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Whether you are enrolled in online, hybrid or in-person classes, building relationships with your professors can greatly impact your satisfaction and overall success in a course. But with larger class sizes and less frequent class meeting times than in high school, you may be tempted to think that initiating a conversation with your professors is challenging or daunting.
However, we are here to tell you that it is quite simple and absolutely something that professors want you to do! Just having the assurance that your professors know who you are by name can make all the difference in your motivation and feelings of connectedness to your courses.
Additionally, building connections may open the door for future support/opportunities, including:
Below are some easy ways to get started and tips for doing so!
How to Connect:
Stop by During Office Hours
Utilize your professor’s office hours! The sole purpose of these hours is to help you outside of class. Whether it be the assignment you’re confused about or a simple check-in on your progress in the class, you’d be surprised at the kind of insight you can gain from one-on-one sessions.
Office hours or 1:1 meetings may or may not still be held virtually at this time. Refer to your class syllabus to determine where and when these hours are held.
Helpful Tip: Many professors are willing to set up meetings with you on days, and at times, outside of their listed hours to better accommodate you. Some professors with challenging schedules are willing to have meetings via phone call. Just take the initiative to ask.
EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL!
Our busy schedules as students don’t always allow for a 1:1 meeting. Connecting through email is better than no correspondence at all. As a courtesy, please allow for a 24-hour response time. It may take a bit of back and forth to get your questions answered, but in the end, you should still be able to get the assistance you need.
Note – Your emails should include an initial greeting, your name, Campus ID, what class you are in (sometimes professors are teaching multiple courses/sections), and a respectful closing.
When to Connect:
· Don’t wait to set up a meeting until you are struggling in a course. Connect early in the semester! If there are extenuating circumstances, including student-athlete travel schedules or accommodations you receive through Student Disability Services, these are helpful things to let your professor know about at the beginning of the semester.
· When emailing, try to stay within the frame of typical business hours or their office hours if possible—you may get a faster reply this way.
After You Connect:
· Follow up with your professor after your sessions. Whether it be an assurance that you are implementing their advice correctly—or to say thank you—following up with your professor shows you care and makes the relationship one of reciprocity.
Network:
· Attend departmental events or other campus events your professors promote in class to establish a relationship that surpasses the classroom and discover new interests.
Dear UMBC Community,
Students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate in some old-fashioned, face-to-face talk about the future we imagine for our communities at Candidates in our Backyard, Thursday, September 29, 2022, from 6:30 p.m. -- 8:30 p.m. in the Retriever Activity Center. This community forum will bring together candidates for elected office in Legislative Districts 44 A/B and 10 and County Council District 1, campus, and community to discuss goals and hopes for the future. The event will include:
Light fare will be provided.
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SEP 23 12 PMLooking in the Mirror Series presented by CAHSSWhat is Linguistic Diversity?Online |
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Let employers attending the Fall Career & Internship Fair on Wednesday, September 21 know NOW that you are interested in them!
Several attending employers have provided their Candidate Tracking links so that they can be sure to capture the contact information of potential candidates. For more information on the attending employers listed below, take a look at our Fair Directory or visit the Handshake event HERE.
Haven't claimed your account in Handshake yet? Get started HERE!
Bala Consulting Engineers, Inc.
General Dynamics Mission Systems
U.S. Army Medical Recruiting Elkridge, MD
Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
Another great way to let the full list of attending employers know that you plan to attend the fair is by clicking on the “Join Event” button NOW on the event page HERE. The Handshake platform allows employers to review registered students prior to the event and potentially contact you individually. This is an excellent way to get in front of the line!
Please note, it is NOT necessary to pre-register for the fair in order to attend.
]]>Dear UMBC Community,
UMBC's Office of Sustainability engages with the campus community in numerous ways to help inform our work to promote sustainability within our interconnected environment, society, and economy. One way we engage is through surveys, which help us to develop benchmarks for various initiatives and to inform ongoing and new projects.
This is a reminder about the following survey, which assesses specific knowledge, beliefs, and practices of UMBC students, faculty, and staff. The input you provide will help the Office of Sustainability to create programs, services, and procedures allowing us to better serve you and your fellow Retrievers.
Those who participate in the survey have the option to enter into a drawing for a UMBC Sustainability Matters reusable water bottle and sticker! We will randomly select five students, one faculty member, and one staff member at the end of the survey. Winners will be notified via email.
If you have not already done so, you can access the survey by clicking here.
If the survey does not open automatically, please copy and paste the following link to your internet browser's address bar: https://tinyurl.com/umbcsustainability
The survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete. We need all responses by 11:59 PM on Friday, September 23, 2022.
Thank you for your time!
UMBC Office of Sustainability
]]>Undergrad Intern Req: R-1093851
Graduate Intern Req: R-1093864
Full Time AFDP Req: R-1093878
Name: Shaniah Reece
Internship, Co-op, or Research Site: NCAR | UCAR
Position Title: SIParCS Intern
Major or Program: Information Systems
Current Class Level: Senior
Work Term: Summer 2022
Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.
This summer I interned at UCAR | NCAR (University Center for Atmospheric Research | National Center for Atmospheric) as a SIParCS intern. In this role, I worked on a project with two mentors titled “Forecasting the COVID-19 pandemic”, where our goal was to demonstrate how Data Assimilation can enhance model forecasts by guiding them to more reliable predictions.
My responsibilities varied from project-based requirements to required weekly meetings, Professional Development Workshops (PDWS) and “Software Standups”.
For weekly meetings, I met with my cohort to catch-up and talk with my internship coordinator and our CODE intern (CODE stands for Community Outreach and Diversity Education) about how we were doing, upcoming opportunities or events (for example touring different NCAR facilities) and any action items we may need to attend to.
Each Tuesday and Thursday morning, I attended “Software Standups” with the team - this is an agile meeting format, where all team members would stand at their desks and give an update on where they were on a project and offer assistance to each other if needed.
Each Thursday, for about two hours I attended PDWSs which covered a range of topics, from diversity, to writing project grant proposals, to building and creating and delivering a poster presentation or talk. These were really helpful to our learning, professional development and were valuable in connecting us with various opportunities.
When I was not attending meetings I was spending time working on my project and meeting with my mentors as needed. For the first few weeks I focused on familiarizing myself with the content. This mostly consisted of learning about the SEIR epidemiological model and NCAR’s Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART). I also utilized LinkedIn learning or NCAR’s libraries to sharpen any technical skills I needed to.
I worked with my mentors to identify reliable COVID-19 data sources and imported and cleaned them for assimilation. I kept them mentors updated on my progress daily and reached out whenever I needed help.
Once my dataset was ready, I spent the mid to end period of my internship doing work in Matlab to parameterize, tune and run sensitivity tests on my model. Oftentimes I would reach a stonewall due to missing COVID data or varying reporting practices across countries, however we were able to adjust the focus of the project to accommodate these limitations, and demonstrate how effective data assimilation can be even in such cases.
In the final days of my internship, I accumulated my findings and spent time preparing an abstract, content, layout and story for my final poster and presentations.
Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
Last Fall, I was fortunate to obtain a scholarship from the Center of Women in Technology (CWIT) to attend the Tapia Conference, where I met my internship coordinator, Virginia Do. I introduced myself and gave my elevator pitch in the manner I practiced beforehand at the Career Center’s workshops, then shared my post-graduation interest to pursue a PhD in Data Science.
Our conversation went very well and I was excited to learn about NCAR and its research. Though I was a bit intimidated by the project titles and was hesitant to apply, she encouraged me to give it a shot. I promised to follow up and made sure to do so. We kept in touch via email to make sure I got my application materials in. I worked on several drafts and asked her to review my materials before submitting to make sure I was all set.
This February, I received an offer to interview. I prepared as necessary, and received confirmation a few days or weeks after my acceptance to the project.
What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?
I enjoyed how balanced my experience was. NCAR|UCAR prioritized our well being and made sure it was well-rounded. For example, we had a CODE intern whose role was focused on building connections among our cohort. We toured the city, biked, rock climbed, volunteered, attended movie night; I even got to go skydiving with a few interns because of the connections they made possible!
How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
I believe I was successfully able to demonstrate that models are helpful and very necessary especially in the epidemiological field. However, they are not perfect and data assimilation can help to compensate for some of their limitations.
What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?
Do not disqualify yourself. If you see an experience you find interesting, go for it!
Please provide a short reflection or quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / working with the Career Center.
I deeply enjoyed the community, environment, people and experience I've had during my time in Boulder. From Day 1, I felt part of the team right up until the end of my experience. I was stunned that interns from such different backgrounds could come together in the way we did: bond, laugh, and support each other once strangers in a new place.
Check out this post on our social media platforms!
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram andLinkedIn
#UMBCintern
Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Monday!
]]>Dear UMBC Community,
As you may recall, President Sheares Ashby announced in August that UMBC would begin a national search for a new vice president position to lead diversity, equity, and inclusion work across the campus.
As a key next step, we have assembled a search committee which includes faculty, staff, and students who will work with search firm Isaacson Miller to identify outstanding candidates for the Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer role. The committee members are:
I am grateful for their willingness to help us find a leader who shares our values and is excited to join our community. We will continue to share updates as they are available.
Candace Dodson-Reed '96, Chief of Staff to the President, and Chair, Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer Search Committee
]]>We ask that you reflect on the work within your units and across the campus and nominate a colleague. This process gives us the opportunity to recognize exemplary work at both the campus level and across the entire University System of Maryland. We are eager to honor our colleagues and need your help to do so.
We encourage administrators, faculty, and staff to nominate staff members for one of these prestigious awards:
Nominations due October 31, 2022
Stay tuned to UMBC Community News and the Provost's website for more information!
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