Graduate Assistantship Announcement

Division of Student Affairs 

Research Assistantship: Graduate assistantship (Master’s or PhD level) will be available starting as early as July 1, 2025 (dependent on student availability) to work with Student Belonging & the Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being in the Division of Student Affairs at UMBC. With the support of the Director of the Center for Religion, Spirituality, & Pluralism who oversees the Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being, the Graduate Assistant will help design systems to collect and interpret data, co-manage marketing and social media, provide logistical support for the Center, and help supervise student interns.

As one of the identity-based centers within Student Belonging, The Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being serves as a spiritually-centered space where students and UMBC community members can gather at the intersection of religion, faith, spirituality, and other lived experiences. The Gathering Space prioritizes individual religious practice, opportunities to explore holistic well-being connected to religion and spirituality, and creating spaces to engage across differences, by centering the importance of interfaith work and dialogue. Within the Gathering Space, three core themes are emphasized: radical love & belonging, spiritual well-being, and energetic pluralism.

The duties of the assistantship will fall into the following areas:

• Data Collection & Assessment: The GA will co-lead Gathering Space assessment efforts within the center, including the design of pre- and post-assessment measures, data analysis, and outcome sharing with the Division of Student Affairs, the UMBC campus broadly, and community stakeholders.
• Co-Manage Marketing & Social Media: The GA will design and implement varied systems to help manage usage and student engagement with The Gathering Space, which hosts 350+ visitors per week. These systems will help communicate upcoming events and programs as well as create a narrative to share about the role of religious and spiritual life at UMBC.
• Logistical Support: The GA will provide logistical support for some center events, intern hiring, and space management, seeking to be a welcoming and positive presence in the space.
• Co-Management of Student Staff: The GA will help manage the student intern team by providing direct supervision, attend weekly operations meetings, and facilitate trainings and practice opportunities for student staff to develop skills connected to interfaith dialogue, leadership development, customer service and space management, and/or program facilitation.

Potential Opportunities:

• Create systems to collect and interpret data
• Program management and assessment
• Student supervision skills
• Deepening skills connected to interfaith work, dialogue, and engaging across difference

Required Qualifications:

• Experience with interfaith dialogue and/or work with religious diversity
• Experience with data collection and assessment
• Experience with marketing and social media/online communications
• Previous experience in creating and implementing programming for students, preferably in higher education; supervision of student interns and programmatic design
• Interest and passion for equity, inclusion and diversity efforts, preferably experience in a higher education context (student organizations, student government, volunteering, internships, etc)
• Required skills: detail-oriented; self-managed; reliable; creative problem solver; critical thinker

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong systems thinker, particularly around data collection and assessment
• Experience with marketing and social media and ability to connect a marketing/social media plan back to systems and data collection/assessment
• Proven commitment to supporting equity, inclusion, and diversity efforts within higher education
• Professional interest in working in higher education administration or spiritual/religious life

Stipend: The graduate assistantship comes with a competitive stipend and is designed for up to 20 hours weekly. For more information regarding assistantships visit https://gradschool.umbc.edu/funding/assistantships/

Application: Please apply via Handshake (https://app.joinhandshake.com/stu/jobs/9798066?ref=preview-header-click&search_id=8d0cc551-049f-40af-ac5a-64f1bf2639dd) You will need to provide a cover letter about your interest, CV/Resume, and a list of three references with contact information via Handshake (at least one faculty member).