From left: Glenwood Middle School Principal Robert Motley, Debra O’Byrne, MASSP Executive Director Scott Pfeifer and HCPSS Interim Superintendent Michael J. Martirano

Glenwood Middle School Assistant Principal Wins State Award
Glenwood Middle School Assistant Principal Debra O’Byrne has been named the 2018 Maryland Assistant Principal of the Year by the Maryland Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP). Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) Interim Superintendent Michael J. Martirano and MASSP Executive Director Scott Pfeifer surprised O’Byrne with the announcement at her school on Thursday, Oct. 5.
O’Byrne was formally recognized on Oct. 17 during MASSP’s Assistant Principals Conference and becomes Maryland’s nominee for the national award, which will be announced in spring 2018.
Her nomination portrays a student-centered educator who helps students feel valued and encourages both students and teachers to take leadership roles. She has been a champion for the use of restorative practices, which helps students learn constructive ways to resolve conflicts and overcome challenges.
O’Byrne has been an educator with the HPCSS for 25 years, including previous roles as fifth grade teacher, middle school science teacher, and assistant principal at Mount View and Ellicott Mills middle schools. She has served as assistant principal at Glenwood Middle School since 2010.

Pictured from left: Lynn Hrdlick-Kerner, BGE Corporate Relations; Brittany Jones, BGE external affairs manager; and Bonnie Johansen, BGE manager, projects; along with ninth grade student Destiny using the BGE-sponsored distance learning robot.

BGE Robot Sponsorship Boosts AACPS Offerings for Students
Students who can’t attend class due to illness or injury can still keep up on material, but they often lose the feel of the classroom and contact with their classmates as they do so.
Anne Arundel County Public Schools’ (AACPS) efforts to bridge that divide recently got a boost with the sponsorship of a robot by BGE that will allow students to attend class virtually while they recover. The robot, operated from a home computer, uses video conferencing technology to allow a student to travel through the hallways, sit at the lunch table with friends, participate in group assignments and ask questions of teachers in real time.
BGE’s sponsorship, facilitated through AACPS’s 21st Century Education Foundation, brings to 13 the total number of robots available to students across the school system. Four of those have been purchased through donations like the one being made by BGE.
“At BGE, one of our primary educational focus areas is innovative technology education, and this distance learning robot affords remote students the opportunity to remain connected to their classmates,” said Valencia McClure, vice president of governmental and external affairs and corporate relations for BGE.
The robot is developed by Double Robotics, which teams with AACPS’s Office of Instructional Technology to train parents, students, teachers and administrators to use the devices.

Loyola’s Sellinger School of Business Names Executives in Residence
Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management named five executives in residence this year. Executives in residence are business practitioners who bring real-world industry knowledge to the classroom. They represent the fields of finance, economics, information systems, law, management and marketing.
“Our executives in residence have a broad range of perspectives and experiences to enrich the academic experience, expand career opportunities and strengthen professional networks for Loyola’s undergraduate and graduate students,” said Kathleen A. Getz, Ph.D., dean of the Sellinger School. “Executives in residence also help strengthen Loyola’s partnerships in the business community.”
Sellinger’s executives in residence starting this year are as follows.
• D. Scott Emge specializes in finance. He was chief financial officer and vice president for a Fortune 200 food distributor, chief financial officer for a construction company and managing director for a consulting firm and investment firm.
• Sean Keehan specializes in economics and has taught microeconomics, macroeconomics and health economics at Loyola since 2005. He works as an economist at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and previously served the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
• Dave Luvison specializes in management and international business. He has 20 years of experience managing alliances, building alliance programs and consulting. Luvison is a Fulbright specialist and holds a certified strategic alliance professional designation.
• Adam Peake specializes in marketing and brings 25 years of experience working with well-known consumer brands. He was executive vice president of sport category management for Under Armour and previously served in other leadership positions with the company.
• Kimberly L. Wagner specializes in information systems, law and operations. She has 30 years of experience growing her family’s small business from $2 million to $25 million in revenue and negotiating its sale to a multinational public company where she served as executive vice president.

UMD School of Social Work’s Financial Social Work Initiative Celebrates 10 Years
The University of Maryland School of Social Work (UMSSW) is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Financial Social Work Initiative (FSWI) during the 2017–2018 academic year with activities that honor its achievements over the past 10 years as well as a new certification program.
In celebration of this milestone, the FSWI received a leadership grant of $100,000 from The Woodside Foundation, whose trustee, UMSSW alumna Meg Woodside, MBA, MSW, is a co-founder of the FSWI. The Woodside Foundation is a private family foundation focusing on program development, outreach and advocacy in the areas of family financial security and asset-building in Maryland.
“Social workers have been on the front lines of stabilizing vulnerable families and communities for decades,” said Woodside. “Today’s challenges necessitate integrating new tools, skills and evidence-based practices to strengthen the profession’s ability to address financial stressors and economic disparities.”
The grant will underwrite several planned educational and community events during the anniversary year. In the spring of 2018, a new Financial Social Work (FSW) Certificate Program will be launched, which in addition to financial support from the Woodside Foundation, has received a $23,600 grant from the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation Inc., as well as a $3,000 contribution from OneMain Financial.
FSWI will offer the Certificate Program through UMSSW’s Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Office. It will run as seven full-day sessions from April to December 2018 and will meet an identified need for greater knowledge and skills in financial capability, stability and empowerment on the part of social workers who practice in nonprofit and other social service agencies, as well as in schools, medical settings and justice and court settings.
More information about the FSW Certificate Program is available online at www.ssw.umaryland.edu/fsw/education.

Howard County Elementary Schools Celebrate Health and Wellness
In recognition of National Walk & Bike to School Day, several Howard County Public School System elementary schools encouraged students to safely walk and bike to school on Oct. 4 as a way to incorporate exercise at the beginning and end of each day. Shown is a student and his mother from Centennial Lane Elementary School.

The Oyster Recovery Partnership Establishes Oyster Gardening Programs With HCPSS
The Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) has partnered with Dunloggin and Mount View middle schools to educate students about shellfish ecological restoration and its importance to the local environment. A partnership signing was held on Sept. 7 including Dunloggin Middle School Principal Jeff Fink and science teacher Dan Blue; Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) Chief Academic Officer Bill Barnes; Oyster Recovery Partnership Education Program Director Bryan Gomes; Mount View Middle School Principal Allen Cosentino; and Mount View Middle Gifted & Talented teacher Susan Mako.

 

 

 

Eighth Grade Service Learning Project Fosters Diversity and Inclusion Goals
As of the beginning of this school year, all eighth-graders in Howard County public schools are taking part in a new Student Service Learning (SSL) project to expand awareness and appreciation of under-recognized participants in U.S. history and emphasize the importance of representation in a republic or democracy.
The project, titled, “A Representative Democracy?” combines curriculum units in Social Studies and English classes. During the Grade 8 Social Studies unit on the Constitutional Convention, each student will conduct a research project on the “unheard” perspectives and circumstances of African-Americans, Native Americans and other minorities during the colonial, early revolutionary and founding periods of the United States.
In English class, students will work in teams to develop their research into a presentation on how minorities might have wished to have their rights acknowledged and represented at that time, choosing from formats such as speech, essay, PowerPoint presentation, video or musical composition.
Teachers will identify the most exemplary projects to support preparation for the countywide Grade 5 Simulated Congressional Hearings (SCH). Fifth-grade teachers will then have access to the presentations to assist students in their research for SCH, where students are asked to respond to the question, “How would the Constitution be different if women and minorities had been present at the Constitutional Convention?”
The new Grade 8 SSL project was initiated following a recommendation from the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion to infuse additional instruction on the consideration of diverse viewpoints into the curriculum and to ensure that all students are exposed to the instruction. SSL supports the Howard County School System’s new, equity-based Strategic Call to Action, Learning and Leading with Equity — The Fierce Urgency of Now. The project fulfills all of the required elements for state-mandated SSL.
Maryland law mandates 75 hours of SSL as a requirement for graduation. HCPSS embeds SSL in the middle school curriculum. The eighth grade diversity SSL project will fulfill approximately 25 hours of the requirement, with the remaining hours completed in Grades 6 and 7.