We’ve had some freakishly nice, warm days lately right? We had a blizzard that melted almost instantly thanks to these 50 and 60 degree days. I even hear birds chirping outside in the mornings, did they ever even go south for the winter? It’s kind of hard not to think about summer with days like this…

We have about three months of break during the summer, which is delightful, but also convenient. It’s a great opportunity to have a job or internship, considering it gives you time to reflect on your career goals, gain experience, and best of all you don’t have to come home at the end of the day and worry about homework or studying. It’s a win-win. Even though summer is a few months away, employers are starting to consider the candidates they’re going to hire for the summer. If you’re about to graduate in the spring, this is a perfect opportunity to consider full-time jobs starting in the summer as well! Whether you’re looking for a job or an internship for the summer season, now is the right time to figure out where you want to apply.

For a perfect opportunity to get a jump start, I highly recommend coming to the UMBC Summer Job and Internship Fair on Wednesday, February 10th in the University Center Ballroom. There will be over 60 employers including NIH, Peace Corps, and PayPal! You can check out the entire list of employers and their descriptions here.

There’s a few things you can do before the fair to make sure you make the most of it and ensure good results:

1.      Research the companies and figure out which employers you want to talk to before the fair. This way you can confidently speak with them about their company’s outlook and goals, as well as why you’d be a good fit with them.

2.      Make sure your resume looks strong before you hand it out to employers. You can look at our resume writing page on the Career Center website, or you can come get your resume reviewed beforehand! You can make an appointment at the Career Center or you can come into our drop-in hours between 2-4 Monday-Friday. The day before the fair we extended our drop-in hours to 10am-12pm and 1-4pm.

3.      Dress professionally! If you need some help, check out our helpful guide here.

4.      Network, network, network. Talk with recruiters, e-mail them after the fair, and consider connecting to them on LinkedIn. There will be a lot of students at the fair, so you want to be sure you stand out.

If you want any more information on this, you can check out our page on navigating career fairs or get in touch with the Career Center by careers@umbc.edu, 410.455.2216, or stopping by Math/Psych 212. 

I hope to see you all there on Wednesday!

A post written by Women’s Center Director,  Jess Myers

*Content Note: Sexual Violence*

• 44% of victims of sexual violence are under age 18
• Approximately 4/5 of rapes were committed by someone known to the victim.
• Sexual assault is one of the most under reported crimes, with 68% still being left unreported.
• Victims of sexual assault are 3 times more likely to suffer from depression.

And knowing these statistics and being someone who works on a continual basis with and for survivors of sexual violence, I was shocked and disappointed in myself that it still took me more than half of a novel to realize Melinda, the main character of Speak, was a survivor of sexual assault.

I picked up Speak on a whim after seeing a picture of its front cover on the online Enoch Pratt library catalog. It was a librarian’s recommendation and it was one of the last books I needed to get through from my pile of winter break readings. Reading the vague synopsis on the inside flap of the book, I began reading what I assumed would be any other young adult novel. What I knew –  Malinda was a 9th grader. She busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Everyone hated her because of that. Consequently, high school was a disaster for her. She had no friends. She stopped doing her homework and cut class. She didn’t have a good relationship with her parents. And, one day, she finally just stopped talking.

I get it. High school can really suck. Being an outsider is awful. Being 13 is awkward and painful and hard to navigate. Been there. Done that. So, with each turn of the page, I became more frustrated with Melinda. She was annoying me. I almost stopped reading the book.

Get it over it, Melinda.

But, for some reason, I kept reading. Melinda left me little clues throughout that led me to understand that she wasn’t sharing her full story. Something was going on with her. Something she was even trying to figure out how to understand. The adults in her life were frustrated with her. Her friends gave up on her. She was a shadow, or at worse, a distraction, to her teachers. Melinda was alone.

Little by little, though, people poked back into Melinda’s life. A strayed friend cautiously begins speaking to Melinda again about their art projects. A teacher gently pushes back on the narrative that Melinda is a bad kid ending one interaction saying, “I think you have a lot to say. I’d like to hear it.” A classmate finds meaning in a history project on suffragettes to push Melinda to consider options outside of remaining silent. And, I too, beckon Melinda. I know something is wrong. I keep reading in an effort to understand Melinda’s story whether she speaks it or not.

In the Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence: Cultivating a Survivor-Responsive Campus workshop we host in the Women’s Center, I start out with a list of statistics related to sexual violence on college campuses. We may probably know the 1 in 5 women will experience attempted or completed sexual assault in her lifetime statistic but what does that really mean? I break it down in UMBC terms. For a campus that has 6,300 women-identified students on its roster, statistically speaking, about 1,200 women students are or will be survivors of sexual violence. This number does not include male survivors, trans survivors, faculty or staff. I know this number is much higher.

We all know survivors of sexual violence whether we know it or not. Survivors of sexual violence are in our classrooms, living in our residence halls, eating next to us at dinner. They are our friends, our classmates, our partners, our students. Like Melinda, though, they may not feel ready to disclose or come out and share their story with you – or anyone. At least not right away.

And, that’s okay. But, it’s simply not good enough for us to only offer sympathy or change our behaviors around a person once we know their full story. Until I knew Melinda had been raped, I discounted her. In my temptation to stop reading, I turned my back on her. Once I knew her story, though, my heart ached with empathy and I couldn’t get her out of my mind (I am writing this blog, after all). If Melinda was a real person in my life, would my behavior and lack of action reaffirmed her desire to stay silent. Would I have been a safe space for her?

In that same Cultivating a Survivor-Responsive Campus workshop, I share a quote from former Women’s Center director, Dr. Mollie Monahan-Kreishman’s dissertation. It goes,

“The first people who interact with the rape survivor will weave themselves tightly into the fabric of the survivor’s story. Their words will richly color the survivor’s world, no matter if those words were meant to support or demolish.”

Each and every day, on campus, and beyond, all of us are weaving ourselves into the fabric of survivors stories. Our every day actions mean something.  We may support one survivor in a classroom by offering a content note or promoting Take Back the Night. We may demolish a survivor’s experience when we diminish the prevalence of sexual assault, laugh at a rape joke, or give up on a friend who just isn’t the same anymore.

I want to be the person that expresses words and actions that support a survivor whether I know their story or not. I know I’m not alone in this feeling.

So What Can You Do?
(Note: This is not an exhaustive list!!!)

Know UMBC’s campus resources such as the Women’s Center, Voices Against Violence, and Title IX policies 
Read Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Violence
Listen (and watch) Lady Gaga’s Til It Happens to You
Check out (and support) the Monument Quilt. Their next display is right here in Baltimore on April 9th.
Attend the Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence: Cultivating a Survivor-Responsive Campus workshop. This Women’s Center workshop is offered on a quarterly basis for faculty and staff and once a semester for students. We’ll also happily accept invites to present at department or student org meetings.
Show Up at  UMBC’s Take Back the Night on Thursday, April 14th (stay tuned for details)

Congratulations to Kiranmayi Mangalgiri, who works in the Blaney Lab, on receiving a 2016 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry.  This award is sponsored by the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.  The award recognizes promising graduate students working in areas related to environmental chemistry, and comes with a complimentary one-year membership to the Division and a cash prize.