It’s finally here – Winter Break!
You worked hard this semester and it doesn’t go unrecognized. Now is the time to get some well-deserved rest and re-charge before the spring semester begins.
It’s easy to binge-watch your favorite tv shows or go down the Tik Tok rabbit hole, but we’d like to challenge you to do some things that will truly restore you during your winter break.
1. Catch up on Sleep
Did you pull more all-nighters this past semester than you would like to admit? Now is the time to re-establish some good sleeping habits.
2. Do some light brainstorming for next semester plans.
If you found yourself too overwhelmed and busy last semester, consider what activities you may need to let go of. On the other end, if you feel you had too much time on your hands, consider some clubs or activities you may be able to get involved in this spring. Many organizations are still meaning virtually and Campus Life continues to offer regular online programming for students.
3. Take time to reconnect with family and friends.
Tell your friends you cherish them! Keep your support system strong and growing into the Spring semester. FaceTime the elders in your family and learn more about your family history and heritage. This discovery about your family roots can be the inspiration you need to keep pushing forward when the going gets tough.
4. Eat a good meal! Or two. Or three...
Take a break from your typical college diet and use this time to enjoy some healthy meals. Check out these easy meals for college students.
5. Spend an afternoon exploring the great outdoors!
Yes, it’s a bit cold in the winter, but all you need is some winter gear to enjoy some fresh air and nature. If you call Maryland home, many of the state parks are still open. And if you aren’t feeling as adventurous, even a walk around your neighborhood can do a world of good!
6. Research a graduate or professional school.
Whether you are just starting to think about grad school or are actually working on applications, many schools are offering virtual fairs or meetings to prospective students.
7. Set up an informational interview with a working professional.
Find out what a profession is really like and make connections with people in your future field by conducting an interview unrelated to a job search. Sample question: “What are the most important qualities for an aspiring pilot/engineer/dance therapist?” Keep a journal to record notes from these experiences.
8. Update and upgrade your resume.
Opportunities sometimes come up quickly and you want to be ready with that polished resume. Every college student needs a polished resume!
9. Plan an independent research or creative project and prepare an application for the UMBC Undergraduate Research Award (URA).
The URA provides up to $1500 to support research expenses such as equipment, travel, and materials. Here is a link to the full details.
Summer internships can provide both $ and valuable experience. The more competitive internships have deadlines in fall, but some are still open in January-March. If you have already missed a deadline, get all the information so you can apply early next year. Some internships are open to recent college graduates.
10. Work on your graduation game plan.
Winter break is an excellent time to create, revise or update your plan. Here are suggestions for a pathway you can take for graduation, and it includes a worksheet to start the plans on! Don’t forget to refer to your myUMBC profile for more academic information!
]]>Good evening Pre-Pharmers!
Sorry for the late email! I just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow will be our FINAL GBM on 11/18 at 12pm on Zoom (as always!)! Our Vice-President (Victoria) will be speaking all about the PCAT and PharmCAS! This will be extremely helpful for our prospective pharmacy students or anyone interested in the pharmacy track! We hope to see you there!
As always:
Link to the zoom: https://umaryland.zoom.us/j/96623313041
Meeting ID: 966 2331 3041
Instagram: @umbcprepharmacysociety
Facebook: UMBC Pre-Pharmacy Society
and we also have a GroupMe chat:
https://groupme.com/join_group/54738203/uHip512d
and we do have a myUMBC page!
See you soon,
Elizabeth Aguas (and the rest of the E-Board)
]]>Name:Arushi Dalal
Internship, Co-op or Research Site:Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET)
Position Title:Summer Research Intern
Major(s)/Minor(s):Biological Sciences, Pre-Veterinary
Current Class Level:Senior
Work Term:Summer 2020
Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.
This summer, my fellow interns and I worked on projects centering around the Baltimore Harbor. Specifically, my lab partner and I characterized bacteria in the Baltimore Harbor. Identifying changes in microbe presence reflects the Harbor’s water quality. Using gene sequencing and bioinformatics, we identified bacterial indicators and generated graphs to compare the microbial diversity. My days consisted of Zoom calls to discuss our progress on the project, meetings with professionals in the field, and work sessions to learn bioinformatics techniques. Throughout the internship, I also engaged in science communication and technical training workshops.
Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
I originally planned to take a course at IMET this past spring, but I really learned more about the Institute at the CNMS Careers Conference and an On the Road trip with the Career Center. After this, I knew I wanted to apply. I scheduled a resume review meeting with the Career Center and drafted my statement of interest. The application was due in early February and consisted of a brief form, statement of interest, resume, and transcript. By the time May came around and the pandemic worsened, I worried I wouldn’t have an internship for the summer, but shortly thereafter I received an email about my acceptance. I had a brief interview over Zoom, and then I got to work!
What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?
I appreciate the emphasis IMET puts on science communication. I’ve never encountered an organization which put an equal focus on the way we presented our findings as to the research we were doing. I believe that’s what made our final presentations so good. I also enjoyed meeting new peers and science professionals, in addition to attending weekly seminars to learn of the research being done at the Institute and around the country. Despite the challenges this pandemic has brought, IMET was very accommodating to students who had internet connectivity issues and who were joining from different time zones. I really appreciate all that the organization did to arrange this internship program, especially given the circumstances this year.
How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
I was originally a little apprehensive of how a virtual internship would turn out. I always envisioned science to happen in a laboratory. Nevertheless, for ten weeks, I learned coding skills and utilized bioinformatic techniques to analyze 4.5 million DNA sequences and identified five key bacterial species. These results highlighted that we must further study the microbial diversity at certain sites that had been sampled in our research. I’m grateful for the opportunity to conduct meaningful research and cannot wait to see how future interns will build upon this work.
What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?
I recommend targeting specific organizations and familiarizing yourself with the work they do to see how it aligns with your interests, rather than applying everywhere and hoping one works out. I think what set me apart in IMET’s eyes was that I interacted with them at Career Center events and on their social media. I also reached out to them when organizing an event for a club, and I participated in their Open House activities. I did this not only because I wanted to intern there, but because I was truly interested in the work being done.
Like the Career Center on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
#UMBCintern
Name:Sai Venkatesh Kurella
Internship, Co-op or Research Site:Collins Aerospace
Position Title:Software Engineering Intern
Major(s)/Minor(s):Computer Science
Current Class Level:Master’s Student
Work Term:Summer 2020
Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.
I had the pleasure of working for Collins Aerospace as a Software Engineering Intern for Summer 2020. During my internship, I was assigned to a team that works on building a new web application for Aircraft Cabin Services Management, tracking and value-added services. As an intern, it is really a great opportunity to be an integral part of the team. As the internship experience was remote due to the pandemic, it was a whole new dynamic to get started, communicate with the team and deliver the tasks. I was coordinating with my Team Lead, Scrum Master, Manager all through. After my orientation, I was assigned a few tasks/user stories. I was responsible for development and delivery of software modules for desktop, mobile, tablet views. We had daily stand-up calls, weekly status meetings, retrospection meetings with teams in other countries to make sure everything is in place and discuss the strategies, seek feedback, changes. Also, I was involved in regular customer demonstrations, received and implemented customer directed changes, worked and collaborated across multi-national development teams. Apart from these, there were also fun activities, events to get to know more about the projects, technologies, and interact with fellow interns. This internship taught me new techniques and approaches.
Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
I applied for the position through a careers website. A couple of weeks after applying for the position, a recruiter from the company reached out to me to set up a phone interview. After the phone interview, another interview was scheduled with Lead Developers and a Manager. There were two more interviews which included questions about programming and system design. After a week, a video conference was scheduled discussing further details. Within a week, I heard back from the recruiter through an email with an offer letter containing the details of the internship.
What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?
I was always amazed by the way Aircrafts work and I am glad that I could associate with an organization that works for Aircrafts. Given the current situations due to the pandemic, we have been working remotely and constantly connected via calls, video conferences. I really enjoyed learning, working on the latest technologies, learning about the avionics domain, communicating with team-members whom I have never met before in-person yet, working together as a team, and delivering the tasks. Communicating with the team has been very important in this setup to make sure everyone is on the same page. There were also weekly fun activities as well like Kahoot, Scribble games, Cohort programs, Quizzes, interactions with Senior Management, Talent shows, etc. which were really refreshing and insightful.
How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
Starting as a remote intern and having never met any of the team members before, I believe gaining the trust of the team, bonding, communicating with the team has been crucial due to the remote work setup. I had all the weight for making critical decisions for developing the application, so I had a liberty in how I chose to implement it as per the standards. As I see the application evolving and performing as expected, I get a sense for just how important my work really is. Accommodating the evolving requirements, learning and implementing new technologies was challenging and rewarding.
What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?
My advice would be to keep a close watch on UMBCworks and other job portals that would help you find an internship or job opportunity. The Career Center is an incredibly helpful resource to improve your resume and strengthen your interview skills.
Like the Career Center on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
#UMBCintern
JPMorgan Chase is currently recruiting for their Advancing Black Pathways Summer Fellowship Program. Open to all majors.
The ABP Fellowship Program is a six-week paid, full-time fellowship held during the summer months in select JPMorgan Chase & Co. locations for undergraduate sophomores, in particular Black students. This program will give you the opportunity to get exposure to our senior leaders, learn about our businesses, build professional development skills and positively impact the future of people’s lives, our firm and our industry. Please see the attached flier for additional information about attending an info session and applying to the program.
Application Link: https://jpmc.recsolu.com/external/events/4AaO7BzyOxs6vrVOI60Thw
]]>Meeting ID: 966 2331 3041
Instagram: @umbcprepharmacysociety
Facebook: UMBC Pre-Pharmacy Society
and we also have a GroupMe chat:
https://groupme.com/join_group/54738203/uHip512d
and we do have a myUMBC page!
Name:Sahar Mahate
Internship, Co-op or Research Site:Johns Hopkins Medicine
Position Title:Undergraduate Student Researcher
Major(s)/Minor(s):Biology and Health Administration/Policy
Current Class Level:Junior
Work Term:Summer 2020
Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.
As lab research shifted online, my responsibilities changed a lot. When I was working at this lab in person, I injected tumors into the tibias of live animal models, operated technology for X-rays and ultrasounds on animal models, completed stress experiments and necropsies on mice and rats, and performed western blots, cell cultures, and DNA methylation analyses. With virtual work, there was a lot more focus on literature review and data analysis. We would have meetings where research was discussed, and I would be assigned specific topics to present on. We also began using a new proteomic analysis program to identify and compare pathways of primary osteosarcoma tumors and secondary pulmonary tumors to determine how commonly upregulated pathways associated with pulmonary metastasis in osteosarcoma can be inhibited. My responsibility was to work with the other undergraduate researchers in the lab to figure out how the program worked, use it to analyze the data, and present relevant findings at lab meetings.
Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
This is a research lab I've been working at since high school, and have continued to work with throughout college.
What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?
This summer, I really enjoyed being able to take charge and work on an independent project with the proteomics analysis program to contribute to the lab research. It gave me the opportunity to collaborate with other undergraduate colleagues to teach ourselves something new and to share the knowledge with the researchers in the lab, as the program was new to all of them as well.
Like the Career Center on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
#UMBCintern
Want to be the next Intern of the Week?Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Monday!
Scott Resource Group, a well-established university recruitment consulting firm, is partnering with selected career centers nationwide, including UMBC, to conduct two important student research projects. The findings of these studies will influence how employers recruit students using virtual platforms going forward – and will impact their internship program design and execution. We’d welcome your participation in either or both of these two significant research projects.
The first survey, ‘Virtual Recruiting: What Worked, What Didn’t – and WHY’ will take a deep-dive into this semester’s pandemic-induced plunge into the world of digital recruiting. Topics will include virtual career fairs, online recruiting events, and digital interviewing.
The second project, ‘Impact of the Virtual Internship Experience’, will include questions for those who participated in a virtual internship this past summer, as well as those who are pursuing opportunities for summer 2021.
Scott Resource Group will hold a drawing for ten [10] $50 Amazon.com gift cards following the survey closing date for each of the research projects, and all students who have submitted a completed survey will be eligible to win. Students are welcome to participate in either survey – or both.
Please respond to ScottResourceGroup@comcast.net indicating your interest this way:
Request ‘W3D Survey’ in the subject line if you’d like to receive a survey for the ‘Virtual Recruiting: What Worked, What Didn’t – and WHY?’ study
Request ‘IVIE Survey’ in the subject line if you’d like to receive a survey for the ‘Impact of the Virtual Internship Experience’ study
Request ‘Both Surveys’ in the subject line if you’d like to receive both the W3D and IVIE surveys.
Please submit your email request to participate in the survey(s) by NOVEMBER 30. Scott Resource Group will begin sending survey links the week of November 16.
We appreciate your consideration – Let your voice be heard!
]]>