CATONSVILLE, Md. (WJZ)– Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Freeman Hrabowski. The president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) now stands among the world’s most influential leaders.

Mary Bubala has more.

He’s one of Time magazine’s top 100 people who inspire, challenge and change the world.

UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski is known in Maryland, but now, the rest of the world will learn who he is.

Hrabowski is on Time magazine’s list of the Top 100 Most Influential People.

“I think its well-deserved,” Catie Collins, a senior at UMBC, said.

Students at UMBC tell WJZ they’re not surprised their president is on that list.

“I think we are really, really excited as a campus to see him have this well-deserved honor,” Collins said.

“He’s a special person,” Miguel Calderon, a UMBC senior, said. “He brings out the best in people, he supports the community of students, faculty.”

Hrabowski is credited with changing UMBC from a commuter school into an academic powerhouse in science and research.

“60 Minutes” profiled the leader earlier this year– that at age 12, Hrabowski was thrown in jail during a civil rights march to his reign over one of the nation’s most innovative universities.

Biochemistry professor Mike Summers was there 20 years ago when minority students protested over race relations. He witnessed Hrabowski turn the entire institution around.

“Now we are the top producer of African-Americans who are in Ph.Ds in this country, we are the top producer of African-Americans who are M.D. Ph.Ds,” Summers explained. “We are not just a role model anymore for diversity. We are a role model for changing how education works, and it’s all started by Freeman.”

Hrabowski says he accepts the honor on behalf of the whole campus. Time’s Most Influential People edition hits newsstands on Thursday.