04-17-2022 Education - Flipbook - Page 7
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, April 17, 2022 7
Creating curriculums, from page 1
research, analyze data and do more with what we
learn,” says Smith.
University of Baltimore’s Bachelor of Arts in
Human Services Administration
Human services administration is about helping people with special needs. Traditionally, those
working in the field have concentrated on supporting the disabled, the homeless, the mentally
ill, and those who have suffered from abuse. The
number of people across the U.S. in need of these
services has grown tremendously over the past
two years, as are result of the pandemic and the
many ways it impacted people’s lives. The need for
trained professionals, capable of guiding people
through personal challenges, is significant. And
the University of Baltimore’s Bachelor of Arts
program in human services administration is
answering the call.
“Our program is designed to help students
solve community problems,” said Tiffaney
Parkman, Ph.D., director of the undergraduate human services administration program at
University of Baltimore. “Our courses teach them
to look at what is happening in the world with a
scientific eye and challenge them to think about
new approaches that can inspire positive change.”
Among those course concentrations are case
management, program development, grant proposal writing, research methods and program
evaluation strategies. Students also are required
to complete a 100-hour internship experience,
with focus on implementation of a meaningful
community impact project. In summer 2021,
one group of students launched an on-campus
COVID vaccination clinic, making it convenient
for anyone on campus who wished to be vaccinated, to do so.
“We encourage students to pursue a project
that aligns with their interests and what they hope
to do in their careers,” says Parkman. “It becomes
a great learning experience, and naturally creates
networking opportunities, too.”
Parkman emphasizes that learning during
the pandemic has given students an extra dose of
reality, when it comes to understanding and even
experiencing real world problems.
“COVID has complicated things for students,
and they have had to continue learning while
they themselves were dealing with traumatic situations and environments,” she says. “I think it’s
made people realize how important it is to have
empathy for others and to be flexible and openminded; myself included.”
Nursing shortage, from page 1
those who enter the program as a nursing assistant
earning the certificate allows them to double their
earnings. This one-year program can be more
economical for students versus a two- or four-year
program.”
Notre Dame of Maryland University’s accelerated second-degree Bachelor of Science in nursing
program helps usher students with their bachelor's
degree into the nursing field. The program offers
an online option where the didactic learning takes
place online at the learner’s pace. All clinical work
is completed in person. Students can earn their
Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) in as little
as 15 months. The program graduates about 40
nurses per cohort.
According to Kathy Wisser, Ph.D., R.N.,
C.N.E., dean of the school of nursing, students
enter the program because they want more authentic relationships with patients or were exposed to
nursing while helping a family member through a
serious illness and became attracted to a nursing
career. Some students come from a non-health
care background such as accounting and want to
make a change in their lives.
“Some students come to us as they find their
current career is not fulfilling or have hit the pinnacle of promotions in their position,” she says.
“The nursing profession is one of the most trusted
of health care professions, which attracts people
who want to be a part of someone’s life. Very few
professions allow the opportunity to get to know
someone on an intimate level through care in a
short period of time.”
Paige Clark of Baltimore was drawn to the
program as she had been a phlebotomist at a laboratory and felt ready to go back to school either
to become a nurse or a physician assistant. She
appreciated the program was rolling admissions
so that she wouldn’t have to wait until the fall to
begin her education.
She came into the program with a Bachelor
of Science in psychology and felt the accelerated
BSN program helped round out her education.
“I could really focus on my nursing education
and felt very supported by the teaching staff,” she
says. “I learned so much from the staff about their
nursing careers which provided great connections
in Maryland hospitals through this program. This
program has provided so many opportunities for
my nursing career.”
Ask Margit, from page 1
Salisbury University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts,
Graphic Design Track
They say, “technology makes the world go
round,” and that sentiment was underscored
greatly during the world’s experience with
COVID. The need for digital applications and
communications tools exploded, and it was during that time that Salisbury University launched
its new Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a
track in graphic design, through its offerings at
The Universities of Shady Grove in Montgomery
County. Offered through Salisbury’s Charles R.
and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts,
the program merges traditional and digital art
approaches, giving students the creative skills to
work for the largest corporations as well as the
smallest businesses – all of which require design
services.
“We want our students to open their views
of what art can be,” says Edgar Reyes, M.R.A.,
graphic design lecturer and site coordinator. “The
need for creative services is constantly changing,
and we shape classes so that learning experience
can be flexible and adaptable, in line with those
changes.”
The first cohort of students formed in fall
2021. Graphic design, web design, illustration and
photography courses are the focus during the first
year of study. In year number two, experiential
learning will become a top priority, with community-based learning and internship experiences
paving the way for aspiring designers to tackle
real world assignments.
“Designers are needed in the corporate world,
and in virtually every industry,” says Reyes.
“Experiential learning opportunities make it possible for each student to figure out where they
want to be. In addition to working on real projects
and collaborating as part of a team, students get to
build a portfolio that showcases their skills.”
Salisbury University’s Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree with graphic design track is one of
approximately 80-degree programs offered at the
Universities at Shady Grove. Courses are held in
the biomedical science and engineering building,
packed with innovative technology and state-ofthe-art labs to optimize the learning environment
for all students.
“The space itself is a tremendous resource
for creative people,” said Reyes. “It demonstrates
a significant commitment to students and is a
beautiful place to learn.”
But not all colleges are created equal.
Community colleges, which offer both twoand four-year programs, have coursework
that can ensure a profession immediately
after graduation. Baltimore City Community
College offers certificates in addiction counseling, coding specialist, practical nursing and
paramedic. Or choose computer-aided draft
and design (CAD), cybersecurity or lab animal
science. It also offers degrees that lead to specific jobs, such as dental hygienist, emergency
medical services, respiratory care and surgical
technologist.
Community College of Baltimore County
“has more than 275 associate degree and certificate programs to choose from – the most
of any college in the region,” according to its
website. You could become a paralegal, get
a computed tomography certificate or one
in magnetic resonance imaging. What about
being a medical assistant? Or occupational
therapy?
You can also, as mentioned above, become
an optician. Check out Optician.edu (www.
opticianedu.org/maryland) for places that
offer courses. Or become a cosmetologist,
hairdresser or barber. Visit www.labor.maryland.gov for education and apprenticeship
details along with how to apply for a license.
One area that has perennial openings is
information technology and computer-related
services, many of which pay over $50,000 a
year. PC Magazine (www.pcmag.com) says
“The IT landscape is constantly evolving,
which means it's never the wrong time to get
certified in new tech skills.” It went on to say,
“50% of hiring managers said recruiting has
been a major challenge. Part of the problem
is finding candidates to fill highly skilled,
specialized roles; the same study showed that
80% of North American IT departments had
skills gaps.”
A story in Moby Geek (https://mobygeek.
com) quoted Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, saying,
“It should be compulsory for kids in the U.S. to
learn coding before their high school graduation.” Apple, Google, Bank of America, IBM
and Hilton are corporations that do not ask for
a college diploma for some positions.
If this is something that interests you,
check out Amazon Web Services (AWS),
which says you can “Access 500+ Free Digital
Courses Built by AWS Experts.” Google is
another education powerhouse as is Cisco
where you can attain certifications in a variety
of skills employers value.
But is it only IT and computing? Of course
not. An article in U.S. News, using U.S. Bureau
of Labor statistics, listed dozens of A.A. and
A.S. degrees that lead to jobs earning over
$50,000 a year. Occupational and respiratory
specialists earn $60,000 a year according to
the BLS. Maybe you’d like to be an air traffic
controller. You only need an A.A. degree, but
you’ll also have to take courses through the
Federal Aviation Administration. On the plus
side, you can make over $130,000 annually.
It all comes down to giving your future
considerably more thought than someone telling you to go to college. A majority of my
contemporaries are not using the degree they
got when we were in college, including me.
Despite all the advertising and promotion, a
college degree is not the norm. As of 2019,
around 32% of Americans over 25 and older
completed an undergraduate degree.
Consider these words from Tim Cook
when he addressed an audience at the
University of Glasgow and take them to heart.
“My advice to all of you is, don't work for
money – it will wear out fast, or you'll never
make enough, and you will never be happy,
one or the other. You have to find the intersection of doing something you're passionate
about and at the same time something that is
in the service of other people.”
The time you invest in thinking about
where you go after high school will pay huge
dividends. And Cook is right when he recommends you find something you’re passionate
about. Do something you thoroughly enjoy or,
at least, most of it. No job will be perfect but
waking up each day, looking forward to what
you will do, is the best way to live your life.
Preparing for success, from page 4
Career paths
The Practicum to Practice Program (P3)
is a partnership between the University of
Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON)
and the University of Maryland Medical
System that offers UMSON students an
opportunity to select their senior practicum
placement and first job as a nurse.
• Eligibility:
o Must be a UMSON entry-into-practice student in their final semester of
study in spring 2022
o Must maintain a cumulative GPA
of 2.75 or greater (Note that minimum cumulative GPA requirements
for UMSON graduation remain
unchanged.)
• Participating hospitals include:
o University of Maryland
Medical Center
o University of Maryland Baltimore
Washington Medical Center
o University of Maryland St. Joseph
Medical Center
Criteria for consideration for admission
into the Practical Nursing Certificate
Program at the Community College of
Baltimore County include:
• High School Diploma or GED
• Successful completion of prerequisite
courses with a C or better
• GPA of 2.0 or greater for all past CCBC
courses
• Competency in math, reading, and
English
• Completion of the Test of Essential
Academic Skills (TEAS)
In three stages of learning, the Notre Dame
of Maryland University’s Accelerated 2nd
Degree Bachelor of Science in Nursing
program equips students with the nursing
knowledge, skills and experience needed to
enter the profession:
• Nursing theory coursework offered
online, and on-campus focused on key
nursing concepts
• Nursing skills and simulation labs, where
you’ll put nursing theory into practice
• Clinical rotations, where you’ll get
real-world experience under instructor
supervision
The Career Center itself features an openconcept model that provides a versatile, welcoming
space for students, faculty, and visitors.
Eileen Simonson Hiebler, director of partnerships and recruiting, explains that walking into the
Career Center is similar to walking into an Apple
store. Students check in on an iPad, self-select their
appointment type, and are greeted by a student
worker and/or advisor who is available to answer
any questions and provide a welcoming experience.
The Career Center has no doors, all furniture is
mobile for flexible seating and workspace options,
and large screens promote events. According to
Hiebler, who is also a Loyola alumna and the parent
of a current student, the state-of-the-art building
has been designed to help students innovate, learn,
collaborate, and propel their careers forward.
With its new location, the Rizzo Career Center
has expanded its footprint to a two-level space
which includes a Career Center Lounge for events
and four times the number of rooms for employers
to interview Loyola students conveniently in the
heart of campus. With the larger space, the Career
Center has also doubled the size of its student
career ambassador team, enabling an expanded
drop-in schedule, with students being able to come
in with no appointment between Noon and 3 p.m.
The new addition was several years in the
planning and opened in August 2021. “There is
such joy in the new space with its natural daylight,
collaborative nature, and flexible, open space,” says
Hiebler. “It has become a focal point of the campus.”
University of Maryland Initiates Business
Leadership Fellows Program
When Victor Mullins, Ph.D., came to the
University of Maryland in 2012, he brought with
him a philosophy that business schools in general
were not truly preparing students for the business
world of today and of the future. “Times have been
changing and business schools realize that they
have to create new outcomes,” says Mullins, associate dean for undergraduate programs and diversity
officer for the Robert H. Smith School of Business.
“We need to ignite our students’ passion and help
them find their ‘authentic why’ … in short, why are
they even coming to business school.”
To that end, this spring the school of business
is initiating The Smith Business Leadership Fellows
Program, which will comprise 120 students, selected on the basis not only of their academic transcripts but also of their diversity of thought, perspective, race and gender. “We are going to prepare
these students for the future of the workplace by
examining how they can marry the nature of business – the how – with their individual passion – the
why,” says Mullins.
Mullins explains that the coursework for the
program will push beyond the general principles
of the core business school curriculum and address
the challenges facing businesses today. So, in addition to such established courses as accounting and
introduction to business values, fellows will also
take a new class in “Business, Society, and You,”
which will help them discover what makes them
thrive and how they can add value to the workplace.
Students will also be introduced to industry
leaders and at the end of their freshman year will
participate in a project-based experience such as an
internship, study abroad or research.
“While many business schools have upper-level
honors programs, the new fellows program allows
us to give students these opportunities earlier in
their academic career,” says Mullins.
Customized programs, from page 5
“Language is more than just the transfer
of information,” says Irina Golubeva, Ph.D.,
associate professor and director of the graduate program. “Instead of merely talk words,
we speak and interact with a larger, deeper
understanding of a culture’s core values. It’s
not enough to just speak words of a language.
Language is part of our identity,” says Golubeva,
who speaks four languages. She received the
Pedagogy and Teaching Award and the title
“UMBC Innovation Fellow,” in 2020.
All core classes get taught in English. Tracks
and specializations include French, German,
Spanish, intercultural filmmaking and intercultural training. Digital storytelling, study of translanguaging practices, intercultural pragmatics,
and ethnography round out curriculum.
Students come from diverse cultural backgrounds, making participation in the program
itself a significant intercultural experience. This
degree attracts foreign language students, heritage language speakers, teachers, returning Peace
Corps volunteers, university and non-profit
employees, among others.
Additionally, UMBC offers a B.A./M.A.
accelerated program, which saves time and
tuition. Here, students earn credit for their master’s degree while completing their undergraduate studies. “This is an excellent opportunity, and
we are glad to see that more and more of our B.A.
students enroll to our accelerated program,” says
Golubeva.
This degree remains relevant now more than
ever. “Many employers around the world view
intercultural skills as essential. More than two
thirds of companies and organizations are in
frequent contact with colleagues, partners and
customers from outside their own countries,”
says Golubeva. “Without question, a globalized
world made up of increasingly diverse cities and
communities, like Baltimore, requires graduates
with intercultural competence.”
UMD infuses climate change into business
Hurricanes, wildfires, floods – oh my!
Climate change intensifies. Forecasters predict it influences everything. No industry is
immune. It impacts how business makes decisions. Financial systems, especially, remain vulnerable to climate change.
Enter the creation of The Climate Finance
and Risk Academy, a new University of
Maryland (UMD) certificate program for professionals, which gets underway at the end of
2022. Yet, a sort of “sneak peek” program, called
“Fundamentals of Climate Finance and Risk
Management,” begins in June. It’s all a collaboration between two UMD schools: the Robert
H. Smith School of Business and the College of
Computer, Mathematical and Natural Science.
“In my 13 years with Smith, I have not heard
of a partnership relationship across schools like
this,” says Clifford Rossi, professor-of-the- practice and executive-in-residence, department of
finance. “I like to think of ourselves as building a
bridge between science and finance.”
He admits a divide exists. “We all talk different languages: the scientific, climate-change
experts compared to the business, money guys.
Climate scientists say we need the financial
folk if we are going to make a breakthrough to
change.
“We need the money people working with
science people,” says Rossi, an expert on risk,
who spent 25 years working in banking and gov-
ernment before entering academia.
The offerings appeal to professionals across
industries. Using state-of-art research, including current and historical trends in global and
regional climate change, they learn to anticipate
and develop contingencies for climate-related
disruptions. It’s designed to help “decision makers make well-informed business decisions that
factor in climate components,” says Rossi, who
encourages people in government and industry
to enroll.
“We target those on the frontlines; management-level up to board-level individuals. Federal
officials, too. There’s value in this program. It’s a
very applied program. It will give executive and
government officials a short, targeted amount of
information to take home to use to make better
decisions around climate change,” says Rossi.
Now may be the ideal time to launch the
new certificate. “This generation, more than any
other I have ever seen, increasingly is having an
interest in climate change,” he says.