Former University of Maryland, Baltimore County swimmer and hopeful Egyptian Olympic team member Hania Moro (‘19) walked into the UMBC swimming and diving coaches’ office after finishing her two-hour training in the pool. The UMBC coaching staff continued to train Moro after she graduated, preparing her for the African Championships, a meet that serves as Egypt’s Olympic Trials, set to take place April 17 to 22.

Moro’s 15-second personal record in the 1500 meter freestyle and four-second personal record in the 800 meter freestyle at the U.S. Open in Georgia, U.S.A. in Dec. suggested she would do well at the championships. However, her personal records seemed meaningless after the coaches told her the championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I started looking at them and I started bawling my eyes,” Moro said. “I was like, ‘What are you talking about? Like, there is no way. I’ve been training for this.’”

For Moro and other professional swimmers looking to qualify for the Olympics, their Olympic Trials were canceled before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) postponed the Games on March 24. 

Moro stressed about being out of the pool in the weeks between the cancellation of her trials and the IOC’s announcement. Her return home to Egypt a few days before the country closed airports on March 19 only further worried her.

“I started getting nervous about not being able to train and then the Olympics are gonna be still going on,” Moro said. “And then I wouldn’t be able to go to my meets. Or go to my meets and not be ready a hundred percent because I haven’t been able to train because of the coronavirus.”

As the weeks drew on, Egypt enacted stay-at-home policies and a curfew that closed any pools Moro could use. Unable to train, Moro grew more anxious waiting for the IOC to postpone the Olympics. 

Moro explained that, for a swimmer, extended time out of the pool means a drastic loss of aerobic capability. To her, one week out of the pool requires three weeks to get back into shape. Having been out of the pool for two weeks, Moro believed she could not get back in shape in time for the Olympics. She said she felt so depressed that she told her mother she was going to quit swimming.

“The only thing I could think of was my dream is literally being taken away from me and I could not do anything about it,” Moro said. “I felt completely useless.”

The postponement announcement was a huge relief for Moro. While she believes the announcement should have come much sooner for the sake of athletes’ mental health, she is glad the Olympics are postponed. She is happy to have another year to train, she said, despite it meaning another year apart from her family in Egypt.

Alexander Gliese (‘19) also appreciates another year to train. Still, he is sad to not see the results of his hard work.

“Just knowing that I didn’t really get to see where I was at, even though there was going to be that pressure with whether I was gonna qualify or not, just not even getting a chance to race was kind of really disappointing,” Gliese said.

Also training with UMBC swim and dive coaches, Gliese was going to compete at the Danish Open, Denmark’s Olympic Trials, from March 28 to April 1 to qualify for Denmark’s Olympic team. However, his qualifying meet was canceled on March 12. 

Even before the trials’ cancellation, Gliese said everything in the world went crazy. On Mar. 10, UMBC stated it was closing campus and conducting online classes the two weeks after spring break. The same day the Danish Open was canceled, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan required all Maryland schools and universities to close. The following day, UMBC closed and forced Gliese to return to his home in Columbia, MD.

Since returning home, Gliese has not been in a pool. Instead, he is doing UMBC swimming and diving head coach Chad Cradock’s and UMBC Strength and Conditioning coach Brian Amenta’s bodyweight workouts. He is also running, though he says his body is not used to the impact.

With this new, less intense training regimen, Gliese is worried about his diet and his body weight. For Gliese, finding the balance between restricting himself and eating enough is difficult. 

“I can feel that change in my body that I’m not giving it enough calories,” Gliese said. “So, it’s kind of trying to find that balance of giving myself enough calories to feel energized and also not eating too much so I don’t start to gain a bunch of weight.”

Gliese is also worried about the financial burden of another year of training. Gliese is not a sponsored professional swimmer, meaning that he does not get reimbursed for the cost of entering in and traveling to meets or for any equipment. While he said supporting himself for a single year was not a big deal, a second year will be difficult.

While Gliese has to support himself, other athletes, like Emily Escobedo, who graduated in 2017, receives a stipend from U.S.A. Swimming for having one of the top 12 world times in any given event, after placing sixth in the nation in the 200 meter breaststroke. However, this stipend only covers the cost of meets, gear and any other athletic needs, so it does not provide for Escobedo’s living expenses. Escobedo’s other source of income would be placing in her events of the 100 meter and 200 meter breaststroke at big meets, but without these meets, Escobedo cannot earn money.

Despite her lack of income, Escobedo is more concerned for those struggling to support their families and people on the front lines of the pandemic. She is especially concerned about her mother, a nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, NY, and her father, a firefighter in New Rochelle, NY. Since her mother contracted the coronavirus, Escobedo is nervous her father will get infected while working.

These worries have not slowed her training. Escobedo considers herself lucky since she has access to infinity pools, small pools with a current that allows Escobedo to swim in place, at SwimLabs. She continues to swim there, though she says it feels weird compared to her altitude training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.

While her training and the pandemic have stressed her out in many ways, Escobedo says the only option in this pandemic is to take things day by day. 

“I think all we need to do is stay in shape and keep our mental health in a good place and I think we’ll be fine,” Escobedo said. “We’ll make it back to the pool because everyone’s in the same situation.”

Cradock echoed Escobedo’s belief in taking things as they come. Cradock has been helping Gliese and Moro through this time and with their adjusted training. He says that they all need to be aware that all of this is out of their control and that they should try to make the best of the situation. 

Even without numerical proof of their Olympic caliber fitness, Cradock is extremely proud of Gliese, Moro and Escobedo.

“They all have a bright future ahead of them,” Cradock said.

With the Olympics currently postponed to some date no later than summer 2021, Moro, Gliese and Escobedo continue to wait for announcements regarding when their trials will be held.

Virtual Elections Process for 2020

Step 1. Nominations for e-board will happen between April 5th - April 30th through Google Forms.

https://forms.gle/YpNWsTSUjWJ5171b8

ATTN:Nominations have been extended until May 4th.

Step 2. As soon as we receive you nomination, candidates will be contacted by email from Sydney Siegel with instructions on how to give their speeches/response to a questionnaire.

The questionnaire through Google Forms will be mandatory for all candidates and the video submission through Google Slides is optional.

All materials must be completed before 8am May 5th.

Questions that will be asked on the questionnaire.

President:

Can you provide a short overview about yourself and how did you become interested in working within the aging field?

What is your mission for the Management of Aging Studies Council of Majors? How would you incorporate your mission to promote interest in the aging field to majors, minors and non-majors.

Vice President:

Can you provide a short overview about yourself and how did you become interested in working within the aging field?

As Vice President, how would you assist the president in promoting their vision for the Management of Aging Studies Council of Majors? What if you do not believe in the president’s vision, how would you handle it?

Treasurer:

Can you provide a short overview about yourself and how did you become interested in working within the aging field? If elected for this position, what fundraisers would you create and why? How would you promote these fundraisers to reach students on and off campus while promoting interest in the organization?

Additional officers: 

Secretary (Optional Position): 

A student can run for both a necessary and optional position but only win one position.

Fifth member (Honorary Position): 

A student can be nominated for this position if they do not win in the President, Vice President or Treasurer elections. There will be a checkbox on the nomination form indicating if they want to be considered for this position or, if they were nominated by someone else, an officer will reach out to them to ask if they would like to be considered for this position.  

Step 4. Candidates speeches/answers to questions will be posted by May 5th. Written speeches will be up on MyUmbc, so runners can answer questions from other students about their campaign. During elections, speeches will be available for viewing on the ballot through Google Forms, so students will have an opportunity to view and compare the speeches. Video recorded speeches will be available on Google Slides and the link to that will be posted on MyUmbc.

Step 5. Elections will be taking place from May 8th-May 11th through Google Forms. The link will be made available on MyUmbc.

Step 6. Elections results will be made available by May 12th on myUMBC and emails will be sent out to all candidates prior to posting on myUMBC.

DEADLINE APRIL 24, 2020

For those with degrees in science or math, teaching might be a next step. Through the WW Teaching Fellowship, they can receive a $32,000 stipend, discounted tuition, and mentoring.

A few spots are still open at West Chester University, one of our partner universities, where WW Teaching Fellows complete a clinically based preparation program for STEM teachers that leads to a master’s degree. The program focuses on preparing teachers for success in high-need middle or high schools in the School District of Philadelphia.

All interested candidates should complete their applications by April 24. For questions about the application process or eligibility, candidates can reach out to Neema Ndiba at ndiba@woodrow.org. A digital brochure can be accessed here, for students or staff who would like to learn more about the WW Teaching Fellowship program.

This is Ms. Ruby Powell of the Semi-Suburban Housing Plant (Area 67).  She predicts that she will easily win the URCAD selfie contest.

"A lot of my friends are kind of jealous of me," Ms. Powell admitted. "They think I'm really too good to be taking selfies. That I should move up to another level, you know? Like maybe get a bigger phone and take pictures of mountains and galloping horses and that kind of thing."

Think you can beat Ms. Ruby Powell?

Upload your original photos to FaceBook, Instagram and/or Twitter using #umbcURCAD for a chance to win one of four gift cards to the UMBC Bookstore!

Categories:

• Best overall selfie: Take a photo with a UMBC celebrity (President Hrabowski, Provost Rous, Dean Cole…) or get creative!
• Best with mentor
• Best with family member
• Best with student presentation/poster

In March, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County was awarded a Silver rating for its sustainability efforts from The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Over 900 institutions of higher education throughout 48 states, one U.S. territory, nine Canadian provinces and 20 countries belong to the AASHE, which provides resources to support in advancing sustainability in all aspects of institutions.

The rating came from AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System, a tool that “measures and encourages sustainability in … higher education,” according to its website. Ryan Kmetz, the assistant director of sustainability at UMBC, explained STARS as “a sustainability-focused system, it does not only assess environmental factors but also social and economic factors.” Each STARS score is valid for three years.

Kmetz described the process of applying to STARS as “very labor-intensive,” citing around 70 categories of questions requiring data on the purchasing of environmentally preferable electronic products, student and employee commuting behavior and even information related to the institution’s accessibility to low-income students. Kmetz and his team began gathering data in September 2019 and submitted the report in February 2020.

Kmetz is no stranger to the STARS application process. Before coming to UMBC, he worked at two other institutions of higher education and has prepared three STARS reports since 2015. Of those three, two were submitted and both were given Silver ratings. In January, Kmetz was selected to serve on the AASHE Advisory Committee for a two-year term. 

Based on his previous experience, he estimated that UMBC would fare “somewhere on the border between a Silver or Gold rating,” so he was not surprised with the results. “We integrate sustainability really well into the academics/research and planning/admin categories,” Kmetz explained over email. He also noted that UMBC received full points for Innovation and Leadership, which means the university’s sustainability practices are “above and beyond the ‘industry standard.’”

Since receiving the report, the Sustainability Office has started on a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, or SWOT, analysis of the report to identify areas of improvement for the next STARS report. Kmetz stated that the university is almost finished its new climate action plan and many of its goals align with the report.

“One great example is the percentage of renewable energy,” he said. “As we ramp up to 100 percent renewable energy by the year 2050, we will also see an increase in points in STARS.”

In addition, Kmetz and his team will discuss the results with UMBC’s Climate Action Steering Committee to identify areas of improvement for the next report. There are many stakeholders across the university who play a role in improving UMBC’s sustainability efforts; Kmetz was able to rattle off over twenty different departments and institutions including the registrar, the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Baltimore Gas and Electric.

Of over 300 institutions that have been rated, only five received the highest rating of Platinum: Colorado State University, Stanford University, Thompson Rivers University, University of California, Irvine and University of New Hampshire. One hundred and twenty-four institutions received Gold ratings, 141 received Silver ratings and 54 received Bronze ratings.

Students can access the STARS report on the UMBC Sustainability Matters website. The results of the report will also be included in the US News and World Report’s Green School Rankings and the Sierra Cool Schools report, both of which are released in the fall. 

Katie Poteet is a third-year student studying political science and global studies. She previously served as the assistant news editor of The Retriever.