When she was a senior at Patuxent High School, Oluwaseyi Kintunde was not planning to attend College of Southern Maryland. She had intended to leave the region for a four-year university and play on the school’s volleyball team. A fall during her Senior Night volleyball game changed those plans.
“I had an ankle injury and had to stay in the county because of the surgeries,” Kintunde said. Her serious injuries included torn ligaments, which keep her off the volleyball court even two years later. “I’m still healing.”
Despite that initial setback, the Lusby resident has found great success at CSM. She graduated May 24, with her associate’s degree of Applied Science in Technology.
During her time at CSM, the 20-year-old found many ways to learn beyond the classroom. She worked in the advising center at the Prince Frederick Campus, and was elected president of the campus’s Student Association. Because of that involvement, Kintunde had a much richer college experience.
“Being in the clubs helped me make new friends, so I wasn’t just going to school in the morning and leaving at night,” she said. She also was able to make friends at the other campuses and get a feel for others’ experiences at the college. Most importantly, the extra involvement gave Kintunde a chance to learn major life skills.
“Being part of the clubs helped me realize the importance of not only leadership, but also being able to follow and listen to other people,” she said. Her next move is to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she will study pre-med and plans to become an anesthesiologist. While at CSM, she was a Presidential Scholar, an elite collegiate program for high-achieving students in Calvert County. The program covers 25 percent of tuition in a student’s freshman year and 50 percent in the sophomore year.
Kintunde knows that her classes will be much larger at UMBC, but feels she is ready for it. While at CSM, she was able to take advantage of the small class sizes for courses like Organic Chemistry, which she said was the most challenging one she took at CSM. In that class, she was able to find help from her classmates. “When I had issues, I was able to talk to other students about it. A lot of us got really close.”
As she heads to UMBC, Kintunde hopes to continue to benefit from the life lessons she learned at CSM. “I want to be more social, which will be more challenging because of the bigger campus, but that’s fine by me,” she said. “I want to get to know my professors on a good level, and I hope to find that camaraderie with them.”
She found camaraderie with several professors at CSM, especially, she said, Dr. Melanie Osterhouse, who taught Human Anatomy 2070 and 2080. Osterhouse might be considered Kintunde’s favorite professor, she said, because the professor was willing to tailor lessons to the students’ needs. “She took time to help her students even beyond her office hours, and she took the lessons beyond the book, to make it as practical as possible.”
CSM Presidential Scholars Program
Applicants to the CSM Presidential Scholars Program must be a resident of Calvert County, ranked in the top 15 percent of his or her graduating high school class, take the majority of their CSM classes on the Prince Frederick Campus, have demonstrated college readiness through a certain level of SAT or ACT scores, file a FAFSA and be a full-time CSM student.
To apply, a student needs to fill out an online application, submit high school transcripts and SAT or ACT scores, write a one-page essay and submit a letter of recommendation from a teacher or counselor.
Scholarship support for the Presidential Scholars Program is provided by the Florence B. Trueman Scholarship Fund of Calvert County. At this time, the program is only available at CSM’s Prince Frederick Campus.
For a full listing of guaranteed transfer agreements for Presidential Scholars to more than 50 partnering universities, visit www.csmd.edu/guaranteedtransfer. For more about the program, visit www.csmd.edu/presidentialscholars.