By Jennifer Baxter

In this week’s newsletter, students are engaging with the community through voting, the Aprendiendo Juntos Program for children and The Clothesline Project at Hornbake Plaza.

UMD’s Clothesline Project allows students to display shirts, raise awareness on sexual violence

By Jose Gonzalez

Students at the University of Maryland came together at Hornbake Plaza to decorate and display T-shirts on Wednesday, writing words advocating against sexual violence on them. 

This was a part of The Clothesline Project which the CARE to Stop Violence Program organizes each semester as a visual representation of the impact of relationship and sexual violence. 

“Each T-shirt either has a story from a survivor [or] from a supporter giving a message of empowerment, support and love to a survivor,” said program director Grace Boudreau.

The event included tables that shared resources from CARE and tables from Step Up!, a bystander intervention program with a chapter at UMD and the university’s Health Promotion and Wellness Services. 

The Clothesline Project originated in 1990 when a member of Cape Cod’s Women’s Defense Agenda learned that men killed 51,000 women during the Vietnam War. Rachel Carey-Harper, a visual artist, created a display of a number of shirts on a clothesline with messages such as “I believe” and “You’re not alone” on each one. 

Students at UMD were able to continue this legacy by creating similar T-shirts of their own at the event. 

“I liked when people talked about their own personal stories. A lot of them are anonymous, but they kind of like tell a story of their experience with sexual assault, and I feel like that is like the most powerful thing you can do,” said Chloe Van Campenhout, a freshman animal sciences major.

Read more here.

TerpsVote hosts Absentee Ballot Day event, making mail-in voting accessible

By Danielle Ngamegni

The University of Maryland libraries and TerpsVote hosted a nonpartisan Absentee Ballot Day on Tuesday to help students interested in voting by mail.

Courtney Holder, assistant director of leadership and community service learning in Stamp Student Union, says that mail in voting makes voting more convenient for college students, highlighting the importance of understanding how it works. 

“A lot of students maybe don’t regularly use mail, or maybe it’s harder for them to print, find an envelope, or get stamps. So we want to help them walk through all those steps and make it as easy as possible,” Holder said.

Students brought their required documents and were greeted by volunteers who checked and updated their voter registration status. 

A main mission of TerpsVote’s was to create a nonpartisan event encouraging students to fulfill their civic duty.

The event included notaries as witnesses that were there to sign ballots as well as provide postal mailbox information.

TerpsVote will be hosting a voter resource center event, starting after fall break and going through Election Day on Nov. 3.

Read more here.

UMD’s Aprendiendo Juntos Program engages students to use Spanish skills, celebrates 10th anniversary

By Abigail Bender

For the past ten years, University of Maryland students who are enrolled in SPAN374, or Spanish in the Community, have taken part in the Aprendiendo Juntos Program, helping to build connections with Latino families in the College Park area. 

SPAN374 helps assist elementary school children and provides English-language instruction for immigrant parents, while the Aprendiendo Juntos Program helps students engage with Spanish speakers at Hollywood Elementary School. 

Students enrolled in the class this year will begin with the program this month. 

The program celebrated its 10 year anniversary in Jimenez Hall on Tuesday, where people previously involved in the program were able to share their experiences being a part of it. 

“I wanted to contribute [in] a way so I could give back to someone like my mom,” said Ingrid Rivas, a UMD alum and 2016 program participant. “I feel like that will change someone.” said. 

Past and current participants agreed that future students should enter the program with an open mind because not all students will speak the same Spanish, according to Rivas. 

Gloria Aparicio Blackwell, director of local government relations at UMD, said the dean of the School of Languages and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Literature and Culture funded the program after seeing the challenges local communities face and the impact that students could make with their help. 

Read more here.

Featured Image: The Clothesline Project on Oct. 7. Photo by Stella Henretta.