Most people have heard the word entrepreneurship, but what exactly is artrepreneurship? Come to one of our Speaker Series events with Vinita Sud Belani where she will talk about her experience as an entrepreneur in the tech world to where she became an artrepreneur. The event will take place on October 16th from 12-1pm at the University Center room 310.

About the Event

Come listen to serial entrepreneur Vinita Sud Belani talk about how her experience as an entrepreneur in the tech world propelled her to become an artrepreneur.  She turned her passion for theatre into a platform for bringing together not just demographically diverse communities, but also the business and the artistic community and the amateur and the professional artists of that community.

Vinita will focus on the importance of clarity and relevance in an organization's mission statement. She will address questions that are just as critical for artrepreneurs as for entrepreneurs to build a successful business.

-  How far up the value chain does one need to go to to build a good product?

-  Are you selling vitamins or painkillers?

Come learn how to build an organization that is agile enough to incorporate on the ground learnings into a strategic vision without impacting the core mission and vision.

About Vinita

Vinita received a BS and MS in Computer Science at Birla Institute of Technology and Science from India. In addition she has her MBA  from Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) from France, and a diploma in french language and culture from France and in German from the Max Mueller Institute from India. 

Vinita also comes from a wide range of work experience ranging from SOGETI CapGemini as Vice President, Socketworks International as the founder and CEO, the director for business development at FirstRain, founder and co-CEO at Paguro, and as an IT project manager at ANZ Grindlays Bank. 

Some awards and memberships Vinita has includes being a board member at MATRI, where she helps survivors of domestic abuse and domestic violence, along with being a previous board member of SEED, an international education initiative connecting high school students with scientists working on global projects.

Professional Development Writers Workshop

Dr. Holland is leading a group of fifteen UMBC students down to Costa Rica for a GES summer field course focusing on conservation and sustainable development in two biological (conservation) corridor regions.  The course will begin on June 1st and continue for two weeks.  The students will be conducting participatory mapping exercises and interviews with community organizations to better understand the challenges they face and priorities they have when implementing sustainable development initiatives.  We’ll also take part in an environmental service project within each region.  You can virtually travel along with us and read day-to-day reflections via this blog:

http://mbholland.wordpress.com/

Applications for next year's Faculty Learning Communities are due May 15. The application itself is short, but does require approval of your chair. Please see the details below.

The Faculty Development Center invites applications from all UMBC faculty to participate in UMBC’s Faculty Learning Communities program. A faculty learning community (FLC) is a group of 8-12 faculty across disciplines who join together in a year-long exploration of specific evidence-based teaching practices. Through FLCs faculty connect with colleagues, find out more about how teaching can impact learning, and come away with a product to use in their own teaching. FLCs support faculty in developing a new pedagogical approach, new kinds of assignments, and/or new ways to assess student learning. The program consists of: regular meetings every three weeks which participants agree to attend faithfully, a kick-off retreat to build community and initiate the conversations, and a follow-up presentation of products from participants. Faculty participants gain new colleagues, expertise, and an opportunity to document their teaching effectiveness.

For the academic year 2014-15 four year-long FLCs will be led by UMBC Faculty Learning Community Facilitators:

Contemplative Pedagogy led by Sarah Leupen, Department of Biological Sciences and Robin Barry, Department of Psychology

Diversity in the Classroom: Enhancing the Curriculum and Environment led by Eileen O’Brien and Julie Murphy, Department of Psychology

iTEACH: Using Tablet Computers in the Classroom led by Donald Snyder, Media and Communication Studies and co-facilitator to be announced

Teacher-Scholars, a pre-tenure faculty cohort FLC led by Linda Hodges, Director of the Faculty Development Center

Participating faculty are expected to:

 ·       Attend all meetings

·       Attend kick-off retreat August 15^th, 2014

·       Create and present a product related to the work of the FLC

In addition to becoming part of a network of faculty across disciplines who provide support and creative ideas about teaching and learning, participating faculty will receive $500 for professional development.

Faculty may apply for as many FLCs as they wish, but they will be chosen for only one. Participants for each community will be chosen by a committee consisting of the FLC Faculty Learning Community Facilitators and the Director of the Faculty Development Center. Criteria for choosing applicants include:

·       Commitment to quality teaching as demonstrated by: reflection on teaching; changes in teaching methods based on assessment of student learning; or interest in or use of innovative strategies

·       Potential contribution to UMBC

·       Willingness to try new ideas

·       Ability to commit to regular meetings (one every 3 weeks)

Please see the attachments for descriptions and applications for each of the four FLCs. Applications MUST also include a schedule grid for the fall semester 2014 and the signature of the department chair. All applications are due no later than May 15, 2014.