Need a place to achieve career-life balance? A place to de-stress, relax, and rejuvenate? Come to the Mind Spa.

The Mind Spa offers several resources, including, but not limited to: a massage chair, and oil diffuser, a biofeedback device, books, and a meditation area. Photo Credit: Shawnisha Hester

The Mind Spa is a room that offers a stress-free environment to anyone who visits.  The ceiling is covered with fabric, giving the perception of clouds. Upon entering the room, there is a welcoming small table with a teapot, paper cups, and assorted tea bags. At each corner of the room, there are three different relaxation resources. In one corner, there is a meditation area where the floor is covered with fabric and cushions. At another corner is a full body massage chair. In the third corner, there is a computer connected to an EmWave device, biosensors that clip onto your fingers to measure your heart rate. On the computer, you can play games and guided simulations, such as breathing techniques, where the EmWave device would provide biofeedback as a measure of the participant’ stress level and inside harmony. Inside this room, there are also other resources to provide a calm, stress-free environment: sandboxes, stress-free balls, small plants, vertical paper lanterns, and an oil diffuser.

Services from the Counseling Center are open to all registered UMBC students.  Everyone (including faculty, staff and administration) can feel free to stop by and check out the amazing Mind Spa! The Counseling Center is open Monday through Friday 8:30 am – 5:00 pm. There are no fees and no limits as to how many times you access these resources! Feel free to walk in and use the resources at The Mind Spa, or, reserve a resource in The Mind Spa in advance by calling 410-455-2472.

We learned about The Mind Spa through Dr. Susan Han and Dr. Emilie Stuber-Lawson, who served as guest speakers for the PROMISE AGEP’s  Dissertation House at UMBC earlier this week. Learn more about the beneficial resources that the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Counseling Center has to offer. Located between the Susquehanna Hall and the Chesapeake Hall dormitories on campus, the Counseling Center provides free counseling services to the entire UMBC community, including: individual counseling, couples counseling, and group counseling. If you are unsure about setting up a counseling appointment, fear not! There is an “Interactive Screening Program” on the Counseling Center’s website (http://counseling.umbc.edu/resources/) where you can anonymously contact a campus counselor.

For students who are writing a dissertation at other universities, we encourage you to check your campus Counseling Center. Similar resources may be offered at your university.

Submitted by Amanda Lo (Graduate Assistant for the Career-Life Balance Initiative and the PROMISE AGEP team)

UMBC Special Collections is excited to announce the opening of a new online exhibit featuring the work of photographer John G. Bullock. “The Photography of John G. Bullock” exhibit, curated by Sarah Klimek, contains 81 digitized photographs, presents an overview of nearly four decades of Bullock’s photography, and highlights some of the major themes that defined his work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This exhibit is the first completed photography exhibit to be displayed on the UMBC Special Collections Online Gallery, https://umbcspecialcollections.culturalspot.org/home, a new online photography exhibition site designed to showcase some of the remarkable and unique collections held within Special Collections.

• Understanding Graduate School – Panel of Graduate Students
  • Nopondo Esemoto (Chemistry)
  • Joshua Brown (Biochemistry – MD/PhD)
  • DeLauren McCauley (Chemistry)
  • Antione Taylor (Psychology)
  • Janae Baptiste (Chemistry)
  • Alex Vega (Chemistry, incoming 1^st Year)

11:30 a.m.

• Introduction: Dr. Janet C. Rutledge, Vice Provost of Graduate Education & Dean of the Graduate School
• Motivational Talk by Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President, UMBC

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• President Obama Appoints UMBC President as Chair of National Education Commission (baltimore.cbslocal.com)

You are invited to join the Dissertation House online: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/summerdh2015/. We have been hosing challenges for several years, and are always pleased to see people finish their degrees! The participants who will come to the Dissertation House in person will be here from Tuesday, July 7 – Friday, July 10, but that doesn’t need to stop you! You can write something now. Let us know that you’re here. It’s ok to be the first one at the “party.” We’ll look forward to meeting you and encouraging you along the way.

Each summer we host a Dissertation House online that connects to participants in our in-person Dissertation Houses in Maryland. You don’t need to be a doctoral student in Maryland to join. You can be  student at any school in the world. The key is that we are in favor of forming a community to catapult you to the next level. Here is the link for the current installment:

https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/summerdh2015/

You’re invited! Join us!

Used by more than 5,000 students, UMBC has standardized its student response system, or “clickers,” on the Turning Technologies  platform. This systems supports instant student feedback to questions posed by faculty in the classroom, which can be integrated into PowerPoint presentations or faculty can asked questions on the fly. The results display of all student responses and allows the instructor to tailor instructor based on what students do (or don’t) understand before moving on to new content. Turning Point  also integrates with Blackboard so that instructors can access participant list of registered users and send grades to the gradebook. Using the clickers is a great way to engage your students and assess their knowledge of course content.

To learn more about using the Turning Point Clickers:

• visit our clickers  FAQ page  

• open an  RT ticket  for any technical issues

• view the schedule of training workshops on the  DoIT group page

• contact  the Instructional Technology Team with any questions or concerns

UMBC students, faculty, and staff now have access to a new online collection of Baltimore photographs through UMBC’s Digital Collections. The Baltimore Collection, which includes approximately 96 photographs and negatives, represents contributions from various donors that have been compiled to showcase the rich history of our city.  The original photographs are available for view at Special Collections.

The Baltimore Collection features a wide range of images that capture prominent historical figures and events in Baltimore, as well as scenes from daily life in and around the city. These photographs offer a detailed and vivid look at life in Baltimore in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, highlighting memorable events that have shaped the city’s past and defined its landscape while showcasing the Baltimoreans who lived during this time.

Highlights  

Among the photographs in the Baltimore Collection are several images depicting the aftermath of the Great Baltimore Fire, which took place on February 7 and 8, 1904. Nearly 86 city blocks and over 1500 buildings were destroyed during the fire. Images in the collection portray the extent of the fire’s damage, from crumbling foundations of former buildings to wide expanses of city streets that have been reduced to piles of rubble.

 The Baltimore Collection also features images of the Baltimore Sesqui-Centennial in 1880, which celebrated the 150^th anniversary of the founding of Baltimore. The photographs show streets and buildings throughout Baltimore, including the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon Place and the Baltimore Sun Building, decorated with flags, banners, and commemorative arches.

In addition to images of historic events and daily life, the Baltimore Collection also contains negatives of the iconic Edgar Allan Poe. These images include portraits and magazine photographs of Poe as a younger man and later in life. The collection also features photographs of Poe’s memorial grave in the Westminster Burying Ground in Baltimore.

Access the digital images of the Baltimore Collections here to learn more about the people, places, and events that have shaped Baltimore’s history!

UMBC’s Special Collections is also open to the public by appointment in the summer and as well as Monday through Friday from 1pm-4pm, with extended hours on Thursday until 8 pm during the semester. 

This post was written by Special Collections & Reference student assistant Sarah Klimek.  Sarah helped to digitize, create metadata, produce contextual information for the collection, make the landing page, and publicize it all while volunteering in Special Collections during spring 2015. Thanks, Sarah!