESSOR GIVES $1.15M TO SUPPORT EXPERIENCES ABROAD Funds Will Boost School of Public Health’s Global Health Initiative By Kelly Blake
a professor in maryland's School of Public Health has made a $1.15 million gift to support its Global Health Initiative, hoping that student experiences abroad will “supercharge” the school’s burgeoning international service, research and education opportunities. The Pamela I. Clark Global Health Student Experience Endowment and Current-Use Fund will support students in Public Health Without Borders, as well as others who pursue international research, service and educational travel opportunities. Clark, a research professor in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health since 2008, has brought in more than $43 million in research grants and contracts over the course of her career. She has focused on providing scientific evidence to inform tobacco control policies and protect public health, and she has served as the lead of the Food and Drug Administration- and National Institutes of Health-funded Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science at umd since 2013.
“But that is not the reward,” she says, reflecting on her research success. “The reward is the home and family I have at the University of Maryland. And at umd, we have a vision that is global, that recognizes the interconnectedness of the planet, and I totally buy into that.” Clark has been inspired by the work of the umd Public Health Without Borders organization, and recalls learning about it first from a student who shared her story of traveling with the group to Sierra Leone. “She was so energized by the experience,” Clark says. “The students were all changed for life because of it, their eyes were opened up and they had a much broader sense of the world.” Established in 2014, the student-led phwb group collaborates with communities on projects to reduce health disparities and increase awareness about good health practices. It has partnered with communities in Peru, Sierra Leone, India and Ethiopia on trips led by Associate Clinical Professor Elisabeth Maring and Research Professor Dina Borzekowski. As acting director of the Global Health Initiative, Borzekowski will administer the funds from Clark’s gift and take advantage of opportunities to bolster the School of Public Health’s visibility in this arena. Public health science major Veeraj Shah, phwb president and leader of its India team, says this gift lifts the financial barrier that can prevent many students from taking international trips. “Gaining support from such a generous endowment like this will truly support the core of our organization—the students—and allow them not only to gain incredible personal growth but to make a difference in global communities through education, research and service,” Shah says.
Photo courtesy of the School of Public Health; Clark headshot by John T. Consoli
4 / PASSION
Thanks to Generous Gifts, Campus Pantry Expansion Will Boost Service to Terp Community By Sala Levin ’10
Cooking demonstrations featuring tasty, easy-to-prepare recipes. Bins of fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. Cases full of milk, yogurt, cheese and eggs. Thanks to new gifts totaling $600,000—an anonymous $500,000 gift and $100,000 from umd parents Troy and Danielle Gregory—the
university’s Campus Pantry, which provides sustenance to food-insecure members of the umd community, will soon expand to significantly increase its impact on students, faculty and staff. Since 2014, the Campus Pantry, housed in a small conference room in the basement of the Health Center, has provided free food items and ingredients to Terps who are food insecure, meaning lacking consistent access to nutritious foods—a problem on college campuses nationwide. A study this year by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice Photo courtesy of UMD Campus Pantry; Illustrations by Jason Keisling
PASSION / 5
found that 41% of students at four-year universities are food-insecure. About 20% of umd students were food-insecure at some point within the prior year, according to a new survey led by Yu-Wei Wang, research director and assistant director of the university’s Counseling Center. That’s up from the 15% found in 2015, when a pilot study led by Assistant Professor Devon PayneSturges and Professor Amelia Arria in the School of Public Health surveyed 237 undergraduate students. “The results show the significant impact of food insecurity on students’ mental and physical health, as well as their academic success,” says Wang. These students reported higher levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness than their peers, and generally had lower GPAs and were more likely to withdraw from the university before finishing their degrees. “I was thinking I didn’t have enough money to buy food and pay rent and that was kinda tough,” said one survey respondent. “I was thinking: ‘Should I do part-time or drop [out] this semester?’” Among those likeliest to experience food insecurity are students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, firstgeneration college students, racial or ethnic minority students, international students, transfer students, students with a disability and transgender/ gender non-conforming students. Coordinated by Dining Services, led by umd students and supported by a range of departments and student organizations, the Campus Pantry has seen a steady increase in use: In its first year of operation, 158 people visited a total of 338 times; in the 2018–19 academic year, STUDENTS 790 clients visited ARE FOOD2,559 times.
1 IN 5
INSECURE
Campus Pantry Clients by Academic Class (Fall 2017) FRESHMAN
SENIOR
3
25%
%
SOPHOMORE
UNDERGRADUATE (UNSPECIFIED)
12
7%
%
JUNIOR
GRADUATE
22
31%
%
The Campus Pantry’s new space— just around the corner in the Health Center—will be 1,227 square feet, and will have more storage space, new refrigerated cases for perishable items like dairy products and produce from Terp Farm, meeting space where staff can meet one-on-one with clients and kitchen space to show clients how to make meals out of various ingredients. A new separate entrance will also increase the comfort of potential clients who want to visit the pantry discreetly. (Currently, the pantry is only accessible through the Health Center.) An independent entrance that’s open longer hours than the Health Center can also help staff evaluate the pantry’s optimal operating hours by determining when clients (many of whom have jobs in addition to their academic load) have free time to visit. “We want to make sure we can get as many resources and as much
information to the students as possible, so these new features will really enhance the ability of students to … get what they need,” says Allison Lilly Tjaden, assistant director of new initiatives for Dining Services. The expansion is a critical step in broadening the Campus Pantry’s reach, the team says. Food-insecure Terps agree that the pantry and the survey of food insecurity on campus are necessary steps toward addressing the issue. “I felt that my voice was heard,” said one survey respondent, “and that the university is doing something to make sure that students who don’t have access to meal plans have some sort of help.” Supporting the project helps ensure that Terps in need have the same opportunities as other students, says Troy Gregory. “Anything that can help provide people a safe place they can rely on for the things in life we take for granted just seemed very important for me and my family,” Gregory says. “I would hope that it will continue to grow and it will always be a place that people can go to knowing that they never have to worry about what they’re going to do for breakfast, lunch or dinner.”
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Photo courtesy of Richman family
6 / PASSION
INCENTIVE TO SUCCEED Alumni Couple’s Gift Supports Baltimore City Students By Annie Dankelson
baltimore holds special meaning for lifelong residents Arnold I. ’69 and Alison L. Richman ’69, and they want others from their hometown to thrive. The couple, who recently celebrated their 50th anniversary, turned that motivation into a substantial contribution to the University of Maryland’s Incentive Awards Program (iap), which supports students who graduated from Baltimore City and Prince George’s County high schools and demonstrate academic ability and persistence despite difficult circumstances. “We love the city—we know it’s got its challenges,” Arnie says. “If we could help some kids from Baltimore become important contributors to their own community through education, that’s a great investment.”
One-third of their gift will support Baltimore City students—both now, through the Baltimore Incentive Awards Program Fund, and for years to come, through the establishment of the Richman Baltimore Incentive Awards Program Support Endowment to enhance the iap student experience. This includes academic coaching, advising and mentorship, which are among the wraparound services in iap that the Richmans appreciate. The remaining two-thirds of their gift will establish the needbased Richman Baltimore Maryland Promise Scholarship, with preference given to iap students. This portion, the largest Maryland Promise gift to date, will be matched dollar-for-dollar through the Clark Challenge. This
gift expands the next iap cohort by almost 50% in the first year and brings sustained growth for the program as the endowment increases. “This is a game-changer for iap,” says Jacqueline W. Lee, the program’s director. “Their gift will enable us to expand our reach within Baltimore City and help secure the future of the program.” The couple learned the value of giving back from their parents and grandparents, who “were always charitable in the community with either money, time or both,” Arnie says. He and Alison kept that in mind while the high school sweethearts attended umd together, where he studied psychology and she early childhood education, leading to careers in senior living communities and adoption social work, respectively. “I think both of us naturally went into professions where we were helping others,” Alison says. Success in those fields allowed them to ramp up their philanthropic efforts, with three main focuses: health care, education and youth. When they were introduced to IAP around its launch nearly 20 years ago, the initiative seemed like a great fit. As part of their long-held commitment to support Baltimore City students from early education through college, they began annual contributions, leading up to their most recent gift. “Both of us had a very good experience (at Maryland) and felt that students who couldn’t afford it deserved to have that opportunity,” Arnie says. “(iap is) more than just a scholarship program. It’s really a program that makes young people into strong adults.” They’re looking forward to seeing how their donation bolsters those academic, social and emotional aspects of IAP in the long term, creating a lasting community. “Their gift signifies an abiding belief in the capacity of Baltimore City students to achieve,” Lee says. “It will encourage our scholars to know that there are people from their hometown who are rooting for their success.”
Photo by Alamy Stock Photo; Headshot courtesy of Brin family
PASSION / 7
PROFESSOR EMERITUS’S GIFTS TO LIFT DANCE AND RUSSIAN STUDIES By Sala Levin ’10
put the words “russian” and “dance” in a sentence together, and you might picture Mikhail Baryshnikov or Anna Pavlova soaring through the air to a Tchaikovsky score. But Professor Emeritus Michael Brin’s recent gifts to Russian studies and the dance program honor a different legacy: one left by his mother, Maya Brin. After the Brin family immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1979, Michael and Maya began working at UMD, he as a math professor and she as a teacher in the Russian department, where she worked for some 10 years. In recognition of that work—and Maya’s personal love of ballet—Brin has given a combined $1.5 million to establish the Maya Brin Cultural Competency Endowed Scholarship in Russian Studies and the Maya Brin Endowed Professorship in Dance. The gift is the latest in a series of significant gifts from Brin and his family, including endowed professorships in computer science and mathematics. The Maya Brin Cultural Competency Endowed Scholarship will help fund students participating in language experiences such as study abroad, participation in the
Russian cluster of the Language House and other immersion experiences. The students who receive support might be STEM students who come from Russian-speaking families and are double-majoring in the language, giving them the opportunity to bring their skills to a higher level. The gift “gives us a chance to build a bridge with all these different programs, connect our strengths with their strengths, and train UMD graduates who can really be global citizens, as we expect and hope them to be,” says Fatemeh Keshavarz, director of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. The Maya Brin Endowed Professorship in Dance will support a professor who will provide training in ballet, fostering connections among diverse dance forms and providing a foundation for performance and choreography. “We haven’t had in recent years a full-time ballet faculty member, so this position will help us really fold the training of ballet into the training of all the dance majors,” says Maura Keefe, associate professor and associate director of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. “It’s in keeping with the best dance programs in the country that have ballet as a regular offering.” Brin hopes that dance students will develop the appreciation for ballet that his mother hoped to impart to him—with moderate success. “She did take me to ballet performances on many occasions, and I cannot say that I liked it very much, but I know something about ballet because of that, and I do not regret it,” he says.
University Relations Office of Strategic Communications 2101 Turner Hall, 7736 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD 20742
BY MARK L. BUTLER
I’m an adopted Terp. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I passionately loved ACC basketball, and in my high school days, I became a North Carolina Tar Heels fan. After I started attending games in College Park, however, my loyalties quickly changed; there was no feeling in sports that compared to watching the Terps take on Duke. So as a longtime supporter of Maryland Athletics, it’s no surprise that I would want to help the bold vision of the new Cole Field House become a reality. But I ultimately pledged $5 million to the project because of how much it will benefit the entire campus and the surrounding community. This building will celebrate all it means to be a Terrapin. Along with the spectacular indoor practice facility and two outdoor practice fields, it will feature new weight and locker rooms for football players and returning NFL alums, along with dining facilities and a sports medicine area that all student-athletes can use. Cole will also house the latest collaboration between UMD and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, with a new Center for Brain Health and Human Performance to research everything from cancer and age-related cognitive decline to the next-generation of DNA sequencing. With additional spaces for innovation programs, entrepreneurs as well as student-athletes will be able to call Cole home.
Photo by John T. Consoli
WHY I GIVE
I’m especially proud of the new, shellshaped tunnel at Maryland Stadium that bears my name and is already providing an iconic entrance for our team. The atmosphere at these games is electric, and I can’t wait to share this excitement with my grandchildren.
Mark L. Butler is the president and CEO of Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. He is a member of the University of Maryland, College Park Foundation Board of Trustees.