Real People Profiles: Damani Lewis
I’m 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 their responses.
Name: Damani Lewis
Q: How long have you been at UMBC?
A: I've been at UMBC since Fall 2009
Q: What is your current title (job or student organization position)?
A: SGA Senator and Resident Assistant for Erickson Hall
Q: In 12 words or less, what role(s) do you play on campus?
A: I help and encourage students to seek worthwhile change initiatives on campus!
Q: What aspect of your UMBC role(s) do you enjoy most?
A: I definitely enjoy talking with other students the most. Both roles involve talking to other UMBC students and seeing what's on their mind. Many times what'll happen is that you make a pretty good friend that you wouldn't have made otherwise!
Q: What is the most important or memorable thing you learned in college/have learned at UMBC?
A: Take some time out for yourself! College can be so stressful: Exams, papers, extracurricular activities, internships, meetings, etc, it can really pile up. Take some time out of your day and do something you enjoy, whether it's playing a sport, playing a video game, or eating lunch or dinner with a best friend (something that I do far too often, some of the employees at Chick fil a on campus knows me on a first name basis).
Q: Complete this sentence: "I am a big fan of __________"
A: Chipotle and the Student Orgs Space couches. If you hang around the space there's a very good chance you've caught me taking a power nap on these very comfortable couches. As for Chipotle, yeah, it's really good.
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: If you have a free week during winter break and spring break, definitely apply for STRiVE and ASB (Alternative School Break). Both experiences are monumental and teach you a lot about yourself!
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I’m 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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Co-Create UMBC
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Super Human Moments: Broken from the Start
Everyone has had them: moments when things have gone wrong partly because of our own lack of experience or perspective. In this new series of posts, I'm asking members of the UMBC community to reflect on their own 'super human moments.'
Q: What is your current title (job or student organization position)?
A: Special Assistant to the Director of Student Life
Q: In 12 words or less, what role(s) do you play on campus?
A: I aid in implementing campus-wide programming, assessment projects, and being a resource for students.
Q: What title would you give your Super Human Moment?
A: Broken from the Start – The Relationship or Me?
A: I started dating *John* my senior year of college. John and I had a very close friendship, enjoyed so many of the same interests/hobbies, and he taught me how to play guitar. I was the “good girl” all my life, and he was a “bad boy” of sorts who kept me intrigued and eventually got me hooked. I am not a fighter, but oh, how we fought. Typical unhealthy relationship, where one is hopelessly in love with the other who hurts you, but you keep pressing on because “next time, the promises won’t be broken”. I thought, at the time, he had all the qualities I ever hoped for in a partner (along with some negative ones I would’ve never pre-selected, but not everyone’s perfect). I compromised my standards, my relationship with my family, my own intuition, and that little voice inside trying to shout at me -- we got engaged.
The conflict from all sides increased. In the climactic height of a typical ‘misunderstanding’, John removed the ring from my finger in a fit of rage. At that moment, he tore out my heart, but it had long ago been chipped to pieces. He was sorry…again. But his act in momentary loss of control was the defining act that pushed me to seize the ground he accidentally provided. His last mistake was my out. Could I have done it on my own?... The agony ensued for months, but John was gone from my life. And that’s the shortest version of that chapter of my life I have ever shared.
I had mixed responses to the end of my engagement, a time in my life that I had been dreaming and praying about for many years. All I wanted was to find “the one”, get married, and raise a lovely family. On one hand, I was miserable and suffering, grieving at the loss of those hopes and plans --- how could I ever find all I wanted in another person? On the other hand, my logical and grounded side of me (along with the tremendous support of my family and friends) knew that this was a huge trial to grow from and I would move past it. During the relationship, I could see what was unhealthy, but I set it aside. As the troubled weeks passed after the engagement ended, I began to identify the emotional and mental abuse and the manipulation that I allowed myself to endure because of my codependency on my partner. I had difficulty being independent, and I don’t mean being single. I was so selfless with my heart, emotions, strength, and energy that I had none left for myself. I was empty. I had to learn to take care of and understand the inner me in order to healthily give of myself to others. Strengthening and growing the inner me allows me to pursue what I’m passionate about – caring for and building up others.
Q: How have you applied what you learned?
A: In the months following the culmination of our relationship, my family and friends, a professional counselor, and hours upon hours of self reflection, thoughtful contemplation, and prayer helped me understand this: in order to help anybody else, I had to help myself get better first. I am still growing each and every day in this area. I have discovered what excites and fulfills taking care of the inner me! With a stronger, independent self, I am getting better and better at serving others in healthy, developmental ways. Also, more times than I can count on my two hands I have been able to share my difficult story to shed some light for others journeying through their own difficult stories. I know I will be able to do that for the rest of my life, even for my own future children (fingers crossed). It’s true – everything happens for a reason (whether you ever come to understand that reason or not).
Q: Do you have any advice you can pass along to others?
A: Relationship violence is not only so hard to watch when you see it in others; it is very hard to get out of when you are the one in the unhealthy romantic relationship. Listen – to your gut and to those who care about you. Know and understand who you are and what you stand for. In turn, you will be better equipped to make healthy decisions for yourself and be better able to impact loved ones and strangers with all your strong, awesome self has to offer!
Howard Makes Bold Changes
Goal is to promote excellence
by Talibah Chikwendu
AFRO Executive Editor
(Courtesy Image)
This week Howard University's president and Board of Trustees announced
major changes to the academic structure of the school. The Academic
Renewal Plan – the culmination of two years of meetings, university
community input and the hard work by the Presidential Commission on
Academic Renewal (PCAR) – was presented to the board by Howard's
President Sidney A. Ribeau on Jan. 29 and approved.
“Universities must periodically review and assess themselves to respond
to developments in higher education and the changing needs of our
nation and the world,” Ribeau said in a statement. “At Howard, we are
doing just that. We must maintain the highest standards of academic and
administrative excellence.”
The plan consolidates or eliminates many of Howard's degree programs
and works to reorganize the university's resources in a way that
supports its strategic goals.
While this process was initiated by the board of trustees and President
Ribeau, Alvin Thornton, Ph.D., senior advisor to the president on
academic affairs and chair of the PCAR committee, was clear that this
effort and the resulting recommendations involved all parts of the
university community. "These were not presidentially or board determined
decisions. These are largely decision that came from the university
community," he said.
"These changes will, in essence," said Thornton, "strengthen Howard
University, make it much more focused around the strategic areas that
the Board of Trustees and the president have identified."
Some of these strategic goals include ensuring high quality
undergraduate programs, a continued commitment to the professional
schools and a return to a focus on teacher preparation, Thornton said.
Others, according to a press release issued by the university, are: to
strengthen the commitment to science, technology, engineering and math;
encourage increased research, advance Africana and Diaspora Studies to
make Howard University the leader in that area of study; augment urban
education, business, communications, humanities and visual and
performing arts programs; and streamline and focus degree program
offerings.
"We have identified specific areas of emphasis,” Ribeau said in a statement, “and we plan to be leaders in those areas.”
Howard currently offers 171 degree programs. As part of this plan, 71
programs – 38 professional programs, 11 graduate programs and 22
undergraduate programs – will be either eliminated or changed. Thornton
stressed that students in those programs to be discontinued will have
the opportunity to complete their degrees and faculty members in those
programs will not lose their positions. "The concept really has a lot on
integrity," he said.
In the past Howard, Thornton said, "responded to the national need that
our community had and our nation had to educate in all areas of the
Black community. ... We cannot continue to do that because of resources
and we, frankly, don't have to do that in the same way.
"This renewal program that the board has approved and the president
recommended will strategically redesign us and prepare us to move
forward for the future."
He added, "We're going to be much more research oriented at Howard
University because we believe that's the best contribution we can make
to the African-American and national community."
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Howard Makes Bold Changes Goal is to promote excellence by Talibah Chikwendu AFRO Executive Editor (Courtesy Image) Story Tools...
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The Mosaic: Center for Cultural Diversity
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The UMBC Office of Student Life's Mosaic Center
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