At 9:00 AM EST, we opened the Winter 2015 Dissertation House at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC: An Honors University in Maryland). We have a wonderful group of students from UMBC and UMB in house, and we invite you to join us. Our Dissertation Coach is Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale. Dr. Carter-Veale is challenging the group to post “measurable” goals, and she urges everyone to be realistic so that each can accomplish an actual goal by the end of the week. Some people think that they will be able to accomplish huge tasks in a short period of time, and while you will be productive, we want to be sure that you are setting yourselves up for success. Therefore, it is not necessarily prudent to try to finish such a large task within a few days.

Graduate students who are participating in the Dissertation House here at UMBC had to apply to participate. If you are not participating in person, we invite you to join us online:

https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/winter-2015-challenge/

Post your goals and join others in the challenge to “get it done!”

BALTIMORE OFFICE OF PROMOTION & THE ARTS

Development Associate

Position Description

The college years should be a time of career discovery and exploration.  Students are developing a “record of achievement” that employers and graduate schools evaluate as they move beyond UMBC.

Several components of this record include:

Academic Achievement
The grade point average (GPA) is one factor considered by competitive graduate schools and employers.  Some employers use GPA cutoffs in considering applicants for internships and job openings.  Others stress the student's overall background including experience, number of hours worked during the academic year to finance college, leadership activities, and other key skills or attributes.  However, the GPA remains one of the few tangible indications of a student’s ability to learn and perform effectively, at least in the academic environment. Therefore, students need to do as well as possible in the classroom, especially in courses in their major(s). 

Continue to encourage your student to make academics a high priority. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that it may take him or her a while to adjust to the rigorous academic demands of college. 

Relevant Work Experience
Recruiters are looking for candidates who are a proper fit for their culture and industry.  However, without being hired full-time, how can a student demonstrate that he or she can perform at a high level on the job?  The best way to impress potential employers during a job search is for students to gain and highlight relevant work experience. 

In today’s competitive employment market, most employers recruit students who have related internship, cooperative education, research, summer or part-time job, or volunteer experiences. 

Nearly all of the employers taking part in the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) Job Outlook 2014 Survey stated that they prefer to hire job candidates who have pertinent experience.  On the other side, just 4 percent of employers said experience didn’t factor into their decision when hiring new college graduates.

For college students, relevant experience is typically gained through applied learning including internships.  In fact, an internship is a great way to get your “foot in the door” to a job while developing skills and a network of contacts.  In a separate NACE study regarding internships, responding organizations reported that almost half of their 2013 college hires came from their own internship programs.

Simply put, employers are looking for evidence that students can do the job.  Relevant work experience provides students with that evidence. 

Involvement Outside of the Classroom
Extracurricular activities provide the opportunity for students to gain valuable and career-related
skills, including the ability to work effectively in a team environment; leadership; planning
and organizational skills; and time management. These skills employers seek in their new hires.

Additionally, many employers rate leadership activities even more highly than GPA.  Remind your student(s) that it is more valuable to be involved in a few meaningful leadership roles on campus than to be in a “laundry list” of many campus clubs.

Final Recommendation

Be sure to encourage your student to visit the UMBC Career Center (http://www.careers.umbc.edu/) for career guidance including internship and major exploration support. 

Also, the Career Center is hosting a Summer Job and Internship Fair (http://www.careers.umbc.edu/news_events/fairs/sf2015.php) on Wednesday, February 4^th from 12 to 4 pm in the University Center Ballroom.  A great list of employers are attending including Amazon.com, CIA, Firaxis Games, GE, Lockheed Martin, MITRE, NIST, Peace Corps, T. Rowe Price, and World Relief.  Please encourage your student to attend.

Objective

A valuable work and learning experience for the intern and a productive contribution to Baltimore Choral Arts.

Two of UMBC’s regular hackathon participants took 3rd place at MHacks, a competitive 1000 student hackathon at the University of Michigan this past weekend!

CSEE students Michael Bishoff (President, HackUMBC) and Sekar Kulandaivel created a haptic feedback suit that makes virtual reality more immersive. To do this, the team created 12 vibrating modules that are placed on the user’s arms, legs, chest, and head. When various events occur in the virtual environment, the user will feel a vibration in the appropriate location on their body. For example, when a user falls in a virtual environment, they will feel a vibration in their legs, or when a user gets hit in their arm, they will experience a vibration on the appropriate arm.

For placing third, the duo won a trip to Seoul, South Korea in the summer to represent UMBC at the Global Hackathon, a 2000 person hackathon event backed by the mayor of Seoul. The event’s goal is to increase innovation and produce projects that make a global impact. Attendees of the event will include other brilliant students from around the world!

Mike and Sekar incorporated Oculus Rift technology, which they won at UMD’s 2014 Bitcamp hackathon.

Interested in maker-faires and participating in future hackathons? Join hackUMBC!

Each year for 9 weeks during the summer, the MPC co-sponsors a Research Internship Program. The program has brought hundreds of the best science and engineering undergraduates from across the country to conduct graduate-level materials research. Students can select from a wide array of projects available.

This year's Summer Scholar Internship Program will run from June 8 - August 8, 2015.

For more information about the Internship Program, please refer to the Summer Scholar Quick Facts and the FAQ portion of our website.

The application deadline is February 13, 2015.