Student Affairs staff, students lead sessions at nat'l mtg

At the 2023 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement meeting (May 31 - June 2, Boston), Student Affairs staff and students led two sessions with UMBC students and campus partners. 

The Center for Democracy and Civic Life organized UMBC's delegation to the meeting, which included nearly 20 UMBC students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Division of Student Affairs presenters and speakers included Ricky Blissett '11, the Center's associate director; Meghna Chandrasekaran '25, the Center's research intern; Beatriz Gutierrez-Malagon, coordinator for leadership, Campus Life; David Hoffman Ph.D. '13, the Center's director; Musa Jafri '24, a Center affiliate and president of UMBC's Student Government Association; Tess McRae '22, the Center's coordinator for civic design; and Markya Reed '18; M.A. '23, former Center graduate assistant. 

The delegation also included Ian Anson, associate professor, Department of Political Science; Candace Dodson-Reed '96, vice president for community relations and government affairs; Nia Hopkins '24, peer health educator, Office of Health Promotion; Joshua Le '23, chief of staff, Student Government Association; Emily Passera, program coordinator for service-learning and community engagement, The Shriver Center, and senator, Professional Staff Senate; Zoonash Syed '24, senator, Student Government Association; and Taylor West, MPP '23, senator, Graduate Student Association. It also included speakers/presenters Andrea Kalfoglou, associate professor, sociology, anthropology, and public health, and Simon Stacey, director, Honors College.

The delegation collaborated on several presentations about successful classes and programs developed at UMBC. Sessions included "Candidates in Our Backyard: Transforming Candidate Forums into Mutual and Reciprocal Spaces" (coordinating presenter Musa Jafri; speakers Jafri, David Hoffman, Candace Dodson-Reed, and Meghna Chandrasekaran); "This is Real: Two Civics Courses Grounded in Students' Everyday Experiences" (coordinating presenter David Hoffman; speakers Hoffman, Tess McRae, Simon Stacey); "Engaging students in mental health advocacy by collaborating with state-level advocacy groups" (coordinating speaker and presenter Andrea Kalfoglou).