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VOL.17, NO.12
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Several years ago, MND noticed that some Baltimore residents were floating
PHOTO BY AARON LEVIN
Specialized training
DECEMBER 2020
More than 125,000 readers throughout Greater Baltimore
Opening career opportunities By Ivey Noojin Baltimore resident Emma Smith, 61, was looking for her big break last year. She had been working hard as a security guard, but still wasn’t making enough money to comfortably pay the bills. “They took pride in saying that they paid people 60 cents over minimum wage. Wow,” Smith said sarcastically. She had recently received a commercial driver’s license from a local training program, but “I couldn’t get my foot in the door” to drive buses, she said. Then, Smith saw a flyer about Maryland New Directions (MND), a local nonprofit that offers employment coaching and specialized career training for residents of the Baltimore area, ages 18 to 60, at no cost. On a whim, she signed up for a training course, thinking there was no harm in trying a free program. “I started a training but didn’t even finish it,” Smith said. “They just sent me immediately over to a job counselor.” Using MND’s connections, the job counselor found Smith a position with the Maryland Transit Association as a professional bus operator. She celebrated one year with the company in August. “I really love my job,” Smith said. “I’m very grateful.” Smith is just one of the 300 people each year who use MND’s services, which include trainings, resume review, mock interviews, career counseling, networking practice and more. Established in 1972, MND was originally called Baltimore Nontraditional for Women. It provided women, especially widows and divorcees, with the connections and skills to enter the workforce. Within a few years, however, it began to include men, too. “Over the years, the organization just evolved as the community evolved,” Program Director Maurice Good said. “As they tell us what the needs are, we have been able to adapt.” Since then, MND has served low-income residents, those leaving incarceration, single parents and anyone who needs help finding employment.
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Jewelers work with color, beauty and joy nearby — and they are always welcome in her basement studio, where the three of them create jewelry to give to their teachers and bus driver. If the kids ask her if they can touch or keep some of her treasures, she said, “Most of the time I say yes.”
By Margaret Foster Ask any of the three winners of the Stained Glass and Jewelry category why they spend hours creating intricate works, and they’ll say the same thing: Because it makes them happy. The category’s juror, Maryland art designer and instructor Jill Tannenbaum, was pleased with the three winners and eight honorable mentions. “Overall, the quality was impressive,” Tannenbaum said of all the entries.
Second Place
First Place Lori Grant Locust Grove, Va. Lori Grant, the firstplace winner of the Stained Glass/Jewelry category, learned how to make jewelry from her father. Grant, a veterinary technician who lives in Locust Grove Virginia, drove to her father’s house in Illinois six years ago for some in-person lessons. “We spent great quality time together. He taught me everything he knew and sent me home with a trunk full of equipment that I could never afford to buy,” Grant said. When her father, now 85, heard she won first place and an honorable mention for her silver jewelry, she said, “He laughed and said now I’ve outdone him.” Grant’s father wasn’t the only artist in the family. Grant, who grew up on an Illinois farm, remembers her grandmother working on art projects in a room that, as a child, Grant wasn’t allowed to enter. During the Depression, her grandmother made jewelry from fish eyeballs — a piece Grant still owns. “They’re pretty until someone tells you what they are,” she laughed. Grant’s siblings are artists and writers, she said. “I guess I came from a very creative background.”
Woodland Peace
By Lori Ann Grant
Grant’s first-place piece, “Woodland Peace,” is a pendant made from sterling silver and Variscite, a soft rock similar to turquoise. “It’s a sea foam green that I just love. I like to run my fingers across it all the time; it just feels nice. Envisioning a nature theme, Grant made silver castings from twigs she picked up in her yard. She bought leaf-shaped stamps from a Native American artist and arranged them around the stone. She uses Argentium sterling silver, a higher-grade sterling that doesn’t tarnish. The alloy takes some skill to work with, however. “When you’re soldering it, it just crumbles like dirt, and you’re like, ‘Oh man, that didn’t work.’” Grant still works two 10-hour days a week at a local animal hospital. “The rest of the time, I sit down in my basement and I make jewelry, and the time flies by,” she said. Now Grant is a grandmother herself. Her grandchildren, ages 9 and 12, live
Meredith Weiser Nor th Bethesda, Md. When Meredith Weiser learned she had won second place in the Jewelry category, she was “literally jumping with joy,” she said. Weiser’s jewelry is “what’s kept me sane during the pandemic,” she said. She makes jewelry almost every day from her North Bethesda home, “just to feel productive. I get really excited with the product.” Weiser recalls that she was a creative child, making macrame, crochet and bead necklaces. About 20 years ago, she began making jewelry for family and friends. She took a class at Accent Beads in 2012 on wire crochet that “really had me intrigued,” she said.
Her winning necklace, “Michaelmas Cay,” was inspired by a trip to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. “I had this photograph and decided I wanted to re-create that in the necklace,” she said. Using shells and some beads she bought in Australia, she laid out all the colors carefully, “to get the gradations and darker blues, as you get into deeper water,” she said. Weiser’s technique involves stringing three separate strands of beads and then braiding them together. The unexpected results add to the suspense, she said. “When you’ve created three separate strands and bring them together, you’re not sure how it’s going to look until it’s done.” In addition, Weisman’s necklace “Aqua Dots” won an Honorable Mention. Although its colors resemble that of the reefinspired necklace, the necklaces’ styles are different. “I was trying to experiment with other types of crochet and came up with these wire crochet disks,” she said. “The dot necklace is individually crocheted disks using wire and linked together.” Making beautiful jewelry brings joy to her life. “I love to use color and different types of beads to create different looks,” Weisman said. “It makes me happy.”
Third Place Jeff Bulman Bethesda, Md. As the owner of three busy restaurants, Jeff Bulman has his hands full. But three years ago, a friend told him about a jewelrymaking class at Glen Echo Park, just 10 minutes from Bulman’s Bethesda home. Intrigued, he enrolled in the course. “I took one class, and another, and another. I just love it,” said Bulman, who has Michaelmas Cay
See JEWELRY, page 19
By Meredith Weiser
SEE SPECIAL SECTION Amateur artists win honors pages 17-24
ARTS & STYLE Emma Smith attributes her job as a bus driver to the nonprofit Maryland New Directions, a 47-year-old organization that offers free employment coaching and career training to Baltimore area residents.
from one job-training program to another to acquire more skills for their careers, but to no avail. “They were still being left empty,” still without a job, Good said. “That’s where we began to create our industry-specific trainings.” There are three training programs available through MND: hospitality and customer service, commercial transportation and maritime. With these three tracks, participants can get the certifications and connections they need to secure a job in those fields. Each training session requires a commitment of 60 to 90 hours over two to three weeks. Since May, these daytime programs have been taught virtually, due to the pandemic.
MND partners with employers in the three career tracks so that job counselors can provide the participants with direct access to hiring officials, as Smith can attest. According to Good, many trainees get hired after completion, and those who do have a retention rate in their first year of 82%. Even if a trainee doesn’t get a job straight out of training, the organization also offers two years of follow-up. As a client, “I can expect for someone to call me and say, ‘Hey, how are you doing? Is there anything MND can assist you with?’” Good said. MND staff communicate with former participants every 90 days. Smith usually gets a phone call, or an email, as a way of “checking on each other periodically,” she said. See NEW DIRECTIONS, page 29
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