Written by Bekkah West and Zoe Brown

Each semester, the Women’s, Gender, and Equity Center (WGEC) hosts a variety of events tailored to support UMBC’s Returning Adult Learner population. Last Fall, we started the semester off with our on-campus orientation for the Returning Adult Learner Scholars and Affiliates, where everyone learned about the WGEC and got to know each other through various activities. Like previous years, we also hosted our monthly virtual meeting open to all Returning Adult Learners regardless of whether they are awarded the scholarship. This year, we are lucky to have Bekkah, an adult learner herself, on staff at the WGEC to facilitate these meetings. The first group meeting centered around the unique experiences of Returning Adult Learners. Adult Learners Week followed shortly after the first virtual meeting this semester, where there were a handful of networking events to participate in. At the October virtual meeting, by popular demand, work-life balance was discussed, as well as how Returning Adult Learners could feel more supported on campus and by each other. November’s meeting was about planning the future of the group and what each person wanted to see as an individual. Also, during the fall semester, a resource fair was held with commuters on campus, who often share that overlapping identity with Returning Adult Learners. Additionally, throughout the semester, the staff at the WGEC held one-on-one meetings with each of the Returning Adult Learner Scholars and Affiliates to check in and support them with any challenges. To round out the semester in December, the WGEC held the End-of-Semester Celebration, where graduating Returning Adult Learners were celebrated, and the demanding work of everyone was acknowledged. A highlight moment for everyone was when Jess Myers, the Associate Director of CWIT, made a special guest appearance to speak about her experience as former Director of the WGEC, and what returning adult learners and their history meant to her and UMBC.

Two of the Returning Adult Learner Scholars and Affiliates graduated at the end of the Fall 2025 semester! One of them graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and the other graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. Both were scholarship recipients in both the 2024-2025 and the 2025-2026 academic years. We are so proud of their accomplishments and excited to hear about their future endeavors!

The Returning Adult Learner Scholars and Affiliates have much to look forward to this upcoming spring semester. Having taken feedback from the group, the WGEC will collaborate with other offices and potential partners off campus to host workshops specifically to continue to support Returning Adult Learners in their academic, personal, and professional journeys. We have heard from many Returning Adult Learners that planning for graduate school, financial literacy, and looking for future job opportunities is what is most interesting to them. We have also heard that folks are looking for developing skills in stress management and networking. The WGEC hopes to provide these opportunities and more throughout the Spring, incorporating what is most important and needed for this population, including in-person events. Reflecting on what we have accomplished thus far, the RALs have truly come together as an engaged and compassionate community, for which many students have expressed gratitude. The staff here at the WGEC are proud of the progress this group has made and look forward to celebrating the many accomplishments ahead!

Fall 2025 Returning Adult Learner End of Semester Cellebration

At the close of each semester, the Women’s, Gender & Equity Center proudly hosts a Graduation and End-of-Year Celebration to honor the accomplishments of students in our Returning Adult Learners (RAL) Program. This year, in keeping with tradition, we celebrated our RAL Scholars and Affiliates with a Spring ceremony.

These celebrations are a recognition of hard work, resilience, and the power of community. Returning Adult Learners are undergraduate students over the age of 25 who are pursuing their first bachelor’s degree. Many have paused or delayed their educational journey due to work, family responsibilities, or other life circumstances. Now, they’ve returned. Often balancing school with jobs, caregiving, and other commitments to pursue their goals and dreams.

The Women’s, Gender & Equity Center has been proud to support these students through scholarships, individualized advising, and programs tailored to their academic, personal, and professional journeys. Workshops cover everything from career planning and financial wellness to community-building events that foster connection and affirmation. The RAL Program is grounded in the understanding that education is not a one-size-fits-all path. Every returning student brings something unique and valuable to our campus.

We’ve heard from several graduating students who have reflected on their journeys. Many spoke about the supportive community they found at UMBC, through mentors, peers, and clubs. Others say UMBC gave them the “space to grow, find my voice, and truly focus on my academic and personal goals.”

We are so proud of all of our RAL Scholars and Affiliates, especially those who graduated this year. Your persistence, wisdom, and courage inspire us all. To our graduates: Congratulations on this incredible achievement. And to our continuing students: we’re cheering you on every step of the way.

Interested in joining the Returning Adult Learners Program? We welcome you to learn more and reach out to the Women’s, Gender & Equity Center. We’d love to support you on your journey!

We invite you to join us in celebrating the amazing students in the RAL program and all their hard work. Below are some of this year’s graduates sharing, in their own words, what they were involved in at UMBC, their graduation plans, and advice for current Returning Adult Learners.

On a hot summer day in Curtis Bay, the air feels thick, not just with humidity, but with the smell of diesel, chemicals, and burning trash. For many residents, this isn’t just unpleasant; It’s a daily threat to their health.

“We want to open windows. Windows should be open. People should feel a breeze. People should feel comfortable walking in their community and not worrying about what they’re breathing in,” says Shashawnda Campbell of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust.

Extreme heat, sea-level rise, polluted waterways, and air pollution are just a few of the environmental issues that Baltimore residents face. As an industrial port city, Baltimore has a history of heavy industry, shipping, manufacturing, and transportation. The city’s waterways still suffer from pollution caused by generations of industrial pollution, leaks from aging separate sewer and stormwater infrastructure, extensive hardscape (paved areas), and widespread littering.

Air pollution is another significant cause for concern, particularly in South Baltimore communities, which lack adequate public health regulations. As a result, many industries were able to move in and set up more industrial projects with hazardous environmental byproducts. A particularly concerning facility is the waste-to-energy incinerator in Westport, which significantly contributes to local pollution. It is the 10th-largest trash incinerator in the country and accounts for 36% of all air emissions from Baltimore City industry. It is thought to be “green energy” because it converts waste into energy, but it actually has devastating effects on air and health quality. However, despite being marketed as sustainable, incinerators emit toxic pollutants like mercury and lead. These facilities often receive subsidies for being “renewable energy” while harming the very communities they claim to help.

Industrial facilities, including coal terminals, waste incinerators, and heavy diesel traffic, have long burdened residential communities like Curtis Bay, Brooklyn, and Westport. These facilities contribute to air and water pollution, adversely affecting the health and well-being of residents. The environmental burdens in South Baltimore have led to notable public health issues. Residents experience higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other chronic illnesses linked to pollution. For instance, the presence of coal dust in Curtis Bay has raised significant health concerns among community members.

Historical practices like redlining have played a significant role in this disparity. Redlined areas were systematically denied investment, leading to economic decline and making them targets for industrial development. Consequently, these communities, predominantly inhabited by Black and low-income residents, have faced environmental neglect and degradation.

The maps above depict the white neighborhoods that form the shape of an ‘L’ which accumulate structured advantages, while Black neighborhoods, shaped in the form of a butterfly, accumulate structured disadvantages (Brown, 2016).

Average life span of area residents.

Percent of families living below the poverty line.

The graphs above depict data from a federally funded study that took block-by-block temperature readings in August 2018. People who live in the hottest parts of the city are more likely to be poor, to live shorter lives, and to experience higher rates of violent crime and unemployment.

These temperature disparities stem from a lack of green infrastructure, grassy areas, tree canopy, and other vegetation. Green spaces in urban areas can significantly reduce temperatures through various mechanisms, primarily by providing shade and increasing evapotranspiration. This cooling effect helps mitigate the urban heat island effect, where urban areas tend to be warmer than surrounding rural areas. Vegetation removes chemicals and filters particulate matter from the air. It significantly reduces flooding by intercepting and slowing down rainfall, allowing more water to infiltrate the soil and preventing surface runoff.

Despite challenges, communities have actively worked to resist environmental injustices. Organizations like the South Baltimore Community Land Trust have been instrumental in advocating for cleaner environments and equitable development. Their efforts include opposing the construction of new incinerators and promoting zero-waste initiatives. In Curtis Bay, community-driven research has been launched to monitor air quality and hold polluters accountable. These initiatives empower residents to collect data, engage in policy discussions, and push for systemic changes to improve their living conditions.

Moving forward

Addressing environmental justice in Baltimore requires a multifaceted approach:

Policy Reform: Implementing stricter regulations on industrial pollution and ensuring equitable enforcement in all neighborhoods.

Community Engagement: Supporting grassroots organizations and amplifying the voices of affected residents in decision-making processes.

Investment in Infrastructure: Allocating resources to improve housing, healthcare, and environmental conditions in historically marginalized communities.

By acknowledging the historical context and actively working towards equitable solutions, Baltimore can move towards a more just and healthy future for all its residents. Sustainability must go beyond solar panels and recycling bins. It means clean air and waterways, trees and parks, and making neighborhoods safe and livable. It means investing in communities, not displacing them.

How I got involved

My passion for environmental justice sparked after taking GES 350 (Climate Change & Society) at UMBC with Dr. Dawn Biehler. This was the first class I had taken that discussed environmental racism and the disproportionate effects of climate change on different human populations. We learned about how low-income and communities of color are more vulnerable to climate change than affluent and white communities.

Oftentimes, we learn about global impacts of climate change like polar ice caps melting, extreme weather events (hurricanes, wildfires) etc. But for many of us, we don’t see the direct impacts of climate change, making it harder to care about environmental justice. However, Dr. Biehler’s class was the first time I learned about environmental issues in Maryland. Being born and raised here, I was shocked to learn about the devastating decades-long impacts on vulnerable populations, especially in Baltimore.

After spending some time learning about these issues, I decided to develop a program for the 2025 Alternative Spring Break trip through UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life. My co-leader and I spent months planning a five-day trip for UMBC undergraduate and graduate students to learn about environmental justice and sustainability in Baltimore city. Throughout the trip, we met with nonprofits, community leaders, elected officials, and others. The group included everyone from freshmen to Ph.D. students, all from different cultural and academic backgrounds. Each person brought their own experiences and unique perspectives to understanding environmental justice and sustainability. A senior graphic design major talked about wanting to use their passion for environmental justice and graphic design to create art that envisions a more sustainable future. A graduate engineering student thought about implementing sustainable practices in engineering, bridging the gap between the two. A freshman political science major was passionate about advocating for better policies to address the inequities we learned about during ASB.

When it comes to activism, many of us (myself included) have a hard time considering ourselves capable of being “activists.” We tend to think of activism as leading protests and marches in D.C. or staging a sit-in. And while those are valid ways of engaging in activism, there are so many other possibilities. You don’t have to be an environmental scientist to engage in environmental activism; we all have unique positions and skills to contribute.

Through UMBC courses and programs like Alternative Spring Break, I’ve learned that real change begins with recognizing our collective responsibility. Whether you’re an artist, engineer, or policy student, your voice and skills matter in the fight for cleaner air, safer neighborhoods, and a sustainable future.

Bear with me.

As a self-proclaimed feminist since age 14, it might surprise you that the first time I was actually taught about feminism was at age 22. My first women’s studies course was at CCBC, in the spring of 2022. Near the end of the course, I recall a particular discussion about the feminist future. My classmates were discussing how gradual versus immediate change could mitigate backlash and create permanent change. Feeling bleak about COVID, the lack of interest from the general public in feminist issues, and realizing change takes far longer than I’d ever imagined, I made a (what I believed to be realistic at the time) statement: “We likely won’t live to see that world.”

That belief, that I—and my children, and their children—would not live to see the world I was working towards, followed me to UMBC. Still, I enrolled as a double major (not quite convinced that Gender, Women’s, + Sexuality Studies, or GWST, was my path just yet), and sat myself down in the 10am section of GWST 200: Activism with Dr. Kate.

From the very first assignment, which forced me to confront my own activism and answer honestly if I viewed myself as an activist, I knew I had found my path. None of my biology classes ever asked how we could make transportation easier and more accessible, and then asked students to brainstorm how to actualize that. They certainly never made the biggest project in the class about actual, tangiblechange that could be achieved over the course of a semester. 

And, most importantly, no one had ever validated the small acts of activism as actual activism. The phrases “rest is resistance,” and “every act matters, no matter how small,” are now regular members of my repertoire, but I didn’t believe them until GWST 200. Never had I felt like I had actual power—the power to change something, to make a lasting difference. Dr. Kate’s belief that all of us are capable, even in the smallest of acts, was transformational. I find that belief echoed in many GWST professors, in the curriculum, and in the way we interact with each other. All of my professors are activists by virtue of their profession, but many take up the mantle outside of the classroom as well. In GWST, I found professors that practiced what they preach.

Having grown up in a deeply conservative part of Maryland, I was used to being told nothing would change no matter how hard I tried. Every effort in high school to make a difference had been consistently met with, “It won’t matter.” I know now that this attitude was intended to make us feel like our efforts were meaningless, even if they weren’t. If you can convince people that fighting back doesn’t change a thing, then you kill the resistance overnight. To quote my favorite musical, “The ones who tell the lies are the solemnest to swear.”

That musical, Hadestown, has another line I’ve been thinking about: “To the world we dream about, and the one we live in now.” This line, spoken by the ever-hopeful Orpheus, posits the world we live in and the world we want to see as two different worlds.

Well, lately I’ve been dreaming. 

Not the kind you need to be unconscious to access, but the waking, living, “I want to see and feel it,” kind of dreaming. But I’ve been doing a lot of that other kind of dreaming, too.

Lately, the world feels heavier. As if the Earth can’t carry all our burdens. As if the top layer of soil is crumbling under our combined grief. As if our planet might implode on itself and become a black hole, like our sun should be doing instead. Lately, I am afraid.

But I don’t bow down to fear. When a spider catches me by surprise, I don’t extend my arm to squash it. I grab a cup and piece of paper and deliver it back outside. When someone swerves at me with their brights on, I don’t panic and crash head on. I check my peripherals and move to the side. When the reigning authority threatens to destroy the joy we’ve dusted off and brought back into the sunlight, I refuse to go quietly into the shadows.

I won’t lie that I want to. I won’t lie that I’ve been terrified of knocks at my door, that I’ve made contingency plans, that I’m stockpiling information in case I need it sooner. I’ve been considering removing the flags from my bios, asking my partner not to leave the house without me—but that’s not how I want to live. I have a duty to myself to live my life authentically. Life is too short to live in fear.

So, I’ve taken up dreaming.

I’ve been dreaming of a world where I can step outside and not worry about what I’m wearing. I’ve been dreaming about a world where my partner doesn’t feel the need to make himself inconspicuous. I’ve been dreaming about a world where the people who make my clothes work a living wage, or don’t require a wage, because we live in a world of abundance and there are enough resources to go around. I’ve been salivating over a sustainable, borderless world, where conversations about whether or not the cars we drive, the food we eat, or the hobbies we enjoy are world-ending are conversations of generations past.

I’ve been dreaming of a world where I live to see the change—that could be this world. I am leaving behind the idea that I won’t live to see the change. I will make the change.

As I hurtle closer to graduation, I’ve been thinking about what I’m leaving behind at UMBC. In my time at the Women’s, Gender, & Equity Center, I’ve created programs and events that helped to fill gaps in providing what the campus needed. I’ve tried to help peers and provide resources wherever I can. I’ve made connections, learned the true value of community, and how freeing it can be to be honest in a group of like-minded people. I’ve brought lessons learned home, changed the worldview of those around me, and began to start changing my own.

My whole life has been entrenched in academia. I have spent more of my life in school than out of it, and, for a long time, that meant that the only way I envisioned change was through books and other people. 

I am other people now.

The world we dream about doesn’t have to be separate from the world we live in, but it starts small. It starts with us—with me, with you. Just as in Hadestown, there will be failures and setbacks along the way. But if STEM taught me anything, it’s that a failure isn’t the same as a setback, it’s just a part of the process—and we try again.

In 2020, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA; landmark civil rights legislation prohibiting discrimination based on disability) celebrated its 30th anniversary amidst a global pandemic. As people adjusted to life in a pandemic, we (maybe a bit ironically considering the historic lack of disability justicevisibility) relied on many of the lessons and foundation-laying of the disability justice movement. For example, many non-disabled people have had to grow a new level of bodily awareness, whether because we were following social distancing protocols, monitoring our symptoms, or balancing risk of contagion against basic needs like going to the grocery store or visiting a doctor. Beyond the virus, non-disabled people have had to consider how our bodies are transposed into the virtual work and learn-from-home worlds. And also how our bodies may no longer be able to go to work or school at all. 

But for those in the disabled community, existing in an inhospitable (systemically violent) environment under fraught circumstances has been a lived reality and disability justice a constant thread. Since the conception of some cultural bodily ideal and, thus, the creation of the “bad body,” the disabled community has used creativity, innovation, and resilience to build accessible worlds affirming all bodies and minds in any circumstance.

Starting in Fall 2021, Critical Social Justice (CSJ) will engage the UMBC community in a year-long conversation* on “Disability Justice + Access Matters.” In doing so, we hope to build on the disability justice movement’s work to fight for the value and liberation of all bodies–especially in the hopes of building radically accessible futures. 

Inspired by the work queer, disabled people of color activist group, Sins Invalid, we affirm their vision of disability justice: 

1. All bodies are considered unique and essential.
2. All bodies have strengths and needs that must be met.
3. Each and every person is powerful, not despite the complexities of our bodies, but because of them.
4. All bodies are confined by ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, nation state, religion, and more, and we cannot separate them. (Sins Invalid, 2020; original article accessible here.)

As we continue to struggle through this pandemic and journey towards “back to normal,” our hope is that this year’s CSJ will encourage us to pause before going back to the ways things were pre-COVID. In this pause, you can join us in reflecting on what embodiment has felt like during this pandemic. We can begin imagining a world where all people are considered strong and valuable not in spite of their complexities but because of those complexities. We can explore a history of activism and political organizing that has fought against the subjugation of disabled peoples and for the right to survive and thrive. And, in this pause, we can collaborate on ways to cultivate radically accessible and affirming spaces. This year, CSJ: Disability Justice + Access Matters invites our campus community to learn from a perspective of disability justice so that we can continue to make space for everybody and every body now and in the future.

For more information about upcoming events or to inquire about collaboration, please email the Women’s Center at womenscenter@umbc.edu.

We are currently reaching out to UMBC departments and organizations who may be interested in acting as co-sponsors (financial and otherwise!). If you represent an office interested in co-sponsoring CSJ: Disability Justice + Access Matters, please be in touch with the Women’s Center via the email above.

To get updates regarding our schedule of events and other programs, please subscribe to this WordPress and, if you have access to myUMBC, follow the Women’s Center on myUMBC.

*In previous iterations of CSJ, we have delivered programming through a week jam-packed with activities, speakers, and campaigns each and everyday. This year, we plan to spread the programs out through the school year with monthly ways to engage in Disability Justice + Access Matters both virtually and in-person.

Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Ignite with our What You Need to Know series. Written by Women’s Center student staff member Alexia Petasis.

The theme for this year’s Critical Social Justice (CSJ) was partially inspired from the iconic scene in The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King where beacons are sequentially lit (it’s really good, we promise… just watch it all the way through). For us, this video represents an igniting of power for change from within us while also inspiring others to recognize the power within themselves for being catalysts for change, because we can’t do this work alone. And there’s no way that Gondor will power through Sauron’s siege of Middle Earth without Rohan’s aid. 

Imagine a future where we all used our individual strengths and knowledge to create a socially just world. Being an activist seems like a daunting responsibility if you aren’t sure where to get started. Activism can come in many different shapes and forms and the activists you see marching or attending rallies demonstrate only a small majority of the work activists do. There are many ways in which to engage with social justice issues within your academic fields, disciplines, and passions.

Critical Social Justice is an opportunity for everyone to learn about the many ways they can ignite social change on campus and in their community. One of our main goals for this year’s CSJ is to, “continue to grow the inclusivity of CSJ by helping more people feel welcome and comfortable engaging in challenging conversations about equity and justice, across all racial and ethnic identities, genders, sexualities, political ideologies, academic fields, and life experiences. From dancers to coders, from seasoned activists to those looking for ways to begin impacting change around their passions, “CSJ can be for all of us.” 

With our themes of igniting inclusive excellence and creating knowledge at the margins, CSJ: Ignite 101 and the events following will be centered around the ways we can ignite and raise our consciousness about social justice issues. CSJ: Ignite 101 will be a fun, engaging, kick-off workshop where we will discuss ways you can use your skills, strengths, and knowledge in the pursuit of social change. We will be reflecting on the ways other activists have utilized their strengths for social justice. Not only will you leave with new ways of imagining your role as a change agent, but you will also leave feeling inspired on all the ways you can ignite change in the world.

Help us kick off the 6th annual Critical Social Justice this Monday, October 22nd at 12 pm in AOK 7th floor! RSVP via myUMBC.

Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Ignite with our What You Need to Know series. Written by Women’s Center student staff member Shrijana Khanal.

Critical Social Justice has always served as a platform to bring the UMBC community together to share ideas, spark creativity, and shine the light of truth on the challenges and injustices of our world. For 2018, Critical Social Justice: Ignite will focus on how we can catalyze passions and inspiration to create a better future for our community. With as many things going on around our nation (and reverberating throughout UMBC’s campus) in terms of sexual violence, trauma, and survivorship, we hope to create space for imagining a future that embraces healing and liberation.

Inspiring us and helping us organize our way into this future will be Deanna Zandt, our CSJ: Ignite keynote speaker (speaking on Tuesday, 10/23 at 6pm in UMBC’s Fine Arts Recital Hall).

Deanna Zandt is an award-winning media technologist, the co-founder of and partner at LUX (a consulting agency that allows leaders to spread ideas, causes, stories, and brands in an emotional and meaningful way through sharing information and social media). Zandt collaborates with different groups to design and enact effective web strategies towards civic engagement and cultural agency. Her technological expertise along with her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications, and finance gives her a cutting edge.) In addition to her leadership in marketing and technology, Deanna is the author of Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking. She also writes and illustrates graphic stories and comics and hosts a podcast on mental health and emotional wellness called The League of Awkward Unicorns. 

We bring Deanna, because she embodies the feminist idea of, “the personal is political.” She has been a powerful voice in the #MeToo movement, a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault. Her story was publicly aired on This American Life’s “Five Women” episode, and met with both admiration and criticism. In response, Deanna has openly spoken about how important it is to bring justice to survivors and empower their stories and healing process, while also being mindful of privileges that makes some stories easier to share than others. She describes gendered harassment and abuse as “a lifetime of socialization that we take with us through every experience, the mental acrobatics we perform to get through things, to make them normal, to have our lives make sense” in her blog piece on life post-This American Life.

As a social activist warrior, who is fluent in how technology and design can ignite a social justice movement, we are proud to host Deanna as our CSJ: Ignite keynote lecturer. She will be delivering her Keynote Lecture on Tuesday, October 23 at 6:30 PM in Fine Arts 118. This event is free and open to the public. Following her lecture, we will have a Q&A session and a reception. RSVP via myUMBC and/or Facebook. We are excited to learn about how we as individuals can improve our community through technology and more!

More Resources on Deanna:

Deanna Zandt: What Would Kermit Do?

TEDxBerlin, Deanna Zandt: “Net-work: Why the Future of Passionate Work Needs Your Relationships to Thrive” 

Personal Democracy Forum 2015: Imagine All the Feelz

For her 40th birthday, this woman ‘married’ her community

Deanna’s Social Media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deannazandt/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/deanna

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deannaz