Greetings fellow hunkerdowners!

This year marks the Seventh Annual Lavender Awards Celebration. The Lavender Awards celebrate the wonderful achievements of UMBC's LGBTQ+ graduating seniors, graduate students, and their allies. We recognize students as well as the allied alums, staff, faculty, and programs that work to support them. Although we are not able to host any festivities on campus this spring, we believe that there is still a lot to celebrate about our beautifully resilient LGBTQ+ community. Please mark your calendars for a virtual celebration on Tuesday, May 19th at 1pm.

This year’s virtual Lavender Celebration will include a welcome address, keynote speaker, slideshow of pictures and reflections from our graduating students, presentation of the Lavender Awards and farewell messages from staff, faculty, and students.

If you are an LGBTQ+ graduating senior or graduate student (graduating Winter 2019 or Spring 2020), you still have time to submit your photographs, reflections, and mailing address to receive your lavender cord by visiting the following link.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Heidy George at hmg@umbc.edu. 

This year’s celebration is brought to you by Campus Life’s Student Diversity & Inclusion and the Women’s Center. We look forward to celebrating some of our best and brightest with you!

What do the words relaxation, zen, stress relief, center, reflection, and healing all have in common? 

All of these terms have been associated with meditation. 

Meditation is a practice that focuses on the interactions between the mind, the body, and the behavior. 

• Meditation has a long history and is practiced in many different cultures around the world. Here are the basics to meditation:

• A quiet space with as few distractions as possible

• Comfortable posture

• A focus for your attention

• An open mind

• Relaxed breathing

While the practice of meditation should contain these basics, the practice of meditation is unique to all of us. 

• From the space we choose to the comfortable posture we select, it’s up to us. 

• The biggest key to a successful meditation practice that we all must remember is to stay present in the moment. 

• While we meditate, our thoughts may drift or we may become momentarily distracted, that’s okay.

• Just bring your thoughts back to your focus when you notice. It’s natural for the mind to drift. Meditation is an ongoing practice. 

Some of the emotional benefits of practicing meditation include 

• building skills to manage stress

• focusing on the present

• reducing negative emotions

While meditation is not a replacement for seeking care from a healthcare provider or a therapist, it has been linked to improving the treatment of

• depression

• anxiety

• sleep problems

Here are a few ways to practice meditation:

• deep breathing

• scan your body

• repeat a positive mantra

• read and reflect

• focus on gratitude

• engage in a spiritual reflection or prayer

Looking for more on meditation? Check out these apps and resources to help you craft your own meditation practice:

Resources available from UMBC:

• WellTrack

• Let’s Meditate - sessions offered by the Counseling Center weekdays at noon and 4:30 p.m.

• Yoga - Offered by UMBC Recreation every day at 10 a.m. (except Tuesday and Saturday)

Free phone apps are also available.

• Calm

• Aura

• Stop, Breathe & Think 

• Insight Timer 

This post is written by Sofia Encarnacion, a Diversity & Inclusion Peer at the Mosaic Center. Sofia is a sophomore Economics and Mathematics major. In her spare time, she likes to play Animal Crossing. When the semester ends, she will finally watch Avatar the Last Airbender.

“It’s just absurd. What it tells you is this: You are expendable. You’re nothing. You’re nobody.” 

My dad has been working 60 hours a week at a well-known, national company. His work involves manual labor and a lot of standing. There have been several confirmed cases of COVID-19 at this particular center, but management will not share information on which departments may be affected. My dad turned 60 years old last month. He works the night shift, with hours from 8pm to 6am. Sometimes more.

“I just seem to face life the same way anyway, so this is not a strange thing for me. This is the way life has always been for me, so what’s the difference? There is no difference. Since I have to survive and I’m living and breathing I have no choice,” he said. The company  has been paying workers double for any hours over 40 hours a week.

This conversation was really difficult to have. I get to live somewhat comfortably with my brother in his apartment in this safe Rockville neighborhood while my dad spends every moment either sleeping or working. I’ll be honest, this is not the first time I’ve seen my dad work this hard. I -like most people- don’t have a perfect relationship with my dad, but I still care about him deeply. 

He was working the night shift before the pandemic hit. Every time I’d see him, he’d be tired. He spent a lot of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays sleeping due to his unconventional schedule. Financial stability was never a reality for us and his employer has taken advantage of that. It hurts to see him like this: absent, exhausted, and thinner than I’ve ever seen him.

When we talked on the phone, Bernie Sanders had just suspended his U.S. Presidential campaign. It felt like the most hopeless conversation. My whole family has been rooting for Bernie. My dad taught us to be involved in politics at an early age. I have been listening to his lectures about the Iraq War since I was 8 years old. I have to credit him in his attempts to keep us not only informed, but passionate about issues that matter to us. When we talked on the phone, I didn’t hear his usual resentment towards an unjust system. It was a defeated tone. I can’t blame him. Who has the energy to be angry while also dealing with the anxiety of a pandemic as an essential worker?

We also talked about the word “essential”. I made a comment on how we call workers essential but we treat them like they’re disposable. “Well that’s how we treat soldiers too, isn’t it?” This led to a conversation about America’s economic interests versus the survival of its people. Which made me think that he’s right. Some things haven’t really changed.

So what can I or you do about this, especially now?  I believe that the only way we can prevent this continued sacrifice of America’s low income residents is to vote in politicians who value the American people as people and not based on what they can provide the economy. Right now, everything is very depressing, but let me leave you with this quote: “Let this moment radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.”

A photo of my dad posing for the family group chat in his work clothes:

Connecting with others is a vital part of the human experience. Healthy social connections can improve one’s ability to cope with stress and improve overall well-being. 

Some other benefits of healthy social connections include: 

• Reduced rates of depression and anxiety

• Better emotional regulation

• Faster recovery times from health impacts

Surprisingly, to reap the benefits of social connection, a person doesn't need to have lots of connections. It is all about the quality of the connections you have. A few healthy and meaningful connections can go a long way. 

In a time of physical distancing, it may seem difficult to maintain social connections and social support. Some of us aren’t seeing our roommates every day, we aren’t passing by friends when walking down Academic Row, or grabbing lunch in The Commons with our fellow organization members, but we are still together. 

To start, connect with people in these four areas of your life:

• Yourself

• Your family/relatives/loved ones

• Your friends

• Your partner (or a different person of your choosing)

To help you maintain connections with others during social distancing, try a few of these options:

• Sending a text

• Calling them on the phone 

• Using an online platform to talk face-to-face (e.g., Google Hangouts; Whatsapp; houseparty)

• Hosting a movie night (e.g., kast, netflixparty)

• Writing a thoughtful email or sending a letter in the mail

• Challenging a friend to a game of Connect 4, or another online game 

• Scheduling a virtual lunch or coffee meet-up

• Checking on your neighbors (if you are able to, pick up items for neighbors who might not be able to go to the store)

• Making new virtual connections (e.g., bumbleBFF, meetup, Huddle)

However you choose to connect during these times of social distancing, make it meaningful!

UMBC is hosting online events to help students stay connected to each other and their favorite departments and organizations. Visit myUMBC to learn about all of the upcoming online events, including events sponsored by

• Campus Life

• Counseling Center

• University Health Services/Health Promotion

• UMBC Recreation

• seb Student Events Board