Russia has begun actively interfering in US democracy, but what do you 
know about the country? As the Mueller investigation appears to be 
coming to a close, time to learn more! POLI 475 - Russian Politics - is 
being offered in January as an online class and still has space! No 
prerequisites - we'll start building your knowledge on Russia with the 
assumption that the country is new to you. Questions? Contact Dr. 
Grodsky, bgrodsky@umbc.edu.

Contract Position – Fund Development Consultant

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

Hulon Morgan ’18, graduating from UMBC this month with a degree in psychology, remembers growing up seeing his mother’s commitment to helping her congregation. He learned how to reach behind him, in front of him, and to the side to help as many people as possible. And he carried those values of service and connection when he enlisted in the Air Force and throughout his college career.

Morgan is one of many UMBC students graduating this December who exemplifies the Retriever spirit of building connections and community by offering a compassionate ear, a helping hand, and a voice of support when it is most needed. Together, these students have created a more inclusive, accessible, and supportive UMBC for everyone, and they continue to reach together to help UMBC grow.

Who I am

After attending Howard Community College, Morgan came to UMBC with a sense of possibility, but also uncertainty. “I didn’t know what I was going to do,” the psychology major recalls. “UMBC had a lot of freedom. It was a culture shock for me.”

To find his grounding, Morgan turned to a meaningful constant in his life: building a supportive community. He focused on helping peers in crisis, offering education and intervention on mental health issues, and becoming a leading advocate for suicide prevention.

Morgan volunteers as a crisis counselor for Crisis Line, a nationwide text hotline, and has already managed over 100 crisis texts this year. He also planned and led UMBC’s 2018 Out of the Darkness Campus Walk for suicide awareness and prevention. Organizers started with a goal of raising $2,000 and getting 50 participants. Ultimately, says Morgan, “We raised over $5,000 with the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and had over 100 people attend.”

While at UMBC, Morgan has also worked as a peer health educator, leading workshops and providing resources on sexual and mental health for peers across campus. When he began this work, Morgan didn’t realize service would help him find a passion for health education and promotion. He says, “I just knew that I wanted my time at UMBC to count.”

Jasmine Abrams, assistant professor of psychology, has seen Morgan’s drive first-hand, through his time in her lab. “He always showed up to his community work with passion, enthusiasm, and thoughtful curiosity,” she says. “I have no doubt that he will be a strong contributor to health promotion and equity in the coming years.”

Morgan, an Honors College student, has also taken the time to connect with prospective and incoming transfer students, sharing his experience at university events and one on one. “I want other students to know that they don’t have to go through the same culture shock,” he says. “UMBC has a lot of resources for them.”

Soon, Morgan will return to full-time status in the Air Force as an education and training manager. Like his fellow Retrievers, he expects to continue reaching out and building community beyond UMBC. “If someone needs help, I’ll be there,” he says. “Sign me up. It is who I am.”

“Why not?”

If you ask Shannon Cole ’18, biological sciences, why she has focused so much time and energy on community work for nearly a decade, she will smile shyly, shrug her shoulders, and ask you, “Why not?” After a pause, the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar and Honors College member shares, “I am drawn to building relationships and understanding others. Volunteering is not something I plan.”

Beyond her academic work, Cole has participated in the Global Brigades student organization and in the College Journey Upward Mentoring Program (College JUMP), which is a partnership between the Refugee Youth Project and UMBC’s Shriver Center.

With Global Brigades, Cole traveled to rural Nicaragua and helped set up medical clinics, drawing on her rigorous attention to detail, organization, planning, and research skills. The experience had a profound impact on how she understands disparities in access to medical care. “It gave me a new perspective on healthcare access,” she says, “serving people who walked 30 miles to reach our clinic because there was no regular access to healthcare.”

Through College JUMP, which supports refugee youth in Baltimore, Cole mentored two young women from Burma as they prepared to apply for college. “I enjoyed connecting with them and learning about their culture and getting a different perspective,” she shares. “I remember struggling when I applied to college. I am glad I could help.” The young women were both successful in their applications, earning admission to the University of Baltimore and Community College of Baltimore County.

College JUMP also offered Cole an opportunity to continue working with the program as a fundraising specialist in her last semester. “She has truly helped College JUMP, which is only in its fourth year, grow stronger,” says Eloise Grose, assistant director of applied learning and community engagement in the Shriver Center.

After graduation, Cole will continue research and data analysis work at the Food and Drug Administration.

Meaningful connections

For economics major Charra Wudtee ’18, coming to UMBC was an opportunity to grow in new directions, and building community became a big part of that. “I wanted my college experience to be drastically different from my high school experience,” she explains, “I wanted to connect with as many people as possible.”

Wudtee, a member of the Honors College, has built a vast network of peers, faculty, and staff members all committed to growing supportive communities, both on and off campus. Her desire to make meaningful connections led her to teach English and literacy to immigrants through Baltimore’s Esperanza Center, serve as an eco-ambassador for UMBC sustainability programs, and establish a day of service for freshman in the Honors College, in partnership with Civic Works.

Wudtee has also felt connected and inspired through relationships she has built as an orientation peer advisor and resident assistant. She shares that deep, meaningful, and difficult conversations with others have helped her feel successful and supported, even when coping with challenges or failures along her journey. She has channeled this feeling into supporting incoming Retrievers, saying, “I wanted students new to campus to know that someone remembers, knows, and supports them.”

Wudtee will next join Morgan Stanley as an operations analyst.

Legacy

Daniel Willey ’18, a third-generation Retriever, is a leading advocate for helping all students feel included and supported in being their authentic selves at UMBC. But just six years ago, they couldn’t have imagined the path they’d take to get here.

“I never met a gay or trans person before UMBC. Where I come from if you were gay you didn’t tell people,” says Willey. “My first year at UMBC was my first time living as an out person. I was in the process of forming my identity and choosing my pronouns. It was terrifying but I had to do it.”

Willey found a supportive community that welcomed their voice through their work as part of the executive board of the Freedom Alliance, QUMBC, and serving on the Queer Leadership Council and the Campus Climate Workgroup. Through those leadership roles, they identified opportunities for the university to improve inclusion and support for transgender and non-binary students, such as through improving access to all-gender bathrooms.

“When you are worried about how people are going to perceive you, the safety of the situation, how comfortable you will be, using the bathroom becomes something you worry about,” explains Willey. “If I go into the women’s bathroom, are they going to tell me I’m in the wrong bathroom? If I go into the men’s bathroom, am I going to be unsafe?”

As an intern at the Women’s Center, Willey helped facilitate Rebuilding Manhood, a group for men to explore ideas about manhood and to analyze cisgender privilege. They also facilitated Spectrum, a group for transgender and non-binary students.

“I wholeheartedly believe the Women’s Center would not be the community space it is today without Daniel’s legacy of courage and accountability,” says Jess Myers, director of the Women’s Center. “Daniel constantly embraces courage, authenticity, and accountability in themselves, and it’s impossible not to embrace those same qualities after working with them.”

Beyond community groups, Willey, a gender, sexuality and women’s studies major and a member of the Honors College, also encourages students to take the time to explore these issues in the classroom. “I tell everyone I meet to take gender and women’s studies class before graduating. You can’t walk away from that class the same person you were when you walked in.”

Willey who looks forward to continuing a career as an early childhood educator. “I take with me the support of a community that helped raise me,” they say, “and the skills it equipped me with to continue to create change in any community I am part of.”

December commencement ceremonies will be livestreamed through both the UMBC Commencement website and UMBC Facebook page. Share well wishes for our grads using #UMBCgrad and #UMBCproud.

Banner image: Hulon Morgan talks with peer health educators at a UMBC workshop. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

With Susan Graham ’98, VPA & Anthropology, Special Collections Librarian at UMBC

Since the early 1900s, fans of science fiction and fantasy have produced thousands upon thousands of “fanzines” to showcase writing and art, discuss literature and politics of the era, and build community among fellow fans. Often produced by amateur editors, they have titles like Janus and Mirage and If!, and many are stapled together, copied by mimeograph, or even colored by hand. Many are filled with in jokes and turns of phrase meant to delight and engage a very specific — and passionate — readership.

These publications are unique, fun, and meant to be enjoyed. But, if you’ve never tried reading one, much less becoming an honest to goodness fanzine fan, where do you begin? Well, it just so happens that the Special Collections department of the Albin O. Kuhn Library houses the Coslet-Sapienza Fantasy and Science Fiction Fanzine Collection, which contains tens of thousands of amateur press science fiction and fantasy magazines produced from 1937 to 72. Among the collection you can find early works by famous authors like Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, as well as undiscovered talents from across the genres.

Special Collections librarian Susan Graham ’98, is here to walk us through a few easy steps anyone can take to blast warp speed ahead into this exciting new (old, really) universe of literature. The key, of course, is knowing what to ask.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

1. A friendly librarian — like Susan!
2. A section of great zines — like UMBC’s Coslet-Sapienza Fantasy and Science Fiction Collection.
3. A bookish sense of adventure!

STEP 1: WHAT IS A FANZINE ANYWAY?

Fanzines are amateur publications that are created by fans of a particular genre of work for other fans of that genre. Work of this sort spans not only science fiction and fantasy, but also horror, mystery, crime, and other genres. The first American fanzine was called The Comet and published in May 1930, and the first use of the word “fanzine” was in the October 1940 issue of Detours, a hand-written mimeographed publication on hand in Special Collections.

So, what’s inside?

“They often had letters to the editor with fans discussing the works of other established writers…but they were also a venue for aspiring writers to write their own stories and artists who contributed artwork. There were poems, inside jokes,” as well as plans for get-togethers and conventions, Graham says. “Sometimes authors would even write in and have this sort of relationship with the fans” that kept them reading issue after issue.

STEP 2: HOW CAN I FIND FANZINES TO LOOK AT, AND WHAT KINDS ARE AVAILABLE?

Because their history is so deep and interesting, much is to be found online about fanzines and their background. Many titles from the Coslet-Sapienza collection are digitized and available via the UMBC Library website, where it’s easy to quickly learn about a range of titles and topics — from war to feminism — and even find out how to see them first-hand on campus.

Over the summer, a group of students new to fanzines spent several weeks exploring the collection through the CoLab program, digging deep into titles that interested them, and ultimately creating an online resource for people interested in the literature.

“They produced a great online exhibit that talks all about fanzines and how they were created,” says Graham. “If you’re just starting out, it’s a great place to begin.”

STEP 3: HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FANZINE COMMUNITY?

Much like immersing oneself in the language of an undiscovered country, learning the ins and outs of fanzines can take some deep study. Much like travel, you can also easily lose yourself in the splendor of fanzine culture.

One great doorway in is through the library’s collections of Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA) materials. A quick flip through some of their newsletters can give you a host of details about what readers enjoyed, and how they communicated with each other, Graham says.

Another is The Fillostrated Fan Dictionary by Elliot Weinstein, also on hand at the library, which offers definitions for hundreds of fandom-specific terms you didn’t even know you didn’t know. (Like “Bolega,” a “mythical fannish liquor,” or “Helicopter Beanie,” the “stereotyped head gear worn by all neo type fans,” to name just a couple.)

But, nothing quite compares to holding a fanzine in your hands and imagining who made it, says Graham.

“One thing that’s really special about fanzines is that some of them can look really homemade,” with original drawings and hand bindings that show the depth of commitment of the publisher, says Graham. “This was somebody’s passion, they loved it, they wanted to get work out there. They wanted to be a part of this community.”

The More You Know

Ready to get started? Here are some resources to get you on your way to fanzine fandom.

• Fanzine Lib Guide: Visit this guide online for history of fanzines, links to searches within the Coslet-Sapienza collection, digital copies of fanzines, and information on how to visit the collection in person. lib.guides.umbc.edu/fanzines
• CoLab Student Project: Dig in deeper to several specific titles in the Coslet-Sapienza collection through this in-depth student summer research project. umbcspecialcollections.omeka.net/exhibits/show/cosletsapienzafancoll
• Zine Wiki: Use this open-source encyclopedia devoted to zines and independent media to find out about a larger swath of zines, including history, production, distribution, and culture of the small press. Zinewiki.com
• Learn more about UMBC Special Collections and all of its wonderful holdings! library.umbc.edu/speccoll/

— Jenny O’Grady

The Instructional Technology Team will celebrate its 4th Annual TechFest on March 1, 2019 and is looking for presenters!  TechFest is designed to bring together UMBC students, faculty, and staff to demonstrate instructional technology tools, discuss the use of learning analytics, and share best practices with the campus community through workshops, presentations, and hands-on activities.  This year’s event will be hosted alongside the Faculty Development Center’s Symposium sponsored by the Provost’s office, providing a poster session and luncheon with keynote address by renowned speaker Randy Bass.

Students, faculty, and staff are all welcome and encouraged to attend.

Follow this link to submit your proposal today!

Are you a student, faculty, or staff member interested in leading a 45-minute workshop session or providing a brief overview of an instructional technology tool in the Technology Test Kitchen?  Past session topics have included Clickers, Blackboard, iCloud, Accessibility, Phishing, CourseArc, and Lynda.com but new topics are encouraged and appreciated!  Key themes for the upcoming TechFest include (but are not limited to) the following:

·       Using Learning Technologies for Instruction and Engagement (LTIE)

·       Using Data Collection and Analytics to Inform Instruction and Strategy, Measure Success, and Prompt Intervention (DCA)

·       Integrating Technology Tools into Best Practices (TBP)

There are two types of sessions that will be offered at TechFest 2019:

·       Workshop Session (45 minutes)- Presenter(s) provide a brief overview on a theme-related topic with time for Q&A. Participants are provided with at least three take-aways they can incorporate as a best practice.

·       Technology Test Kitchen Demo (45 minutes)- Presenter(s) provide brief overviews, give 15 minute demonstrations, and answer questions about a particular technology tool to participants visiting demo stations.  Participants are given the opportunity to explore the technology through "hands-on" activities.

Deadlines and Notifications

Please submit your proposals no later than 5pm on Friday, January 18, 2019 by completing this Google Form.  Applicants will be notified about acceptances within two weeks of the submission deadline.  Selection will be based on how well the proposal connects to the overall themes and goals of TechFest.

So mark your calendars for Friday, March 1, 2019 and spread the word!  The day will be filled with TechFest talks and technology demos, the Faculty Development Center’s Symposium hosted by the Provost Office, and an opportunity to participate in a TechFest Escape Room activity!  More details on all events are forthcoming, so look out for future postings.  

Follow this link to submit your proposal today!

For questions and more information, please contact us at techfest19@umbc.edu.