Adelphi, Md. (May 12, 2021)–University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), the nation’s largest online public university, and Uber Technologies, Inc., a leading technology company in today’s gig economy, have announced an alliance to expand access to higher education for the company’s 20,000+ corporate employees around the world.
“UMGC’s coursework aligns with critical workforce needs, and its online capabilities and flexibility are suited to adult students with jobs and families,” said UMGC President Gregory Fowler. “Corporate partnerships represent a large and growing segment of our market, and we are proud to help some of today’s most dynamic companies develop the knowledge, skills, abilities, and dispositions they need in employees at every level of their organizations.”
As part of the alliance, Uber will participate in UMGC’s career services activities, including recruiting UMGC students and alumni, with the aim of increasing the number of military veterans it hires.
UMGC enrolls more than 90,000 students annually, and over half are military-affiliated, including active-duty servicemembers and their families stationed around the world, reservists, members of the National Guard and veterans.
By participating in UMGC recruiting events and activities, as well as with the university’s military veteran career initiatives, Uber is seeking a faster pathway to identify qualified candidates from military populations as it fills key positions in the company, including in sales, business development, communications, data science, finance, accounting, technology and software engineering.
“We are proud of our unique history and experience with military-affiliated students—not just in understanding the challenges they face when pursuing their educational goals but also with providing career services that are geared toward their particular needs,” added Fowler. “Our alliance with Uber brings together two organizations that are taking action to prepare and hire our talented and highly trained veterans for post-military careers.”
UMGC will offer Uber’s corporate employees—as well as their immediate family members—reduced tuition options. They can choose courses from any of the university’s 90 academic programs, available wholly online. UMGC also saves students money by using digital resources, which have replaced costly publisher textbooks in most courses.
UMGC’s online format makes it a great choice for continuing education, an advantage that has been underscored by the challenges that many brick-and-mortar colleges and universities have faced while operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adelphi, Md. (May 11, 2021)–University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) and the Kentucky Community Technical College System (KCTCS) have announced an alliance that will expand the reach of UMGC’s 90 online academic programs to the more than 100,000 students enrolled in the system’s 16 community colleges.
The alliance maximizes the application of KCTCS students’ coursework and credits to their bachelor’s degree programs, guaranteeing admission to UMGC and their preferred programs of study.
Most students will be able to transfer at least 60 credits—and up to a maximum of 70 credits—when they complete their associates degree and transfer to UMGC to complete a bachelor’s degree in a complementary field of study.
“We are proud to establish this alliance with KCTCS, which will increase access and affordability and accelerate the pathway to a four-year degree,” said Gregory Fowler, president of UMGC. “By maximizing transfer credit and guaranteeing admission into a student’s preferred program of study, we are providing students an opportunity to achieve their educational goals while saving time and money.”
“KCTCS associate degree graduates are ready to transfer to and succeed in a bachelor’s degree program,” said KCTCS Chancellor Kris Williams. “UMGC offers a broad range of programs that meet students’ needs, and we welcome the partnership.”
UMGC offers award-winning online programs in disciplines including biotechnology, cybersecurity, data analytics, and information technology that are in high demand in today’s increasingly technical, global workplace. UMGC also offers cost savings through its use of digital resources, which have replaced costly publisher textbooks in most courses.
Rising to the Top Echelons of the Maryland National Guard, Birckhead Excelled at Leading National Guard Troops from Around the Country in Protecting the U.S. Capitol After the Failed Insurrection and During the Presidential Inauguration in January
As a young girl growing up in Snow Hill, a small hamlet on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Brig. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead wanted to be a civil rights lawyer. Public service and community involvement were hallmarks of her immediate and extended family; her mother was a judge and several aunts were teachers.
A good student, Birckhead scored a prestigious summer internship when she was in high school, working as a page in the U.S. Senate, a position sponsored by Sen. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland. She majored in political science at Hampton University in Virginia, but instead of moving on to law school, chose a career in public service and the military.
Birckhead’s decision was rooted in a lesson she learned from her mother when Birckhead was a sixth grader. She had stayed up late to finish a poster, and on her way to school the next day her mother let her know that she had done a good job. Later, though, she pointed out that the poster could have been great, if only Birckhead hadn’t procrastinated.
“I received the message loud and clear,” Birckhead vividly recalled. “I needed to take charge of my life and not let things distract me.”
Fast-forward to her senior year of high school, and Birckhead’s mother was at it again when Birckhead was applying for financial aid. She mentioned an Army ROTC scholarship, and her mother questioned whether Birckhead would be chosen in the highly selective process.
Brig. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead
“I enjoyed competition,” said Birckhead, taking on her mother’s not-so-veiled challenge with gusto. In reality, her mother was not surprised when Birckhead earned the scholarship, which changed the trajectory of her daughter’s life.
Birckhead’s ability to switch gears and adapt, “to have a plan, but also a plan to change the plan,” she says, has served her well as she rose through the ranks, first in the Army reserves and then for the next 27 years (and counting) of her distinguished career in the Maryland Army National Guard.
She has been a chemical officer, an Aide de Camp to the Adjutant General of the Maryland Guard, commanded troops at the company, battalion and brigade levels, and served with distinction as a team leader and the Designated Military Officer for the Office of Administrative Review for the Detention of Enemy Combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Birckhead has also deployed on two separate missions to Afghanistan, first supporting plans to field and grow the Afghan National Security Forces as Deputy Operations Chief, and more recently as Division Chief for Logistics at the Joint Forces Headquarters.
After commanding a regional Army training institute, Birckhead went back to Capitol Hill and directed the Legislative Liaison Office for the Maryland National Guard.
She followed her mentor, Maj. Gen. Linda Singh, adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard, in company command, battalion command and, in 2018, as assistant adjutant general for Army, when Singh promoted Birckhead to the position Singh once held.
“I admire and hold her in high esteem and seek her counsel,” said Birckhead of Singh, who retired in 2019. “She is a role model and someone who can give me another perspective on what’s going on in the world.”
Birckhead was part of a first-in-the-nation all-female state National Guard command staff, which also included April Vogel, who was promoted by Singh to assistant adjutant general for Air several months after Birckhead, and Command Sgt. Maj. Perlisa D. Wilson, the highest-ranking enlisted person. Birckhead takes extra pride in the fact that she, Singh and Vogel are also women of color.
“I didn’t even realize that it was going to line up this way,” Singh told The Washington Post in 2018. “It’s not like I engineered it for all of them to end up in these positions. It just so happened that these talented ones started rising to the top.”
It was another Birckhead mentor, Gen. James F. Frettered, who encouraged her to join the National Guard in 1993 and who emphasized the importance of education as the key to her advancing up the ranks.
His advice had an immediate effect. Birckhead enrolled at University of Maryland Global Campus (then University of Maryland University College) in fall 1993 because of its reputation as a flexible option for people like her who must juggle a full-time job and military service. Birckhead was doing both, working in legislative affairs on Capitol Hill and serving in the National Guard.
“The military teaches you to think a certain way, so it is important to attend a university outside the service to be able to think more broadly about issues,” she said.
Birckhead earned a master’s degree in management from UMGC and attributed the program with helping her to prioritize, take her critical thinking skills to another level and better articulate concepts. She added that having older students in her classes at UMGC elevated the discourse. “Many of my fellow students had more life experience and were working in a variety of different fields, so I was learning not just from my professors.”
She also earned a master’s degree from the U.S. Army War College, preparing her to succeed in her leadership roles in the military, and ultimately leading to her assignment commanding Task Force Capitol, following the failed insurrection on Jan. 6 and continuing through the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.
People asked, “Why her?” Birckhead’s response: “Why not me? I worked on the Hill, I know it very well. I’m a leader. I’ve led at every level. I can do this.
“Not to say it wasn’t a very big challenge,” she added, “working in an environment that was volatile and uncertain. It was important that I was able to build a strong team [at the Maryland National Guard] and bring them with me.”
Brig. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead was named by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to lead the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Task Force.
Birckhead commanded more than 16,000 National Guard troops from across the country and was impressed with their dedication. “Having soldiers from every state on the ground, as professionals coming together and perform, was extraordinary,” she said.
Reflecting on a remarkable moment, Birckhead, who had been looking out from the Task Force operations center on the day of the inauguration and observing the peaceful transfer of power, said, “it was very moving for me and for all of the soldiers who were guarding our democracy that day.”
Following her role at the Capitol, Birckhead was selected by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to head the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Task Force. She currently juggles that responsibility with her position as deputy commanding general for reserve affairs at the U.S. Army War College.
Her accomplishments stand out, underscored by the fact that she has also held full-time civilian positions during her entire National Guard career. Among those roles, Birckhead, who is currently a senior advisor in the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau Trust Funds Administration, has also served as a special agent in charge of Defense Security Service and has worked in the Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights field at the Office of Personnel Management.
As a distinguished UMGC alumna, Birckhead will present the keynote address at the university’s stateside virtual commencement ceremony on May 15. What will she tell graduates? “Be proud of the degree and let it be known you are a UMGC graduate—and go back and tell your story.”
Adelphi, Md. (May 6, 2021)—University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), a leader in providing innovative and quality academic programs online, and Reston, Va.-based Science Applications International Corp., a Fortune 500® technology and engineering services company, have formed an alliance that will increase educational opportunities for SAIC’s employees and their families.
The alliance will enable SAIC’s 26,000 employees and their spouses and dependents to increase their skills by taking individual courses or enrolling in any of UMGC’s more than 90 undergraduate and graduate degree or certificate programs—all available fully online—at discounted tuition rates and with no application fee. UMGC also offers cost savings through its use of digital resources, which have replaced costly publisher textbooks in most courses.
“SAIC’s employees serve our federal government, solving some of the nation’s most difficult technical challenges,” said Dr. Kuan H. Collins, Chief Technologist and Solution Architect Master at SAIC and a UMGC Doctor of Business Administration graduate. “As an alumnus of the university, I recognize how the powerful relationship between SAIC and UMGC creates real opportunities to grow our employees’ careers and enhance SAIC’s value to our customers’ missions.”
“This alliance helps to increase higher education options for SAIC’s employees and their families around the world,” said Blakely Pomietto, senior vice president and Chief Academic Officer at UMGC. “This new relationship is an engine that can drive SAIC’s workforce to upskill faster and more efficiently in a rapidly changing technical environment.”
Students enrolling in UMGC’s undergraduate degree programs may be eligible to transfer credits from other institutions and/or earn credit for prior learning, thus shortening the path to a bachelor’s degree.
UMGC’s online format makes it a great choice for continuing education, especially when many brick-and-mortar colleges and universities are facing the challenge of holding classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About University of Maryland Global Campus
University of Maryland Global Campus (formerly University of Maryland University College) is a world leader in innovative educational models, with award-winning online programs in disciplines including biotechnology, cybersecurity, data analytics, and information technology that are in high demand in today’s increasingly technical, global workplace.
With an enrollment of some 90,000 students, UMGC offers open access with a global footprint and a specific mission—to meet the learning needs of students whose responsibilities may include jobs, family, and military service. The university offers both undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, including doctoral programs.
A pioneer in distance education since 1947, UMGC today is harnessing the power of learning science and technology to deliver high quality, low cost, accessible higher education.
In 1949, UMGC became the first institution to send faculty overseas to teach active-duty military personnel at installations in Europe. The university expanded overseas operations to Asia in 1956 and to the Middle East in 2005. UMGC faculty have taught in the war zones of Vietnam, Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
UMGC now offers classes to military service personnel and their families at more than 175 locations in more than 20 countries. Today, more than half of the university’s students are active-duty military personnel and their families, members of the National Guard and veterans.
About Science Applications International Corp.
SAIC® is a premier Fortune 500® technology integrator driving our nation’s digital transformation. Our robust portfolio of offerings across the defense, space, civilian, and intelligence markets includes secure high-end solutions in engineering, IT modernization, and mission solutions. Using our expertise and understanding of existing and emerging technologies, we integrate the best components from our own portfolio and our partner ecosystem to deliver innovative, effective, and efficient solutions that are critical to achieving our customers’ missions.
We are more than 26,000 strong; driven by mission, united by purpose, and inspired by opportunities. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has annual revenues of approximately $7.1 billion. For more information, visit saic.com.
New Program Allows Community College Students to Earn Associates Degree, Transfer to UMGC and Earn Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Computer Science, All Within Five Years
Adelphi, Md. (May 5, 2021)–University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) has signed an agreement with Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) that will allow AACC students to earn a master’s degree in Computer Science at UMGC in five years, saving students time and money.
The 3+1+1 Computer Science Articulation Agreement provides for AACC computer science students to stay an extra year at the community college, take additional courses and transfer 81 credits to UMGC. By following the program pathway map, students can complete the UMGC bachelor’s degree in computer science in just over one year and, if they so choose, go on to complete one of two UMGC master’s degrees in an additional year.
“Our alliance with Anne Arundel Community College helps to increase access and affordability of a four-year college degree and it also speeds the path to a career in a high-demand field,” said Blakely Pomietto, senior vice president and chief academic officer at UMGC. “We are proud to work with Anne Arundel Community College to develop creative ways for students to save time and money while achieving their educational goals.”
“This articulation agreement is an excellent opportunity for our computer science students to continue their education,” said Dr. Dawn Lindsay, AACC president. “We are proud to work with UMGC to help our students reach their academic goals.”
In addition to low in-state tuition rates, UMGC also offers cost savings through its use of digital resources, which have replaced costly publisher textbooks in most courses.
Birckhead Led All National Guard Troops Deployed at the U.S. Capitol During the Presidential Inauguration and Heads Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s Vaccine Equity Task Force
Adelphi, Md. (April 27, 2021)—University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), the nation’s largest online public university, will host a virtual commencement ceremony on May 15 at noon.
Brig. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead
Brig. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, assistant adjutant general and commander of the Maryland Army National Guard and a graduate of UMGC, will provide the commencement keynote address. Brig. Gen. Birckhead has a distinguished 30-year military career, including recently leading all National Guard troops deployed at the U.S. Capitol following the failed insurrection on January 6 and for the January 20 presidential inauguration. She was also selected by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to lead the state’s vaccine equity task force.
Raymond Fisher, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who traces his family history on his mother’s side to a slave owned by George Washington and who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in information systems management after a 25-year journey, will give an address on behalf of the graduating class.
The commencement website also includes the conferral of degrees by UMGC President Gregory W. Fowler and a virtual greeting from Governor Hogan. In addition, the site features a section comprising the names of graduates with their photos and inspirational messages and messages of congratulations from UMGC faculty, staff members and friends.
UMGC holds separate commencement ceremonies annually in Europe and Asia, to accommodate graduates who are serving in the military overseas.
Here is a snapshot of UMGC graduates for 2020-21:
Total number of graduates worldwide: 13,171
Location of our graduates: All 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and 32 countries and territories.
Youngest graduate: 17 years old
Oldest graduate: 78 years old
Average age: 35 years old
About University of Maryland Global Campus
University of Maryland Global Campus (formerly University of Maryland University College) is a world leader in innovative educational models, with award-winning online programs in disciplines including biotechnology, cybersecurity, data analytics, and information technology that are in high demand in today’s increasingly technical, global workplace.
With an enrollment of some 90,000 students, UMGC offers open access with a global footprint and a specific mission—to meet the learning needs of students whose responsibilities may include jobs, family, and military service. The university offers both undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, including doctoral programs.
A pioneer in distance education since 1947, UMGC today is harnessing the power of learning science and technology to deliver high quality, low cost, accessible higher education.
In 1949, UMGC became the first institution to send faculty overseas to teach active-duty military personnel at installations in Europe. The university expanded overseas operations to Asia in 1956 and to the Middle East in 2005. UMGC faculty have taught in the war zones of Vietnam, Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
UMGC now offers classes to military service personnel and their families at more than 175 locations in more than 20 countries. Today, more than half of the university’s students are active-duty military personnel and their families, members of the National Guard and veterans.
Event to Feature Virtual Booths with Employers and Veteran Service Organizations Along with UMGC Career Services and Veterans Programs Staff
Adelphi, Md. (April 22, 2021)–University of Maryland Global Campus will host the 4th annual Mil/Vet Appreciation Fair on Thursday, May 13, from 4 to 7 p.m. The fair will be conducted virtually through the VFairs platform and feature virtual booths and a virtual auditorium. The event is open to all military-affiliated students, staff and faculty at UMGC.
Attendees can visit booths staffed by recruiters from companies around the country and representatives from veteran service organizations, as well as staff from UMGC’s Veterans Initiatives Office (VIO) and Career Services Office. In the virtual auditorium, the university will host a recognition ceremony for the SALUTE National Honor Society inductees and VIO scholarship recipients.
“UMGC is committed to providing opportunities and resources to our military and veterans students, and our Military and Veterans Appreciation Fair salutes the men and women who are serving or have served in defense of our nation,” said Dr. Nicole DeRamus-Suazo, the university’s assistant vice president for Veterans Programs. “It is our honor to showcase veterans service organizations and employers who are committed to serving, helping, and employing veterans and their families locally and nationally.”
As part of UMGC’s alliance with Audacy (formerly Entercom), the media company will showcase the fair through its “Eye on Vets” series on the ConnectingVets.com website. The feature will include interviews at the event with representatives of the veterans service organizations and employers in attendance, as well as members of the university’s career services and veterans initiatives offices.
More than half of UMGC’s students are military-affiliated, including active-duty servicemembers and their families stationed around the world, reservists, members of the National Guard and veterans.
About University of Maryland Global Campus
University of Maryland Global Campus (formerly University of Maryland University College) is a world leader in innovative educational models, with award-winning online programs in disciplines including biotechnology, cybersecurity, data analytics, and information technology that are in high demand in today’s increasingly technical, global workplace.
With an enrollment of some 90,000 students, UMGC offers open access with a global footprint and a specific mission—to meet the learning needs of students whose responsibilities may include jobs, family, and military service. The university offers both undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, including doctoral programs.
A pioneer in distance education since 1947, UMGC today is harnessing the power of learning science and technology to deliver high quality, low cost, accessible higher education.
In 1949, UMGC became the first institution to send faculty overseas to teach active-duty military personnel at installations in Europe. The university expanded overseas operations to Asia in 1956 and to the Middle East in 2005. UMGC faculty have taught in the war zones of Vietnam, Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
UMGC now offers classes to military service personnel and their families at more than 175 locations in more than 20 countries. Today, more than half of the university’s students are active-duty military personnel and their families, reservists, members of the National Guard and veterans.
Black women—from Sojourner Truth in the 1850s to Georgia’s Stacy Abrams today—have played a key role in the fight for voting rights for African Americans. Now, a special Maryland Public Television (MPT) presentation jointly sponsored by UMGC and Morgan State University highlights the work of these pioneering women, whose contributions have been largely obscured in the historic record.
The program highlights the work of Dr. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, a Morgan State professor who established the university’s first PhD in history program and co-founded the Association of Black Women Historians. Her groundbreaking books revealed—often for the first time— how African American women kept the voting rights struggle alive.
All four panelists on the MPT program were trained by Terborg-Penn, including Dr. Damon Freeman, director of the history and African American studies program at UMGC.
Another panelist, Dr. Toya Corbett, assistant vice president for student affairs in the University of North Carolina System, spoke of how important Terborg-Penn’s work was in uncovering voices that were never included in history.
“[We] were made to believe that Black women did not have a role in building this country or in the suffrage movement or any other movement,” Corbett said, adding that Terborg-Penn had challenged that narrative head on. “She inspired us to give voice to the voiceless.”
Freeman said Terborg-Penn opened a field of historic research that did not previously exist. Historians of that era did not consider Black women to be involved in the suffrage movement. Perhaps because White women had not welcomed Black women into the movement.
“They were invisible,” he said.
Yet, beginning in the 1890s, Black women created a “Women’s Club movement” that is crucial if one is to understand their role in the suffrage movement, he said. These clubs fought for voting rights and economic independence and against lynching. This is the work that Terborg-Penn painstakingly uncovered.
But the panelists pointed out that, even as one acknowledges these contributions, one must also recognize that the struggle for Black voting rights continues. It is never a straight-line process from total exclusion to full equality.
“As soon as you have political power, you have a backlash,” said Gloria Browne-Marshall, professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
The first such backlash came in the 1870s after the 15th Amendment was passed, allowing Blacks to vote. Whites staged violent protest in an effort to stop Blacks from voting, creating systemic barriers that persisted until the 1960s Civil Rights movement.
Now, another backlash is apparent, one that started in 2013 when the Supreme Court gutted those parts of the Voting Rights Act that required the Justice Department to review changes in voting procedures in states that had a history of denying Blacks the right to vote. It accelerated after the 2020 election when minority votes helped win Democrat Joe Biden’s election.
“They [Republicans] saw how we were able to unify, and what the Black community can achieve when we come together,” Browne-Marshall said. “The challenge to voting rights is to disenfranchise us again.”
As a resident of North Carolina, she said, she sees consistent challenges to voting rights, including recent changes pushed through by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature
Noting Stacy Abrams work in organizing the vote in Georgia in the 2020 election, in the two U.S. Senate elections in the state, and in the fight against recent voting regulations, Freeman said, “Black women are crucial to Black voting rights and getting people elected to office.”
Former U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., also acknowledged the continuum from Sojourner Truth to Stacy Abrams.
“The connective tissue is that the fight for Black women’s suffrage is an ongoing struggle,” she said. “So much of what needs to happen in this country is dependent on Black women raising those issues, and we do it through the power of our vote.”
The virtual program, a part of Women’s History Month, was livestreamed on mpt.org on March 31. It was moderated by Dr. Kaye Whitehead, an award-winning Maryland radio host and a Morgan State associate professor of communication and African and African American studies.
University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) will honor 1,114 graduates at its virtual Asia commencement ceremony on Saturday, April 24. The commencement website will be available beginning at 10:00 a.m. on commencement day.
The ceremony will feature keynote speaker, Charles K. Hyde, Brigadier General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.). He is vice president for the Pacific Region of the United Service Organization. UMGC President Gregory Fowler; Jim Cronin, vice president and director of UMGC Asia; and Amanda Maguire, associate vice president and deputy director of UMGC Asia will be providing remarks as well.
A special congratulatory message from the UMGC Asia staff and faculty will be presented to the graduating class, along with tributes from the university’s Office of Academic Affairs. The virtual commencement page will showcase a multimedia gallery that will list each graduate’s name and degree, and will remain available on the UMGC Asia website until April 1, 2022.
