Newton-Wellesley Hospital has elected Weston, Massachusetts resident Dr. James L. Kaplan ('70 PhD, Applied Mathematics) as Chair of the Hospital’s Board of Trustees. In this role, Dr. Kaplan will serve as the 40th Board Chair in the history of the hospital.

The Graduate School will host its campus-wide New Graduate Student Orientation on Monday, August 20, 2018, at 9:30 a.m.—12:00 noon, in the Grand and Colony Ballrooms of the Stamp Student Union. The orientation will be followed by an outdoor BBQ from 12:00 Noon—1:00 p.m. on McKeldin Mall for new graduate students who attend the orientation.  Registration is required. For additional information and to register, visit http://gradschool.umd.edu/orientation.

Doctoral student Sarah (Gussie) MacCracken has been awarded one of five Big 10 Academic/Smithsonian Institution Fellowships for the 2018-19 academic year. This one-year fellowship is offered by the graduate deans of the Big 10 Academic Alliance in partnership with the Smithsonian’s Office of Fellowships and Internships to support research conducted in residence in Smithsonian Institution facilities.

There is a saying in Ecuador that says 'Quien a buen árbol se arrima Buena sombra lo cobija' - if you lean on a good tree you will be protected by a good shadow. For new graduate Viviana Cordero (’18 MA, Higher Education), a master’s degree is confirmation that familismo, the closeness of family ties, produces excellence.

Thanks to native architects Vayden McMorris, Wilson Chong, Verma Panton, Victor Patterson, Mostyn Campbell, Handel Lawson, Herbert Robinson, Rupert Bond, and Herbert Bradford, Jamaican architecture has experienced a resurgence over the last 60 years. Verma Paton also has the distinction of being one of the first female architects in the Caribbean.