An alliance between the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park provides an opportunity for UMCP students to conduct important research alongside UMB faculty.
It’s amazing what you can grow in 10 years. In its decade of operation at the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON), the UM Scholars program has expanded from two students and two faculty mentors to 12 students placed with seven mentors. This year’s scholars are among 35 who have participated since 2016, including 32 of whom have matriculated to UMSON.
These are numbers that tell a story of a successful collaboration, part of the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State. This alliance between the state’s two most powerful public research institutions — the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) — provides a summer opportunity for UMCP students to conduct important research alongside UMB faculty.
Now more than ever, bolstering the conduit of early-career researchers is critical, paving the way for continuity and developing expertise.
On July 31, UMSON celebrated the dozen UM Scholars who conducted nursing research during this year’s program, as they presented their findings, which included background, results, purpose and aim, methods, discussion and steps, acknowledgments, and references.
“Once I became a bedside nurse, I became very aware of the need to do research when I was working in the NICU,” said Yolanda Ogbolu, PhD ’11, MS ’05, BSN ’04, NNP, FNAP, FAAN, the Bill and Joanne Conway Dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing and professor, during her opening remarks. “I wondered why babies who looked like me were more likely to die before they reached their first birthday. There are deep factors within our communities that often drive those outcomes. It took me on a wonderful path, but we can’t understand the drivers of poor health outcomes if we don’t do research, if we don’t have people who are curious like you.”