by Mary Medland

As these up-and-comers demonstrate, the University of Baltimore sends its grads out into the world armed with the skills and the drive they need to get ahead in the workplace. Here, we profile a few who are quickly making a name for themselves—even before turning 30.

Adam Ruther, J.D. ’07

Adam Ruther, an assistant state’s attorney for Montgomery County District Court, faces a fast-paced schedule nearly every day. He typically tries two to four trials, usually before a judge, every week. “I handle the lower-level felonies, low-level burglaries and low-level sexual assaults,” Ruther says. “I figure out which cases to drop because of a lack of evidence, which ones will most likely take a plea bargain and which ones will be continued. I have a fantastic boss and a great team.”

And in August, Ruther will serve as co-chair for the prosecution on a case of attempted murder—a career first that he eagerly anticipates.

The job involves challenges as well as great responsibilities, he says. Leading the list is making the right decision as to those cases to prosecute and those to let go. “Prosecutors by and large are given extraordinary responsibility right out of law school,” Ruther says. “The authority to decide whether a prosecution will go forward is up to the prosecutor.

“If I decide not to continue with a case, there can be serious consequences for the community.”

Ruther is quick to praise his UB moot court competition experience. “I learned how to present an argument in an intelligent way and how to behave in court. … Not a day goes by that I don’t walk into a courtroom and remember how grateful I am to have had such an experience,” he says.

“Any success that I have isn’t all that extraordinary,” he adds. “I just got lucky.”

Stephanie Kinnear, B.S. ’06

Equipped with a degree in simulation and digital entertainment, Stephanie Kinnear landed a job as a production coordinator with Big Huge Games, a 10-year-old computer game developer based in Baltimore County.

“What I do as production coordinator is track the progress of the game, help organize company events and generally help out wherever I’m needed,” she says. “I help keep track of the designers, programmers and artists to make sure that things are on time and that everything will be finished by the deadline.”

For those not into computer games, Big Huge Games is a force to be reckoned with: Its Rise of Nations was named GameSpot’s Best PC Strategy Game of 2003.

Kinnear, who had “messed around with multimedia courses” at CCBC, Essex, discovered her interest in gaming after transferring to UB. “I got into animation and really loved it, so I ended up getting my degree in this brand-new simulation and digital entertainment major,” she continues. “We had to make our own game during the last semester. It was really fun to see the different roles the people on my team played.”

The students also had to present their games to a group of industry professionals. For Kinnear, this opportunity gave her a chance to learn what it would be like to actually pitch a game idea, a skill that is important to those working at Big Huge Games.

“People who work at Big Huge Games are really passionate about what they do. … It is wonderful to work with people who really want to be at this company,” she notes.

Sam Ricks, M.A. ’09

Sam Ricks completed his undergraduate degree in political science at Brigham Young University and came east to earn his M.A. in Publications Design at UB before launching himself as a freelance illustrator. While those degrees might seem rather counterintuitive, Ricks points out that Bill Watterson earned a political science degree before launching his syndicated cartoon, Calvin and Hobbes.

Today, Ricks—who hails from Winslow, Ariz., a town not much of anyone had heard of until it made its way into the lyrics of the Eagles’ “Take It Easy”—is hard at work in his chosen profession. He creates the shapes in his illustrations in two ways: one is entirely digital through the use of Adobe’s Illustrator software, and the other involves the traditional pen-and-ink sketches that he does by hand before scanning them into Photoshop and coloring them on the computer.

“I really like quirky types of designs and making things look funky, rather than traditional styles of illustration,” he says.

Now based in Salt Lake City, Ricks is teaching at Provo College, a local community college, and doing illustrations for the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints’ publications, as well as illustrating books written by others. “I enjoy taking a story that someone else has created and putting my own spin on it through the illustrations,” he says. “I’m able to add my own flavor to the book.”

And the best part of what he does? “Having the freedom and independence that comes with being self-employed,” he says.

Andreas Prasetiya, M.B.A. ’08

As the senior project associate and co-director of international programs for Wall Street Without Walls, Andreas Prasetiya is already putting his M.B.A. to good use on a global scale. The Washington, D.C.-based social enterprise works to “connect senior and retired financial services volunteers with community development organizations and cities who have complex community economic development challenges.”

“In a nutshell,” he says, “we work in community investing.”

“We work with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to provide training and financial technical assistance for low- and moderate-wealth community development organizations,” he says. “We also work with the board and its member banks around the country to aid U.S. nonprofits.”

He estimates that the $3 million the organization received from one foundation managed to help community-based organizations gain access to $1.5 billion over the course of the past three years.

Wall Street Without Walls is now expanding its assistance to other countries, and Prasetiya is exploring how best to do so. “We are partnering with Investors Without Borders, another social enterprise, and working with financial institutions in Ghana to increase the access to capital for small and medium businesses,” he says. “This isn’t easy in a country where there is little financial transparency, little liquidity and a lack of financial discipline.”

Ultimately, Prasetiya “[looks] forward to seeing more involvement from investment bankers using their skills to enhance economic community development in the international markets.”

Rhonda Baylor, M.B.A. ’08

Rhonda Baylor, a research assistant for the Harvard Graduate School of Education, works to identify how high school students and those with a General Educational Development diploma approach higher education and the workforce. “I visited 11 GED programs in Boston and spoke with teachers and administrators about what the barriers are that keep these students from successfully being able to complete college-level work,” she says. “We identified a program—X-Cel Education—that prepares students for the Accuplacer test, [which] indicates whether or not a student is really ready for college-level work.”

As a nonprofit organization, X-Cel Education has received grant money from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. For 14 weeks, students are drilled in basic math, algebra, geometry and writing skills. Not surprisingly, Baylor says, students who successfully complete the program are better prepared for college-level classes and are less likely to have to enroll in remedial courses or to drop out.

At the same time she is conducting research, Baylor is pursuing a graduate degree from Harvard in education with a concentration in higher education.

“I’m [also] working on writing policy briefs that will help Congressional Black Caucus members make decisions about educational funding in impoverished school districts,” she says. “I’ll be looking at different educational institutions, including charter schools, to identify ways to establish a more efficient school system.”