Final Goodbye

Posted on August 23, 2021 by madl2021
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

As the summer comes to end, so will my time as a blogger for Around the Grove. It truly was an amazing experience to have written these blogs for all of you and I can’t thank you all enough for the support you’ve given me and to my fellow bloggers. I will be preparing to start my new chapter with the University of Maryland College Park after this blog is posted and spend the last bit of my summer vacation reflecting on the past four years that have passed. I’m glad I could share my journey with all of you who’ve read my blogs so I wanted to leave some advice for you all to hopefully assist you during your journeys.

Have a back up plan: Life happens, especially in ways you don’t want it to. Your original plan might not work out how you want it to; so it’s best to have a back up plan to fall back on so that you can have another stable path to continue on. We always have to expect the unexpected.

Learn something new: It’s always nice to learn a new skill and it helps expand your interests on different topics. A bit after this blog is posted, I’m going to be creating a Terrapin keychain craft using beads. I’ve never done something like this before so I’m excited to see how it turns out!

Be yourself: One of the reasons why I managed to get this far in my life is by me being myself and no one else. I’ve learned that you just got to be who you are to be happier in life; so I just kept being myself and it landed me great opportunities in life like writing for Around the Grove and my fellowship with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at UMD. Always be real with people because no one likes someone who isn’t being their true self.

Thank you all for joining me and my fellow bloggers on our journeys with Around the Grove! I deeply encourage you all to go on and read the blogs the new bloggers will write this upcoming year and the years to come! I know they will do just as an amazing job as we have! I wish everyone the best on their journeys and to continue pushing yourselves to achieving the goals you’ve made for your lives. Although my blogging has come to an end, I won’t be far! Soon enough, I’ll be writing articles instead and having them placed on newspapers or in video format!

Once again, thank you all for reading my blogs and feel free to read them again as much times as you want! Leave any questions, concerns, or suggestions down below! I hope you all enjoyed the blogs and you’ll be seeing me on the newspaper, on the NEWS, on a podcast or maybe on another blog site soon! Goodbye and good luck to all of you! 🙂

Small message for everyone!
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The Library: a Priddy Nice Place to Visit

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Laura DeMarco

Now that some of us have in-person classes again, we also have an in-person library. Some of you may be familiar with Priddy library protocols, but others may not, so let’s have a quick crash course in what Priddy Library has to offer.

What do you need to access the library?

Masks are required in the library. You also need a USG ID to get in. Due to COVID-19, the USG library will not be open to the whole, non-USG community in fall 2021.

That said, if you attend classes on your university’s home campus and just need to make a return, you’re welcome to use the library book drop just outside the building. Home campus community members are also welcome to schedule a curbside pickup.

An open space full of tables, chairs, and students of all races and genders.
The Priddy Library Core Area, complete with people. Photo credit: DiscoverUSG

How loud is the library?

It depends. Priddy Library is divided into several sections, and you can pick where you want to work based on what type of study environment works best for you. The list goes like this:

  • Col-Lab: suitable for partner projects. Heads up! At the time of this post, the col-lab is closed.
  • Core Area: the main section of the library, suitable for group work or people who need background noise to think.
  • Study Rooms: private cubicles for group projects. Once fall semester starts, you’ll need to reserve one of these rooms in advance. This is the space to work on a group project when you crave privacy and quiet.
  • Quiet Area: suitable for individual work. Please keep voices to a whisper here. The Quiet Area is separated from the rest of the library by white noise machines, but there may be some residual noise anyway because Priddy Library is small.
  • Silent Study Room: this one is self-explanatory.
  • Reading Area: suitable for individual work, but that’s mostly because of how the tables are arranged. This section of the library uses similar tables to the Library of Congress.
  • Garden Lounge: suitable for group work. You’ll recognize this section because it’s chock full of plants.
  • Study Gallery: suitable for individual work. If you need to use an iMac, get to this section early.

Who can answer my questions?

The student assistants can help with basic answers. For more detailed questions, find the subject guides online or ask a friendly librarian. If you need to learn something specific (like PowerPoint or time management), check out the library workshops. Everyone in Priddy Library is happy to help as best they can, and if someone who doesn’t know the answer, they’ll be happy to find someone who does.

How can I contact the library?

Head to the Priddy Library website, where you can find hours and the online chat service. When the library is open, you can also call (301) 738-6020.

To learn more, check out the library website. There, you’ll find more useful information than I could possibly cover here. Enjoy, and best wishes for fall!

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New Chapters and Habits

Posted on August 6, 2021 by lynnmayo21

August has always felt more like a new start than January. August brings the new school year and a new chapter. As I begin graduate school in just two weeks this new chapter has been anxiety-provoking, to say the least. As much as I am excited to be where I dreamed of getting to I feel an immense amount of nervous feelings. One thing that has eased the not-so-pleasant feelings is preparing for the semester. 

Preparation has been shopping for school supplies which has anyone noticed the further you get in school you need fewer items? Preparation has also included the great joy of clothes shopping. Which has also changed as we progressed through school. Five years ago I wanted Ugg boots for back to school and now I have to get slacks and heels because I have internships. One big preparation that has felt more like work than fun is getting back into a routine. Learning to not sleep past noon and lay in bed until the last minute before work. Learning to eat three meals a day again and start planning lunches. Learning to get back into using my calendars and planners and keep up on my laundry and cleaning schedules. 

Photo by Diana Schröder-Bode on Unsplash

As much as I have been working to get back into habits, I’ve been trying to make some changes as well. My senior year of undergrad was the most amazing but also hectic time. I accomplished so many things but great mental health was not one of them. I was overworking myself and it led to a huge burnout. I want graduate school to be different. I want to finish graduate school with accomplishments of not only awards and achievements but also accomplishing a happy mental state. In preparation to reach this goal, I’ve been making sure to spend more of my free time on myself. Using my free time to practice self-love through all of the love languages and doing things my body and mental need. 

My next and last blog post will be about two weeks after I have begun grad school. I look forward to letting you all know how all this preparation has done for me!

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Four it’s a Jolly Good Building

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Laura DeMarco

Continuing my guide to USG, it’s time to tour the other most versatile building on campus. That would be the Biomedical Sciences and Engineering building, otherwise known as Building 4 or, most commonly, the BSE.

The entrance of a stone and metal building.
Image Text: Biomedical Sciences and Engineering

The classes in the BSE are a bit more major specific than those in Building 3. As the name implies, the BSE hosts a majority of the STEM majors at USG, including Exercise Science and the UMB dental school. (The primary exception to this would be the nursing program, for which Building 1 is the domain.) However, there are several services and amenities that everyone should know about.

Let’s start with the aforementioned dental hygiene program. Yes, they take clients! In fact, the first elevator in the BSE goes directly to the dental school. Don’t worry; I was guided around by a staff member during my fact-finding mission, and he assured me that the dental students have to prove themselves very skilled before anyone will let them near another person’s mouth.

Anyway, back to the tour. Across from the dental elevator, you’ll find security, and the atrium is just past that. The atrium is a great place to talk about the study spaces that are all over the BSE. They’re these squishy green chairs huddled around tables and they’re perfect for hanging out and getting work done. Oh yeah, and they’re everywhere. There’s at least a couple on every floor of the building.

The BSE is also home to the Center for Academic Success and the Career and Internship Services Center. Conveniently, they’re right next to each other, so they should be easy to find. They’re both on the first floor, just around the atrium.

The Center for Counseling and Consultation is on the third floor. It’s tucked in a weird spot, but if you know the map, you can find it. Exit the elevator, turn left, and head down the hall.

You may have noticed that I’m only giving brief descriptions of where these various amenities are. This is where the most useful aspect of the BSE comes in. Take a look at this video:

A brief video demonstrating how the interactive maps in the BSE work.

You are looking at an electronic, interactive map. If you remember nothing else from this blog post, remember this: there are several interactive maps in the BSE. They’re simple to use and awesome: just make selections on the touchscreen. When you choose your destination, a dotted, red line will guide you from where you’re standing to where you wish to end up. Easy-peasy!

I’ll leave you with that, then. If you want to learn more about the BSE’s services and environmental impact, visit the USG website. And, if you’d like to learn more about traversing campus, check out my past blog posts on navigating from building to building and on the ins and outs of Building 3.

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Golden Year

Posted on July 26, 2021 by madl2021
Image by tigerlily713 from Pixabay

Recently I had turned 22 years old; yay me! The past year of my life was a difficult one especially since around the time I turned 21 the pandemic was still something very unknown and feared. It still should be as the various variants are still out there and we could still get infected. However, turning 22 has given me some relief; it showed me that despite the difficult year I had, I was able to push on and make it to my next birthday. This year is a special one for me as I had learned that this year is what’s considered to be my golden year. I got a bit confused since I had never heard of a golden year till recently. So I wanted to go ahead and share with you guys what this means for those whoo don’t know what it means.

We all know that each month carries between 28-31 days and we also know when it is our birthday. I would like for you to take a look at the date of your birthday. The main thing you should look at is the day of your birthday(e.g 6/28/56) The number in the middle is considered your golden year. In short, your golden year is when your age is the same as the day you were born. My birthday is July 22 and this year I turned 22 years old. So this year is my golden year. If your birthday happens to be on the first of any month, you already had your golden year when you were a year old.

I would like for the USG community and fellow readers to take a look at your birthdays and see if you had your golden year yet or not. Some of you may even share a golden year which would be pretty awesome for some. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please let me know and I’ll back to you on that. Let me know below if you had your golden year yet and I’ll see you all in the next blog! 🙂

Image by Hermann Traub from Pixabay

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Validating Emotions

Posted on July 15, 2021 by lynnmayo21

Two weeks ago I turned 23 years old, which is funny because I still say I’m 21 when people ask how old I am. My birthday has always been one of my favorite days of the year. I feel that a day of celebrating just you is so special and important. Unfortunately, this year my birthday did not feel as special and exciting. With obtaining a fellowship, getting into graduate school, and graduation I felt something similar to a burn out. 

I felt as if we had celebrated myself so much this year that if we celebrated my birthday as well everyone would feel tired of me. I spent the day by myself celebrating with an all day shopping spree and I had an amazing time but a part of me wanted to spend it with my friends. After my birthday I processed how I was feeling and verbalized it to the people around me and they confirmed that they wanted to celebrate with me. If I had validated my feelings to myself and verbalized how I felt I could have enjoyed one of my favorite days. So today let’s talk about validating our emotions. 

Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

The first step to validating our emotions is acknowledging the emotions you are feeling. You can feel more than one feeling at a time. For example, I was feeling scared, upset, and lonely. The next step is allowing yourself to feel the emotions without judgement and with self-validating statements. This would look like “I can cry if I need to” or “it makes sense why I feel this way”. The next step would be to try to process why you are feeling these emotions. In my situation I felt that if I celebrate myself and my accomplishments people would be tired of me because I have had people in the past tell me I receive praise too often. One person was unable to handle my personal achievements and I led myself to believe others wouldn’t be able to as well. Validating emotions is difficult when it is your own, but learning to comfort yourself is essential. When I took the time to validate my feelings it made it easier for me to communicate them. When I was able to communicate them well others were able to understand how I was feeling as well.

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The 411 on Building 3

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Laura DeMarco

Continuing the tour of the USG campus, I went exploring this week to discover what was inside the buildings. Today, we’ll take a brief look at Building Three: the Clifford and Camille Kendall Academic Center, or B3 for short.

Let’s start at the first floor. The first thing you’ll see when you enter B3 is the security desk. This desk is staffed around the grove—I mean, around the clock. Well, security is staffed around the Grove, too, because there are plenty of other security checkpoints around campus if needed. To the right of this particular security desk is the Green Grove Café. To the left, you’ll find the Center for Student Engagement and Financial Resources. If you’re interested in scholarships, clubs or campus events CSEF is your friend. Behind security, you’ll find Priddy Library. If you need a study space, a meeting point for a group project, or help with an assignment, you know where to go.

When you walk toward the library and turn left, you’ll find the elevators. As we head up, let’s discuss study spaces! Namely, they’re everywhere. There are clusters of chairs and tables all over each building and breakout rooms on several floors. Pre-pandemic, larger classrooms were kept open when not in use, and students could just walk in and get to work. (Post-pandemic regulations might change that slightly, but we’ll see, and there’s plenty of space either way.)

A wall with "Office of Information Technology" written in silver letters
The OIT. Image Text: Office of Information Technology

To the left of the elevator, you’ll find the Office of Information Technology (OIT). Make sure that you find OIT as soon as possible; you’ll want to know how to reach them before you need their help. But the second floor isn’t all about school. To the right of the elevators, down the hall, you’ll find the Campus Rec Center (CRC) and the Student Lounge. These places are great for students who need more activity in their day. The Student Lounge is outfitted with ping-pong tables and a rock wall, and of course the CRC offers exercise equipment of all stripes.

A large climbing wall with multicolored footholds
The rock wall in the USG student lounge

The third floor is where you’ll find the veterans lounge (next to the elevators) and the Florence and Sterling Crockett Teaching Theatre (down the hall). The Teaching Theatre is essentially a lecture hall, and you might need to find it if your professor brings in a guest lecturer.

Finally, floors four and five host offices. These are where you’re likely to find the administrators, advisors, and faculty for your major. If you’re getting your degree from UMBC or UMGC, check the fourth floor. If your major is under UMD, UB, Towson, or Bowie State, check the fifth. The exceptions to this rule are the Robert H. Smith business school (Building 2) and the science programs (Building 4).

That’s all from me. If you’d like a more in-depth campus tour, click on this link for the official USG virtual tour, and click on this link for the student ambassador version. I hope this helps someone, and I’ll see you in Building Three!

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Penmanship Practice

Posted on June 28, 2021 by madl2021

I have been planning out what I want to do for this summer since many places have been reducing restrictions everywhere due to the increasing percentage of people getting vaccinated. However, one thing that I’ve neglected to give attention to was my penmanship. Penmanship is basically writing with your hands and whatever object you write with (pencil, pen, etc) My mother is the reason why I started focusing on my penmanship because I’ve always had a problem with that so I decided to take some time this summer to practice my penmanship.

Writing guide I followed

I followed this manuscript when it came to writing out the letters of the alphabet. For the most part it seemed pretty straight forward.

Day 1 of practice (Don’t mind the ripped part! XD)

I’ll admit that there were some days that I struggled to keep some of the letters in line or mimic how the manuscript says it should be written. I mainly struggled with the letters D, G, O, Q, S, T, and Y to name a few. These letters often got too big or too uneven when I wrote them out and it got me a bit annoyed at myself for not getting it right. I didn’t let it stop me from practicing. I would take a couple of days to write out the letters and then take a couple of days to rest on that. When I started getting comfortable with most of the letters, I begin writing all the letters of the alphabet like I did below.

Result of practicing my penmanship! Pt 1
Result of practicing my penmanship! Pt 2

I feel that I’ve been improving for the last month and I plan to continue practicing my penmanship before I head to grad school. I recommend everyone at USG and those reading my blogs to take time and practice your penmanship! There are many ways for you to get started. I know penmanship is not a huge deal since we have technology but I feel it’s still important to have, especially if something goes wrong with our technology and we need to write things out for a time. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please let me know and I’ll get back to you on that! Thank you for reading my blog and I’ll see you in the next one! 🙂

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Thrown off by Summer

Posted on June 18, 2021 by lynnmayo21

The one thing I looked forward to the most for summer was having more time. During the school year, I felt so overwhelmed and so overbooked. I felt all I had time for was for what could fit in my planner. Now that I’ve been on summer vacation for about a month now, having much more time feels uncomfortable. After my last final assignment, I promised myself to make sure I felt less stressed and overwhelmed. But the lack of planning, assignments, and structure lately has been causing me to feel uncomfortable and some anxiety. For some, this situation may seem impossible or weird but for those who may be experiencing the same feeling here are some things I plan to do to ease the unpleasantness. 

  1. Going back to the basics: Beginning next week I am going to start using a planner again. I have not been using my planner, whiteboard calendars, or alarms. I thought that letting myself take things day by day and not excessively planning would make me feel free, but it’s led to too much freedom. Before I used to use color-coding excessively, in an attempt to still feel some ease, I am going to hold off on this technique. 
  2. Routines and structure: I like structure. I thought that routines and structure kept me from feeling relaxed and having fun but the lack of is causing me to feel anxiety. I have decided I am going to adjust my work schedule to be the same every week. I have had open availability which has left me to my job’s disposal of their needs when my needs are the priority. 
  3. Allowing some freedom: To allow me to still feel some freedom I’ve decided when adjusting my work availability will include taking one more day off a week. Two days off a week doesn’t allow me enough time to feel well-rested and have the social life I feel I deserve. 
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash

For my fellow Type A personalities going through this similar feeling please comment and share your experience and thoughts!

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Outdoor Tour

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Laura DeMarco

Recently, Montgomery County lifted most mask mandates for vaccinated residents. As such, I’m optimistic that (at least some) classes will be on campus in Fall. However, when we do return, many students will not know how to get around. So, I developed a guided tour to make the eventual adjustment period a bit easier.

Please note that the location of your classes depends on your home campus and major, so this is not an exhaustive list.

Let’s begin at Building 4, the Biomedical Science and Engineering building. This is the newest building on campus and has lots of outdoor seating. According to the USG map, the Biomedical Science and Engineering building is home to:

A gray stone building surrounded by a gray brick walkway, black chairs, and round, black tables. The entry reads, "Biomedical Sciences and Engineering."
Building 4, surrounded by bricks in varying grays and outdoor chairs and tables. Image Text: Biomedical Sciences and Engineering.

Let’s say you’re at the main entrance to Building 4, facing the parking lot. If you walk left for a few yards, there is more outdoor seating around the corner. If you walk to your right instead, you should walk directly to Building 3, the Clifford and Camille Kendall Academic Center. Almost everything is in this building, including:

A modern looking building with lots of windows and a striped concrete entryway. Image Text: "Clifford and Camille Kendall Academic Center."
The entrance to Building 3. The name is slightly cut off by trees, but the building is the Clifford and Camille Kendall Academic Center.

If you keep walking straight, you’ll reach Building 2, ideal for administrative needs:

Building 2 also hosts the Marriott Teaching Kitchen and programs from University of Maryland, Eastern Shore.

A building entryway with a blue door and horizontal stripes made of brick. Image Text: "Shady Grove Center, University of Maryland System."
The main entrance to Building 2. Image Text: “Shady Grove Center, University of Maryland System.”

I find that the best way to get to Building 1 is to pass Building 2, cut through the campus relaxation area (recognizable by its rock sculpture and decorative arches), and follow the sidewalk. You’ll know you’re going the right way when you pass the outdoor amphitheater. The entrance to this building is yellow-ish and reads, “The Shady Grove Center, University of Maryland System.” It is across from a side door to Building 4, just past a collection of hexagonal picnic tables.

A yellowish stone entryway. The entry reads, "Shady Grove Center, University of Maryland System."
The entrance to Building 1. Image Text: “Shady Grove Center, University of Maryland System.”

From this point, if you cross to Building 4 and turn left, you should see a wooden bridge. Follow the wooden bridge past the campus pond and a red brick building. The red building is the UMD Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, also known as Building 5. At the end of the bridge, turn left, keep following the sidewalk, and the entrance to Building 5 will be on your left. Watch for geese!

That’s all I have today! Remember, if you lose your bearings on campus, look for the sundial in the center of campus and you should see most buildings. Plus, don’t be afraid to ask a security officer, staff member, or fellow student for help. Chances are, someone is going to the same place as you.

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