Before coming to The University of Baltimore in 2022 to study criminal justice, Desja Wilson, B.S. ’25, CERT ’25, was unsure of how she would pay her school tuition. She had not received the financial or academic support she needed from the other schools she had attended. But all of that changed when she was awarded the Bob Parsons Scholarship at UBalt. “It was the first time I felt like I was qualified for funding,” she said.
"Thank you! I truly appreciate you for seeing me and pouring into me. My education means the world to me, and I know that knowledge is something that can never be taken away."
Thanks to the scholarship, Desja was able to give her studies the attention they deserved. She dove into her program, studying for her classes, conducting lab work and learning about an underappreciated aspect of criminal justice: community engagement.
“Public safety and public service still fall under criminal justice,” she explained to me. So, while enrolled, she was able to learn about policy and legal decisions, which are vital to the community work she does. “I want to understand why things happen. I enjoy going to Annapolis and sitting in on the hearings and understanding the different laws and viewpoints.”
Desja’s scholarship did more than enable her academic career, it supported her professional career, too. Before enrolling at UBalt, Desja was working three jobs to make ends meet. With the University’s financial support, she was able to trade her three jobs for one and joined B-360, a nonprofit in the city that leverages dirt bike culture to break cycles of poverty by promoting careers in STEM to Baltimore youth.
Since joining the organization in fall 2022, she has played a big role in its success, using the professional skills she honed in her degree program to demonstrate how a UBalt education can help organizations grow and thrive through civic engagement. In fact, this semester, Desja has connected B-360 with UBalt's Simulation and Game Design program to collaborate in support of one of the University’s many service-learning programs.
Students in Professor Elka Cahn’s Community-Focused Game Design course are working
with B-360 to build a game focused on solving a problem for their constituents. In
this instance, the collaborators are creating a culturally relevant game that will
accurately represent the nonprofit’s role in the community and showcase its mission
and goals by sharing lessons that focus on topics like rider safety and STEM skill
development. This new partnership helps Desja bring her community work right back
to where it all started, inside classrooms at the University of Baltimore.
Like many other UBalt alumni, Desja’s journey hasn’t always been linear, and she’s grateful for the help she got from the University. “The University of Baltimore doesn’t want people to fail. They want everybody to finish their degree programs.” Receiving the Bob Parsons Scholarship “was an eye-opener" for her. “I had support in ways that I’ve never had before, and it allowed me to keep going.”
"I wanted to go to a school that has a mission to support their students in a full capacity. Donors like you made that possible. Once again, thank you for inspiring me to continue to reach beyond the stars. Your generosity makes the world go around."
Thanks to her hard work and support from UBalt donors, Desja has come a long way from that first semester, and she has much to be proud of. From graduating this past spring with her degree and a certificate, to completing two years in Governor Moore’s Year of Service Program, to working her way up the ranks at B-360, she has grown a lot. And there's still more she wants to do.
Inspired by UBalt’s support during her time as a scholarship student, she says, “I don’t have to stop at my bachelor’s. I want my doctorate. I might be the mayor one day.”
For now, though, Desja plans to continue working in the community with B-360 and to apply to the master’s program in public administration at the College of Public Affairs “I just want to make an impact,” she says. With the momentum she’s built these past few years, she’ll have no trouble at all.