Arthur and Marianne Schneider Scholarship Fund

Patrick started at UMD this past spring semester after a long stretch of time out of college. He has held a wide range of jobs, including working as a wildland firefighter. At the University of Maryland, he is studying English and Spanish.

Ryan has been a TA three times throughout undergraduate studies. Ryan has also interned for the Department of State Global Women's Issues Office. He is also involved with demonstrations around campus and is committed to being a voice for peace and equity. He is researching graduate programs in Medical Anthropology with a focus on transgender studies.

Having moved to the US from Japan at a young age, Takuya Kameyama had the opportunity of being exposed to a secondary language early on in life. Since then, his curiosity in languages has led him to learn Arabic and is now pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics at University of Maryland at College Park (UMD). Takuya Kameyama has lived in Maryland since 2017 and is excited to start his Senior year at UMD in the fall of 2023.

Andy Calderon was born and raised in New York City, New York to his mother, Olga and father James. After completing his high school education, Andy knew he wanted to join the service and the United States Marine Corps was his calling. He left for boot camp on Aug 23, 2010. After all of his indoctrinal training, Andy was stationed on Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Here, he was one of the first to be a part of the standup of 2nd Law Enforcement Battalion and deployed to Sanaa, Yemen as a designated marksman providing overwatch protection at the United States Embassy in 2013. Upon his return, Andy was accepted to the security company at HMX-1 which is the Presidential Helicopter Squadron aboard MCB Quantico where he received the Presidential Service Badge. From there, Andy was hand selected to be one of the first Marines to be on the Secretary of the Navy's personal security team where he provided close in support to the SECNAV, his family, and staff on all official duties around the world. From there Andy was accepted to the Marine Corps Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program (MECEP) which afforded him the opportunity to obtain his degree and commission as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Luis Perez De Leon is a four year veteran of the US Marine Corps who is majoring in Civil Engineering at the University of Maryland. A first generation student originally from Guatemala, Luis received an Associates degree from Northern Virginia Community College before coming to Maryland. Luis will return to the Marine Corps as an officer as part of their Enlisted Commissioning program.

Diego Velazquez is originally from Mexico City, Mexico. He immigrated to the United States in the summer of 2000 at the age of 7. Immediately after graduating high school he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he served for 4 years on active duty as a warehouse chief. During his enlistment, Diego was stationed in Camp Pendleton, California with the 5th Battalion, 11th Marines and was deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2012. He is currently a Junior at the University of Maryland and is majoring in Criminal Justice, he is planning on attending law school upon his graduation. When not busy with his school work, Diego's passion is fitness and spending time with his family.

Joe Seifert is originally from Kansas City, Kansas and joined the Air Force directly out of high school as a Korean Linguist. He spent 13 years on active duty at a variety of assignments and also deployed seven times during his career. He then transitioned to being an Air Force Reservist where he mentors young Airmen while pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering. Joe is passionate about space and has already conducted one internship where he supported ongoing operations and future development of U.S. government space based systems and plans to pursue a career building the next generations of spacecraft in this burgeoning industry.

Brandon Pennington is a ten year veteran of the US Air Force and is now working on his Bachelor's degree in Information Sciences with the intention of declaring Geographic Information Sciences as a second major. He is certified as a linguist in the Urdu language from the Defense Language Institute. Currently, Brandon is the Treasurer for TerpVets. He is part of a long line of service members (both parents included) who were intelligence professionals. He is interested in applying data science to solving problems as he did this summer as an intern for the transportation analysis research center.

Nisa Pottinger is a transfer student majoring in Chinese language. She is a veteran of the United States Navy, where she spent her time as a Gunners mate. She served two back to back deployments in the Pacific and Middle East regions. She hopes to achieve her goal of becoming a Translator or Interpreter through her studies at the University of Maryland.

Bio coming soon.

James Lee Grace Junior is a veteran of the United States Navy Seabees with 6 years on active duty and 2 years in the reserves. He served 2 tours of Afghanistan and 2 tours of Europe. He is a senior studying Civil (Structural) Engineering and is a first generation college student. He is a proud Eagle Scout and still serves as a Scoutmaster! He is a member of the Terp Fishing Team and President of the Society of American Military Engineers.

Juleesa Jolley was born in Fall River MA on Aug. 10, 1988. She was raised in Columbus GA where she attended Central High School. After completing high school she decided to enlist in the US Army where she served honorably from 2008 to 2016 when she was medically discharged. During her time on active duty she was a military policemen and achieved the rank of staff sergeant. She was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from 2011-2012. Juleesa has been awarded six army achievement medals, three army commendation medals, two good conduct medals, two non-commissioned officer, Afghanistan campaign medal, two overseas ribbons, and an ISAF non article 5 medal.

A native of Wisconsin, Aaron is currently a junior majoring in Environmental Technology. While serving 7 years in the Army, Aaron deployed twice to Iraq. Aaron is a past Terp Vets president and is currently working on the Launch campaign raising funds for the new Veterans Crisis Fund. Aaron's father is a Vietnam veteran and his grandfather a WWII veteran with 5 bronze stars. Serving our nation runs in the family for Aaron!