Undergraduate Scholars Receive Awards

For the past 21 years, the University of Maryland has celebrated four students in the College Park Scholars (CPS) program who have earned the Scholars Citation and who exemplify the best in Academic Achievement and Citizenship during their two-year program. There are 12 unique CPS programs and the Robert H. School of Business sponsors one of them - the Business, Society and the Economy program (BSE). The awardees from all 12 programs were honored at the Citation Ceremony held on Oct. 13, 2017. Faculty, staff, family, and friends filled the Cambridge Community Center to celebrate with the students and Mark Wellman, BSE director and clinical professor of management and organization at Smith.

Congratulations to the BSE awardees:

• For Outstanding Academic Achievement: Steven Ramsburg (Accounting & Finance) and Kristin Woo (Marketing & Supply Chain)
• For Outstanding Citizenship: Avani Katta (Finance & Real Estate Development & Sustainability) Shannon Zhang (Finance & Information Systems)

College Park Scholars is a by-invitation-only program for freshmen and sophomores which results in an annual cohort of approximately 1,000 accomplished, well-rounded and determined undergraduates. This year, nearly 70 freshmen choose to be in BSE – one of the few programs who will only accept a student if BSE is their first choice.

Claudia Donnelly, BSE’s assistant director and program manager of the Smith School’s undergraduate program, said choosing only four recipients for the awards is always a difficult task – there are usually about 70 worthy BSE students each year who earn the Citation for successful completion of the two-year program. The Scholars Citation is an academic distinction and formal acknowledgment of completion of the academic and community-based requirements in the living-learning program. The Citation is a permanent notation on a student’s transcript and students earn the honor of wearing a gold Scholars Medallion at Commencement.

Field trips, guest speakers, global courses, and an assortment of other experiential learning opportunities are the hallmark of the BSE Program. The four BSE awardees have been active participants – and continue to return to the program to help guide and inspire their younger colleagues. Katta, Zhang and Ramsburg are just three of the BSE students who have already joined Wellman on one of his study abroad short-term courses. To date, Wellman has led over 1,000 undergraduates to the United Arab Emirates, Australia and New Zealand and is returning with students this winter break for a course exploring several countries in Southeast Asia. Most of the student participants are current or former BSE students.

With an impressive 4.0 GPA, Woo was an easy choice to receive the Academic Achievement Award. She is a member of the Strategic Design & Innovation Fellows program and the marketing chair of the UMD Accounting and Business Association, where she develops graphic design content and manages social media accounts. This past winter, Woo fulfilled her Scholars Capstone requirement by being a marketing intern at Best Academy, where she conducted a market research project and helped the company improve their pricing strategy. Next summer, she will be interning at Grant Thornton in their advisory department for government clients.

To find out more, visit the College Park Scholars website.

- Claudia Donnelly, Smith Undergraduate Program