Education Notes

Thursday, August 27, 2009

UMUC Gets Top Ranking For Service Members

The University of Maryland University College in Adelphi has been ranked as the most popular college or university among active-duty service members by Military Times Edge. UMUC topped 49 other colleges and universities and was lauded for its partnerships, selection of online courses, campuses on three continents -- Europe and Asia as well as in the United States -- and degrees designed to complement military training.

American Public University, Central Texas College, University of Phoenix and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University were also in the top five.

UMUC was founded in 1947, largely to provide higher education to returning World War II service members under the original GI Bill. It educates an estimated 50,000 active-duty service members, dependents and veterans around the world annually.

College Tour Open for Historically Black Schools

The Prince George's County Delta Alumnae Foundation and the county alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority invite high school sophomores, juniors and seniors with a 2.0 grade-point average or higher to participate in a chaperoned tour of 12 historically black colleges and universities Nov. 8-13.

Students will explore the academic, cultural and social advantages of the schools. Admissions staff members will be available to answer questions about admission criteria, financial aid, courses of study and more.

The trip will include guided tours of Claflin University, Spelman and Morehouse colleges, Clark Atlanta University, South Carolina State University, Johnson C. Smith University, Winston-Salem University and other educational institutions in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

The application is available at http://www.pgcacdst.org. For information, e-mail hbcu@pgcacdst.orgor call 301-350-7960.

Bowie State TRIO Program Hires Counseling Chief

Bowie State University has hired Marilyn O'Brien as coordinator of counseling services for the TRIO Achievers program, an educational outreach program that serves first-generation, low-income and disabled students.

The Hyattsville resident will coordinate the services provided to students, including academic advising, monitoring and mentoring, brief counseling, workshops and cultural events. O'Brien has served as a counselor at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, an instructor and tutorial coordinator at the Philadelphia College of Art, a teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a remedial reading teacher at Central Dauphin School District in Harrisburg, Pa.

The TRIO program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and provides opportunities for academic development, assists students in meeting basic college requirements and helps motivate students to complete postsecondary degrees.

Capitol College Offers Yellow Ribbon Assistance

Capitol College is one of the 14 independent colleges and universities in Maryland that have elected to participate in the new GI Bill's Yellow Ribbon Program, the most generous veterans benefit for higher education since the GI Bill after World War II.

"The college's beginnings as a correspondence school to the Navy has led us to respect and admire our country's active military and veterans," Capitol College President Michael Wood said in a statement. "We want to provide our service men and women with a relevant and affordable education while assisting them in achieving their career goals, so our participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program was a natural step in extending our military-friendly status."

The Yellow Ribbon Program went into effect Aug. 1 and allows colleges to enter into matching agreements with the federal government to cover any difference between the base GI Bill benefit and total tuition and fees. At Capitol College, the program will allow qualifying veterans the opportunity to attend one of Capitol's 12 undergraduate or six graduate programs tuition-free.

The new GI Bill provides for the payment of tuition and fees, a housing allowance and a stipend for books and supplies for eligible veterans who have served on active military duty since Sept. 11, 2001. The tuition and fees benefit available under the law is capped at the level of the in-state charges at the most expensive public institution in a state. The benefit cap in Maryland has been set at $458.13 per-credit-hour and $2,380 per semester for fees.

Institutions that charge higher tuition can elect to enter into an agreement with the Veterans Administration to fund tuition expenses that exceed the cap. Under the Yellow Ribbon Program, an institution may fund up to 50 percent of the tuition and fee costs that exceed the state cap. The federal government will match these institutional contributions dollar-for-dollar.

To be eligible for 100 percent of the benefit, a veteran must have served an aggregate of 36 months of active-duty service or have been discharged for a service-connected disability after at least 30 days of continuous service. For those who served fewer than 36 months, the percentage of benefit ranges from 40 percent to 90 percent.

Technology Management Scholar Comes to UMUC

University of Maryland University College announced the addition of Jay Liebowitz in the Orkand Chair of Management and Technology in the Graduate School of Management and Technology. The position was established to advance research and scholarship at UMUC by bringing scholars of national repute to serve at the graduate school.

Liebowitz comes to UMUC from the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, where he served as a professor and as the founding program director for the graduate certificate in competitive intelligence. He will assume his position Monday.

Before joining Johns Hopkins, Liebowitz was the first knowledge management officer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He has also served as the Robert W. Deutsch distinguished professor of information systems at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, a professor of management science at George Washington University and the chairman of artificial intelligence at the U.S. Army War College.

Liebowitz is the founder and editor in chief of Expert System With Applications: An International Journal, which produced nearly 1,600 paper downloads daily around the world last year. Liebowitz is also a Fulbright scholar and a IEEE-USA Federal Communications Commission executive fellow and was recently ranked as one of the top ten knowledge management researchers or practitioners out of 11,000 worldwide.

He has published more than 40 books, including his most recent, this year's "Knowledge Management in Public Health," along with journal articles on knowledge management, intelligent systems and information technology management. He received his PhD in systems analysis and management/operations research and his MBA and bachelor's in business administration from George Washington University.

St. Jerome School Gets New Principal

St. Jerome School in Hyattsville will start the school year with a familiar face as its new principal.

Mary Pat Donoghue is the only new principal among Catholic schools in Prince George's County. She has served as the school's vice principal since 2001 and taught grades 5 and 6 from 1993 to 2003. She holds a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from the University of Maryland and a master of science degree in administration from Trinity University in the District. Last year, St. Jerome School served more than 350 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

The Archdiocese of Washington serves approximately 29,000 students in 96 elementary, secondary and special schools and early learning centers in the District and Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's and St. Mary's counties.

-- Compiled by AKEYA DICKSON