Friday, April 1, 2011
PRINCESS ANNE, MD-(March 29, 2011)Nearly 700 undergraduate students will be recognized for academic excellence during the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s 58th annual Honors Convocation. The open event takes place on Thursday, April 7, at 11 a.m. in the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts.
“Each year at this time, the university pauses to honor those students who have excelled academically,” Dr. Charles Williams, vice president for academic affairs at UMES, said. “The university is proud of the energy and effort put forth by students to be role models in the academic community. Their hard work and talents are commendable.”
Students named to the dean’s list during 2010 for earning a GPA of 3.5 or more will be recognized along with an exemplary student from each of the university’s schools and individual departments. The Bernstein and Pinkett awards, which are monetary, will also be announced.
The keynote speaker for this year’s event is Dr. Kelly Mack. Mack is a UMES alumna and biology professor in the Department of Natural Sciences-the first African-American woman to earn professorship in the department. She is currently on loan from UMES serving as the senior program officer for the ADVANCE Program at the National Science Foundation. She oversees a $20 million budget and over 100 awards in an effort to lead academic institutions toward gender equity in the areas of science and engineering.
Throughout her career, Mack has been professionally and personally committed to cancer research. After graduating from UMES with a bachelor’s in biology, she earned a doctorate in physiology from Howard University at age 24-the youngest graduate and one of only a handful to have completed the program in four years.
With a passion for educating students from underrepresented minority groups, Mack is completing a six-year term as a member of the Board of Governors for the National Council on Undergraduate Research. She has also facilitated the entry of over 40 UMES students into graduate degree programs in the biomedical sciences, many of whom have earned doctorates and have become professors, industry or governmental scientists or fellows at major research institutions such as Harvard and Johns Hopkins.
For more information, contact the UMES Office of Public Relations at 410-651-7580.
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Gail Stephens, assistant director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-7580, gcstephens@umes.edu.
Bill Robinson, director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-621-2355, wrobinson3@umes.edu.
