A newsletter for students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends Leftover food generated across the UMES campus will no longer be sent to a local landfill. Instead, it will be handed over to ReGreen Organics, an up-start recycling company with a new approach to converting uneaten edibles into fuel pellets, environmentally friendly fertilizer and in some cases livestock feed. “The patented technology employed in our machines processes all types of organic waste in minutes into bacteria-free, highly nutrient-rich solid and liquid byproducts that are practically odor free,” according to the company. ReGreen and UMES jointly announced on “America Recycles Day” a
December 8, 2017
partnership that was a year in the making and will provide the company with a source of organic refuse to launch its business in Somerset County. UMES President Juliette B. Bell said the agreement she signed with ReGreen’s CEO, Jeffrey Camera, is an ideal fit for an 1890 land-grant university embracing its 21st century role as a steward of the environment. “This (is) a great opportunity to be a trend-setter and at the forefront of protecting our environment,” Bell told a small group that had gathered outside the
UMES + ReGreen Organics = Zero Waste
INSIDE
Four UMES upperclassmen – each with a pilot’s license – etched their names into aviation history this fall by helping track a record-breaking flight of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Juniors Noah Atkins, Justin Beaudett, Chris Cornett and senior Jean Alectice were part of a team monitoring a five-day, around-the-clock mission for an upstart Falls Church, Va. company that manufactures large drones with long-range flying abilities. “It was a-once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Alectice said. “I would jump on it again. I had fun doing it.” From Oct. 18-23, a diesel-powered aircraft with a 36-foot wingspan circled 5,000 feet above NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in an endurance test that Vanilla Aircraft LLC declared an unqualified success. The company’s “VA-001” flew an estimated 7,000 miles non-stop over 121 hours and 24 minutes – and had enough fuel to continue at least three more days. When the experimental aircraft landed, it had achieved the distinction
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Diversity Expert is Commencement Speaker
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Horticulturalist Wants To Revive Shore Orchards
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MD STEM Festival UMES Hosts Visiting University Officials From Ghana
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of being the “longest unmanned internal combustion powered flight in history,” according to the company. Beaudett had some experience flying small, remote-control drones, but “nothing of this scale. It really opened my eyes about this segment of aviation.” The VA-001, Vanilla Aircraft says, is capable of carrying “up to 1.1 cubic feet of payload, with a 30-pound weight limit and provides 800 watts of power” and is “built to operate for up to 10 days at altitudes up to 15,000 feet.” October’s record-breaking mission was the aircraft’s 10th flight. Through professional connections arranged by UMES aviation science instructor Chris Hartman, four of his students signed on to work alongside Vanilla Aircraft personnel during overnight shifts at an isolated runway for unmanned aircraft. Having pilot licenses was a pre-requisite to be considered for the Photo courtesy Terry Zaperach, NASA
Veterans Day Observance Pharmacy Exchange Students Visit from India
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All-MEAC Team Named
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Chemistry Students Appear on Local TV Show Extension Agent Receives Award
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A&E Calendar Save the Date for Gala
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The Key / December 8, 2017
Circling the Oval
UPenn diversity expert is commencement speaker Dr. Marybeth Gasman, a University of Pennsylvania professor whose specialty is higher education history with a focus on minority serving institutions, will be UMES’ winter commencement speaker Friday, Dec. 15. Graduation exercises in the Hytche Athletic Center begin at 10 a.m. for some 271 degree candidates and their ticketed guests. Gasman’s online biography lists her areas of expertise as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, racism, diversity and higher education, African-American educational leadership, fundraising and
philanthropy. She is the Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and also “holds secondary appointments in history, Africana Studies, and the School of Social Policy and Practice.” Gasman is founding director of the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, which her biography says “works to amplify the contributions, strengthen, and support MSIs and those scholars interested in them.” She has written or edited 23 books and has had some 350 opinion articles published in major American newspapers and periodicals during her teaching career. Education Week lists her as one of the nation’s most influential education scholars. Penn credits Gasman with raising $22 million to support her research as well as that of her students, mentees and minority serving institution partners. The Kellogg Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, Educational Testing Service, and the National Institutes for Health are among organizations that have provided her grant support. She is a member of the board of trustees of Paul Quinn College, a private HBCU in Dallas.
REGREEN / continued from cover
university’s Poultry Environmental House. and bacteria while extracting water that also can be recycled as fertilizer. If The venue also doubled as an important symbol reinforcing another the machine is calibrated specifically to produce fuel pellets, they in turn source of organic material that ReGreen hopes to tap locally – livestock can be used to generate the energy to run the machines, he said. farmers, especially those who grow chickens. Camera sought out UMES as an organics source because he and his Camera says ReGreen’s partners also envision tapping high-speed composting machines into faculty researchers as that it plans to bring to Somerset a resource. He also said his County can transform animal company is open to having waste quickly into a slow-release students work as employees fertilizer that should significantly or in internships for reduce troublesome compounds academic credit. Bell said that blamed for pollution found in the aspect of the public-private Chesapeake Bay. Some Delmarva partnership appealed to her chicken litter is trucked out as an administrator and as an of state as a strategy to reduce educator. harmful chemicals known to A handful of local farmers leach into water sources when whom Camera has approached used as untreated fertilizer. to join the ReGreen-UMES “We believe that what we partnership attended the have is the capability to contribute announcement. They already Project partners, from left, are: (back row) farmers Floyd Pugh, a safe way of preserving and have pledged to work with Westover; Lee Carey, Pocomoke City; Ken Ballard, Princess Anne; protecting the Chesapeake,” said Terry Sankar, Princess Anne; (front row) Jeffrey Camera, managing ReGreen, Camera said, including Camera, whose company is based partner and CEO of ReGreen Organics; UMES President Juliette B. Lee Carey of Pocomoke City. Bell; Joanne Magro, ReGreen’s administrative services director; and in Fulton, Md. “I think this is going to be a Gabriel Christian, UMES Board of Visitors’ member. The UMES-ReGreen great project,” said Carey, whose partnership involves no money. crop and poultry farm has been ReGreen says it is prepared to invest between $5 million and $10 million in his family since 1905. “It’s going to solve a lot of our problems.” in building a plant to house its fast-track composting technology and could One of ReGreen’s overarching business goals, Camera said, is diverting generate as many as two dozen new jobs. The location has yet to be chosen, “organics and food waste from landfills and (turning it) into beneficial, but Camera says several area farmers have expressed interest in making reusable and re-saleable byproducts.” land available. The company has its machines operating in California, where UMES The machine one of Camera’s partners, an engineer, designed uses leaders visited as part of their research into the partnership proposal. radiant heat to break down waste in less than 30 minutes, eliminating odors ReGreen said Somerset County will be its first Maryland location.
UMES People
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Horticulturalist Wants to Revive Shore Orchards Passing through Maryland’s Eastern Shore, drivers are likely to notice huge swaths of corn, soy and other grains with not a fruit tree in sight. But that’s wildly different from a century ago when the state’s lower three counties produced almost 6 million pounds of apples each year. “You know the name Fruitland?” asked Naveen Kumar, referring to the area just south of Salisbury. “Why (is it called) Fruitland? Because people used to grow fruits here.” (An) assistant professor of horticulture (based at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore) Kumar is working to bring the area’s historic fruit harvest back, starting with a 34-variety apple orchard at the Princess Anne campus. A Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant for $16,000 per year over the next three years is funding the project, which began this spring, Kumar said. He envisions growing the orchard into a living model for fruit production on the Eastern Shore. “People will believe only what we can see,” Kumar said. Apples can do well in Maryland, where the climate offers enough “chill hours” per year to help the trees regulate their growth. But no commercial growers exist in Wicomico, Somerset or Worcester counties, according to Kumar. Over the past 50 years, the Eastern Shore faced a labor issue as more affordable work flowed into California, he said. Fire blight also decimated the Shore’s apple orchards, leading farmers to invest in other crops. UMES is working to battle the disease. The rootstocks in the 660-tree orchard on campus are resistant to fire blight, although Kumar is seeing problems with apple cedar rust and an influx of Japanese beetles. Thanks to funding from the Maryland Soybean Board and in cooperation with the University of Florida, Kumar is researching nanotechnology to combat these issues, too. By dissolving tiny particles such as clay and zinc, nanotechnology might be able to increase yields without traditional pesticides. “Because they are so small, when insects crawl over the nanoparticles, nanoparticles can rupture their cuticle,” Kumar said, causing them to die by desiccation (extreme drying). “The best thing is there is no DNA, no biochemistry, no genes, so they will never develop resistance against nanoparticles,” he said. In addition to its apples, the UMES orchard boasts 24 varieties of
peaches, 10 types of nectarines, and 10 types of table and wine grapes. Kumar’s vision is to grow a community garden that provides fresh fruit to local people while serving as an example for farmers interested in growing fruit commercially on the Eastern Shore. “Our long-term vision is to make this a state-certified nursery,” he said. He hopes to grow the UMES orchard to 11 or 12 acres with the SARE grant and the help of his students and community partners. “I want to train them so that they will be the future leaders,” he said. Dozens of visitors toured the orchard during a recent field day and several signed up to help with the project. Anna Chaney, a farmer from Anne Arundel County, was one of them. A member of the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission board, Chaney already has a few apple trees on her Honey’s Harvest Farm. “I have a passion for apples,” Chaney said. “I want to create a viable (operation) just like you have for the future for my generation and the next generation, and the next generation to have these beautiful fields full of food.” With high-density apple production, Kumar said that’s possible. At about 1,000 trees per acre, a high-density orchard only needs four or five workers to manage an acre, he said. Prospective growers’ biggest concern should be chill hours — the number of hours per year that the temperature remains below 45 degrees — he said. Apples thrive with 700 to 1,000 chill hours and require a soil pH between 6.5 and 7. They also require irrigation, which should be installed before the trees are planted, he said. Under those conditions, 1 acre of apple trees can yield more than 50,000 pounds of fruit per year starting three years after planting, Kumar said. “We want to bring fruit production back. This is only the beginning,” he said. “We have everything here, but someone has to take it and get started.” Kumar put on a training workshop on the basics of establishing an apple orchard at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s 14th annual Small Farm Conference Nov. 3. This lightly edited version is reprinted with permission of Lancaster Farming, which first published it Oct. 13.
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School News
MD STEM Festival draws area youth to UMES
Clinton Lankfort, a fifth grader at Greenwood Elementary, uses Twizzlers and marsh mellows to make a DNA strand.
The mood inside UMES’ Engineering and Aviation Science Complex was lively and bright despite the dreariness and chill of the Nov. 8 night. Community youth and their parents turned out in droves—some 300 participants—for the third annual MD STEM Festival at the university. Children from grades K-12 could be seen wearing virtual reality Google-brand goggles, creating bracelets and action figures using a 3D printer, pedaling a “blender bike” to make smoothies, operating robots, “flying” on a flight simulator and dabbling in agriculture experiments. Agriculture experiments, using potatoes to conduct electricity and exhibits on bees, were new to the event transforming it from science, technology and engineering
Giving the local weather forecast— Faith King, a first grader at Princess Anne Elementary.
(STEM) to STEAM. “It was wonderful for the Lower Shore community to come together to experience amazing STEM opportunities in the new Engineering and Aviation Science Complex,” said Jocelyn Koller, 4-H STEM senior agent associate. “The event was part of a 13-day festival that highlights STEM throughout the state. We were proud to be one of the few host sites in Somerset County.” University of Maryland Extension 4-H, Somerset County Public Schools and Recreation and Parks joined UMES in organizing the event. For information about STEM education and events, contact Koller at jckoller@umes.edu.
UMES mathematics professor Mark Williams watches as a youngster visiting the STEM festival gives a robot a test run.
Area teens get the next best thing to actually flying.
UMES hosts visiting university officials from Ghana Sunyani Technical University ViceChancellor and Professor Ing. Kwadwo AdinkrahAppiah and UMES President Juliette B. Bell sign an agreement promoting educational exchange.
Representatives from Sunyani Technical University in Ghana were UMES guests for a week-long visit to the United States to tour the university as well as its Hospitality and Tourism Management program at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, Md. The visit was in follow up to an agreement UMES signed last month with Sunyani and nine of its partners in a consortium of public Technical Universities from Ghana. The agreement, negotiated by UMES’ International
Development and Outreach Program, opened the door for educational exchange opportunities. The Nov. 13-16 tour by Sunyani administrators, Vice-Chancellor and Professor Ing. Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, Registrar Samuel Obour and Principal Library Assistant Christiana Obour, included the signing of a second articulation agreement (Nov. 15)—one exclusively between the two institutions. The latest agreement creates “a detailed plan to initiate specific activities necessary to fulfill the purpose and objectives of the (original Oct.) Memorandum of Understanding,” said Dr. Emmanuel Acquah, director of UMES’ International Development and Outreach program. According to Acquah, the agreement will provide Sunyani with the potential for curriculum assessment, infusion of International Certification standards such as the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute and Certified Hospitality Educators, and formal affiliation with global hospitality education and accreditation bodies. Both institutions look for the agreement to promote the exchange of students, faculty and staff for research, education and training.
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UMES hosts pharmacy exchange students UMES’ School of Pharmacy and Health Professions welcomed in October two Doctor of Pharmacy students from Chalapathi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Guntur, India—the first to participate in a new student exchange program. The program “aims to show participants models of pharmaceutical care in the United States and strengthen their patient care skills,” said Dr. Yen Dang, assistant professor of pharmacy practice and coordinator of the exchange program. The students, Shankar Yellamraju and Deepak Bayyavarapu, spent five weeks shadowing UMES pharmaceutical
Dr. Rondall Allen, dean of UMES’ School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, (center) presents certificates of completion for the exchange program to, from left, Shankar Yellamraju and Deepak Bayyavarapu.
sciences and pharmacy practice faculty to “enhance their research and clinical abilities.” “We will take what we have learned back to India to ignite and enhance the profession,” Yellamraju said. The program was part of a Sept. 2016 agreement between UMES and Chalapathi to “allow for student and faculty exchanges and research collaboration,” said Dr. Rondall Allen, dean of UMES’ School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. Allen and Dang were presenters at a Spring 2017 conference at the university in India and there are plans for UMES students to travel there as part of an academic exchange.
UMES observes Veterans Day
Bruce Burgess performs “First Call, Assembly, Attention,” the national anthem and “Recall” during a brief ceremony to honor veterans on 11-11-11 (the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month) organized by UMES’ School of Pharmacy and Health Professions and Office of Residence Life.
Campus veterans are pictured with UMES President Juliette B. Bell, state Sen. Jim Mathias and organizers of the event.
Craig Terrell, an Air Force veteran and UMES employee, salutes during the national anthem. Emmanuel Grogran, a UMES aviation science major and U.S. Air Force senior airman, is pursuing a career as a fighter pilot when he graduates.
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Athletics
Vujosevic, Babic, Rens named to All-MEAC Team Trio of Hawks led team to spectacular season Maryland Eastern Shore sophomore Iva Toby Rens Vujosevic (Bar, Montenegro), junior Lucia Babic (Sisak, Croatia) and head coach Toby Rens were selected as members of the All-MEAC volleyball team announced Nov. 14 by the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Vujosevic was named to the All-MEAC First Team, Babic earned a place on the Second Team, and Rens was tabbed as the conference’s Coach of the Year. An All-Rookie selection in her freshman campaign, Vujosevic exploded in her sophomore season, leading the Hawks with 3.22 kills per set and 0.48 aces per set while finishing second in digs per set with 2.36. In the MEAC she leads in aces per set, fourth with 3.87 points per set, fifth in kills per set, and seventh with Iva Vujosevic a .271 hitting percentage. Vujosevic’s total number of aces—51—ranks fourth nationwide. Along the way Vujosevic picked up a team high 12 double-doubles in matches and earned a MEAC Co-Player of the Week honor on October 23. Babic earns her spot on the All-MEAC team for the third straight year, after earning All-Rookie as a freshman and a Second Team spot last year. The junior from Croatia led all MEAC outside hitters in percentage, converting on her attack more than 30 percent of the time (.302). She also helped out AVIATION / continued from cover
on aces, finishing tied for fourth in the MEAC with 0.44 aces per set. Following an impressive showing at the Terrier Invitational in New York this past September, Babic was named MVP of the tournament and collected a MEAC Player of the Week award. She would earn another top player after the Henson’s Hawk Invite, making her one of just three MEAC players to win multiple Player of the Week awards. Rens picks up his second MEAC Coach of the Year, and the fifth for Maryland Eastern Shore overall. In his seventh season at the helm of the Hawks, Rens guided The Shore to a Northern Division title, the second-most in program wins with 26 and the school’s fifth Lucia Babic undefeated conference record in program history. A MEAC championship would set the school record for wins at 29. The Hawks’ coach last won the MEAC top coach award in 2002, when he transformed a three-win squad from 2001 into a 20-win contender. Following stops at LIU Brooklyn, Pittsburgh and Chicago State, Rens returned to Maryland Eastern Shore in 2014, and the Hawks have enjoyed a 77-45 record overall, with a 35-13 mark in the MEAC.
Aviation Vehicles, but viewed the test flight as a way to bolster his skills. flight team, the students said. They underwent an intense day-long training He did two overnight shifts including the final evening before the drone session to familiarize themselves with the company’s technology. landed. Manipulating the drone to climb and descend in maneuvers around “That was a big part of the reason I was interested in being part of approaching weather highlighted his experience with the project. this,” Atkins said. “When an opportunity (to work alongside aviation When Alectice graduates this month, he’s looking to earn a master’s professionals) comes along, you have to seize it.” degree in propulsion from Embry-Riddle University in Florida. Cornett said he “saw it as a resume builder and a chance to earn a The flight was completed under funding from the Office of Naval little gas money. I figured it was a Research, the company said. Jean Alectice , Noah Atkins, Justin Beaudett and Chris Cornett great way to do some networking “We have begun to fully that might open up opportunities demonstrate the viability of this later” after graduation. He’s ultra-long endurance aircraft considering a career as a system and are anxious to test new commercial airline pilot. payloads and realize capabilities Cornett had no previous heretofore unimagined,” Vanilla experience with drones, and came Aircraft CEO Tim Heely said. away realizing “the possibilities with UAVs are a lot more extensive An Oct. 26, 2017 Vanilla Aircraft than I thought.” LLC press release was a source in Alectice, a U.S. Army veteran, the production of this article. is licensed to fly Unmanned
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Extension agent receives award
UMES chemistry students appear on local TV show WBOC TV’s DelmarvaLife host Jimmy Hoppa and viewers found out what happens when Dr. Victoria Volkis, an associate professor of chemistry at UMES, and her chemistry students, Oluwatosin Majekodunmi and Breann Hrechka, mixed table sugar with common laboratory acid—a growing column of carbon.
UMES celebrates National Philanthropy Day
Jocelyn Koller, a University of Maryland Extension 4-H senior agent associate for Maryland’s Lower Shore, was recognized by National Epsilon Sigma, an honorary Extension fraternity. She is the recipient of its 2017 EarlyCareer Service Award for the Northeast Region. The award recognizes Extension professionals with up to 10 years of service who have exhibited leadership and excellence in their field by providing measurable impacts to their communities. Koller has been an agent for four years.
UMES chose Nov. 15, National Philanthropy Day, to announce the recipients of a new recognition for faculty and staff who “consistently make a positive difference in the lives of students and the university.” Nominations were submitted across campus and the winners are: Rache Alaran (Residence Life), Valentine Anamelechi (Campus Life), Jason Barthman (Information Technology), Karl Binns, Jr., (School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences), Marcus Briddel (Physical Plant), Vera Miles Heath (Financial Aid), Michael Lane (Honors Program), Dr. Donna Long (Early Childhood Development Center), Pat Nativio (Athletics), Dr. Michael Nugent (Department of Education), Mike Rabel, (Department of Physical Therapy), Susan Rainey (University Engagement), Onjale Scott (Geosciences Program), Desiree Stewart-Gary (Registrar’s Office), Tselate Talley (Access and Success), and Phil Taylor (Information Technology). “There are many heroes across our campus. While we can’t recognize all of them, we applaud these 16 staff and faculty for their dedication, hard work and Hawk Spirit,” said Dr. Veronique Diriker, UMES’ development director. Diriker said the university also honors those who give to others, “whether the gifts received are in the form of time, talent or treasure.” In honor of National Philanthropy Day, she said, consider “being a hero to a student,” by making a contribution to a scholarship fund. Visit iaumes.givecorps.com and select the fund of your choice, or “if you are not sure which fund to choose, consider giving to the Circle of Hope.
Black Box Theatre stages play
Surrounding playwright Natalie Margolin (seated, center) are, from left: Daniela Cerritos (junior), Elnora Nesbitt (freshman), Amy Hagenrater-Gooding (UMES director), Casey Griffin (N.Y. director) and Colleen Hendrickson (senior).
UMES’ Black Box Theatre, an intimate venue featuring 25 seats in Wilson Hall, hosted its second play, “The Power of Punctuation,” Nov. 9-11. Playwright Natalie Margolin attended the second night and opened the floor for discussion following the performance. Similarities and differences between UMES’ production and the New York debut in 2016 at the Davenport Theatre came to light. One topic relevant to today’s culture discussed was how inseparable the recent characters were from their stage cell phones as part of the play—apropos for the subtitle, “Friends don’t let friends text boys...who don’t use commas.” Wilson Hall’s Black Box Theatre was created for “producing plays that question our values, challenge our institutions, incite debate and promote discussion” said Dr. Dean Cooledge, chair of UMES’ Department of English and Modern Languages. Playwright Natalie Margolin with Dr. Dean Cooledge, chair of UMES’ Department of English and Modern Languages.
SAVE THE DATE William H. Johnson: An American Modern Opening Reception Feb. 1, 4-6 p.m
Feb. 1-March 16 Mosely Gallery UMES
Ring Around the Roses
Paintings by the highly acclaimed African-American artist of the Harlem Renaissance era from the Smithsonian traveling exhibition on loan from Morgan State University.
SAVE THE DATE
arts & entertainment calendar
A Harlem Renaissance-themed gala to support UMES students.
Saturday, March 31st 6:30 p.m. UMES Student Services Center
The Key / December 8, 2017
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