Please see the latest updates on UMBC’s Retriever Ready website. Questions? Email covid19@umbc.edu.
Before you know it, your undergraduate education will come to an end. You’re probably excited to say good-bye to papers, lab reports, and exams (unless you plan to attend graduate school)!
Learning does not have to end when you graduate; your educational journey could just be getting started.
Lifelong learning can come in a variety of forms, including, but not limited to:
Below are a few tips/resources to becoming a lifelong learner:
UMBC Graduate School: If you plan on pursing an advanced degree, look no further! Visit the Graduate School web site to learn more about our exciting program offerings!
UMBC Division of Professional Studies: Already have a job lined up but still interested in continuing your education? UMBC's Division of Professional Studies has courses, certificates and programs, designed to fit the busy schedule of the working professional. Check out some of the upcoming online events at our Main Campus or Shady Grove next month!
UMBC Training Centers: If you are looking to gain a new skill and need flexible and affordable options, you may want to visit our Training Centers. High quality, flexible professional education and training opportunities are available year-round! Some courses are open to all individuals (no application needed)!
Remain active: Clubs/organizations are available outside of college! A simple Google search will direct you to a variety of local activities where you can participate, take lessons from aerobics, to sports, to even learning a new language! Meetup.com is an excellent resource for connecting with people who share similar interests!
Build your brand: Our Career Center is not just for current students! Alumni can make connections through various services that the Career Center offers. Seek out professional development opportunities within your workplace, including conferences, workshops, mentoring programs, or leadership trainings. Now that you are in a real-world setting, there will be other skills you will need to learn!
Stay in touch: As your graduating class prepares to travel down different paths, you will have so much to offer one another as you gain further knowledge and life experiences. By staying in touch with former classmates, you may encounter opportunities to collaborate in work or network in a field different than your own. To start, you can join UMBC’s Chapter of Young Alumni, open to graduates of the last decade. Membership is free via the UMBC Alumni Association, which offers chances for networking and fun throughout the year. Also, participate in the Career Center’s new initiative Retrievers Connect – an “online platform that provides an opportunity for alumni to connect with each other support UMBC students, and connect with faculty and staff all in one space to support professional and career connections.”
Join our LinkedIn page to see where over 60,250 UMBC alumni are working!
Life after college is what you make of it. Keep an eye open to the countless experiences that are waiting for you outside of UMBC. Your very next lesson may be one that carries you through life!
]]>Recognize a UMBC Faculty or Staff Member for Making an Impact on your Career Success!
Has
a professor or staff member made a positive impact on your career
goals, employment, and/or graduate school preparation? If so, take a
few minutes to recognize this individual as a UMBC Career Connector!
Say thank you in a special way! This opportunity is open to all students.
Thank
a professor or staff member who has written a letter of recommendation,
has helped you explore potential internships/careers, or who has made a positive
impact on your life.
All
those nominated will be recognized with a
small token and provided with a recognition certificate that includes your note of
thanks.
Complete Your Recognition Today!
To participate, please complete your brief recognition via our survey HERE.
Do not hesitate to recognize more than one person that has helped you along the way, your note of thanks will make their day!
Nominated faculty and staff will be recognized by the end of summer.
URAs provide up to $1,500 to undergraduate students to support their research or creative work with a UMBC faculty mentor on an original project. UMBC students of all years and disciplines are invited to apply, as long as they will remain enrolled at UMBC long enough to complete the proposed work.
Apply here:
Applications require a research proposal and mentor statement of support.
Questions: aprilh@umbc.edu
Name:Jessica Kweon
Internship, Co-op or Research Site:Esperanza Center, Catholic Charities in Action
Position Title:Legal Services and Educational Services Intern
Major(s)/Minor(s):Psychology B.A.
Current Class Level:Senior
Work Term: Spring 2021
Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.
I'm currently interning virtually for this position. Because I intern for two different branches, I have two different supervisors that I meet on different days. The majority of my work pertains to my legal role. I work closely with my supervisor to gain legal knowledge and practice skills lawyers use for cases, including preparing documents, briefs, and legal research. With supervision, I can also contact clients with regards to cases. In addition, I meet weekly with the other lawyers in the branch to learn about their cases in the past week. This experience has been super insightful in better understanding the work that lawyers do, especially in immigration law.
As an Educational Services intern, I work with my supervisor on projects pertaining to the adult ESOL tutoring program. As a volunteer, it's provided me a lot of perspective on how to better evaluate and improve the program for both students and volunteers!
Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
In December, I applied for the Shattuck Family Internship Program for Entrepreneurship Innovation and Social Change. Having been to the Career Center multiple times in my college career, I already had everything I needed, such as my resume, to apply for the program. In January, I was accepted into the program, which graciously provided funding for any nonprofit internship of my choice for the semester. I worked with Christine Routzahn from the Career Center to find and contact local nonprofit organizations that aligned with the kind of professional experience I was seeking for in my senior year. I've volunteered through the Shriver Center as an ESOL teacher for the Esperanza Center since the summer, and I was aware that they offered a number of other services to immigrant populations in the Baltimore area. After contacting and interviewing with the staff, I was able to land an intern position in two different branches, Legal Services and Educational Services, both of which I am very passionate about.
What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?
I love the values, mission, and vision that our organization has in truly serving and supporting the immigrant community. As someone whose parents are immigrants, I know that having access to safe and compassionate services is really important when coming to the United States. I've also loved working with my supervisors. They've both been super fun, encouraging, and helpful throughout this experience!
How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
Through my work, I am helping to improve teaching procedures that will enhance learning for children with developmental disabilities, like Autism-spectrum disorder (ASD). Although there are procedures currently in place to treat children with ASD in Applied Behavior Analysis, much research needs to be done to continue to strengthen ways to teach children using empirical data. Some areas of research are the number of stimuli and order of stimuli concurrently taught within a session.
What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?
In any aspect of my work, I am directly and indirectly impacting an immigrant in need of services, whether legal or educational. This purpose makes the work I do so worthwhile and personal knowing that I am helping someone adjust to and build their life here in the United States.
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While the proportion of people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) dying of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has decreased significantly over the past four decades as antiretroviral therapy has become more common, the full structure of the HIV-1 genome remains unsolved. The 5′ leader of the RNA sequence is of particular interest to solve, as it is the most highly conserved region of HIV’s genome and plays a key role in the packaging and proliferation of the virus. NMR spectroscopy is our lab’s method of elucidating RNA complexes due to its ability to collect data on dynamic complexes in solution. Our group will be using a U1A reporter protein paramagnetically tagged by M8-DOTA-SPy to induce long-range pseudocontact shifts (PCS) in the NMR spectra of our RNA construct. The goal of this project is to elucidate the tertiary structure of the orientation of the TAR and polyA stems of the 5′ leader in relation to each other to build on the Brown et. al paper published in 2020. We will show binding through electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) and show PCS of a TAR polyA construct.
Student support provided by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health (NIGMS/NIH) under National Research Service Award T34 GM 136497, NIGMS Initiative for Maximizing Student Development Grant (2R25-GM55036), NIAID grant ##8 R01 AI150498, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is, at once, one of the most common developmental disorders in the world and one of the most debilitating, however, its exact causes remain poorly understood. A preliminary genetic screen has identified the gene CaMKI as a molecular candidate involved in ASD. We hypothesize that mutations in CaMKI would lead to ASD-phenotypes such as sociability deficits and aberrant synaptic refinement. Using Drosophila as a model organism, we genetically ablated CaMKI and used a social assay to measure any resulting social impairment in adult flies, a hallmark of ASD in humans. Additionally, the role of CaMKI in synaptic refinement was tested at the larval neuromuscular junction (NMJ) as well as in the central nervous system. Furthermore, we live-imaged CaMKI-null embryos expressing the genetically encoded calcium indicator GCAMP to examine the activity pattern of the nociceptive class-IV (C4da) sensory cells. Our results suggest that this activity pattern is necessary for the proper development of neuronal networks, so any irregularities provide direct evidence of impeded maturation via synaptic refinement. This study explores the relationship between CaMKI and ASD which casts light on any connection between the disorder and developmental synaptic refinement, as a whole.
This work was funded, in part, through an Undergraduate Research Award from the UMBC Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs.