Taking on Grand Challenges

University of Maryland classroom joins forces with students from Uganda Martyrs University by way of a teleconferenced global charrette—a collaborative design challenge—to create architectural plans for each other’s communities and design across cultural divides.

As SPH doctoral student Ibiyinka Amokeodo listened to Tanzanian farmers’ worries about the safety of the water they use on their crops and in their homes. She had her lightbulb moment: Aquasafe. The project supports farmers by providing affordable water testing kits and education on water quality management, including how to improve crop safety and local public health through monitoring contamination in irrigation water.

Jody Olsen Ph.D. ’79 reflects on her six decade career in the Peace Corps. Olsen reflects on how the Peace Corps changed the way she views the world and herself, the commonalities she discovered across vastly different cultures, and how building relationships grounded in trust and respect can change communities and save lives.

Dennis Kivlighan, professor at the University of Maryland College of Education, will study how attitudes toward group counseling vary across the globe and whether group therapy models can be translated across different cultures. The team will also examine how group composition and cohesion influence group therapy’s effectiveness and what characteristics make for stronger, more efficient results.

Six Global STEWARDS Fellows to visit Tanzania, hailing from across UMD and bringing diverse expertise to the pressing and interrelated issues of food, energy and water (FEW) in a changing climate. The fellows travelled to Tanzania to engage, learn and share knowledge with local partners, farmers and researchers who are working towards sustainable solutions.

Dr. Buse Gonul, visiting Fulbright scholar from Türkiye (Turkey), shares her work as a developmental science scholar, exploring young adults’ perceptions about peers with different social class backgrounds.

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 3, 2024 — The University of Maryland has awarded nonresidential fellowships to two distinguished Ukrainian scholars, through the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Nonresidential Scholars Program, supporting critical research projects focused on “Preservation and Restoration” in the context of Ukraine's ongoing conflict with Russia.

Stacy Kosko shares her story as a founding faculty member of Maryland Global’s Global Classrooms program.

Past and present Fulbright scholars share their work visiting UMD, going abroad.

Visiting Fulbright scholar Sylwia Kuzma-Markowska shares her experience as a historian exploring the anti-abortion movement in Poland during the 1970s-90s.