Category Archives: Features
The Coolest Jobs You Never Knew Existed at UMBC: Ferdinand Maisel, Music Coordinator/Dance Accompanist
Before the first note sounds, the dance studio—with its heavy black tape stripes lining the floor—s like an enormous blank page of sheet music. Then, Ferdinand Maisel leans into the keys of the black grand piano in the corner, and suddenly students in sweats and bare feet dot the staff with whole-note pliés and staccato jumps.
Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.
The Coolest Jobs You Never Knew Existed at UMBC: Lindsey Loeper, Archivist, Special Collections
Lindsey Loeper ’04 acknowledges the futility of trying to keep pace with the hands of the watch and the rapidly turning pages of the calendar. No matter how quickly she and other members of the Special Collections team archive the stacks of UMBC documents they receive every day, there are always more coming. History never stops happening at a university that’s still building its story.
Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.
The Coolest Jobs You Never Knew Existed at UMBC: Rosie Mills, Lab Animal Technician
The rat notices a new person in the room. Rosie Mills notices the rat nervously noticing, and pulls him from his cage, patting him gently on the head. She whispers to him: “I know who is a grump.”
Mills has cared for and monitored the rats used in UMBC’s psychology research for more than 25 years, and has never changed her perfume so as not to scare the skittish creatures. “They’re used to their people. Did you know rats scare easier than birds, even?”
Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.
The Coolest Job You Never Knew Existed at UMBC: Tony Baney, Glass Blower
Glass may be fragile. But the process of making it is not for the delicate of hand or heart. Tony Baney, a second-generation glass blower who works in UMBC’s glass shop, manages to keep his cool even while working with his hands ungloved amid Pyrex as hot as 1,500 degrees Celsius. On the floor near his feet, a cardboard box of broken shards bears the sign: “Tony FIX ME please!” A nearby radio blares “Beast of Burden” by the Rolling Stones.
Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.
Maryland Charity Campaign: We Are All Connected
The Maryland Charity Campaign kicked off with a breakfast reception on Wednesday, October 19.
Faculty and Students Collaborate With Community on Historical Photos, Digital Stories
(Above, Bill Shewbridge and Lynn Casabon receive a proclamation from Sam Moxley, representing the county executive. Photo by Vin Grabill.)
In celebration of the new Arbutus Branch of the Baltimore County Public Library, UMBC faculty and students worked with members of the surrounding community to display historic railroad photographs and create a series of digital stories about the area through residents’ eyes.
Lynn Cazabon, associate chair and associate professor of art, worked with students to create a series of mural-sized prints from historical photographs of the railroad in the Arbutus area, which are on permanent display in the new Arbutus Branch.
Intercultural Video Communication students, led by Bill Shewbridge, director of the New Media Studio, collaborated with community residents to combine photos, images and oral history for a series of short films. In “Arbutus Stories,” residents reflect on the community, share experiences and describe their hometown.
The digital stories are available on the Baltimore County Public Library and UMBC New Media Studio websites.
Below is an overview of the project:
Below is the digital story, “38 and a Half Years”:
