IMPORTANT

College Bootcamp: FINAL DAY

Mental Readiness & STAY IN TOUCH!

College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences Advising August 21, 2026 at 10:48 PM

At UMBC, you will hear a lot about our campus' fundamental commitment to championing grit, boldness, and resilience. After all, our mascot's name is True Grit! For this final day of College Bootcamp, CNMS Advising is looking into how you can build and practice these traits as a means to understanding the direct connection between academic and mental health/success!

For many students, the start of the semester is a time of both excitement and nervousness. You are facing a great deal of uncertainty, inevitable challenges, possibly even moments of doubt. With this in mind, is important to focus on a few key components to maintaining a sense of academic mindfulness.

What is academic mindfulness?!? In general, it is the intentional focus on the present and a non-judgmental acceptance to learning/testing experiences, study habit development, setbacks, and all of the possiblities and challenges that come along with a school/college environment. The practice of academic mindfulness in a college setting has been directly related to academic acheivement as well as helping students manage academic stress, reduce mental fatigue, avoid burnout, and improve cognitive performance. While there is a great deal of neuroscience behind this, implementing mindfulness practices and introspection into your college experience can be as easy as journaling, single-tasking, meditation/relaxation exercises, intentional breaks in your study schedule, community involvement, and frequently anchoring yourself into both short term and long term goals.

When it comes to starting your semester on the right foot for your academic and mental health, it important to remind yourself that you are not defined your grades!! Read that again -- you are not defined your grades!! Professors utilize assessments and exams as a means of gauging your understanding of specific material, not your potential or intelligence. In the long run, your grades and GPA will only serve as ONE component of your college experience. Similarly, unsatisfactory grades are merely an indicator that you may need to alter your study habits and shoud -- ideally-- motivate yourself to rise to the challenge. It is through this struggle that you will learn and grow far more than if you never experienced a setback. In fact, the only indicator of a "failure" would be if you did not adapt to the situation and then expected a different result in the future!

Another behavioral skill that can directly improve a student's academic readiness and success is to begin thinking about your experiences through a growth (v.s. fixed) mindset. One of the videos below provides concrete examples of how college students can watch how you talk TO and ABOUT yourself. For example, students with a fixed mindset will believe that their abilities are innate/inherited and that assessments are direct/unmitigated evaluations of their potential or intelligence. On the other hand, students with a growth mindset will often see both positive and negative experiences as an exciting opportunity to be challenged, assessments as helpful knowledge checks and, ultimately a chance to grow as a person and as a student.

One of the pioneers behind the psychology of the fixed vs growth mindset, Dr. Carol Dweck, encourages students to adopt the "power of yet" -- or the fundamental understanding that we are ALL and ALWAYS on a learning curve and through hard work and perserverence we can achieve a greater potential. As an important reminder, you are here to celebrate progress, not perfection.

Finally, as part of your academic mindfulness journey, please know that you belong here! UMBC is a community of inquiring minds and both your faculty and staff are commited to your development in and out of the classroom. As a CNMS major,your advising team is dedicated to this end and will be continuing to offer our support and insight throughout the semester via our advising appointments, student success coaching, weekly programming in the The Learning Collaboratory (TLC) -- UC 115, study hall, and various other in-person/virtual events. We have deeply enjoyed releasing this week of "College Bootcamp -- Greatest Hits Playlist" and we hope to see you on campus very soon!

Speaking of -- CNMS Advising will be kicking of the fall opening of The Learning Collaboratory with snacks, crafts, a photobooth, and more this upcoming Wednesday, August 26th from 12-4PM. More information to come!

If you have not already done so, be sure to give us a follow on Instagram where we will release college tips/tricks, etc. throughout the semester! Let's GRIT going Retrievers!

The Power of Yet w/Dr. Carol S. Dweck (Professor of Psychology at Stanford University)