Things I did not know in early January:

When students arrive at the University of Maryland (UMD), many feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the campus and its population. That’s why College Park Scholars works so hard to make a big school feel smaller. We do this by hosting events, encouraging discussions and connecting students with faculty and staff from day one—in other words, by building community. “Having a cohesive group of people interested in one idea ... is very powerful, and that’s one of the reasons why the Scholars living–learning experience is so special,” explains Cydnee Jordan, a sophomore public policy major and Justice and Legal Thought Scholar.

Every spring when incoming college freshmen are invited to join College Park Scholars, we receive questions from prospective students and parents, asking for clarification on various aspects of our program. Here, we’ve gathered the four most frequently asked questions (FAQs) to aid you in your college decision-making process. What is the value of a living–learning community? The benefit of a living–learning community is that you connect with other students on both a social and an academic level. In College Park Scholars, students live in the same residence hall and floor as other people in their programs, enabling built-in study and social groups and helping to foster community.

Everyone’s college decision process is different. Here are some examples of Scholars students who chose the University of Maryland (UMD) for distinctly different reasons. Mari Lemmie Hometown: Baltimore, Md. Year: Senior Major: Public policy Scholars program: Justice and Legal Thought

This blog post is the first in the "Choosing Scholars" series, which examines various aspects of College Park Scholars. When Erin McCormick was invited to College Park Scholars last year, she knew that she wanted to pick a program that would expand her world view and teach her something different. “I wanted to expose myself to subjects I wasn’t confident in in high school,” McCormick says. After reviewing the curricula for the 12 Scholars programs, she was drawn to the Science, Discovery and the Universe (SDU) program because she hadn’t yet had the opportunity to learn about astronomy.

On Feb. 19, a group of seven College Park Scholars presented in the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center for the first-ever ScholarsNEXT event. ScholarsNEXT is a student-run event that provides students with an opportunity to share their ideas about solving real-world problems. Presenters had to register for a class, which met every other week for an hour. Sponsored by the UMD SGA and the Office of Undergraduate Studies, Ananth Srivatsan was able to make his dream a reality in founding this event. “These students are incredibly talented, and they have some, frankly, brilliant ideas,” Srivatsan, a Science, Technology and Society Scholar, said before introducing the first speaker, Public Leadership Scholar Aaron Pludwinski.

Science, Discovery and the Universe alumna Steffi Yen is pursuing her doctorate degree at Heidelberg University after graduating from the University of Maryland in 2013 with her B.S. in astronomy. Yen credits SDU Scholars with furthering her passion for astronomy through academic excursions and hands-on scientific experiences. "My favourite SDU excursion was to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, home of the world's largest steerable radio telescope," Yen said. "We got a little taste of what it's like to be an astronomer. We were able to operate a small radio telescope and analyzed the spectral emission from clouds in the Milky Way."

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.