{"id":13291,"date":"2022-04-14T16:28:42","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T21:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=13291"},"modified":"2026-07-13T21:35:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T01:35:53","slug":"umes-honors-convocation-returns-to-in-person-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/umes-honors-convocation-returns-to-in-person-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES honors convocation returns to in-person celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Joshua Todd<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It was a \u201cJoshua\u201d kind of day at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore\u2019s 69th<\/sup> spring honors convocation \u2013 with a Wicomico County twist for good measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Joshua Todd<\/strong> of Fruitland received the Daniel J. Pinkett<\/a> Award as the university\u2019s top math student, while Joshua Goslee<\/strong> of Salisbury was named the top student in the Department of Criminal Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goslee, a pole vaulter in the UMES track team, wants to go to law school, so guest speaker Krystin J. Richardson\u2019s personal story resonated with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richardson is an associate district court judge in Baltimore County, and a 2003 UMES honors graduate.  In brief remarks to those gathered at the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts, she talked about how perseverance and her faith were the touchstones that enabled her to get into and conquer law school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could really identify with her,\u201d Goslee said. \u201cI was inspired by what she said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richardson had stellar undergraduate credentials \u2013 an honors student (in English), a student organizations\u2019 fixture and Miss UMES as a senior \u2013 but struggled to earn a score on the standardized exam to gain law school admission. Seven schools initially turned her down, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dr. Marshall Stevenson, Joshua Goslee and Dr. Bobby Brown<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After a third time taking the test, she secured a seat in the University of Maryland law school, which proved challenging. She credits pep talks from a favorite UMES professor who stayed in touch as well as a law school professor, whose class she initially failed, as the motivation to stick with her goal of becoming a lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richardson reminded listeners of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s public display of perseverance during withering questioning at recent confirmation hearings as a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. The UMES alumna said she found inspiration in Brown Jackson\u2019s life story and the grace she displayed on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sat in awe as I watched Judge Jackson during those hearings,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI share my struggles with you,\u201d she said added, \u201cto provide perspective on your journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike some of his fellow honorees, Goslee was advised he was under consideration for criminal justice program\u2019s departmental honor so he was able to invite his parents and grandmother to share the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goslee\u2019s take-away from Richardson\u2019s speech? \u201cYou have to just keep pushing, even through the bad times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Zoe Gobourne<\/strong> of Silver Spring went home with two academic honors; the top student in the human ecology department and the School of Agricultural and Natural Science\u2019s Award of Excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(l-r) Award of Excellence recipients Zoe Gobourne,
Judge Krystin Richardson, Carmen Ramos and Christian Ferguson<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting it,\u201d said Gobourne, a dean\u2019s list student who also worked 25-30 hours a week as a UMES student. \u201cI\u2019m really grateful. I\u2019ve worked really hard, and it feels good to be honored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Christian Ferguson<\/strong> of Lanham was another double-winner at the honors convocation, which he first attended when he was a freshman \u2013 and before the pandemic disrupted the past two in-person ceremonies. The English major was named his department\u2019s top student and the Award of Excellence winner for the School of Education, Social Sciences and the Arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember thinking at that first convocation it would be nice to be called up on that stage,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cBut, to be honest, this is a total surprise. It\u2019s great to have such an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior Rajan Bethea<\/strong>, an art major from Willingboro, N.J., said being named that department\u2019s top student was \u201ca total surprise. I\u2019m shaking, but I\u2019m good. I\u2019m overjoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua Todd also didn\u2019t know he was in line to receive the Pinkett award, created in 1987 by Pinkett\u2019s children to honor his service as a cornerstone math instructor at Princess Anne Academy, then Princess Anne College, during the first half of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd invited his mother Cassandra to attend the convocation because he did know he was going to be recognized for making the dean\u2019s list. Math department chair Dr. Tiara Cornelius, a UMES alumna, encouraged Todd to attend but didn\u2019t say why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Cornelius read a bio of the honoree about to be named, Cassandra Todd knew it was her son about to be recognized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is Joshua,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re talking about him \u2013 my son. I\u2019m so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mrs. Todd is also proud her son has a job waiting at the Surface Combat Systems Center in Virginia located at NASA\u2019s Wallops Flight Facility. He\u2019ll be a civilian employee working on simulations to test U.S. Navy ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a \u201cJoshua\u201d kind of day at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore\u2019s 69th spring honors convocation \u2013 with a Wicomico County twist for good measure. Senior Joshua Todd of Fruitland received the Daniel J. Pinkett Award as the university\u2019s top math student, while Joshua Goslee of Salisbury was named the top student in…Read more UMES honors convocation returns to in-person celebration<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-13291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13291"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=13291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}