January 24, 2024 - Involvement by The Diamondback

The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper

the diamondback

INVOLvement Guide 2024

table of contents

contents

6 Conservation club 3 Campus Film CLub 4 Martial Arts Club 7 Involvement Poll 5 Student Entertainment Events

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film club

UMD student filmmaking club discusses future film festivals, student creativity By Adam Hudacek | Diversions Writer

‘Veritas’ is the Latin word for truth. At the University of Maryland, it means something different. The Veritas Short Films club is the brainchild of Alexa Yang, a junior bioengineering and cinema and media studies major. Yang, the club’s president, said she saw a need at the university for a filmmaking club in the absence of a film production major. “I got together some highly motivated [cinema and media studies] and theatre majors to start this club with the goal of offering a space on campus for students to collaborate together,” Yang said. Veritas focuses on creating two short films each semester written, directed and produced by students from this university. Once production is finished, the films are submitted for film festival contention. Matt Yackulak, one of Veritas’ vice presidents, was drawn to the club because of the unique opportunities it offered on campus. “[Veritas] was my first experience being on set and working on a film,” the senior cinema and media studies and immersive media design major said. “It was a fun experience to really get to learn everything there.” Despite the club’s popularity, Veritas faced challenges in its initial productions. One of the club’s largest hurdles, and initial inspirations, was the lack of advanced film equipment available to students. “The equipment, or filmmaking equipment, available on campus are for the most part amateur or mid-grade quality,” Yang said. “The majority of these cameras are provided with a typical student in mind, so they’re cheaper and don’t really offer the quality and functions that are necessary for filmmaking.” Isabelle Baker, Veritas’s other vice president, believes the club demonstrates a need for greater access to film production within the university’s cinema and media studies program. “It’s really, really hard to properly analyze

something when you have absolutely no understanding of how this is even done in the first place,” the junior cinema and media studies and business management major, said. The club’s first film, History in the Making, written by Baker, premiered on the Veritas Short Films’ YouTube channel on May 4, 2023. Since then, a trailer for the club’s second short, Every Loss a Hurricane, has also been released, and the film awaits a festival premiere. With Veritas’s second year now underway, Yang has ambitious plans for the future of the club. In addition to two short films per semester, Yang hopes to support documentary projects and host guest speakers for its members. The club also has plans to extend its presence on campus. An indie film series is in the works with Student Entertainment Events, and Yang is currently planning Veritas’s first-ever University of Maryland Film Festival, set to debut during the upcoming spring semester. The festival plans to be open to colleges and universities across the nation, showcasing student filmmaking from all corners of the United States. In addition to student work, Yang hopes to screen feature films from major studios to appeal to a campus-wide audience. Beyond Veritas’s future ambitions, the

club is focused on its mission statement for the fall semester: working to bring light to current issues. Yang says this statement guides the club’s productions and project selection process. “We want to provide this environment that will speak to the different biases that are happening,” Yang said. “[We want to] create this environment where the students who join our club know that these sorts of things make a difference, and inspire them to look at their own biases in a different way.” With the fall semester in full swing, Veritas’s work begins again: writing scripts, casting actors and workshopping ideas, done by a group of passionate students coming together to celebrate the art of film.

Black belt club

UMD Black Belt Club hopes to grow martial arts community on campus By Lizzy Alspach | Managing Editor

Tucked away in a matted room on the public health building’s ground floor, members of the University of Maryland Black Belt Club kicked training bags, stretched and practiced self-defense techniques three times per week. The club, which was formed in 2000, is an interdisciplinary martial arts group that aims to teach community members several forms of martial arts. Josh Chau, the club’s president, said he grew up practicing taekwondo — a Korean martial art form. The club hopes to provide its members with a range of martial arts practices, he added. “Martial arts tends to be very insular,” Chau, a junior government and politics and history major, said. “I’m trying to introduce other people to other arts.” Chau highlighted that club members come from diverse martial arts backgrounds such as kung fu, krav maga, karate, muay thai, wrestling and boxing. While most martial arts include self-defense techniques using one’s legs and arms, the specific movements and teachings can vary depending on the form practiced. Some martial art disciplines, such as karate, focus more on using hand strikes while others, like taekwondo, emphasize kicking strikes. James Liao, a freshman computer science major and the club’s newly elected treasurer, said he has been practicing taekwondo for 14 years. Liao

joined the club to continue practicing taekwondo, despite being far away from his studio at home, he said. “It’s been part of my life for a very long time,” Liao said. “It’s just fun for me so I want to keep doing it.” While Liao has experience with taekwondo, he enjoys learning different disciplines and comparing techniques with others. He still practices with other taekwondo martial artists to learn different techniques. “Even when we try to talk about the different moves, we use completely different terminologies a lot of the time for the same thing,” Liao said. “It really shows me different backgrounds and different types of teachings.” The club hosted self-defense seminars and delivered performances on campus before the COVID-19 pandemic, Chau said. Club leadership hopes to return to a similar “footprint” on campus, he added. To grow local engagement, Chau said he is working to host guest martial artists from the College Park community who can provide lessons on their respective disciplines. “There’s a lot of people in the community who know martial arts and are very experienced,” Chau said. “It would be great to have them come here and teach people or show them something new.” The club provides students like Miriam Klos-Hernandez with a way to reconnect with

their passion for martial arts. Klos-Hernandez, a freshman criminology and criminal justice and psychology major, practiced tang soo do, a Korean martial art practice, until she was 13. In her first year at this university, Klos-Hernandez joined the Black Belt Club to explore her passion for martial arts. “I decided, ‘Hey, why not join it?’” Klos-Hernandez said. “I don’t have a black belt, but I was like, ‘Let’s join anyways.’” Tang soo do incorporates principles from jiu-jitsu and weapon techniques, Klos-Hernandez said. Klos-Hernandez plans to teach some of the new techniques she learned at the club to her father, who also practices tang soo do. Klos-Hernandez added that attending the club’s practices each week helps her relieve stress from classes and exams. “When you have the stress of the work and everything, you can just sort of take your anger out on [the kicking target] and just de-stress,” Klos-Hernandez said. “For me, it kind of grounds me back to reality.” Moving forward, Chau hopes the club can create a community where members can learn more about themselves and martial arts. “We’re trying to do a conducive learning environment,” Chau said. “Somewhere where you can grow as a person, as a martial artist, expose yourself to broader horizons than just what you were doing.”

2024

SEE: Student Entertainment

Inside SEE’s vision of student entertainment By Adam Hudacek | Diversions Writer

Nestled amongst flashy posters and wig-wearing plush sharks, the directors of the University of Maryland’s Student Entertainment Events create concerts, comedy shows and lectures that bring big-name talent to campus. This semester, SEE brought comedian Eric André and Crying in H Mart author Michelle Zauner to campus, continuing a more than 50-year-old tradition of providing student-driven entertainment at this university. Helen Wang, a junior economics and marketing major and SEE’s lectures director, is responsible for bringing speakers like Zauner to campus. SEE’s lecture series is one of the organization’s most anticipated events, hosting figures from celebrity chef Antoni Porowski to Stranger Things star David Harbour for Q&A-style interviews. The long event planning process begins with the students, Wang said. SEE directors reach out to student groups and send out Google form surveys to gauge interest in a public figure each semester. This allows Wang to narrow her search for that semester’s speaker. For Wang, SEE’s fall lecture provides an opportunity to increase diversity among the series’ speakers — specifically Asian American representation. Her involvement in SEE stemmed from Jimmy O. Yang’s comedy show in fall 2021, which she said was a defining moment in her early college career. “I’ve spoken to a lot of friends who expressed that sometimes they wish that they had seen more Asian American representation at SEE events,” Wang said. “I really wanted to focus on that representation aspect, and then also having a unique lecture that people could go to and really enjoy.” Zauner, who doubles as the lead singer of the alternative pop band Japanese Breakfast, fit Wang’s description of an ideal speaker. The next step is to reach out to the talent’s representatives through an intermediary booking agent. If schedules align and payment is agreed to, the directors

launch event preparation. Wang worked with Omicron Delta Kappa and the Asian American Student Union to host Zauner’s lecture. Despite the size of its productions and fame of its talent, SEE is as subject to room availability as any other club. Although SEE events can be technically challenging — and physically exhausting — the organization means a great deal to those involved. SEE’s public relations director, senior marketing major Elise Bailey, found a home in the organization as a transfer student at this university. “It was kind of hard really fitting into the UMD community as an outsider,” Bailey said. “Coming into an organization that runs events where our whole purpose is bringing people together has been just great to be a part of.” For SEE funding director Mackenzie Smith, the organization represents an intersection of personal and professional interests. “Besides giving me amazing relationships and just a really fun time and great experiences, [SEE] has been so helpful to my professional development,” the junior psychology and sociology major said. “It’s a club, but we do so much work.” For this semester’s Art Attack, Wang worked until 2 a.m. The team started loading equipment for the event a day in advance. Directors are always improvising and adapting to students’ changing needs, such as add-

ing a second lecture time when Jennette McCurdy spoke last spring. The spring semester will mark Wang’s last as lecture director, but her work to help the position evolve is far from over. Working with more student groups, continuing SEE’s collaborations with The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and encouraging greater representation among speaker choices are all on her to-do list before her time in the position ends. As for the identity of the spring semester’s guest lecturer, Wang couldn’t say, but she’s keeping an eye out for candidates students will be excited for. “I think pop culture is constantly changing, and we have to move with that,” Wang said. “SEE events are something that are so special and I always want to bring as many people as possible so we can have that experience.”

Black belt club

New conservation club at UMD hopes to unite students, tackle environmental issues By Olivia Borgula | Assistant Managing Editor

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelly had more time to dive into research about environmentalism and deepened her interest in the topic. In October, her interests led her to work with sophomore history and secondary education major Sam Krakower to create the University of Maryland chapter of the American Conservation Coalition. The group aims to unite environmental organizations across campus, increase awareness about sustainability and address conservation challenges. “Environmentalism is such a broad topic, and there are so many amazing things that we can do,” Kelly said. The organization hosted tabling events at the beginning of the semester to gauge interest and met with students to research and plan before next semester, Kelly said. The group plans to increase student outreach and host more events starting next semester.

Krakower became interested in sustainability last summer. He said the new organization fosters collaboration between students with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. “We weren’t all born in College Park, Maryland. We all had to come from somewhere, and those somewhere’s use energy and they use resources,” Krakower said. “Let’s see what works here and let’s make it work elsewhere.” The group plans to address food waste at this university, according to Sydney McVicker, a sophomore public policy major and member of the organization. She said the chapter is interested in redistributing unused food from campus dining halls to people around College Park. “It would be interesting to do more with food waste on campus and more locally within College Park,” McVicker said. “That’ll give these groups a chance to collaborate and work together in different departments and also

just expand everyone’s knowledge.” The chapter has also advocated for expanded bus lanes, protected bike lanes and more plant-based options in the dining halls, Kelly said. One of McVicker’s biggest priorities is increasing education about sustainability measures and how individuals can reduce their personal carbon footprints. She wants to find digestible ways to explain large environmental issues, such as climate change, so people don’t feel overwhelmed, she said. McVicker is especially interested in environmentalism from a public policy standpoint. She joined the group because sustainability is something that impacts everyone. “Even if you don’t necessarily feel like you know a lot about environmentalism, I don’t think it’s ever too late to learn,” McVicker said.

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Involvement POLL

Here’s what your fellow peers are involved in on campus! Maryland Mentor Corps, Terps Exceed, Hillel -@shiraruttenberg

Maryland Dhoom, Terp Thon, SGA -@Farahxrahman

Gymkana -@Elenamooo

Gamer Symphony, Ballon Payload Program -@Chaitanya___garg

Startup Shell! -@Anjalisrnvsn

Marching/Pep Band -@Charles_treger

American Meteorological Society, Mesoterps -@Katiel457

Preventing Sexual Assault -@C.fab1y1

Student Government Association, AASU -@Mhaq215

Hillel, Terps for Israel -@ Demonpotato4411

Hispanic cultural and academic organizations -@Alejandrooo.dl

SEE, Technica, DCC, Hack4Impact, Terps Esports -@Gabriellehester

SPS, Astroterps, Vintage Voices -@zbbrunton

Association for Women in Computing (AWC) -@Anniee_chen_

Club sports! -@Emily.miria.m

UMDMUN, Kappa Omega Alpha, WMUC -@Jennaburtch