Songs and Memories

Songs and Memories by Craig Berger

A Facebook friend of mine from UMBC posted this thought the other day as their status:

Amazing, how some songs freeze you in time, flashing you back to an earlier point in your life, regardless of what is happening around you.

I have absolutely experienced this and continue to do it all the time.

Most of my "music memory" consists of positive (though shallow) feelings--bright, summer days, no school, and time spent with friends. Yet, there are also songs--many of them upbeat and bright--that my mind links with anxiety. Nearly every time my mom drove me the hour and a half to college from home during my first year--a year in which I navigated quite a bit of homesickness--I remember a Time-Life collection of 1960s hits playing in the car. And even today, when I hear "A Beautiful Morning," by The Rascals, or other songs included in that collection, I still feel nervous and on edge.

I find music's ability to absorb these feelings to be fascinating. Even a song that so happily and explicitly tells me "it's a beautiful morning" transports me to the gray skies that decorated so many of those car rides back to Meadville, Pennsylvania and Allegheny College. I remember my stomach churning more as each mile of snow-spotted landscape whirred by. As I gradually left my place of comfort, "home," to a campus where I was still finding my way, where I still felt alone, the music played on. I suppose that's the power of music: what starts as a complex array of sound waves makes its way to our ears, into our brains, and then becomes inseparably intertwined with those experiences and elements that form the crux of who we are.

While one might think I'd avoid those songs like the plague now, I find myself drawn to that music. Listening to it gives me the opportunity to time-travel, returning to the days when I had far less of an idea of who I was and what I wanted in life, a stage in which many of the young adults with whom I work find themselves. That musical memory also helps me notice that even though I have come a long way in battling homesickness and being able to independently find and enter supportive and loving communities, elements of those early struggles continue to shape my current challenges. I treasure music, especially those iconic songs, because it allows me to continuously explore who I am.

What about you? What songs "freeze you in time?" When you hear them today and "flash back," what comes to mind?

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.

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by Craig Berger A Facebook friend of mine from UMBC posted this thought the other day as their status: Amazing, how some songs freeze you in time, flashing you back to an earlier point in...

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by David Hoffman

(Cross-posted on the BreakingGround website).

STRiVE 2013, UMBC’s fifth annual homegrown student leadership retreat, sponsored by the Office of Student Life and Student Government Association, took place last week at the Skycroft Conference Center. I served as one of 12 coaches (6 staff members, 6 students). Each STRiVE is different (I’ve participated in all five), but they are always life-altering. [My reflections on previous STRiVE retreats: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009].

The phrase “leadership retreat” really doesn’t do STRiVE justice. It obscures the poetry and magic of the lived experience. What happened in the hills west of Frederick last week was mostly spontaneous, profoundly real and deeply poignant. 62 UMBC students and staff members, most of us strangers to each other when the week began, helped each other to discover that despite our fears and vulnerabilities, and partly because of them, we are strong, wise and perfectly capable of transforming our lives and world together. We know this now without a doubt, because by week’s end the transformations already had begun.

STRiVE’s intellectual foundations include the “social change model” of leadership developed by higher education scholars, student development theory, social cognitive theory, and Harry Boyte’s pioneering ideas about preparing people for active roles in democracy. Based on our synthesis of these ideas, one of the core principles of STRiVE’s design is that we coaches empower the participants as co-creators of all their experiences, including the retreat itself while it is happening. To do otherwise would risk stunting their growth by equipping them to thrive only in leadership simulations, when authority figures are available to give instructions and assign roles.

One form this script-busting takes is the “here and now moment,” which means spontaneously and appropriately interrupting an activity or discussion to address issues with the group’s process. Toward the beginning of the week, a coach might call a “here and now moment” to point out that participants’ energy seems to be waning, or that a few people are dominating the discussion, and ask the group to consider solutions. By the end of the week, if all goes well, the participants are calling “here and now moments” of their own. As I told the group last week, the capacity to call a “here and now moment” may not be the most important skill developed at STRiVE, but it’s one on which the value of many of the others depends. Only if you are critically aware of your circumstances, and feel empowered to interrupt the flow of events, can you become an effective agent of positive social change in the real world.

With our democratic institutions under strain, in a culture that tends to cast citizens as consumers rather than co-creators, we need many more people capable of interrupting and transforming the here and now.

Another core STRiVE principle is absolute respect for the capacity of UMBC students to apply their wisdom and insight to make a difference right now, not just on some distant day when their education is supposedly complete and they are ready to take action. The diverse participants in STRiVE 2013 are incomplete but aware and alive, flawed but perfect, and more than strong enough to change the world. With their help and example, more of us may yet discover this same truth about ourselves.

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.

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by David Hoffman (Cross-posted on the BreakingGround website). STRiVE 2013, UMBC’s fifth annual homegrown student leadership retreat, sponsored by the Office of Student Life and...

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1. That Awkward Moment

2. When I Was In College, I Didn't Know ...

3. The Introvert Experience

4. Harvard Swagger

5. The First Day

6. Scenes from Involvement Fest (photos)

7. College Park Pushes for "Admiral" Status

8. Your UMBC Bucket List

9. Real People Profiles: Jason Palumbo

10. Why Bother Voting?

Top Five Posts of 2009

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These were the most-viewed Co-Create UMBC posts of 2012. Thanks for reading! 1. That Awkward Moment 2. When I Was In College, I Didn't Know ... 3. The Introvert Experience...

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by Craig Berger

SGA, The Gaming Club, Active Minds, and the Peer Health Educators are hosting the end-of-semester Stress Free Zone beginning today, December 12, and ending Friday, December 14. Come to the Student Organization Space on the 2nd floor of The Commons between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. each day for this semester's winter-themed event, filled with game-playing, stress ball-making, and free snacks and t-shirts.

This is the 16th Stress Free Zone. How did the whole thing get started back in spring 2005? The answer is here.

Best of luck on your final papers and exams. Have a fun and safe break!

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter. ]]>

by Craig Berger SGA, The Gaming Club, Active Minds, and the Peer Health Educators are hosting the end-of-semester Stress Free Zone beginning today, December 12, and ending Friday, December 14....

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by Craig Berger

So here's something to consider if you want to put aside papers and exams for a few minutes: What would you do if every electronic device became inoperable forever, and you were suddenly living without technology?

One Second After, a post-apocalyptic novel set in rural North Carolina, tells the story of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the United States and its effects on the small town of Black Mountain. To answer the question you're probably asking first: An EMP is simply a burst of electromagnetic radiation. In the book, the burst happened as a consequence of a nuclear device (or a few) detonating in the air over the United States. The sudden increase in electromagnetic radiation leads to surges in electric currents, frying and disabling all electronic devices. In the story, cars shut down on highways, leaving hundreds stranded, phone lines immediately went down, and no television or radio was available (if you've seen the show "Revolution" on NBC, you get the picture). The only operable device is a 1959 Ford Edsel, which doesn't have any electronic equipment and therefore was immune to the radiation. The characters living in Black Mountain struggle to survive after sharply moving from 21st Century conditions to life in a 19th Century reality. Governance, securing the community, treating disease, preserving and rationing food, living off the land, and even hand-washing clothes emerge as problems to tackle. In the novel, the community realizes that it is nowhere near prepared to take on these challenges.

I couldn't help but think about my own existence should this, or something similar, happen. While I have been blessed with a strong sense of direction and could probably make do without Apple Maps on my phone, would I be able to trek 330 miles toward Ohio and my family, fending off other nomads, a lack of food/drink, and Mother Nature? Would my family even stay put, or would they be gone when I arrive? I realized that should this happen, I might regret spending all that time teaching my grandparents how to use their PC, e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter, wishing instead that I had asked about canning or constructing an outhouse. It's interesting that the very skills, knowledge, or devices we discount and even mock as outdated and passe are things on which we'd need to rely.

So where would I go and what would I do? It would depend on when it happened. If I was at UMBC, I'd most likely be helping to maintain some order in the short-term. If I had the fortune of being at home, I'd probably hunker down in my apartment and attempt to decipher what had happened. Luckily, my apartment itself is on the third floor and is fairly secure, so I think I'd be safe for at least a little while. My first stop after making the decision to venture out would most likely be the library, in search of old how-to books. Of course, I'd need to identify a way of getting inside the building if the doors weren't already unlocked--would I be too hesitant to break in and steal? Or would I already feel desperate enough to not give it thought? I would also need to consider my lack of transportation if I was able to gain access; I'd only be able to take so many books with me at once. And then food--while I could probably attempt to loot the nearest grocery store, a more long-term, sustainable solution would probably involve learning how to live off the land, including hunting and identifying a fresh supply of water.

What about you? Given what you know about your talents and skills, how might you proceed in a similar scenario? What would UMBC be like? Where would you go, and what's the first thing you'd do? What have I forgotten?

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.

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by Craig Berger So here's something to consider if you want to put aside papers and exams for a few minutes: What would you do if every electronic device became inoperable forever, and you...

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Name: David Hoffman

Hometown: Los Angeles, California

Q: How long have you been at UMBC?

A: This is my tenth year.

Q: What is your current title (job or student organization position)?

A: Assistant Director of Student Life for Civic Agency.

Q: In 12 words or less, what role(s) do you play on campus?

A: Encourage you to change the world; organize BreakingGround; teach; write this blog.

Q: What aspect of your UMBC role(s) do you enjoy most?

A: I work with amazing students, faculty, staff, alumni and off-campus partners on projects that truly matter, and which we care about deeply. Unlike any job I've ever had before, I get to be the real me--honest and authentic, not just playing a role--nearly 100% of the time. I'm thoroughly challenged and well supported. I have opportunities to use my memories of the most challenging experiences of my past as resources to help others overcome their own challenges. I feel like I've found my home. And to top it all off, we're all together in this magical community at an incredible time in UMBC's history, when there is so much on which to build, yet the work remains unfinished, so that all of us can still be pioneers. I love being here with you.

Q: What is the most important or memorable thing you learned in college/have learned at UMBC?

A: The most important thing I learned in college was to appreciate and work with people who came from backgrounds and had life experiences very different from my own. Before I started college, I unknowingly made two false assumptions: that the circumstances of my childhood were basically the same as everybody else's (what did I have to compare them to?), and that most of the learning I would do in college would occur in classrooms. I was fortunate to go to school in a very diverse setting (UCLA), and made the great decision to get involved on campus. As a result, I spent a lot of time building relationships across difference and navigating complex situations. Those life experiences changed everything for me. Working with people unlike me helped me discover and develop aspects of my own identity: my values, my sense of justice. Navigating complex situations helped me develop vital skills. To this day, I continue to draw lessons from those precious experiences.

Q: Complete this sentence: "I am a big fan of __________"

A: UMBC, BreakingGround, SGA, STRiVE, the Language, Literacy & Culture doctoral program, civic engagement, marriage equality, fantasy baseball, seasons, the 25-hour day ("fall back") when Daylight Savings Time ends, my friends and family.

Q: Do you have any UMBC stories, little-known facts about UMBC, favorite spots on campus, or anything else you’d like to share?

A: When the campus was first built in the 1960s, the administrative leaders decided to wait to lay sidewalks. They watched how people walked between the buildings, and then put down the sidewalks over the footpaths. What that means to me is that this is, and always has been, a community we all create together.

GRATUITOUS BONUS CHILDHOOD PHOTO:

BONUS VIDEO QUESTION: What else would you like to share? Ask yourself a question and answer it.

It's final exam time, so instead of a traditional Bonus Video Question, I leave you with the soothing sight of Bucky and Penny hanging out together in my backyard. Keep calm, and carry on!

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I've posted almost 200 Real People Profiles from UMBC students, faculty, staff and alumni. But until now, I've never posted my own. Here it is....

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UMBC junior Meghan Carpenter passed another big test in the Student Regent selection process this weekend, having been selected as one of three finalists for the position from across the University System of Maryland.

The three finalists will meet with University System of Maryland officials in the next six weeks, and their names will be submitted to Governor O'Malley. The Governor will select the Student Regent early in 2013.

The Student Regent serves as the only student member of the University System of Maryland's governing board, helping to set policies and priorities relating to academics, financial aid, facilities and budgets. Meghan is the 11th consecutive UMBC nominee to be selected as a finalist. Three of the previous ten were appointed Student Regent.

Way to go, Meghan!

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.

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by David Hoffman UMBC junior Meghan Carpenter passed another big test in the Student Regent selection process this weekend, having been selected as one of three finalists for the position from...

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Name: Fritzie Charne-Merriwether

Hometown: Queens, NY

Q: How long have you been at UMBC?

A: My total history here at UMBC has been roughly 4 years and one semester. I was a Community Director from 2003 to 2005. Returned to UMBC in 2010.

Q: What is your current title (job or student organization position)?

A: Special Assistant to Vice President for Student Affairs.

Q: In 12 words or less, what role(s) do you play on campus?

A: Parent liaison; administrative & program management support to the Vice President & the Division of Student Affairs.

Q: What aspect of your UMBC role(s) do you enjoy most?

A: Working with the Parents of our UMBC students has been a real joy. I truly enjoy connecting with them and getting them connected to UMBC. Navigating a University system as an outsider can be extremely frustrating. I am glad I can assist parents with that process which in turn provides support to their students as well.

Q: What is the most important or memorable thing you learned in college/have learned at UMBC?

A: I have learned at UMBC that to be the best you have to consistently challenge yourself and those around you. That you must always assess not only your strengths but also your weakness. That being a leader means you lead even when you think no one is watching.

Q: Complete this sentence: "I am a big fan of __________"

A: My two beautiful children, Kaelyn (6) and Mason (5). I truly believe I have the best babies in the world. They are amazing to me and I cheer them on every day.

Q: Do you have any UMBC stories, little-known facts about UMBC, favorite spots on campus, or anything else you’d like to share?

A: UMBC is just a special place. When I arrived here back in 2003, I fell in love with this place, the students and staff. I was sad to leave in 2005, but I was a military spouse and we had orders to Germany. Even after moving on, I stayed connected to UMBC through the students and colleagues I have connected with during my tenure. I was blessed with the opportunity to come back in 2010 and I couldn't be happier. There is something to be said about a place that even after you leave you still feel connected and want to come back. But that is what is so special about UMBC!

BONUS VIDEO QUESTION: What else would you like to share? Ask yourself a question and answer it.

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We're asking some of the people you might encounter on the UMBC campus, including students, faculty, staff and alumni, to answer a few questions about themselves and their experiences. These are...

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Meghan Carpenter has been selected as UMBC's nominee for Student Regent for 2013-2014. Meghan is a junior majoring in American Studies and Political Science. She is the Director of Community and Governmental Affairs for UMBC's Student Government Association, and represents UMBC students on the University System of Maryland Student Council, the Maryland Higher Education Commission's Student Advisory Council, and UMBC's Neighbor Relations Committee. Meghan also works as a research assistant for Professor Carolyn Forestiere, and as an office assistant for UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. Meghan also blogs for USDemocrazy.net, and has authored two posts for the UMBC BreakingGround web site.

The Student Regent is the sole student member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, which governs a state public higher education system that includes the UMBC, the University of Maryland College Park, Towson University and 9 other institutions, along with two regional higher education centers. As UMBC's nominee for the position for 2013-2014, Meghan will be interviewed next weekend by the University System of Maryland Student Council, which will forward the names of three finalists for consideration by Governor O'Malley.

The past 10 UMBC nominees all have been selected as finalists, and three have been appointed Student Regent: Phil Shockley (2003-2004), Josh Michael (2008-2009) and current UMBC senior Collin Wojciechowski (2011-2012).

Good luck, Meghan!

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.

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by David Hoffman Meghan Carpenter has been selected as UMBC's nominee for Student Regent for 2013-2014. Meghan is a junior majoring in American Studies and Political Science. She is the...

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Patrick J. Canavan, profiled over the weekend in this piece from a Hanover, PA newspaper, was a founder of UMBC's art department, and a popular teacher here (see this photo from 1968-1969). As the article makes clear, he also was a strong-willed individual who chose to live on his own terms, carefully avoiding the limelight in order to focus on his art and his family.

I think every life is a work of art, provoking every witness to consider their own choices about how to live. You can develop your life-as-art to reflect your deepest values despite the risks and costs, or you can surrender your canvas to be painted by others in your name.

What lessons do you take from Patrick Canavan's story, and what kind of art will you make?

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.

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(by David Hoffman) Patrick J. Canavan, profiled over the weekend in this piece from a Hanover, PA newspaper, was a founder of UMBC's art department, and a popular teacher here (see this photo...

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