What's it like to start at a new school in the midst of COVID-19? We asked today's guests about their own experience: Steve Park, a Nursing student at the University of Maryland Baltimore, and Jon Croft, a Communication student at the University of Maryland.

We've hit on a lot of heavy topics thus far on Nine Tea, and so enjoy today's minisode where we learned more about our wonderful co-host, Joy Addae! Join us as we peeled back the layers to understand what makes Joy...well, Joy!

As Black History Month comes to a close this weekend, our last episode of the month continues the conversation about the way systemic racism persists within society, particularly in criminal justice and in higher education. We discussed how we can recognize the myriad impacts that systemic racism has on communities while being active change agents on a personal level. Our guests this week were Robin Shusko, an Adjunct Instructor in the Criminology and Criminal Justice program at UMD; Chelsea Moyer, the Director of UMBC-Shady Grove; and Dr. Anne Khademian, the Executive Director of USG, who graciously joined us again.

In today’s minisode, we will be talking about Grover Essentials, a relatively new food assistance program offered by the Universities at Shady Grove (USG). Our guest, Mahmoud Nofal, a CCMA Americorps VISTA member and the Grover Essentials Food Assistance Facilitator for USG's Center for Student Engagement and Financial Resources, broke it down for us.

Today's episode is put on in collaboration with the USG Student Council as a continuation of the "Moving Forward Together" series, with Tiffany Flowers, the Student Council President, co-hosting this conversation with Henri Maindidze about systemic racism. We spoke to Dr. Edelstein, the former Executive Director of USG and former Associate Vice-Chancellor of the University System of Maryland; Iris Schauerman, the Coordinator of USG’s Center for Student Engagement and Financial Resources; Steve Park, a first-semester nursing student at the University of Maryland Baltimore; and Govina Etwaroo, a senior education student at Towson University and the Student Council Chair of Events and Initiatives.

You can reach out to the Student Council via:

“How do I manage my time better?” This is something a lot of students tend to ask themselves at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and we asked Michael Brisbane, a current Master's student in UMBC's MPS in I/O Psychology Program, to help us answer this question!

Find us on social media here (and give us feedback!): https://linktr.ee/nineteausg

As the spring semester rolls into view for all of us at the Universities at Shady Grove, it brings a whole range of emotions centered around what the next few months hold for us. That made our conversation with Dr. Anne Khademian, the Executive Director of USG, even more poignant, and so learn more about her path to USG, her perspective on organizations and leadership, and her vision for building upon the great work that has already been done. Don't miss the valuable advice that she provides for budding student leaders!

Find out more about her here: https://shadygrove.umd.edu/directory/meet-the-staff/anne-khademian

Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anne_Khademian

"How do personal perceptions of mental health change over the holidays?" A fairly academic question with very personal answers; tune in to find out what our guests from Season 1's Student and Staff Mental Health Roundtables had to say a month after the initial discussion!

New year, new logo, and new tea! Join us as we recap Season 1 and talk about what we're looking for out of Season 2!

To close out the semester, Part Two of our Roundtable will feature Andrea Milo (Director of CSEF), Annie Foster-Ahmed (Director of MCAS), and Jeff Kenton (AV technician for USG Events) as we hit on the same topics as our Student Mental Health Roundtable did!