Wingspan Spring 2020 Edition

“GIRL POWER”

Mosely Gallery Cartoon Exhibit

The UMES School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts

ADMINISTRATION

focuses its efforts and resources on the preparation

THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, SOCIAL SCIENCES, AND THE ARTS

of students who serve humanity in a personally and professionally ethical manner to create positive social change.

The academic disciplines represented in the school’s departments are education, criminal justice, English, modern languages, fine arts and social sciences. Each of these areas of study develop critical thinking, innovative expression, research skills and creativity to ensure our graduates are prepared to face the challenges of an ever changing global society.

SESA’s goal is to recruit and retain exceptional students from a diverse population who will reflect the academic excellence and heritage of our nation’s historically black colleges and universities. Our faculty and staff model current best practices in teaching, learning, thinking, civic engagement and leadership in order to nurture aspiring teachers, writers, artists and public servants.

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. UMES prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Inquiries regarding the application of federal laws and non-discrimination policies to university programs and activities may be referred to the Office of Equity & Compliance/ Title IX Coordinator by telephone, (410) 651-7848, or e-mail, titleix@umes.edu.

Heidi M. Anderson, Ph.D. President Nancy Niemi, Ph.D. Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs Marshall F. Stevenson, Jr., Ph.D. Dean, The School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts

DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Interim Chair Joyce Bell, Ph.D. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Chair Nomsa Geleta, Ed.D. DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND MODERN LANGUAGES Chair Dean Cooledge, Ph.D. DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS Chair Christopher Harrington, M.F.A. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Interim Chair Joyce Bell, Ph.D. EDITORIAL BOARD CRIMINAL JUSTICE Lily Tsai, Ph.D. EDUCATION Gretchen Foust, Ed.D. ENGLISH AND MODERN LANGUAGES Marilyn Buerkle, M.A. Sandra Johnston, Ph.D. FINE ARTS Bradley Hudson, M.F.A. SOCIAL SCIENCES Kathryn Barrett-Gaines, Ph.D. Zelma Hayward, B.A.

CONTRIBUTORS Kathryn Barrett-Gaines Phillip Broussard Marilyn Buerkle Tahja Cropper Benyam Desta Gretchen Foust Patricia Goslee-Contee Susan Holt Bradley Hudson Bill Robinson PHOTOGRAPHY Valentine Anamelechi Marilyn Buerkle James Cook Gretchen Foust Jim Glovier Jacqueline Hair Jesse Halpern Chris Harrington Debra Laforest Bill Robinson Allison Welkie Wingspan is published by the UMES School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts with the support of the Division of Institutional Advancement.

Submissions to Wingspan are welcome.

Contact our editor at Mlbuerkle@ umes.edu.

Design by Debi Rus, Rus Design, Inc

Marshall F. Stevenson Jr., Ph.D.

e c i f f O e From Th ean of The D

Happy New Decade from the UMES School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts (SESA).

Our school is quickly becoming the “location for transformation” within the university, the region and beyond. Students majoring in our disciplines of criminal justice, education, English, fine arts and social sciences will make a meaningful contribution to society wherever they reside after graduation.

Our fall semester was filled with events and accomplishments that clearly indicate the university has embarked on a mission of transforming lives—of our students and our community—under the leadership of President Heidi Anderson.

In September, Dr. Anderson was officially inaugurated as the institution’s 16th president. Even before this formal event, she demonstrated her ability to build a strong leadership team focused on national eminence and global impact.

I’m proud to be a part of her team.

SESA will play a major role in the university’s future. Our academic degree programs and certificate opportunities will attract and retain a diverse group of critical thinkers; our art exhibits, theater presentations, lectures and other cultural activities will serve as a source of inspiration for the community beyond our campus.

We will also tackle a difficult issue which has lurked in the shadows of our past for far too long. I have agreed to represent UMES on the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Created by the state legislature, the panel is charged with investigating some 40 reported incidents in Maryland between 1854 and 1933, including the final documented lynching which occurred here in Princess Anne. The group is required to issue a final report by December of 2021 designed to guide the state in how to publicly reconcile this violent history.

We will foster a stimulating intellectual environment as we continue to welcome new students and new faculty to the SESA family—even as we celebrate the 65 SESA graduates who left us at the end of the fall 2019 semester, armed with their degrees and a sense of optimism about how they will transform their world.

Our spring semester promises to be filled with more insightful and thought provoking programs—especially during Black History and Women’s History months.

While we look forward to the remaining months of this academic year, we remember that this decade represents the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance and the “New Negro” movement in this country. African Americans—through the cultural arts—made a significant impact on American culture as a whole. Starting this spring and continuing throughout the decade, UMES will sponsor and host a number of lectures, plays, exhibits and concerts that will focus on that transformative period.

I hope you enjoy this edition of “Wingspan,” and I look forward to sharing more SESA accomplishments in our next issue.

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WELCOME HOME

WE ARE LEADERS

A DREAM JOB

UMES students who seek careers as classroom teachers will have an opportunity to learn from someone who’s done that—and done it very well.

Richard Warren, Maryland’s 2018/2019 Teacher of Year, has joined the faculty of the UMES Department of Education. He serves as the Hazel Professor of Education, creating and sustaining a program focused on educating African-American men to be K-12 teachers.

“We need diverse and dynamic teachers who reflect what we see behind the desks in our classrooms,” Warren said.

“I am excited to play a part in the solution to improve the teacher pipeline for our children.”

The Hazel Professorship honors the late Richard F. Hazel, a prominent Salisbury businessman and philanthropist who in 2004 made a $3 million donation to the university, among the largest single gifts from an individual in UMES history.

Hazel asked that the money be used to support teacher training.

Warren’s faculty appointment brings him back to the campus where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Last year’s selection of Warren as the best teacher in the state continues to be a source of pride for the entire campus community.

A UMES faculty member will represent her peers across the state.

Gretchen Foust, associate professor of counselor education and coordinator of the school counseling specialization in the UMES Department of Education, has assumed a statewide leadership position.

Foust was recently elected a vice president of the Maryland School Counselor Association (MSCA), the state’s branch of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). She will serve a two year term on the MSCA board of directors.

In this position, Foust will represent counselor education faculty at all of the Maryland colleges and universities that offer master’s degree programs in school counseling, serving as a liaison between the programs and the MSCA. She will also represent Maryland as a state delegate to the ASCA at its national convention.

The responsibilities will keep her busy.

Her longtime advocacy for advancement of the profession on our campus will continue with a broader reach.

Some of her leadership activities will include coordinating two statewide conferences each year for school counseling graduate students. Foust will also encourage research, scholarship, presentations and general involvement by Maryland counselor education faculty and their graduate students.

When Awa Bojang selected criminal justice as her major, she envisioned a career in federal law enforcement. Her stellar performance in a 2019 internship has made that a reality.

Bojang, a resident of Olney, Maryland, graduated in December after spending her summer as an intern in the Department of Homeland Security. That internship helped her secure a job as a trainee in the department’s security management division.

Security concerns made her uncomfortable discussing specifics of her internship, but she got a firsthand look at a potential career and “it was everything I expected,” she said.

MAKING HISTORY A senior criminal justice major from UMES is now the youngest person ever elected to the Annapolis city council.

DaJuan Gay was 22 when he was sworn in to succeed Shaneka Henson in Ward 6 in July. The seat became available after Henson was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Maryland House of Delegates.

Gay’s age makes his accomplishment noteworthy, but it is even more unusual because his name wasn’t even on the ballot.

He won the race in a successful write-in campaign.

A paperwork mistake when Gay filed to run for the seat disqualified him from appearing on the ballot, but that didn’t stop him. He secured the endorsements of both Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, and then he took his campaign door-to-door.

He won in a landslide. Gay received 204 write-in votes. The Republican candidate earned 71 votes, and the Democratic nominee won 62.

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Wingspan / Spring 2020

TOP HONORS Jessica Martin, a student in the UMES master’s program in counselor education, got an early graduation present. Just days before the university’s 2019 winter commencement ceremony, she learned she had been selected as Graduate Student of the Year by the Maryland School Counselor Association.

The organization created the award to recognize a student in a school counseling master’s level program in Maryland who demonstrates “tremendous potential.”

Nikki Ham, who chairs the group’s awards committee, told Martin in her announcement of the honor that she had demonstrated “the highest level of leadership, counseling skills, advocacy and collaboration that can be expected.”

Martin, who lives in nearby Salisbury, Maryland, was a teacher at Beaver Run Elementary School, a public school in Wicomico County. Now that she’s completed her master’s program, she’ll serve as a counselor at the same school.

HOMETOWN HERO

James “Randy” Laird is an impressive student by most any measure.

He is a member of the prestigious UMES Honors Program. He’s earned A’s in nearly all of his courses.

Because he took college classes while he was still in high school, he will graduate ready to teach middle and high school social studies after just three years.

And … he’s still found time to be a volunteer firefighter in his Somerset County hometown of Crisfield, Maryland.

“I’m very passionate about volunteering,” he said. “I like to try to make the place where I live a little better.”

It might be considered a family legacy. He can trace his family’s connection to the fire department back to its founding.

His father serves as assistant chief, and Laird is a trustee, one of ten members who make executive decisions.

He’s drawn to the work, in part, because of his concern for the victims of a fire. “It gets quite emotional with people who have lost everything,” Laird said. “We comfort them. We salvage

what we can. We try and help them regain what they’ve lost.”

Because the Crisfield organization—unlike other local volunteer fire companies—hasn’t suffered from a lack of volunteers, Laird doesn’t worry if a call comes in while he’s at school. There are more than 60 other members who may be available.

“There have been many times where I miss calls due to work, school or student teaching. If a call goes out while I am doing one of those tasks, I simply cannot take the call,” he said.

However, if those critical duties don’t interfere, Laird can be counted on. He’s been what the company describes as a “top ten responder” for the last two years.

This semester, Laird will serve as a student teacher in the same high school he attended. He hopes, by next fall, he’ll be offered a teaching job in the county where he grew up. That’s another family tradition. His mother is a local educator.

“I like where I live,” Laird said. “I see its potential … I’m hoping to make as much of an impact as I can.”

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CONGRATULATIONS!

The UMES chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma, the national criminal justice honor society, welcomed seven new members at a formal ceremony held in the Henson Center on December 6. New inductees included Raya Berkley, Chondalyn Beasley, Dayona Godwin, Amira Moore, Jordan Lee Robinson, Michael Stewart and Israel Velasquez.

The UMES Gamma Omicron chapter was founded in 2001 under the direction of faculty member Emmanuel Onyeozili, who continues to serve as the group’s advisor.

The keynote speaker at the event was Saadia Feliciano who earned her bachelor and master’s degrees in criminal justice at UMES and who served two terms as the honor society’s national president. She’s currently a deputy in the Security Operations Bureau of the Anne Arundel County Sheriff’s office in Annapolis, Maryland.

The honor society’s mission is “to promote analytical thinking, rigorous scholarship and lifelong learning; to keep abreast of the advances in scientific research; to elevate the ethical standards of the criminal justice professions; and to sustain in the public mind the benefit and necessity of education and professional training.”

Maryland Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk, a Democrat who represents portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, brought a message of justice and reconciliation regarding the state’s troubled racial history to UMES last fall.

It’s believed that at least 40 African Americans were murdered by angry white lynch mobs in Maryland between 1854 and 1933 though no one was ever charged in connection with the crimes. It’s alleged, in many instances, government officials were complicit in the incidents themselves or knowingly concealed the identities of those involved.

The Maryland General Assembly, through legislation sponsored by Pena-Melnyk, has launched an effort to research the facts and make recommendations on how the state can or should atone for its violent past.

SESA Dean Marshall Stevenson, who serves on the newly created Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, invited the legislator who sparked the creation of the panel to the UMES campus.

“Race is a difficult t opic to discuss,” she said. “We need to have this discussion.

We need to honor those lives.”

The audience agreed. They offered the delegate a standing ovation when she concluded her remarks.

Truth & Reconciliation

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CREATING COMMUNITY

Homemade cookies and a chance to win a student “care package” may not seem like typical academic retention tools, but the Department of English and Modern Languages is taking an innovative approach to a problem every university faces. Once a student arrives on campus, what’s the best strategy to keep them here until they graduate?

Faculty members Sandy Johnston and Marilyn Buerkle have partnered on a project to create a sense of community for UMES English majors. On the first Wednesday of every month during the academic year, the department hosts an hourlong social. Students and faculty gather to talk, eat and play games.

“It’s a chance for English majors to get to know each other outside of the classroom, and it’s also an opportunity for students to connect with their teachers or advisors in an informal setting,” Johnston said.

While English majors may value the conversations once they attend, the prospect of free home-baked treats and a raffle ticket to win a package that includes some college necessities—a toothbrush, cough drops, pens, soap, highlighters or notebooks—is what gets them in the door.

“We don’t mind providing a bribe to get them here,” Buerkle said. “Once they sit down and have a conversation with people who share their interests and goals, they become invested in each other’s success. It may be the finishing touch they need to commit themselves to their UMES degree.”

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t l Sa

Most people have no idea how important salt has been in human history.

That’s according to Kathryn Barrett-Gaines, professor of African and African American history at UMES. She has just published her second book: “Lake Katwe Salt and History of the African Great Lakes,” one of the few works on ancient salt industries.

“For much of human history, salt has been more valuable than gold,” she said.

In her book, Barrett-Gaines investigates the salt industry in western Uganda, which goes back thousands of years. Her work reflects years of research in Uganda, where she lived during and after she earned her doctoral degree from Stanford University in 2001.

Her oral and archival sources reveal details of salt extraction and exchange, giving a glimpse into the lives of the participants and related changes in the African social and economic setting. The book describes the technological changes, the link between ecosystems and history, labor, migration

and gender, and the role played by the state.

She unravels the history of communities sidelined by previous research and opens the way for a better understanding of the history of East Africa from an African perspective.

“All of my education and experience came together on this book,” she says.

In addition to her Stanford doctorate in history, Barrett-Gaines holds a master’s in cultural anthropology from Duke University, and a master’s in African American studies from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She was able to live in Uganda when she won a competitive Fulbright award and a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Barrett-Gaines published her book with Fountain Publishers in Uganda because, as she says, “my work is African history for African people in Africa.”

Her first book, “One Little Guitar,” on the life and work of Ugandan super-star Paul Kafeero was also published by Fountain.

PRESIDENTS There are some qualities one might expect to find in a class president—leadership skills, an ability to interact comfortably with others, a desire to affect change. Most observers would agree that the presidents of the UMES freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes for the 2019/2020 academic year have those characteristics in common.

What came as a surprise, after the votes were counted, was another significant commonality. All four were criminal justice majors.

Ajani Thomas, from New Rochelle, New York, represents the freshman class. He envisions law school in his future and politics as a career. He’s had to slightly revise his original career goal. “I won’t be the first black president,” he joked.

Ciani Wells, the president of the sophomore class and a Philadelphia native, is interested in social justice. She envisions a career advocating for others. Leadership on campus serves as a dress rehearsal of sorts. “I didn’t get into this to satisfy me,” she said. “My satisfaction comes from helping someone else.”

For Courtney Proctor, the junior class president, criminal justice runs in the family. That’s what her mother studied in college; her godfather is in law enforcement. The Bowie, Maryland, resident is considering law school. “Becoming a lawyer looks like the best way to help others,” she said. Right now, being a class officer is fine tuning her communication skills. “People are looking to me for answers,” she said.

Senior class president Chemmel Bowrin will be the first

6 Wingspan / Spring 2020

member of her family to earn a college degree, and she doesn’t intend to stop there.

Bowrin, from Gaithersburg, Maryland, is planning (L to R) Chemmel Bowrin, Courtney Proctor, to attend law Ciani Wells and Ajani Thomas school. She says that seed was planted when she started watching “Law and Order” episodes on television. She was motivated to run for her campus leadership position by social media. “You can either complain on Twitter, or get in the position and make changes,” she said.

All four presidents believe their role is to create a bridge between students and administrators. They host town hall meetings with their constituents and focus on the issues that the student body believes are important.

So far, Bowrin says they’ve been impressed by UMES President Heidi Anderson. “She’s involved in everything,” she said. “She knows people by name.”

That’s a valuable political skill for any president.

Batman throws a heck of a birthday party!

UMES celebrated the 80th anniversary of the creation of the popular comic book hero with an art exhibition that not only included works by university students, alumni and faculty but was also open to local high school students.

The summer 2019 “pop-up” show in the Mosely Gallery was organized by faculty member Brad Hudson, who developed the Department of Fine Arts’ sequential arts concentration. Artists were encouraged to submit work depicting their interpretations of any Batman related characters.

“The exhibition was a huge success,” Hudson said. He believes it will result in future shows featuring community and alumni involvement.

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ART INSPIRED

BY HISTORY

OUT AND ABOUT The University of Maryland Eastern Shore has a unique partnership with the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Dorchester County, Maryland.

At the invitation of the National Park Service, the UMES Department of Fine Arts provides Tubman-themed art for display and sale in a permanent gallery exhibition at the facility’s visitor center in Church Creek.

The works are created by both students and faculty and are replaced periodically as new pieces are created. Instructors have built the Tubman theme into some of their courses to ensure that new work will continue to be available for exhibition at the center.

It’s a valuable opportunity for student artists to display their work to a large public audience. More than 240,000 people have visited the center since it opened in 2017.

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Mariah Terry, an applied design major with a concentration in sequential arts, described a trip she took in October with a handful of her classmates as a highlight of her year. That’s quite a compliment considering the year also included her summa cum laude graduation in December.

The reason her trip to the Baltimore Comic Con with sequential arts instructor Brad Hudson and three other UMES students—Ja’Marcus Coley, Freda Hill and Emily Kenlon—made such an impression? She’s an avid SpongeBob SquarePants fan, and she got to meet Gregg Schigiel and Jacob Chabot, two SpongeBob comic artists.

“I loved having a conversation with them and got a lot of useful advice and information from them,”Terry said. She has a souvenir of the conversation; they signed a book of SpongeBob comics she purchased at the show.

This is the tenth year that Hudson has taken his students on what he describes as an annual pilgrimage to the Baltimore Convention Center. The students exhibit and sell their work and, perhaps even more importantly, get to mingle with and talk to industry professionals.

“Being able to attend these conventions helps a lot,” Terry said.“I have been able to make important connections.”

Hudson uses the opportunity to promote the university and the art department’s sequential arts concentration.

“This year a lot of students and parents expressed interest in the program, ” Hudson said.“They were enthusiastic about the availability of such a unique program at an affordable tuition cost.”

(L to R) Department of Education Chair Nomsa Geleta, SESA Dean Marshall F. Stevenson Jr. and Special Education Program Director Patricia Goslee-Contee

NEW CERTIFICATE PROGRAM Local teachers have increasing concerns about meeting the demands of students with academic challenges, physical disabilities and behavior problems.

The UMES Department of Education has developed a plan to help.

With the support of Department Chair Nomsa Geleta and approval from the University System of Maryland and the Maryland Higher Education Commission, the university’s special education faculty began a multi-year, collaborative mission to create two new certificates—one for area undergraduate students and one for working professionals.

The classes are offered at night and between semesters during winter and summer sessions so that people who seek the credential will be able to fit them into their existing academic and professional schedules.

The new certificate programs are an option for students while they are enrolled in undergraduate teacher education programs at other area institutions, and they also provide a valuable resource for experienced educators who are already in the classroom but have had no training in special education. The six course sequence will also add to the skills of school counselors, social workers, nurses, mental health therapists and police officers.

“The special education certificates are extremely important to candidates who work in schools, or facilities, or communities that do not possess the skills to work with individuals who have intellectual, physical or emotional disabilities,” said Patricia Goslee-Contee, UMES’

special education program director.

UMES alumna Karen Holland, Worcester County’s 2018 Teacher of the Year, specializes in special education and is encouraged by the new certificates.

“Sometimes people become fearful, uncertain … unsure when they encounter someone with special needs,” she said. “I’m really excited the university is branching out to people in other professions,” she said. “The more people who are aware and understanding of kids with special needs, we become a stronger community.”

Worcester County special education teacher Karen Holland with one of her students

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A WINDOW ON WASHINGTON Benyam Desta graduated cum laude in 2019 with a UMES degree in English and a minor in digital media. Here he describes his journey to a full-time job at a national cable network.

As my spring 2018 semester was ending and graduation was in sight, I started to feel very anxious about not having found anything to jump-start my career experience.

Then one day my advisor, Marilyn Buerkle, talked to me about internship opportunities. She made a few calls to some of her former employers. No more than two weeks passed, and I received a call from Angie Seldon, a senior specialist in human resources at C-SPAN Cable Network, saying she wanted to interview me.

On June 13, 2018—nine days before my birthday—I was offered an internship in C-SPAN’s field operations unit.

Angie and Marilyn both played a pivotal role in my landing my first internship at a national cable network, based in Washington, D.C., that covers politics from all corners of the spectrum.

The moment I stepped into the C-SPAN building, I was greeted with open arms and learned much about camera operation, audio and lighting, and troubleshooting if ever needed. It’s safe to say I had a great summer with C-SPAN, and I planned on keeping in contact to see if a job might be open when I graduated.

Fast forward to literally three days before graduation. I can’t make this up! I got offered a job right

back in the field production unit at C-SPAN. It made graduation feel a lot better knowing I had a job lined up.

So a year after I started interning, I received a permanent job at the very same company. I’ve witnessed congressional hearings including some well-known officials like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Ted Cruz and even the late Elijah Cummings.

I’ve also taken part in the network’s coverage of the impeachment inquiry.

My job was to handle the audio for the committee members’ questions. As I looked around the room and saw all the reporters, policemen and public guests, I started to really grasp that I was in the middle of history being made, all thanks to that internship I was blessed to receive.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT The university’s fall stage production, performed in the Wilson Hall Black Box Theatre under the direction of English Department Chair Dean Cooledge, stirred controversy and conversation.

“Fireflies,” written by Donja Love, chronicles the disintegrating relationship between a minister and his wife, set against the backdrop of the 1960s civil rights movement. The play focuses on a 24-hour moment in the marriage of Charles and Olivia Grace.

“Issues of faith, God, love, sex, infidelity, abuse, homoeroticism, abortion and alcoholism come together to form the mosaic of the characters’ individual and combined identities,” Cooledge said.

“Love packs a lot into this play, but it balances perfectly.”

Cooledge was particularly impressed with the two students who portrayed the couple, Tysheira Spruill and Charles Brown.

“I was impressed by their dedication to improve with every rehearsal,” Cooledge said. “So much so, that they will play Troy and Rose Maxson in April’s dinner theater production of August Wilson’s “Fences.”

“Fences” will be staged April 24 and 25. It marks a return to the dinner theater format after a five year hiatus. A popular community event, it will feature a sumptuous dinner and a legendary dessert buffet prepared by the talented students of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

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Jesse Halpern’s world tour has found a home in Princess Anne.

Halpern was hired as a faculty member in the UMES Department of Fine Arts in 2018 to restructure the photography program.

His circuitous route from amateur enthusiast in elementary school to higher ed expert took him to nearly every continent first.

As a youngster, Halpern’s interest in photography was sparked by a grandfather who spent a lifetime in advertising and a big brother who built a darkroom in their home. Early on, he decided he wanted to be a commercial photographer.

His journey started at Rochester Institute of Technology. His coursework focused on classic, analog film skills which he put to the test when he participated in a Semester at Sea program, earning college credit while traveling around the world by boat.

That experience lit his wanderlust and his interest in interacting with diverse groups of people, but once Halpern earned his undergraduate degree, he headed to New York City to accomplish his goal of a career in commercial photography.

After eight years, he was looking for an opportunity to build a broader portfolio when he spotted an ad to teach English in Asia.

It looked like a perfect opportunity for him, and there was nothing to hold him back. “No lease, no girlfriend, no kids … it allowed me access to that part of the world and opened all these photographic opportunities,” he said.

PICTURE THIS

Before long he was headed to Korea. He thought he’d stay for a year.

After ten years, he was teaching at Dong Seo University and had a wife and a child. He came to a decision about his future, and it included a college classroom. “This is where I’m going with my life,” he said.

He headed home with his new family and spent three years earning an M.F.A. degree at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. When the call came offering him the job at UMES, his family was celebrating his grandfather—the man who engendered his love of photography—on his 95th birthday.

“It was quite a magical moment,” Halpern said.

His mission at UMES is to grow the photography program, so he spends a lot of time recruiting prospective students. He’s also fine-tuning the curriculum to be sure his students develop the hands-on skills they’ll need to get a job. “We’re grooming students to be commercial photographers,” he said.

Because he still shoots freelance assignments, his students have the opportunity to tag along and serve as assistants on a shoot. He brought two with him to Richmond recently to shoot a mock red carpet scene for a party hosted by Capital One. “One thing I try to share with my students is you have to have an end game. But you’re going to deliver pizzas, or you might drive a bus to get to that end game,” he said.

Or maybe you have to travel around the world to find the best place to call home.

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Exhibitions in the university’s Mosely Gallery offer an opportunity for the community to appreciate the accomplished artists who teach and who study on our campus. Gallery Director Susan Holt also schedules shows that feature professionals from around the world.

The fall 2019 semester began, as always, with examples of the ongoing research of UMES visual arts faculty. This included nonobjective works in resin by Christopher Harrington, oil paintings and illustrations of prominent figures in popular culture by Brad Hudson, a site specific drawing on two walls and the ceiling using one continuous line by Susan Holt, a series of photographs of mass shooting sites by Jesse Halpern, raku fired ceramics vases by Professor Emeritus Ernest Satchell, ceramic sculptures by Joy Maxwell and watercolor paintings by Marina Borovok.

The faculty exhibit was followed by the award winning illustrations of Spanish artist Natacha Bustos. UMES President Heidi Anderson described Bustos’ colorful and dynamic representations of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur as “wonderful examples of girl power.” In conjunction with the exhibition, Alex Simmons—author of “Blackjack,” a comic book series featuring an African American

12 Wingspan / Spring 2020

soldier of fortune, and curator of “The Color of Comics,” a traveling art exhibition depicting the portrayal of people of color in comics—traveled to campus to hold a workshop for sequential arts students.

There was more opportunity for the exchange of ideas in November. The artists whose work was featured in a Mosely exhibition of contemporary sculpture came to campus for a panel discussion.

John Barnes, Wesley Clark and George Lorio explored themes of racism, injustice and ecological doom. Their ideas were portrayed in wood, cast materials, and natural and found objects combined with drawing and spray painted imagery.

As each semester begins with a faculty exhibit, each closes with an exhibition celebrating the department’s graduating seniors. Jay Baldwin, Trent Carpenter, David Felix, Mason Hemphill, Imari Sydnor and Mariah Terry showed oil on canvas paintings, digital illustrations of sequential arts and graphic design, and mixed media works.

The art in the seniors’ show reached beyond the gallery walls.

For his Honors School requirement, Jay Baldwin also held a fashion show with models wearing clothes that featured his dynamic spray paint designs.

The English department’s Foreign Language Instructional Center (FLIC) hosted a highly successful summer language immersion program for middle and high school students in July.

For the first time, FLIC’s Summer Language Experience focused on Arabic, and it attracted its largest class of students to date. There were 21 local students who participated.

The four-week program met Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Students spent three hours each morning in intensive Arabic language study. Twice a week, like their college counterparts, the students used the FLIC computer-equipped classroom to learn Arabic via the technology-based software Mango Languages.

They also had daily campus activities

outside of the classroom including bowling, swimming, board games, Frisbee, football and basketball.

Each afternoon, the students participated in hands-on cultural exploratory sessions. They varied from week to week and consisted of Arabic calligraphy, Arab fairy tales, art and music.

At the end of the program, the students were given a language proficiency exam. The majority of the participants showed significant progress and improvement.

“We look forward to hosting future Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish immersion programs,” said FLIC Director Phillip Broussard. “Many of the students this summer expressed interest in learning other foreign languages next year.”

Summer Fun

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Look no further!

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