Abi Anderson: Weekly Blog Post #5

 Week 5: Campus Residency and Research Tour

On my fifth week of the Workforce Development Internship, the other interns and I attended a two-day Campus Residency and Research Tour of the University of Maryland. On the first day of the tour, we had the opportunity to visit the Research Greenhouse and Insect Zoo Teaching Lab. The Insect Zoo was a fun and interactive experience that the campus hosts for students and/or visitors. The other interns and I had a great time holding some of the insects and being taught by the educators at the Zoo. After staying the night at the Marriott College Park, we toured some of the UMD Water Mitigation Projects, and then the Water Quality, Outreach & Wellness, and Bioenergy & Bioprocessing Tech Labs. Finally, to end our last day of the tour we visited the Campus Farm and their facilities. 

All of the interns together in one picture! It’s been a tradition for three years that the Workforce Development Internship program takes a picture next to the UMD campus farm sign. I’m glad I got to take part in this tradition.

On each day of the tour, we did a leadership workshop, first with Antonio Silas, our UME Director for the Baltimore office, and then with Myles Alexander from the Maryland Leadership Education and Development Program. Through those workshops, we reflected on what qualities or traits we attributed to a good leader. In addition to those reflections, we further reflected on what leaders we knew in our personal lives and the qualities that make them a good leader. With the outward reflection of role models around us who are leaders, there was also an inward reflection in the training that called for us to reflect on ourselves. I’ve never really considered myself a leader, or have encountered a time in my work at the Anne Arundel Extension office where I have had to assume a leadership role. I’ve always seen a leader as an outgoing, outspoken, and kind person who is extroverted. Through stories shared by the training leaders and interns, I learned that a person doesn’t always have to have those traits to be a great leader. After completing the training I feel confident that whenever I need to step up as a leader in the future I will know that the qualities that I have are my secret strength to being a great leader. 

During the tour, I was inspired by the many water conservation initiative projects scattered across the UMD campus. However, out of all the projects I was most inspired by the green roofs! It was so interesting to see how green spaces were integrated into the existing architecture and the immense planning and processes that go into creating those spaces.

This is a picture of one of the green roofs that the University of Maryland has on its STAMP building. On the tour, they explained to us that the only kind of plants that can be planted on the green roofs are succulent plants. Those are one of the only kinds of plants that can survive in the conditions of a green roof, but they are continuing research to facilitate more kinds of plants on the roofs.