A blog written by Women’s Center student staff member Ciera Earl

November. It has been a month of triumph for some, but a great loss for most of us. While this month is coming to an end and the holiday season is beginning, it’s important to know how to handle the obstacles that may come with going home or visiting families during this time of year.

I know for myself, being around family is very difficult. Whether it’s from the constant questions about the future, my love life, or whatever “phase” I’m in this time – my anxiety goes through the roof. I’m sure many can relate.

But that actually bothers me. It’s unfortunate that in some way, shape, or form this is relatable for so many people.

Be that as it may, it’s important that while passing the gravy and dodging topics that you come first. Having a self-care plan can be a way to prepare for the challenges that come with the holiday season and families.

Here are a few tips on how to survive the holidays with family: 

(Image: Shutterstock)

Set Boundaries. Remember, you have a choice.

Sometimes it can feel like an obligation to join in on the festivities – honestly I feel obligated to do everything – but it’s important to understand that you do not have to commit yourself to being apart of these events. If you choose to visit family, set clear boundaries. For instance, having safe space to stay can be a way to create comfort and safety for yourself. This way if you feel uncomfortable or need a break you have a separate space to go.  

Be aware of your anxiety. Notice when your tension levels are rising, and let yourself feel them. Feelings in and of themselves aren’t necessarily harmful – the actions resulting from those feelings are the real kicker, and quite often those actions happen because feelings are so bottled up that the pressure forces an explosion. Often, simply noticing and naming the anxiety can calm it.

When you notice tensions levels rising give yourself an out. If you have to spend an extended amount of time with family, work some down time into the schedule. Removing yourself from the situation can be vital.

Remember, this is temporary.

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

This maybe the hardest of them all. Most of us can survive anything for a small period of time. However, if a situation arises that you feel you may not be able to handle, by all means, remove yourself!

Take care of yourself.You know what you need to do to be healthy. Give yourself permission to be human.

While these tips are not all the ways to respond and react to you family, it’s a good place to start. Here are some more resources on how to respond and handle family during this time, particularly for those in the LGBTQ community:

• LGBT and Heading Home for the Holidays?
• A Gay in the Life: How to handle family during the holidays
• LGBT and Home for the Holidays? 7 Tips on How to Deal
• LGBT Problems: When Going Home for Thanksgiving Is Simply Too Awkward

It’s in times like these that I live by these wise words:

“You is kind, you is smart, you is important.” – Aibileen Clark

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Today we mourn the loss of our trans siblings to violence and celebrate their lives, bravery, and accomplishments. Today we honor our elders and those who paved the way before us. Today we use our mouths to speak the voices that have been silenced.

Below is a collection of art created by Amelia Meman for Women’s History Month 2015. These women, some alive and some not, are some examples of the amazing abilities, resistance, and resilience found in our community. This art has been compiled in zine format, available in print at the Women’s Center and in PDF form here.

Dedicated to Viv. We miss you.

cece mcdonald was arrested on june 5, 2011 for the death of dean shmitz after shmitz’s girlfriend threw a glass in her face. shmitz and a group of friends harassed mcdonald and her friends outside a bar, shouting transphobic and racist slurs and comments at the group. when cece confronted the group, shmitz’s girlfriend threw the glass and a fight ensued. cece was charged with second degree murder and plead guilty to a charge of second degree manslaughter on june 4 of 2012. she was released on jan 13, 2014 after 19 months in men’s prison. activists raised a cry against anti-trans violence with shouts of “free cece” during her trial and prison sentence. since her release, cece has become an activist herself, working and speaking against the prison system and anti-trans violence and she has received the bayard rustin civil rights award from the harvey milk lgbt democratic club. a documentary titled free cece, directed by laverne cox and jac gares, is expected to be released in 2016

cecelia chung is an incredibly influential activist in san francisco. she has been hiv program coordinator and api american health forum and hiv test counselor at ucsf aids health project and has served as deputy director of the transgender law center. in 2001 she was the first asian woman and the first trans woman to be elected president of the san francisco lgbt pride celebration committee board. in 2013, she was appointed to the san francisco health commission and made san francisco the first city in the u.s. to pay for gender reassignment surgery for uninsured trans patients. she currently serves on the presidential advisory council for hiv/aids, is chair of the u.s. plhiv caucus and is senior strategist at the transgender law project.

christine jorgensen became one if the first widely known transgender women in the united states when she returned from denmark after her transition in the 1950s. the world war II veteran toured the country with her nightclub act and appeared on a number of television shows and magazine articles. she published her biography titled christine jorgensen: a personal biography in 1967 and a documentary titled the christine jorgensen story was released in 1970.

danielle berry was an influential and innovative video game designer. her first game, wheeler dealers, was released in 1978 and was the first pc game to be sold in a printed box instead of in a plastic sleeve. her 1984 game m.u.l.e. was one of the first electronic arts games. it was the first economic strategy game and would later influence modern games like sims and farmville. global conquest (1998) was the first pc game in history to be played on multiple computers on an online platform. she received the lifetime achievement award from the computer game development association in 1998. berry’s games were not popular and did not make great sales, but were always ahead of their time and lead innovations in the gaming industry for decades.

harmony santana is an actress and activist. she was nominated for an independent spirit award for best supporting actress for her role in gun hill road (2011), becoming the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for a major acting award. before and during her time on set, she lived in the lgbt youth home green chimneys where she became an advocate for homeless youth and began hiv/aids and anti-bullying activism. she began as a peer educator for bronx aids services and continues to be and advocate for trans youth while beginning work on her third film.

julia serano is a self-proclaimed activist, performer, musician, writer, and biologist. she published her first book, whipping girl: a transsexual woman on sexism and the scapegoating of femininity, in 2007 and her second book, excluded: making femininst and queer movements more inclusive, in 2013. she received her ph.d. in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from columbia university and served as a researcher in genetics, evolution, and developmental biology at university of california, berkeley for 17 years. she is a slam poet and a member of the noise-pop band biteseize.

marsha p. “pay it no mind” johnson was a new york stonewall rebellion veteran and a trans rights and aids activist. she co-founded star: street transvestite action revolutionaries in 1970 with close friend sylvia rivera and later became a star house mother. she served as a mentor, teacher, leader, and homemaker for the girls of star house. she was a member of act up new york during the aids epidemic and dedicated much of her life to aids activism. in july of 1992 her body was found in the hudson river shortly after a pride celebration. though her death was ruled a suicide, her friends and colleagues have always believed her death to be the result of transphobic, racist, and transmisogynistic violence.

miss major, or “mama” to her community, has been an activist for over 40 years. miss major is a formerly incarcerated woman and survivor of attica state prison, a maximum security men’s prison in new york. she is a former sex worker and stonewall rebellion veteran. this trans elder is a fierce advocate for prison abolition and for trans women of color. she is the executive director of the transgender gender variant & intersex justice project.

monica jones was arrested in may of 2013 in phoenix, arizona for “walking while trans.” she was profiled as a trans woman of color and charged with “manifesting prostitution” for accepting a ride in her neighborhood from two undercover cops. jones is an advocate for sex workers and works against the anti-sex worker organization projectrose. she is an arizona state university student and had been recently accepted to the asu school of social work at the time of her arrest.

susan stryker is an openly lesbian trans woman living in arizona. she received a bachelor’s degree in letters from university of oklahoma in 1983 and her ph.d. in us history from university of california, berkeley in 1992. she received a san francisco/ northern california emmy award for her work as director of screaming queens: the riot at compton’s cafeteria (2005) and has been nominated for two lambda literary awards. one of her most notable works is her essay “my words to viktor frankenstein above the village of chamounix,” the first article written by an openly transgender woman to be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal. she currently serves as an associate professor of gender and women’s studies and director of lgbt studies at university of arizona.

sylvia rivera is often considered one of the foremothers of trans rights movements. this stonewall rebellion veteran was an active member of the gay liberation front and gay activists alliance. she protested the exclusion of trans people from the sexual orientation non-discrimination act and was an advocate for poor trans people and trans people of color. her activism prioritized targeting systematic racism and poverty and opposed the prison industrial complex. rivera co-founded star: street transvestite action revolutionaries in 1970 with her close friend, marsha p. johnson and continued to be an influential figure in trans rights activism until her death in 2002.

Parks & People is seeking an intern to assist in its goal to provide programs that improve the environmental literacy of Baltimore City elementary, middle, and high school students by ensuring that all youth programs have an outdoor component that takes place in local parks. Key to that goal is the development and implementation of a curriculum that focuses on outdoor and environmental education in the context of young people’s own communities. The intern will assist staff in the development of criteria for environmental literacy appropriate for students in the three school levels and selection of metrics to measure the impact of environmental literacy. Desired skills include analytical & research capability and an interest in informal environmental and outdoor education.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology SURF – Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program, which is held in Gaithersburg, MD and Boulder, CO will soon be releasing information for their Summer 2017 program. NIST-SURF is a great paid opportunity for students in physics, material science, chemistry, applied mathematics, computer science, or engineering. (There may be research opportunities for students with other majors.) 

If you would like to apply for the program, or have any questions, please contact Janet McGlynn, mcglynn@umbc.edu.

For an overview of the program and the application process visit our website's NIST-SURF page. Those students who are interested must apply through UMBC.

The deadline to turn in your application materials to the Office of Undergraduate Education is January 30, 2017 

*NOTE: We are still awaiting NIST-SURF program dates and deadline updates, as well as updated forms. Another message will be sent out when all of the information has been updated.

Name: Kara Seidel

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Johns Hopkins Center for Learning and Health

Position Title: Trainee

Major(s)/Minor(s): Psychology / American Studies

Work Term: Fall 2016

Briefly describe your internship, co-op,  or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

Working as a trainee, I am directly involved in two NIH-funded projects. The first one deals with drug addiction and unemployment, and the second project deals with HIV education. Both projects use the therapeutic workplace, which require participants to come into the clinic everyday. Within both of these, I directly administer intake assessments including, but not limited to, informed consent, ASI-lite, Beck Depression Inventory, Wide-Range Achieving Test, and Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults.

In addition to administering these assessments, I have also learned how to score them appropriately. Beyond assessments, I also administer and communicate privacy practices, HIPAA forms, demographic information sheets, as well as determine if a person meets inclusionary and/or exclusionary criteria. Throughout these tasks, I use Qualtrics programming and registration software. I also interact with clinicians, as well as the research coordinators and Principal Investigator.

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I found my internship through UMBCWorks. I applied, then I received an email about coming in to interview.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

My favorite part of this position is the pace. I had to learn everything quickly and hands-on within my first week of being there, and that's exactly what I love! Some days are slower than others, but most days are fast-paced. Working with this population, I am learning that I can never be ready for what situations may arise. Everything that I have learned in my classes relates to what I do at Hopkins, and vice versa. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to learn about the integration of research, IRB, working in a clinical setting, and lab procedures in this one position.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

Working as a trainee continually challenges me to learn how to take initiative and prepare for the unexpected situations. Some clients are going on job interviews, so I am going to be running an interviewing skills and professional dress workshop next week. These little opportunities make such an impact on at least one's person's progress, whether it is my personal progress, those of the coworkers, or the success of the participants.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

Do not be afraid to take advantage of the resources available to you. I applied to this internship through UMBCWorks because I think it is important to go for positions that are different from your previous experiences, and I was really struggling in finding summer opportunities. I was looking for an experience to help me transition closer to my field of interest and when I saw this position, I figured I would try and go for it just to learn about the process of interviewing for clinical and research settings. I think that a lot of people take for granted how draining it can be to go through the whole application process, especially if you have not done it in a while.Take every experience, good or bad, as a learning opportunity.

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