JHU – Baltimore Magazine

Crafting Hope: The Life-Changing Art and Science of Prosthetics at JHU School of Medicine

Aaron Hope — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 16:00:04 +0000

Health & Wellness

By Jane Marion

Photography by Justin Tsucalas

March 2025

ON A CRISP FALL DAY in October, Juan García rolls a black utility trunk down the well-lit corridors of the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center past the Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics. But García, who is neither an ob-gyn nor even a doctor, is making a different sort of delivery. Inside the case, along with tinted silicone pigments, paintbrushes, a palette, wax molds, and photo references, there’s a silicone ear nestled in a bed of gauze. It’s the culmination of a multistage process that began several months back.

Today, known as “delivery day,” the ear will go to its rightful recipient.

MaryAnne, a 68-year-old woman from Northern Virginia, lost her right ear in an accident. In the aftermath, there was hope that the amputated ear could be reattached, but it proved too challenging.

“They were going to try plastic surgery but there were no blood vessels,” says MaryAnne (who prefers not to use her last name). “At my age, it was just too iffy, and there were a lot of surgeries. They weren’t even sure reconstruction would work.”

Some nine months after her accident, where there once was an outer ear, there’s now just an opening to the ear canal. As MaryAnne sits in a treatment chair, García carefully removes the lifelike ear from a beige case usually used to hold dentures. He holds it to her head to check the positioning, the color, and the blending of the edges so that it will sit seamlessly, just behind her ear canal, like placing the final missing piece of a puzzle. As García holds the right ear to the side of her head, it looks like a near replica of her left one.

García is a certified clinical anaplastologist and director of the Facial, Eye & Body Prosthetics Clinic, which is part of the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Anaplastology is the technical term for a little-known field that combines art and science to yield high-quality prosthetics. Though Hopkins happens to have two clinical anaplastologists on staff, including García’s colleague, Andrew Etheridge, there are only 40-plus board-certified anaplastologists in the world.

With this intersection of art and anatomy, these medical sculptors are like modern-day Michelangelos, creating facial and body prosthetics so lifelike, it’s hard to discern the difference between what’s man-made and what existed at birth.

Together, García and Etheridge make a total of some 70 prosthetics a year. (They decline to discuss cost but emphasize that whenever possible, the prosthetics are covered by insurance under “durable medical equipment” in the same way that, say, crutches or an orthopedic boot get billed.) Patients come from the Mid-Atlantic, as well as all over the country and the world, including Dubai, India, Egypt, Chile, and other far-flung destinations. And they run the gamut from cancer survivors who’ve been left permanently scarred by the disease to people with congenital differences who were born without body parts to those who’ve suffered traumatic injuries or burns. The prosthetics literally run from the head—noses, eyes, ears, partial faces—to the toes.

For MaryAnne, the artificial ear represents much more than a cosmetic choice, helping her to heal in a less visible way. “I wasn’t really sure I wanted to do this,” says MaryAnne, her blue eyes welling up with tears. “[After the accident] I was just grateful I had my hearing and that it had healed. It could have been a lot worse and I am able to live a happy, full life. But I thought, ‘Well it’s an option—I should just do it.’ When I put on [the earlier wax version] last time, I really did feel complete again.”

Juan García holds a mask of his own face that students created to learn the art of making prosthetics. OPENING IMAGE: A shelf scattered with various prosthetics in the lab at the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine.

ANAPLASTOLOGY IS for patients for whom surgical reconstruction alone cannot restore facial features or appendages. In the case of an ear, for example, depending on the patient and the nature of the accident, a surgeon can sometimes use part of the unaffected ear or harvest the cartilage from a rib to create a new outer ear. But it’s hard to achieve the same result as what can be accomplished with a silicone replica. “Surgically, it’s very difficult to create these tiny folds of skin that project out and to get the blood vessels to support it,” says García. “And the definition of the shape is not as good sometimes—it takes a highly skilled surgeon to achieve that.”

When MaryAnne saw the less detailed wax mold at her last appointment, “I was like, ‘This looks great,’” she says. But today she will receive the fully sculpted, more refined silicone iteration with all its deep valleys, flesh-like folds, complicated crevices, textured surfaces, and everything protruding in the proper place. It’s the one she will take home, the one that will go on—and off—with medical adhesive glue, the one that will blend so seamlessly that no one will notice it’s not the real thing.

“Maybe I will wear my hair up more now and I can wear two earrings,” says MaryAnne, who came in wearing just one. (Yes, the anaplastologist can add an earring hole to the prosthetic.) “I’m just grateful that I’m healthy and can do anything I want to do. This is gravy—it’s the pièce de résistance.”

The next step in bringing the ear to life is to finish painting the prosthetic—already close to the color of her skin—in place. The soft-spoken García holds it against MaryAnne’s affected side, then moves back and forth between it and her unaffected ear to get the final tone just right.

“Initially, I am looking at value [lightness or darkness] because that’s the most important thing,” he says. “And then I’m looking at the red tones.” Where we might think of flesh tones as a monolith of color that makes up any person’s skin tone, García says that every ear, like all flesh, is “a mosaic of color.”

“I am trying to match the overall color knowing that light gets reflected on silicone in a different way than it does on the skin,” he continues. “Where the light reflects through silicone, we put in little fibers of rayon into the silicone mix to mimic collagen and blood vessels.” To bring it all to life, other elements are included, too. “In her case, she has a very pronounced blood vessel,” García explains. So he incorporates a small piece of threading to mimic that vessel. “Those are the little details that make it convincing,” he says.

Over the next few hours, García dabs paint from his palette as he and Cherise Masuda, a graduate student whom he is mentoring, makes her own iteration of the appendage.

While the clinician and his student move between sides, MaryAnne sits patiently, a gamut of emotions flooding across her face. There’s excitement over finally getting the finished product, fear over the possibility that it could fall off when she wears it, anxiety about caring for and cleaning it, and relief that, at least for now, this chapter is coming to a close, though the prosthetic itself will likely need to be replaced every one to three years. When that time does come, García will head downstairs to the repository where the molds are stored for seven years so that he can easily duplicate it again.

“With the prosthetic, we are transitioning the person into feeling whole again and hopefully a lot more confident,” says García. “But there are limitations—it’s not their flesh.”

Juan García mentors anaplastology graduate student Cherise Masuda; applying silicone paint to a prosthetic ear.

PROSTHETICS HAVE been around for thousands of years and early attempts, though rudimentary, were innovative for their time. An Egyptian toe (known as the “Greville Chester Toe”) is thought to be between 2,600 and 3,400 years old, and was made of cartonnage—a kind of papier mâché mix of glue, linen, and plaster. Because the toe doesn’t bend, researchers believe it was likely cosmetic, not functional.

The oldest known practical prosthetic is a flexible leather and wooden big toe (known as the “Cairo Toe”). Estimated to be between 2,700 and 3,000 years old, it belonged to a woman thought to be the daughter of a high-status Egyptian priest. Remarkably, the toe was refitted multiple times.

Some 300 years later, the ancient Roman “Capua Leg,” used by a nobleman, was made of bronze and hollowed-out wood and held up with leather straps. However, its weight and lack of flexibility likely made it impractical to wear.

Later, between the 5th and 8th centuries, there were artificial feet made from wood, iron, and bronze found in Switzerland and Germany and believed to have been strapped to the amputee’s remaining limb. In the 16th century, French surgeon Ambroise Paré designed some of the first purely functional prosthetics for injured soldiers and published the earliest written reference to the devices. Thanks to advances in metallurgy, from the late 15th century to the 19th century, France and Switzerland led the way in improvement in design, making artificial limbs that could rotate and bend using cables, gears, cranks, and springs for improved function. During the 1900s, plastics and other artificial materials replaced wood and leather.

Ear and nose molds and a variety of silicone paints.

The battlefield inspired other advances, too. For example, the U.S. Civil War—a conflict that led to many amputations—prompted innovations like the “Hanger Limb,” featuring rubber in the ankle and cushioning in the heel for added comfort. By World War I, Boston sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd founded the Studio for Portrait Masks in Paris, creating galvanized copper face masks for soldiers disfigured in combat. And with the onset of World War II, exporting glass from Germany for prosthetic eyes was banned, necessitating the development of acrylic plastic eyes, and further pushing the field into modernity.

Whatever the means or methodology, the goal then was likely the same as it is today: to help heal not only physical wounds but emotional ones. The latter, notes García, can be as impactful as the former.

“Patients will say, ‘I never look at myself in the mirror,’” he says. “‘I don’t want to see my family and friends. I don’t want to go out into society. I feel like a monster’—that’s the reality for these patients. They are still missing their body part—we are not curing them of that—but we are rehabilitating them back into society to be able to interact with their loved ones and friends, to be able to go out socially without attracting the stares and the negative attention. Hopefully, they are camouflaged to blend in.”

Even after receiving a prosthetic, adjusting to life with one can take time. “What’s interesting is that in many cases, patients are cured of their medical condition,” says García. “However, now they have this other issue that they need to manage. It’s not just the scars, it’s also the psychological trauma.”

Andrew Etheridge holds the acrylic eye of patient Tom Warren. The eye will fasten to the socket with tiny magnets.

IN THE SPRING of 2021, Candie Fulks was laboring to breathe through her nose—she assumed it was just a bad cold. By the time she saw a doctor, she learned she had squamous cell carcinoma. The cancer, along the lining of her nose, would necessitate the removal of her nose, including excising ravaged tissue from her nasal cavity. Essentially, the surgery would leave a gaping hole in the middle of her face.

“If I had to cut my nose off my face, I was going to do it—I wanted to live,” says the now-51-year-old customer service specialist from St. Mary’s County. “It was a radical decision between life and death. Of course it was all a shock, and it was absolutely devastating, but you do what you have to do.”

Prior to surgery, Fulks consulted several plastic surgeons. “They couldn’t guarantee that I was going to look the same and I’d have to go in every two to three weeks and go under anesthesia [during the reconstruction],” says Fulks. “I was not willing to go that route.” After her doctor referred her to García, getting a prosthetic seemed like the right choice. “The prosthetic was more convenient,” she says. “And I could put it on and take it off whenever I wanted.”

After Fulks had surgery that fall, followed by rounds of radiation—and was finally cancer-free—she went to García, who took an impression of her nasal cavity to make a model of the affected area and used a 3D printer (using her CT data and photo references) to make a model of her nose. At Fulks’ request, he also altered the shape of her natural nose slightly. “He gave me a nose job,” says Fulks with a laugh. “I had a pug nose, and he thinned the prosthetic out a little bit.”

Now, since getting that first nose (followed by a duplicate version two years later), Fulks meets with García at the outpatient center on a sunny December day. She’s a clinic regular. Due to discoloration, normal wear and tear, and exposure to the elements, the nose is replaced regularly. This nose, her third one, will be closer to the one she lost.

“I told Juan I wanted something more of my original nose to match my smile lines,” says Fulks. “It was less realistic the first two times because I told him I wanted it to be less puggy. But after a few years, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I thought we should go back to my original nose.”

As Fulks tries on her glasses (which help hold the nose in place along with medical adhesive) and García checks for fit, an easy camaraderie between them ensues. García shares that he once thought he’d become a plastic surgeon. “You’re a wax surgeon now,” says Fulks, laughing.

Next, García works on the back side of the nose to make an impression for the all-important area where the nose will fit into the nasal cavity. Fulks tilts her head back as he dispenses a silicone material (the same substance used to take dental impressions) into the cavity, across her cheeks, and down to her lip line—it’s the prosthetic equivalent of a facial. “I can go a little deeper and engage more of the anatomy to help with retention,” he says as he works on making the extension that will help hold the nose in place when she wears it. “The first effort didn’t use the 3D technology to design the back of the nose—I’m now using 3D technology for the back as well.”

Several weeks later, Fulks has returned for delivery day—and she’s all smiles as she receives the final device, which looks more like her own flesh and blood than something fashioned from silicone and pigment. García places the prosthetic on her face, then adjusts the skin tone with paint to make it even more convincing. “This is where the real artistry comes in,” he says. But he acknowledges, “It’s never going to be perfect.”

Still, an hour or so later, as Fulks studies her reflection in the mirror, to the casual observer, it does look pretty close to perfect. “It looks so good,” she says. “Wow.”

Because this nose comes so close to the one she lost, as she gazes at her own reflection, Fulks now sees a familiar face staring back. “This just looks more like me,” she says. “I’ve always felt more complete with the nose than without it but this one takes the cake.”

Juan García adds the finishing touches to Candie Fulks’ nose; García adjusts the flesh tones to bring the prosthetic to life; Fulks wears her new prosthetic nose on delivery day; the prosthetic nose was months in the making.

JUST A FEW blocks from the outpatient clinic, the lab where the devices are made, sits inside the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine on East Monument Street. It’s not only where García and Etheridge work, but where anaplastology master’s degree students hone their craft. Exquisite carbon dust and pen and ink illustrations drawn by famed medical illustrator Max Brödel, who created the department in 1911, hang nearby in the halls.

Shelves are scattered with realistic-looking body parts: noses of every conceivable shape and kind, acrylic eyeballs, fingers, and face masks. Much of it is student work, and most of it based on actual cases. Raw materials are everywhere—there’s silicone, resin, wax, acrylic, clay, a rainbow of silicone paints, paintbrushes, plaster, sculpting and sanding tools, sealants, surgical gloves, 3D scanners and printers. The effect is science lab meets art studio meets Hollywood prop closet.

On this October day, grad student Jessica Liddicoat pours a model for a nose. Just down the hall, Cherise Masuda tinkers on a research project she’s doing with García’s colleague Andrew Etheridge to fabricate an index finger in which a conductive material embedded in the prosthetic will enable touchscreen sensitivity. When the duo graduate this May, they will join the rarified ranks of anaplastologists.

Anaplastology wasn’t a well-established field when García was growing up in Miami, where his father managed a store selling religious statues in Little Havana. At a tender age, he would travel to people’s homes and repair their relics—the finger of St. Barbara here, the tail of St. Lazarus’ dogs there, using a combination of wood paste, Krazy Glue, and oil paint. “I saw these statues,” he says, “and they were beautiful pieces of art.” It awakened in him an appreciation of art.

At University of Miami, he started out pre-med but soon followed in his older sister’s footsteps and switched his major to graphic design and illustration. Little did he know he would soon be combining his two passions.

In 1993, he attended grad school at Hopkins’ Department of Art as Applied to Medicine for medical and biological illustration. This appealed to both his love of art and his fascination with medicine. While still a student in the spring of 1995, he helped another student make an eye for a patient and soon decided to pursue the path of prosthetic making. Before long, he was traveling the world and studying under masters. To date, he’s a leading authority in his field.

In 2009, García established a supervised training certificate program in clinical anaplastology at Hopkins. And nearly three years ago, he helped establish a 22-month Master of Science degree in the field—the first graduate program of its kind in the world.

While every patient is different and no two prosthetics are alike, the basic process of making one follows roughly the same steps. First, the clinician captures the anatomy through making an impression or taking a 3D digital scan to help make a model of the affected area. Next, the clinician meets with the patient for a diagnostic wax prototype fitting and checks for what’s called “anatomical harmony,” possibly adding features to make it more lifelike. Later in the lab, fine details are added to the wax prototype—from freckles to human hair, and sometimes even tattoos.

From there, a custom mold is made—with silicone painted into the cavity of the mold to make the final device. For the final appointment, the device is brought to life with the application of more paint to adjust the base color.

“I like to tell patients, ‘It’s like baking a cake,’” says Liddicoat of the process. “‘The baking pan is what I have to make for you and then what goes in the batter is the silicone and we will match that base to the color of the skin, cast it, and then we do all the frosting, which is all the freckles and the color that makes it fully match’—that helps make it clearer to them.”

Devices that were once the stuff of science fiction are now becoming a reality. Etheridge, for example, is currently experimenting with making acrylic eyes on the 3D printer. (Overall, 3D printing has enabled more customized designs that are faster and more affordable to produce.)

Another recent project includes an “osteo-integrated” thumb, in which small titanium screws are implanted into the bone to hold the prosthetic in place—it’s the first device of its kind in the United States. “There are a lot of people who have proximal amputations that leave them unable to regain function or even don a prosthetic,” says Etheridge. “This will revolutionize how people can function with this type of amputation.”

Andrew Etheridge at work in the lab; building Tom Warren’s ocular prosthetic; Etheridge works with Warren on the fit and finish of his prosthetic; Juan García adds finishing touches on Fulks' nose; an array of prosthetics in the lab.

Etheridge also recently worked on a complex facial prosthetic for a patient who lost the left part of the left side of his face after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer that forms in the lining of the blood vessels. To fabricate that prosthetic, Etheridge, who holds a master’s degree in sculpture and once contemplated a career in special effects, had to create not only an artificial eye but design the socket, known as an orbital implant, that holds it. That patient, Tom Warren, 68, of Columbia, calls his prosthetic piece, held in place by tiny magnets, nothing short of “magic.”

“This has given me a new sense of being a part of the community and not being disfigured,” says Warren. “Andrew has changed that for me—I’m not the freak anymore.”

Since those very early days of employing wood, leather, iron, copper, and other metals, materials have come a long way, too. Silicone, used for prosthetics since the ’70s, has not only added durability and comfort, but mimics the look and feel of skin with its translucent quality and flesh-like flexibility that allows it to move naturally with the body.

Twenty-one-year-old Amari Jones is one such beneficiary of those advances. Jones was born with Amniotic Band synprodrome, a condition in which fiber-like bands tangle around the fetus, restricting blood flow and causing abnormalities of the limbs (as well as other body parts). Sitting in the living room of her family’s Owings Mills townhome, the Towson University student talks publicly about her condition for the first time. “My story begins when I was born,” she says as she looks at her mother, Keshia.

On that July day in 2003, her parents were taken by surprise when their otherwise-healthy daughter came into the world with no toes on one side and only the ball of a heel on the other. Her fingers were webbed and required surgery to separate them when she turned one. “I had an ultrasound,” says Keshia. “But no one, not even the doctor, knew. When your child is born, you just want them to be okay. You hear, ‘As long as they have 10 fingers and 10 toes’. . . . Well, I couldn’t say that.” Still, says Keshia, “I always knew she’d be okay from the moment she came out.”

Sure enough, by age three, the spirited toddler was walking on the nubs of her heels, competing in cheer and gymnastics, and placing fourth in the state for the National American Miss Pageant, which fosters positive self-image. Amari, who exudes a quiet confidence, accepted her differences from the start. Still, she admits, “As I got older, sometimes I’d have moments where I was like, ‘I wish I had normal hands’ or ‘I wish I had normal feet,’” she says, “but I had to realize that everyone is created differently for a reason.”

As a young girl, Amari used a series of bulky braces for support. The braces, which were hard, heavy, and offered limited mobility, were covered by even bulkier socks. Amari often suffered from sores and calluses on her skin. As time went on, her devices got more natural-looking, but they were far from perfect.

“She had [prosthetic] feet that were like the hollowed-out feet of a mannequin,” recalls her father, Andre. “It was years of her just enduring the plastic. We kept asking about more lifelike prosthetics. Was this possible?” When the family met Johns Hopkins pediatric orthopedist Paul Sponseller, Andre recalls him saying, “‘This is a beautiful child—as she grows up, she might want to do different things.’ He wanted the braces to be not only more lifelike but more functional.”

Finally, last year, after being referred to Etheridge, Amari was able to obtain the prosthetics she’d long been hoping for. To design the feet, Etheridge scanned Keshia’s size-8 foot and, after reducing it to Amari’s size 5-6, designed the first prototype, a pair of silicone feet. After several hours of whirring, clicking, buzzing, and humming from the 3D printer, Amari and her parents watched the feet emerge from the machine.

Etheridge works on a prototype of Amari’s feet.

“I slipped them on,” recalls Amari. “Andrew had this aloe gel that I put on my feet and I just slid right into them. I walked with them on for the first time—and I had them on when I walked out of the hospital. I was like, ‘Wow, I could really get used to these.’ It was so easy to walk in them.”

Since that day, Amari has been thrilled with her newfound feet and the sores and numbing sensations are gone. “They’re really comfortable,” she says. “I really appreciate that the most about them.”

Sometime in February, she will receive her final feet, with more lifelike contours and colored to match her cocoa complexion. But the devices are not just cosmetic. “We are really adding lots of function, too,” notes Etheridge. “They won’t just look like her feet and have toenails she can paint, but will help her function in life—walking, driving, daily activities, and everything she wants to do.”

Another bonus? “She can wear heels now,” says Keshia, laughing. “Now she’s going to be in my closet.” Adds Amari, with a glint in her brown eyes, “I’m looking forward to wearing open-toed shoes and sandals, too.”

Andrew Etheridge designing Amari Jones’ state-of-the-art feet; Amari Jones wearing her temporary prosthetics at home; the silicone prototypes made on a 3D printer.

BACK IN THE exam room with MaryAnne, García adds the finishing touches to her ear, making sure his patient is pleased. “Be frank with me if you need me to warm up or cool down the colors,” he says of the final ear. “You won’t hurt my feelings.”

“That looks good,” she says, gazing at her reflection. “You can’t even tell.” After painting on the final coat of silicone sealant, García asks if she’s brought the mate to her earring.

“It’s in my purse,” she says as Cherise Masuda removes it from the hook on the back of the door and hands it to her.

For months now, people who didn’t notice that MaryAnne was missing an ear have pointed out that she’s lost an earring. “And I’ll say, ‘Oh, thanks for telling me,’” she says, smiling. “They’re only trying to help.”

Today, MaryAnne reaches into her bag and hands García a delicate, silver disc which he slips into the prosthetic ear. “I am going to shed a few tears,” she says, welling up. “I can feel them coming—they are happy tears.”

Now, holding a hand mirror from the side and looking head on at the full-length mirror behind the door, for the first time in many months, she sees two earrings—and two ears. “It looks great,” she says, tearing up again.

“It will take two weeks to develop the muscle memory to put the prosthetic on,” García says.

“Should I worry about it falling off?” she asks nervously.

“It shouldn’t,” he says, “but wear it around the house for the first two weeks. It’s a new friend you are going to get to know.”

“And keep it away from kids and pets,” jokes García, breaking the heaviness that hangs in the room. “It’s an expensive chew toy.”

García asks MaryAnne to pose for a final photo for her medical file. Masuda snaps a photo of MaryAnne for her student portfolio.

“You’re my first ear patient,” Masuda says with pride.

MaryAnne’s husband enters the room and the ear is met with more approval, more awe, and more disbelief that this is not the real thing. A very real round of hugs follows, then she and her husband disappear down the hallway—and back to the ordinary, extraordinary business of life.

Source

GameChanger: Nicole Baumgarth

Lydia Woolever — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 19:40:06 +0000

—Photography by Mike Morgan

Nicole Baumgarth was first bitten by the tick bug (metaphorically speaking) at the University of California, Davis, back in the early 2000s. At the time, she knew nothing about the parasitic insect, or the increasingly prevalent Lyme disease associated with its bites, but a colleague was conducting early research and finding unusual results. “I had been studying influenza, so I thought, how hard can this be?” says the immunologist, who grew up in Germany. “But it was actually really difficult.” It turned out ticks were a complex area of study, and she was hooked.

Fast-forward to 2022, when Baumgarth, now a leading expert, was named inaugural director of Johns Hopkins University’s new Lyme and Tickborne Diseases Research and Education Institute, where her work aims to address this rising public health issue, which includes other illnesses like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and alpha-gal syndrome, which causes a red meat allergy. “If we do this right,” says Baumgarth, “we could really make an impact.”

What is the institute’s mission?
We hope to be the basic research arm of the work surrounding tick-borne diseases at Hopkins. We are focusing on the fundamental research that is so critical, and so lacking, when it comes to understanding ticks, the pathogens, such as Borrelia burgdorferi, and the host’s response to infection.

Why is research lacking?
Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses have been quickly on the rise. That’s a combination of factors: It’s the changing climate, it’s humans moving into areas that were not previously inhabited. It’s also really complicated, and there are just not that many people who know anything about ticks. Lyme disease was discovered in the 1980s. That’s a blink of an eye. So one important thing we want to do is increase the number of students and researchers who are excited about working on this.

What are your main areas of focus?
One is the tick itself—we need to understand its biology. And then the tick’s ecology, or the environment in which the tick is in, and how they interact with one another. The third is, of course, the pathogen. And then the last piece is the immune response—the host, and how the host responds, which is an area I’m working in, mainly with mouse models, the normal natural host, but having the proximity to the Lyme Disease Research Center [at Hopkins’ School of Medicine] will allow us to also start looking at human samples to understand where there are similarities and differences.

Why is the pathogen difficult to study?
In order to understand how a pathogen works, how it interacts with the host—and by host, I mean humans or rodents or ticks, really—what researchers usually do is they knock out certain genes and learn what parts of the pathogen are causing disease. But Borrelia has a very unusual genetic structure, which makes it hard to do that. Only a handful of people know how to manipulate the genome, and even then, when you do it successfully, it’s not perfect. That really restricts how fast we can make progress in understanding the pathogen, what it does, and how it works.

There is currently no vaccine for Lyme disease. Is that a goal of your research?
The long-term goal is to make a [Lyme] vaccine. I don’t think that it is a problem that cannot be solved. But I’m even more excited about the prospect of some work going at Yale University, thinking along the lines of making an anti-tick vaccine rather than a pathogen-specific vaccine. While everyone talks about Lyme, we want to be prepared for a novel pathogen that we may not even be thinking about yet.

If we could actually stop the tick from efficiently and effectively biting us and transmitting a pathogen, then we are protecting ourselves from multiple pathogens—not just one. And just like with every vaccine, not everybody will want it or be successfully vaccinated, so you always need to find new therapeutic approaches. Antibiotics are very important in the treatment of Lyme disease; the earlier you take them, the higher your chances are that you’ll be fully cured after the infection. But there are also people who take the course of antibiotics and still have lingering symptoms, similar to what is now sort of described as long COVID, so that’s why we really need to understand the immune response to the pathogen first.

How is climate change impacting all of this—milder winters mean more ticks?
Right. The factors that are affecting ticks are humidity and temperature. So in warmer climates, it is very clear that you can get more spread of ticks in areas that previously were too cold for them to live. That’s an obvious one. We’re also having changing weather patterns and changing rainfalls, and with humidity being so important for them [needing a certain level of moisture in their environment to survive], it will change where the ticks lives.

If you had a message for the public, what would it be?
I don’t think anybody should panic. And while it’s wonderful to go out into nature, just make sure that you protect yourself, either by wearing long trousers or long sleeves, and check yourself afterwards. Ticks are very, very small, so they can easily be overlooked.

Source

Don’t Fret Your College Major

Megan McGaha — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 16:26:40 +0000

It’s a conundrum: Do you go to college to study what you love or land a career?

For many students and families planning for or applying to college, this question weighs heavily—especially with the existing economic uncertainty. But administrators from colleges in the Baltimore region say it’s not a matter of one versus another, and they’re finding ways to help future and existing students carve out paths to meaningful lives and careers.

“It’s absolutely a myth that students need to know their major when they apply,” says Katherine Cole, the vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). “Most majors don’t correlate directly with a career, and roughly 80 percent of undergrads nationwide end up changing their majors.”

To help students find the right fit, UMBC offers freshman seminars that integrate personality and strength tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Seminars also teach students about the multiple avenues they can take to arrive at the same career—a concept that Cole calls “parallel pathways.” This means, for example, that students interested in law school might take the traditional route by majoring in political science. Or they might enjoy analytical thinking and major in something like sociology, or plan to pursue environmental law and study marine biology or environmental science.

Towson University (TU) offers a similar two-credit Personal Life and Career Planning course, which teaches students about existing and emerging careers, while helping them dive deep into self-exploration to determine who they are as individuals. “We want students to major in something that matters to them personally, and we tell them their major doesn’t dictate their career,” says Lorie Logan-Bennett, the assistant vice president of career services at TU.

At the same time, TU urges students to take advantage of the university’s experiential learning opportunities that let them “build skills by doing real-world work, while deciding what they like or dislike in a career,” says Logan-Bennett. Opportunities range from for-credit, in-person internships off campus to remote projects known as “micro internships,” made possible by TU’s partnership with the Chicago-based company Parker Dewey.

“Micro internships are time-delineated projects that students can take on without quitting their part-time jobs or giving up other obligations,” Logan-Bennett explains. For instance, a company in California might hire a student to compile or analyze data in a spreadsheet or synthesize research for a report. Students work on projects for a designated period and gain experience they can then use to bolster their résumés.

At Johns Hopkins University (JHU), too, opportunities abound in experiential learning, with programs and resources guiding students through the arduous process of identifying and honing values, interests, and goals. In addition to having access to a robust career center, Hopkins Hire, students benefit from the school’s innovative Life Design Lab (LDL), which, “takes an iterative, problem-solving approach to life- and career-planning,” explains Matthew Golden, LDL’s executive director. “The process involves doing research and coming up with a hypothesis based on your interests, talking to people, getting experience in that area, and then doing it all over again, building on what you’ve learned about yourself and that particular kind of work.”

The key, Golden says, is for students to keep an open mind as they follow their curiosity and determine or refine what they want—a process he hopes will stay with them forever.

LDL works closely with Hopkins Hire, JHU’s career center, which launched the DEI Collective to boost internship access for students from underrepresented communities. “In the past, unpaid internships were more common, and this created a disparity gap,” given that some students needed to earn money from part-time jobs and couldn’t sacrifice a paycheck to work as an intern, explains the executive director of Hopkins Hire, Alia Poonawala. “But through the DEI Collective, we require companies to pay students a minimum of $15 an hour,” eliminating the need to forego meaningful work experience.

As application deadlines near, and students and families weigh college options in the Baltimore area, remember that support exists to help you figure out and fine-tune your education, career, and life plans. “The key is to spend your time in college taking advantage of those supports and experiential learning opportunities,” even if you have a concrete path, says Logan-Bennett at TU.

Don’t worry about the lack of a clear-cut career connection to your major, advises Cole of UMBC. The liberal arts get a bad reputation, but, “we hear from employers all the time, whether it’s NASA or the NSA, that the soft skills students gain from a liberal arts degree are exactly what they look for in employees,” she says. “Academics make the individual disciplines, but the reality is that real life—and real work—are interdisciplinary.” And the college major is just one small piece of a larger puzzle.

If you are looking for the perfect fit for your college experience, look no further than Baltimore’s annual guide of regional academic institutions. Here is a roundup of what’s happening on area campuses.

BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
Bowie State University in Prince George’s County began with a mission to provide educational opportunities for Black citizens and, more than a century after opening, has consistently ranked among the best HBCUs in the country, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as specialty certificates and doctoral programs. It also has a solid reputation for being one of the best values around.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 5,381
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 18:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $8,753 in-state, $19,544 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 87 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Criminal Justice, Radio and Television Broadcasting Technology/Technician, Psychology, Biology, Computer/Information Technology, Child Development, Nursing, and Sociology

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
A historically Black institution founded in 1900, Coppin State University is situated in the heart of Baltimore City in the Mondawmin neighborhood. Part of the University System of Maryland in Baltimore, the school offers 57 undergraduate, graduate, and certificate degrees. It’s been rated in the Top 50 Best HBCUs in the Nation (College Consensus), the Top 5 Best Value Online Schools in Maryland (Online School Center), and No. 7 Best Colleges in Maryland by Salary Score (GradReports).

In 2022, CSU received two large-scale federal education grants, including a $3.7-million Teacher Quality Partnership grant from the U.S. Department of Education to increase teacher diversity, while boosting student success in high-needs urban and rural schools across Maryland. CSU also recently created the Freddie Gray Student Success Scholarship, which is available to graduates of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where Gray was a student.

Coppin takes esports (competitive video gaming) seriously. In the fall of 2021, Coppin became the first HBCU to open a building on campus exclusively devoted to esports. The Premier Esports Lab opened in September, with a guest appearance from Grammy-nominated artist Cordae.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,108 undergraduates, 240 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 0:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $6,904 in-state, $13,560 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 54 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Business, Biology, Education, Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Counseling

FROSTBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
For those who want to escape to the Appalachian Mountains while still benefitting from the low cost of in-state tuition, Frostburg State University in Western Maryland offers more than 100 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs, as well as miles of wilderness areas nearby to explore. On that note, its online M.S. in Recreation & Parks Management is ranked the No. 2 most affordable program in the U.S. by GetEducated.com.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,677
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 14:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $9,804 in-state, $24,684 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 86 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Economics, Nursing, Business Administration and Management

GOUCHER COLLEGE
A private, liberal arts college spanning 287 wooded acres in Towson, Goucher College takes pride in its close-knit community and leadership in global education. One hundred percent of Goucher students study abroad, and the college offers more than 60 flexible programs around the world for students to develop international experience.

Goucher has continually ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s best and most innovative national liberal arts colleges. Goucher ranked in the top four percent of all public and private colleges nationwide for its impact on social mobility, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

In the last few years, Goucher began exciting partnerships with other schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, Middlebury College, and more to come, to provide a pathway for students to continue their education beyond Goucher. For instance, their 4+1 MBA Program allows students to earn an advanced business degree through Loyola via a “Fast Track” admission process, and at a 15-percent discount on tuition.

Also of note: Goucher’s unique First-Year Village, which opened between 2016 and 2018, offers a unique space for 450 first-year students to live, work, and socialize. It features a sound-proof study room and communal spaces for students to cook, learn, and interact on each floor.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,100 undergraduate students, 900 graduate students
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $48,200
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 82 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Psychology, International Relations, Economics, Political Science, Business Administration

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) offers nine academic divisions and hundreds of courses of study, with campuses spread throughout Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute, a music and dance conservatory in Mount Vernon. Its main Homewood campus is located on North Charles Street.

The prestigious, world-renowned university has a strong reputation for its public health and medical studies and has been compared to Ivy League schools.

One point of pride is its financial aid program, which covers 100 percent of calculated need for every admitted student, without loans. This means JHU works with families to calculate what they can afford to contribute toward the total cost of attendance—including meals, books, travel, and other expenses—and JHU covers the rest with grants that don’t need to be repaid.

Last year, JHU added two new minors: Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars.

It also announced new efforts to move toward a broader, more flexible undergraduate educational experience that will include a required first-year seminar and the streamlining of major requirements to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,331 undergraduates, 22,559 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $59,128 for Peabody Institute, $60,480 for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 10.9 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Economics, Public Health Studies, International Studies

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY MARYLAND
This private, Jesuit institution offers undergraduate and graduate programs on a beautiful urban campus strewn across 81 acres in northern Baltimore City. Education at Loyola is based in the Jesuit tradition of scholarship, cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Loyola is known for its academic rigor, while helping students lead purposeful lives. Seventy percent of students study abroad, and the school currently ranks fourth in “Best Regional Universities in the North,” according to U.S. News & World Report.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,822 undergraduates, 1,460 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $53,430
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 84 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, English Language and Literature, Engineering and Education

MARYLAND INSTITUTE COLLEGE OF ART (MICA)
Located in the heart of Baltimore, MICA is the oldest continuously degree-granting college of art and design in the nation. According to U.S. News & World Report, it ranks among one of the top schools for its fine arts, graphic design, painting, drawing, and sculpture programs. MICA also offers graduate-level degree programs including Master of Fine Art, Master of Business Administration Art, and Master of Professional Studies. According to its website, MICA offers, “education and experience that will prepare you to be a creative leader in the 21st century.”

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,500
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 8:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $51,870 undergraduate
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 90 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Graphic Design, Illustration, Multimedia, Painting, Sculpture, Fine Arts, and Photography

McDANIEL COLLEGE
Founded in 1867, McDaniel College sits in a bucolic setting near Westminster in Carroll County. The private, four-year liberal arts college offers more than 70 undergraduate programs of study and more than 20 graduate programs. A recent addition to McDaniel’s curriculum is a National Security Fellows Program that provides students with knowledge, skills, and experience in national security, along with the ability to specialize in an area of interest, such as interstate conflict, intrastate political violence, cybersecurity, ethics, and human rights.

The school also recently launched a new STEM Center to serve as a physical hub to support students studying the sciences. Equipped with adaptive workspaces and collaborative technology, the STEM Center hosts workshops focused on both the professional world and course-specific content, along with tutoring services and a study environment for students.

McDaniel earned a spot as the top-ranked Maryland institution on U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Value Schools” list among regional universities in the North for academic quality and affordability. The college also ranked as one of the “Best Regional Universities in the North” in their “Best Colleges” rankings for 2022-2023.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,681 undergraduates, 1,208 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $46,336
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 87 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Kinesiology, Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Political Science, International Studies

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The largest of Maryland’s HBCUs, Morgan is a public institution founded in 1867. It is situated in northeast Baltimore. As a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution, Morgan provides instruction to a multiethnic, multiracial, multinational student body and offers more than 140 academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. Recently, Morgan launched the state’s first bachelor of science degree in cloud computing. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan fulfills its mission to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment through intense community level study and pioneering solutions.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 7,034 undergraduates, 1,435 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $8,008 for in-state and $18,480 for out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 87 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Civil Engineering, Communications Engineering, Business Administration and Management, Social Work, Biology/Biological Sciences, Architecture, Finance, Psychology, Sociology

MOUNT SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY
Located in rural, mountainous Emmitsburg on a massive 1,500-acre campus, “The Mount” is America’s second-oldest Catholic university. It offers more than 80 undergraduate majors, minors, concentrations, and special programs grounded in a Catholic liberal arts tradition, and several bachelor’s/master’s combinations in partnership with other universities. It’s a degree that pays: The Mount ranks in the top 10 percent of colleges and universities nationwide in terms of the long-term earnings for a four-year college degree. As an extra bonus, the school offers a rich NCAA division I athletic program.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,570
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $44,330
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 82 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Social Sciences, Computer and Information Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, Communication, Journalism, Education, Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences, and Health Professions

NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY
A private, Catholic liberal arts university in northern Baltimore, Notre Dame of Maryland University offers programs ranging from undergraduate to doctoral degrees, as well as Maryland’s only women’s college. It recently launched the first master’s of art degree in art therapy program in the state.

The beautiful, wooded campus is just steps from the bustling downtown Baltimore culture. With values rooted in Catholicism, the school focuses on service to others and social responsibility.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 807 undergraduate students, 1,377 graduate and professional students
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $39,250
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 86.5 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Education, Biology, Art Therapy, Pharmacy

ST. MARY’S COLLEGE OF MARYLAND
A state institution founded in 1840, St. Mary’s College of Maryland was recently ranked among the best public liberal arts colleges by Money magazine. Located on 361 acres in rural Southern Maryland, it is also know for having one of the lowest student-to-faculty ratios in the U.S. While its waterfront campus in historic St. Mary’s has the feel of a private institution, it offers all the affordability, accessibility, and diversity of a public school.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,526
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $15,184 in-state, $31,260 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 77 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Social Sciences, Psychology, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, English Language and Literature/Letters, Visual and Performing Arts, Computer and Information Sciences, History, Mathematics and Statistics, Foreign Languages, Literature, and Linguistics

SALISBURY UNIVERSITY
For those who want to be close to the ocean, Salisbury University offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs at its campus in Salisbury, about a 40-minute drive from Ocean City. In 2020, Money magazine named it one of “America’s Best Colleges.” A public institution, Salisbury is a NCAA Division III Capital Athletic Conference school.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,695
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 14:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $10,396 in-state, $20,872 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 86 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Education, Communication, Journalism, Psychology, Public Administration and Social Service Professions, Health Professions, Parks, Recreation, Leisure, Fitness, and Kinesiology, Social Sciences, Computer and Information Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences

STEVENSON UNIVERSITY
Stevenson University is a liberal arts school on a suburban campus in Baltimore County. It offers bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and preprofessional programs, as well as its Bachelor’s to Master’s option, which allows students to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in five years. The school is growing, having recently opened a 117-acre recreational and athletic hub on its Owings Mills campus.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,979
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $38,738
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 91 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Health Professions, Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Computer and Information Sciences, Education, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Firefighting and Related Protective Services, Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, and Legal Professions and Studies

TOWSON UNIVERSITY
One of the largest public universities in the state, Towson University offers more than 110 undergraduate majors, 47 master’s degrees, six doctoral programs, and 36 graduate certificates. The university continues to draw students from other states, though it remains part of the University System of Maryland.

Its campus continues to expand, with a huge new dining hall, a 23,000-square-foot recreation and fitness facility with an indoor swimming pool, and its 5,200-seat arena for sporting events and concerts. In 2021, it opened its new Science Complex, the largest academic building on campus at 320,000 square feet. Towson also opened its StarTUp at the Armory, a space for startups and new businesses to engage with the broader community and larger businesses. It serves as a home to Towson’s entrepreneurship programs and student competitions and events.

While Towson remains the largest supplier of medical professionals and educators in the state, the university has also built a strong reputation for its College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as its Asian Arts & Culture Center, both of which bring students and the wider community to Towson for enriching performing arts, music, and visual art programs.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 18,730 undergraduates, 3,187 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 16:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $10,818 in-state, $26,820 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 88 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Education, Nursing, Exercise Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Information Technology

UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE
The University of Baltimore is situated in Mount Vernon, a Baltimore neighborhood rich in art, architecture, and history. UB has gained a solid reputation for its law and business programs, but it offers a wide spectrum of undergraduate and graduate degrees and doctoral programs, with an intense focus on connecting students to community and jobs, ensuring a sustainable career path post-graduation.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,605 undergraduate
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 11:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $9,506 in-state, $22,956 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 89 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Forensic Science and Technology, Animation/ Video Graphics/Special Effects, Healthcare Management, Criminal Science, Digital Communication and Multimedia/Media, Psychology, Political Science and Government, Human Services, Information Science

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
The University of Maryland, Baltimore is the state’s only public law, health, and human services university. Located in downtown Baltimore, it offers 90 degree and certificate programs through its six nationally-ranked professional schools—dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work—and an interdisciplinary graduate school.

The school’s 14-acre BioPark is Baltimore’s biggest biotechnology cluster, employing more than 1,000 people in nearly three dozen life science companies, university-based startups, and bioscience industry leaders like BD, Illumina, Catalent, and Pharmaron. With more than 250,000 square feet of lab and office space, the BioPark has been named an Outstanding University Research Park of the Year by the Association for University Research Parks. It’s located in the heart of the university’s medical campus.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,931
ANNUAL TUITION: Varies by school
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
University of Maryland, Baltimore County educates a student population of more than 10,000 students in programs spanning the arts, engineering, information technology, humanities, sciences, preprofessional studies, and social sciences. Located on the edge of Baltimore County, it allows easy access into the city and all the conveniences of suburban life and housing. It also offers plenty of opportunities for study abroad.

In the fall of 2021, UMBC opened the Center for Well-Being, a new two-story complex that houses Retriever Integrated Health, Student Conduct and Community Standards, and i3b’s Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. UMBC’s already significant NASA partnerships have continued to grow, with NASA announcing a major award of $72 million over three years, from 2021 to 2024, for the new Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II center. UMBC is leading the national consortium and will receive over $38 million. The GESTAR II consortium will support more than 120 researchers, creating extensive opportunities for breakthroughs in Earth and atmospheric science research, and providing major opportunities for students to conduct research and be mentored by NASA scientists and engineers.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 10,625 undergraduate students, 3,366 graduate students
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 17:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $12,606 in-state, $28,370 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 69 percent POPULAR
AREAS OF STUDY: Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, EASTERN SHORE
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), the State’s Historically Black 1890 Land Grant Institution, is a teaching, research, and doctoral institution that nurtures and launches leaders in a student-centered environment. Located on over 1,000 acres in Princess Anne, UMES was ranked among one of the top HBCU’s by U.S. News & World Report in 2020. It is home to many unique programs and partnerships in health sciences, agricultural and environmental sciences, and renewable energy research and implementation, including a novel, three-year accelerated Pharmacy program and the UMES Coastal Ecology Teaching and Research Center, which plays a significant role in the diversification of the workforce of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,812
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $8,724 in-state, $16,467 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Aviation Science, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Applied Design, Kinesiology, Education

WASHINGTON COLLEGE
Founded in 1782, Washington College became the first college chartered after the American Revolution. This small, liberal arts school is based on a bucolic campus in Chestertown and offers more than 50 academic programs, small class settings, and a rich study abroad program. Recent news on campus includes the receipt of a gift of over $2 million to endow merit-based scholarships.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,026
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $50,842
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 70 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Business, Management, Marketing, Psychology, Physical Sciences, English Language and Literature/Letters, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Visual and Performing Arts, Communication, Journalism, and Computer and Information Sciences

Cited tuition costs may exclude room and board, books, and other fees.

Source

Getting Back to Normal

Megan McGaha — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 18:29:02 +0000

he phrase “the new normal” has been thrown around since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and as America struggles to define—and design—what that is exactly, colleges are paving the way for what it might look like.

After the chaos and uncertainty of 2020, colleges and universities throughout the Baltimore region began to find their groove as they moved into the 2021-2022 school year. Coronavirus safety committees had been erected, new mandates put in place, safety protocols implemented—everything from vaccine requirements to temperature checks to quarantine procedures and wastewater testing that can pinpoint a COVID infection before anyone is symptomatic.

Michael Berardi, with UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III, at OCA Mocha. —Courtesy of UMBC/Marlayna Demond

By some counts, colleges may very well be the safest places to live and work.

“Just following simple rules of wearing face masks and social distancing, using wastewater management and testing when we need to, we have, in many ways, been able to return to normal life,” says Goucher College President Kent Devereaux. “Full athletics, student clubs, dining in the dining hall, use of the library—everything that you’d normally have, we’ve been able to return to.”

Despite the challenges and anxieties faced by students, staff, and faculty alike, some unexpected silver linings have emerged.

“It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

The widespread adoption of technology across college campuses has proven to provide more flexibility, efficiency, and innovation—and even accessibility, in some cases. Counseling sessions, for example, began to be conducted remotely during the pandemic and many students found that they preferred it to in-person sessions. Students who cannot, for whatever reason, make it to an in-person class can now study from anywhere.

Challenging times, combined with advances in technology and the general acceptance of it, have also brought more cooperation and collaboration among schools. It’s becoming more common, for example, for schools that offer complementary programs to partner with one another to offer students an educational pathway to continue studies in their chosen areas. That may mean a discounted tuition rate, a transfer of class credits, or an internship through a partner school.

Maybe most importantly though, schools, at their best, foster an environment where students are supported, expand who they are, and connect with like-minded people. At a time when gathering together is not always safe, being in a community has become even more precious, and students have found new ways to connect.

Goucher students playing soccer. —Courtesy of Goucher College

OCA Mocha, a coffeehouse in Arbutus founded by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) students, is one example of how effective a gathering place can be at a time when people are craving human connection. What started as a class assignment—to design a community center of some sort—has become a gathering place not just for UMBC students and alumni, but the Arbutus community at large.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories from people who are extremely grateful to have this space,” says Michael Berardi, UMBC class of 2019 and co-founder and general manager of OCA Mocha, which stands for Opportunities for Community Alliances. The coffee shop includes a stage, a community room, and an art gallery, employs UMBC students and alumni, and provides internship opportunities for current UMBC students.

“We have local groups and organizations that meet regularly in our community space and are grateful to not have to meet in someone’s living room or church basement,” says Berardi. “We see a lot of connections being made. It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

—Shutterstock

MAKE YOUR APPLICATION SHINE

IT CAN BE TOUGH to stand out in a crowded application pool, but Ellen Chow, dean of undergraduate admissions at The Johns Hopkins University (JHU), says that being hyper-focused on that may not be effective. “Instead, think about how to represent your most authentic self through your interests, academics, and how you spent your time productively throughout high school so you can present an application that is unique and representative of you, your values, and your goals,” says Chow.

“Spend some time reflecting on your own development and what you want to get out of the college experience,” she continues. “Apply to colleges that will allow you to pursue your interests in a way that’s meaningful to you.”

Here are a few more tips from JHU on how to ace the application:

MAKE YOUR APPLICATION SHOW WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU
It’s important to show your academic character, your contributions, and how you engage with your community.

SHOW WHAT AREAS OF STUDY YOU’RE MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT
A college wants to see how you demonstrate your academic passions. Teacher and counselor recommendations are helpful with this step.

SHOW HOW YOU’VE MADE AN IMPACT
Do you tutor your neighbor? Are you on the all-star softball team every year?
Schools are interested in learning how you’ve initiated change and shown leadership outside the classroom.

SHOW YOUR ROLE IN THE COMMUNITY
Express where you think you’ll shine on campus and how you will contribute.

WRITE AN ESSAY THAT SHOWS WHO YOU ARE
An essay adds depth to an application and allows you to elaborate on who you are.
This is your chance to be creative and let the school hear your voice.

We checked in with colleges and universities throughout the region to find out what’s new and what campus life and classes look like, two years into the pandemic.

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
A historically Black institution founded in 1900, Coppin State University is situated in the heart of Baltimore City in the Mondawmin neighborhood. Part of the University System of Maryland in Baltimore, the school offers 32 undergraduate and 11 graduate degrees, along with nine certificate programs and one doctorate degree. It’s been rated No. 4 Best HBCU in the Nation (College Consensus), the Top 5 Best Value Online Program (Online School Center), and No. 17 Best Value in the Nation (College Consensus).

In the summer of 2021, CSU announced its Student Debt Relief Initiative, which clears roughly $1 million in student balances and provided a $1,200 credit to every student enrolled in the fall 2021 semester. CSU also created the Freddie Gray Student Success Scholarship, which is available to graduates of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where Gray was a student.

Coppin also takes esports (competitive video gaming) seriously. In the fall of 2021, Coppin became the first HBCU to open a building on campus exclusively devoted to esports. The Premier Esports Lab opened in September with a guest appearance from Grammy-nominated artist Cordae.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,383 undergraduates, 341 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $6,809 in-state, $13,334 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 40%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Business, Biology, Education, and Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Counseling

DICKINSON COLLEGE
Founded in 1783, Dickinson College is a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a suburban campus that spans 144 acres. The school offers 41 undergraduate degrees within 17 fields of study.

It’s been rated as one of the best schools in the country for its sustainability efforts, which include an 80-acre, USDA-certified organic farm. Princeton Review rated it No. 2 in the Top 50 Green Colleges, and it was rated No. 2 in Overall Top Performers among baccalaureate institutions in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s “Sustainable Campus Index” in 2019 and 2020.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,345
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $58,708
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 52%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: International Business, Economics, Political Science & Government, International Relations & National Security, General Psychology

GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
Gettysburg College, a private, liberal arts school, sits on 225 acres adjacent to the historical Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. Many of the buildings on campus are historically significant, so it’s no wonder that it draws students interested in studying history.

The school offers 65 academic programs, more than 120 campus clubs and organizations, and 800 events on campus each year, plus more than 100 study-abroad opportunities open to students.

Its Majestic Theater serves as a venue for the greater Gettysburg community, hosting national acts as well as performances by the school’s Sunderman Conservatory of Music students.

It’s ranked No. 12 for “students who study the most” by the Princeton Review, which also ranked Gettysburg College’s dining hall No. 9 in the country for best campus food.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,600
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $59,960
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 56%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Political Science, Economics, Health Sciences, Organization and Management Studies, History, Psychology

Design of new buildings at Goucher. —Courtesy of Goucher College

GOUCHER COLLEGE
A private, liberal arts college in Towson, Goucher College prides itself on its close-knit community.

Goucher was extremely proactive when it came to COVID-19 precautions, being the first in the state to implement wastewater testing, which is able to isolate COVID infections by dorm.

Also of note: The college recently opened two new residence halls as part of the school’s First-Year Village. One hundred percent of Goucher students study abroad, and the school is committed to sustainability.

Most recently, Goucher has begun exciting partnerships with other schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, and more to come, to provide a pathway for students to continue their education beyond Goucher. For instance, their 4+1 MBA Program allows students to earn an advanced business degree through Loyola via a “Fast Track” admission process, and at a 15% discount on tuition.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,100
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $48,000
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 79%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Psychology, International Relations, Economics, Political Science, Business Administration

Goucher students participate in an equine event. —Courtesy of Goucher College

The prestigious, world-renowned university has a strong reputation for its public health and medical studies and has been compared to Ivy League schools.

One of its points of pride is its financial aid program, which covers 100% of calculated need for every admitted student, without loans. This means JHU works with families to calculate what they can afford to contribute toward the total cost of attendance—including meals, books, travel, and other expenses—and JHU covers the rest with grants that don’t need to be repaid.

This school year, JHU added two new minors: Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars.

It also announced new efforts this year to move toward a broader, more flexible undergraduate educational experience that will include a required first-year seminar and the streamlining of major requirements to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,333 undergraduates, 22,559 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 6:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $56,313 for Peabody Institute, $58,720 for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 9%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Economics, Public Health Studies, International Studies

—Courtesy of UMBC/Marlayna Demond

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
This private, Jesuit institution offers undergraduate and graduate programs on a beautiful urban campus in northern Baltimore City. Education at Loyola is based in the Jesuit tradition of scholarship cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Loyola is known for its academic rigor while helping students lead purposeful lives. Seventy percent of students study abroad. It currently ranks fourth in best universities in the North region according to U.S. News & World Report.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,787 undergraduates, 1,353 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $53,430
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 80%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, English Language and Literature, Engineering and Education.

—Courtesy of McDaniel College

McDANIEL COLLEGE
McDaniel College sits in a bucolic setting near Westminster in Carroll County. The private, four-year liberal arts college offers more than 70 undergraduate programs of study and more than 20 graduate programs. McDaniel’s most recent addition to its curriculum is a National Security Fellows Program that provides students with knowledge, skills, and experience in national security as well as the ability to specialize in an area of interest, such as interstate conflict, intrastate political violence, cybersecurity, ethics, and human rights.

Also new this year, McDaniel appointed an inaugural associate provost for equity and belonging who provides vision and leadership to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and works in collaboration with the provost to co-lead the college’s diversity, equity, and inclusion administrative committee, and guides the Bias Education Response Support Team.

The school also launched a new STEM Center to serve as a physical hub to support students studying the sciences. It hosts workshops and other events while also supplying online and hybrid support.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,757 undergraduates, 1,324 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $46,336
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Kinesiology, Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Political Science, International Studies

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The largest of Maryland’s HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Morgan is a public institution founded in 1867. It is situated in northeast Baltimore. As a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution, Morgan provides instruction to a multiethnic, multiracial, multinational student body and offers more than 140 academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan fulfills its mission to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment through intense community level study and pioneering solutions.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,270 undergraduates, 1,364 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $8,008 for in-state and $18,480 for out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 73%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Civil Engineering, Communications Engineering, Business Administration and Management, Social Work, Biology/Biological Sciences, Architecture, Finance, Psychology, Sociology

NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY
A private, Catholic liberal arts university in northern Baltimore, Notre Dame of Maryland University offers programs from undergraduate through PhD, as well as Maryland’s only women’s college. It recently launched the first master’s of art degree in Art Therapy program in the state.
The beautiful, wooded campus is just steps from the bustling downtown Baltimore culture. With values rooted in Catholicism, the school focuses on service to others and social responsibility.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 783
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $39,675
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 88%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Education, Biology, Art Therapy, Pharmacy

TOWSON UNIVERSITY
One of the largest public universities in the state, Towson University offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and continues to draw students from other states, though it remains part of the University System of Maryland.

Its campus continues to expand, with a huge new dining hall, a 23,000-foot recreation and fitness facility with an indoor swimming pool, and its 5,200-seat arena for sporting events and concerts. In 2021, it opened its new Science Complex, the largest academic building on campus at 320,000 square feet.

In September, Towson opened its StarTUp at the Armory, a space for startups and new businesses to engage with the broader community and larger businesses. It serves as a home to Towson’s entrepreneurship programs, as well as student competitions and events.

While Towson remains the largest supplier of medical professionals and educators in the state, the university has also built a strong reputation for its College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as its Asian Arts & Culture Center, both of which bring students into the wider community and the Baltimore community to Towson for enriching performing arts, music, and visual art programs.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 17,907 undergraduates, 2,949 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 16:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $7,100 in-state, $22,152 out-of-state
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Education, Nursing, Exercise Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Information Technology

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
University of Maryland, Baltimore is Maryland’s only public health, law, and human services university. Located in downtown Baltimore, it offers 86 degree and certificate programs through its six nationally ranked professional schools—dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work—and an interdisciplinary graduate school.

The school’s 14-acre BioPark is Baltimore’s biggest biotechnology cluster, employing 1,000 people, and remains on the cutting edge of new drugs, treatments, and medical devices.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 7,244
ANNUAL TUITION: Varies by school
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
University of Maryland, Baltimore County educates a campus of more than 10,000 students in programs spanning the arts, engineering, information technology, humanities, sciences, preprofessional studies, and social sciences. Located on the edge of Baltimore County, it allows easy access into the city and all the conveniences of suburban life and housing. It also offers plenty of opportunities for study abroad.

In the fall of 2021, UMBC opened the Center for Well-Being, a new two-story complex that houses Retriever Integrated Health, Student Conduct and Community Standards, and i3b’s Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. UMBC’s already significant NASA partnerships have continued to grow. In October, NASA announced a major award of $72 million over three years for the new Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II center. UMBC is leading the national consortium and will receive over $38 million. The GESTAR II consortium will support over 120 researchers, creating extensive opportunities for breakthroughs in Earth and atmospheric science research, and providing major opportunities for students to conduct research and be mentored by NASA scientists and engineers.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 13,638
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 17:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $12,280 in-state, $28,470 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts

Cited tuition costs exclude room and board and books.

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Kitsch Cafe is Bringing Quality Egg Sandwiches to Tuscany-Canterbury

Sarah Kloepple — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 14:55:13 +0000

Those hoping to start their day with a delicious egg sandwich in Tuscany-Canterbury will soon need to look no further.

Kitsch, a cafe offering griddled egg sammies, La Colombe coffee, a small selection of pastries, and locally sourced snacks, is aiming to open the week of October 12 on the ground floor of The Carlyle Apartment Homes on West University Parkway near the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus. Owner Jacqueline Mearman, former executive pastry chef for Atlas Restaurant Group, and her team will serve up quality egg sandwiches—as well as some non-traditional specials.

“We’ve got a few surprises,” Mearman says. “It won’t just be all egg and cheese.”

The cafe is using bread from Stone Mill Bakery that will be griddled (instead of toasted) using Made In cookware on induction burners, “so that we have a really consistent product,” Mearman says. “With our experience in fine dining, that’s the goal, even if it’s an egg sandwich, it still needs to be a quality product.”

Customers can build their own sandwiches and select different cheeses, meats, and veggies. A rotating specialty sandwich will always be on the menu, and will probably be “a little over the top,” according to Mearman.

Although Mearman has previously worn many hats within the restaurant industry—including working as a sous chef and even a distiller—most of her career thus far has focused on pastry. In keeping with that background, there will, of course, be a limited selection of sweet treats.

“I am doing a very small pastry offering because I don’t think I’d be able to get away with not doing it,” she says with a laugh.

Expect desserts such as a to-go cheesecake trifle made with local chutneys and a fudge-like chocolate bar filled with butterscotch, pretzels, and marshmallows.

Speciality coffee roaster La Colombe, out of Philadelphia, will provide the coffee, but Mearman says just about everything else will be sourced from around the region—including the hand sanitizer, which comes from Mount Royal Soaps in Remington. Wild Kombucha products, from Mobtown Fermentation, will also be available. Other locally sourced snacks include Capitol Kettle Corn out of College Park and beef jerky from Landcrafted Food out of Southwest Virginia. (Mearman says the Cajun-flavored sticks are a can’t-miss.)

All will be easy to grab-and-go out of Kitsch’s 400-square-foot space, which Mearman is renovating herself.

She says that the cafe’s inception was nothing short of serendipitous. The concept came after seeing the space, which went up for rent at a low price while Mearman and her partner, also a chef, were quarantining in their home—which is very close by—this spring and summer. The size and location of the space, coupled with the makeup of the neighborhood, called for something easy and efficient, but still delicious.

When the space became available, it was also a time when the restaurant industry was very much in flux due to shutdowns from COVID-19.

“We knew and accepted that we were going back into an industry that was going to be a complete 180,” Mearman says. “And it was very disheartening.”

She made it one month back at her previous job before she realized it wasn’t nearly the same, and some of the issues facing the restaurant industry were more prominent than ever.

“This is something that [famed Momofuku founder] David Chang is talking about a lot right now—that our industry, in more recent years, even before COVID-19, is kind of going off the rails,” Mearman says, “We have employees that don’t make livable wages. A lot of times they don’t really have training available to them to move up. It’s just something that’s been talked about in the restaurant industry for the last few years. Why are we working 70 hours a week? Why don’t we have lives? Why don’t we have time for our families and our kids, if we have them?”

Mearman sees Kitsch as a place to start changing the narrative, and to create a better work-life balance for herself and her staff. She supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15, and plans to pay that rate to her employees. Her workers will also all begin at the same level and learn every task required to make Kitsch run smoothly.

The cafe also has a community-focused mission, with one percent of proceeds benefitting two local organizations dedicated to health education.

“We really believe in the city,” Mearman says. “If I can just create five jobs for people that don’t have them right now because of what’s happened [with COVID-19], or give a little bit to these organizations so they have just some way of growing and improving our community, then I’m happy. That’s the most important part to us.”

Kitsch will be open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. But Mearman hints that once breakfast gets rolling, she won’t stop there. She has plans to host an evening pop-up inside Kitsch down the road. Stay tuned.

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Step Inside the Ornate Rowhome of Late Artist Les Harris

Lauren LaRocca — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 15:15:00 +0000

On a tree-lined block of Bolton Hill’s Park Avenue reminiscent of Brooklyn Heights, old brick rowhomes built in the 1800s share a storied history. F. Scott Fitzgerald lived on the street after Zelda died, as did renowned classicist and author Edith Hamilton. And the late artist Les Harris raised his three daughters there with his wife, Sally, hosting dinner parties and transforming his house into a work of beauty and a small mecca for creatives.

Harris flocked to the neighborhood along with other artists and teachers in the 1960s because it was affordable (he paid $14,000 for his rowhome) and in close proximity to several schools, where he taught and studied—Maryland Institute College of Art, Johns Hopkins University, and the Schuler School of Fine Arts (he also taught art and theatrical design at the Park School, and Stevenson University). After Harris’ death in 2008, his wife continued to live in the three-story brick home at 1323 Park Ave., built in 1885, but she recently put it on the market.

Harris was a Baltimore icon and a Renaissance man, full of magic and mystique. He and his wife were active across multiple artistic disciplines. They met when she hired him as a choreographer and set designer at her theater, The Gateway Playhouse, in Long Island, New York, where she grew up.

“It was a totally artistic household,” says his daughter Holly Harris, who spent the past two years boxing up the house. There was always someone playing the piano—which is still in the house—or painting or gardening.

Harris became known for his maximalist paintings exploring all manner of metaphysical thought, and much of his work is housed at his Amaranthine Museum in Clipper Mill, a space that reopened to the public in November.

But his house was a work of art, too. He designed and executed many renovations and decorative details: a brick basement that leads out onto a patio, a rooftop garden, a marble kitchen counter in the shape of a grand piano, a wrought iron railing running up a rear stairwell, coffered ceilings in three of rooms. Local artisans installed stained glass above the front doorway and above the handcrafted cabinetry in the dining room. His most obvious addition stylistically might be the long mural that wraps around the front hallway and stairwell, painted for the wedding reception of one of his daughters following a ceremony in the Brown Memorial Park Avenue Church across the street.

“The house is so filled with love,” says Holly, who was 1 when her parents moved there in 1962. “We had so many good times in there.”

His studio was in the basement, but when his paintings became larger in scale, he grew out of that space in 1976 and moved to a studio at Clipper Mill, which he also used as a museum to show his body of work, which he refrained from selling. When Clipper Mill sold in 2005, the museum relocated within the community and just last year relocated once again to a much smaller space. The family intends to sell his work, as they believe it will reach a wider audience.

To understand—or at least get a sense of—the man who said things like “matter is a superstition”—you must first go to Amaranthine, the legacy he left behind. Floor to ceiling paintings and sculptural work (including pieces hung from the ceiling) move through time and explore metaphysics through the lens of art—numerology, astrology, cathedrals from various eras—going from modern times all the way back to the origin of consciousness, as he understood it (the paintings are heavy with sacred geometry and hieroglyphics), perhaps developing his own cosmology along the way.

“He was gonna find God through the eyes of artists,” Holly says. “His search was for the divine in everything.”

Through the Age of Aquarius, the Age of Pisces, the Age of Romance and the Age of Reason—they all have their place among the work.

“Once he was inspired, he’d paint so fast,” Holly says. “Nothing here has two coats of paint.”

She also recalls how the rooms of the Park Avenue house changed often, each time her father got a new vision that “he had to fulfill” and would move things around and redecorate to realize his ideas. Sections of the house went under complete renovations repeatedly.

Antithetical to what is done today, he would paint the grand 12-foot ceilings in a darker hue to create more intimacy in the large rooms.

Growing up, Holly was surrounded by national and international artists and actors, she says. Her parents would habitually host people when they were in town for gigs.

They bought another house in Virginia in 1992, where his artistic eye went into landscape architecture, as he transformed nearly two lakefront acres into their second paradise.

“He was always all over the place,” says Holly. “Mom and Dad never looked back; they just kept going, kept building.”

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Why We Work Opens at the Baltimore Museum of Industry

Lauren LaRocca — Thu, 17 May 2018 16:25:00 +0000

The Baltimore Museum of Industry is a stunning tribute to bygone eras with its displays of a massive canning machine, antique cars, archaic medicinal products, once-upon-a-time printing presses, and countless other artifacts from our country’s past.

But a contemporary exhibit opens this weekend in a small BMI gallery space and focuses instead on the personal side of industry—the people who went to work each day to make these products and provide these services, and the people today who continue in these roles, even as time has changed them.

Why We Work, chiefly curated by Johns Hopkins University and Maryland Institute College of Art students, asks just that: Why do we work? What is our work? How does it shape us?

The exhibit is twofold. One wall combines spellbinding black-and-white historical photos alongside recent images by Baltimore contributing photographer Christopher Myers that show locals past and present in their working environments: A Baltimore Gas and Electric engineer at his desk in 1966, a streetcar car conductor in 1943, a bartender in Remington in 2013, a Hampden mortician in 2014.

The second component of the show involves you. Guests are invited to answer three multiple-choice questions by placing a colored dot sticker beside their answers. Each color corresponds to a career field: finance, hospitality, education, and so on (“retired” and “other” are also options). In the resulting art pieces, which will change over time as more visitors engage with the piece, show trends in the workforce—from both the general public and specific career fields. For instance, under the “What motivates you at work?” question, several blue—i.e., healthcare—dots fill the “service” box, while the “creativity” motivator is dense with the lime-green dots of the culture/creative workforce.

Museum Lab, a course that the BMI director of interpretation Beth Maloney teaches at JHU, was the impetus for the project. Students were asked how they might enhance visitor interaction. They wanted to create a contemporary piece, Maloney says. Part of the process involved students going to BMI and surveying visitors about their jobs. Those responses were used to compile the prompts and the response option.

As the last leg of the conceptual portion of the process, JHU teamed up with Jeremy Hoffman’s graphic design students at MICA, who prepared nine exhibit proposals for those in Museum Lab to consider.

Several people involved in the making of the show—including Myers, Maloney, Hoffman, and BMI director Anita Kassof—will be at its opening at Saturday, May 19 at 11 a.m. Museum entrance is free that day as a celebration to kick off the 10th season of the BMI farmers’ market. The show will remain on view through April 14, 2019.

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