In 2003, the first year of programming for the PROMISE AGEP, a UMBC Public Policy graduate student named Robert Alexander asked if PROMISE could sponsor a “town hall” type of seminar with UMBC’s President, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski. That conversation birthed the concept of an annual seminar for graduate students that would feature the university’s president. Dr. Robert Alexander is now part of the Health & Analytics Business Unit at Battelle, after spending nearly 10 years in his first dream job in Health Communications at the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Similarly, after more than 10 years, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski is the Chair of the U.S. President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans, and has received numerous recognition from media outlets such as TIME, US News & World Report, PBS (“Charlie Rose,” “Tavis Smiley”), and CBS (“60 Minutes.”). The president continues to make time in his schedule to address graduate students. Dr. Hrabowski has been having his spring semester conversation with graduate students at UMBC since 2004. The 2015 talk will be held on Wednesday.

Pathways to Leadership

A Discussion with President Freeman Hrabowski

UMBC President, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

1:00 – 2:15 PM

Lunch will be served at 1:00

Talk will begin at 1:30 PM. Everyone needs to be seated by 1:25 PM.

Library Gallery (first floor), AOK Library, UMBC Campus, Directions & Parking

REGISTER/RSVP

UMBC Community, Please RSVP on MyUMBC: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/29312

Guests, please RSVP by providing your name and school/organization in the comment section below.

This event is free, but you will need to register.

As part of our PROMISE AGEP-T alliance with the University System of Maryland, graduate students from any school within the USM may attend. Guests from other schools are also invited as part of our commitment to provide graduate students with professional development. Faculty and staff are also invited to attend.

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More about Dr. Hrabowski’s White House Appointment: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/26/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts

Hrabowski Photos courtesy of baltimore.cbslocal.com, blog.ted.com, amazon.com, and umbc.edu

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More about Dr. Robert Alexander’s work on the U.S.’ first federally funded anti-smoking campaign: Journal article in The Lancet. Dr. Alexander returned to be a Mentor-in-Residence for the PROMISE AGEP during the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the PROMISE Summer Success Institute (SSI), August 2013.   Dr. Alexander was a member of the first cohort of the PROMISE AGEP Peer Mentors for UMBC, 2004. We thank Dr. Alexander, whose request as a PhD candidate, launched the plans for our annual present-day Presidential “Pathways to Leadership” seminar for graduate students.

The achievements tool allows instructors to create opportunities for students to earn recognition for their accomplishments in courses.  Instructors can designate criteria for issuing rewards to students in the form of both badges and certificates. Students can see which rewards they have earned and what is required to receive additional rewards, providing insight into learning progression toward defined competencies (help.blackboard.com).   

The Instructional Technology Team will be holding a workshop on Blackboard Achievements on Tuesday, March 10, 2015. Click here  to RSVP and see event details.  

To learn more about using Achievements in Blackboard:

• visit our Blackboard Achievements FAQ page  

• open an RT Ticket  for any technical issues

• view the schedule of training workshops on the DoIT Group Page. 

•  contact the Instructional Technology Team with any questions or concerns

The PROMISE AGEP will be represented at the annual conference for the National Postdoctoral Association on Friday, March 13. The conference will run from March 13-15, and will be held at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), downtown, in the Southern Management Corporation’s Campus Center, (SMC CC) https://www.umaryland.edu/campuscenter/. This is the same location that hosted our PROMISE Summer Success Institute and anniversary celebration in 2013.

PROMISE AGEP will be discussed in a panel session, Institutional Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowships: Growing Your Own Faculty Pipeline, on Friday, March 13, 1:45 PM, SMC CC, Room 351. PROMISE Director, Dr. Renetta Tull will be one of the speakers. Discussions will include the PROMISE Postdoctoral Program, and UMBC’s Postdoctoral Fellowship for Faculty Diversity.

Websites:

Listed on MinorityPostdoc.org: http://www.minoritypostdoc.org/view/event-2015-NPA.html

NPA Website: http://www.npacommunity.org/?2015AMFriWorkshops

NPA Agenda site: http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/images/stories/Documents/AnnualMeetings/2015AnnualMeeting/NPA-2015-Annual-Meeting-Agenda-at-a-Glance-for-Web-02-20-2015.pdf

Postdocs from the University System of Maryland can register to attend the conference at a discount. Some postdoctoral affairs offices are also sponsoring waivers to attend.  Please email Dr. Renetta Tull, rtull@umbc.edu, with the subject “NPA Conference” if you are interested in attending. The deadline for registering online is Feb. 27, 2015; please email Dr. Tull by 12 noon on Feb. 27th to be included in the list of postdocs from Maryland.

Faculty who plan to use clickers for instruction during the ​​Fall  2015 semester will need to have device order(s) submitted to the Bookstore no later than Friday, March 27, 2015. This deadline allows the Bookstore to shop national wholesalers early for used books and items, prepare for buyback, avoid sending back to publishers leftover stock that will be reused next semester, and notify faculty of any availability problems.

The University’s due date for textbook and course materials information is Friday, April 24, 2015. The University has instituted this deadline so that all textbook information, including clicker requirements, may be posted on the Bookstore's website, in adherence with State Law, as students prepare for their Fall 2015 schedules.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UMBC bookstore at  textbook@umbc.edu or 410-455-2699.

To learn more about the clickers:

• visit our  Clicker FAQ page

• open an  RT Ticket  for any technical issues

• view the schedule of training workshops on the DoIT group page

• contact  the Instructional Technology Team with any questions or concerns

The new Career-Life Balance Initiative at UMBC is sponsoring a February 2015 workshop on preparing career paths that will include a healthy integration of work and those things that are important to life, e.g., health and wellness, family. This workshop is sponsored by UMBC’s initiative new project, “On Ramps” to Full Professor: Institutional Support for Post-Family Leave Faculty Research Reintegration, National Science Foundation Grant #1446406.” The series of workshops and seminars will be open to the campus community at UMBC, and guests from the University System of Maryland. The sessions will cover topics that support development of a better integration of career and activities that shape everyday life.

The precursor event will be a Career-Life Balance “Writing Corner” breakfast session for graduate students on Monday, Feb. 23. During this session, graduate students will be able to have some dedicated time to work on grant submissions, CV updates, dissertations, applications, etc. The Career-Life Balance “Writing Corner” is a new initiative that is taking the best practices from the PROMISE Dissertation House, PROMISE Writing for Publication, and PROMISE Postdoctoral Writing Suite activities, and combining them with needs that graduate students expressed in a CLB poll launched at UMBC during the Fall semester 2014. The “Writing Corner” concept was developed by the CLB GA, Amanda Lo, who worked with graduate students to gauge interest. Amanda describes the space as follows: “This room will serve to help others achieve career-life balance by providing a comfortable environment where graduate students, post-doctorate fellows, faculty, and staff can allocate time to work at ease on their writing. All participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops and any materials that they might need to assist them with their writing.” Students may RSVP for the Monday, February 23rd “CLB Writing Corner” here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/careerlifebalance/events/30310.

The key CLB event for the month will be a Wednesday, February 25, 2015 workshop on planning your career portfolio. This workshop will be led by Dr. Laura Koppes Bryan, Dean of the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, at the University of Baltimore (UB). Dean Bryan is an advocate for effective strategies on managing both work and life responsibilities. She worked as an independent consultant for LK Associates, where she consulted with organizations on various areas, including work-life effectiveness. She also served as Director of Work-Life at the University of Kentucky where she analyzed data surveying the work-life culture for both faculty and staff members. She developed and implemented the UK Work-Life vision and strategy; through her advocacy and presentation to the University Board of Trustees, she was approved of a budget of 11 million dollars for the work-life initiatives. Dr. Bryan is a member of the PROMISE AGEP STEM Deans Council, and is partnering with The Career-Life Balance Initiative at UMBC, The PROMISE AGEP for the University System of Maryland, UMBC’s Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, and The Graduate School at UMBC, to provide this seminar for all graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, in all disciplines. All members of the campus community are invited to attend.

• Event: Developing A Career Portfolio
• Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2015
• Speaker: Dr.LauraKoppes Bryan,
  • Dean Laura Bryan from UB will discuss developing a career portfolio with a focus on managing both career and life responsibilities. At this event, attendees will be able to walk away with ideas or an outline for developing their career portfolio.  All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of Dean Bryan’s latest book, Shaping Work-Life Culture in Higher Education: A Guide for Academic Leaders.
  • About Dr. Bryan: http://www.ubalt.edu/cas/faculty/alphabetical-directory/laura-k-bryan.cfm
• Location: UMBC, The Commons, Room 329 (Directions to events co-sponsored by the PROMISE AGEP.)
• Time: 1:00 – 2:15 PM
• Lunch will be served
• This event is free, and is sponsored by NSF #1446406.
  • REGISTRATION: The event is open to all graduate students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and alumni. The event will be applicable to all academic disciplines. Visitors from other USM institutions are invited, as part of our PROMISE AGEP alliance.
  • Members of the UMBC community can register here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/29579
  • Visitors from other campuses can reply in the comment section of this email so that we will know that you are coming.

The Career-Life Balance project at UMBC is part of a special initiative that is being sponsored by the National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/career-life-balance/, in concert with objectives on the topic that are being put forth by the White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/02/15/career-life-balance-fair-continues-promote-flexible-workplaces-america-s-scientists-. Read more from the press release by the White House here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/26/white-house-and-national-science-foundation-announce-new-workplace-flexi