Building Community through UMBC

In this episode, Dennise Cardona from UMBC's Office of Professional Programs sits down with Jameer Robinson, a recent graduate of the Community Leadership graduate program. Jameer shares his inspiring journey from his time as an undergraduate at UMBC to the pivotal experiences in the Community Leadership program, including his unique capstone project, "Coffee Sunday." 

Tune in to hear how Jameer combined his passion for community building and storytelling, the transformative road trip that led him to the program, and how these experiences continue to shape his professional life today. 📚 Interested in learning more about UMBC’s graduate programs in Community Leadership? 

https://leader.umbc.edu

Transcript

Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Hey, thanks for tuning into this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up podcast. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs. And I am here today with a very special guest, Jameer Robinson, a recent graduate of the Community Leadership graduate program. And he's here to share his experiences that he had with the program and to talk a little bit about his capstone experience. Welcome, Jameer here.

Jameer Robinson  0:25  
Thank you so much.

Dennise Cardona  0:27  
It's wonderful to have you here. Yeah. It's great to have you here. A fellow retriever right now.

Jameer Robinson  0:33  
Yes, I'm around second time around seriously.

Dennise Cardona  0:36  
Oh, good. Tell us about the first time around what was your and tell us a little bit about your journey and what led you to UMBC Community Leadership program and you said you have two degrees from us. So let's hear about that. 

Jameer Robinson  0:48  
Yeah, 100%. So I started off at UMBC. In 2017. I did my undergrad there, where I was recruited actually, for track and field, I served my wonderful five years of track and field at UMBC. And in that fifth year, I decided, Okay, I've graduated with my undergrad. I think there's a program out there that can really fit the broad spectrum of the things I like to do, which is build community, but also be very analytical and have a science based practice. And that's where community leadership led me, I was crazy enough. I was on a road trip that summer, traveling from Baltimore to California. And the whole process of me getting into the community leadership program happened in that road trip. And it was just an incredible, chapter changing moment for me. And I just have never looked back Community Leadership just opened so many doors and allowed me to do so anything so far. 

Dennise Cardona  1:42  
Yeah. I'm so curious about this road trip and how it all came about? Can you just share a little bit about that?

Jameer Robinson  1:48  
 Yeah, so the road trip was okay. So I had graduated from undergrad and December. That spring, I had no classes because I was done on my undergrad. But I hadn't. I had eligibility for track and field. So we finished sort of a track and field season. And my friends were like, Okay, what do we do now? And I said, Let's do a road trip. And I'm like, what? And I'm like, yeah, like why not? We started off in Baltimore. And it was supposed to be a training trip. Because we all had agreed, if we do this road trip, we're all going to come back for a fifth year track and field. But at that moment, I hadn't decided what masters program I was going to apply to. So I originally applied to the applied sociology program. And I didn't get it. And that broke my heart. All my friends were now in, accepted to their grad school programs. And I was just like, we were traveling across the country and earnings. I'm so excited this and so excited that and I'm just sitting there, oh, my goodness, I'm not going to be a part of this fun. I get a call from Dr. Jessica Hammond, who was the previous Associate Athletic Director. And she's, I think I have a program that you'll really like. And she connected me with Sally. And from there, I was like, Oh, this is right up my alley. Sally, he was like, Yeah, build it, make it what you want. And I said, Okay. And this was like the first time coming from a biology undergrad, which is so like, rigid, and you learn what you learned. And you need to have that knowledge in order to continue to build on the concept, going into a program that allowed me to really explore what I wanted to know, and how I wanted to put that out in the world professionally. Sally just sold me on that. And I was like, let's do it. And she's the only caveat to that is you're gonna be the youngest person in the program. And I said, okay, and I didn't think anything of it at the time. I was 21. And I didn't think anything of it. But it was just I knew the opportunity couldn't be past. She did my like little screen interview. And then I put my application in. By the time I left from Mexico, to the time I hit Tennessee. I had known I gotten into the program. And I was just like, on top of the world, you can only imagine I was in Nashville, Tennessee, and I was just having a blast with it. And from there, it was just time to get started on the next chapter, which was going to be my masters.

Dennise Cardona  4:06  
Oh, that's great. I could see the title now from Mexico to Nashville, Tennessee, to UMBC.

Jameer Robinson  4:12  
Yeah.

Dennise Cardona  4:14  
That's great. So how would you sum up your time in the program? What moments or experiences stood out the most to you?

Jameer Robinson  4:24  
Yeah, definitely. There's so many highlights, but like key pivotal moments for me. I'd have to say that first semester I was in. So I came in the spring semester, which is a non traditional. I came in the spring semester. And my first class was, I think it's called law and ethics with Michael Sarbanes. And that class right there I was in class with people from all walks of life. And just the knowledge and being in a room with so many similar minded people. I felt like finally accepted. I felt I felt seen I felt heard. And I'd saved time I felt like I was in a place where I could be challenged. So that was the first like pivotal moment where I felt like I know where I'm, this is where I'm supposed to be. The next one was when Dr. Scott asked me if I could co facilitate the digital storytelling class. And that conversation came because of the work I had been doing in my initial community leadership course, that I made a digital story. And at that time, I had not called it into the story, I didn't even know what digital storytelling was. And when I, when she asked me this, I further did some research on digital storytelling and realized like, that is my path. My path is storytelling, and how to tell other people's stories so that they feel seen and appreciated, but also cared for and respected in their story. So that was that second bounce off of okay, I've found what I like, I know what I like. And then probably the very last thing would be my final capstone kind of explanation slash like defense, where I did a story of what my capstone was. But on top of that, I also taught the class how to make pour over coffee, all in the midst of a giant presentation with music in the background. And that really made me feel like, okay, I've grown so much from just being like, Oh, my goodness, I'm here to know, I know what I want to do here. And now I'm doing it. Those are three super pivotal moments.

Dennise Cardona  6:28  
UMBC has a way of doing that. Just pulling out the best of people. I am, right there with you with the storytelling aspect is my passion, too. And it's such a wonderful way to be able to experience life through other people's lenses and to be able to share those stories with other people. So they can then experience it through those lenses.

Unknown Speaker  6:47  
Yeah, definitely.

Dennise Cardona  6:50  
So what are some of you, what would you say are the key skills or a pieces of knowledge that you gained from the program that have been particularly useful in your current role or your projects? 

Speaker 1  7:03  
Yeah, like I said, my my path and the community leadership was a little unorthodox didn't necessarily take the route of a nonprofit or working in like direct community space. I went around and then came back to by doing a lot of project management courses, a lot of design thinking and human centered computing, and trying to figure out how can we build community in this technology age, especially coming out of 2020? I recognize that we can do it, and it's happening right before our eyes. And so how can I be on the forefront of that, while keeping the same concepts that community leadership really brings people together through? So I would say a lot of the conversations and readings that we did in our community leadership courses really surrounded a lot of these concepts of how can we talk about intersectionality? How can we talk about leading with a purpose mindset with intention? And for me, it was just a matter of bouncing that from human centered computing and those courses, and how can I see the lens of both? And how can I lead in that direction? 

Dennise Cardona  8:12  
Hmm, that's powerful. That's really powerful. Can you describe what you're currently doing, what your role is? And then what ways do you feel that the master's degree has equipped you for this role that you have? 

Speaker 1  8:26  
Yeah, so currently, I work as a, I work as a quality assurance professional. But on top of that, I also am a product designer and an owner of a, like a production studio. And so with that, I do everything from podcast, to photo to video and everything in between that also around storytelling, and even down to the website of websites that I design is all about how can we convey a story to the people who are going to receive it? Yeah. Yeah, community leadership, just taught me a lot of the language and able in order to do that best. 

Dennise Cardona  9:08  
I heard you say podcast so my ears went boiling. Because I love this is probably my favorite part of what I do at UMBC is this podcast show? I love talking to different people and hearing their stories and figuring out like, Oh, what are the ways what are the things are people doing out there? Creating purpose, and it's just it's fun to dive in? That really is what would you say is your favorite aspect of when you do podcasting? What would you say? 

Speaker 1  9:34  
So I think it's funny because I've been in front of the camera, and I've been behind the camera. And I think what I've loved the most is the behind the camera moments where you're seeing two people have this conversation. And they might not initially be on the same page about something but when they finally meet, and it's happening in real time, and you've been able to capture it. It's just it's like magic, like even this moment that we're sharing. It's like when I go back and you go back to look at Got it. And we're we both hit that click, it's going to be like, Oh, that moment was magical.

Dennise Cardona  10:04  
Absolutely. I love how you put that. So let's delve into your capstone project, can you give us a brief overview of what the project was and how its connection to your studies and how it connected to your studies, I should say in community leadership.

Speaker 1  10:19  
Coffee Sunday is a coffee, curated wellness, kind of space and event. And so what coffee wellness coffee Sunday chooses to do is take the seven arms of wellness, and embody those through the practice of coffee and community. So I like that Well, my capstone looked like as a whole, is a community event that was hosted at open works over here in Baltimore. And we had a fun filled day where people from young to old can find wellness in different different ways. And find ways to take that home and use it in their own space. 

Dennise Cardona  10:53  
That's awesome that that must have been such a pleasure. So much fun to put together. What a great magic that is. Wow. 

Speaker 1  10:59  
It's really like beautiful and magical. And a lot of me comes out when it when I talk about coffee Sunday, because coffee Sunday's everything I love. So Coffee Sunday is about the drink. It's about the activities. So on the actual day, we did yoga, we had a run group, we had a makers course, we had curated drinks by me, I DJ'd. And we had a mindfulness moment where we did breath work, and just family. So like my whole family was there. And then even like my friends were there and their families were there. So it's just like about building that community and finding your own chosen family. 

Dennise Cardona  11:36  
Oh, that's awesome. Now, how did this project aid in your personal professional growth as a community leader? And are there any specific takeaways that you'd like to highlight? 

Jameer Robinson  11:49  
Yeah, so through Coffee Sunday, professionally, I've been able to partner with really amazing local businesses in Baltimore. One that I would love to highlight is Black Acres. roastery did a lot of the help in the coffee preparation. But even as far as to work with partners that are not from Baltimore, I actually have a friend who owns the first Latin X woman studio in Portland, and she flew out here to do the yoga teaching professionally, it just allowed me to expand my wings. And third in terms of who I can work with, and the kind of level and production that I could put together. And then that even carried over into what I do day to day work for work in terms of like connections that I've made, and the people I know. 

Dennise Cardona  12:31  
Ah, that's awesome. We'd love to hear that. Now reflecting on your experience in the program, what advice would you offer maybe a prospective student who's considering going into the master's program and community leadership?

Jameer Robinson  12:45  
Yeah, I would first like to say like community leadership is for everyone. Because anything you want to do, you can do. And it's all a matter of how far do you want to push it. And I would say to anyone who's coming into the program, is don't get narrowed into just what you think you like, expand to what you don't know, if you like, even if you've had the smallest inkling of, oh, maybe some type of chemical engineering could be interesting, expand into it, and see how that can tie into community leadership. Because even in those types of fields, community is still very valuable. And when we start to expand the conversation, different fields, past just the jargon of the every day, and we expand it into how we can connect how our stories are important. That adds a lot of value to the workplace. So I would say to anyone who's coming in, it's just have fun with it and be free and let your creativity run.

Dennise Cardona  13:47  
Those are very powerful words. Love that and adding value. That's such an important component of anything that we do in life had value if you can put your focus on that, then you're 1,000,000% ahead of just being able to really bring purpose to life and to the lives of other people as well bringing that value. Now, do you have any upcoming projects or initiatives or goals that you're excited about? And what's next in your journey as a community leader in the business that you have?

Jameer Robinson  14:18  
Yeah, so continuing to expand Coffee Sunday, we look to do another event every quarter, or every feeling really, and also extend that past just our big events, see how we can impact the community in different ways how we can highlight different people. So on the horizon, working on a series where I highlight different people in the coffee industry broadly, that can be from artisans who use coffee materials to make their artwork all the way to the person who works at whatever company who just uses coffee to wake up every morning. Think that story and kind of pushing the understanding of how coffee connects.

Dennise Cardona  14:59  
Sure it does. I spent some time in Colombia, South America over the past five years, just going back and forth because I have family there, my husband's family's from there. And it's because it's like the capital, the coffee capital of the world in a way it's can do right where we were is that place where they just coffee growers and farmers and it coffee is everything and it is all about that community connection. So I love that. Jameer, it's been a fantastic time talking with you about this. I'm really grateful that you came on here and shared your experience with us. Thank you so much for that. And thank you to everybody for listening to this episode. We hope you enjoyed it. And if you'd like to learn more about our offerings, do a quick search for UMBC graduate programs in community leadership, or simply click the link in the description. Thank you