Hi Retriever Entrepreneurs! The Shriver Center is looking for a cohort of students to participate in UMBC’s Intercultural Engagement Prep course in SP25 semester. This course is designed to grow your intercultural competency and skills. It also serves as the introduction for students interested in UMBC’s Peace Corps Prep Program.   

This program is open to:

• International students (You are already in your intercultural experience!)
• Future or returned study abroad students (Prep for or reflect upon your abroad experience!)
• Students interested in applying to the Peace Corps or similar international service programs after graduation (Get ready to learn and serve abroad!)
• Students who have an interest in preparing for other intercultural experiences or international development careers (Is this the path for you?!)
• Students who want to prepare themselves as global citizens in a multicultural world (Everyone, right?)

As a participant in the Intercultural Engagement Prep pilot program, you will:

• Meet other globally-minded students at UMBC;
• Develop your critical analytical skills;
• Increase your cultural self-awareness and critically reflect on your own unconscious bias;
• Develop strategies to improve your intercultural communication and how you’ll apply it in your future career;
• Recognize cultural differences, commonalities, perceptions, power and privilege dynamics, and how they can lead to conflict; and
• Understand the importance of intercultural dialogue and intercultural citizenship competencies for fostering social justice.

This non-credit/no-fee course, PRAC 103 (course # 6928), will meet twice in the Spring 2025 semester at a mutually agreeable time, but the majority of the course is accessed through asynchronous learning. Students will be required to attend two globally themed events or activities and will also have independent assignments to complete in Blackboard. Upon successful completion of the program, participants will earn two UMBC certified digital badges titled Increasing Cultural Self-Awareness and Reinforcing Intercultural Dialogue.

You can register for the course under PRAC 103 and course number 6928 in the SP25 Schedule of Classes.

Hope to have you join!

 All Mind Spa locations will be closed starting today, December 18, 2024 and will reopen on Monday, January 27, 2024.

For questions, please contact ohp@umbc.edu

Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day

On Wednesday April 16, 2025, Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) will feature research, scholarship, and creative work carried out by UMBC undergraduates. Student work will be shared through oral presentations, posters, artistic exhibits, performances, and film. Over 300 presenters participate annually. Researchers work with faculty mentors on independent research, or research that is part of the mentor’s on-going projects. They are from all disciplines, and can be working on a thesis, capstone project, part of a scholars or honors program, or they can be unaffiliated. This campus-wide celebration of achievement affirms UMBC’s commitment to the twin goals of research and a distinctive undergraduate experience.

All current undergraduates who have conducted research, scholarship or creative work in the last year may apply to present their results at URCAD. Mentors, fellow students, friends, family members, high school teachers and students, graduate school recruiters, and the general public are invited to attend.

Apply starting January 3 at URCAD.umbc.edu

A 200-word abstract describing your research and mentor approval is required.

Email aprilh@umbc.edu with any questions.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2025 Center for Social Science Scholarship
Summer Fellowships!

Apply here.

Applications are now being accepted for the Center for Social Science Scholarship Summer Fellowship.  The purpose of this fellowship is to support significant social science research by tenure-track or tenured faculty in the UMBC College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, resulting in a submittable product by December 2025.  Up to three fellows will receive a $6,000 award during the summer of 2025. 

By December 2025, each Fellow agrees to complete a submittable product, which can include an external grant or fellowship proposal, journal article, policy paper, book manuscript, or book chapter; upon completion, Fellows shall provide a copy of this submitted product to the Director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship. 

Applications are due by February 15, 2024.

Applications will be reviewed and ranked by members of the Center for Social Science Scholarship Advisory Board, according to the following criteria:

• Quality of proposed research project;
• Significance of the project in its field;
• Publishing/funding potential of the work;
• Qualification of the faculty member to carry out the work, including the requisite expertise in the topic area and prior research productivity;
• Likelihood that the proposed work can be successfully completed with fellowship support and that it will result in a submittable product within the specified time period;
• Approval and recommendation of faculty member's department chair.

For more information, interested faculty may contact Eric Stokan, Director.  

Funds for this fellowship are provided by the Center for Social Science Scholarship and the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS).