Baltimore is characterized by the diversity of its people. With each individual, there is a unique set of stories. This piqued the interest of a group of students at Johns Hopkins University. These students created “Charm City Stories,” a student journal devoted to art reflectant of mental and physical health.

The creators of “Charm City Stories” aimed to share the genuine narratives of the diverse citizens of Baltimore in efforts to not only spread a sense of awareness, but also understanding. Specifically, the leaders of this student journal wanted art that captured the authentic pain associated with mental and/or physical illness. The idea was not to romanticize illness but to show how art can contribute to one’s well-being.

UMBC, MICA, Loyola, Morgan State, Goucher and University of Maryland, College Park were all invited to submit poetry, paintings and any other art forms displaying their self expression. Accepted submissions were published in a physical magazine as well as a digital one.

On April 6, at John Hopkin University’s Center for Visual Arts, Charm City Stories’ very first publication was celebrated with an open art gallery as well as a live poetry reading. In fact, two of UMBC’s own students were invited to read their creative writing for all visitors.

The gallery beautifully represented the bridge between art and medicine, as the editors intended. The student paintings, drawings and photography showcased seamlessly coincided with the publication’s theme.

Art is a form of empowerment; artists recognize reality yet refuse to accept its vulgarity and use this world full of such disgust and tragedies to inspire their beautiful and creative pieces. And so, by dedicating the theme of the publication to illness, something sufferers and those around them are powerless to, Charm City Stories allowed artists to earn a sense of power over their own difficulties.

Each viewer has the power to interpret the piece in a way individualistic to themselves. And so, although not all viewers suffer from physical and/or mental illnesses, each person has felt weak and vulnerable at one point and therefore could attach him/herself to a piece in this gallery. The presented art’s ability to find relations in each viewer was very admirable.

The art also created a sense of community. Those with life-long physical and mental illnesses and disorders represent a relatively small portion of society. However, the entire gallery was devoted to this minority and brought together the sufferers. It almost created a trace of normality that was rather comforting. It is unfortunate to see how many people struggle with like difficulties, yet comforting to know there are people who can feel complete empathy for such tragedies.

“Charm City Stories” magazine presents the perfect collaboration of both written and visual art. Each artist featured should find great pride in their bravery in sharing their pain-inspired art. The first publication of “Charm City Stories” was a huge milestone for all contributing students of the Baltimore area, and future issues will be greatly anticipated. Any students who want to contribute to future publications with their own art may send submissions to charmcitystories.com.

Casting Equity performers for Baltimore Center Stage 2018-19 main stage season. The season consists of: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (Tennessee Williams, playwright. Runs Sept. 13-Oct. 14); “King of the Yees” (Lauren Yee, writer. Runs Oct. 25-Nov. 18); “A Wonder in My Soul” (Marcus Gardley, writer. Runs Nov. 29-Dec. 23); “Fun Home” (Jeanine Tesori, music; Lisa Kron, book & lyrics; Alison Bechdel, graphic novel (original material); runs Jan. 17-Feb. 24, 2019); “Indecent” (Paula Vogel, writer. Runs Feb. 28-March 31, 2019); and “How to Catch Creation” (Christina Anderson, writer.

The Student Events Board (SEB) continued its Weekly Movie series with “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” the 2017 reboot of the 1995 classic. As usual, the seats in the Sports Zone were full and the popcorn was hot and fresh. SEB will play the movie for the weekend of April 7 in LH1 at 9 p.m. Note: this review will be spoiler free.

For most 90’s babies, “Jumanji” is a nostalgic classic that had the perfect amount of drama and suspense. The eerie effects and dim lighting used in the movie contributed to the reasons why most kids wouldn’t watch this movie alone or at night. Board games were never the same after this blockbuster hit the screen.

As we all know, reboots can be either really good or really bad. There usually is no in between. Is a remake necessary two decades after the fact? It’s the question everyone wanted to know, which is probably part of the reason why “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” got so much attention in the media. Not a commercial break went by without one of the trailers playing.

This 2017 take seemed to completely shift from the original feel of the movie. It is clear that the target audience was a teenage crowd and the directors were desperate to connect with this audience as much as they could. Key pieces from the original “Jumanji” were modernized, like that the cast turned into video game characters instead of getting sucked into an antique board game.

At first glance, the movie’s cast list is drastically different than the original. Kevin Hart, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan are all known to be powerhouses in comedy and kept the audience laughing the whole time. So what are they doing in “Jumanji”? Although they seemed a little misplaced, they all added a great deal of laughter to the otherwise melodramatic film and their characters were honestly pretty hard to not like.

Overall, the movie seemed to get pretty decent ratings. Scoring a 76 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an 88 percent Audience Score, the movie did better than most expected. The box office brought in $393,201,353, which is a little low compared to other movies that came out within the same couple weeks.

Washington Post contributor Jane Horwitz reviewed the movie, praising its hilarious actors, fantastic animation and digital effects, and the overall message that the movie was telling its watchers. She said the message geared to their teen audience was “about overcoming their insecurities to participate fully in life, without pounding the lesson into the ground.” And who doesn’t love a good message?

If you haven’t seen it yet, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is definitely worth the watch. To catch all the showtimes, visit SEB’s page on myumbc.edu.

The Group Sales Associate is a relationship builder and savvy advocate who possesses a strong sales drive, a warm personality, and an eagerness to introduce others to Everyman Theatre. Reporting directly to the Marketing Director, he or she is responsible for all group sales, with a primary goal of increasing group sales revenue above existing targets (75% of time) and a secondary goal of providing support to the Box Office (25% of time).

The Director of Marketing leads and oversees all aspects of the marketing strategy at Everyman Theatre and is a vital member of the senior leadership team. He or she is responsible for creating, developing, and executing both short- and long-term strategic marketing plans that effectively communicate the mission, vision and programming activities of the organization in a way that grows an annual audience of more than 45,000, and ticket revenue in excess of $1.6 million.

Main Survey

University of Maryland, Baltimore County (COMPLETED 04/04/2018)

Unit Surveys

The Graduate School (COMPLETED 04/04/2018)

     College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (COMPLETED 04/04/2018)

          Department of Economics

               Program in Economic Policy Analysis

          Department of Education

               Master of Arts in Education Program

               Program in Instructional Systems Development (COMPLETED 04/02/2018)

               Program in Teaching

               Program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

          Department of Emergency Health Services (COMPLETED 04/03/2018)

          Department of Geography and Environmental Systems

               Program in Geographic Information Systems (COMPLETED 04/02/2018)

               Program in Geography and Environmental Systems

          Department of History (COMPLETED 03/14/2018)

                 Program in Historical Studies (COMPLETED 03/14/2018)

             Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (COMPLETED 04/02/2018)

                  Program in Intercultural Communication (COMPLETED 04/02/2018)

             Department of Music

          Department of Psychology

               Program in Applied Developmental Psychology

               Program in Human Services Psychology

               Program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (COMPLETED 04/02/2018)

          Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Health Administration and Policy

               Program in Applied Sociology

          Department of Visual Arts

               MFA in Intermedia and Digital Arts Program

          Doctoral Program in Gerontology at UMB/UMBC

          Program in English: Texts, Technologies, and Literature (COMPLETED 03/17/2018)

             Program in Gender and Womens Studies

          Program in Language, Literacy, and Culture (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

             School of Public Policy (COMPLETED 03/30/2018)

     College of Engineering and Information Technology (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

          Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Post Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Biochemical Regulatory Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Environmental Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

          Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Data Science (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Technical Management (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Computer Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Computer Science (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Cybersecurity (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Electrical Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

             Department of Information Systems (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Health Information Technology (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Human-Centered Computing (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Information Systems (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

           Department of Mechanical Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Post Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Computational Thermal Fluid Dynamics (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Post Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Mechatronics (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

                  Program in Mechanical Engineering (COMPLETED 04/06/2018)

     College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences

          Department of Biological Sciences

               Program in Applied Molecular Biology

               Program in Biological Sciences

               Program in Molecular and Cell Biology

               Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences

               Programs in Biotechnology

          Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (COMPLETED 03/22/2018)

                  Program in Biochemistry

               Program in Chemistry (COMPLETED 03/22/2018)

             Department of Mathematics and Statistics

               Program in Applied Mathematics

               Program in Statistics

          Department of Physics

               Program in Atmospheric Physics

               Program in Physics

     Erickson School of Aging Studies (COMPLETED 03/13/2018)

        Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences Graduate Program

     Program in Engineering Management

     Program in Systems Engineering