Hosea 11:7-8 - “My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them. “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.”

Aren’t you glad God does not treat us as our sin deserves? God chose you and loves you. This love story is your story. Even if you are faithless, he will remain faithful.

If you are enslaved, God will buy you back. If you are lost, God will find you. If you are ashamed, God will cover you. If you wander off, God will bring you home. If you give up on Him, God will not give up on you. No matter where you are, God sees who you are, and he loves you.

Through the story of Hosea, God tenderly touches your arm and whispers, “Come home. My love sets you free. Even when you are striving and wandering, I’ll be there to draw you to myself again and remind you who you are in Christ.”

That’s the message of the whole Bible, isn’t it? At a manger in Bethlehem, God entered the slave market where all of us were putting ourselves up for auction, prostituting ourselves and our humanity to a lesser life. But on the cross, Jesus paid the full price for our freedom. He bought us back. This is the scandal of God’s love - his loving desire to make us his people and the full persons he intended us to be.
(Taken from Jennifer Rothschild, The Incredible Scandal of God’s Perfect Love.”

Today let’s thank our heavenly Father for his heart of compassion that won’t give us up or hand us over, but brings us home. Let’s pray for ourselves and our churches for his unfailing compassion that preserves, heals and saves. Share this with someone(s) today as his Spirit leads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMT5XqEq_c4

-AP

Hello Prospective Mentor!

I am contacting you on behalf of the Elizabeth Seton High School Learning Engineering and Design (LEAD) Program's E-Mentor initiative. Seton is an all-female high school that has implemented an optional engineering curriculum into the course-work. The LEAD Program promotes increased achievement in science, technology, engineering, and math in a problem solving environment. Seton offers four years of LEAD classes including Foundations of Engineering, Robotics Engineering, Advanced Design Application, and Engineering Design. The LEAD Program also exposes students to STEM competitions, service opportunities, and internship and workplace shadow opportunities.    

In order to bridge the gap between the high school classroom environment and college or the workplace, we have established an E-Mentoring Program for the students. This is where we need your help! We are looking for female college students, recent graduates, and professionals to become E-Mentors. An E-Mentor serves as a mentor to a student through offering guidance on STEM classes, projects, college decisions, 
and professionalism via e-mail.

What to expect: We would love for our mentors to commit to one e-mail communication per week for 8 to 10 weeks between September and November. That's it! Any additional communication is up to you, but we understand how busy college students and industry professionals are! We will also have a E-Mentor "Kick-off" Event, in which you will have an opportunity to meet the students and help them interact professionally! Mark your calendar's now, the Kick-Off will be Tuesday, September 20thfrom 7:00pm to 8:30pm at  Seton. We would like to see all of our E-Mentors there, but if you will not be able to attend, please do not let it discourage you from applying.

How to apply: Please fill out the (new and shorter) online application. The link to the application is below. In addition to the application, please send a pdf of your resume to: leadmentors@setonhs.org.

E-mentor application: https://goo.gl/forms/o3NPTuzaOVukjLW72

Who can apply: Females studying/working in Engineering, Architecture, or Computer Science fields. Please specify your major/work field in the application. If you do not see your field in this list, please feel free to still apply! Any undergraduate student, recent graduate, or professional  is encouraged to apply.

Why should you apply? A mentorship program is beneficial to both the mentor and mentee! Having an impact on younger students and being active in the community provides personal satisfaction to the mentor. Additionally, it is a great program to participate in for professional development. Being a mentor demonstrates leadership and knowledge in the STEM fields, your community involvement, and that you are proactive about helping others. 

Our statistics show that the program and mentors are making a difference! Of the students who graduated in the program, 81% have entered into college with a declared major in the STEM or design fields. Advice and engagement from mentors like you are making a difference!

For more information about Elizabeth Seton High School and the LEAD program, please visit our website www.setonhs.org. There is a "LEAD Learning Engineering and Design" section under the "Academics" tab.

Adam Ng for The Retriever

Most students come to college with a general idea of what they wish to do with their life, planning out the next four years in advance to try and keep these important developmental years in order. Then, many of these students change plans entirely and leave college with a completely different focus than what they came in with. The decision to switch majors and career goals is significant and the risks associated with making such a dramatic shift, particularly later in one’s own academic career, can deter students from focusing on their passions.

Before coming to UMBC in Fall 2014, Leon Gardiner went to earn his associate’s degree at Montgomery College, a community college in Montgomery County, MD. Like a majority of students, he believed that majoring in a STEM field would yield him the best opportunities for his future, so he chose to major in computer science. Leon’s high school encouraged students to find their major early, and Gardiner “got rolled into computer science” his freshman year.

However, once he “felt the horrors, deathless, and feelings of depression after only one semester as a comp sci major” after his first semester at UMBC, he decided to take a different course of action. Still hoping to work in a field relating to technology, Gardiner decided to move to information systems, with the rationale that, “There’s still coding, but it isn’t all about coding.”

Despite this switch, the option didn’t suit Gardiner either. “Programming wasn’t for me, it was hard and I was losing interest in this field that I thought I was going into since high school,” he said.

The Fall 2015 semester marked the last semester before Gardiner took some time off from UMBC, when the university placed him in a “suspension period” due to his academic performance. However, if he maintained a GPA above a 2.5 at another institution during his suspension, he would be allowed to apply for readmission at UMBC. Gardiner decided to go back to Montgomery College and after earning a 4.0 that semester, he got readmitted at UMBC.

Despite the hurdles Gardiner faced when first at UMBC, he decided that overall he did what was best for him. He said, “It’s never too late to change your major or stop going down a path you don’t want to go down if it’s not really right for you.”

Gardiner said that before this experience, “I was trying to force myself through these comp sci and IS majors because I knew that not only would I be able to work with computers, but I’d be able to make good money and probably not have to go to grad school.”

Upon returning to UMBC, Gardiner chose to major in psychology, feeling that his experiences with the variety of feelings and emotions that he went through over the last year as well as his social skills would make him perfect for a job in this field. “Since I was already unhappy with the classes I was doing,” said Gardiner, “Why would I want to rush and finish a major that I’m unhappy with to finish a job that I’m unhappy with?”

While Gardiner’s circumstances were unique, students all across the country encounter the same experiences that Gardiner has. Not everyone picks the right major when they start out, but an initial fear of the unknown keeps them from pursuing what they were born to do. For these people, Gardner had this to say, “Think about your own life, not your school life, your own life. What talents about yourself, what personality about yourself, what skills do you think shine brightly about you and then work to see how you can profit off of yourself.”

It’s never to late to change. Gardiner, at age twenty-three, learned later in his life, but he still knew what was best for him and made the active decision to improve his life. While it may have taken him a little longer than he would have liked, in the end, he’s there now.

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Shannon Carney for The Retriever

If you walk through campus with Ashleigh Kristensen, a senior majoring in social work and minoring in gender and women’s studies, you will likely be stopped by fellow students. Whether they recognize her from her job at Trader Joe’s in Columbia or they want to admire her full sleeve of “Alice in Wonderland” themed tattoos, strangers seem to recognize that Kristensen will warmly engage them in conversation.

Her haircut is wild: half of her hair is dyed pink and the other half is shaved off. Her drawn on, hot pink eyebrows somehow stand out behind her glittery, pink-framed glasses. Fellow students are typically surprised to find out she is 30 years old.

When Kristensen sat with me at a small, corner table in front of the Women’s Center to discuss the challenges and benefits of being an “adult learner” (a student over the age of 25), she looked tired.

“I only got three hours of sleep last night,” she said, her shoulders slumped forward. “I’m happy if I get five.”

After she said this, I noticed the dark circles under her eyes. Work, a demanding home life and full-time college schedule create hectic days for Kristensen.

“I don’t have kids but I do have a husband. Right now he’s disabled so I have to help him a lot when I’m not here,” she said, twiddling her thumbs and clicking her pink-coated fingernails against each other. “It’s not easy but there’s an end date for this and I’m trying to focus on life after that.”

Knowing she will have to obtain a master’s degree in order to achieve her goal of becoming a social worker, Kristensen chose to attend UMBC full-time.

“I don’t want much more time to get away from me where I could be in my field practicing,” she said. Her slow, deliberate speech stood out amongst the echoing chatter of the students around us.

Another difficulty for Kristensen is staying connected on campus. She feels part of the reason is poor advertising. She knew very little about the returning women group at the women’s center and hadn’t heard of adult learner week. “There’s a lot of things I think they would do better to advertise more,” she said, pink eyebrows raised.

Another issue keeping adult learners like Kristensen from connecting on campus is availability. Between her personal life and working to support herself, it is difficult to spend time on campus when events are happening.

“People try to do things during free hour, but not everybody’s here during free hour. Should they have two free hours?” Kristensen mused. “If you’re a returning student it’s very likely you are taking as many classes in the evening as you can.”

Kristensen found scheduling especially difficult when she tried to join the women’s rugby team. The group was welcoming but she couldn’t make the time commitment. “I’m just not here when they meet and I have to work at times when they’re practicing. I wonder if it would be easier for me if I was here more,” she said. For Kristensen, and for many other adult learners, campus involvement continues to be a challenge. 

The post Pink hair and tired eyes appeared first on The Retriever.

Retriever File Photo

Over the summer, UMBC said goodbye to Mesquite Grill and hello to a new fast food option in The Commons: Pollo. As its name suggests, Pollo (“chicken” in Spanish) focuses on serving chicken, accompanied with a side of fries.

While this new dining service is great for chicken lovers, its introduction does leave one issue: no more options on campus for beef. Mesquite offered a variety of meat, serving both chicken tenders and hamburgers and even served more obscure options such as mozzarella sticks. So was the introduction of a new chicken place at the expense of a more diverse menu worth it?

Nansen Kuo, a sophomore biology and psychology double major, said that he prefers Pollo over having the option of beef and other food products from Mesquite. “Pollo is a fast, efficient and better dining option than Mesquite,” said Kuo. “At Mesquite, you’d have to wait a while to get your burger and the burger wasn’t even that good.” Kuo finds that Pollo serves “much better food” than Mesquite did and that the chicken tenders are of “better quality”.

Peter Wu, a sophomore computer science major, also enjoys the new Pollo. “The chicken is much better than it was at Mesquite,” stated Wu, very much happy with the introduction of Pollo on campus. “I have never had chicken tenders as good as these before. It isn’t dry or unsavory. It just tastes like really good chicken.”

In fact, although Mesquite offered a number of options not available at Pollo, everyone we spoke to about this new option not only embraced the change, but preferred it when compared to Mesquite. Students reported that the chicken in particular is an improvement over what Mesquite used to serve. Although the campus has fewer options in terms of food, the offering of higher quality food makes up for this. UMBC students seem to prefer quality over quantity when it comes to dining options.

UMBC isn’t necessarily known for the quality of its dining options. In fact, many believe that that the food on campus, in general, isn’t spectacular. However, if Pollo is an indicator of what students want, perhaps dining services should focus on removing a vast array of food options at each restaurant to focus on serving high quality food. Doing so would not only have students better appreciate the food on campus, but it would also make for a more enjoyable campus living experience.

The post Pollo or Mesquite? appeared first on The Retriever.

Winston Zhou for The Retriever

The 50th Anniversary may be in our rear-view mirror, but you can relive the best moments (puppies!) or catch up on what you missed right here. Here’s to the next 50 years of petting puppies.

Photos by Winston Zhou for The Retriever.

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