UMGC Global Media Center Author: Sarah Berner Nelson

Mussarat Arif, an Afghan immigrant who received her Master of Business Administration from University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) this spring, is the first woman in her entire extended family to earn a graduate degree.

Nearly 2,000 graduates converged on the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center from May 11-14 to receive associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, at UMGC's Spring 2023 Grad Walk. Some 13,000 family members and friends turned up to help celebrate their achievement.

UMGC and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) signed a transfer agreement that will guarantee admission to UMGC for NOVA students.

In 2021 when Ashleigh Paylor moved to Hawaii from the East Coast, she not only had to adjust to a new state with her young family, but she also had to build in a six-hour time difference for submitting her UMGC homework. She persevered and earned a degree in criminal justice.

UMGC’s cybersecurity competition team advanced to the final round of Hack the Building 2.0, a virtual competition sponsored by MISI. UMGC will compete in the Hack the Building 2.0: Hospital Edition, which will be held at the DreamPort technology facility in Columbia, Maryland, from Sept. 18-22.

Nigerian immigrant Adisa Ayegbajeje, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from UMGC, never envisioned a career in healthcare. For most of his adult life in Nigeria, Ayegbajeje worked as a fashion designer. He was doing well until a series of events, notably an economic downturn, impelled him to emigrate to the U.S. in 2002.