News

College Park Scholars has awarded the inaugural Kenneth A. Joseph Memorial Endowed Scholarship, to first-year Media, Self and Society Scholars student Amanda Hernández. “Affording college was always something that I worried about, especially when I was trying to decide where to enroll,” says Hernández. “This scholarship is not only helping me on that front but has also inspired me to do more. I’m incredibly grateful for being chosen and hope to represent College Park Scholars more in the future.”

As part of our yearlong #ScholarsAt25 recognition of our 25th anniversary, Scholars is publishing occasional profiles on our alums. To be considered for an alumni profile, please fill out the form at go.umd.edu/alumniprofile. Sean Murphy Alum of: Science, Technology and Society (STS) Year graduated: 2012 for first degree, 2016 for the second—I originally graduated with a BS in mathematics. After a failed year in graduate school in applied mathematics, I reevaluated things and decided to go back to UMD for a BS in electrical engineering.

Broadcast journalist Alison Burns has been appointed interim director of College Park Scholars’ Media, Self and Society program. She takes over from Kalyani Chadha, who will be on leave during the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 academic years. Burns’ appointment was made by the University of Maryland (UMD) Philip Merrill College of Journalism, which sponsors the Media, Self and Society Scholars program.

College Park Scholars has been coordinating an annual theme for four years—starting with “Trash: The Problem of Waste in Our Lives and Our World” in the fall of 2015. The annual theme gives our students, who tend to spend most of their Scholars classroom time within their individual programs, an opportunity to interact across programs. We take on a complex, multifaceted problem, work to understand its causes and impacts, and discuss how we might address it. Because each student comes into the discussion with their unique perspectives and the perspectives they’re learning in their respective Scholars program, the annual theme affords students a larger venue in which to make interdisciplinary connections.

When Sophia Burton first entered college, she had little idea what major she wanted to declare, much less what career she wanted to pursue. “I never planned it out this way,” says Burton, who graduated from the University of Maryland (UMD) in 2007 and currently works on migration issues in Germany. “I’m not saying one shouldn’t have a plan, but for me it was never like, ‘I know I want to be an engineer or a lawyer.’” Her lack of a plan, however, was made up for by a passion that even those with clear-cut career aspirations sometimes lack. Family migration history For Burton, that passion was in multiculturalism—particularly the cultural dynamics surrounding migration and international relations.