SEA CIRTL Fellows

Welcome to the SEA CIRTL Fellows Program, a fantastic opportunity for ALL graduate students at UMBC to showcase their teaching skills and inspire young minds through a one-week summer camp class offered by the Summer Enrichment Academy (SEA). Our program’s mission is to ignite a passion for higher education in middle and high school students while providing graduate students with valuable teaching experience and mentorship.

Our program for the Summer 2025 session will start accepting applications in on Friday, August 30 and will close on September 18, 2024. If you’re interested in pursuing this program, keep reading to learn more about what it entails and the benefits of becoming a SEA CIRTL Fellow.

As a SEA CIRTL Fellow, you’ll work with experienced faculty to design and implement a one-week course on a topic of your choice. Our program provides guided mentorship and support to ensure that your course is accessible and engaging for high school and middle school students. You’ll also attend training sessions to help you plan and deliver your course. All fellows have different teaching experience levels. The fellows will develop and implement a 1-week course for the SEA CIRTL program on a topic of their choice with guided mentorship. Fellows are required to attend a variety of sessions hosted by the Graduate Student and Postdoc Development Office (GSPD) at UMBC that help them solidify course ideas, learn about teaching approaches that are accessible and engaging for high school and middle school students, and plan their courses. The director of the program and their mentors, Dr. Neha Raikar, LaMar Davis, Dr. Jamie Gurganus, to name a few, host one-on-one meetings with the fellows to track their progress.

During the Summer 2025 session, you’ll be able to teach your course, earn your nationally recognized CIRTL teaching certificate, and get paid $1,000 per week if the course runs with an opportunity to teach more, depending on enrollment.

We hope that you’ll consider becoming a SEA CIRTL Fellow.

2023-2024 | SEA CIRTL Cohort
  1. Copenhaver Ashley – “Lights, Camera, Action Potentials! An introduction to brain anatomy and physiology“
  2. Smith Zachary – “(Bio)engineering the Future”
  3. Sproat Tori – “Genetics and Genomics” 
  4. Bipin Gada Bhavya – “Mastering AI/ML Pipelines for Hackathons: Craft  & Deploy Your AI-Powered Nutritionist!” & “Build Your Virtual Assistant”
  5. Manvitha Nadella Sai – “Exploring the future with Robotics and AI adventure.”
  6. Kulkarni Srushti – “Materials Engineering: Unveiling the Power of Energy.”
  7. M’boola Mzati Ian – “Introduction to Cybersecurity: Web Penetration Testing from First Principles“
  8. Davis Kennedy – “The Secret Life of Microbes”
  9. Manasa Vasupalli – “Data Science: A Beginner’s Guide for High School Students”

 1st cohort of Peer Mentors

  1. Arjun Singh – Ethical Hacking
  2. Chinso Ezeobi – Electrical Engineering: Optimal Effects Around Us
  3. Chinonso Ugwu – Game Building with Python
  1. Arjun Singh – Ethical Hacking
  2. Chinonso Ezeobi – Electrical Engineering: Optical Effects Around Us
  3. Chinonso Ugwu – Game Building with Python
  4. Gayatri Priya Mellacheruvu – Exploring the Principals of Science
  5. Sumra Syed Afzal – Introduction to Python Programming
  6. Vidhi Panchal – Cryptography and Systems Security

Please check out our FAQ section below for more information about the program.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who can apply to become a SEA CIRTL Fellow?

A: Any current graduate student at UMBC can apply.

Q: What kind of course can I develop as a SEA CIRTL Fellow?

A: You can choose a topic of your choice as long as it’s appropriate for middle and high school students.

Q: What support will I receive as a SEA CIRTL Fellow?

A: You’ll receive guided mentorship and support from our experienced faculty, as well as attend sessions to help you plan your course and learn about teaching approaches.

Q: What is the pay for teaching a course as a SEA CIRTL Fellow?

A: You’ll earn a minimum of $1,000/week for 1 or 2 weeks, with an opportunity for more depending on enrollment for the course.

Q: What is the CIRTL teaching certificate?

A: The CIRTL teaching certificate is a nationally recognized teaching certificate that can be a valuable addition to your resume and open up new opportunities for your career. By participating in the SEA CIRTL Fellows Program, you’ll earn credit toward the certificate.

Click here to learn about the national CIRTL.net or here to learn about the CIRTL at UMBC program.

 

2024-2025 Call for applications for the SEA CIRTL program

The call for applications will open on August 30 and close on September 18, 2024

Calling ALL current graduate students at UMBC interested in being a SEA CIRTL Fellow for the Summer Enrichment Academy (SEA) and the CIRTL programs at UMBC. SEA provides one-week camps for middle and high school students on the UMBC Campus. These camps help kids to stay engaged, have fun learnin new skills, and get excited about higher education at UMBC.

These SEA CIRTL Fellows will develop and implement a SEA one (1) week course in a topic of their choice with guided mentorship in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 and implement the course with SEA in Summer 2025. Fellows will be required to attend a variety of sessions that help them solidify their course ideas, learn about teaching approaches that are accessible and engaging for high school and middle school students, and plan their courses. This will all count toward a CIRTL certificate, which is a nationally recognized teaching certificate! Upon teaching the course in Summer 2025, Fellows will be paid $1000/week if the course runs.

Note: Courses are run as half-day camps for a week (5 days), and Fellows will be able to choose two weeks of these five options: June 23-27, July 7-11, July 14-18, July 21-25, July 28 – Aug 1.

Please complete this form by September 18, 2024.