UMES
THE
A newsletter for students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends CIRCLING
UMES graduates first class from pharmacy school Three years of non-stop study and professional practice experience pay off for the charter class of UMES’ School of Pharmacy May 17 when its members receive their well-earned degrees. Some five dozen graduate students are set to accept their field’s top credential – a doctor of pharmacy degree – culminating a decade-long effort to expand the university’s support for educating health care professionals. They’ll be among a projected 400 degree candidates and their guests who will gather at the William P. Hytche Athletic Center for spring commencement, where honors graduate and track star Andre A. Walsh will deliver the student commentary. The event begins at 10 a.m. For UMES’ first student-pharmacists, their journey began on a muggy Delmarva day in mid-August 2010. A week of intensive orientation, which foreshadowed a more-intense three years of lectures, labs and hands-on experiences in the field, ended with a brief ceremony with each receiving a white lab coat. Pharmacy school dean Nicholas Blanchard said at the time he hoped the symbolism would bond class members and the program to the university that was embarking on a new academic path.
THE
May 10, 2013
WORLD
Members of the Pharmacy department’s first graduating class from left, are: Lisa Acedera, Chad Vignale, Sumiti Chadda and Emile Domingue.
By most accounts, the foundation that Blanchard, his faculty and the class of 2013 have laid appears to be a solid one. The School of Pharmacy now has a full complement of students pursuing doctorates in a year-round curriculum that enables them to graduate in three years instead of the traditional four offered by most other universities. Blanchard estimated 80 percent of the class of 2013 had job offers to PHARMACY SCHOOL / continued on page 6
UMES will receive a $10,000 grant from the 2013 “Retool Your School” campus improvement contest sponsored by The Home Depot. Leon Bivens, UMES’ physical plant director, said the money will be used this summer to spruce up the Student Services Center, Murphy Hall and the Clusters student housing complex with new paint and other minor repairs. The university was among 12 historically black institutions that qualified for a $10,000 grant from the Atlanta-based home improvement retailer that started the Internet-based competition in 2010. Some 70 HBCUs had to describe two projects that needed funding and then were encouraged to get their supporters to vote online daily and to use social media to publicize and promote the event. This was UMES’ first year as a contestant. UMES supporters cast more than 250,000 votes over an eight-week period. “The UMES community was terrific,” Bivens said. “I appreciate
everyone’s efforts. They kept us in the running to the very end.” The $50,000 grand prize winner was Oakwood University in Birmingham, Ala. A separate category, the $25,000 “Campus Pride” grant, went to Knoxville College in Tennessee, which The Home Depot judged had the strongest campaign that weighed voting and social media activity. Grants awarded to UMES, Oakwood and the other institutions were based on a ratio of consumer voting and judging by an advisory board panel, according to the competition website. If UMES had won the grand prize, the money would have been used campus-wide to replace fluorescent lights with energy-efficient LED lighting. Bivens, who has worked at UMES for 35 years, is hopeful the excitement generated by this year’s competition will carry over to 2014. The competition is a campus improvement grant program created by The Home Depot, the Retool Your School website says, and is designed “to help HBCUs make enduring improvements to their campus and facilities.” The company awarded $195,000 in grants this year.
Retool your school
INSIDE
Page 2 Graduating Senior Art Show Student Is Legislative Intern
Page 3 Page 4-5 Administrative Professionals Day End of Year Awards Faculty Award Presented and Inductions Retia Walker Reflects on UMES
Page 6 Luke’s Premier Foods is Awarded Hawk Card Recognized
Page 7 Students Participate in Outdoor Events
Page 8 Textbook Returns Art Shell UMES Golf Tournament Summer Transportation Institute Walk A Mile in Her Shoes Answer