graduate researcher

graduate assistant

research assistant

teaching assistant

coordinator

University of Maryland University College

The only thing that keeps me going is the chance of assisting high school students with their future goals and objectives in their pursuit of higher education.  A typical day at work is highly stressful, extremely confrontational, and accusatory by the Executive Director.  The Executive Director routinely instigates situations that cause employees to be confrontational and hostile toward each other, making the work environment unproductive.  The hardest part of the job is working in an environment that is overly toxic and unprofessional.  The Executive Director insists on putting staff against each other and then pretending she doesn't know where the discord is coming from.  Co-workers attempt to be cooperative with each other; however, this always goes awry due to the Executive Director's antics of putting co-worker against co-worker.  There have been at least 4 Associate Directors who were hired and came to the program with a high level of enthusiasm and experience, only to have this disrupted by the Executive Director's interactions with them, negative attitude, and ineffective management style.  This has caused them to either resign their positions in haste or be terminated by the Executive Director for no apparent reason, which has been repeatedly detrimental to the kids and the overall goals of the program.  The office operates without clearly defined policies, procedures, processes, and objectives, which is the reason employees operate in a sloppy, do-as-you-go fashion.  Established guidelines for the Upward Bound Program are not followed consistently, which makes its compliance with federal regulations questionable.

Currently I have experience in working in a methadone clinic in Baltimore Maryland as a Certified Supervised Substance Abuse Counselor.  I am currently working on my BSW and due to graduate  this May of 2014. At this time, I am doing field placement at Saint Vincent's Villa Maria working with boys who are 9-11 years old with behavioral problems.  I have also completed a 1/2 semester working on the Inpatient Adult Psychiatric Unit for University of Maryland Medical Systems.  I have a broad range of skills working in addictions, PTSD, Adult Developmental Disabilities providing vocational services, and I am currently providing addictions services with an adult population.  My current field placement experience for my BSW is working in a residential care  facility for children with behavioral problems that require inpatient residential care.  

My current position as an Addictions Counselor has allowed me to manage a caseload of 35-40 individuals providing individual counseling, facilitating relapse prevention groups, treatment planning and case coordination, documentation of progress in treatment,  orientation to the program for new admission, collaborating information for client services with in a multi interdisciplinary clinical team, and facilitating intake and new admissions.  I have been able to successfully manage the demands of  a large caseload as well as providing services as the intake coordinator for duration of my employment history with UMB.

UMUC was a pioneer of distance learning and more recently online education, and trained me well for my role as adjunct.

Management allowed me to build my classes independently, using the provided online platform and syllabus materials from UMUC. They were always attentive to my needs, and willing to assist as needed.

The challenging part of the job was that the semester lasted only eight weeks per class. Students of my academic writing classes and journalism classes had to master skills, write four different writing assignments, participate in online discussions daily and learn from the posted readings. Usually I had about 20 students, and I allowed them to write three drafts of each paper: an outline, a first draft and a final draft, before being graded for the assignment. That meant a lot of grading and feedback from me.

The writing assignments for Academic Writing (WRTG 291 and 391) had to be about some aspect of technology and its affects on our society, and I offered students my suggestions for topic choices including:

* Transhumanism and the Singularity.
* 3D printing and the second industrial revolution.
* The Digital Divide and the future of work.
* Gene Therapy and the Control of Human Evolution
* GMOs as boon or bane.
* The use of drones in U.S. police work.
* The End of Privacy and Data Brokerage.

In general students preferred the hybrid classes, in which I got to interact in person with them once a week at UMD campus.

University of mMaryland is a great place to work and advance a career. A typical work day starts at 8 am and during summer time with field trials starts at 630AM and ends around 5 pm. I have learned more since I joined the university. I have obtained skills on plant diseases management, pesticide especially fungicide application, time management, accounting and office mangement, communication and cordination of various research activities ranging from green house, field to lab experiments. In addition i have been able to further my education in plant science working with food safety together with plant pathology.

My co-workers consist of Plant pathologist, post-doc, and hourly paid and summer assistants. Working with them have given mye a chance to me a mediator between them also the farm workers have helped me to understand and manage of the the farm and field experiments partaining plant pathology and food safety.

The hadest and challenging part of the job is when running field trials and scheduling fungicide trials and the weather is not collaborating. Most enjoyable part of the job is that I got a chance to play my full role and obtain data, analysing statistics and also help with writing the summary for publication. In conclusion i run my daily duties independently after receiving instructions from my supervisor.

University of Maryland University College reserves all benefits and salary increases to staff and administrators. While the university depends on the quality of its adjunct professors, they are paid very poorly.  Also there are essentially no benefits and the per semester course contracts are below national averages and other University of Maryland universities. Adjuncts use their own computers and on-line internet subscriptions to teach. There is no process of reimbursement for depreciating equipment or expensive subscriptions to internet subscriptions.

There is also no policy for moving from adjunct to collegiate professor. It appears that promotions are dependent on who you know in the university administration.  Keeping most of it professors as adjuncts allows UMUC to quickly replace long-time professors with fresh blood.

The University of Maryland, University College is exploiting its adjunct professors, but the State of Maryland provides little oversight of this "cash cow. UMUC is not led by an educator but an accountant which underscores the profit motive of the institution. 

It has its own companies and significant pieces of real estate under its ownership. It is one of largest public universities in world with facilities in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. UMUC assets are protected and do nothing for students, adjunct professors, or even the citizens of Maryland.

My experience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County has been both academically enriching and personally transformative. As a graduate student in Computer Science, I’ve been able to deepen my technical foundation while also applying my skills in real-world settings through my Graduate Assistant and Data Analyst roles. A typical week involves balancing coursework, research, and professional responsibilities—ranging from building interactive Tableau dashboards for faculty data to assisting professors with grading and academic support.

The university environment is supportive and collaborative, with faculty and peers fostering a culture of learning, innovation, and teamwork. I’ve learned to manage multiple priorities, communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders, and approach problems with both technical and analytical rigor. While the workload can be intense and deadlines tight, the exposure and opportunities at UMBC have accelerated my growth, giving me confidence and preparing me for both advanced research and industry challenges.

University of Maryland Extension is one of the most challenging environments to work in.  Tenured faculty are bitter, cut throat and readily willing to stab you in the back.

There is no orientation process for coming on board, you are expected to set your course, follow rules which are nearly impossible to find, and perform all kinds of positions which really have nothing to do with teaching.

They will tell you you will work some weekends and evenings, plan on working every weekend, and at least 2 evenings a week.  You do accrue comptime, however, comptime expires in 30 days and the job is so extensive and you are so busy you do not get to use your comptime.  Plan on LIVING your job.

Volunteers expect to have your personal cell phone number and will call, text, and email you at all hours of the day and night.

The university does have wonderful benefits.  Tremendous time off (that you can never take), lots of sick leave (your health will fall apart in this position because you don't have time to take care of yourself), and you have access to free education (if you have time to take it), for you and your direct dependents.  

This job is not a good job for everyone.  It is a rough road, and turnover is high, and morale is LOW.

The days varied between being extremely busy to being a calm day. I learned how to manage time and multitask; having to take phone calls and do research while engaging with the student enforced those skills.

Management did an mediocre job of staying in tune with the employees needs. There are several processes that are in place that could be redeveloped, removed and/or replaced. This would be a little more evident to upper management if they were a little more available.

Coworkers seemed to have a healthy competitive nature, as well as being helpful. Many times, we had to come together as a team to solve problems or complete tasks which was never an issue.

The most difficult part of the job was the actual stop payment process. This was difficult because there were several people involved, however, there was a lack of communication thus making it hard to keep track of the process.

The most enjoyable part of the job was when I was able to assist a student and settle their request in a timely fashion. This was very rewarding and quite request.

A typical day at work is like working like a robot. The same procedures and things to do over and over again and the only thing that brings energy is the bonds made with other workers and closing the dining hall. I definitely learned a lot from working here especially since that is my first job and the fact that I've been working there since I was 14. I learned how to adapt to different environments, how to handle negative situations, how to create relationships with those older than me, and how to be a good worker overall. I developed maturity, self improvement skills, and respect. The management can be a bit unprofessional at times but they do their job no matter what. They have been stressful to deal with on my part but as time went by, I adapted to their behavior. The hardest part of the job is maintaining energy to do things. Lastly, the most enjoyable part is meeting great people and being around a safe and lively environment. Some older workers may be difficult to deal with but besides that, I personally think serving college students is the best part.

Streamlined office operations for marked productivity gains, creating standardized documents, highly accessible filing system and detailed Outlook database storing client/vendor information. Aided CEO in meeting deadlines, scheduling meetings, and resolving pressing issues. Optimized billing processes, and resolved delinquent accounts. Contributed heavily to projects, preparing estimates for site work, negotiating and finalizing contracts, and overseeing project teams to ensure on time completion. • Offered dedicated service to clients/vendors, and continually identified new opportunities.
Key Accomplishments:
•Increased efficiency through producing office standard documents for invoices, contracts, company letterhead, and business cards.
•Recognized for financial acumen, successfully managing AP/AR, invoicing, and vendor accounts,
• Maximized productivity of landscaping teams through tracking hours worked and level of completion, ensuring resource availability, and Project Manager.
• Facilitated advertising expansion efforts through devising unique artwork templates, researching

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Graduate researcher 25 salaries reported	$35,120 per year
Graduate assistant 22 salaries reported	$30,728 per year
Research assistant 21 salaries reported	$38,529 per year
Teaching assistant 4 salaries reported	$15.75 per hour
Coordinator 31 salaries reported	$65,601 per year

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