A newsletter for students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends
MAY 2022
Spring commencement 2022 The University of Maryland Eastern “If you’re serious about it, (the university) will Shore held its spring 2022 commencement help you every step of the way.” exercises May 20, awarding bachelor, master’s Graduation day for aviation science and doctorate degrees to 292 newly minted major Leul S. Fekadu of Silver Spring is “a big alumni, including 66 who graduated with milestone.” Fekadu emigrated as a child from honors. Ethiopia with his parents, whom he said had Princess Sarah A. Bentil of Laurel, Md. little understanding of the nuances of how to delivered the student commentary on behalf apply for admission to an American college. of her classmates. “This is also a commencement for them,” Bentil paid tribute to her mother, whom Fekadu said, “and their hard work.” she said overcame a series of personal setbacks Fekadu, a Henson honors program after her family settled in America and became student, has accumulated 300+ hours of flight her role model for perseverance. time as a licensed pilot and will transition “Each of us has a purpose and a calling,” to working as a UMES flight instructor, Anjanique LaFontant said Bentil, who was Miss UMES which will enable him to build his 2021-22. “Never stop until you find experience resume to reach his career and live them.” goal; commercial airline pilot. “As you go into the world, go Elspeth A. Schalk of Princess with confidence. Your experiences Anne has been accepted by the here … have more than prepared Trinity School of Medicine in St. you to excel at every aspect of your Vincent, the Grenadines, where life,” she said. “Go out into the world she’ll take the next step toward knowing that you are worthy – and following in her father’s footsteps as worth it! Your name is in high places an anesthesiologist. where your feet have yet to land.” After accumulating college credit Anjanique J. LaFontant at other institutions – and frustrated of White Plains, Md., spent her by losing some that did not transfer final semester at UMES as a – Schalk nailed a perfect 4.0 grade Leul Fekadu Elspeth Schalk student-teacher at nearby Somerset point average in her two years as Intermediate School, where she taught a biology major at UMES. While regular-content math and language arts as well COVID protocols cut class size, Schalk attended as worked with special education students, her “in-person lectures … the whole time. I needed specialization. that structure.” “I wanted to come to an HBCU,” LaFontant Schalk is prepared for the medical school said. “UMES surrounded me at the right time grind; she held down jobs that often required and was there through every step, every phase.” 40 hours a week, including as an anesthesia One of LaFontant’s parents is an educator, so technician at a local animal hospital. “it was in my blood. I knew it was in my heart.” “I finally got to where I never thought I’d be Her high school had a child care center, where she in life,” said Schalk, 29. “It was a very long road. encountered special needs children and settled on I’ve gotten past thinking I didn’t deserve to be that specialty as her major. here.” “Anyone who’s trying to be a special Christian A. Ferguson of Lanham, Md. is education teacher, it is not for the weak,” she said. “a phenomenal person,” according to English Christian Ferguson
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Student Commentary Speaker
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Commencement Profiles
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UMES & Princeton Research Partnership
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Commencement Cont.
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Once upon a time at UMES
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Message from VP of University Relations
Page 10 Student Scholarship Recipients
Page 11 Athletics
Page 12 2022 HBCU Scholars