Last month, College Park Scholars Executive Director Marilee Lindemann was inducted into the Sigma Circle of ODK. She was asked to speak on her leadership philosophy at the induction ceremony. The following is an edited version of her remarks:

College Park Scholars has been coordinating an annual theme for each of the past few years. It’s a chance for students across our community to come together to engage in a shared intellectual experience. Whether it’s trash—our theme from the 2015–2016 academic year—power or something else, we take on a complex, multifaceted problem, work to understand its causes and impacts, and discuss how we might address it with thoughtfulness and creativity. The annual theme and related programming afford us the opportunity to realize on a grand scale an idea that shapes everything we do in Scholars: We learn better when we learn together.

This year, College Park Scholars and the City of College Park celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Lakeland STARs program with Paint Branch Elementary School. Lakeland STARs tutors work with first to sixth grade students from nearby Paint Branch Elementary to enrich their academic experiences. Scholars are matched one-on-one with a PBES student and meet each week on a designated day throughout the semester. The 20th anniversary celebration on April 25 honored the legacy and the future of the program. “It was an incredibly heartwarming event. I was very happy to see the program receiving appreciation from the city and from the College Park mayor,” senior Science and Global Change Scholar and STARs Student Coordinator Aastha Kaul said.

When Anthony Sartori was a freshman at the University of Maryland (UMD), he recognized the need for a community-wide revitalization of care—something that would connect students with themselves and with others. “I came to college lacking self-care strategies,” Sartori says. “No one taught me how to properly take care of myself or what I need to do when I’m feeling overwhelmed.” So, the Life Sciences Scholar began having conversations with other College Park Scholars students, as well as Scholars Assistant Director Ben Parks. He realized that many others felt the same, and were interested in providing and facilitating self-care opportunities for their peers.

On March 31, the Cambridge Community will host the first-ever Me Too Monologues on the College Park campus. Me Too Monologues is a documentary theater performance about identity and all the issues that surround it. Students and faculty have been asked to anonymously submit stories about their experiences, and peers will perform their stories as monologues in a theatrical production. This is a national production that has been performed at colleges all over the country. Sophomore Life Sciences Scholar Maryam Ghaderi decided to propose that Scholars host this event after hearing about the Me Too Monologues from friends.

College Park Scholars kicked off the spring semester with a February dialogue event for students to share their own personal stories around our annual theme, “Migrations.” Many of the participants, as first- or second-generation Americans, spoke of their connections to their parents’ or grandparents’ cultures through food. They also referenced the emotional impacts their families’ respective migration stories had on their own lives. On March 5, 2019, Scholars hosted our marquee theme event, “MIGRATIONS: Conversations on food, art and cultural fusion.” The Do Good Dialogue was presented in conjunction with The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and the Year of Immigration.

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.

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.

In 2017, College Park Scholars welcomed more than 800 freshmen to what would become its 24th citation class, the Scholars Class of 2019. All who successfully completed the requirements of their Scholars program received their official Scholars citation. But there were some that went above and beyond the expectations, leaving a lasting impact on the community. On Oct. 18, 2019, Scholars honored these extraordinary students at its annual Citation Awards. Those recognized included 24 juniors—two from each program—chosen by their program directors for outstanding achievement and 24 for outstanding citizenship.

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.