10-15-2023 EDU - Flipbook - Page 1
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, October 15, 2023
EDUCATION
A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION OF BALTIMORE SUN MEDIA • SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023
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Towson University hosts an array of special dining events each semester.
Nourishing the stomach and the soul
Upscale dining and student support services
By Gregory J. Alexander, Contributing Writer
W
hen I was in college, a trip to
the dining hall usually meant
grabbing a slice of pizza or a
bowl of cereal before rushing off
to class. Well, thankfully, those
days are gone.
At the University of Maryland Eastern
Shore, a team of college interns dubbed the
dining experience the “Luxe Life” to illustrate
that dining at UMES is more than just a bite
to eat in between classes. “They don’t feel like
they’re dining in a cafeteria … they’re getting
an experience of luxury hotel and upscale dining,” says Jena Williams, food service director at
UMES/Thompson Hospitality.
Williams says that students enjoy soft music
during lunch and dinner and instead of just
tradition cafeteria-style seating with long tables,
students can dine at high-top tables like an
upscale bistro. UMES offers different meal
plans to tailor to the needs of both students
who are on campus all the time and commuter
students who need fewer meals per week.
“We just opened a Milk and Honey, which
is the first Milk and Honey on any HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) campus. We also have a Tropical Smoothie, the Rub,
Plateau Dining Hall, the Shore and Starbucks
for students to enjoy,” says Williams.
She adds that in addition to providing
meals to students, UMES also aims to educate students and broaden their horizons. The
new teaching kitchen has the culinary team
come out and introduce students to new foods,
including vegetarian and vegan options. “We
had one session where students were sampling
food and asking, ‘What is that?’ And I said,
‘Well, that’s a vegan sausage.’ Now we have athletes come up and say, ‘Do you have the vegan
sausages today?’ It'll help them expand their
horizons and taste buds and try different foods
and get away from chicken tenders, fries, burgers and pizza,” says Williams, who adds that
UMES also has a station called Passport with
menus from different countries.
Towson University is also ramping up its
dining options thanks to a new partnership
with Aramark, which began on July 1. In addition to serving delicious food, Towson is also
offering employment opportunities like the
Student Entrepreneur Coffee Program, which
offers supervisory experience and professional
development.
“We’ve really looked at growing our student
workforce population, and we have strategic
positions within our organization, so we're
partnering with the college of business and
economics for our artisan café,” says Amanda
Steiner, Aramark’s vice president of operations.
She explains that student opportunities include
a coffee CEO, director of operations, finance
director and marketing director. Students will
have opportunities to give presentations to
senior leadership at Aramark and Towson for
additional professional development.
Aramark also hosts different marketing and
promotional events, such as Sustainable Fish
Fridays and Farm to Table events. Steiner adds
that Creative Kitchen, a pop-up station that can
go anywhere on campus, will educate students
on topics such as how to eat nutritiously as an
athlete, how to make a healthy snack in your
residence hall, and teaching students how to
cook, decorate cupcakes and make pasta, for
example. This fall, Towson also opened Tiger
Express, a 24/7 convenience store, and expanded its technology offerings to allow students to
order with their phone or at mobile kiosks.
Rich Coburn, Aramark’s resident district
manager, says that another focus is allowing
greater access to food for students with varying schedules; a freshman living in a dorm, for
example, may have different needs than a commuter student. “We’ve also increased our hours
at the dining halls to open a little earlier so that
every 8 a.m. class student could get to breakfast,
Dining,
continued on page 9
More than just having fun
Being active in student organizations has long-reaching benefits
Loyola Sellinger Scholars Program emphasizes community service.
By Carol Sorgen, Contributing Writer
L
oyola University Maryland’s Sellinger
School of Business offers a range of student organizations including Sellinger
Scholars, a cohort-based leadership
development program with a special
curriculum and opportunities for participants
to work with nonprofit and corporate partners.
The Sellinger Scholars Program was established in 2005 as a three-year program beginning in the sophomore year. In 2021, it became
a four-year program, with students able to come
in during their freshman year.
“We look for high school students who have
a defined interest in studying business and
have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills,
have engaged in community/volunteer work,
work for pay, and received academic/leadership awards during their high school years,”
says Lynne C. Elkes, M.B.A., assistant teaching
professor of economics and academic director of the Sellinger Scholars. “Each cohort is
limited to 60 students and offers an advanced
path through the school’s business core with
additional courses geared toward leadership
development and career readiness.”
Elkes adds that Sellinger Scholars also have
the opportunity to become involved with community service projects. Through their collaboration, for example, with Loyola’s Center for
Community Service and Justice on the university’s York Road Initiative, which helps to clean up
a neighborhood that is adjacent to Loyola's campus, students have found that they learn about
Baltimore, its difficulties and the resilience of its
citizens. “They also are able to bond as a group
as they learn that while profit/loss statements
are important, so too is the imperative for businesspeople to do good in their communities.
This underscores the Jesuit and Ignatian philosophy of care for the whole person.”
Sellinger Scholars have also helped out at
Living Classrooms, volunteering their time to
help put water equipment into dry-dock, at the
same time learning about the intersection of
supporting community initiatives to better the
lives of disadvantaged children.
UMBC Fields Intellectual Sports Teams
There’s more to college sports than the
ever-popular football and basketball. At UMBC,
for example, students have the opportunity to
participate in hundreds of student organizations
including those known as “Intellectual Sports”
that test students’ academic prowess in offcampus competitions and conferences.
“UMBC’s use of ‘intellectual sports’ as a
category is unique,” says Lesa Goodhue, special assistant to the AVP, intellectual sports
and applied learning. “While other universities
have similar groups, outside of UMBC those
groups are often separated and 'owned' by their
respective academic departments or colleges. At
UMBC, on the other hand, intellectual sports
are student organizations recognized by the
Student Government Association (SGA). Being
an SGA entity ensures that all of our undergraduate students have the opportunity to be a
member.”
According to Goodhue, student organizations are viewed by the university as ideal spaces
for students to develop as leaders, build communities of peers, collaborate across interests
and acquire power skills. She notes that UMBC
student organizations write constitutions, attend
regular roundtables, have access to scheduled
professional development workshops, follow
budgeting timelines, and adhere to processes
designed to maximize equity and ensure their
safety.
The benefits of being a member of an
intellectual sports team are many, Goodhue
explains. “They get to apply their skills in very
close approximations of real-world situations.
Students in the Society of Automotive Engineer’s
UMBC Racing, for example, build a dune buggy
and test drive it in obstacle courses. The members of the Maryland Student Legislature write
and debate proposals, which are sent to the
members of the Maryland General Assembly for
their review. Mock Trial members litigate a case
in which they have to be prepared to represent
either the defense or the prosecution.
“This year, UMBC’s American Institute for
Chemical Engineers chapter will be hosting
the AIChE mid-Atlantic regional conference,
which entails planning the spaces, catering and
itinerary for hundreds of attendees,” Goodhue
continues. “That’s in addition to participating
in the Chem-E-Car competition and defending
Student organizations,
continued on page 8
6 Entrepreneurial
mindset
Skills for success
7 Earning a doctorate and
chasing a dream
Towson University
8 Health education
New programs and
partnerships
Education publishes four times a year
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Ask Margit
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
mbweisgal@gmail.com
AI and you
Six years ago, in September 2017, my
education column was about AI – artificial
intelligence – and the waves (not ripples) it
was already making back then. Now, it’s all
you hear about.
Published a couple months prior to
that column was a book on the direction
AI was taking titled Machine Platform
Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future, by
Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson. In
interviews with the authors, one of their
statements made me question what the job
outlook would be for the next generations.
“Forty percent of the jobs that exist today
will be gone, but 40% of the jobs of the
future are still in development.”
With the advent of Chat-GPT and
other programs, discussions about the
future of AI are at the top of people’s
minds and they are splintering in two, taking sides. Is AI good or evil? And there are
wise, experienced, thoughtful advocates
for both.
The Good Side
Eric Schmidt, former chair and CEO of
Google and now Chair of National Security
Commission on Artificial Intelligence,
believes in the benefits AI will potentially
provide. During a recent television special
about AI on CNN, he was interviewed
by Fareed Zakaria. He voiced some fears
of what could go wrong along with what
could go right.
Then Zakaria asked, “Are you excited
or scared?”
Schmidt replied, “There are overwhelming benefits. Imagine an AI doctor
for every person, a teacher or tutor for
every person, a solution to climate change,
the ability to solve all the problems we
have, if, IF! we can get there without killing
ourselves. Society will be so much richer,
educated, powerful, but only if we can keep
extreme risks under control.”
And Then…
A group of 350 AI experts, journalists,
policymakers, and the public under the
aegis of the Center for AI Safety (www.
safe.ai) signed a petition with the following
statement:
“Mitigating the risk of extinction from
AI should be a global priority alongside
other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
Various countries are already putting
up barriers – walls – trying to limit the
risks. So where does that leave you?
Ask Margit, continued on page 8
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