AfriThrive, founded by Truphena Choti Ph.D. ’09 and her husband, Charles Choti, grows indigenous African vegetables on multiple farms and gardens in Maryland and has distributed 2.5 million pounds of food to more than 50,000 families in Montgomery, Baltimore and Prince George’s counties, as well as Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Programs that address food insecurity through campuswide collaborations, promote sustainability through experiential projects, and mobilize student social impact projects on inclusive education are among UMD’s six inaugural Do Good Campus Signature Initiatives.
Dan Ortiz Leizman MFA ’24 turns lightweight, molded plastic chairs into works (and instruments) of art. The UMD art instructor creates something fleeting—live music—out of these undegradable hunks of plastic by outfitting them with strings and playing songs on the resulting instruments.
