The summer after graduating high school, I was ready to take on college. But I knew that college would bring a whole slew of new problems, from making friends to really hard classes, and the possibilities of things that could go wrong seemed endless. I had some AP credits transferring, so I knew I would be okay credit-wise, but what I really wanted to do was to spend some time on campus. What better way to dip my foot into the big pool than to take some summer courses? I looked at all of the classes UMBC offered, and decided to start the summer with a stretch and a course in my very own major. I enrolled in Media and Communications 101 and Yoga.

My first day of college was sunny and hot, with the sun ablaze above my head as I stepped out of the car and onto UMBC’s campus. I was nervous about whether I would find the classroom, and whether the teacher would like me. But, it turns out, my professor was wonderful, the class size was small and I was able to really shine. Yoga was a similar experience. The second half of the summer, twice a week I headed over to the RAC to increase my flexibility, and get a general education requirement out of the way through meditation (during which I had the habit of falling asleep).

Throughout the first semester of the summer, I got to know my professor in my class of only about 9 students. I had more time to participate in class and I could share my thoughts with the class, engaging in conversations about the theories behind social media, technology and media. I completed projects like making a whole magazine on my own, and learned about press releases and the definitions of terms like “digital natives” and “digital immigrants.” In the meantime, I was getting to know the campus, eating at Commons and making new friends.

Feeling at home, I switched gears into Yoga at the RAC. I began, nervously in yoga pants with my mat in hand. I handed my Red Card to the desk staffer for the very first time, and wandered down the empty hall with the ellipticals and treadmills on the left-hand side. The instructor, a Health Administration and Policy professor, was kind and encouraged us to take our time, learning each new move slowly and carefully, so as to avoid hurting ourselves.

The classes gave me the opportunity to explore UMBC before the rush and pressures of my first semester, and I believe it’s helped me adjust better to the “college experience,” as it kept it more gradual. Since then, I’ve also taken a course during my first winter break. If you want to get ahead, keep your mind engaged over breaks and stay on track for graduation, check out UMBC’s wide variety of summer and winter classes online.

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Anjali DasSarma has been an intern at the Division of Professional Studies since January of 2018. She is a sophomore Media and Communication Studies major with a minor in Journalism. She is also a Humanities Scholar and an Honors College student at UMBC.

To learn more about UMBC Summer Session, please visit summer.umbc.edu.

On June 12, leaders from UMBC and the University of Limpopo in South Africa formalized commitments to collaborate through joint research as well as faculty and student exchanges. UMBC has steadily grown its international partnerships with universities in Germany, Japan, Portugal, Peru, and other nations around the globe. This is the first such agreement between UMBC and a university in Africa.

“It gives us a lot of joy…to be the first African university with which you sign an agreement like this,” shared Jesika Singh, deputy vice chancellor for research, innovation and partnership at University of Limpopo. “There is so much potential that we see.”

This relationship grew out of the African International Conference (AIC) on Statistics, an event organized annually since 2014 by UMBC statistics faculty and international partners. Past conferences have occurred in Senegal, Ethiopia, Cameroon, South Africa, and Botswana, including statisticians from all across Africa as well as a dozen U.S. institutions. The next two conferences will take place in Ethiopia and Morocco.

Yehenew Kifle, associate professor at the University of Limpopo and currently visiting faculty at UMBC, first connected with UMBC during the 2015 AIC at Jimma University in Ethiopia. Inspired to build on the success of the conference, Kifle asked UMBC to partner on a grant from the South African government to support faculty development.

The grant, managed by Professor Kingsley Ayisi, calls for University of Limpopo junior faculty, some of whom do not yet hold doctoral degrees, to travel to UMBC to pursue doctoral-level training in statistics. Through a similar agreement, other Limpopo faculty will travel to Iowa State University for agricultural training.

“This is really a milestone for us,” said Bimal Sinha, professor of statistics at UMBC and a leader in organizing the AIC, at the signing. “I hope that once other African universities see this, they will want to participate as well.”

In addition to Limpopo faculty traveling to UMBC, UMBC faculty will travel to South Africa to provide short training courses in statistical methods. Those courses will specifically focus on how statistics are used in the study of climate and climate change, which is already producing severe effects throughout the African continent.

Beyond the statistics training program, the partners also signed an agreement outlining plans to pursue joint research projects, exchange programs for UMBC and Limpopo students, and other collaborations across a wide range of departments and programs.

“The way I see it, all sides have quite a bit to gain from this collaboration,” said Rouben Rostamian, professor and chair of mathematics and statistics at UMBC.

“This agreement goes far beyond statistics,” said Antonio Moreira, UMBC’s vice provost for academic affairs. “We are using education between our two countries and our two young universities—both less than 60 years old—to truly change the world by educating, training, and cultivating the future.”

William LaCourse, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at UMBC, is equally excited for the partnership. He shared, “We’re very proud to be here on this joint venture and to take this journey with you.”

Singh echoed his feeling. What started as a small gathering of colleagues from two continents, she said, “has very quickly developed into something that we can look forward to for many years to come.”

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.