University of Chicago Summer Research Experience 

Sponsored by the Becker Friedman Institute and the Booth School of Business

The University of Chicago is offering FOUR current UMBC undergraduates an opportunity to apply for a deep immersive experience in research activities in economics.  The program is designed for undergraduate students with strong quantitative and analytical backgrounds of all majors. Substantial coursework in not required.

Program Elements include:

• Students will attend workshops given by Booth faculty as part of the "Economics Undergraduate Research Experience" beginning the end of June of 2016 and extending into July of 2016.  Information about this program can be found below: https://bfi.uchicago.edu/feature-story/research-for-undergraduates
• Depending on interest and background students will be matched with research professionals, graduate students or professors to work on a specific research project in economics.  This activity will start in June of 2016 and extend until the end of August 2016.  Last year’s research activities included work in Microeconomic Theory, Operations Research, Decision-Making Under Uncertainty, International Trade and Finance and Labor Economics.
• Additional classroom instruction will be provided for those students without substantial formal exposure to economics.

Support:

• All living expenses will be covered by the Booth School and the Becker Friedman Institute
• Housing will be provided in undergraduate dormitories at the University of Chicago.
• Travel expenses will also be covered.
• Successful applicants will be offered a stipend of $10,000.

Qualifications to Apply:

• We seek applicants with an interest in research and willing to work hard for the summer in a stimulating environment!

• 3.2 cumulative GPA or above.

• Open to all analytical backgrounds including economic, finance, engineering, mathematics, physics, etc.

• A strong quantitative background is a plus but is not required.

Application process:

• Required materials:  
• Current Resume or Curriculum vitae
• Personal Statement: Two page discussion of the candidate's objective for the summer and future research goals.  Include why you are interested in the program.
• Two letters of recommendation.
• Unofficial Transcript
• Please send these materials via e-mail to:      

Christine Routzahn, Director

UMBC Career Center

routzahn@umbc.edu, 410-455-3671

• Deadline to Apply:  Rolling Admission, Absolute deadline to apply is Tuesday, December 15, 2015
• For additional details, contact Christine Routzahn at 410-455-3671 or routzahn@umbc.edu

A guest post from Dr. Kate Drabinski

As someone who doesn’t own a car, I travel my bike and foot, bus and train, the occasional ride thrown in by a generous driver. Truth is, even if I had a car, I’d still travel without one, because that’s how you get a sense of where you live. Walking and biking in Baltimore has helped me understand how neighborhoods are organized, segregated, and cut off from each other by streets, transit systems, and urban planning policies. Cities look like they do not by accident or as the result of a series of individual choices, but because of planning decisions and the choices that follow. Even when we “choose” where to live, work, and play, our choices are circumscribed by stories space tells us about whether or not “we” belong. In a car you don’t have to see that, but walking or on bike, you become intimately familiar with the changes that take place as you get from here to there.

MLK Blvd separates and isolates the west side of Baltimore from downtown.  Read more at the Baltimore Brew by clicking on the image.

The separation of West Baltimore from the downtown area is particularly striking to me, the two sides of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard like two different worlds. UMBC’s downtown shuttle drops students, faculty, and staff on the east side of that divide, but both sides are integral to our lived sense of the city, belonging, and who are our neighbors. This walking tour will take us along MLK and both east and west as we learn about the history of this stripe that has made all the difference for difference.

To learn more about the neighborhoods we’ll be visiting during the walking tour, check out these resources:

• David Harvey’s article A View From Federal Hill
• The Battles of Lexington: City Paper goes deep inside and under Baltimore’s oldest market
• Where a 1997 Lonely Planet Guide Will Take You Today in Baltimore 

To learn more about Baltimore be sure to check out the kick-off to #CSJ365, Baltimore 101: Why Baltimore Matters on Monday, October 19th at 12pm.

Tickets for the #CSJ365 walking tour are going fast! If you want to join us on Friday, October 23rd, pick up your free ticket at the Commons CIC desk asap! 

We would like to inform you that the U.S. Department of State Summer 2016 Student Internship Program (unpaid) deadline has been extended through October 23, 2015.

We are now accepting applications for the U.S. Department of State Summer 2016 Student Internship Program (unpaid).

Please visit http://careers.state.gov/intern/student-internships for more information about the U.S. Department of State Summer 2016 Student Internship Program (unpaid), and to start the online application process via USAJobs. Please note that the deadline to submit completed applications is October 23, 2015 (new deadline).

Visit USAJOBS.gov to view the announcement: U.S. Department of State Summer 2016 Student Internship Program (unpaid).

We highly encourage you to complete and submit your application as soon as possible.

If you have any questions or would like to search for topics of interest, please visit our forums or FAQs at careers.state.gov.

We appreciate your interest in a career with the U.S. Department of State.

Name: Jatin Chhikara 

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Mozilla Corporation

Position Title: User Experience Design Engineer

Major(s)/Minor(s): Human-Centered Computing (Master's)

Expected Graduation Year: May 2016

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

My major responsibilities included: making new concepts that involve user centric design in prototyping for the Firefox desktop, and conducting user studies to check the new design concepts by making and testing user plans for the prototypes. In addition to this, I was also involved in user research for the Firefox desktop; my goal was to understand how users perceive and use Firefox in their daily life.

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

Mozilla was the first company where I applied for an internship at the end of last October. I found out about the internship program online through Mozilla's career website. Classes which I had that semester were directly related to the interview, so they helped me in preparation. I also watched lot of interviews of established icons, like Don Norman, related to UX domain to prepare.

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

The most exciting part of this internship was making a positive impact on millions of people all around the globe through my work. I have been given the responsibility to lead a project which is a great learning process. I am learning user centered design methodologies for making new concepts into reality from a UX point of view. The UX team for Firefox is geographically scattered all over the world, so daily communication (using different tools such as Vidyo and IRC) and weekly meetings helped me understand the dynamics of working with a geographically-dispersed team. 

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

Three projects that I worked on will be implemented in the new version on Firefox in the future. This internship has given me opportunity to provide good user experience to millions of Firefox-users scattered around the globe. I am able to break all the barriers of countries and cultures by contributing to a product that is same for everyone. It has also helped me align my academic experience with the practical industry work from an engineer and designer's point of view.

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

The first piece of advice I would give is to start applying early as giant like Mozilla, Google, Facebook, etc. start hiring interns around November. I would suggest that know yourself well in terms of what knowledge, interests, and passions you have. Focus on what you want and give your all to that. A good online portfolio is a good way to share your existing projects and interests to the hiring manager. Seeking help from alumni and the Career Center will provide you with lot of opportunities to build network.

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Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!

What You Need to Know About Delegate Mary Washington & LGBTQ Youth Homelessness

A blog reflection written by Women’s Center Staff Member Daniel Willey

I recommend Unruly Bodies (GWST 345, taught by Dr. Kate) to anybody who asks. And to people who didn’t ask. But, whatever okay y’all it’s a good class! I took it two whole semesters ago and I still think about it every day. I’ve been thinking about it even more lately as I ponder the question: am I disabled? I’m 20 years old and I’ve never asked myself this question before. Nobody told me I was disabled, so I just figured I wasn’t. But as I read about disability studies in Unruly Bodies, I came to understand myself as I operate in society very differently.

In a really awesome video in which gender theorist Judith Butler takes a walk with disability activist Sunaura Taylor (link tw: some of Sunaura’s art contains nudity and images of caged and/or dead animals), they talk about what disabled means. Sunaura Taylor has congenital arthrogryposis and uses an electric wheelchair (she’s also a theorist, artist, abolitionist vegan, and disability activist). In the video, Taylor and Butler see an abandoned shoe and Taylor wonders if that person can walk without it. Butler says in response,

“I’m just thinking that no one takes a walk without there being a technique of walking.  Nobody goes for a walk without there being something that supports that walk outside of ourselves.  Maybe we have a false idea that the able bodied person is somehow radically self sufficient.”

Wow, okay. So to break it down, what Butler and Taylor are saying is that people have their own ways of moving and doing but that some ways of moving and doing are more normal than others. Our world is built for people who can walk, or walk frequently and easily, and aids like shoes work quite well in this world. Sunaura points out that there is a difference between “disability” and “impairment.” She says her arthrogyposis and how it affects her ability to walk is an impairment, but that the disability comes from the fact that the world is not built for someone like her whose way of moving and doing is NOT walking, but on wheels.

But what does this have to do with you, Dan??

I’m getting there, I promise.

Let’s talk about desks. you know the ones. If you’ve ever had class in Sondheim Hall you know what I’m talking about.

Last year I started having trouble with my back. I have two semi-herniated discs in my lower back which cause me significant pain throughout my day. I have difficulty sitting for more than 20 minutes at a time, but I do it because I’m a student and that’s what we do. But sitting, especially in these desks, all day cause me pain and make it difficult to do my work. I would like to stand at a standing desk in the back of the classroom, but I’ve never had the courage to do it because I feel embarrassed– embarrassed for not being able to fit into the classroom norm and because it doesn’t feel like a “good enough” reason for a special accommodation.

This is really what I’m trying to get at: the combination of body/social norms and stigmatization of disability and accommodations affects my ability to learn and do well in school. I and my fellow fat students run into a similar situation with these specific desks because they’re way too small. The classroom is literally not built for fat students or students with disabilities, and it affects our ability to learn and participate.

There are systems set in place to accommodate students. Student Support Services at UMBC can help you get what you need and they help make it possible for more students to access education. You generally need medical documentation in order to get support from SSS, but that can be difficult if you’re unable to afford an evaluation for a learning disability (which are rarely covered by insurance and can cost over a thousand dollars) or access to healthcare in general.

If you have an invisible illness like Crohn’s Disease or Fibromyalgia it can be difficult to gain access to these services because you might not “look” like you have a disability. Even when you have specific documentation from the institution, individuals within that institution don’t always have the same attitudes towards you and how they see (or don’t see) your disability. This is especially true for women with chronic or invisible disabilities because of the way we think of women’s bodies and how we don’t take women’s health needs seriously.

I’m not just talking about UMBC here people! This is a problem everywhere.

Which brings me back to my question: am I disabled? Am I hesitant to use the term because of what I have learned “disabled” looks like? Is it because I don’t have any official diagnoses that label me as disabled?

As a white, middle class dude with good insurance, I definitely have not experienced the same types of oppression and stigmatization that many disabled people face. In 2013, 28.2% of disabled Americans lived below the poverty line. Over 40% of homeless adults are disabled in comparison to 17.7% of the general population. Being a disabled woman comes with a whole set of different challenges. According to WCSAP, disabled women are disproportionately at risk for abuse and sexual violence. 37.3% of disabled women experience domestic violence compared to 20.6% of non-disabled women. 83% of disabled women will experience sexual assault in their lifetime.

I’m not saying anyone is less disabled because of other privileges. I just mean that in my specific circumstances, I hesitate to include myself in a group that experiences oppression and marginalization because my other identities allow me to navigate “disability” differently.

In the end, I still don’t know the answer. Oh well.

There is so much I could write about this. I haven’t even touched on being a college student with learning disabilities and mental illnesses. Luckily for you all, there are lots of people who have written about all of these things and more already! The fields of Disability Studies and Disability Activism are rich and growing. There’s so much to learn! Check out this really cool disabled blogger’s videos to get you started! There are also some really cool disabled women doing really cool things! Sunaura Taylor and Erin (blogger linked to above) are not the only disabled women you should know. Maysoon Zayid is an Arab-American comedian, actress, and writer who did this great TED Talk about being a funny woman with cerebral palsy.

Remember, when you’re learning more about disability and disability studies:

1. Google it first. Disabled people on the internet are not info banks for you to tap into.
2. Don’t ask personal or unsolicited questions about a person and their disability. Some people are excited to share their knowledge and experiences with you. Some people are tired and just trying to live their lives.
3. Do self-work. Don’t be afraid to learn something. Apply what you learn to your everyday life.

Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 with our “What You Need to Know” series. 

Delegate Mary Washington 

State Delegate Mary Washington represents the 43rd district of Maryland, which comprises of most of North Central and Northeast Baltimore (for those familiar with the city, that’s North Ave to the northern border and west from Harford to North Charles).

First elected in 2010 and again in 2014, Del. Washington is not Maryland’s first openly gay lawmaker. She is, however, the first black openly gay member of the Maryland General Assembly and the second openly gay black woman to be elected to US state legislature.

As a Maryland lawmaker, Del. Washington’s stated goals include “urban environmental education, equality for all, and improving quality of life and sustainability of Baltimore neighborhoods.” In 2013, she established the Task Force to Study Housing and Supportive Services for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth which continued into 2014 along with additional efforts focused on youth homelessness.

A dialogue with Maryland State Delegate Mary Washington about LGBTQ youth homelessness will be held on Monday, October 19th at 7pm in the Commons 329. 

For more on Delegate Mary Washington, check out:

• Her bio and campaign website
• Sunday Q&A video about her work on youth homelessness

LGBTQ Homelessness in Baltimore

According to the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, an estimated 20-40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ. A Canadian study found that LGBTQ homeless youth are three times more likely to participate in survival sex.

LGBTQ homeless people are at risk for violence and often face discrimination in shelters, especially those with strong religious affiliations. Being homeless as a trans person is even riskier as many shelters are gender-segregated, putting many trans people at risk for assault and sexual violence. There are no LGBTQ specific shelters in Baltimore, although homeless LGBTQ youth can drop-in at the GLBT Community Center for resources and support during the day.

For more on LGBTQ homelessness, check out:

• The Gay and Lesbian Task Force study on LGBT youth homelessness
• Washington Blade article about LGBT poverty in Baltimore
• Baltimore Sun article about advocacy for homeless youth