Fall 2026’s First-String First-Years

Aspiring sports journalist Roman Brunetti arrived at UMD with not just a party-conversation starter, but a resume rocket launcher. In 2025, the Stewart Manor, N.Y., native provided color commentary for the New York Mets-Seattle Mariners game at the MLB Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa., broadcast by ESPN2. “I watch baseball every night,” the journalism major said. “I played for a long time, and eventually I got to the point where I knew I wasn’t going to play in college.” Instead, Brunetti turned to covering the sport, working for his high school’s sports broadcasting club. He auditioned for the Little League Classic gig by calling a half-inning from a baseball game played earlier in the season. Best of all, Brunetti’s co-announcer turned out to be his longtime best friend, Thomas Gamba. “It was unbelievable to do the broadcast,” Brunetti said. 

The hobby that turned out to be global health major Aashita Joshi’s greatest passion came to her in a dream. One day, when she was 3 years old, she woke up and announced: “I want a pair of roller skates from Santa for Christmas.” Joshi’s mother bought plastic skates from Walmart, and at first, the toddler just rolled around the family apartment. By age 8, she was competing in her first national competition. Since then, she’s won gold, silver and bronze medals at the national championships and the Americas Cup, one of roller skating’s biggest events. Spins, splits and jumps are all part of Joshi’s routines. Injuries are also baked in. “I don’t know how many times people have told me I need to be bubble-wrapped,” said Joshi, who’s from Memphis, Tenn. But roller skating has prepared her well for life at the University of Maryland. “You have to be fearless,” she said. “You can’t be afraid to fall.”

Every summer, Wilton, Conn., native Rory Kepner makes the journey north to her grandfather’s house in Sandwich, N.H., nestled in the White Mountain National Forest. That’s where animal and avian science major Kepner fell in love with nature—and mountains, specifically. A popular goal among New Hampshire’s outdoorsy crowd is to climb the state’s 48 4,000-foot-tall mountains. Kepner’s not necessarily going for all 48; so far, she’s reached 10 of the summits. “It’s so cool when you see a mountain from the bottom and it looks so high, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been on top of that,’” said Kepner, a student in the Honors College. “It’s such an appreciation for your body being able to get you up there, and also for the earth.” The lessons Kepner’s learned should prove valuable during college: push yourself, but make sure to pause and rest. “If you need to stop, you stop,” she said. “It’s not a pride thing.”

Katherine Liu started playing the cello for the natural reason: She was imitating a cool older friend. It ended up becoming the defining feature of Liu’s life growing up in Stillwater, Okla. She later played for audiences in the Dominican Republic, an experience that taught her that “even though I didn’t know any Spanish, we could still connect through music.” That moment of connection drove Liu, an Honors College student and double major in music performance and economics, to join the organization Back to Bach, which provides arts education for kids around the world. Liu founded the nonprofit’s first chapter in Oklahoma, where she and several musical friends played in rural elementary schools and talked to kids about why they love their instruments. A teacher told Liu it was the first time her students had ever seen a musical performance. “I didn’t know that a little group of high school students could be so important to these kids,” she said.   

Duckpin bowling, the miniature version of regular tenpin bowling and a Maryland tradition, is a birthright for architecture major Lily Sieck: Her great-grandparents and grandparents on both sides of her family were duckpin bowlers, and her parents met through a duckpin bowling league. The Hampstead, Md., native and Honors College student picked up the 5-inch ball herself at age 9, which was “a little old,” Sieck said, but she eventually won all three of its main individual tournaments. The sport has taught her resilience; the small scale of the pins and balls make getting a strike more difficult than in its standard-size sibling. “If you can continuously try to learn to do the same thing every ball and get into a rhythm, you’ll eventually pick up on it,” she said. “But it takes time, and you have to not quit.” 

In 2025, Yana Trivedi came across a national organization that redistributed unused, unexpired medicine to people who needed it. Trivedi brought the cause to her hometown of Tampa, Fla., by starting the Medicine Mission, a nonprofit dedicated to delivering medicine to people who don’t have access to it. She set up community events and donation drives, eventually collecting over 10 pounds of over-the-counter painkillers, topical ointments and even some prescription medications. “I found it really, really crazy how much disparity there was, and how much health inequity there still is to combat,” said Trivedi, an Honors College student and bioengineering major. The experience got her interested in pharmaceutical work, and she conducted research on the efficacy of GLP-1s in treating type 2 diabetes and obesity in children. Trivedi, who is also a recipient of a Banneker/Key scholarship, hopes to eventually go into pharmaceutical regulatory work “to make medicine more equitable,” she said.

Track and field star Quincy Wilson made history several times in 2024. As a student at the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., he set an under-18 world best performance for the indoor 400-meter dash, then repeated the feat for the outdoor version. That summer, he became the youngest-ever male track and field Olympian on Team USA; he returned from Paris with a gold medal in the 4x400 relay. Now, he’s joining UMD’s team, led by another Olympic gold medalist, head coach Andrew Valmon. Wilson chose UMD over schools like UCLA, Texas A&M and USC. “There’s nothing like being close to your family,” said Wilson, who’s from Bowie, Md., when he announced his decision to commit to the University of Maryland. “There’s nothing like being able to run for your hometown.”