UMD students gain experience through Experiential Learning Program

UMass Dartmouth students interning through the Washington Center may have viewed the Thomas Jefferson Memorial during their semester or summer in Washington, D.C.

By Leah Sylvia

“I came here in the hopes that I would learn a lot and make connections to get a good job,” said Kelly Lehane, a senior in Human Resource Management last spring. She interned for the U.S. Department of Treasury as the Events Planning Assistant.

Lehane is one of the few to take advantage of The Washington Center’s internship program that places university students within various agencies in the Washington D.C. area. The program offers students real world experience in their chosen field accompanied by academic courses and conference meetings where they meet CEO’s and other leaders of organizations.

“I think that this internship has given me a great experience to see how the business world is. I learned to communicate with all sorts of people,” she said. Lehane hoped to find a job right out of college before going to grad school. She feels her internship will be very helpful. “I would love to get a job with the government…ultimately, I hope that my supervisor can help me find a job or point me in a certain direction,” explained Lehane.

Internships have proven to serve more than just educational purposes. They are a great way to build up a resume, make connections after graduation, and establish impressive job experience are some of the benefits listed by the Career Resource Center.

“My experience in Washington was an opportunity of a lifetime,” says Melissa Melloni, a 2003 UMass Dartmouth grad and alumni of The Washington Center program. Melloni’s experience has continued to open doors for her after hitting the job market. She recalls, “When I presented my portfolio I did in Washington to my present boss, he hired me in a few days and waited a few weeks for me to be available. He said he would rather hire someone [who has] experience than someone who did not.”

Melloni needed an internship to solidify her major for a multidisciplinary degree in Forensic Science. Not all departments require internships, though they come highly recommended by faculty and staff.

“An internship is essential to the college experience. Students should do more than one,” declared the associate director of the Career Resource Center, Robbin Roy, who speaks highly of The Washington Center program.

It is an excellent program for students who can move to D.C. for a semester, but there are plenty of internships to be had in the area around campus for those that cannot.

Roy estimated that about 150-200 students each year participate in The Experiential Learning Program which is available through the Career Resource Center. It permits students to go out and find an employer to intern with and a faculty sponsor to supervise their internship. Requirements of the course are left to the faculty sponsor and classroom time isn’t mandatory. Daily work logs and a final paper are the normal requirements of internships through the Experiential Learning Program. However, a new course has been added by the Charlton College of Business to coordinate internships with in-class learning. It requires interns to complete 15 hours of class time in addition to 135 hours in the field.

Michael Griffin, Assistant Dean of Charlton Business College and Charlton College of Business Internship Director, said the new policies seemed to have curtailed student involvement. He said that the original internship program for business majors garnered roughly 60-70 students per semester, but since the recent changes only about 25-30 participate. Unlike the traditional experiential learning program, the new course requires interns to complete assignments and presentations for the classroom aspect of the course as well as work journals and a final paper. Griffin hopes by next year to have more students take advantage of the course as they realize its benefits and that the program is not as hard as it looks.

“There’s a high demand for internships in the area,” not just from employers, but “the students really want it,” says Griffin.

There are several firms that the program can depend on to accept interns and some employers even seek out interns. The program is still struggling to even out the opportunities offered to each category within the business major: financing, marketing, accounting, management, and management information systems.

Griffin is continually looking for new sites for his interns, “I need to find more opportunities for them.” He welcomes students to aid with researching prospective employers and bringing them into the program. Griffin mentioned that he plans to do a mass mailing to employers who might be interested in taking on interns to let them know the benefits and responsibilities of being a sponsor.

Not all organizations, however, are able or willing to pay their interns. Griffin has been pushing employers for paid internships to make the program more practical for students who must sacrifice valuable work time to complete the course. There are several companies that do offer their interns pay and predictably he said students will gravitate toward those. Even if the internship is not paid, students will earn credit while gaining the invaluable advantage of experience in their field.

“I do believe if I did not have the experience in Washington then I would not have gotten my job at the genetics center because I would not have had any lab experience,” says Melloni, who now works at the Greenwood Genetic Center in South Carolina isolating DNA and testing it for Cystic Fibrosis. “I still talk about my experiences in Washington and I would have to say it was my best summer ever.”

UMass Dartmouth students have the entire staff of the Career Resource Center waiting to help them find what they need in order to “take a chance and do an internship,” says Roy.

Children’s Center for Learning is an asset at UMD

By Katie Bresnahan

“We are a service based center on campus and we help the parents, faculty, staff, alumni and also community members to utilize the center so that their children are getting an education and they, in turn, are also able to work and pursue their education,” according to Diane Sansoucy, director of the UMass Dartmouth Children’s Center for Learning.

At the CCL, children learn to read early on, they socialize with other children, they have art and music opportunities, they use computers and they learn science and math. Sansoucy says that all of these subjects are age appropriate for the children.

Sometimes the children who attend the Learning Center go onto the main campus to view different departments. They have gone to the Frederick Douglas Unity House, where story hours are put on for the children. They have also gone to the library where librarians have read seasonal stories. Officers from the Department of Public Safety have gone to the center to teach the children about Halloween safety. The children have also taken Spanish lessons this semester and next semester they will get French lessons. One parent comes in sometimes to teach the children yoga.

The Children’s Center for Learning has a preschool curriculum for children ages two years and nine months to six years. Each month the center sends a calendar to parents, letting them know what their children will learn about that month.

Sansoucy says, “Right now there aren’t any services for infants or toddlers on campus, here at this center. The Center for Policy Analysis did a survey this summer that looked into the feasibility of our having more children on this campus who need to be served if they were infants and toddlers. And it was found that there is a need in Southeastern Massachusetts for more infant and toddler spots to be available.”

She hopes that in the future the center will be able to accommodate for children who are not of preschool age. She hopes that either a new center will be built or the current one can be renovated to meet the needs of younger children. Sansoucy did mention that a plan was made for this kind of a center back in 1987, but it did not get the necessary funding. Sansoucy has put in a request to the Department of Student Affairs, but still does not know when or if the new center will become a reality.

“The mission of the university is to link the community to the university to help boost economic development. By doing that, by having us on campus, I think we fit very well into the mission,” says Sansoucy.

This semester 28 children are enrolled in the Children’s Center for Learning and Sansoucy says they are expecting more next semester. They are licensed to hold 30 children at a time.

Not only is the Children’s Center for learning beneficial to parents and their children, says Sansoucy, but it is also a site for several work-study students. Each year the center employs around 16 students.

Sansoucy says that the CCL’s entire staff is comprised of well-educated teachers. The CCL is located on the first floor in Elmwood Hall.

State of the Queer Nation comes to UMass Dartmouth

By Melanie Correia

What is State of the Queer Nation? State of the Queer Nation is the newest queer radio show here on WUMD, UMass Dartmouth’s radio station.

Beginning only this September, State of the Queer Nation is doing wondrous things for the UMass Dartmouth campus and the surrounding area.

To put it simply, State of the Queer Nation reports on the state of the queer nation. It is an hour long segment focused on queer news, discussion and musicians. The show airs every Monday morning from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and Thursday evening from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on WUMD North Dartmouth. WUMD, Umass Dartmouth’s radio station, airs on 89.3 FM and anyone can catch it live on www.893wumd.org.

This radio show is in conjunction with the UMass Dartmouth Pride Alliance. As a GLBT group, the Pride Alliance raises awareness on campus about queer issues. State of the Queer Nation is taking this to a new level, one that not only reaches those on campus but includes a wide audience outside of the UMD community (WUMD has been known to reach all the way up to Boston and as far as some parts of Connecticut).

State of the Queer Nation is proudly brought to you by three UMD students. Adam Lawrence is a senior English/Writing major and first-year co-chair of the Pride Alliance. Lawrence essentially began State of the Queer Nation and uses his own recording equipment for the show. Mark Herber, your second host, is a senior History major. Mark is also co-chair of the Pride Alliance alongside Adam. This is his second year as co-chair. Finally, your last host is Melanie Correia a sophomore English/Writing major and first-year secretary of the Pride Alliance.

Each host brings something different to the show, allowing it to be very diverse. Adam, being the oldest of the three, has a lot of life-experience and is not afraid to express his opinions. Mark has a colorful background and knows a lot about the queer community. Melanie, with only a year of college under her belt, represents the young, female ally. The three hosts often get into long conversations sparked by the newest news story, speaking of the repercussions of the story, what it means to the GLBT community at large and how it affects us here on campus.

Each show is broken up roughly in half. During the first half the hosts introduce themselves, the show and what the show is about. They have about six to seven news stories within the hour, breaking them up to about three each half. The stories range from a number of different things in the queer community. The hosts include broad topics (like the ENDA—Employment Non-Discrimination Act for gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the workforce, recently passed by the United States House of Representatives) to smaller stories (one recently being a story about how a college football quarterback got suspended from the team and charged a $600 fine for using an anti-gay slur to a classmate).

In between each news story the hosts play music from artists in the GLBT or queer community. Some favorites are Grizzly Bear, Tegan and Sara, Tori Amos, Placebo, Scissor Sisters and more main-stream artists such as Queen, Melissa Etheridge and Janis Joplin.

During each episode, the three co-hosts have a PSA segment, usually within the first half-hour. The PSA’s usually involve an event (like National Coming Out Day or World Aids Day), a safe-sex skit and a mention of PFLAG.

Usually right in the middle of the show they have a segment called the Ruffie Cocktail. The Ruffie Cocktail is a segment highlighting the talents of famous gay singer/songwriter, Rufus Wainwright. This segment plays two of his songs with a bulletin board segment in the middle usually promoting Pride Alliance meetings (which are held every Monday at 5 p.m. in the Libreral Arts Building, also known as Group I, Rm 110). After the Ruffie Cocktail, the three finish up with their news stories, discussions and a couple more tunes.

They finish each show with a disclaimer. Even though State of the Queer Nation is proudly a part of the WUMD radio station and a part of the UMass Dartmouth community, the views expressed on the show are those of the three hosts.

So, regardless of your race, gender or sexual orientation, State of the Queer Nation has something for you. Don’t forget to tune into to 89.3 FM or www.893wumd.org every Monday at 8 a.m. or Thursday at 6 p.m. to listen.

To get in contact with any of the hosts or to find out information regarding State of the Queer Nation you can email them directly at stateofthequeernation@gmail.com.

TOPICS IN MENTAL HEALTH

Dealing with anxiety as finals grow near

You’ve been studying for days—maybe you’ve even pulled an all-nighter—and now it is ten minutes before a big exam in a class that’s been difficult for you all semester. You sit down at a desk and as other students enter the classroom you hear them talking: “Did you study?” “I’m so nervous,” “I’m definitely going to fail!” The more they talk, the more your anxiety rises. Soon your hands are shaking and you feel your face getting hot and sweaty. By the time the professor passes out the test your stomach is in knots, and you DEFINITELY don’t remember ANYTHING you studied.

While it is normal and even helpful to have a little bit of anxiety about taking a test, the above description shows how extreme test anxiety can interfere with your ability to demonstrate your knowledge and succeed in your classes. Some students experience mainly physical symptoms of test anxiety (headaches, nausea, faintness, changes in body temperature, etc.) and others experience more emotional symptoms (crying easily, feeling irritable, getting frustrated quickly, etc.). Another manifestation of test anxiety is cognitive symptoms. This can lead to difficulty in memory retrieval and the ability to organize thoughts. It can also make it hard to read questions accurately. These anxiety-induced cognitive changes can lead to poor test performance, thus increasing anxiety about future tests, leading to a vicious cycle of anxiety and poor performance.

So, what causes extreme test anxiety? One thing that can cause it is lack of preparation. If you have trouble managing your time, organizing your notes or maintaining good study habits, you are likely to feel unprepared. Additionally, you may have stayed up all night cramming before the exam, leaving yourself sleep deprived and stressed. One thing that is important to know is that memory consolidation (transfer of information from short term to long term memory) only happens during sleep. So if you don’t sleep the night before a test, you may not remember anything you studied. Obviously this would leave you feeling unprepared and more anxious.

Aside from poor preparation, another thing that can cause test anxiety is a more generalized tendency to worry. This can be elicited by poor performance on past exams, worry about how other students are doing, and/or worry about the negative consequences of failure.

Given these problematic effects of extreme test anxiety, it becomes very important for those who are prone to this kind of anxiety to learn skills for coping with it. Below is a list of five steps to take to manage test anxiety:

1) Develop study skills

This involves developing ways to manage your time effectively by using a planner, starting to study early for a test instead of waiting until the night before, giving yourself breaks and paying attention to how you learn best. For example, some people concentrate better in the morning and some in the evening. Some people use flashcards while others copy their notes. Sometimes studying in a group can be helpful while other times studying alone is more effective. You might need to try several study tactics before you find one that works. Even then, you may find that you need to alter this depending on the course and materials that you’re studying.

2) Pay attention to your study environment

This might sound like an odd suggestion, but the reason I include it here is that your study environment can have a big impact on how efficient your study time is. Creating a study environment that is conducive to learning might involve taking steps to minimize distracting noises, setting boundaries with friends and family so that they don’t interrupt you, making sure that you’re comfortable but not too comfortable (you don’t want to fall asleep) and ensuring that you have all the study materials you need. There is evidence showing that learning can be “state dependent.” This means that creating a study environment that is similar to the environment in which you will take the test might help you recall study material during the test.

3) Mentally prepare for test anxiety

If you know that you are someone who tends to get anxious around exams, you can go into the situation prepared. This entails staying focused on what you have to do, taking one step at a time and paying attention to the internal messages you are giving yourself. If you were to write down the thoughts running through your mind just prior to the test, would they be positive or negative? Positive self-messages tend to reduce anxiety while negative ones increase it.

4) Learn specific skills to cope with anxiety

There are some concrete things that you can do when you feel anxious that can help reduce your stress level and clear your mind. One skill you can utilize is deep breathing. This involves taking long, slow, deep breaths through your nose. Slowing down your breath can slow down your heart rate which, in turn, calms your body.

A second skill you can use is using positive self-statements. These are positive messages that you internally say to yourself as a way to stay focused and calm. They might be things like “I studied for this test and know a lot of the material,” “I am going to take my time on this test and read questions carefully” and “My friends and family will love me no matter how I do on this test.”

Thirdly, there are some specific test-taking skills that you can learn. These will vary depending on the subject matter and type of test, but almost always include reading questions slowly and carefully and making sure you understand what the question asks. They might also include using a process of elimination (for multiple choice), answering questions you’re sure of first and then returning to those you’re unsure of and budgeting your time. If you find yourself losing focus during the test or becoming increasingly anxious, you can try changing positions, taking a break or closing your eyes and breathing deeply for a minute or two.

5) Reward yourself

After a test, take a minute or two to review what strategies you used to calm your anxiety and how well they worked. Once you have done this, give yourself a reward for completing the test to the best of your ability. You can schedule something that will be fun for you. This kind of reward takes the focus off of the stress of the test and can reduce any remaining anxiety.

For further information about test anxiety or for individualized help in managing it, please contact the counseling center at x8650. If you have questions or comments about the information in this article, please direct emails to rachel.lively@umassd.edu.

Rachel Lively, Psy.D.
Counseling Center

Upcoming community service opportunities

Fair Trade Gifts

Dec. 4, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This Christmas give a gift that keeps on giving. Help out a small plantation worker in Peru or a local jewelry maker in Ghana by purchasing some of their fairly traded crafts on Tuesday, December 4, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the UMass Dartmouth campus center.

All of the crafts are purchased at Ten Thousand Villages, a store which only sells fair trade goods, giving a majority of the profits back to the original creator. There are unique handcrafted necklaces along with sweet-smelling handmade candles. Pick up one of these items and go home with the satisfaction of knowing that you made a small difference in the life of another.

Holiday Lights

Dec. 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Christmas is usually celebrated at grandma’s house with sugar cookies and holiday sweaters. This year you can surround yourself with Santa, mistletoe, gorillas and elephants?

The Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford will transform their zoo into a winter wonderland for their annual “Holiday Lights” celebration. This event reaches out to all of the children in New Bedford. It offers them an exciting way to celebrate the holiday season. Converting an entire zoo into the North Pole requires many helping hands and the zoo is turning to UMass Dartmouth for some of that help.

Volunteers can teach crafts, pass out flyers, read stories and even be costumed characters (Mrs. Clause, Elves, Rudolph and the giant Christmas tree). Volunteers are needed for the three weekends leading up to Christmas, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. each Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening.

For more information, contact Ashley Cunningham at u_acunninham@umassd.edu.

Gift of Giving

December 2 - 20

Another great way to give back to the community this holiday season is with the Gift of Giving program at the Rose Hawthorne home in Fall River. This program is a huge, month-long community service event, run by Catholic Social Services, which helps donate clothes, toys and food to needy families in the surrounding area.

They need volunteers to wrap gifts, sort donated items, “shop” family requests and donate new clothes, toys, gift certificates and food. Also volunteers can help collect food and prepare food bags, pickup donated gifts from parishes, and cut, string and label tags.

There are tons of different hours to meet even the busiest students’ schedules. Each Sunday (Dec. 2, 9 and 16t) volunteers can work anywhere from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and every Monday through Thursday (Dec. 3 through Dec. 20) help is needed between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.

For more information contact Mary Lou Frias at 508-993-6569 or 508-878-7588.

National African American Read-In:

Monday, February 4

Join other schools, churches, libraries, community organizations and interested citizens for the National African American Read-In.

On Monday, February 4 there will be a day-long event, beginning with a read-a-thon from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Commuter Cafeteria at UMass Dartmouth. Anyone can volunteer to read their favorite piece of writing that features professional African American writers. Following the read-a-thon, there will be a dinner and celebration, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., to commemorate the beginning of Black History Month.

For more information contact Deirdre Healy atdhealy@umassd.edu.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance

Spring Semester

Although spring may seem light-years away, the dreaded tax day on April 15 is looming. For many residents around New Bedford and Fall River this can be a very stressful time, but UMass Dartmouth students can lend a helping hand!

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) project here on campus helps local residents electronically file their taxes and find out if they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. The credit is available to people earning less than thirty-five thousand dollars per year. Taxpayers must specifically request this credit in order to receive it.

UMD is recruiting volunteers for this year’s project, which will begin in the spring semester. Professional IRS agents will come to the campus and prepare students in filing tax returns and learning who is qualified for the tax credit. The first training date is tentatively set for Saturday, February 3.

Contact Deirdre Healy at dhealy@umassd.edu for more information.

Celebrating Diwali Night

The auditorium was packed with people waiting to watch singers and dancers perform at Diwali Night on November 17. Diwali Night is the Hindu celebration of the victory of Lord Krishna over the demon Naragasur. It is more commonly known as the Festival of Lights.