Freeman Ballin

Interesting Note....

According to the Thomas B. Fordham Institute- there has been "speculation" that Obama is considering President Freeman Hrabowski  (of UMBC) as US Secretary of Education based on the thoughts of the Washington insiders. Currently Hrabowski is making much more money than he would under Obama-- but if he was chosen it would definitely be a booster on his resume :) While Hrabowski is way down on the list (number 7 in the polls) -- he is the only one on the list from higher education. According to US Newsweek, Hrabowski has been acknowledged as one of the America's Best Leaders of 2008. 

A fat, nerdy African-American kid with a funny name-Freeman Hrabowksi III grew up in a small segregated town in Alabama. He was a always known as the "smart boy" who was selling in to be white because he studied much more than the other young African-American boys. By the time he was 12, Hrabowksi was enrolled in the 9th grade -- and by the time he was 24 he had earned his PHD in education and statistics. Shortly after he was able to take on the presidency of the no-name commuter school, not knowing what type of impact he would have. 

I think the biggest factor H is recognized for is the risk he took when he was deciding what direction he should take the school in. Instead of using his funding to create a football team (which they were sponsored for), he used that money to provide more scholarships for students (on a side note umbc provides ridiculous scholarships.. most of my friends have received some sort of money one way or another..thats how they attract so many really really smart kids to come here- even if they werent planning on it at all) and invest in a nationally recognized chess team (most of the players which are recruited from Eastern Europe). H feels America is lacking and falling behind in math and sciences compared to other countries around the world-- so he had dedicated most of his time to push the students in this area. 

Umbc is def a big time science school. According to Yale Medical School, they first accept their largest pool of undergraduate students from their institution, and their second largest pool of undergraduate students from umbc (this is as of 2-3 years ago Im not exactly sure about right now). All of this, is because of the crazy Meyerhoff Program. Basically its the program that is the "treasure" of umbc; the Meyerhoff students are treated like gold. It is extremely difficult to get accepted into the program, but once your in your set up with all the hookups in the school (including access to old exams that only meyerhoffs can use-which has caused much controversy among the science students). In the last 20 years its graduated 600 students in science, 69 of whom have gone to earn MD or doctoral degrees. Fourty-three percent of the 1900 diplomas handed out this June were for math, science and engineering. 

Since 1985, the number of science majors (for white people) have doubled and the number of science majors (for African-Americans) have multiplied by 7!  H is doing exactly what he set out to do. His major focus was to encourage young black males to join the Meyerhoff program and give them an opportunity to excel. 

From the stories Ive heard its not exactly easy to be a Meyerhoff. First summer of your senior year they give you a dorm and youre forced to live on campus for 6 weeks straight. you cant make any phone calls during the day (only at night once all your work has been completed- ridiculous right?). Im not sure if the rule is that you cant own tvs in the dorms or you can only watch it during the weekends.. but anyway you spend 5 days a week taking extensive math and science courses to prep for the upcoming school year. you are expected to get excellent grades in your classes... and if you get anything lower than a B you are highly "encouraged" to retake it. At the same time they do have their perks, the president funds for the meyerhoffs to have dinners and picnics and fun activities for the people to "bond". In my opinion they almost seem like a co-ed fraternity at times... they stick very closely together. Funny thing is I was chosen to apply to the Meyerhoff program when i was senior and high school.. it was always completely out of the question.. and im happy i didnt. 

Blogging two days in a row? Go me =)