Afternoon Session: 1:15-2:45pm

We will host a discussion around nonbinary and queer identities, managing the effects of minority stress as a student, caring for your mental health, and creating opportunities to encourage belonging amongst other students along the LGBTQ+ spectrum. This session will not only give theoretical and empirical information about identities from a developmental standpoint, but also room to discuss and exchange information as a community on better ways to support one another on campus.

Shanéa Thomas, LGBTQ+ Training Specialist & Assistant Clinical Research Professor, Behavioral and Community Health/Family Science
Christa Gloster, current student

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In this scholarly presentation, we discuss how Muslim Americans (re)negotiate their identity in school settings. We synthesize existing literature on understanding the diverse needs of Muslim American students in racialized and politicized classrooms. We also draw from our lived experiences and engage the audience by eliciting their experiences being or working with Muslim students. By supporting Muslim American students, we validate their funds of knowledge and consider their sense of belonging to be essential to teaching and learning (Moll, 1992).

Laura Mahalingappa, Associate Professor, Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
Rasha Haitham Alkhateeb, Doctoral Student, Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership

The findings of this study specifically analyze undergraduate women’s leadership identity, capacity, and efficacy development. In identity development, participants noted the influence of their gender identity in particular as intersecting with their leader identity. For leadership capacity development, women noted the importance of access to leadership experiences, engagement opportunities, observation of others, and the influence of socialized traits. Leadership efficacy was influenced by leadership enactment, environments, messages, observations, and other people. Once the findings are shared, there will be facilitated large group discussion and reflection on the findings as well as time to think about how we translate these findings to inform our practice.

Brittany Devies, Program Manager for Leadership Studies & Development, Division of Student Affairs

This presentation will focus on 4-H’s model for positive youth development, the methods and curriculum that 4-H uses to foster a sense of belonging, and the impact and benefits that this has for youth and the community in the short and long term. Although 4-H works with youth, the methods and understanding of developmental growth can be used with people of all ages.

Anna Glenn & Gretchen Sumbrum, 4-H Educators, University of Maryland Extension - 4-H Program

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A critical aspect of effective communication in UMD is respecting colleagues, supervisors, direct reports, students, and guests through emails, face-to-face, facial expressions and body language. Respectful communication contributes to a harmonious environment, enhances collaboration, and minimizes misunderstandings. This proposal outlines strategies and initiatives to promote and improve communication with respect.

Objectives
1. To raise awareness about the importance of respectful communication.
2. To establish guidelines for respectful communication in various settings.
3. To create an inclusivity, understanding, and empathy culture through respectful communication practices.

Vanessa Aderibigbe, Project Coordinator, Honors College

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This presentation explores parallels between two rather different efforts to promote “belonging” in a diverse community. One is a 15-year effort to build an interdisciplinary academic community. The other is an 8-year effort to get local residents more active and connected, spanning all ages, backgrounds, and fitness levels. Both have become national models. Both have generated a lot of quantitative and qualitative data, leading to strikingly parallel conclusions about what works.

College Park parkrun is the most successful of its kind in the country, both in raw numbers and in diversity of participation.

UMD’s language science community has generated a lot of data on participation, scholarly identity formation, sustainable collaborations, and more. It is an internationally visible model of interdisciplinarity.

The successes can be linked to multiple factors that foster belonging, which we will discuss in this session.

Colin Phillips, Professor, Linguistics

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Maya Angelou once said, “The ache for home lives in all of us the safe place where we can come as we are and not be questioned.” In this session, we will explore what this prolific quote looks like in a contemporary context -where polarization is on the rise, and many in our communities are feeling less and less at “home” in the spaces they reside. Using work from bell hooks (2009) work on belonging as a theoretical framework, participants will leave the session with action items to further their commitment to be educators fashioned for a more socially conscious world.

Darren Pierre, Senior Lecturer, Global Engineering

Leading dignity scholar, Dr. Donna Hicks, describes dignity as "the glue that holds all of our relationships together," however, we rarely encounter the word in our discussions surrounding Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. I believe one of the keys to improving a sense of belonging within (and beyond) our campus is to increase everyone's understanding of the role that dignity plays in our interactions.

Renee Hill, Principal Lecturer and Interim Associate Dean for EDI, College of Information Studies

Yoruba researcher Toyin Falola (2022) offers that, “Autoethnography allows individuals to act as both researcher and subject…Autoethnographers have autonomy over their own story and what it represents for their culture.” In this presentation I will share how I have used autoethnography to interrogate African cultural identity formation, with my own search for a sense of belonging and an authentic cultural identity sitting at the center of the inquiry.
Through analysis of data sources such as photos from travel to Ghana, transcripts from scholarly dialogue, reflections, and memory, I have come to a deeper understanding of what it means to form an authentic African identity while situated in the diaspora and while undertaking teaching and research in the academy.

Robert Graham, Collegiate Fellow, University Honors

Students with intellectual disability (ID) who complete an inclusive postsecondary education (PSE) program achieve better employment outcomes (O’Neill et al., 2015); however, not all PSE programs are inclusive. In fact, inclusionary postsecondary education (IPSE) programs are sparely offered throughout the U.S. and we know very little about the impact of IPSE programs on the enrolled students. In our study, we conducted an in-depth exploration of the impact of an IPSE program with six students enrolled in an IPSE. Findings from our case study illuminate aspects of an IPSE program that impacts students’ life skills and career development. We hope that our presentation encourages the audience to re-imagine the landscape of higher education to be more inclusive of all students, regardless of their disability status.

Yewon Lee, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education

TerpsEXCEED is a new initiative on campus that offers a fully inclusive college experience for students with intellectual disabilities (ID).
The goal of TerpsEXCEED is to bring students with intellectual disabilities (ID) into our UMD campus community and give them a sense of belonging – through dorm life, clubs, undergraduate courses, and activities – all anchored in our very robust Peer Mentoring program.

Amy Dwyre D'Agati, Senior Faculty Specialist, Department of Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education

Learn about TerpsEXCEED.