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TAKE STOCK
TAKE STOCK
AN ANTI-RACIST
BOOK CLUB
Flush With Excitement:
Startup Is Pitch Dingman’s No. 1
MAN
E DING
TH
I
n the wake of national protests over
police brutality and racial injustice, many
have sought to further educate themselves
about issues affecting the Black, Indigenous
and people of color, or BIPOC, community.
Smith is doing its part in this process with
hopes of making the world a more equitable
place—one page at a time.
Launched this year, the Smith Summer Reading
and Dialogue Series is an anti-racist reading
club that features poetry and literature written
by Black and anti-racist poets and authors. Its
intent is to dedicate necessary time and space to
engage deeply in these important topics.
“Many people have reached out saying they
wanted to be a part of the change and asking
how they could help promote progress at Smith,”
said Jeanette Snider, M. Ed ’11, PhD ’20, associate
director of Smith’s undergraduate program.
“Through this reading series, we’ve been able to
connect with people in our community, see how
they’re feeling and add another touchpoint to
engage with them.”
In June, the series kicked off with a poetry
forum via Zoom where 60 students, faculty,
staff and alumni read three different
poems, one of which was written
by Smith alumnus Steven Asifo
’14. Afterward, participants
convened in smaller groups
with questions to talk through.
“When everyone was grouped back together
it was beautiful and there was so much to digest
from those sessions,” said Snider. “We ended with
people still wanting to talk.”
That prompted the creation of a second
session focused on Robin DiAngelo’s book,
“White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White
People to Talk About Racism.” This book was
chosen to help all members of the community,
particularly those who are non-Black, to better
understand the power dynamics that have been
upheld for centuries in the United States.
“As a Black woman, I’ve been doing this work
for quite some time and have thought about
ways we can start this educational process
and raise awareness that will ultimately lead to
action,” Snider said. She encourages the Smith
community to get involved, attend sessions and
let their voices be heard.
“To see the breadth of people who are
interested in this work, that has been really
powerful for people to safely and freely express
their thoughts and feelings.” /PS/
VISIT SMITH'S DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION WEBPAGE FOR MORE ANTI-RACIST RESOURCES
LS
ERCIA
INFOM
Cut off from customers, unable to access
production facilities or seek out goods and
materials for their budding businesses
because of the pandemic lockdown, some Terp
undergraduate entrepreneurs decided to turn to
a time-tested pitch vehicle: The infomercial.
They began making their own would-be
entries in the late-night canon as part of a
new social media-based outreach project
from Maryland Smith’s Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship.
DingmanTV is a socially distanced stand-in
for the canceled Terp Marketplace, a student
emporium that the center sponsors each
semester. The spark was an infomercial
assignment from Clinical Professor Oliver
Schlake in his “New Venture Practicum” course,
which guides students through development of
an actual startup company. The results were so
amusing that Dingman Center staff had an idea.
Why not start its own shopping channel, with
nonstop infomercials?
Visible on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
YouTube and elsewhere, DingmanTV began
posting new infomercials weekly. /CC/
IT WAS A TOILET FLUSH (or two... or three) that
led to Charles Grody’s lightbulb moment.
“We’ve all experienced using a public restroom
when, all of a sudden, the toilet flushes without us
being finished yet,” said Grody ’20. “I wondered
how much water went to waste because of it.”
Fueled by this curiosity, Grody partnered with
Smith’s Roger Mao ’20, and fellow A. James Clark
School of Engineering students Jack Sturtevant '20
and Tuvia Rappaport '20, to create Hydraze, an
automatic flushing system for use in commercial
buildings that aims to eliminate “phantom flushing”
and save millions of dollars in wasted water.
In April, the team won the $15,000 grand prize
at the Pitch Dingman Competition, UMD’s annual
“Shark Tank”-style event, hosted by Smith’s Dingman
Center for Entrepreneurship. The team also won the
university-wide “Do Good Challenge” in 2019.
Pitch Dingman’s finals, first scheduled for March,
was postponed and moved online to comply with
pandemic restrictions. Later, the Terp Startup
summer accelerator program and the Terp Startup
Fellows program would also move online. Despite
the change for Pitch Dingman, hundreds of students,
faculty, alumni and guests tuned in via Zoom to
watch teams vie for $30,000 in seed funding.
“Our mission is to make entrepreneurs of all
kinds more successful, and our Dingman Center
team remained committed to providing students
with a spotlight to pitch their ideas,” said Holly
DeArmond, MBA '17, Dingman’s managing director.
“To our entrepreneurs: Your hustle, perseverance and
resilience are to be commended.”
THE OTHER FINALISTS WERE:
» $7,500 Second Prize: AlgenAir, founded
by Daniel Fucich, PhD '20 (marine estuary and
environmental science) and Kelsey Abernathy,
a PhD student at the UMB, with its algae-powered
air purifier that produces as much oxygen as
25 houseplants.
» $3,500 Third Prize: Door Robotics, a drone
with Roomba-like autonomy that has an integrated
virtual reality camera system and easy out-of-thebox software for hobbyists and experts, created by
Josh Ermias '20 (public health sciences).
» BraceLint, a single-use, patent-pending version
of a lint-roller that offers more portability for onthe-go needs, produced by Daniel Raithel '20.
» SweetsbyCaroline, a catering business launched
by Caroline Ta '21, specializing in French macarons,
cakes and customizable baked goods. /PS/
DOING GOOD? THAT DESERVES A MEDAL
Three Smith spring 2020 graduates were recognized by the Do Good Institute, earning signature
medallions for their commitments to supporting fellow students, addressing vital environmental issues and
leading fearlessly.
Dan Kossoy, who was a member of the 2018 Do Good Challenge semi-finalist team, The Bee's Needs,
which supports local beekeepers in their efforts to maintain beehives for pollination of crops and produce.
Roxanna Kazemzadeh, a 2018 Do Good Challenge finalist, was honored for her work with SPARC (Scholars
Promoting and Revitalizing Care), a student-led group focused on promoting the wellbeing and mental health
of University of Maryland students.
And Casey McCarthy received his “Do Good” medallion for his work with Hydraze, a startup that makes a
proprietary automatic flushing device that aims to save millions of gallons of water by eliminating “phantom”
commercial toilet flushes. The startup won the 2019 Do Good Challenge and top honors at the 2020 Pitch
Dingman competition. /PS/
rhsmith-editor@umd.edu
fall 2020
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SMITH BUSINESS
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