News

Expanded on-campus services for substance use treatment, a wellness ambassadors group for graduate students and peer-led workshops in living-learning communities are among the new initiatives at the University of Maryland this fall to support mental health.RADical Health, a new peer-led program offered through Carillon Communities and College Park Scholars and introduced to UMD by Kelley, empowers Terps to become leaders in preventative mental health care by giving them the tools to facilitate workshops that get first-year students talking about what’s giving them stress, and how to manage it.

Launched in 1997, the annual College Park Scholars Academic Showcase took place Friday evening at the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center. Students from 11 different Scholars programs presented slideshows, posters and more that reflected on their experiential learning outside of the classroom.

Despite not capturing the top prizes at the 2024 Do Good Challenge Finals held earlier this week, four members of College Park Scholars and their respective projects shined.Two Scholars - Takiyah Roberts (STS) and Elias Laskey (GPH) - and their teams went head-to-head in the Project Track competition.

Susannah Washburn, the director of College Park Scholars' Public Leadership program, was recently awarded the 2024 Donna B. Hamilton Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Office of Undergraduate Studies (UGST) Programs. She becomes the fourth College Park Scholars program director to earn the honor, following Dr. Elisabeth Maring, who leads the Global Public Health program (2022), Kalyani Chadha, former director of Media, Self and Society (2015) and David A. Crocker, former director of the Public Leadership program (2012).

Dozens of projects were recently awarded $460,000 from the University of Maryland’s new Do Good Campus Fund. The Fund is part of a suite of new campuswide investments to expand the university's leadership and impact to advance the public good. These investments also include the Do Good Campus Strategic Leadership Council, composed of senior administrators from colleges, schools, and units across campus to celebrate the social impact already being made by faculty and staff across campus.This year's 27 grantees include faculty, staff, and student groups and two recipients are Scholars programs. Congratulations to Justice and Legal Thought and Media, Self and Society!

The Do Good Institute recently announced the selection of the 2024 Do Good Challenge finalists. The teams were selected from groups and organizations across campus that are tackling issues ranging from providing health education to reducing health disparities around the world to educating low-income youth on how to become entrepreneurs. On April 30, the finalists will share more about their work and impact with an audience of hundreds and a panel of expert judges at the Clarice to compete for a share of more than $20,000.Three of the six finalists are College Park Scholars. Congratulations to Sara Blau (International Studies), Elias Laskey (Global Public Health), and Takiyah Roberts (Science, Technology and Society)!