The Unwritten Rules of Graduate School Exposing the Hidden Curriculum of Succeeding in Grad School Online Join us on October 19th from 6-7pm for a unique workshop to help you gain skills to navigate graduate school and finish your program in a timely matter. Getting your degree might entail earning good grades and long hours doing research, but with the right mindset and tools it can take much less time. Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale has helped hundreds of students at UMBC to successfully complete their degrees while serving as an academic advisor, mentor, and dissertation coach at the Graduate School at UMBC. Her services include helping students navigate sticky situations, leverage productivity techniques, and overcome barriers to promptly complete their degree. This event is open to all graduate students in any year of study, but will particularly help students who are new graduate students, first-generation graduate students, international students unfamiliar with academic culture in the United States, and those students who have found themselves struggling to navigate interpersonal challenges with their advisor or within their departments. The information shared is based on research on retention efforts for underserved and underrepresented communities in graduate school. Dr. Carter-Veale has over 15 years of experience in graduate education. She has presented her dissertation writing workshops and boot camps for MIT, Duke University, Howard University, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, and the Dissertation Institute to name some.  She is the CEO of PhDCompletion.com, co-founder of the PROMISE Dissertation House, the on campus dissertation coach at UMBC, and has authored 4 books about PhD completion (Mastering the PhD Completion Process, Ph.D. Completion: If You Can Write a Master's Thesis You Can Write a Dissertation, PhD Completion: Practical Steps to Selecting a Dissertation Topic and PhD Completion: Methods Journal). To learn more about Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale please visit her webpage.  All graduate students are invited to attend this event.   If you need any accommodations or have questions, please contact Yarazeth Medina at yarazeth@umbc.edu. Accommodations can be made if requested a week before the event.

Hello Retrievers! 

Welcome to the Fall 2023 semester! I am very excited to join the UMBC community as Vice President for Student Affairs, and as I have not met many of you yet I want to take a moment to introduce myself. 

For me, this is a return "home" as UMBC is where I started my career in 2001. From my office window in The Commons, I can see the residential community where I worked as a community director. I loved the feeling of caring and connection I experienced on this campus then, and look forward to hearing about your own experiences and learning how I can be supportive. 

I previously served as the Vice President for Student Engagement, Success, and Diversity at Simmons University in Boston, MA. My husband and I are incredibly excited about living in Maryland and are grateful for the warm Retriever welcome we've received already. It has been a joy to walk around campus and see how UMBC has grown. Like you, our sons are beginning a new academic year. John is in his first year of college at the University of Southern California and Jayden is a sophomore at Western Reserve Academy.

As I transition into this role, it is important for me to hear from you! I want to get to know you, hear how your semester is going, and listen to your hopes for your time at UMBC. Beginning September 13, I will host coffee chats on Wednesdays from 4 to 7 p.m. in my office in The Commons, room 319. Please sign up online to reserve a time. 

I am committed to ensuring that you feel a sense of belonging at UMBC and find the resources and experiences you need to be successful. There are many ways to get engaged, find your people, connect to resources for self-care, make a difference, and just have fun. I hope you will take advantage of these opportunities, and know that it is okay to ask for help if you need it.

I am humbled and honored to join you on this journey and I cannot wait to connect in person. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Student Affairs at 410-455-2393 or studentaffairs@umbc.edu if you need assistance; otherwise, I hope to see you soon at an upcoming coffee chat. Have a wonderful start to the semester and a successful year!

Best,

Renique Kersh, Ph.D.

Vice President for Student Affairs, UMBC

• Finding community and belonging at UMBC
• Mental health at UMBC
• Religious and faith-based inclusion at UMBC
• Support for graduate students at UMBC
• Welcoming neurodiversity at UMBC