Enoch Pratt Free Library

Grants Manager

I. CLASS DEFINITION

Psalm 139:7-13, 23-24 (NIV)
“Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb…

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”

God knows each of us intimately because He created us.  Not only did He create us, but He loved us - He came and pursued each of us. Do you ever feel like you messed up big time and get overwhelmed with guilt? Do you ever just want to hide from God? These verses are saying that there is nowhere we can be away from God, and this is grace. God is always wanting us to come back to Him, to be with Him. How can this be? Because God already pursued us, and already loved us with a miraculous, sacrificial and completely perfect love. He already took care of the mess through the blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate us from God and His love in Christ Jesus. But it doesn’t stop here. God keeps pursuing us because we are now to be useful in His hands, in the hands of our Father.

In verse 10, King David writes, your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. God won’t let go - this is our reality. Have you put your hand in God’s hand? It is God’s hand that leads us into living for God’s purposes, and this is true worship. Because God pursues us, every single moment of our lives is now different. David simply responds by asking God to come and be even more intimate with Him, and to lead him in the way everlasting, which is essentially the Father’s heart. Missionary Eric Liddell said, Many of us are missing something in life because we are after the second best. Let’s ask God for His help to stop putting our hand in the hand of something that is second best. This not who we are. Let’s ask God to help us stop yielding the devotion of our hearts to second best. This is not what we were created and saved for.  Instead, let’s also pray the prayer that David prayed and invite God to be even more intimate with us, and ask God to lead us to His heart. May our devotion and worship be “all in” for God’s heart and for His glory.  https://safeshare.tv/x/RpUP_O99U8A

-CH

It’s been a good year for the UMBC Swimming and Diving team. After defending their America East championship title for the third year running, sending one athlete to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, having another qualify for the Olympic Trials and earn bronze at the NCAA Championships (again!), and seeing several of their own compete internationally, you might even say the season’s been going swimmingly.

So, too, are the team’s fundraising efforts: with the help of their famously close-knit alumni community, the team raised nearly $40,000 on their recent giving day.

In the United States, where football, baseball, and basketball are king, swimming and diving are sports that only come around to the public consciousness in Olympic years. This often means that Olympic sports at the collegiate level lack for funding compared to sports that bring in advertising dollars and endorsement deals, and can be more vulnerable to university budget cuts as a result.

That’s where the alumni network comes in, says UMBC director of aquatics Chad Cradock ’97, psychology, who coaches the swimming and diving team: “We don’t have what a Michigan or a Stanford or an Arizona would have, but we do pretty well for who we are because of [our alumni] involvement and their help.” He says alumni stay connected to campus in a variety of ways, from the annual Alumni Day to the team’s expansive Facebook group.

“We try to think of UMBC Swim and Dive as a family,” says senior Emily Escobedo ’17, psychology, one of the swimmers who helped to promote the giving day. “We’re a family right now, and [our alumni] are like long-lost cousins that you don’t see all the time, but that you get to meet and you get to know.”

The giving day was heavily advertised in advance via email and social media, and student athletes like senior team captain Katie Ross ’17, psychology, made calls to alumni throughout the 24-hour period. Ross says what surprised her the most was how receptive alumni were to the idea of a giving day.

“Nowadays, it’s hard to get anyone on the phone for anything,” says Ross, but she says she had several conversations with alumni who weren’t just excited to give to swimming and diving, but interested in her athletic career as well.

“I’d get on the phone and talk to someone, and we’d get sidetracked, and they’d start asking me about swimming or what I’m studying,” she says. “They cared. They actually cared about the athletic department, specifically swimming.”

Ross says fundraising is particularly important given the team’s size and relative diversity: with donations from alumni, the team is able to adopt a broad based recruiting philosophy, expanding the UMBC footprint both across the country and around the world. Student-athletes participate in a championship experience, traveling to away meets as a family. When the whole team is able to cheer each other on, it strengthens their bond.

“Recognizing that this sport really does bring people together, even if it doesn’t necessarily make money” is what’s important, she says.

—Julia Celtnieks ’13

Have a cause close to your heart? Make a gift to UMBC today.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb does not suffer fools gladly. Author of several books including The Black Swan and Antifragile, Taleb is known for his incendiary personality almost as much as his brilliant work in probability theory. Readers of his very active Medium page will experience a formidable mind with no patience for trendy groupthink, a mind that takes special pleasure in lambasting elites with no “skin in the game.”

“Skin in the game” is a central (and welcome) tenet of Taleb’s worldview: we increasingly are ruled by an intellectual, political, economic, and cultural elite that does not bear the consequences of the decisions it makes on our (unwitting) behalf. In this sense Taleb is thoroughly populist, and in fact he correctly identified trends behind the Crash of ’08, Brexit, and Trump’s election. He understands that globalism is not liberalism, that identity and culture matter, and most of all that elites don’t understand how randomness and uncertainty threaten the inevitability of a global order. 

It’s been a good year for the UMBC Swimming and Diving team. After defending their America East championship title for the third year running, sending one athlete to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, having another qualify for the Olympic Trials and earn bronze at the NCAA Championships (again!), and seeing several of their own compete internationally, you might even say the season’s been going swimmingly.

So, too, are the team’s fundraising efforts: with the help of their famously close-knit alumni community, the team raised nearly $40,000 on their recent giving day.

In the United States, where football, baseball, and basketball are king, swimming and diving are sports that only come around to the public consciousness in Olympic years. This often means that Olympic sports at the collegiate level lack for funding compared to sports that bring in advertising dollars and endorsement deals, and can be more vulnerable to university budget cuts as a result.

That’s where the alumni network comes in, says UMBC director of aquatics Chad Cradock ’97, psychology, who coaches the swimming and diving team: “We don’t have what a Michigan or a Stanford or an Arizona would have, but we do pretty well for who we are because of [our alumni] involvement and their help.” He says alumni stay connected to campus in a variety of ways, from the annual Alumni Day to the team’s expansive Facebook group.

“We try to think of UMBC Swim and Dive as a family,” says senior Emily Escobedo ’17, psychology, one of the swimmers who helped to promote the giving day. “We’re a family right now, and [our alumni] are like long-lost cousins that you don’t see all the time, but that you get to meet and you get to know.”

The giving day was heavily advertised in advance via email and social media, and student athletes like senior team captain Katie Ross ’17, psychology, made calls to alumni throughout the 24-hour period. Ross says what surprised her the most was how receptive alumni were to the idea of a giving day.

“Nowadays, it’s hard to get anyone on the phone for anything,” says Ross, but she says she had several conversations with alumni who weren’t just excited to give to swimming and diving, but interested in her athletic career as well.

“I’d get on the phone and talk to someone, and we’d get sidetracked, and they’d start asking me about swimming or what I’m studying,” she says. “They cared. They actually cared about the athletic department, specifically swimming.”

Ross says fundraising is particularly important given the team’s size and relative diversity: with donations from alumni, the team is able to adopt a broad based recruiting philosophy, expanding the UMBC footprint both across the country and around the world. Student-athletes participate in a championship experience, traveling to away meets as a family. When the whole team is able to cheer each other on, it strengthens their bond.

“Recognizing that this sport really does bring people together, even if it doesn’t necessarily make money” is what’s important, she says.

—Julia Celtnieks ’13

The UMBC Women’s Swimming and Diving team celebrates after defending their America East Championship title on February 12. Photo courtesy of America East Championship.

Have a cause close to your heart? Make a gift to UMBC today.

Hello !

A single room (no sharing basis) is available for a female roommate for sub-lease from 20th May to 20th July in a 4 bedroom townhouse 1.2 miles from UMBC campus. The room is in the basement, fully furnished, carpeted, very spacious, peaceful with ample sunlight, and is in great condition. The room has an attached half bath too. Rent is $356.25 + Utilities (BGE and Internet). The entire house is in a safe location, is completely furnished, clean and well maintained.The house has its own washer and dryer. If you are interested, please get in touch with me at the earliest. Dates are flexible. Thanks!

Hey everyone! 

Tomorrow, Thursday from 10am-12pm there will be 40 5th graders on campus!  Come check it out!  

More details here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/starprogram/events/49902

Also, Free Panera Breakfast.  First come, first serve.