Transform Mid-Atlantic Honors NDMU Professor with Regional Service-Learning Faculty Award

BALTIMORE, Md. – A Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) professor and coordinator of NDMU’s first-year experience course has been named the recipient of a regional service-learning award by Transform Mid-Atlantic (TMA).

Dr. Leslie Korb, associate professor and the department chair for the Business & Economics Department, received the Alan G. Penczek Service-Learning Faculty Award in the category of four-year private colleges and universities. Presented annually by Transform Mid-Atlantic, this prestigious award honors faculty from TMA’s regional member institutions who demonstrate exceptional leadership in connecting academic learning with community engagement. Dr. Korb was recognized for her innovative redesign of NDMU’s first-year experience course, NDMU 100, which helps new students develop the skills needed for college success while also learning the importance of service in the community.

Under Dr. Korb’s leadership, NDMU 100 was transformed into a model of service-learning in action. Students were given options of different opportunities to fulfill their required 10 hours of service. During the fall 2024 semester, 78 freshman built essential academic and life skills—such as goal setting, time management, effective communication, and financial literacy. In the spring, they applied those lessons by designing and teaching 15-minute interactive sessions to middle school students from Tunbridge Public Charter School and Walter P. Carter Middle School, both located along Baltimore’s York Road corridor. The service project took place on the NDMU campus, involving students from the two middle schools, over two days in April 2025.