Graduate School

Naval Academy seniors have taken two of the 20 slots on USA Today's 18th annual All-USA Academic Team. Sean A. Genis and Christopher L. Marsh, both of Western Pennsylvania, were honored for their grades, leadership and extracurricular activities. The contest began with applications from about 600 students nominated by their schools, said program coordinator Tracey Wong Briggs. This is the third year in a row that the Naval Academy has had two students make the list. It is the only school to place more than one student on the list.

Alison Gaylin, author of the mystery thriller Trashed, proves not only that you can go home again, but also that you can return a success. Gaylin says Trashed involves a tabloid reporter who covers a grisly series of celebrity murders in Hollywood. Along the way, the reporter winds up solving the crime and becoming a target herself. Gaylin, who also works as a freelance writer for In Touch Weekly, lives in Woodstock, N.Y., with her filmmaker husband, Mike Gaylin, and daughter, Marissa.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A group of entrepreneurs with a lofty idea for a graduate school that emphasizes personal growth, not career training, has won a license to start a college from scratch.Connecticut officials have authorized the group to proceed with plans for an unusual institution that will operate in real classrooms and through computer hookups.The Graduate Institute -- offering master's degrees in areas such as "holistic thinking," "conscious evolution" and "experiential health and healing" -- is believed to be the only school of its kind in the nation.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- For 16-year-old Ivan Najman, this is the year bombs replaced books, history came to life and summer vacation seemed to drag on forever.When NATO went to war against Yugoslavia, Ivan and tens of thousands of other young people found themselves living what might be called a student dream -- no more school.Yet after seven weeks of sitting at home, watching television and playing soccer with only a few neighborhood friends, Ivan yearns to attend classes.School is out for summer.

The NCAA yesterday announced dozens of proposed reforms designed to clean up college basketball. Linking scholarship allotments to graduation rates and lessening the importance of AAU tournaments in the recruiting process were among the recommendations of a 27-person committee, which spent 10 months studying the game and its ills.Some of the committee's recommendations could become NCAA rules as early as the 2000-2001 school year."We asked these folks to be `practical idealists,' " said Kenneth Shaw, the Syracuse chancellor who chaired the Division I Working Group to Study Basketball Issues.

Jonathan Slade, a Western Maryland College graduate and independent filmmaker, had every intention of showing his first feature-length film, "Forest for the Trees," at the recent Sundance Film Festival, even though the work had been rejected by organizers.Although he brought a projector along, he never got up the nerve to show his film at the prestigious festival in Utah. But he will show it at 7: 30 p.m. today at a Western Maryland College Honors Program lecture in Alumni Hall."Forest for the Trees" was produced on a $26,000 budget, financed by two of Slade's credit cards.

MARYLAND has made more progress than virtually any other Southern state in expanding opportunities in higher education for African-American students. State leaders are committed to developing a comprehensive plan that provides opportunities and ensures academic excellence for all students.Maryland's emphasis on accountability in our schools has resulted in more students from all backgrounds getting the quality education they need for success in college and the workplace. And the state's scholarship programs have created a pathway to higher education for more of our young people.

Peter Lorenzi remembers when a blackboard and dusty nub of chalk where the only tools a teacher needed. Those days are quickly fading.When the dean of Loyola College's graduate school of business steps into his classroom these days, he can brush a small touch-screen panel with his finger and dim the lights, jolt the videocassette recorder to life, call up a Web page on a giant projection screen or cut to a television show.When Lorenzi lectures, he no longer has to turn around to read from the blackboard.

THE UNIVERSITY of Maryland University College has announced that James J. Flyzik of Clarksville has received the 1998 Stanley J. Drazek Teaching Excellence Award.Flyzik has taught in the Graduate School of Management and Technology since 1989.According to the awards committee, Flyzik's students have been impressed by their instructor's use of real-world scenarios to illustrate the material he presents. They have praised Flyzik as a first-rate teacher.Flyzik is the deputy assistant secretary for information systems and chief information officer at the U.S. Treasury Department.

THE UNIVERSITY of Maryland Alumni Association presented its annual Outstanding Young Alumni Award this year to Brian Le Gette, formerly of Severna Park.The 32-year-old owns a business in Fells Point where he and his partners design, package and promote tools, toys and housewares costing less than $50.The son of Rita and Jim Le Gette of Chartwell, he graduated from Maryland in 1989 with a degree in electrical engineering.Now a resident of Fells Point, he had jobs earlier with IBM and Texas Instruments.

ALEXANDER HEARD, 92 Education adviser for 3 presidents Alexander Heard, the chancellor of Vanderbilt University in the 1960s and 1970s and an education adviser under three U.S. presidents, died Friday. He was 92. The university said Heard died at home after a long illness. As head of the private university in Nashville, Tenn., Heard helped guide it through turbulent political conflicts that struck many other schools. He defended students who organized a slate of speakers that included Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokely Carmichael, a supporter of black power.

WASHINGTON - In what could be an encouraging sign of change in America's long-standing shortage of graduates prepared for high-tech careers, the hottest subject on college campuses across the nation right now seems to be renewable energy - a surge of interest driven largely by the specter of global warming. Concern about climate change is apparently galvanizing more students to turn toward a subject involving science and engineering, educators suggest, in much the way that Moscow's launching of the Sputnik satellite jolted baby boomers to turn their eyes to the stars.

Thousands of seniors graduating from Maryland colleges this spring will be guaranteed the right to stay on their parents' health insurance until they turn 25, thanks to a law that went into effect this year. In the past, many lost coverage when they finished their studies, making the group - especially those who attend graduate school - among the most likely in the country to lack insurance, according to studies of the issue. "I know this will help a lot of students, including me, especially considering how expensive health insurance has become," said Jenny Haley, 21, a political science and economics major from Towson University who will begin graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University in the fall.

Alison Gaylin, author of the mystery thriller Trashed, proves not only that you can go home again, but also that you can return a success. Gaylin says Trashed involves a tabloid reporter who covers a grisly series of celebrity murders in Hollywood. Along the way, the reporter winds up solving the crime and becoming a target herself. Gaylin, who also works as a freelance writer for In Touch Weekly, lives in Woodstock, N.Y., with her filmmaker husband, Mike Gaylin, and daughter, Marissa.

In an era when women were generally not accepted in the workplace or higher education, several Baltimore women defied the odds and changed the course of medical history. The year was 1893. Mary Elizabeth Garrett, M. Carey Thomas, Mary Gwinn, Julia Rogers and Elizabeth King knew that the board of trustees of the Johns Hopkins University was having trouble getting the money together to open a school of medicine. The four doctors who were going to start the school were receiving offers from other universities and were getting antsy.

Naval Academy seniors have taken two of the 20 slots on USA Today's 18th annual All-USA Academic Team. Sean A. Genis and Christopher L. Marsh, both of Western Pennsylvania, were honored for their grades, leadership and extracurricular activities. The contest began with applications from about 600 students nominated by their schools, said program coordinator Tracey Wong Briggs. This is the third year in a row that the Naval Academy has had two students make the list. It is the only school to place more than one student on the list.

A devotion to saving 15 percent of pay, a small inheritance and some investment prowess helped Eleanor and Mark Easterlin build a seven-figure portfolio on one military income. And now that Mark Easterlin, 49, has retired from his U.S. Navy career, he has landed a great job with a private military contractor that will bring the couple's annual income to $100,700, including his Navy pension. Despite all that, uncertainty knocks. His new job is financed through a military contract that could end suddenly, and his specialty - military linguistics - could be difficult to translate to the private sector because he lacks an advanced degree.

Like many single parents, Ashby Alexander struggles to balance the financial priorities in his life. He has helped a daughter, Brooke, 25, through college and part of graduate school and wants to do the same for his 10-year-old son, Jordan. "I'm a proud father, and their schooling is paramount to me," the 45-year-old Hampton, Va., resident wrote in a letter requesting a Money Makeover. But there are other priorities: Alexander needs to pick up the pace on his retirement savings, pay off a second mortgage and cut down on overspending.

Editor's note: Marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Workers column offers the last of three accounts from Maryland-based employees who volunteered to respond to the Gulf Coast. Angel Hebert and her husband, Dr. Chad Nelson of Ellicott City have worked for the federal government since graduate school - Hebert eventually landed at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Nelson at the Food and Drug Administration. Acquaintances since age 12, both came from New Orleans to Maryland for graduate school.

AUniversity of Baltimore student was observed asleep last week inside the school's brand-new student center. It thrilled the school's president: Until the spiffy $20 million building was dedicated a week ago, the upper-division and graduate school's students - all commuters, many working and attending parttime - had no place to catnap other than their cars. The center reflects big changes at the often-overlooked school. For the first time in decades, UB will be admitting freshmen and sophomores in the fall of 2007 - part of plans to increase enrollment from about 5,000 to about 7,000 students over the next few years.