Hilda C. Landers Library & Archives

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Allison Holtzman has been working at the Library for a while now. The senior English major, with minors in Philosophy and Spanish, has been serving the SMCM community as a Circulation student employee since her sophomore year.

Originally from Parkville, Maryland, Allison came to St. Mary’s in part because her older brother was an SMCM student at the time (class of 2015). Though the family connection helped, ultimately Allison selected St. Mary’s thanks to the beautiful natural setting.

Studying abroad during her Junior year, Allison was able to work toward her goal of becoming fluent in Spanish in the picturesque surroundings of Granada, Spain. There, Allison was able to fully embrace her dual desires for a calm and relaxing natural environment and the vibrant culture that comes with city life. In Granada, she was able to enjoy the perks of city living, while also being able to explore the beautiful countryside just outside the city limits.

As someone with a variety of interests, Allison’s academic work at St. Mary’s reflects her curiosity. In addition to gaining important writing and communication skills, she enjoys learning about and discussing critical theories surrounding ethics, race, gender, feminism, and Marxism – concepts introduced through her studies in English and Philosophy. Allison plans to complete an SMP through the English department exploring how slam and spoken word poetry act as a means of resistance by interviewing feminist poets at the forefront of the movements in Baltimore, MD and Ferguson, MO.

The family connection came into play again when it was time to find a campus job. Allison’s brother was also a Circulation student employee during his time at SMCM, and recommended Allison to Linda Russell, the Daytime Circulation Supervisor. When at the Library, Allison’s favorite thing about her job is shelving the books. The meditative activity requires a focus and attention to detail that she finds very calming. On top of the relaxing aspect of shelving the books, Allison enjoys learning about the books in the Library as she puts them away.

After graduation, Allison plans on eventually going to grad school for a Masters in Social Work while working in Baltimore. Long term, she would like to live in New York City, which would be ideal for Allison, with it’s melting pot of cultures and combination of city life and culture and parks and green spaces.

The SMCM Library, Archive & Media Center Student Employee Class of 2017 had the opportunity to select a book from the collection that was meaningful to them during their time at St. Mary’s. They then posed for a portrait with that book and shared a bit about why it’s important to them.
Not pictured:
Mariam Adeyemo; Biology, major; WGSX, minor
Matthew Riedel; History & Religious Studies, major
Ian Scribner; Computer Science, major; Mathematics, minor
Gabe York; Chemistry, major

If you’ve spend any time in the Media Center lab on the third-floor of the Library, chances are good you already know Jazzie Gray.

Image credit: A VerMeulen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Originally from Baltimore, Jazzie grew up all over the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, living in North Carolina and Virginia before moving back to Baltimore to finish high school. St. Mary’s wasn’t on Jazzie’s radar when initially looking for colleges (she was looking at her “dream schools,” like NYU), but came to SMCM after learning about it from her Aunt. She credits living in rural North Carolina as a kid with helping her acclimate to campus life here, where she has made friends in many different social groups and student clubs including BSU, Burlesque, and Latinos Unidos.

As a senior Anthropology major, Jazzie’s capstone project analyses how women of color are represented (and misrepresented) in media, through the lens of the top 25 highest rated television shows of all time. In addition, she’s working on an independent oral history project interviewing persons of color and persons of other among students, faculty, and staff on the SMCM campus. Created in reaction to the racist incidents on campus in 2016, this project will record the voices of people who are often not heard on campus and publicize their experiences, which are often overlooked. Jazzie plans to project these interviews on the side of different academic buildings around campus.

Jazzie began working at the Media Center in the summer of her first year. After seeing the Media Center on a tour as a part of the DeSousa-Brent Scholars program, got the job thanks in part to her honest resume that included items like “part-environmentalist” and “pretty good whistler” to make us for limited job experience. Her favorite thing about working at the Media Center is all the free donut Justin and Raven bring in! But on top of all the free donuts, by working at the Media Center Jazzie has gained technical software skills and honed her communication skills through working with all the different students, faculty, and staff that come to the MC. On any given shift, you can find her teaching students how to use the software and equipment, or singing and dancing.

Post-graduation, Jazzie is looking for a job where she can apply all the knowledge and skills gained in her career at St. Mary’s. An ideal job would draw not only on her Anthropology degree, but also the technical and teaching skills learned at the Media Center, and the interpersonal skills gained through her involvement with many student clubs over the years. Eventually, Jazzie would like to go to grad school and work in a cross-cultural studies field, but right now she’s focused on the post-SMCM job search.

Image credit: A VerMeulen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Senior Maggie Foust is a familiar face at the SMCM Library circulation desk.

Growing up in both College Park and Annapolis (right on the water!), Maggie came to SMCM as an alternative to the large state schools too close to home. (And it didn’t hurt that she had older friends who were already St. Mary’s students.) Despite growing up on the water, the river setting wasn’t a draw for Maggie, who prefers to look at the water but doesn’t enjoy doing “water things.”

As a Film and Media Studies major, with an English minor, Maggie is currently finishing an SMP creating a podcast series that looks at female sexuality in horror, drama, and teen films, with all episodes posted on SoundCloud. Maggie was drawn to film studies not just because she likes movies, but because she believes it’s important to critically analyze what you like and understand why you enjoy it and to be more observant and understanding of the world around you.

If you’ve been to the library at all in the last three years, you’ve probably received Maggie’s enthusiastic help at the circulation desk, where she’s worked since the first semester of her sophomore year. Knowing people who already worked at the circulation desk, when she needed a job it was an easy decision where to apply. Her favorite part of working here? Getting to work with the “nicest people in the world.” Maggie also appreciates how caring her supervisor and coworkers are, how they’re there for each other and how they work together to accommodate and cover for each other when someone is sick.

Maggie will continue in the library field, having participated in a microinternship program this winter. Working with an SMCM alum at the Anne Arundel Public Library Headquarters sparked an interest in Outreach Librarianship in public libraries. Maggie enjoys the overlap between social work and librarianship when it comes to being on the ground and working in and with communities. She’ll pursue that passion in library school; after being accepted to both Simmons and Drexel, she will start a Library Science master’s program this fall at Simmons in Boston.

Library student worker Miranda McLain was recently named the Point News Editor-in-Chief. At the Point News, she has work her way up from assistant editor as a first year student, to Arts and Entertainment editor, and finally Editor-in-Chief.

Miranda is currently a Senior English and Political Science double major, with a minor in Ed. Studies, working on an SMP to write a series of political, creative non-fiction, long form articles in which she interviews campus speakers and alumni to find out how their college experiences led them to their current field.

Miranda has worked in the Library as a circulation assistant since Fall of 2015. She volunteered at her school library in high school and thought the SMCM Library job would be a great way to stay involved on campus as a commuter student.

As a student worker, Miranda enjoys getting to talk to a lot of different people, and learning about the wide variety of classes and SMP topics while she helps people search for books in the collection.