UMCES Subunit Update

This year, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) student subunit has focused on expanding our presence across our network of campuses and providing professional development and career-oriented speakers and activities to our members. We also welcomed in two new officers to our subunit: Maya Drzewicki (Secretary) and Kaitlynn Wade (Treasurer), while Nina Santos (Vice President) and myself, Matt Stefanak (President), stayed on as officers. And actually, beginning with the spring semester, Maya will step into the presidential role. Our faculty advisor is Dr. Mike Wilberg.

Some of our most notable events this year have included an Imposter Syndrome Panel, where several current and former scientists from the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) discussed their experiences regarding this issue and mental
health in academia more broadly. What is imposter syndrome? Imposter syndrome is the condition of feeling anxious and not experiencing success internally, despite being high-performing in external, objective ways. This condition often results in
people feeling like "a fraud" or "a phony" and doubting their abilities.

We also hosted Sara Quintal, a restoration ecologist with the Buzzards Bay Coalition
(Massachusetts), who reviewed her role working as a scientist for a regional nonprofit and shared advice for those seeking employment in the that sector.

Finally, we were joined by Dr. Raymond Morgan, Professor Emeritus at UMCES’ Appalachian Laboratory, who illustrated his choice tricks of the trade in his “Best Practices for Presentations” talk.

The UMCES subunit actively assisted with this past year’s TAFS meeting, which was held locally at CBL. Several of our student members provided logistical support for the conference and also participated in the poster session and oral presentations, including a Best Poster award won by Nina Santos.

We are very excited for the upcoming spring semester of meetings and are looking forward to the upcoming annual meeting. Remember, direct all future subunit inquires to Maya, at: mdrzewicki@umces.edu.