This year, SGA's Prove It! grant competition features many student groups looking to create real change on campus.  On the week of March 24-28, UMBC students will vote for the grant proposals they like the most.  The two winning ideas will receive $10,000 to implement their programs on campus.

One of the campaigns that students can vote for is Veteran Peer Mentor Program.

The student veteran population is one of the fastest growing populations at UMBC.

A solid support system at UMBC has not yet been developed to meet all their needs.

We need to implement a Veteran Peer Mentor Program to help meet those needs and provide the camaraderie many vets miss after leaving the military.

 Transitioning veterans to be successful students adds a valuable resource and benefit to the whole UMBC community.

Having veterans adds depth and diversity to the student body. Veterans are an incredibly team oriented, resilient, and motivated group of individuals.  They bring unique perspectives to the classroom from their experiences.  They understand the importance of cooperation, having been used to working in close-knit teams in the military; their peers were sometimes the difference between life and death.

Their military training prepared them to handle life and death situations but not how to transition to being a college student.  When a veteran doesn't feel connected to their university they may be more inclined to leave school.  Student veterans do not respond to traditional methods of outreach.  A Veteran Peer Mentor Program will enable veterans to achieve a higher level of academic success and smoothly transition to student life which not only benefits veterans but the entire UMBC community

Veterans have invested in our nation.  Now it’s our turn to invest in them.  Vote for the Veteran Peer Mentor Program on the Prove It! poll at http://my.umbc.edu/discussions/11313

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR RESEARCH STUDY.

The Role of Skin Color & Hair Politics in Black Women’s College Experiences

I am a graduate student, in the UMBC Language, Literacy, & Culture doctoral program, conducting research to explore the ways in which Black, female, undergraduate students’ experiences are impacted by hair and skin hue politics within campus culture.  Please contact me for more information if you meet the following eligibility criteria and are interested in participating:

•Black/African American

•Female

•18-25

•Enrolled at UMBC full-time

You will be asked to share your on and off campus experiences, as they relate to hair and skin color, individually or in a small group setting of no more than twelve students for participation in a focus group.  Focus Group participants will receive a free pizza dinner.  Individual Interview participants will receive $20 cash.

Latasha Eley

leley1@umbc.edu  -  757-777-6173

The next Council of Computing Majors (CCM) will be at Noon this Wednesday, March 26th, in Math/Psychology 008. One of our group members, Patrick McElvaney, will give a presentation about a new CCM project: using the Raspberry Pi and photo-receptors to analyze water in the Chesapeake watershed. His talk will provide an overview of the installation of sensing equipment, specific details on how the photo-receptors can differentiate between organic and inorganic compounds, and information on how other students can get involved.

The CCM is a student organization for undergraduate computer science and computer engineering majors as well as other students interested in computing. If you are interested in starting your own project, please come and speak with any of the officers after the meeting.

The next Council of Computing Majors (CCM) will be at Noon this Wednesday, March 26th, in Math/Psychology 008. One of our group members, Patrick McElvaney, will give a presentation about a new CCM project: using the Raspberry Pi and photo-receptors to analyze water in the Chesapeake watershed. His talk will provide an overview of the installation of sensing equipment, specific details on how the photo-receptors can differentiate between organic and inorganic compounds, and information on how other students can get involved.

The CCM is a student organization for undergraduate computer science and computer engineering majors as well as other students interested in computing. If you are interested in starting your own project, please come and speak with any of the officers after the meeting.

WHIAAPI Summer Internship Deadline Extended to March 27

The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) in Washington, D.C., offers full-time internships during the spring, summer, and fall.  Interns at the Initiative are responsible for assisting the staff on a wide range of AAPI issues and priorities, including capacity-building, civil rights, data disaggregation, economic development, education, health, immigration, language access, and workforce diversity.  In addition, interns will help write policy memos and proposals, draft blogs, assist with communications and social media, coordinate and staff events, and conduct outreach to national and local AAPI organizations and leaders. Applicants for intern positions must be undergraduates or graduate students who are enrolled at least half-time. 

If you are interested in applying, please send the following to whitehouseaapi@ed.gov:

·         Dates that you are available for the internship

·         Resume

·         A written statement that describes (1) an issue that affects the AAPI community on a national level, (2) a strategy that you would implement at the Initiative to address that issue, and (3) the organizations and/or federal agencies with whom you would collaborate and why. The statement should be no more than one page, single-spaced.

The deadline to apply for the Summer session (May/June-Aug) has been extended to Thursday, March 27, 2014.  Please see the attached document or click here to learn more.

CSEE Professor Marie desJardins has been named as UMBC’s Presidential Teaching Professor for 2014-17. Dr. desJardins joined the UMBC faculty in 2001 after earning her Ph.D. in computer science from UC Berkeley and spending ten years at SRI International as a research scientist. She has made significant contributions to the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning, published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, brought over six million dollars to UMBC as PI or co-PI in external grant funding, and held leadership positions in the top professional organizations in her field.

Dr. desJardins is an outstanding teacher, earning praise from students in courses from freshman-level courses for non-majors to specialized graduate-level seminars. She was named one of UMBC’s “Professors Not to Miss” in 2011 and is one of the first cohort of Hrabowski Academic Innovation Fellows. She is also well known for mentoring students at all levels, having graduated ten Ph.D. and 22 M.S. students, mentored over 50 undergraduates in research and served on the dissertation and thesis committees of more than 30 other students. She was recently recognized for mentoring by the National Center for Women & Information Technology, who selected her as one of four awardees of the 2014 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award.

Within the department and university, Dr. desJardins’s commitment to teaching and student success goes far beyond the classroom. She has served as the computer science undergraduate program director and led an effort to redesign the introductory computing course to better serve new students. In addition to mentoring her own graduate students, she is the Faculty Advisor for the Women in Science and Engineering Graduate Association and a member of the Center for Women in Technology Advisory Board. She is regularly invited to participate on panels, give presentations in the Honors Forum and other campus events, and to run workshops for graduate students and junior faculty.

Outside of UMBC, Dr. desJardins has built an international reputation as an advocate for high-quality education, mentoring, and diversity at all levels of the profession. She has been chair, mentor, reviewer, and/or panelist of the AAAI/SIGART Doctoral Consortium for the last 14 years; this event has provided valuable feedback and mentoring to hundreds of computing graduate students during that time. She co-founded the AAAI Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence annual symposium. She regularly publishes articles on her research and innovations in computing education, including tools and techniques for classroom teaching, new courses, and analyses of the state of computer science education at the high school level.

Dr. desJardins is also a nationally recognized leader in computer science education and has received multiple NSF awards to support her work in this area. She gives frequent presentations around the state and the country on high school computer science education and preparing a diverse population of students to succeed in computing careers. She is a founding member of the Maryland chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association, and has organized several professional development workshops for high school teachers. Her NSF-funded CE21-Maryland (Computing Education for the 21st Century) grant explored the landscape of high school CS education in Maryland, culminating in a statewide summit for educators, administrators, and community members that was held at UMBC in May 2013. A recent NSF CE-21 grant will result in curriculum creation and professional development for 100 Maryland high school teachers, focused on the new CS Principles course that is scheduled to become a new AP offering in 2016. Other funded grants in the educational arena include her Hrabowski Innovation Fund award to create the ACTIVE Center, an NSF TUES award that is developing a new freshman-level computing course, an NSF T-SITE grant to build a community of transfer scholars in IT/engineering, as well as multiple smaller awards to run workshops and support graduate student development.

We congratulate Professor desJardins for her selection as Presidential Teaching Professor and look forward to the Presidential Faculty and Staff Awards ceremony on Wednesday, April 2 in the University Center Ballroom. Not only is she an outstanding and dedicated classroom teacher, her contributions to research, teaching, mentoring, and educational innovations have been broad and sustained.

CSEE Professor Marie desJardins has been named as UMBC’s Presidential Teaching Professor for 2014-17. Dr. desJardins joined the UMBC faculty in 2001 after earning her Ph.D. in computer science from UC Berkeley and spending ten years at SRI International as a research scientist. She has made significant contributions to the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning, published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, brought over six million dollars to UMBC as PI or co-PI in external grant funding, and held leadership positions in the top professional organizations in her field.

Dr. desJardins is an outstanding teacher, earning praise from students in courses from freshman-level courses for non-majors to specialized graduate-level seminars. She was named one of UMBC’s “Professors Not to Miss” in 2011 and is one of the first cohort of Hrabowski Academic Innovation Fellows. She is also well known for mentoring students at all levels, having graduated ten Ph.D. and 22 M.S. students, mentored over 50 undergraduates in research and served on the dissertation and thesis committees of more than 30 other students. She was recently recognized for mentoring by the National Center for Women & Information Technology, who selected her as one of four awardees of the 2014 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award.

Within the department and university, Dr. desJardins’s commitment to teaching and student success goes far beyond the classroom. She has served as the computer science undergraduate program director and led an effort to redesign the introductory computing course to better serve new students. In addition to mentoring her own graduate students, she is the Faculty Advisor for the Women in Science and Engineering Graduate Association and a member of the Center for Women in Technology Advisory Board. She is regularly invited to participate on panels, give presentations in the Honors Forum and other campus events, and to run workshops for graduate students and junior faculty.

Outside of UMBC, Dr. desJardins has built an international reputation as an advocate for high-quality education, mentoring, and diversity at all levels of the profession. She has been chair, mentor, reviewer, and/or panelist of the AAAI/SIGART Doctoral Consortium for the last 14 years; this event has provided valuable feedback and mentoring to hundreds of computing graduate students during that time. She co-founded the AAAI Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence annual symposium. She regularly publishes articles on her research and innovations in computing education, including tools and techniques for classroom teaching, new courses, and analyses of the state of computer science education at the high school level.

Dr. desJardins is also a nationally recognized leader in computer science education and has received multiple NSF awards to support her work in this area. She gives frequent presentations around the state and the country on high school computer science education and preparing a diverse population of students to succeed in computing careers. She is a founding member of the Maryland chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association, and has organized several professional development workshops for high school teachers. Her NSF-funded CE21-Maryland (Computing Education for the 21st Century) grant explored the landscape of high school CS education in Maryland, culminating in a statewide summit for educators, administrators, and community members that was held at UMBC in May 2013. A recent NSF CE-21 grant will result in curriculum creation and professional development for 100 Maryland high school teachers, focused on the new CS Principles course that is scheduled to become a new AP offering in 2016. Other funded grants in the educational arena include her Hrabowski Innovation Fund award to create the ACTIVE Center, an NSF TUES award that is developing a new freshman-level computing course, an NSF T-SITE grant to build a community of transfer scholars in IT/engineering, as well as multiple smaller awards to run workshops and support graduate student development.

We congratulate Professor desJardins for her selection as Presidential Teaching Professor and look forward to the Presidential Faculty and Staff Awards ceremony on Wednesday, April 2 in the University Center Ballroom. Not only is she an outstanding and dedicated classroom teacher, her contributions to research, teaching, mentoring, and educational innovations have been broad and sustained.

Name: Emma Rivera

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: CASA

Major(s)/Minor(s): Psychology

Expected Graduation Year: 2014

Briefly describe your internship, co-op, research, or service- learning opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

1. Assist with volunteer screening tasks such as reviewing volunteer applications, conducting reference checks, and conducting in-person volunteer interviews.
2. Attend volunteer training sessions.
3. Observe Child In Need of Assistance (CINA) court proceedings and case meetings in which CASA volunteers are involved.
4. Assist with program evaluation tasks for National CASA Association Standards Self Assessment process.
5. Read CASA cases and proof read court recommendation.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

What I have enjoyed most has been getting to learn how the process works when a child is taken out of their home and placed in foster care, and how there are organizations like CASA that are there for the child to "hold" their hand literally and mentally to whatever next step that might be.

What have you gained from your experience that you could not have gained from another opportunity?

I gained a lot of insight on what children in need of assistance go through, that the system doesn't always work but if you have advocates like CASA trying to ensure that all the steps are followed that a child might get a safe permanent home, be that it might be with their biological parent or adoptive foster parent. What I would have never of gained I believe from another internship is that volunteers really do matter and people who care go a long way for a child in need. I walked away wanting to do more and learn more how to help and advocate not only for children but to tell people to volunteer to be a CASA volunteer.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

I would definitely recommend knowing what it is that you want to learn and come out of the experience with, then vocalizing it to your supervisor for your internship. I was able to tell my supervisor that I wanted to network and pick professionals brains on what they do and their roles in the mental health association. I was able to get personable and ask them if they liked and enjoyed what they did for a living.

How do you see your experience as meaningful? This might involve skills you’ve gained, information you’ve learned, mentors you’ve connected with, or projects you’ve completed.

I feel that this experience is super meaningful because I was able to network with so many different other branches in the Mental Health organization in Frederick involving foster children. I was able to sit down and talk with Healthy Families organization and learn what they do. I was able to talk with social workers and the foster children attorneys and court appointed mediators and hear what role they play in a CINA case (Child In Need of Assistance).

Please provide a short quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / the internship placement process.

I enjoyed having to share about what I would learn and do on a weekly basic to my professor.