During her term as associate dean of academic affairs, Professor Madlen Simon saw first hand the financial challenges that students navigate on their path to a college degree. But it was a routine phone call in 2020 to a student who hadn’t registered for classes that demonstrated just how quickly they can lose their footing.
Simon was able to leverage administrative measures to keep the student in school—but the experience brought the impact of financial instability into sharp relief.
“It was jarring to see how just one event can be the difference between becoming an architect with a great future to leaving school without a degree and with a huge pile of debt,” she said.
An educator most of her career, Simon—who has taught architecture at the University of Maryland since 2006—has always gauged her success as a mentor and teacher by the success of her students; she relishes in their victories in studio and later, in professional life, often cheers from the sidelines at award ceremonies and when they return to campus for alumni talks. When she began contemplating retirement and the legacy she would leave behind, she reflected on that phone call—and saw an opportunity to continue giving back to students long after she stopped teaching.
The Madlen Simon Endowed Scholarship in Architecture is the first need-based academic scholarship in the school’s history created by a faculty member to support undergraduate students pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture. The scholarship was specifically designed so that recipients in good academic standing will continue to receive scholarship support for the duration of their college experience. The first scholarship will be awarded in 2027.
Simon, who retires this May, says the scholarship is a way to pay forward her own success, but also keep connected with the school; she plans to meet each of her scholarship recipients. Mostly, she says, she hopes her gift will give students the ability to think big—both as designers, and about their future.
“I think that students go into architecture because they’re inspired to make the world a better place,” she said. “And it’s such a hopeful and optimistic spirit. I certainly want to foster that.”