2002 Ethnic Minority Achievement Awards Recipients

Photo by Cynthia Mitchel

From left, Dr. Lee Thornton, Chairperson; Professor Ben Holman, Journalism; Norman Pruitt, Director of Human Resources, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Ms. Deanna Maria Costa, Graduate Student; Ms. Marie Osafo, Administrative Assistant, Office of Human Relations Programs; Mr. Kyle Russell, Electrical Engineering Major; and (front) Ms. Carolina Rojas Bahr, Assistant Director and Coordiantor of Academic Enrichment Programs for OMSE.


Kyle Russell
Undergraduate Student

Kyle is a recipient of the Banneker/Key full-merit scholarship and is an active student in the university honors program. As an honors student, he serves as executive member-at-large of the black honors caucus. Kyle has provided tremendous leadership to the honors community as a mentor to younger students of color. He has been a consistent volunteer for Black and Latino recruitment efforts. He has participated several times in the phone-a-thon to prospective students. He has spoken at open house programs, been the student speaker for the "Visit Maryland Day Program," and met with admitted Black and Latino students for summer orientation programs. He eagerly ferried Maryland student volunteers from campus to local high schools--and back--to help those high school students with the Maryland application process. As an electrical engineering major, Kyle is the pre-college initiative chairperson for the black engineer society. In that role he mentored and tutored middle school and high school students, mostly those of color, and brought them to campus for tours. He also helped to plan a six-week Saturday program with the office for minorities in science and engineer that introduced young people to the field of engineering.


Deanna Marie Costa
Graduate Student

Ms. Costa is a graduate assistant in education programs at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. There, Deanna Maria established arts-based programs designed to improve learning and comprehension among ethnic minority students. One of those programs, called "Learning Through The Arts," has linked College Park Scholars with local elementary schools that have more than 90-percent Latino and African American populations. Another project is linked to a local community center-the Langley Park Center where, Deanna helps those at the center have access to artistic programs. As part of her own master's of fine arts thesis project, Ms. Costa is working with 15 Hispanic girls from Buck Lodge Middle School on ethnic dance. At Clarice Smith, those who know Deanna's work say that her efforts have led to more understanding of the ties that bind us as people.


Marie Osafo
Non-Exempt Employee

Marie Osafo is an administrative assistant in the Office Of Human Relations Programs. She has been instrumental in coordinating all of the support functions for the OHRP's activities over the last 18 months. This was especially the case for the 2000 and 2001 hate crimes summit and for the 2000 racism awareness day activities in which more than two-thousand people took part. She was also instrumental in the 2001-2002 Border Crossing Speaker series and she contributed considerably to the success of the faculty research forum and the Intergroup Dialogues-attended by more than one-thousand faculty members and students in each of the past three years. She's been a participant in OHRP's women of color staff Intergroup Dialogues. Her commitment to equity and the improvement of the racial climate at Maryland can be seen every day in the work that she does-behind the scenes-at OHRP.


Carolina Rojas Bahr
Exempt Employee

Carolina Rojas Bahr came to a meeting of the President's Commission On Ethnic Minority Issues at the request of a group of Latino students who constantly pointed out to the Commission members how extremely important Carolina is to them. She is the "go to" person in many ways for Latino students, and others, on campus. At the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Education, Carolina is coordinator of the academic enhancement program, a series of workshops to bring together representatives of all of the Offices that offer direct services to students at Maryland. She is also founder and coordinator of the "Latin Group", a leadership organization of associate staff and faculty members. She is often invited to participate on panels to examine issues of Latino education. But her favorite and most rewarding activity, she says, is the one-on-one advisory role she assumes with students. One of her primary academic interests is strengthening the academic excellence and leadership capacity of students with a focus on their multi-ethnic and multi-cultural assets. Another academic interest involves issues of education policy for under-represented populations.


Dr. Norman Pruitt
Exempt Employee

Dr. Pruitt was appointed from faculty ranks to the key administrative position of Director of Human Resources Management at the College Of Agriculture And Natural Resources. There he has put together a diverse team of individuals and technology-based tools to implement recruiting and hiring practices that are enabling the college of agriculture and natural resources to increase the diversity of its faculty and staff. He has provided leadership to a practical diversity management concept that forms the basis of AGNR's fledgling diversity initiative. His colleagues say that Dr. Pruitt has a special talent for achieving equity and diversity goals. He has enabled his team to integrate diversity management and compliance into people's work objectives, rather than having those objectives set aside in a special category. Dr. Pruitt is also very active in the greater community, most notably the NAACP's annual youth summit for high school students.


Benjamin F. Holman
Faculty

Ben Holman began his work at Maryland a quarter century ago, after an outstanding career as a print and broadcast journalist. He is a former interim dean of the College of Journalism who has functioned as a behind-the-scenes advisor on matters of race and diversity to the leadership of Maryland at the highest ranks. Recently, Professor Holman's contributions were honored with the Rhonda Williams award from The Black Faculty And Staff Association for his work as a mentor and leader of ethnic minorities both on and off the Maryland campus. As a professor of journalism and a member of the affiliated faculty of the Afro- American Studies Program, Professor Holman has taught courses too numerous to list-but he added to that list courses in "News Media Coverage of Racial Issues," "Sports and Mass Communication," and "The Black Experience In Journalism." His former students include Fox 5's Todd Wallace, and Bonnie Bernstein-the first graduate of Maryland's program to join CBS Sports. A longtime board member of the national Association of Black Journalists, Professor Holman has spoken widely on the press and its coverage of ethnic minorities. Since 1978, Ben Holman has been an inspiration to a generation of students, as well as people of color-and his colleagues-here at Maryland. Among his many contributions over the years is his service as the long-time chair of the editorial board of The Faculty Voice here at Maryland.

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