April 6, 2023

University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Office of Graduate Student Life

GSA WRITING ADVISOR POSITION, 20 hours a week – AY 2023- 2024

The Office of Graduate Student Life (OGSL) is operated by the Graduate Student Association (GSA) to meet the needs of graduate students as they pursue degrees at the master’s and doctoral levels in all disciplines at UMBC.

Job Duties
•Provides advice and support for all phases of graduate student writing and oral assignments, including organization, drafting, and editing.
•Assists graduate students with using grammar, sentence structure, and style appropriate for each academic task.
•Advises graduate students on a variety of documents, including essays, papers, applications, resumes, thesis and dissertation chapters.
•Maintains relationships with repeat advisees and meets the needs of one-time advisees.
•Supports both native and non-native speakers of English, as well as students from a variety of disciplines.
•In addition to individual sessions, the Writing Advisor is responsible for conducting a yearly Writing Workshop and a Literature Review Workshop.  May be requested to host additional workshops.  A familiarity with various style guides is helpful.
•Conducts occasional workshops on writing strategies relevant to graduate work (cover letter writing, citation use, essay prose, etc.).
a•Promotes Writing Advisor role and services to UMBC graduate community.
•Works with Historian to update, maintain and advertise Writing Advisor website content.

•Maintains tracking system for Writing Advising appointments.

•Works with E.A.A. and Communications Manager to promote the Writing Advisor.

•Submit a “Bi-weekly Writing Tip” for the GSA to post.

•Prepares monthly report for the Executive Councils review and places in Google Drive/FY23 Reports.

•Attends Graduate School Orientation to inform students of this service.

•A positive attitude, strong time management skills, and a sense of humor are advantageous.

•Other duties as assigned (e.g. assisting with the Graduate Research Conference).

� Works with other writing centers/assistants on campus (i.e. Library Writing Center, ELI) to refer students to the appropriate help facility.

�Develops written procedures and guidelines to ensure continuity of Writing Advisor support and training of new hires.

Qualifications & Requirements
•Strong interpersonal, analytical, oral and written communication skills required.
•A strong command of English, written composition and metalinguistic knowledge is critical.
•Commitment to diversity & team building is necessary to work with UMBC’s diverse population and programming.
•Bachelor’s degree.
•Applicants may not hold a doctoral degree or have UMBC adjunct faculty status.
•Independent and self-motivated work ethic is crucial.
•Essential to be able to work independently and as a part of a team.
•A positive attitude, superior time management skills, patience & a sense of humor are advantageous.

OGSL Expectations

•Serves as a member of the OGSL and assists the OGSL & GSA in its mission of supporting and promoting graduate students.

•Collegially supports and assists the GSA Executive Administrative Assistant, the Communications Manager, and the Community Liaison.

•Collaborates with the OGSL team & GSA Executive Council to implement GSA’s mission.

•Attends weekly OGSL team meetings, monthly Senate meetings, GSA Social Hours, Graduate Student Week events, the Graduate Experiences, Achievements, and Research Symposium, and The Graduate School events.  Works 20 hours per week staffing the office.

•Maintains and develops knowledge of the Graduate Student Handbook, The Graduate School policies, and GSA policies.

This is a 20-hour/week assistantship including tuition remission for Fall and Spring, stipend for Fall and Spring AY 2023-2024 and GA health insurance.  

Please Follow Application Instructions Carefully – Your Application Will Not Be Reviewed Unless ALL Materials Are Submitted

Electronically submit:
•Your resume in PDF
•Cover letter in PDF
•Contact information for faculty reference (Name, Title, Address, Email, Phone)

• 3 Various Writing Samples in PDF to:
Dawn L. Galindo

Executive Administrative Assistant, GSA
The Commons 308
dgalindo@umbc.edu

GSA Communications Manager

April 6, 2023

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Office of Graduate Student Life

GSA COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER – GRADUATE ASSISTANT POSITION, 20 hours a week – AY 2023 - 2024

The Office of Graduate Student Life (OGSL) is operated by the Graduate Student Association (GSA) to meet the needs of graduate students as they pursue degrees at the master’s and doctoral levels in all disciplines at UMBC.

The successful candidate MUST be eligible for Federal Work Study, determined by the student’s FAFSA (must be a U.S. citizen or a Permanent Resident).

This graduate assistantship is the manager for all communications between GSA, OGSL, graduate students, and the greater UMBC/Baltimore community.  This includes e-mail inbox management, GSA Postings/Newsletter, updating social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the MyUMBC portal). 

Job Duties

•Works alongside the EAA to assist with clerical duties (i.e. filing, supplies, etc.).

•Reviews all emails and places in correct folder and forwards Executive Council emails directly to appropriate member.

•Prepares monthly report for the Executive Councils review and places in Google Drive/FY24 Reports.

•Creates and implements frequent feedback structure such as surveys, links to information on and off campus and discussion boards that focus on graduate student issues.

•Brainstorms and generates new avenues to simplify processes that affect graduate students.

•Receives information/issues from graduate students and creates solutions as appropriate.

•Troubleshoots daily inquiry for continued superior customer service and creates a culture of “how can GSA help solve this issue?”

•Collegially supports and assists the GSA Executive Administrative Assistant.

•Other duties as assigned.

OGSL Expectations 

•Serves as a member of the OGSL and assists the OGSL & GSA in its mission of supporting and promoting graduate students.

•Serves on the GEARS Committee.

•Collaborates with the OGSL team & GSA Executive Council to implement GSA’s mission.

•Attends weekly OGSL team meetings, monthly Senate meetings, GSA Social. Hours, Graduate Student Week events, the GEARS, and The Graduate School events. 

•Maintains and develops knowledge of the Graduate Student Handbook, The Graduate School policies, and GSA policies.

•Works 20 hours per week staffing the office.

Qualifications and Requirements

•This graduate assistantship requires knowledge of computer databases, website management, project management, reservations systems and systems processes. 

•This position requires design, trouble-shooting, research, and analysis as well as the ability to work alone and on a team.

•The GA in this position should have a background in the following topics:  project management, information management, emerging technologies, recruitment and customer service. 

•Must have flexible availability throughout the week to participate in committee meetings and GSA/OGSL events.

•Strong interpersonal, analytical, oral and written communication skills required; conflict resolution skills desired.

•Knowledge of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Google applications.

•A commitment to diversity and team building is essential.

•Bachelor’s degree, full-time enrollment in a UMBC master’s or doctoral degree program & be in good academic standing with The Graduate School.

•May not hold a doctoral degree or have UMBC adjunct faculty status.

•A positive attitude, strong time management skills, and a sense of humor are advantageous.

This is a 20-hour/week assistantship including tuition remission for Fall and Spring, stipend for Fall and Spring AY 2023-2024 and GA health insurance.  

Please follow application instructions carefully.  Your application will not be reviewed unless all of the following materials are submitted electronically:

Electronically submit:

• Your resume in PDF
• Cover letter in PDF
• Contact information for faculty reference (Name, Title, Address, Email, Phone) to:

Dawn L. Galindo, E.A.A.

GSA
The Commons 308
dgalindo@umbc.edu

URCAD is tomorrow, 4/12 in the UC!

Two Perspectives to Understanding Post-COVID19 Inflation: A Recovery Phenomenon and a Classical Economic Tradeoff

Location: UC Ballroom | 10 – 11:30 a.m. | Poster 05

Zinedine Partipilo Cornielles
Mentor: Salem Abo-Zaid, Economics

Macroeconomic disruptions tend to cause discrepancies between the expectation provided by economic theories and the actual data. With the economic downturn that started with the COVID pandemic, most, if not all of the world’s economies saw themselves facing a crisis. Unemployment skyrocketed, economic activity floundered, and consumer confidence and demand saw themselves heavily impacted by lockdowns and fears of the pandemic. Because of this, I aimed to study likely causes for the high inflation in what I considered the first “recovery” period, before the start of the war. My strategy was two-pronged. First, I studied the relationship between certain characteristics of countries’ economies and their respective inflation rates. Second, I assessed the presence of an inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation. I then found the following results. First, economies that recovered faster from the demand shocks, had higher inflation. Second, larger economies (with a larger real GDP) also faced higher inflation. Lastly, the relationship between inflation and unemployment that is implied by the simple, short-run Phillips Curve held, which could be another likely explanation for the abnormally large levels of inflation.

Full URCAD schedule: URCAD.umbc.edu

The Women's Center will be opening late Thursday, April 13th at 1PM in preparation for our Take Back the Night. We hope to see you there!

The Women's Center will also be closed all day Friday, April 14th, but staff will be available remotely: email us with any inquiries womenscenter @ umbc.edu.

We will resume our normal hours next Monday, April 17th.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday from 9:30am to 5pm and Fridays from 10am to 3pm.

For any parents who need the lactation room during this time, please contact the Women's Center at womenscenter @ umbc.edu or call us at 410-455-2714 to make arrangements prior to.

Characterizing Zincergic Neuron Projections and Elucidating their Role in Cocaine Mediated Behaviors

Location: Poster #52 from 10-11:30am in the UC Ballroom

Leila Ghaffari
Mentor: Michael Michaelides, NIDA

Zinc (Zn2+) is an essential element of life that regulates neurophysiological homeostasis. Additionally, zinc has been understood to enhance the affinity for cocaine binding of the dopamine transporter (DAT), resulting in the enhancement of cocaine mediated behaviors. Synaptic, or free zinc, has also shown to be an endogenous modulator of dopamine neurotransmission in the striatum. It is not known, however, how zinc affects DAT activity between males and females, and whether such activity differs between the dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens, or in regions where zincergic neurons originate. Our project aims to increase understanding of zinc in this context. First, we assess whether zinc affects cocaine related behaviors, known to be modulated by striatal activity following striatal zinc chelation. Our next goal is to study if zinc alters DAT and dopamine D1 receptor binding as a function of sex. Our third goal aims to understand the proportion of zincergic neurons that project to the striatum. Through these research goals, our hope is to characterize zinc as it affects sex-dependent dopamine neurotransmission in striatal circuits.

See the full URCAD schedule at: URCAD.umbc.edu

Morning Session: 10 – 11:30 a.m. UC Ballroom Lounge

Afternoon Session: 1 – 2:30 p.m. UC Ballroom Lounge

Join us on Wednesday at 12 noon in UC 312 for the URCAD Keynote by Alicia Wilson (UMBC, Political Science, '04).

Alicia L. Wilson, Esq. is the Managing Director and Global Head of Philanthropy for the North America Region for JPMorgan Chase. At JPMorgan, Alicia oversees the local philanthropic strategies across 40+ markets in North America, collaborating intentionally with senior leaders across the firm’s corporate responsibility and business units to drive meaningful impact across JPMorgan’s business footprint in the U.S. and Canada. This includes helping to steward the $2 billion philanthropic commitment as part of the firm’s broader Racial Equity Commitment.

Prior to joining JPMorgan, Alicia served as Vice President of Economic Development for Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System and Associate Professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland. At Johns Hopkins, Alicia led a core cross-institutional team focused on developing and implementing Hopkins’ institution-wide strategies and initiatives as an anchor institution in and around its campuses both within the United States and abroad. Alicia spearheaded the elevation and expansion of Hopkins signature commitment to its communities through investments in real estate, economic and neighborhood development, healthcare, and education.

Alicia is a graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC, 2004) and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. At UMBC, Wilson was a Blaustein and Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar and, in 2003, was named the Harry S. Truman Scholar for the state of Maryland. She worked closely with Dr. Roy Meyers (retired professor, Political Science). Alicia was named the inaugural 2004 Andrew Levy Leadership Scholar at the University of Maryland School of Law. In late 2004, she was also named the 2004 George L. Russell Scholar at the School of Law. While in law school, Alicia served as the co-captain of the Maryland Law National Trial Team and led her team to be ranked the number one trial team in the country.

Alicia is actively involved in civic and charitable organizations. She is a native of Baltimore City and valedictorian of her class at Merganthaler Vocational-Technical High School and draws on her experiences growing up in inner-city Baltimore for inspiration to help others realize their dreams. She currently serves on the boards of Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland School of Law Board of Visitors, the CollegeBound Foundation, Kennedy Krieger Institute, and the France-Merrick Foundation. She is also co-founder of the Black Philanthropy Circle at the Baltimore Community Foundation. Alicia is also Chair of the CollegeBound Foundation and as such is the first CollegeBound Foundation alum, first woman, first African-American and youngest Board Chair in the thirty history of the organization. Alicia also serves as Parliamentarian within the Harbor City Chapter of the Links, Incorporated and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

For her accomplishments and public service, Alicia has received over fifty professional awards and honors. Most recently, Alicia was recognized as Pro Bono Partner of the Year for 2022 by the Equal Justice Council and was selected as the 2022 Whitney M. Young Award recipient for her service to youth by the Boys Scouts of America, Baltimore Area Council.

Her professional and civic leadership have propelled her to the forefront of local and national media attention. Most recently, Alicia was recognized as one of the 15 Black Marylanders to Watch for 2023 by the Baltimore Sun. In mid-2022, Savoy Magazine recognized Alicia as one of the “Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America”. She was also named a 2022 “Women Who Wins” and Newsmaker of the Year for 2021 by the Afro-American Newspaper.