In partnership with the Career Center and the Office of Alumni Relations, the UMBC Student Alumni Association (SAA) was proud to host the annual Sweeten Up Your Network event on Tuesday, April 11. As one of Career Month’s staple events, Sweeten Up Your Network is open to students and alumni from all majors and years, and is almost entirely planned and executed by a team of SAA members. Because of their amazing efforts, this year we had just under 30 alumni and over 50 students participate!

As the Assistant Director of Alumni Relations, I have the honor and privilege of supporting both current students and alumni in developing programming that connects them to campus and one another. Sweeten Up Your Network is one of the most special examples of how these types of programs can really impact both sides of the speed networking table. I asked two participants from the evening to share a little more about their experience.

Julia Celtnieks ‘13, Media & Communication Studies

Despite being a relatively recent alumna, as well as a staff member, I’d never made it to Sweeten Up Your Network before this year. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the opportunity to help students hone their networking skills, as well as offer some of my insights as a young professional. As it turned out, I had as much to learn from this experience as they did!

Most of the students I met and spoke with were going into fields completely different than my own: the sciences, psychology, engineering. At first it was challenging to tailor the conversation to their specific experiences, but then I realized I didn’t have to. There are plenty of ways to make connections, and many things I’ve learned over the course of my post-grad life, like the ins and outs of entry-level job searching, can apply to almost any area. Sweeten Up Your Network is really about getting students used to the idea of networking in general, and I think giving them the chance to talk with alumni in a variety of careers is what makes it so unique…and so perennially popular.

Alida Hartwell ‘19, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

I have been with SAA since the fall 2016 semester. SAA is full of amazingly motivated and helpful people. They always manage to make our meetings not only productive, but fun as well. All SAA events that I have participated in have felt like that, too. I also love that our events are planned and run by the SAA members.

Specifically relating to this event, I was very excited going into it. Ever since I joined SAA, the upperclassmen have talked up Sweeten Up Your Network. My experience was even better than what I was expecting. There were so many alumni from all different fields. I got the chance to speak with people who are in fields that I am considering going into, which was awesome for me because I got to see how powerful a degree from UMBC can be in the real world. Even talking to people from different degrees and fields was eye-opening. All of the alumni were passionate about UMBC and still love it […] it made me feel very proud to be attending this university. Overall, I think the best thing about Sweeten Up Your Network was the chance to see what it will be like years after graduation, whether that is what careers people with my major have or how much Retriever pride alumni carry with them!

So there you have it! If you’re an alum who wants to give back to the UMBC community, click HERE to learn about all the pathways to get involved. We’ve always got events and programs going on that could use your support.

—Jessica Wyatt, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations

A weekly round-up curated by Women’s Center staff member, Michael Jalloh Jamboria

In the spirit of my friend, who gave us the glorious name ‘Slaying on the Weekly’, every week I will be bringing you some interesting, funny or thought-provoking content from the internet! Be sure to join us next week for more and continue to slay!

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  “Every 107 seconds, someone in America is sexually assaulted. Approximately 4/5 of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim.  Survivors of sexual assault are 3 times more likely to suffer from depression.”  The Women’s Center is dedicated to programming centered around sexual assault awareness. Be sure to check out the Sexual Assault Awareness Month Calendar. 

Take Back the Night was Thursday April 13th. If you came and shared your story, we are so proud of you. If you didn’t, we are still proud of you. Your story is valid. We believe you. The Women’s Center is dedicated to programming and events that center the voices of survivors. There are still events where you can share your story. Stay tuned for a photo re-cap of the TBTN event.

• There will be a Monument Quilt making workshop on April 19th from 4-6pm in the Women’s Center. Join us!! 
• Join us at the Just Ask panel on April 26th in the Harbor Multipurpose Room.
• How is sexual assault affect those of immigrant communities? Join us for our panel discussion on current gender-based violence issues affecting immigrant communities on May 1st from 7-8:30.

Check out this awesome comic on affirmative consent!

Want to stay informed on things that are happening with the presidential administration. Be sure to check out What the F**k Just Happened Today? This is a website that has specifics on the happenings of the Trump administration. Stay up to date!

What’s happening in Syria? Check out this BBC article on the happenings of Syria.

Al-Jazeera has the up to date news on the latest humanitarian crisis’ happening. Check them out, and let’s see what we can do to make the world a better place!

Are there any resources you want to see on next week’s slaying on the weekly? Drop a comment!

Women’s Center staff members being goofy at the 2017 TBTN! 

Who ever you are, what ever your story, we are here to listen. We see you. You are home. You belong. You matter. See you next week!

Dear Student Marshal who walked through the Fine Arts recital hall lobby on Wednesday night,

You have probably encountered a range of different events during your late night rounds, but last Wednesday night was sure to be a unique experience for you. You coincidentally stumbled upon the Musical Theatre Club’s first run-through of their spring musical, “Legally Blonde,” with the pit orchestra – or, as theatre kids call it, the Sitzprobe. Everything we have done for the past two months has been leading up to this moment, this one moment, when the separate pieces of the musical start to blend together to create something that is more expressive and complete than they were on their own.

Seeing as you happened to stumble upon us during the musical number, “Bend and Snap,” you may have walked away thinking that “Legally Blonde” stresses the importance of appearance over character and heart. However, this musical adaptation of the 2001 Reese Witherspoon movie of the same name is more than just a light-hearted retelling of Elle Woods’s journey from a stereotypical sorority girl to the Harvard Law School valedictorian.

Director Jason Fowler and co-director Cayleigh Wilson have been guiding us in portraying characters with complex emotions. Throughout the production process, we have participated in many character building activities designed to give us greater understanding of our character’s motivations and aspirations. In its truest form, “Legally Blonde” is a story of overcoming predetermined stereotypes and stigmas, and to do the show justice, each character – ranging from Elle Woods herself to Nikos Argitakos, the pool boy – must be depicted as inherently and genuinely human.

Most cast members play multiple parts throughout the production, requiring them to understand and embody various perspectives over the course of the musical. Scott Armiger, a sophomore computer science major who portrays Grandmaster Chad, a fun-loving frat bro and Professor Winthrop, a Harvard admissions officer, among others, experiences what he calls “character whiplash” over the course of the musical. “I’m in a very unique position where I go directly from being a frat bro rapping about spring break to a stuck-up, very by-the-book admissions officer. It’s definitely an interesting experience.”

Besides a wide range of characters, “Legally Blonde” features numerous, almost non-stop dance sequences. You did not get to experience all this because the recital hall lobby was too small to spread out, but over the course of the musical we perform more than seven dances numbers, varying from traditional Irish dancing to a modified cardio workout with jump ropes. My personal favorite is a cheer team-inspired dance break during the song “What You Want.”

“Legally Blonde” is certainly going to be an adventure from start to finish. With a small, but incredibly talented cast of students, we hope to provide depth and soul to the characters we have grown so attached to over the past few months, characters with whom we hope you will fall in love, too.

So, dear Student Marshal, if you haven’t been scared away, tickets for MTC’s production of “Legally Blonde” can be purchased at the Campus Information Center and are free for UMBC students and $5 for non-UMBC students. Performances will be held at 8 p.m. on April 7 and 8 with 2 p.m. matinee showings on April 8 and 9 in Fine Arts 317.

Editor’s note: Julia Arbutus is a member of the Musical Theatre Club.

The post We’re positive Legally Blonde is what you want appeared first on The Retriever.