Higher Education : Featured Stories

Articles on food, startups, local celebs, design and solutions for urban blight were among readers' favorites in 2011. Take a look to see what stories made the cut.

Education is often bandied about among those jockeying for political position as a vague notion in need of improvement. It's a quick, easy soundbite on which almost everyone can readily agree. But what does improvement look like, and how do we find it? One place to start looking is Fells Point's Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, where low income students are beating the odds every day.

The video game industry may not be Maryland's equivalent of film in Los Angeles or country music in Nashville, but it is a force. Companies such as Zynga, Firaxis, Big Huge Games, and Day 1 Studios are all based here and are responsible for some of the industry's most interesting titles. We're also lucky to have a robust gaming program at UMBC, where students on the creative and technical ends of the game creation process learn side-by-side how to conceptualize and create the games of tomorrow.

When the University of Maryland steered away from traditional models and created the Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS) plenty of folks said it would never work. Today -- nearly 20 years and some 900 field placements later -- the school is still busy making a difference in communities across Baltimore.

The notion of "wash and wear electronics" might seem futuristic, perhaps a bit odd. Maybe it's both, but it's also alive and well here in Baltimore thanks to a joint teaching effort between MICA and Johns Hopkins. We went inside the Collaborative Smart Textiles Research Lab to find out what it means and how it works.

As the world becomes ever more mechanized -- and, sure, convenient -- some folks stop to wonder if we might be losing something in the process. Meet Kyle Van Horn, proprietor of Baltimore's first full-scale, public access print studio.

It's that back-to-school time of year with colleges and universities around the city welcoming the class of 2014. It's hard enough for new students to find their way around campus, much less around a new city. So, we've come up with a guide that'll help the newbies -- and even returning students -- get around town to grab a bite or have some fun.