Wingspan Fall 2020 Edition

Why I March

FALL 2020

Page 8

Building a Coronavirus page 13

The UMES School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts focuses its efforts and resources on the preparation of students who serve humanity in a personally and professionally ethical manner to create positive social

ADMINISTRATION Heidi M. Anderson, Ph.D. President

change.

Nancy Niemi, Ph.D. Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs

The academic disciplines represented in the school’s

Marshall F. Stevenson, Jr., Ph.D. Dean, The School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts

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, and 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.

THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, SOCIAL SCIENCES, AND THE ARTS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Interim Chair Joyce Bell, Ph.D. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Chair Kimberly Poole-Sykes, Ph.D. DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND MODERN LANGUAGES Chair Dean Cooledge, Ph.D.

CONTRIBUTORS Kathryn Barrett-Gaines Marilyn Buerkle Cynthia Cravens Tahja Cropper Patricia Goslee-Contee Elvin Hernandez Susan Holt Bradley Hudson Thomas LaVeist Bill Robinson Ciani Wells PHOTOGRAPHY Javier Garcia Jim Glovier Elvin Hernandez Janay McIntosh Augustus Roberts Bill Robinson Ciani Wells Drusila Williams

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.

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.

Watersheds in History Marshall F. Stevenson Jr., Ph.D.

e c i f f O e h T m o r F n a e D e of Th Usually when the word “watershed” is used by historians—of which I am one— it refers to significant transformative and transitional events such as major catastrophes, wars, inventions, peace treaties, etc. These events mark a break in the way things were with the way things become. They create a “new normal.”

Many times we mark them by a specific year, decade or century. In 2020, two separate events represent watersheds in the history of the United States and the world: the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial unrest that broke out after the killing of George Floyd.

Both have a direct effect on the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and its students.

All across the nation, in order to protect the health of their campus communities, institutions of higher learning grappled with the abrupt transition to fully remote, online learning for this special spring of the new decade. To say that this was a wake-up call that higher education was not ready for is an understatement. It is difficult for any kind of institution to prepare for a global crisis of this magnitude.

The challenge for UMES was not without

its pitfalls, as none of us had ever experienced anything of this magnitude. Faculty and students alike, however, rose to the occasion.

We not only completed the semester remotely, but the “COVID Class of 2020” experienced a unique virtual graduation.

Reflecting on these events, I could not help but think back to my experience fifteen years ago at Dillard University in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. On August 29—just one week after our first year students had arrived for their fall semester— the entire region was engulfed in floodwaters.

Students and faculty fled. Many students continued their studies at other universities across the country. Most returned; some did not. In that case, Dillard’s graduating class of 2006 became the “Katrina Class.”

What was most important for me then, as it is now, was being part of a team of educators and administrators determined to continue the legacy of learning that both HBCUs represent.

We have spent weeks planning and envisioning the “new normal” as we return to campus for our fall 2020 semester. The School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts (SESA) is fully engaged in welcoming a new class of Hawks, and ensuring that they will return to a safe and healthy campus environment. Students will receive the same robust and rigorous education to prepare them to succeed in their majors whether their

course is taught online, face to face or some combination of the two.

As if the coronavirus pandemic was/is not enough, a kind of “race war” broke out across the United States in the aftermath of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd— an African American—over Memorial Day weekend. What ensued harkens back to the late Ronald Segal’s classic 1967 text, “The Race War,” describing the multiple racial upheavals around the globe during the 1960s in Africa, Latin America, the Far East and most notably the United States. The chapter on the U.S. begins: The major cities of the United States are sick with racial violence and alarm …

And so the seemingly distant past of the 1960s became the not so distant present of 2020.

George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and Ahmaud Arbery (the young man killed in what one historian called a “suburban game hunt”) represent the Black men—and America’s ever-present ability to destroy them—that James Baldwin described to his nephew in the 1963 classic “The Fire Next Time.” Once again, nothing has seemingly changed. Yet in an attempt to quell the anger that such blatant brutality would instill in his nephew, Baldwin implored him to channel his impending anger on the study of the repression, resistance and resilience of African Americans since 1619. That story could inspire him to create his own legacy of activism in the name of social justice.

DEAN continued on page 2

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NATIONAL RECOGNITION Richard Warren, who earned his undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees at UMES, continues his award winning ways.

The 2018/2019 Maryland Teacher of the Year and current faculty member in the UMES Department of Education was recognized this year by the National Education Association at its annual Salute to Excellence in Education Gala.

More than 800 educators gathered in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the achievements of Warren and 44 other California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence winners. The honor, named for its insurance company sponsor, salutes a select group of teachers from around the country. The winners were nominated by their peers for excelling in a variety of areas including dedication to the profession, community engagement, professional development, attention to diversity and advocacy for fellow educators.

DEAN continued from page 1

The Black Power movement of the late 60s and early 70s is now the Black Lives Matter movement of the 21st century.

Reaching beyond the African American community, Americans of every racial and ethnic group have taken up the cause. It is more evident today than ever that the equality of American democracy has yet to be realized.

Young college students are at the cutting edge of this movement. It intersects with American politics as a presidential election approaches. Competing ideologies loom large and students have to think critically about the future they can shape and determine.

The challenge for the faculty in the School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts moving forward is to use these teachable moments in history to help our students make sense of the senseless. This is especially the case with race relations in this country. Whether it’s reading Segal in a history class, Baldwin in a literature course,

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studying racial inequities in sociology and criminal justice classes or painting a mural depicting those whose Black Lives Matter(ed) as an art project—teaching and learning will occur in spite of the coronavirus.

One observer has noted that “real education in these topics doesn’t last with a single lecture or a single course, but rather something woven into a curriculum in meaningful ways.” Every class should center on helping our students become critical-thinking problem solvers with both cultural competence and the ability to communicate that competence to others. This is the essence of how faculty and students engage within SESA’s departments.

Please enjoy reading about some of the many SESA activities and accomplishments during the semester of COVID-19, some directly related to our watershed moments, some when we were blissfully unaware of what was to come.

CELEBR The campus community didn’t realize as it attended Black History Month events in February that the other special programs and interesting guest speakers typically scheduled throughout the semester would grind to an immediate halt in March.

Fortunately, the February programs were noteworthy.

The theme (and title) of a Mosely Gallery art exhibition which opened February 6 was COMMUNITY. A wide range of works in different styles and mediums were displayed from what Gallery Director Susan Holt described as some “very prominent” historical and contemporary African American artists.

A special spotlight was given to Atlanta based painter and sculptor Alfred Conteh. “Considered a ‘Black Genius’ in contemporary art, his detailed textural portraits of neighborhood individuals capture internal personalities and external realities,” Holt said.

RATING BLACK HISTORY

Also included in the show were other artists who have played a major role in African American art history. The works by artists such as Hale Woodruff, Romare Bearden, Gordon Parks, Faith Ringgold and Margo Humphrey were generously lent to UMES by the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University.

The display of the late photojournalist Gordon Parks, who documented issues of civil rights and poverty for decades on film, became particularly pertinent in retrospect.

Parks once wrote that the camera was his choice of

weapons in the battle for justice. This recent statement from the Gordon Parks Foundation website reminds us that the battle is ongoing: “Gordon Parks never met George Floyd but they knew the same struggle … A great deal of his legacy is in our archives … another part of it cannot be stored … it’s in the streets, it’s in the chants of people marching to ensure that George Floyd’s death is the last of its kind.”

The struggle for social justice led more than 1,000 people to pack the Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center on February 20. They gathered to hear from Korey Wise, one of the “Exonerated Five.” The story of the five black teenagers wrongly convicted for a 1989 assault on a white female jogger in New York’s Central Park was retold last year in “When They See Us,” a Netflix miniseries directed by Ava DuVernay.

The UMES audience was clearly interested in hearing from Wise about the 14 years he spent in prison for a crime he didn’t commit; all tickets for the event were reserved in less than a week after it was announced, and Wise was greeted with a standing ovation before he spoke. His remarks were titled “Life After Injustice.”

One key to confronting injustice is education. Providing an opportunity for all students—regardless of race—to do their best has been a lifelong vision of another Black History Month guest.

Alvin Thornton, a former faculty member and administrator at Howard University and the current president of the Prince George’s County Board of Education, argued that a quality public education is critical and should not be limited by income or neighborhood.

“We are continually reminded of the courage and sacrifice of those who believed in the educational opportunities we have now,” President Heidi Anderson said.

“We are reminded of the ongoing requirement we have as beneficiaries of those sacrifices to always remember, preserve, defend and grow what we have gained.”

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Racism is a Disease Thomas LaVeist, who earned

his bachelor’s degree in sociology at UMES in 1984, is a world renowned expert in health policy. Earlier in his career, he served as director of the Center for Health Disparities Solutions at Johns Hopkins University, and he was the inaugural recipient of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “Knowledge Award.”

LaVeist currently is the dean of Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. His editorial first appeared in The Advocate, Louisiana’s largest daily newspaper.

It is reprinted here with the editor’s permission.

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As dean of the oldest school of public health in the country and a researcher with 30 plus years of experience, I routinely work in the realm of health disparities. But health inequity is just a symptom of a much larger, much more deadly disease, a disease that divides and destroys our country, and demonstrates a criminal indifference to Black life.

That disease is racism.

Black Americans live sicker and die younger than their white counterparts. Sometimes the cause of death is heart disease, cancer or COVID-19. Sometimes the cause of death is violence, abuse, and hatred. Sometimes it is simply indifference.

Sometimes that cause is at the hands of those entrusted with our safety.

George Floyd died a violent, unnecessary death. He endured excessive use of force by a police officer. Cellphone video shows Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck, indifferent to his cries for breath. These occurrences are all too common. Alton Sterling.

Botham Jean. Philando Castile. Michael Brown. Jamee Johnson. Sean Reed. Steven Demarco Taylor. Terrence Franklin. Miles Hall. Michael Dean. Samuel David Mallard. E.J. Bradford.

Stephon Clark. Breonna Taylor. Sandra Bland. Atatiana Jefferson.

There are even children, Tamir Rice and Antwon Rose.

Each of these is a horrific, individual case, but collectively they (and others) speak to a deep, cancerous, systemic racism that affects every black and brown person in our country.

It’s not just a man selling CDs outside of a convenience store, a former horticulturist selling loose cigarettes, or an EMT at home in her bedroom. It’s every Black and Latinx American person trying every day to live their life without fear of the police and what could happen to them as they go about their business.

We can’t solve the problem of police brutality overnight. But perhaps we should begin by defining it and knowing when force is excessive. We should establish a national definition that every police force could use as a barometer and measure for the techniques they teach and recommend. And hold them accountable when that definition is breached.

We also need clear and consistent data on police killings, accounted for within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Current measures notoriously undercount data or don’t include reports from all states. It’s difficult to address a problem when you do not know or understand the full extent of it. We need a single, well-sourced database that will clearly and unapologetically account for every death arising from a police encounter. Congress should then be required to review the data and compile an annual report on police brutality, use of force, and killings attributed to police officer actions.

Finally, all police shootings should automatically be referred to state or federal prosecutors rather than to local district attorneys, which leaves too much room for leniency and corruption when shootings and deaths of this type are retained as a local matter.

Last fall we recognized 400 years of inequality, the anniversary of the first enslaved Africans in the New World. The death of George Floyd shows us that we are still very much fighting against that horrific past; we are still reconciling the deep-seated racism stubbornly intertwined into our political and public systems.

Confronting racism and dismantling the structures that have continued to make racism possible within our public infrastructure will be difficult, but we have to be up to the challenge. Lives depend upon it.

let’s talk As we watched the video of George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police—and then saw the worldwide protests that followed—difficult discussions on racism began to percolate between friends, colleagues and elected officials.

Inevitably, those discussions of racial inequities will make their way into the classrooms of children taught by UMES-trained educators.

Sydney Campbell, who earned her undergraduate degree this year and was hired to teach eighth grade English in Lanham, Maryland, will have a head start. While interning at a local high school during the fall 2019 semester, her students read “All American Boys,” an award winning novel that deals with an act of violence that leaves its community racially divided.

The classroom discussions, led by Campbell, focused on discrimination and led to some eye opening moments for her students. One white student was shocked at the experiences recounted by her Black classmates.

Campbell thought the conversations were productive. “You don’t really know what they go through if they don’t talk about it,” she said.

DaMisha Brown, who earned her UMES English degree in 2016, was already working in an elementary school classroom in New Castle, Delaware, when Floyd—and Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and Ahmaud Arbery—were killed. The subject could not be ignored.

“It’s on the TV, it’s in the protests … I knew that my students saw it because I saw it,” she said. “I made sure they knew that anger is a natural feeling; it is what you do with that anger that

determines if it’s good or bad.”

Another English graduate, Michael Montibeller, Class of 2007, knows his students will want to get his opinion on race relations as they return to the classroom.

That’s because he works in Spain, and his students are eager to get an American’s opinion on American events.

“I plan to broach this topic for sure in the upcoming school year. (My students) have been very supportive of Black Lives Matter, which makes me proud,” he said. “I feel a responsibility because maybe I’m not Black, but I grew up in a predominantly Black county and went to an HBCU, and it’s my job to help spread my experiences to younger people.”

AWARD WINNING

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of Alpha Phi Sigma’s convention in San Antonio, Texas, the national criminal justice honor society still named winners in its annual essay competition.

Raya Berkley, a UMES criminal justice graduate student, won top honors and a $1,000 scholarship in the graduate category.

Her essay was titled “The Criminal Justice System’s Response to Intimate Partner Violence.”

In her award winning submission, Berkley argued that the law enforcement response to victims of domestic violence is inadequate. She suggests that “in order to successfully restore the victim’s trust in the system to serve justice, new policies must be implemented and the system must collaborate with closely related fields to develop the best tactics to assist the victims.”

Berkley, from Virginia Beach, Virginia, serves as president of the UMES chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma. She will earn a master of science in criminology and criminal justice later this year.

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VIRTUAL EXCELLENCE The 83 students who earned degrees from the UMES School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts in May found their commencement ceremony—like everything else since COVID-19 arrived—remarkably different than what they had imagined.

On May 15, students and their families were back at home, gathered around computer monitors, to attend a virtual ceremony.

They would watch videos, submitted by their Class of 2020 colleagues, to remind them of the long hours spent studying, the clubs and activities they enjoyed, and the lifelong friendships they forged on their way to their degrees. They would also hear President Heidi Anderson and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan congratulate them on their accomplishments.

It wasn’t quite the same as walking across the stage to thunderous applause, but they weren’t the only students whose achievements were celebrated “in

absentia.”

The university’s annual Honors Convocation was canceled, but deans and department chairs still singled out remarkable students for departmental and school accolades.

Outstanding students who earned departmental honors included Aaminah Matthews (Criminal Justice), Allison Gingrich (Education), Ciani Wells (English), Ellen Bargar (Fine Arts), Alona Robillard (General Studies) and Andre´ Bell (Social Sciences). The Award of Excellence, offered by Dean Stevenson to whom he considered the most exceptional SESA student, went to Andre´ Bell, a graduating senior from Detroit, Michigan, who

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earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in psychology.

Nearly 200 SESA students earned placement on the UMES Dean’s List with at least a 3.5 GPA. A small group of SESA students also earned a prestigious spot in the UMES chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Membership is by invitation only to UMES’s top 7.5 percent of second-semester juniors and top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students.

The organization, which bills itself as the nation’s oldest, most selective, all-discipline honor society, was unable to hold its annual induction ceremony, but still welcomed six SESA graduate students and three SESA undergraduates in its group of 17 new members. They included Nicole Abdullah, Raya Berkley, Shelby Brewington, Elizabeth Burke, Nzinga Cardwell, Zoe Jackson, Ewa Okulate, Shawaan Robinson and Jewel Sanders.

One of the last events forced to reinvent itself was the Mosely Gallery’s senior art show, staged in the final weeks of each semester, showcasing the talents of the graduating seniors in the Department of Fine Arts.

This year the department invented a new way for the public to appreciate the hard work of its students.

The traditional gallery event morphed into a virtual show named “Mask On!,” a celebration from afar of the five talented young artists–JaMarcus Coley, Freda Hill, Farooq Kariem, Carlos Mars-Henson and Bryanna Turman–who met the challenges of finishing their degrees while in quarantine. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the revamped senior show was a virtual reception which enabled friends and family to join UMES faculty and administrators in an online salute to the students and their work.

Mars-Henson appeared on screen, dressed for the occasion in a cap and gown. Coley took the opportunity to alert the virtual reception guests that he remains optimistic about the future. “Look out for me,” he said. I’m going to be successful in the art world.”

it e it r W n dow

This spring’s transition to online classes prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic required an unprecedented adjustment by both faculty and students.

To document the impact of our pivot from classroom to computer, the university’s director of public relations Bill Robinson invited the campus community to write about how they were feeling.

He planned to post their short reflective essays on the UMES website.

The English department answered his call.

Over the course of a few weeks in April and May, faculty members Amy Hagenrater-Gooding and Mark Zockoll, and English majors Christian Ferguson and Ciani Wells, wrote about the challenges the unexpected changes created.

“Moving out of my room before the semester was over won’t rank as my favorite college moment,” Ferguson wrote.

“I consider Harford a second home, and I left it too soon.”

Hagenrater-Gooding and Zockoll have both taught online courses before. While it was familiar territory for them, that was not the case for some of their students.

“I’ve watched students who faithfully completed faceto-face work struggle with online assignments,” Zockoll wrote. “Students quick to communicate with me in-person seem to feel disconnected when they struggle to present their

Clockwise from top: Roberts, Ferguson and Zockoll

thoughts and questions by email.”

Later, when the topic of Robinson’s digital anthology expanded to include the racial protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, two more English majors, Augustus Roberts and Stephen Ayres, added their essays to the online chronicle of this unusual time.

“From the sight of people wearing face masks in public, no groceries on the shelves at one point, and being indoors more than I expected headed into the summertime, it’s safe to say 2020 has brought its own lessons for all of us affected– whether we realize or not,” Roberts wrote. “One lesson we must remember, though, is that Black lives should matter more than Black deaths.”

AN EXEMPLARY EDUCATOR India Williams had more than the completion of her undergraduate degree to celebrate in May. She was selected to represent UMES as one of the Maryland Association of Teacher Educators (MATE)’s exemplary future teachers.

Williams, a special education major from Oxon Hill, Maryland, was nominated for the group’s Distinguished Teacher Candidates Award by the UMES Director of Special Education Patricia Goslee-Contee.

“I had the opportunity to observe her growth not only as a student herself, but also as a teacher candidate guiding the development of students in the classroom,” Goslee-Contee said. “Her practice of patience was exhibited daily.”

When she was forced to return home, Williams continued to use the skills learned during her internship. She helped supervise the online lessons of the children of essential workers in her neighborhood.

Each year, MATE celebrates honorees from Maryland and Washington, D.C.’s four year institutions and community colleges. The official recognition ceremony has been postponed until October.

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WHY I MARCH Ciani Wells is an English major from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Ms. Wells serves as the president of the Class of 2022. She is also a member of the UMES Honors Program and works as a peer tutor in the university’s writing center

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” So, when I saw that a Black man was lynched on May 25, I knew that I had to take action.

As he was pinned to the ground by three police officers, George Floyd–a man who is now the face of a movement which demands change in America’s innately unjust systems-–cried out, begging for relief, “I can’t breathe.” As I watched the revolting video, I was simultaneously engulfed in intense grief and anger.

I was reminded of the constant war against my Black brothers and sisters in this country, and I knew that I could no longer acquiesce to the racial discrimination that continues to plague every aspect of the American society. I decided to unapologetically acknowledge and bring awareness to the issues that afflict African Americans in the United States and to steadfastly commit myself to combating these structural and systemic methods of oppression wholeheartedly and unitedly.

This is why I march!

I believe that it is important for everyone to recognize that racial bias is undeniably exercised in many forms in the United States. When a statement like “Black lives matter!” is met with adversity, and human beings have to continuously beg others to realize that their life has value, there is a huge problem.

For me, the horrific murder of George Floyd shined a light on a variety of perspectives regarding the oppression of African Americans. To see that some people have made horrific remarks insinuating that they get joy from the murder of African Americans at the hands of police is disgusting.

People have either expressed support for justice and equality, or hatred. While it is sad to see that many people are fueled by hate, it is encouraging to see the unity that has sprung from the

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tragedies that continue to occur.

People are protesting and demanding change all over the world. Despite opposition, we must continue to educate ourselves about racial discrimination and must encourage one another to dismantle it and to respect each other’s humanity.

As I marched in protest in my hometown of Philadelphia on June 5, I felt empowered, emboldened, and invigorated. With many white allies by my side, I realized that there is hope for the future.

I was not only marching for justice for George Floyd, but for justice for every Black person who had fallen victim to the systems that are set against us. I marched for those who died and those who survived the attacks of the oppressors. I marched for

our ancestors who were enslaved, and I marched for our family and friends that are held in bondage in penitentiaries today.

I realized that I am my ancestors’ dream. Just as they fought for equality in movements of the past, it was time for me to do my part. “No justice! No peace,” I exclaimed. Under the hot beaming sun, I was not worried about comfort or convenience.

In that moment, a fire in me was ignited. That day, I committed myself to uplifting my people and doing all that I can to combat racial inequality. I plan to do so until the day I die. As Dr. King suggested, I will forsake comfort, and I will meet these challenges head on.

I will continue to profess that “Black lives matter!” today, tomorrow and forever.

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AN ABRUPT CONCLUSION With little warning, students engaged in internships during the spring semester had their field experiences come to a screeching halt.

No one was more dramatically interrupted than Samantha Hernandez, a Spanish language student studying in the Andes Mountains near Cuzco, Peru. The Peruvian president ordered the country’s borders closed and gave foreign nationals just 24 hours’ notice to leave. Because her internship was sponsored by a federal agency, the U.S. embassy helped Hernandez get home.

“I hope to return one day to see those same beautiful views that I saw,” Hernandez wrote to her language professor.

Criminal justice major Parys Lassiter was equally disappointed when his internship with Delegate Benjamin Brooks, a member of the Maryland General Assembly, ended abruptly. Lassiter hopes to attend law school, and he was enjoying getting a behind the scenes look at the place where Maryland law is made.

“I was right in the middle of legislative hearings, where I was starting to see my work researching bills being discussed,” he said.“I was learning a lot from Delegate Brooks, and I was looking forward to learning more.”

Student teachers moved their experiences online when local schools stopped face-to-face instruction. Many had just successfully completed their first internship experience and were transitioning to their second location when the pandemic began.

Teachers had to gather resources, quickly learn software programs and adjust their

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lessons to be ready to teach remotely. Our interns jumped into action, with the assistance of their university supervisors, offering suggestions and locating grade level materials that could be easily transformed into packets or electronically distributed.

For the remainder of the semester, they continued to collaborate with teachers in developing online lessons and materials, remotely creating learning packages for students without internet connections, serving as mentors for students who needed some extra help and even providing support to parents. They also participated in professional development workshops provided by the local school systems.

Graduate students in the education department’s Masters of Arts and Teaching program knew that school aged children weren’t the only ones who would need to stay busy while stuck at home. Realizing the cancellation of senior citizen programs meant families were forced to take on the care of their elderly loved ones as well, they worked on packets to be distributed to seniors. They included learning games, reading material, adult coloring sheets and word search puzzles.

“We certainly applaud our future teachers for contributing their time, talents and resources to assist students, families and communities as we endure this global crisis,” said education faculty member Patricia Goslee-Contee.

On the Road Before the pandemic ended academic trips, a group of sequential arts students and faculty member Elvin Hernandez traveled to Katsucon, a fan convention celebrating Japanese animation, society and culture held each February near Washington, D.C. Our student artists participated in the event’s display and sale opportunities.

“It was very interesting to watch how these students showcased their different art styles, set up their professional platforms and engaged with the audience,” Hernandez said. “It was also great to watch them learn from each other, as well as from their exposure to the showroom and fellow artists’ booths.”

With thousands of attendees, Katsucon is also a great recruitment opportunity for the university’s Department of Fine Arts. Hernandez described it as “a means for us, as a school, to reach new student prospects and interact with an audience

that is directly interested in the programs offered at UMES.” Another faculty member, who developed the UMES sequential arts program, also squeezed in a trip before COVID-19 pulled the plug on travel. Brad Hudson was invited to the Farpoint Convention near Baltimore to create sketch cards of the event’s celebrity guests including Marry Chieffo, Penny Johnson Jerald and Anthony Montgomery. The cards were autographed by the guests and then sold at a charity auction.

Farpoint is described by organizers as an annual gathering for fans of all genres of imaginative fiction—fantasy, horror, science fiction, super heroes—and the media formats in which they might appear.

Hudson might have been as popular as the celebrity guests he drew at the event.

He has produced over 2000 “Star Wars” sketch cards distributed internationally by the Topps trading card company. Hudson also does illustrations for other Topps licenses including AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” “Stranger Things” and “Mars Attacks.”

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Leaving a Legacy Before the Black Lives Matter protests this summer, UMES was already working on how to make its contributions to Black history and culture more accessible to the community and more available for scholarly research.

A $50,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency that supports the nation’s libraries, will provide seed money to UMES to curate, promote, sustain and interpret the archives in the Special Collections Room of the Frederick Douglass Library, creating a 21st century research resource.

The grant proposal was created by a committee, appointed by Dean Stevenson, which included social sciences faculty member Kathryn Barrett-Gaines and English faculty member Gabriela Vlahovici-Jones, librarians Sharon Brooks and Joseph Bree, and Director of Public Relations Bill Robinson.

Barrett-Gaines, a professor of history, said the entire campus is a museum. “Everything

Many people write encyclopedia content.

One of them is our own Kathryn BarrettGaines, a professor of African History.

She has answered many invitations to write entries for encyclopedias. This year, she wrote for the new Oxford Encyclopedia of African Women’s History, from Oxford University Press.

Barrett-Gaines’s article is “Women in Uganda.” The articles are discoverable via any browser search. So, when people search for terms like women, girls, labor, work, marriage, family, children, rights, agriculture and Uganda, one of the results just might be Dr. BarrettGaines’s article.

Encyclopedia articles are anonymous, so her name will not appear; but her education and experience will.

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about and on our campus is historical,” she said. “It all needs to be preserved and interpreted so that we can educate the public on who we are, what we have been through and why we exist.”

She describes historically Black colleges and universities as creators of human weapons against white supremacist thinking.

“We carry on the struggle to force America to live up to its own principles,” she said. “The history of our HBCU, like all others, is a history of Black determination, hard work, resilience, and innovation against the constant combative opponent of white supremacist thinking, systematic racism and jealous hatred by white folks on and beyond the Eastern Shore.”

A professional archivist will oversee reorganization of the library’s boxes and files of documents, church records, photographs, theses, sports memorabilia, 16-mm film and oversized portraits.

They will also supervise student interns who will get hands-on experience in archival organization.

UMES is one of eight HBCUs to receive this grant this year.

WHO WRITES THE ENCYCLOPEDIA?

The 8,000 word article took months of reading, research and thinking. She borrowed close to 100 books from the University System of Maryland libraries before they shut down.

She consulted with Ugandan women friends to get their ideas of what they wish from an article about them.

“It’s a tremendous responsibility,” she said, “to avoid portraying African people as objects of study, or as victims. I am responsible, as a historian and a human being, to educate myself to understand people and events from multiple points of view, so that my work can help other people educate themselves. We are in a war on ignorance, and I work every day to be on the just and right side of that war.”

UNDER

N O I T C U R T S N CO

While most of us have become all too familiar with the spiked sphere that television newscasts have used to illustrate the cellular shape of COVID-19, spring semester design students were asked to build one.

When the virus forced the cancellation of face-to-face classes, Susan Holt, the instructor in the art department’s Three Dimensional Design class, had to scramble to come up with 3-D projects that could be completed at home.

“I abandoned the rest of the curriculum and created new projects,” Holt said. “Using materials found at home, students made a coronavirus. Their creativity was impressive!”

For their next project, again channeling their unique circumstances, Holt’s students wrote about and drew their current emotions. Then, they turned those emotions into shapes and created abstract relief sculptures out of cardboard. They expressed anger and fear, as well as love and comfort.

Their instructor was pleased with the results. “Despite all the challenges, the students did some awesome work,” she said.

MAKING HISTORY

The more than 40,000 members of the Virginia Education Association will be led by an Eastern Shore native who earned his doctoral degree at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

James Fedderman is the first Black male to serve as president of the state’s teachers’ union. A 2008 graduate of the UMES Organizational Leadership Program, he defeated two opponents in a May election.

Fedderman grew up in Accomack County and is a music teacher at his alma mater, Arcadia High School. He is familiar with the policy issues he will face as head of the union; he has served as a vice president of the organization since 2016.

STATE LEADER Delaware’s 2020 Secondary School Principal of the Year began his educational journey at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

It didn’t take long after Shanta Reynolds earned his undergraduate degree in social science education for him to get noticed. A member of the Class of 2000, Reynolds went to work as a social studies teacher at Delcastle Technical High School near Wilmington, Delaware. By 2005, he was named Delcastle Teacher of the Year and Social Studies District Teacher of the Year.

Reynolds moved into administration after six years in the classroom. This year, as principal of St. Georges Technical High School in Middletown, Delaware, Reynolds was named the state’s Secondary School Principal of the Year.

As principal of St. Georges Technical, Reynolds supervises approximately 1,000 students in grades 9-12.

School of Education, Social Sciences, and The Arts

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