When Life Sciences alum Thanuri Navarathna (B.S. ’20, biological sciences) graduated from the University of Maryland, she walked straight into a pandemic. But she didn't panic; she got curious.This year, Navarathna will take her epidemiology work to the next level. She received a Fulbright U.S. Student Award to travel to Sri Lanka, where she will investigate leptospirosis—a neglected bacterial disease that infects a million people and kills up to 60,000 globally every year.

Meet Sydney Allen, a Justice and Legal Thought Scholars alum, Global Terrorism Studies student and current undergraduate teaching assistant for “Innovations in Countering Violent Extremism.” She sat down recently for an interview with START, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism And Responses to Terrorism, about the journey to her major and her plans after UMD.

Over the summer, aspiring educator Emmanuel Dean ’28 got a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to inspire young people to read.The Media, Self and Society Scholars alum spent several weeks creating training materials, supporting instructors and connecting with families as they prepared for Reading So Lit Summer, a free two-week virtual literacy program designed to inspire Black boys to read for fun.