Bringing your mom to URCAD and getting her to use all the props is always a good idea!

Honors College student Sara Humphries presented an art exhibition and an oral explanation of the artwork at URCAD '25. She wins a $50 gift card to the UMBC Bookstore!

Unreliable Narration: Understanding Schizophrenia Firsthand Through Art

Sara Humphries
Mentor: Prof. Corrie Parks, Visual Arts

This creative research seeks to connect society with personal accounts of schizoaffective disorder. The disorder is largely characterized by its negative symptoms—a profound and continuous deterioration of self and sanity. The personal accounts of those afflicted are usually disregarded because of this, leaving our awareness of the disorder to come primarily from the friends, family, and doctors surrounding the schizophrenic. And yet, it is a disorder which continuously fascinates to a great degree. Subsequently, schizophrenia research becomes an echo chamber which excludes those with actual firsthand experience of the disorder. As someone recently diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, this artist has attempted to illustrate the internal mystery of schizophrenia through her own experiences. These pieces, which were painted in varying stages of psychotic episodes, serve as perceptual depictions of a myriad of symptoms such as dissociation, paranoia, delusions, and hallucinations. So far, these paintings have been used to incite discussions between the afflicted and those surrounding them. Works such as “This is Your Brain on Depersonalization” and “Psychosis” help convey the internal struggle as seen by the schizophrenic—a self-portrait of the less visible manifestations—which we can then use to replace this fear of the unknown with understanding of the disorder.

Forget about the poster, police doge extraordinaire Chip was in the House at URCAD '25. URA Scholars and Biology majors Shivam and Muktar got the "OMG it's Chip!" vote and won $50 to the UMBC Bookstore!

Investigating The Role Of The Gene, Rho1 On The Innate Immune Response In Drosophila Melanogaster

Mukta Sangar, Shivam Patel
Mentor: Dr. Jeff Leips, Biological Sciences

Immunosenescence, the decline in immune function with age is a hallmark of aging but varies among individuals. This variation has a genetic basis but the genes involved are unknown. A recent genome-wide association study identified Rho1 as a candidate gene contributing to the variation of immune function with age. We investigated the role of Rho1 on bacterial clearance at young and old ages using Drosophila melanogaster. We used the GAL4-UAS system to knock down the expression of Rho1 in hemocytes of male and female flies and tested the effect of reduced expression on the ability of flies to clear bacterial infection at 1 and 5 weeks of age. Overall, older flies had reduced ability to clear infection compared with younger flies and males were significantly better at clearing infection than females. The effect of reduced expression of Rho1 on clearance ability depended on sex. Reduced Rho1 expression decreased the ability of males to clear infection but had no significant effect on clearance ability in females. Future work focused on understanding how Rho1 influences the innate immune response and why it has sex specific effects will provide new avenues for improving the immune function and the health span of the elderly.

This work was funded, in part, through an Undergraduate Research Award from the UMBC Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs.

Be like Mukta and Shivam: become a URA scholar today!

https://ur.umbc.edu/ura/

Liz where? Liz Weir! At URCAD, of course!

Liz is a URA Scholar and member of the Honors College who presented their poster along with co-presenter, W. Aguiling at URCAD. Super-Mentor, Dr. Charissa Cheah visited and now Liz has $50 bucks to spend at the UMBC Bookstore!

Cultural Pluralism in Practice: A Mixed-method Study on Reducing Asian American Students’ COVID-19-related Stress

Liz Weir, Aguiling, W., Aquino, A.K.
Mentor: Dr. Charissa Cheah, Psychology

Increased anti-Asian sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic created a more hostile environment for Asian Americans (Cheah et al., 2020). For Chinese American adolescents, this sinophobic fear could impact their stress in school. Previous research has found experiences of discrimination among Chinese American adolescents to be associated with negative academic outcomes (Benner & Kim, 2009). One factor that might moderate this link is the extent to which adolescents believe their schools practice cultural pluralism by making minority students more visible and celebrating cultural differences (Brand et al., 2003; Green et al., 1988). Promoting diversity and inclusivity may increase students’ sense of belonging in school, thus minimizing the stressful effects of messages of rejection about their racial/ethnic group (Schachner et al., 2016). Applying the School Ethnic Racial Socialization (ERS) Transmission model (Saleem & Byrd, 2021) to Asian American adolescents, this study will examine the potential moderating role of schools’ support for cultural pluralism (SSCP) in the relation between students’ perceived Sinophobia and school stress in the context of COVID-19. In addition, we will incorporate qualitative interview data to understand Asian American adolescents’ ideas surrounding how schools can create inclusive learning environments that address and/or prevent racial marginalization.

This work was funded, in part, through an Undergraduate Research Award from the UMBC Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs.

Be like Liz! Apply to be a URA Scholar today! Get up to $1500 to support your research or creative work!

https://ur.umbc.edu/ura/

If you would like to reach out and provide your experience with The Garden the email is: abbiel1@umbc.edu

Adele wins a $100 gift card to the UMBC Bookstore!

RSVP to attend the Keynote session here: 

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Celebrate our immigrant communities at UMBC – A Day of Community, Art, and Storytelling

Join us on Thursday, May 1st for a vibrant, day-long celebration honoring the contributions of our immigrant communities at UMBC and beyond.

Morning Kickoff

Start the day by showing appreciation for our custodial staff—many of whom are immigrants—for their essential role in creating a welcoming and thriving campus environment.
Breakfast: 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM | Sports Zone

Keynote Speaker: Jessy DeSantis
Raised in a Nicaraguan household in Miami and now based in Baltimore, Jessy DeSantis is a self-taught artist whose bold, colorful paintings explore themes of identity, culture, and connection. Drawing inspiration from nature, food, family, and their Central American roots, Jessy will share their powerful story navigating culture, identity, and the art world.
Keynote: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Sports Zone
Learn more about Jessy at:www.jdesantisart.com

"Share Your Story" Artwork Activity
Contribute to our community storytelling project! Students, faculty, and staff are invited to showcase where they're from and reflect on their own or their family’s journeys. Help us build a visual "global tapestry" of UMBC.
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Commons Terrace

Let’s come together to recognize, uplift, and celebrate the vibrant, diverse experiences that make up our UMBC community. No matter where you’re from or what language you speak, you belong here.

Thank you to our sponsors: PROMISE, COEIT, Latinx and Hispanic Faculty Association, Black Faculty and Staff Association, Asian & Asian American Faculty & Staff Council, Student Belonging (Division of Student Affairs), and  Student Affairs Success Initiatives.

This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy. 

1) A rocky academic record

2) Having few clinical/shadowing experiences

3) Feeling behind on your timeline

4) Gaining research experience

5) How to learn about professional schools

You're not alone! These are all common topics of conversation during advising meetings. Let's talk about how you can use this summer to become a stronger applicant to health professional schools!

Join Mx. Melissa Huselton tomorrow (Wed 4/23) for the workshop "5 Problems and How to Solve Them This Summer" from 3-3:45pm in the University Center room 115. Details and RSVP at the original post here.

RSVP to attend the Keynote session here: 

---------------------

Celebrate our immigrant communities at UMBC – A Day of Community, Art, and Storytelling

Join us on Thursday, May 1st for a vibrant, day-long celebration honoring the contributions of our immigrant communities at UMBC and beyond.

Morning Kickoff

Start the day by showing appreciation for our custodial staff—many of whom are immigrants—for their essential role in creating a welcoming and thriving campus environment.
Breakfast: 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM | Sports Zone

Keynote Speaker: Jessy DeSantis
Raised in a Nicaraguan household in Miami and now based in Baltimore, Jessy DeSantis is a self-taught artist whose bold, colorful paintings explore themes of identity, culture, and connection. Drawing inspiration from nature, food, family, and their Central American roots, Jessy will share their powerful story navigating culture, identity, and the art world.
Keynote: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Sports Zone
Learn more about Jessy at:www.jdesantisart.com

"Share Your Story" Artwork Activity
Contribute to our community storytelling project! Students, faculty, and staff are invited to showcase where they're from and reflect on their own or their family’s journeys. Help us build a visual "global tapestry" of UMBC.
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Commons Terrace

Let’s come together to recognize, uplift, and celebrate the vibrant, diverse experiences that make up our UMBC community. No matter where you’re from or what language you speak, you belong here.

Thank you to our sponsors: PROMISE, COEIT, Latinx and Hispanic Faculty Association, Black Faculty and Staff Association, Asian & Asian American Faculty & Staff Council, Student Belonging (Division of Student Affairs), and  Student Affairs Success Initiatives.

This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University'snondiscrimination policy.