The Key May 10, 2019 Edition

A newsletter for students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends

May 10, 2019

Patterns & Profits:

UMES fashion merchandising major runs online boutique

By Tahja Cropper

UMES junior Bryonna Polite, a human ecology major, markets her fashion merchandising skills on a website that since January has generated roughly enough revenue to pay for tuition and fees for a year.

The Baltimore native operates Go 2 Girl Bry, an online boutique for custom clothing designs and make-up services.

“I started getting into dresses after paying for an expensive dress for junior prom,” Polite said. “It was cheaper to make a dress how I want it to be. It only cost me $100 to make my dress for senior prom.”

Polite’s mother enrolled her in a sewing school class while in high school and set her on a path to UMES and the university’s fashion merchandising program.

“It’s not too far from home. When I got here, I didn’t want to leave,” she said about becoming a Hawk.

Bryonna’s garment production evolved from hoodies in high school to a (faux) fur jacket she made and sold for $50 her freshman year.

“They aren’t $50 anymore,” she said with a laugh.

Bryonna began making prom dresses in 2018 for customers in the Baltimore area. Currently, she has 11 dresses she is working on for this prom season.

“I do class work throughout the day,” Polite said, “and in the evening I go into the sewing room until 2 a.m.”

FASHION / continued on page 2

‘He had something in him - some kind of spirit’ 1959 alumni reflect on their encounter with Martin Luther King Jr.

Charles Laws was a senior at Maryland State College in September 1958 when “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story” by the minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was published.

Laws read the book because the 29-year-old author, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brother.

Little did Laws know at the time that eight months later, he and 52 of his classmates would have the opportunity to shake King’s hand as they crossed the stage during graduation exercises.

“I remember thinking,” Allen J. Singleton said, “I’ll never wash this hand again.”

That was May 24, 1959, a warm Delmarva Sunday that alumni fondly recall 60 years on.

INSIDE

MLK / continued on page 2

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MLK continuted Fashion continued

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USM Student Regent Reflects on Past Year Faculty Award Honoree Faculty Patents

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Student Earns Media Internship Philanthropist Honored Business Entrepreneurs

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UMES School of Pharmacy Phi Kappa Phi Inductees

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Head Basketball Coach Named Golf Teams Powerlifting Winners

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Fine Arts Alumnus Share Stories Art Honors Harriet Tubman

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Top 100 MD Women 2019 Fine Arts Seniors

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The Key / May 10, 2019

Circling the Oval

MLK / continued from cover

“When we heard Martin Luther King was going to be our speaker,” Singleton said, “You got all excited.”

“The next big thing was Dr. King – he was going to be there,” Singleton said, his voice trailing off.

King’s appearance drew an overflow crowd to the Depression-era gymnasium and environs. The civil rights leader was a driving force behind the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott that thrust his brand of nonviolent protest into the nation’s consciousness – and made Rosa Parks a household name.

Each member of Maryland State’s class of 1959 was allocated two guest tickets. Laws estimates “two or three carloads” of his relatives came to Princess Anne and waited outside the nowdemolished brick gym that lacked air-conditioning.

Everyone was hoping to catch a glimpse of the charismatic King and hear through open doors and windows what he had to say.

“We had all eagerly anticipated seeing Dr. King,” said Ossie Goods Clay. “When we finally spotted him before graduation, we were struck he was such a small man. He seemed taller on TV.” King strode across campus that day accompanied by college President John Taylor Williams, an imposing six-feet-four – a height difference Clay acknowledged amplified her visual recollection.

“I can remember Dr. King and Dr. Williams were in front of us,” Betty Pinkett Mitchell said.

“The music was playing. Everyone was swaying

back and forth. It was very, very touching.”

Singleton noted “a lot of people didn’t agree with (King) about his non-violent movement. But he talked about the impact of boycotting.”

Salisbury, Md.’s daily newspaper the following day quoted King as saying, “The Negro stands on the border of the promised land of integration. The new order brings new responsibilities, challenging him to make the world spiritually one as well as geographically one.”

If King spoke from prepared remarks, those in the audience could not detect it.

“It was clear” to Laws, at least, “that he spoke from his heart.”

King’s “very authoritative voice,” commanded everyone’s attention, Laws said. “You could also feel his sincerity in his delivery.”

Mitchell said she can still hear the “sound of his voice. He had something in him – some kind of spirit. When he spoke, it did something to your body.”

For Clay, six decades later, “the one thing that stood out that day was one of his famous quotes: ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.’”

“It has stayed with me through the years,” said Clay, who studied home economics education. “I used it in my career. I used it working with organizations and students. It molded my thinking.”

Singleton went on to a career in higher education administration and worked at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he had the opportunity to meet Coretta Scott King.

He said he made a point of telling Mrs. King that her late husband had been the speaker at his 1959 graduation from Maryland State.

“I was just so elated to be there,” Singleton said.

FASHION / continued from cover

Bryonna credits human ecology professor, Dr. Bridget Clinton-Scott, and 2016 alumna Octavia Outlaw with assisting her along her fashion merchandising experience at UMES. “The fashion merchandising program at UMES has allowed me to better understand the business aspect of the industry.” she said.

Students unveiled their newest designs at an April 29h fashion showcase in the Student Services Center. It featured original designs from Polite, senior Brittany Washington, junior Dreyan Bundley and sophomore Nathan Dance.

Polite’s goals include being a custom gown designer and ultimately opening her own store.

“It’s like every time I make something new, that becomes my favorite design,” she said.

Bryonna poses with models wearing her designs at April’s Human Ecology fashion showcase.

UMES People

Reflecting on a year serving as USM student regent

By Langston Frazier

My time as student regent has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

Along the way, I have gotten to meet so many amazing people. But the thing I’m most proud of is getting to represent the students of Maryland over the past year.

I didn’t realize how much work goes on behind the scenes of higher education; approving new academic programs, granting approval for construction of new buildings,

hearing stories that impact students and why they pursue the degrees they do and the businesses that help our institutions thrive.

Over the course of the past year, I’ve worked alongside some amazing people. I’ve seen firsthand the great effects of what our universities are doing – from research to athletics, from student development to – most importantly – academics.

Among the projects I’ve gotten to work on alongside University System of Maryland senior staff, student governments at member institutions and the USM Student Council are: improving campus safety, mental health services, academic integrity and freedom of expression.

One of the coolest things I will take away from this experience that relates directly to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore is having the opportunity to help pick Dr. Heidi M. Anderson as our president. How many students get to say they were a part of their school’s history on that level? Not many.

The Key / May 10, 2019

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Maryland Governor Hogan with Frazier

My parting message to others would be to take chances because you never know what’s going to happen. Be willing to learn from others and to get involved. Believe it or not, this (opportunity to serve as a student regent) all started from a simple radio show on campus.

Regents’ Faculty Award honoree

Dr. Salina Parveen received the University System of Maryland regent’s award and a $2,000 prize for her research as a professor of agriculture, food and resource sciences. Her work “aims to improve the safety and quality of seafood” by focusing on “rapid molecular and immunological methods for detection of food and waterborne pathogens.” She has generated more than $13 million in external competitive funding to underwrite her research and support graduate students under her guidance. Parveen is flanked by regents’ chair Linda R. Gooden, right, UMES President Heidi M. Anderson and Chancellor Robert Caret.

Did you know... … five current UMES faculty researchers hold a combined 11 U.S. patents? Some were achieved prior to coming to work at the university and in partnership with researchers at other institutions. Clockwise top left: • Dr. Yuanwei Jin (engineering) – 4 • Dr. Peter Wang (pharmacy) – 3 • Dr. Sean Vasaitis (pharmacy) – 2 • Dr. Patrice Jackson-Ayotunde (pharmacy) – 1* • Dr. Anjan Nan (pharmacy) – 1 Their efforts contribute to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore being designated a “high-research activity” doctoral university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. (*) UMES is the exclusive patent assignee

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The Key / May 10, 2019

School News

Double major selected for prestigious media opportunity Congratulations to Ewa Okulate of Salisbury, who will spend her summer in Chicago after being selected as one of 12 interns nationwide for the Louis Carr Internship Foundation (LCIF) program.

The program’s goal is providing paidmedia experience to undergraduates of color through the foundation founded in 2003 by BET Networks’ media sales president. Three UMES alumni previously participated as LCIF interns in 2009, 2014 and 2015. A junior English and marketing major, Okulate begins her Windy City intern stint on June 3 at Flowers Communications Group

Two decades of philanthropy Thomas Baxter will receive an honorary degree of public service at UMES’ May 24 commencement in recognition of two decades of philanthropy supporting charitable and educational causes across Delmarva, including the university’s hospitality, business and marketing programs. He and his daughter own 18 McDonald’s restaurants on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Business majors prove they measure up as entrepreneurs UMES seniors who took “Strategic Management” (BUAD 495), a course that featured a mock stock market investment competition, learned this spring what it takes to be the next Warren Buffett.

Long-time business professor Bryant Mitchell (pictured below right) builds his syllabus around “an advanced strategy business simulation” known as Capstone that he says “allows participants to apply what they’ve learned across all disciplines of business in a competitive and engaging learning environment.”

Fifteen students were split into six teams and over an eight-week period routinely outperformed counterparts. Four of UMES’ six teams finished in the top 10 percent of all competing teams.

“One of the primary reasons we use this tool is that it enables us to benchmark our students’ knowledge against that of students from over 600 major universities around the world,” Mitchell said.

In one category – return of sales, an overall measure of a company’s operating efficiency – all six UMES teams performed in the top five percent during the competition.

Mitchell calls that performance “the primary basis of our teams’ competitive advantage” and is accomplished by employing best-practice management techniques.

Patrick Betz of Salisbury, who moonlights in antiques sales online, said success in the competition showed him “how I can apply strategies in my real-life business.”

“I enjoyed the simulation,” Betz said, because “I’m naturally competitive.”

Mitchell uses the Capstone business simulation because it “engages participants in a dynamic competition to turn struggling companies into successful, profitable businesses.”

Each round represents a full year for the fictional company, which Mitchell said gives student-competitors in his class a chance to “build their business acumen and decision-making confidence as they interpret data, shape strategies and experience the results.”

Mitchell said he believes the UMES teams did well because they discovered quickly that collaborative decision-making built “their business acumen and decision-making confidence as they interpret data, shape strategies and experienced the results.”

Derrick Beasley from Easton said he learned “you have to be more aggressive in your approach.

We started out conservative, then were aggressive, then conservative. At the end we were all in.”

Betz said he found the competition was an ideal way to “apply all the droves of information you’ve been exposed to throughout your college career.

It’s really rewarding to see how what you learned affects the different variable you have to work with in the competition.”

Mitchell noted that Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric, Oracle, Dell, Goldman Sachs, & Microsoft employ Capstone business simulation models, which makes UMES graduates who are familiar with the program competitive in the job market.

School News

The Key / May 10, 2019

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UMES pharmacy school

forges transfer pact with College of Southern Maryland

Two public Maryland junior colleges that offer associate degrees in science have formalized agreements with UMES that will steer a select number of their top-performing graduates to the university’s Doctor of Pharmacy program.

The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) in late April announced a new credit-transfer agreement will provide its graduates an opportunity to earn a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in five years. The “2+3 Program” pathway requires students in CSM’s pharmacy track to complete their associate degree in pre-professional health science with a minimum 3.3 grade point average.

“UMES prides itself on being an institution of opportunity for students willing to work and make the sacrifices to achieve their goals,” said Rondall

Phi Kappa Phi inductees

E. Allen, UMES’ activing provost. “We’re confident our new relationship with the College of Southern Maryland will be beneficial for students motivated to earn a doctor of pharmacy degree, opening the door to dozens of career paths in healthcare.”

Allen said UMES recently finalized a similar “2+3”agreement with Harford Community College in Bel Air. Dr. Maureen Murphy, the College of Southern Maryland’s president, said “We welcome the opportunity this partnership provides for our students who will navigate a clear pathway to a doctor of pharmacy degree.”

UMES’ pharmacy program has similar agreements in place with the university’s Department of Natural Sciences and Salisbury University that enable top-performing undergraduates to skip their senior year and pursue a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. When they graduate from UMES, they’ll also receive a commensurate undergraduate degree.

The College of Southern Maryland noted in its announcement that an associate’s degree in pre-professional health science provides students instruction in science as well as liberal arts, preparing them for professional schools to complete degrees in dental hygiene, nursing, physical therapy and pharmacy.

The College of Southern Maryland, based in La Plata, has bachelor-degree partnerships with more than 60 universities and colleges. The college noted that CSM students enjoy significant savings as they pursue higher education, particularly when their associate’s degree leads to a bachelor’s degree.

Since 2010, when UMES launched its accelerated Doctor of Pharmacy degree program that can be completed in three years, many of its 344 graduates have gone on to distinguish themselves in the pharmacy profession.

The most recent class to graduate a year ago achieved the best first-time pass-rate on the 2018 national licensure exam among pharmacy schools in Maryland.

Twenty-three University of Maryland Eastern Shore student scholars were inducted April 24 into the campus chapter (312) of the Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest, largest and most selective honor society that draws members all academic disciplines.

Agriculture & Natural Sciences Ablavi Amekpo Christopher Blanks Junice Dunn Gabrielle Johnson Mark Joseph Rachel Kayongo Oliver Nimoh Miyoung Oh Hernan Osorio Florence Oyebanji Stephanie Puwo Business & Technology Glenwood Hayward IV Tiffany Jackson Young Lee

Education, Social Sciences & the Arts Sydney Campbell Joshua Dacres Dominque Growden James Laird Pharmacy & Health Professions Samantha Hernandez Dominque Johnson Allyson McCullough Graduate Studies Sedonna Brown Brader Dashiell Special Recognition Sarah Jones, 2018 alumna 2019 Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship nominee

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The Key / May 10, 2019

Athletics

Jason Crafton named UMES head basketball coach

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s athletics department has turned to 37-year-old Jason Crafton to be its next men’s basketball coach.

Crafton was formally introduced April 30 at a press conference in the William P. Hytche Athletic Center, where he’ll face the task of reversing a trend of losing seasons.

“There is going to be a new energy, commitment, focus, work ethic, camaraderie, passion and style of play,” Crafton said.

Crafton inherits a team coming off a 7-25 record and a first round loss in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament. The 2018-19 Hawks, led by interim coach Clifford Reed, had one senior – guard Ryan Andino – on the roster at the end of the season.

“A great first season for us is building a foundation of family,” Crafton said. “If we come out of this (upcoming) season and you can see that we play for each other, we’re active in the community and we play with some edge, that’s a win.”

Crafton has coached primarily at the collegiate level over the past decade and a half but spent the just-completed basketball season as an assistant coach with the Delaware Blue Coats, the Philadelphia 76ers’ G-League affiliate. Prior to that, he was head coach at his alma mater, Nyack (N.Y.) College, from 2012-18 and compiled a 47-108 record. At the beginning of his career, he was an assistant at Villanova University and the U.S. Naval Academy,

where he says UMES first caught his eye.

“Becoming the head coach is a dream come true,” he said. UMES “has top-notch academics, a beautiful campus and a surrounding community hungry for a winning basketball program.”

At the Naval Academy, he was an assistant under Billy Lange, now St. Joseph University’s head coach.

“Jason has an incredible work ethic and his energy level and passion for the players is special,” Lange said.

“His dynamic experiences as a Division I assistant, along with his time as a head coach at an early age, has helped him become one of the top young coaches in the game.”

“We’re excited to have Coach Crafton as part of our Hawk family,” athletics director Keith Davidson said.

“His experience at all levels, from Division II to high major Division I and to the NBA will prove invaluable as we look to rebuild our Hawk Basketball program.”

Davidson described Crafton as a man of high character “who builds relationships and operates with a foundation of family values. I am confident in (his) ability, knowledge, passion and desire to get not only our basketball program on track, but to integrate himself as part of the Hawk athletics team.”

Crafton, who earned a Bachelor of Science in communications in 2003, signed a five-year contract, an industry standard for a first-term coach at a NCAA Division 1 basketball program.

Waters & Oh shine for UMES golf teams The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men’s golf team placed fifth in the 2019 MEAC Tournament April 29-30 at the Crosswinds Golf Club in Savannah, Ga. The Hawks were paced by senior Blair Waters. He finished the tournament with a 229 (+13) after shooting below 80 in all three rounds over two days. Young Lee, a junior, also had a strong showing with a score of 233 (+17) that included a season best 73 in the final round.

Augusta (Ga.) University won its fifth consecutive MEAC championship since joining the conference as an associate member, shooting a combined 842 (279-283-280), or 22 under par, as a team.

Bethune-Cookman finished second with an even-par 864 (282292-290), while Savannah State was third at a 31 over 895 (300-300295). North Carolina A&T State (312-305-305=922, +58) was fourth, followed by UMES (333-326-317=976, +122) and North Carolina Central (330-345-340=1015, +151) rounded out the six-team field.

Augusta’s Alex van Wyk was the tournament’s best individual golfer after shooting a seven-under par 209 over three rounds.

In UMES women’s golf, senior Josephina Oh led the Lady Hawks at the 25th annual Women In Golf Foundation tournament in Pine Mountain, Ga., with a 17th place finish after shooting a 172 (+30) over two rounds. The team finished eight.

The women’s and men’s teams are both back in action this weekend in Port St. Lucie, Fla., where they’ll compete in the 33rd annual PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship - previously known as the PGA Minority Collegiate Championship tournament.

Ultimate uplifting experience Cui Fang and Brandon P. Smith, powerlifting protégés of UMES fitness center director Mike Hall, earned first place honors April 7 in their respective weight classes at the 2019 Delaware State Powerlifting Championship in Wilmington. Fang, a computer science graduate student, competed in the 114-pound weight class and had a (women’s) meet-best performance of 242 pounds in the squat category while also deadlifting 325 lbs., almost three times her weight. Smith, a junior hospitality tourism management major, competed in the 265-lb.weight class, benching pressing 450 pounds and squat (lifting) another 618 lbs. – also meet bests for all men competing. Both UMES students train with Hall three times a week.

School News

The Key / May 10, 2019

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2014 fine arts alumnus pays it forward with advice & encouraging words UMES’ fine arts department has organized an annual spring trip to New York City for the past 16 years.

This year, over three days, students visited the Society of Illustrators, the Museum of Modern Art, Chelsea art galleries, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they also met with 2014 UMES alumnus Jamaal Peterman.

Peterman just received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the renowned Pratt Institute, where he studied painting after an undergraduate career in which he focused on applied design and sequential arts.

Chris Harrington, UMES’ fine arts department chairman, reports (New York area) “gallery directors wanted to … visit his studio, but Jamaal had a problem – his thesis show sold out.”

“The students were absolutely riveted by the story of his struggles and success,” Harrington said.

Nonetheless, Peterman spent time with the 14 UMES students, among them senior K’Leah Bennett, who shared these thoughts:

“The New York trip, for me, has been an invaluable experience. Going to New York (a year ago) opened my eyes and heart, and led me to my passion; painting.”

“Before visiting New York, I knew how much I loved art – but the New York experience pushed my love even further.”

“The trip motivated and inspired me in ways I can’t put into words.

Returning in 2019 fueled me even more to do things I’ve never done before in my own work.”

“Aside from the awe-inspiring artwork we saw, meeting and talking with Jamal Peterson was definitely a highlight of the trip. The advice he gave me as a successful Black artist in graduate school was priceless.”

“Just knowing he knows some of my favorite artists on a first name basis inspired me to work even harder toward my goal.”

“New York’s “energy and pace … is something I know I belong to and feel a part of.

As an artist and a student, this experience … challenged me as a person.”

“It has made me question the limits I (previously) put on myself as an artist and awakened a new confidence in me.”

By Tahja Cropper

More than 100,000 visitors have visited the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek, Md. since it opened in 2017. Future visitors will soon have the opportunity to view artwork created by University of Maryland Eastern Shore students, including Mariah Terry.

Her eye-catching and impactful portrayal of Tubman will grace the halls of the national park site dedicated to the life and memory of the abolitionist and former slave born Araminta Ross in Dorchester County.

Terry’s oil painting she calls “Peace, Freedom, and Power” emerged from the freedom the senior sequential arts major had to create a piece related to Tubman’s life story.

“I feel honored to have my painting displayed at the Harriet Tubman Center. She is a powerful figure, and her legacy is powerful,” Terry said. She said she wanted her artwork to show the freedom fighter in a “gentle and powerful” way.

The first-generation college student credits the university’s sequential arts program, her UMES experience and participation in the Envision Art Club in helping her overcome shyness and developing as an artist.

“At first, I felt … my art was never good enough,” she said. “I now realize that I can do this. Patience and practice propelled me to this point.”

The Clinton, Md. native looks forward to graduation in December 2019, after which she hopes to publish her own comic books and ultimately work as a story board artist at Nickelodeon.

First generation college student’s artwork to honor local freedom fighter

Artwork by Mariah Terry

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University Relations 30665 Student Services Center Lane Princess Anne, MD 21853

Top 100 Md Women

The Key overlooked Dr. Nancy Rodriquez-Weller (left) and professor emeritus Carolyn Brooks in the March 29 edition that listed past UMES honorees of The Daily Record’s annual Top 100 Women of Maryland program. Dr. Brooks was honored in 2007 and Dr. Rodriquez-Weller in 2016.

2019 Fine arts seniors

Works by 10 fine-arts majors debuted Thursday at UMES’ Mosely Gallery, which semi-annually showcases the talents of seniors as a parting gesture before graduation. Front row (l-r) Lindie Esteban, Martha Opiyo, Simone Smith; middle row Drew Davidson, Renee Boxton, Carmall Washington and back row K’Leah Bennett, Destiny Brown, Dominique Growden and John Rolon-Ortiz who together make up the largest fine arts graduating class in UMES history.

The Key / May 10, 2019

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