“Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.” – Satchel Paige

“Don’t try so hard to fit in, and certainly don’t try so hard to be different…just try hard to be you.” — Zendaya

It seems like it was just yesterday.  Way back in May of 2021, we were celebrating commencement virtually while ending a school year like no other.  It felt like things were finally looking up.  Immunity was growing steadily through vaccination and recovery.  We were able to enjoy outside, and some places even inside, without the masks that became sources of expression even as they remained tools of protection.  Live music, movies in theaters, sitting down inside of a restaurant. We were living the dream.  The fall was expected to be even better.   And then… Delta and Lambda went from variables to variants, wildfires raged, hurricane winds blew, refugees sought asylum, Black Lives still don’t seem to matter enough, old white men decided that they are better stewards of a woman’s body than she is, and the world seemed to be in just a little bit more disarray than before.  All the while, August raced towards us along with its imminent return to a campus many of us hadn’t seen in over a year, if ever.  Whether you were ready with arms wide open or waiting with eyes closed and hands out, the time has come. You made it. You are here. So LET’S GO…

“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” – Les Brown

Welcome back!  Welcome back to campus, to class, to clubs, to outside of whatever bubble you sought safe harbor in for the last year or more.  You may not feel particularly welcome given all the rules and policies, but you are.  We are excited to move towards our collective new normal, even if it is with some trepidation.  The last 18 months have been a LOT.  It seems so much longer and a lot of it has blurred together.  We talk about the coming “new normal” but let’s be honest, it is hard to think about our normal being new when your reality feels old and tired and worn out.  You’re not alone.  I’m not a fan of thinking about how your blues ain’t like mine and as a general rule I don’t accept invitations to pity parties.  But I will tell you that this has been hard for us all one way or another.  We are all changed, for better or worse or both, as we live through the Rona.   As you emerge from your quarantine chrysalis, give yourself grace.  Don’t get so bogged down in the fact that your wings are yellow with black polka dots instead of gold like you wanted, or the purple your people insisted was just the right shade, or green like so-and-so’s that you ignore the fact that you have WINGS.  Whether you crushed it and finished every task you set out for yourself and then some, or met some goals and missed some others, or couldn’t even get to making a plan, it is all OK.  You are OK. Even if OK isn’t great.  OK is still in the game, and that means you can still win.  So long as we get to moving towards good then better then best, the YOU version.  Yes, it will take work, but anything worth having is worth working for and we all have work to do.  Start with something, anything and get better at it.  If you’re not sure where to start, that is where we come in.  There are a plethora of offices and people here to support you and to help you figure out how to start and finish.  We are here to help you be ready for whatever comes your way, opportunities or challenges, triumph or disaster. 

“A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you’re in and take advantage of it.” – Nikki Giovanni

"Let go of who you are today to become who you want to be." --Paloma Greer

“You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” – Octavia E. Butler

What are we asking you to do?

1.     Start STRONG.  The best way to set up a great semester is to start with intention and good practices.  Go to office hours once/week for every class. Make a calendar, put EVERYTHING on it and stick to it, even if you have to change it to make it work.

2.     Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready. A particularly intuitive person dropped this jewel on me, but I think it’s really for you.  I had a friend who never seemed to study back in college.  When I asked how, it was simple, they studied every time they did homework, copied notes, or read in the textbook. What they needed to know was already stored in their brain, so no need to try to cram it in at the last minute.

3.     Take care of YOU.  The world has reopened, but that doesn’t mean it feels or is safe.  As you move, take care of your whole self in real and tangible ways.  If you need help, get help.  If you need help finding the help, just say something, we are here for you.

4.     Take care of Business.  You are here to get your degree.  Life requires balance for sure but keep the main thing the main thing.  You have persevered through pandemic, campus closure, zoom, all of it.  Keep that same energy and get this done.  The world needs to see the brilliance you have to offer.

One final note.  Good leaders change the function or maybe even the culture of an institution.  Great leaders change an institution’s nature.  Great leaders have a way of evoking the best from those around them and infusing that and the best of themselves into the very fabric of the organization to make the whole much more than the sum of its parts.  For the last 35 years, UMBC has had such a leader, mentor, scholar, and champion in Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III.  I am happy for Dr. and Mrs. Hrabowski as THEY (don’t be confused, it is most definitely a team effort) have earned their ticket on the ride off into the sunset of their retirement.  At the same time, I am a bit sad for the rest of us, UMBC will not be the same without that booming voice and big laugh stopping students, faculty, and staff alike on campus.  The food he stayed up all night cooking.  The energy and inspiration he exuded every time he stopped to genuinely ask a student how they are doing and to offer support in whatever capacity he could.  I am sure that the next president will be great, and that UMBC as an institution will continue to thrive and grow in grit and greatness because success is never final.  But there will only be one Doc and we are a better campus community because he chose to spend his career with us.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who so powerfully inspires excellence, and that’s exactly what his legacy is — a commitment to inclusive excellence that lives on in UMBC, its students, faculty, staff and alumni.” – Dr. Jay Perman, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” – Lao Tzu

FOCUS,

FOCUS,

FOCUS…

Now go be great.

Whether you're new to tabletop gaming, or have been playing all your life, We'd love for you to join us for any of our game nights. We plant to host biweekly events: Virtual Tuesdays (on the discord server) and Tabletop Thursdays (in the Commons). We are all excited to see your beautiful faces as we introduce a hybrid format of the gaming club.

¿No hablas español? Not a problem. The Spanish Conversation Club is happy to have you! Don’t identify as a woman or engineering major? The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) still welcomes you. Interested in philosophy but not a philosophy major? Didn’t deter the past president of Philosophers Anonymous from taking office.

As a new semester gets underway (make sure to visit Involvement Fest, September 9), these and dozens of other student organizations readily welcome Retrievers who may not assume that the club is for them. Not surprisingly, UMBC clubs and orgs thrive when new perspectives show up.

Join the forum

Headshot provided by Quinlan Murphy.

When Quinlan Murphy ’21, political science, served as president of Philosophers Anonymous, the council of majors for philosophy students, he was determined to make the club feel like home to any interested student. This includes inviting discussions about Hannah Arendt’s warning against the preconditions for totalitarianism to attending online art tours as museums opened their doors virtually during the pandemic. Another of the club’s goals, he says, was to make the department’s physical space in the Performing Arts & Humanities Building a welcoming place for students in between classes. “We wanted to create a little bit of a domestic vibe, so students felt invited into the building—we wanted a tangible space for them to feel at home,” says Murphy, who also obtained a certificate in philosophy. 

Known better as PhilAnon, the group traditionally meets at noon on Tuesdays to allow students to present ideas—their own or others—and then follow a group discussion. “We want people to discuss these ideas outside of class with a little bit less formality, without assignments, without quizzes or tests,” says Murphy. The group also invites other majors and departments to participate, giving talks on bioethics or the hard sciences to discuss the ethical and philosophical corollaries of their academic expertise. 

“Philosophy majors and other members are people who are going to go on to work in the humanities or academics,” says Murphy, “and a critical part of performing that job is being able to present ideas effectively and quickly, and then also having those ideas be criticized and poked by others.”

Student groups make use of The Forum sculpture outside of the Performing Arts & Humanities Building in 2019. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Murphy, as a non-traditionally aged student and a commuter, has high hopes for PhilAnon and other clubs on campus. “I certainly think that the more involvement people have in school, the better college will be—it’s not just about grades and tests and essays. It’s also about growing as a person. And I think that requires interacting with your classmates outside of the classroom.”

Headshot courtesy of Sheila Yeboah.

Pull up a silla (chair)

One of Sheila Yeboah ’23, biological sciences, favorite memories of the last semester is playing online pictionary on Webex with the Spanish Conversation Club. “The combination of the members’ poor drawing skills and the wealth of Spanish synonyms made the game extra difficult,” laughs Yeboah, but she adds that the easy-going nature of the club’s president James Angle and the other executive officers makes the student org a relaxed place to learn and have fun.

Yeboah says that previously her struggle with Spanish was having opportunities to speak it, and the low pressure of the conversation club was exactly what she needed. Yeboah, who is minoring in Spanish, joined the Spanish Conversation Club last semester when they were meeting virtually. “This club is primarily focused on forming friendships and practicing communication,” says Yeboah. “If you are a person that is a little more reserved, like me, it’s a very welcoming environment and you’re not going to feel like you can’t fit in.”

Angle ’22, modern languages and linguistics, became club president his sophomore year when the club had a vacuum of leadership. He and his friend Kyndall Hardwick ’22, English, the vice president, aim to make everyone feel welcome. “So many people get scared away because they think ‘I don’t know enough Spanish at that high level,’” says Angle, “but it could literally be your first day of Spanish class and we’d say ‘Come in.’” 

Angle, who recently started taking Russian classes, knows that the hardest part of language learning can be getting comfortable speaking. “That’s the biggest battle,” he says, “but come play some fun games with us and get comfortable speaking Spanish while enjoying yourself.”

Building connections 

Lilly, left, and other SWE members at the National Conference in Anaheim, California in 2019. Photo courtesy of Kaitlynn Lilly.

At previous Involvement Fests, some students have balked at joining the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), says current president Kaitlynn Lilly, who is not an engineering major. Lilly, who is studying mathematics and physics, says that she and other club leaders emphasize that the space is accessible for anyone who “wants to empower women and move society forward,” says Lilly. “It’s a mix between creating a community of people who support women in STEM and also providing opportunities to meet with companies, practice professional development, and also be social.”

This three-fold goal is the intentional result of Lilly and others on the executive board asking themselves what the purpose of their community was. “We didn’t always have a third of our meetings mixed between social, professional development, and career,” says Lilly, a 2021 Goldwater Scholar. “We made a very conscious decision last year to do that because we used to have a company present to us at every single meeting. And it was really hard for club members to really form that community.”

Before the pandemic, says Lilly, the group was already hosting hybrid meetings to broaden the horizons of what companies they could invite to present. SWE will keep the hybrid format going forward for the convenience of people who commute or people who can’t make the meeting time. 

Jessica Adams ’22, mechanical engineering, is starting her fourth year as a SWE member and her first as a leader. As the public relations chair, she’s eager to see the group grow its membership. “As we get a wider range of perspectives in our club, it allows us to learn about other people’s backgrounds so that we can understand where other people are coming from,” says Adams. “These interactions will make each of us a better candidate for any sort of jobs or internships we apply for in the future.”

Find your space

Murphy, who graduated last spring but hopes to stay connected to PhilAnon virtually, unsurprisingly sees students’ extracurricular involvement through the lens of what is morally and ethically good. 

“I think students should see their time at UMBC as an opportunity for social and personal growth and not just like a job training program,” he says. “They should be able to ask hard questions and explore ideas informally. I think it’s really critical that there’s these spaces for people to have these conversations away from professors and with their peers.”

Whether that conversation is in Spanish or takes place online or in person, there’s a student club waiting to welcome all newcomers with open arms. Find out more at Involvement Fest, September 9 or online all year.

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Header image: SWE at Involvement Fest in 2019. Photo courtesy of Kaitlynn Lilly.