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Happy end-of-the-semester, WFN!  

In keeping with our mission to support CAHSS women faculty at key junctures in their careers, we will once again offer assistance to colleagues going up for promotion or tenure this season: an online library of past self-assessments and mentorship on dossier development and the writing of the self-assessment. 

We need your help!  If you have successfully passed review for contract renewal, senior lecturer, tenure, or full professor, we'd love to have you as a resource for our colleagues.  

1) If you'd be willing to share the self-assessment you submitted for any of these reviews, please email it to Rebecca (adelman@umbc.edu) at your earliest convenience.

2) If you'd be willing to read and comment on drafts of others' self-assessments, please let Rebecca (adelman@umbc.edu) know by May 31 and we'll add you to the list.

And if you are going up for any kind of P&T this fall, please let us know how we can support you!

The Baltimore Philharmonia Orchestra is currently accepting applications for an Assistant Conductor. This is a volunteer position. The orchestra rehearsals are every Tuesday (Sept through May), 7:00 pm - 9:30pm at the Loch Raven High School, Towson, MD. There is an audition for this position. Candidates who are interested in this position can apply through the join us tab on our website or contact us directly through the email listed on this website.

“I’m not alone in the struggles…or alone in my successes.”

Damarius Johnson ’19, Africana studies, is also a first-generation college student as well as a transfer student from the Community College of Baltimore County. Finding close-knit communities within UMBC has been the key to success. “UMBC has supportive communities that have helped me see college graduation as feasible,” he shares, “and then allowed me to go through the ups and downs that happen as a college student.”

“The McNair Scholars Program has been instrumental as far as focusing my attention on what I’d be pursuing after graduation,” says Johnson. That attention has paid off—he’ll begin a Ph.D. in history at the Ohio State University this fall.

The Transfer Engagement and Achievement Mentoring (TEAM) Program has connected Johnson with mentors and peers who have had experiences he can relate to, such as being the first in their family to attend college, transitioning from community college to a four-year school like UMBC, or experiencing college as a young black man, he says.

Johnson shares, “Having that support has been really helpful in knowing that I’m not alone in the struggles that I have, or alone in my successes. These are people I celebrate with, too.”

Several mentors have helped Johnson through his UMBC journey, and determining his next steps, including Michael Hunt, assistant director of the McNair Scholars Program; Gloria Chuku, professor and chair of the Africana studies department; and James Hamilton, an academic advisor in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. He started at UMBC not knowing what he might do afterward. But now, Johnson says, “I’m most excited about my transition from being an undergraduate to being a scholar in history. I’m excited for what that journey will be like, and to be learning in a new environment.”

“Hopefully it’s the beginning of something good for my family,” says Johnson, who has younger siblings. “I’m really happy to be able to honor them by getting to this point, because they’ve done a lot to support me.”