Friday, February 24, 2017

Environmental Mingle

Come discuss environmental issues and UMBC!

Friday, February 24, 2017 · 3:30 PM - 4 PM

The Commons: Steps Near the Yum Shoppe

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/etf/events/48496

বসন্ত বরণ - Boshonto Boron - Bengali Spring Festival

Friday, February 24, 2017 · 5 PM - 7 PM

Commons Sports Zone

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/bsa/events/48429

Pilates with Abril

Friday, February 24, 2017 · 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Retriever Activity Center (RAC): Fitness Studio

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/fitness-at-therac/events/46571

Integrated Yoga with Abril

Friday, February 24, 2017 · 5:30 PM - 7 PM

Retriever Activity Center (RAC): Fitness Studio

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/fitness-at-therac/events/46421

Weekly Movie: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them): Weekly Movie: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Friday, February 24, 2017 at 9 PM - Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 11 PM

Lecture Hall 1: Biological Sciences

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/seb/events/47373

Saturday, February 25, 2017

UMBC Men's Lacrosse vs Mercer

Saturday, February 25, 2017 · Noon - 2 PM

Stadium

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/dosa/events/45855

Bus Trip: Medieval Times

Saturday, February 25, 2017 · 3 PM - 6:30 PM

Off Campus : Commons Loop

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/seb/events/47377

elements

Saturday, February 25, 2017 · 8 PM - 9:30 PM

Concert Hall

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/music/events/45779

Weekly Movie: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Saturday, February 25, 2017 · 9 PM - 11 PM

Lecture Hall 1: Biological Sciences

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/seb/events/47374

Sunday, February 26, 2016

The Hungarian Connection

Sunday, February 26, 2017 · 3 PM - 4:30 PM

Concert Hall

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/music/events/45780

Women’s Basketball vs. New Hampshire

Sunday, February 26, 2017 noon

Retriever Activity Center (RAC)

http://umbcretrievers.com/sports/wbkb/index

A team of UMBC students is on a mission to improve cardiovascular health education for kids. Maniraj Jeyaraju ’17, interdisciplinary studies, and Henry Wu ’17, biological sciences, who both have their eye on careers in medicine and health education, lead the team developing a game to engage local middle school students in conversations about heart health.

Jeyaraju approached Wu after class one day to suggest the partnership, and they began envisioning a mobile app that involved racing through arteries and veins and learning about the cardiovascular system along the way. Wu and Jeyaraju generated one level of an app they dubbed “Pulse Finder” with four other friends: William Guzman ’17, biological sciences; and Ryan Jose ’17, Chris Paul ’17, and Duy Tang ’17, who all study computer engineering.

After initial production and testing, they found the app was engaging, but it wasn’t practical for their project timeline or the right fit for their audience, requiring that each student have an internet-connected device. Maniraj and Wu shifted to developing Pulse Finder in a more traditional board game format, where players could build a circulatory system with tiles to make their way across a board, adding tiles as they demonstrated knowledge about cardiovascular health.

The team refined their game based on informal feedback from kids at Baltimore’s Port Discovery and a Baltimore charter school. Wu and Jeyaraju then received an Undergraduate Research Award in spring 2016 to fund production of eight copies of the game in fall 2016.

Since then, the team has focused on testing and refinement, to make sure the game is simple and easy to play, engaging, and effective as a teaching tool. In November and December, the duo tested the game with adults at Sheperd’s Clinic in Baltimore. Jeyaraju shared that the game questions spurred discussion among the participants. “Participants really opened up about their own health conditions,” Wu added.

Now the team is undertaking the approval process to formally test the game with students at Afya Public Charter School, a health-focused middle school in Baltimore. They are hoping for the opportunity to work with teachers to implement a procedure similar to the one they used at the clinic. Students would complete pre- and post-surveys to gauge their learning from a trivia-based version of the game, a scenario-based version, and a lecture-based lesson covering the same content.

For both Jeyaraju and Wu, the game is an opportunity to take their passion for health education beyond their UMBC classrooms and into the community. They are excited to see what is most helpful for kids to become invested in their health in the long term.

“With heart disease, early prevention is critical,” Wu says. “Pulse Finder is a way to support younger people to help them maintain cardiovascular health later in life.”

Banner image: Pulse Finder board; photo by Maniraj Jeyaraju. Original board game artwork by William Guzman.

The team would like to thank their mentors for this project:
Stephen Freeland, director of interdisciplinary studies
Steven McAlpine, assistant director of interdisciplinary studies
Krystl Haerian ’99, graduate program director of health information technology

Mandatory meal plans have plagued the halls of UMBC dorms for as long as students can remember. Some are happy with the service, as it provides a hassle-free way to dine on campus. Others, however, are discontent with the compulsory state of meal plans for residential students.

Meal plans are wildly expensive. When combined with the cost of tuition and housing, meal plans elevate the cost of attending UMBC to over $10,000 per semester for in-state students. Even the cheapest meal plan is priced at over $1,900.

When the price of this meal plan, the Terrific 12, is broken down into dollars per meal swipe, the result is about $10.64 per meal. Each meal translates into $5.95 per swipe outside of True Grits, $4.69 under what they charge per meal in the total cost of the plan. This means each student is overcharged about $844 per semester, not including missed meal swipes, for the cheapest dormitory meal plan.

This con deal is the result of a monopoly that Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services holds over UMBC students. Due to the non-negotiable Residential Life Housing License, which states that students in dormitories must have a meal plan, Chartwells is able to have full control over the prices of meal plans. This setup can easily lead to rapid inflation of meal plans that students are forced to buy.

The mandatory state and high price of meal plans often leaves students focusing on their swipes, instead of how much they are spending. Jennifer Duvall, a junior environmental science major, has felt the guilt of not using all her meal swipes. “I wasn’t using all the meals that the Ultimate meal [plan] had and I felt like I’d save a lot of money if I switched,” she said. “[A] lot of people probably would do the same or they wouldn’t even need a meal plan.”

The best way to progress with meal plans is to make them optional for students in the dorms. Students would be asked to sign up for a meal plan by default, but could then fill out an ‘opt-out’ form to avoid buying one. This optional meal plan would allow students to make an educated decision about whether or not they want a meal plan and put them fiscally in charge of managing their dietary needs.

“I definitely feel like a lot of students don’t necessarily need the meal plans,” noted Raquel Jaramillo, a junior biochemistry major. “But they’re required to get them so they’re just spending money unnecessarily.”

As a resident of the on campus apartments, Raquel continues to feel the monopoly of Chartwells. “Last semester I had five meals per week and it was $900 … this semester I have a 50 meal block, which averages to like three meals per week,” she said, “It’s like $500 less for two less meals a week [which] I get from the grocery store, that I’m spending $5 on.”

“For me, it’s just a giant rip off,” she stated.

As the end of the Chartwells contract approaches, UMBC students should continue to speak out against the mandatory, overpriced meal plans. It is time to fight for the right to have options, and not just ones that lead back to the same corporate business.

The post The monopoly of meal plans appeared first on The Retriever.

You know that weird feeling between excitement and dread that accompanies an invitation to interview? It’s especially strong when you know next to nothing about your potential workplace.

But, even if the first time you’ve ever heard of the company you’re interviewing with was the day you sent in your application, you can still walk in like you’ve known about the place for years. Here are several ways to tackle researching the company pre-interview.

1. Know the Company’s Strong Suits

The best way to convince your interviewer that you know the company well is to be able to articulate what makes it special compared to competitors. The good news? Companies will often tell you the answer to this question right on their websites.

One way companies share how they stand out is through their mission or values, which are typically prominently displayed in the “About Us” section. Read closely to learn what might be different about this organization than others. For instance, if you’re interviewing with a marketing agency, “commitment to client service” is probably something that its competitors boast, too, but if one of its other core values is sustainability, that’s good to know.

Review this along with any other “basics” you should be familiar with prior to the interview—like company size, location, and history. You don’t want to be that person who asks a question that can easily be answered by checking out the website.

2. Sniff Out the Financial Health

While you’re on the website, click on the “Investor Relations” tab. For most large companies, you should be able to access and listen to a publicly available quarterly earnings conference call and read an annual report. These calls and reports cover a range of topics (that are often otherwise hard to find), including new products, company risks, and whether revenues are growing or stable. If you’re interviewing with a startup, check out its profile on Crunchbase. Here, you can get caught up on rounds of funding, acquisitions, recent hires, and relevant press coverage.

Once you have this information, it’s up to you to draw your own conclusions. While you don’t necessarily want to spout off stock prices or funding history, being able to speak insightfully about where you think the company will go in the future, backed up with facts, is hugely impressive in an interview.

3. Watch Community Interaction

Somewhere along the application process, someone you’re interviewing with has likely Googled you and scoured your social media accounts. You should return the favor by finding out what the company has been up to lately.

Aside from the news that comes up when you Google the company (which you should also read), corporate blogs are gold mines, especially for younger companies that are growing. Whether it’s a post welcoming new staffers to the sales team or detailing new features of a recent software update, this is the kind of stuff you should know about.

LinkedIn is also a good tool for learning about what kind of news the company communicates—and therefore wants you to know. Check the company page on LinkedIn and see what kind of updates are featured. Is there a promotion for Mother’s Day, or a statement on how the sales team exceeded earning expectations? Either way, this will show you what types of things to bring up in conversation. (Oh, and while you’re on LinkedIn, check out the profiles of the people you’ll be interviewing with. Make sure you have your profile set so that they can see that you’ve viewed their profiles. This might seem counterintuitive, but it actually shows that you care and are doing your due diligence before the interview.)

Lastly, check out the company’s Twitter and Facebook profiles. Is the tone professional or casual? Is it nonstop promotion with zero interaction? Is the team responsive to complaints? Tuck away positive news and examples you encounter during your research to use in the interview.

4. Go Undercover to Learn Company Culture

You may be able to glean a bit about corporate culture through a company’s blog and social media accounts, but to really build on that information, try looking for information from external sources.

For example, head over to the company profiles on The Muse, where you can watch interviews with current employees and hear what makes each workplace so different. Or, see what positive and negative things people have to say about the company you’re interviewing with on Glassdoor. (You can also sniff out sample interview questions—here’s how.) You won’t bring up all this information during the interview, but it will at least help you come up with reasons why the company is special and help you to know what topics to avoid during the interview. (For example, maybe work-life balance is a touchy subject and should be brought up after you get the offer.)

Better yet, try to find a past or current employee you can speak with, and try to build on what you already know. You can ask something like, “I understand the company is working on growing its presence in Asia—can you tell me more about how this initiative is impacting the team?” This will both impress and grow what you know about your potential employer. (For more on acing your informational interview, try these tips.)

5. Read Up on the Field and Competitors

Aside from knowing as much as possible about the place you’re interviewing with, it’s a good idea to be able to talk about the industry as a whole and even more impressive to be able to talk about competitors and how the company fits into the bigger picture.

Look up competitors by going to the LinkedIn company page and scrolling down to the “Other Companies People Viewed” section. There should be a few competitors there. Do the same thing with the competitors you find until you have a pretty good sense of who the big players in the field are. (Or, if the company has a Crunchbase page, you should be able to find a list of competitors on its profile.)

Follow the same research steps you did for the company you’re interviewing for, but focus only on those things that are relevant to your interview. Think big picture, not minute details on specific projects. Is a competitor actively acquiring startups that target a different market? Or maybe new collaborations indicate a possible shift in audience for a big competitor.

After all this research, you’ll probably be wondering, “So, what do I do with all this information?” Remember that your objective is to be convincing when you say, “I want to work at your company.” Back this up by being able to talk about what makes the company unique, and express your enthusiasm by showing off your knowledge. Work in examples of what you know in your interview answers, and watch your interviewers nod in approval. After all, few things are as effective in an interview as knowing exactly what you’re talking about.

Image Source: The Muse