Hawk named Forbes

While making the dean’s list and earning scholarships from the LaGrant Foundation and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the University of Maryland

Eastern Shore’s Gbemisola Okesanjo was named a Forbes ”30 Under 30” scholar. The Forbes “30 Under 30” Summit is an annual gathering the periodical sponsors to bring together influential millennial-entrepreneurs. This opportunity stemmed from Okesanjo’s summer internship at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Dallas, TX.

The Chicago native was amongst 1,000 scholars invited to attend summit in Detroit, where she heard pro athletes Serena Williams and Kevin Durant, and cosmetics entrepreneur Melissa Butler discuss their approaches to being successful business people. Okesanjo singled out the following valuable advice from Butler: “When your gut tells you something, you should follow it” and when you have an idea “the only opinion that matters is your own; not the people around you.”

Okesanjo served as student commentary speaker and earned her B.S. degree in marketing in December 2019. She is currently an analyst with JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Although the official ceremony was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, construction crews have broken ground for the new School of Pharmacy and Health Professions building at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). The three-story facility will be the home for health professions programs as pharmacy classes, laboratories and faculty offices are currently spread among six buildings. A $10 million allocation from the 2019 Maryland General Assembly propelled the construction project. This timely progress comes as the university received provisional accreditation confirmation* from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. in spring 2020 to offer its Physician Assistant program. The 28-month pro-