External Validation as a Woman of Color

By Carrington Cline Positionality Statement: This post is written by Carrington Cline, a junior and student staff intern at the Women’s Center. This blog post articulates my encounters with the media’s portrayals of Black women, as it relates to the internal and external pressures that pushed me towards an unwavering focus on academic and career…

Cancel Culture Anxiety

By Ash Acuña When I first joined the team at the Women’s Center, one of the very first things we covered were Brave Space guidelines. The three core tenets of Brave Spaces—challenge yourself, respect others, cultivate community—invite curiosity, learning, and safety to improve. Brave Spaces, at times, feel like a replacement for what educational spaces…

Burnt out? Me too.

Amelia Meman, GWST '15, is the Assistant Director of the Women's Center. Amelia uses they/them and she/her pronouns. Burnt out? Me too. This is not a new feeling for me. I have gotten to this same point during other parts of my academic and now professional career. This apex where I thought that if I…

‘Pandemic: New Horizons’ or How Animal Crossing and Other Games Offer Comfort in Chaos

Kaitlyn is a junior Social Work major and is a student staff member at the Women's Center. Are you feeling isolated? Lonely? Lost in a chaotic world that doesn't make sense anymore? Me too! At a time where we feel more out of control than ever, video games are something that I know many of…

Things They Didn’t Tell Us: Recovering From Microaggressions

This post is written by Kay Hinderlie, a student staff at the Women's Center. Kay is a senior at UMBC, majoring in psychology. Imagine it’s the first day of your semester. After locating your class, you find a seat and reach into your backpack for your class materials. You check to make sure your phone…

Nonbinary in the Classroom

This post is written by Sam Hertl (they/them pronouns), a social work intern completing their field placement in the Women's Center. *Trigger warning* There are heavy topics mentioned such as the rate of violence against trans lives, suicide, and mental health issues. Please read with caution.  Can I just say that living in a society…

When Work Becomes a War Zone

This year, I became one of the many women who leave their jobs because of sexual harassment. I always knew it was something that happened; I just didn't think it would happen to me. I’m not alone; reports have found that 60% of women say they experience "unwanted sexual attention, sexual coercion, sexually crude conduct,…

No, You’re Not “So OCD”

 Harini is a student staff member at the Women's Center and is also the co-facilitator of Between Women.   You have entered a chat with: Friend 1 message from: Friend Did you hear what happened in class today?   1 message to: Friend Yes! That girl just had a complete breakdown during her final, I…

Self Care: An Activists Survival Guide

Alexia Petasis is an INDS intern on the Women's Center student staff team. Alexia studies social justice and dance. In the following blog post, she runs through a list of crucial self-care survival strategies for activists.  Every week, the Women’s Center asks a “question of the week” available for anyone to respond to. One week…

Finding Community & Fostering It

A reflection from student staff member, Sheila, about why finding and fostering community is important on a college campus. What does perfect community look like? Let’s be honest. We might never reach anything close to perfect. But I do wonder, what can we do to continually create and build better community? Something that is always…