I have written many messages to this community over the years. This one has taken me the longest.

For 15 years, MCRPA has helped Montgomery College employees find one another. What began in 2011 as a small, employee-led community grew into a place where colleagues across campuses, centers, departments, roles, and stages of their careers could learn, lead, serve, laugh, travel, create, and belong.

We provided professional development tailored to the goals, interests, and evolving needs of our members as rising professionals. We created leadership pathways before people held leadership titles. We helped colleagues understand how Montgomery College works and introduced people who might otherwise never have met. We made room for creativity, wellness, service, friendship, reflection, and joy.

Most importantly, we made room for people to be more than their job descriptions.

Our latest member feedback says it better than I ever could. Members described MCRPA as a proof of concept for what belonging should look like. They told us that this community helped them step outside their comfort zones, regain confidence, take on leadership opportunities, understand the College, develop new skills, and build friendships across departments and campuses.

One member described MCRPA as one of the few places where people could show up as their full selves. Another said that what should never be lost is the connection and lack of hierarchy.

And one 2026 conference participant offered the simplest and most powerful summary of all:

I belong here.

That is the legacy of MCRPA.

This year, our 11th annual gathering and first full conference, Learn. Grow. Belong., gave that legacy a beautiful final chapter in its current form. Close to 90 employees gathered at the East County Education Center for a full day of professional learning, wellness, creativity, reflection, and community.

Every conference attendee agreed that the experience was a valuable use of time, created opportunities to connect with colleagues, and was something they would recommend to others. Participants described the day as energizing, joyful, warm, empowering, refreshing, impactful, and intentional. They left with new skills, practical resources, renewed confidence, and meaningful connections. They reminded themselves and one another to lead where they are, protect their peace, be kind, ask people their names, focus on what they can control, and remember that vulnerability can be a strength. One participant wrote that the event was done with love and care. Another said the level of intention behind it was unparalleled.

That conference did not happen because of one person. It happened because people said yes. People planned, presented, volunteered, moved chairs, welcomed guests, solved problems, shared knowledge, created spaces for wellness and play, and made sure that others felt seen.

You can witness the spirit of that day, and the 15 years that led to it, in the MCRPA documentary. It preserves not only our major milestones, but also the ordinary moments that made this community real: people pulling up chairs, sharing food, creating together, helping behind the scenes, welcoming someone new, and crossing organizational lines to become colleagues and friends.

Now, it is time to honor another important part of MCRPA’s foundation: our bylaws.

Our bylaws were created to give the association structure, continuity, and healthy leadership transition. They establish defined terms of service because no role should belong to one person forever and because organizations must make room for new leadership and new possibilities.

Under those provisions, my time as president has reached its conclusion.

At the same time, Montgomery College senior leadership is developing updated guidance for employee resource groups. With this latest Digest, MCRPA is officially concluding its current operating chapter and entering a deliberate pause.

This pause is not an erasure of what we built or a judgment on its value. It gives us an opportunity to preserve the work, reflect honestly on what we learned, and offer those lessons as one contribution to the College’s future thinking about employee resource groups.

MCRPA has been, in many ways, a 15-year employee-led experiment in what becomes possible when colleagues are given room to connect across campuses, departments, titles, and organizational lines. Our members experienced the value of that experiment through mentorship, professional learning, service, friendship, leadership opportunities, personal connection, and a stronger sense of belonging.

They also helped us understand the conditions that made participation easier or more difficult. Their feedback emphasized visible institutional support, encouragement from supervisors, recognition of volunteer service, shared responsibility, adequate resources, accessibility, and time to participate. We offer those observations not as prescriptions, but as honest reflections from employees who experienced this work firsthand and cared enough to help us understand it.

I hope MCRPA’s history, member feedback, conference evaluation, bylaws, publications, and published scholarship can serve as useful resources as Montgomery College considers what future employee resource groups might become. Our experience may help illuminate what employees valued most, where barriers remained, and how an employee-led community sustained connection, learning, leadership, and service for 15 years.

The next chapter will be shaped by the College and the employees who take part in it. My hope is simply that the voices of our members and the lessons learned through MCRPA will remain part of that conversation, not as a set of instructions, but as a generous and well-documented starting point.

Dr. Paul Miller and I made a similar case in our published article, The Role and Impact of Employee Resource Groups in Higher Education: An In-Depth Case Study of Montgomery College’s MCRPA.

That article has since been cited by others, which means the lessons of MCRPA have traveled beyond Montgomery College. Our experience is now part of a wider scholarly conversation about workplace belonging, leadership development, employee engagement, and the role of ERGs in higher education.

I want to offer my deepest gratitude to our current leadership team:

Dr. Paul Miller, Vice President
Carla Ammerman, Secretary
Kimberly Bloch Rincan, Chair, Professional Development
Daniel Umana, Vice Chair, Professional Development
Maria Martinez, Co-Chair, Community Engagement and Events
Nichole Land, Co-Chair, Community Engagement and Events
John Amoroso, Chair, Membership, Marketing and Communications
Nghi Nguyen, Vice Chair, Membership, Marketing and Communications

You carried this association with generosity, creativity, persistence, flexibility, and care. You planned programs, communicated with members, welcomed new colleagues, facilitated learning, created experiences, solved countless problems, and continued to show up. Your dedication made this final year possible, and I am profoundly grateful to each of you.

I also thank every past leader, committee member, volunteer, presenter, partner, sponsor, photographer, storyteller, participant, and member who contributed to MCRPA across 15 years.

Every event happened because someone said yes. Every new member felt welcome because someone made room. Every relationship began because someone reached out. Every success belongs to this community.

On a personal level, thank you for trusting me to lead.

MCRPA gave me opportunities to imagine, experiment, build, learn, and serve. It also gave me friendships, laughter, courage, and a community that often carried me more than it knew. It has been one of the great privileges of my professional life to help lead an organization where people could arrive as they were and discover more of who they might become. I leave this role proud of what we created, grateful for everyone who created it with me, and hopeful about what can rise from it.

As you move through this latest Digest, I hope you spend time with the conference photographs, member reflections, survey comments, accomplishments, and stories. I hope you watch the documentary and remember the people and moments that shaped this association.

Keep finding one another.

Invite someone in.

Share what you know.

Lead before you have a title.

Make room for employee voices.

Build relationships beyond your department.

Notice who is standing alone.

Create the kind of workplace where people can say, without hesitation, I belong here.

For 15 years, we learned, we grew, and we belonged.

Now, we make room for what rises next.

When we rise, we rise together.

With gratitude and hope,

Dr. Christine Crefton
President | Montgomery College Rising Professionals Association | 2022 to 2026

After a decade of annual retreats, the association welcomed 89 employees to the East County Education Center for its first full conference, Learn. Grow. Belong. The day brought together professional learning, wellness, creativity, reflection, leadership, laughter, and connection across Montgomery College.

The theme was more than a conference title. It described the work MCRPA had pursued for 15 years.

Learn invited participants to strengthen workplace skills, communication, leadership, innovation, and practical knowledge.

Grow created room for reflection, creativity, personal well-being, and sustainable energy.

Belong focused on relationships, collaboration, community, and the choices that help people feel seen and connected at work.

Employees arrived from across the College. Some had been part of MCRPA for years. Some were attending their first MCRPA event. Others came because a colleague invited them, a session caught their attention, or they simply wanted to step outside their normal routine and spend a day learning with people they might not otherwise meet.

That mix of familiar and new faces was exactly the point.

Beginning with Belonging

The conference opened with Belonging by Design: How We Create a College Where People Feel Seen, Supported, and Able to Thrive.

Kimberly Bloch Rincan facilitated the conversation with Krista Leitch Walker, Carla Ammerman, Javon Inman, and Dr. Gigi Secuban. Together, they brought different roles, experiences, and perspectives to a question that had sat at the center of MCRPA’s work for 15 years:

What does belonging actually look like in practice?

The discussion moved belonging beyond slogans and broad statements. It focused on the everyday actions, relationships, institutional practices, and decisions that help people feel welcomed, heard, trusted, supported, and able to contribute.

Belonging can be reflected in large institutional decisions, but it is also created in ordinary moments.

It can begin when someone learns a new colleague’s name.

It can grow when a person is invited into a conversation instead of being expected to find their own way in.

It can be strengthened through clear information, fair opportunities, recognition, trust, and support.

It can be weakened when people feel invisible, isolated, dismissed, or uncertain about whether their voice matters.

Participants were invited to complete the sentence:

I feel most like I belong at work when...

Their responses became part of the Belonging Board and helped establish the spirit of the conference. The prompt also reminded the room that belonging does not look exactly the same for everyone.

Some people experience it through relationships. Others experience it through respect, fairness, meaningful work, recognition, clarity, trust, or the freedom to be themselves.

The purpose of the panel was not to create one perfect definition. It was to bring belonging into the daily life of the College and ask everyone to consider what they could do to help another person experience it.

That question followed participants throughout the day:

How can we help someone feel seen?

How can we make room for another voice?

How can we build trust?

How can we create conditions in which people can learn, contribute, and thrive?

The panel began the day with honesty, practicality, and hope. It also gave participants a challenge to carry back to their own areas of the College: Do one thing this week that helps another person feel that they belong.

Three Tracks, Nine Sessions, One Shared Purpose

After the opening panel, participants selected from nine breakout sessions organized across the Learn, Grow, and Belong tracks.

Each track offered a different way to enter the conference, but all three were connected by one purpose: to give employees something useful, meaningful, and human to carry back into their work and lives.

In the Grow track, Katie Arostegui led Reduce Stress with Better Posture: A Guide to Natural Relief. The session examined the connections among posture, stress, the nervous system, fascia, and chronic pain. Participants learned self-care practices designed to support physical relief, emotional health, and overall well-being.

The first Belong session, Storyboarding Your Vision, Values, and What Comes Next, was led by Dr. Christine Crefton. Using images, words, reflection, and storytelling prompts, participants considered where they had been, how they were showing up in the present, and what they hoped to create next. The session invited people to make their goals visible while recognizing the experiences and values that had shaped them.

One participant later wrote simply: “Storyboarding was so much fun.”

Another reflected on the combination of creative experiences throughout the day: “I loved making a vision board, building with LEGO, and journaling to reflect on my peace.”

Discovering the Hidden Gems of ECEC

Following the first breakout block, Ken Nelson led participants through Hidden Gems of ECEC, an East County Story Walk and scavenger hunt.

The walk helped employees experience the East County Education Center as more than a conference location. Participants learned about the people, programs, services, and community connections within the building.

Stops included the Flex Lab, Student Pantry and Student Wellness Center, Community Engagement and WorkSource hallway, Raptor Central, Nursing Lab, and Library and Learning Center. Each location was connected to one of MCRPA’s values, including growth, service, opportunity, welcome, achievement, and continuity.

The walk invited participants to listen before beginning the scavenger hunt. Afterward, they could continue exploring, search for hidden painted rocks, complete their conference passports, spend time in the Wellness Room, step outside, check email in the computer lab, or simply sit and talk with colleagues.

The experience reflected a larger idea behind the conference.

People connect in different ways.

Some connect through structured conversation. Some connect while making something. Some need movement or fresh air. Some prefer a quiet room. Some find connection through a shared challenge or a conversation that begins while walking down a hallway.

The conference was designed to make room for all of those possibilities.

Lunch, Connection, and Professional Visibility

Lunch offered another choice.

Many attendees gathered in the main conference space for food, informal conversation, the Belonging Board, the Celebration Wall, and the choose-your-prize raffle. Participants were encouraged to sit with someone new, ask about a morning session, recognize another employee, or simply enjoy the time together.

Others attended the optional Level Up Your LinkedIn: Strengthening Your Professional Brand session offered by the ignITe Hub in partnership with CareerCatchers, Inc.

The session helped participants think more intentionally about their professional presence, career story, profile language, networking, strengths, and visibility. It also explored how artificial intelligence tools could support LinkedIn headlines, summaries, and other profile content.

Whether participants chose the structured workshop or the open lunch, the purpose remained connection.

Unstructured time was not treated as an empty space between sessions. It was part of the conference experience.

It gave people time to meet, reconnect, process what they had learned, and have conversations that might not have happened anywhere else.

The afternoon began with three more choices.

Dr. Charmaine Weston led the Learn session, Idea to Impact: Proposals, Feedback, and Forward Motion. Participants explored how to turn a promising idea into a clear proposal, connect it to larger goals, and continue moving when the response is not yet, not now, or no. The session offered practical strategies for responding to feedback, navigating resistance, and identifying a productive next step.

One participant described the session as particularly relevant to their current situation and praised its content, resources, and worksheets.

In the Grow track, Erik Swanson and Esteban Rincan led Rethinking Leadership: Art, Perspective, and What You Do Not Always See. Through art, interpretation, and discussion, participants considered how perspective shapes leadership and how people can learn to notice details, experiences, and viewpoints that may initially remain unseen.

The Belong session, Built to Belong: Values, Play, and the Culture We Create, was led by Dr. Paul Miller and Evan Miller. Participants used LEGO, reflection, and conversation to explore how individual and shared values shape workplace culture. The activity demonstrated that play can create an accessible way to discuss serious questions about identity, relationships, leadership, and the environments people build together.

These sessions approached leadership from very different directions, but they shared an important message.

Leadership is not only about authority or position.

It is also about perspective, persistence, communication, values, and the choices people make when working with others.

The final breakout block continued the three conference themes.

Daniel Umana led AI That Works for You: Smarter Tasks, Stronger Communication. Participants explored practical ways to use artificial intelligence to save time, organize ideas, strengthen communication, support daily work, and make thoughtful decisions about responsible AI use.

The session was one of the most frequently praised in the evaluation.

One participant wrote: “Daniel’s AI That Works for You session was outstanding. I have been to multiple trainings about AI, and this was the best one yet.”

Another appreciated the hands-on experience and the availability of a resource that could continue to support learning after the conference.

In the Grow track, Dr. Paul Miller and Emily Miller led Mix, Make, Connect: A Creative Studio for Play and Storytelling. Participants created a sensory item while responding to storytelling prompts about joy, belonging, memory, and connection. The activity encouraged laughter, creativity, and conversation without requiring anyone to enter the room with artistic experience.

The final Belong session, Find Your Peace: Wellness, Boundaries, and Belonging, was led by Megan Cooperman and Dr. Christine Crefton.

The session brought to life a dialogue they had developed through BRIDGE, Building Relationships through Inclusive Dialogue and Genuine Engagement. This was not a lecture or a problem-solving meeting. It was a structured dialogue about what it means to care about our work while also protecting our well-being.

Participants were asked to consider three questions:

What most disrupts your sense of peace at work?

What does protecting your peace look like in practice, not as avoidance, but as sustainable engagement?

What does collective peace look like, and how can we protect one another?

The conversation recognized that reorganizations, policy changes, workload shifts, uncertainty, unclear expectations, and changes in workplace relationships can affect a person’s stability, confidence, and sense of belonging.

Protecting peace does not mean ignoring those realities or withdrawing from meaningful work. It means sustaining ourselves so we can remain thoughtful, grounded, and engaged. Participants considered boundaries, connection, saying no when necessary, asking for help, focusing on what can be controlled, and offering small affirmations to colleagues.

They were invited to speak from their own experience, listen with curiosity, share insights rather than names, and shift the conversation from individual people to broader patterns.

No single session could solve workplace stress. That was never the promise.

The promise was a place to pause, think honestly, hear other perspectives, and leave with one action. That action might be setting a boundary, asking for clarity, reaching out to a colleague, taking a break, offering encouragement, or refusing to carry something that did not belong to them.

One participant wrote: “Find Your Peace gave me a chance to think about my role in blocking my peace and practical ways to protect it.”

Another left with a clear intention: “I will try as hard as I can to focus on what I can control and not what I cannot control.”

A third described the takeaway as: “Balance, and a reminder of all the good people at MC.”

The session’s message deserves to continue beyond the conference. We can care about our work without sacrificing ourselves to it. We can remain engaged while protecting our well-being. We can also help create workplaces where peace is not treated only as an individual responsibility, but as something colleagues and institutions can support together.

A Wellness Room, created in partnership with Megan Cooperman, remained available throughout the conference. Participants could color, journal, breathe, use sensory materials, sit quietly, or step away from the pace of the event.

Personalized name badges displayed each attendee’s selected sessions and room numbers. QR codes connected participants to the agenda, maps, resources, and conference materials.

The conference passport encouraged exploration. Hidden rocks and participation activities provided additional chances to earn raffle tickets. The Celebration Wall gave employees a place to share accomplishments, recognize colleagues, and leave words of encouragement.

The choose-your-prize raffle allowed participants to decide which prizes they most wanted to win. Shared meals, creative materials, photographs, and small moments of surprise helped the conference feel welcoming rather than transactional.

None of those details was accidental.

They communicated that people had been considered.

Volunteers greeted participants, managed registration, distributed materials, answered questions, helped people find rooms, supported presenters, moved supplies, solved unexpected problems, and handled the countless tasks that made the event feel organized.

The story of the conference included what happened at the front of each room, but it also included the work taking place quietly in hallways, at registration tables, behind laptops, and between sessions.

The Premiere of the MCRPA Documentary

The conference also marked the premiere of Learn. Grow. Belong.: The MCRPA Story, created by Evan Miller, a senior film student at McDaniel College.

For the first time, attendees could see 15 years of MCRPA history gathered into one human story. The documentary connected the association’s origins and evolution with the relationships, leadership opportunities, programs, and moments of belonging that gave the work its meaning.

Longtime members recognized people and experiences they had helped shape. Newer participants discovered parts of MCRPA’s history they had not previously known.

Read the full story of the documentary in this digest.

27 percent of conference participants completed the evaluation.

92 percent of evaluation respondents attended the full day.

79 percent of respondents were current MCRPA members.

21 percent of respondents were not current MCRPA members.

100 percent would recommend a future MCRPA conference or similar employee-led professional development experience.

100 percent said the conference was a valuable use of work time.

100 percent said the conference created opportunities to connect with colleagues.

100 percent said the session choices reflected the themes of Learn, Grow, and Belong.

100 percent rated cross-department or cross-unit connection as supported very or extremely well.

96 percent strongly agreed that the day supported reflection, creativity, wellness, or personal growth.

96 percent strongly agreed that the conference strengthened their connection to the MCRPA community.

92 percent rated support for wellness or balance as extremely strong.

96 percent rated support for creativity or play as extremely strong.

88 percent rated the creation of space for employee voice and community as extremely strong.

Every respondent would recommend the experience. Every respondent saw value in the time. Every respondent recognized the opportunity to connect.

That is a powerful result for an event built primarily through employee ideas, volunteer leadership, internal expertise, and cross-College partnership.

The numbers tell one part of the story. The participants’ words tell the rest.

One participant wrote: “Thank you for inviting me. I enjoyed it all and felt more welcome than I have in a while at an MC event.”

Another said: “My first MCRPA conference was an amazing experience. What stood out most was how welcome and included everyone felt.”

The care behind the conference was also noticed: “The level of care put into this conference was unparalleled. Each element was backed with intention. I left feeling a sense of belonging and inspiration to tackle my work in a different way.”

This event was done with love and care.

This was truly a special experience.

The conference was well planned and organized.

What We Learned

The conference evaluation was overwhelmingly positive, but meaningful evaluation is not only about affirmation. It is also about listening carefully enough to learn.

Participants offered thoughtful suggestions that may help guide future employee conferences, ERG programs, and professional development experiences.

Keep the Details That Communicate Care

Participants repeatedly mentioned the welcome, personalized materials, wellness options, shared meals, creative activities, recognition, Story Walk, and closing reflection.

The lesson is not that every future event must look exactly like the 2026 conference.

The lesson is that care should be visible in the design.

The strongest employee experiences combine useful content with respect for the whole person.

That is what participants felt at Learn. Grow. Belong., and it is one of the most important lessons the conference offers to anyone planning what comes next.

A Day Built by Many Hands

The 2026 conference happened because people across Montgomery College contributed their expertise, time, resources, creativity, and care.

MCRPA extends its gratitude to La’Keisha Ciprian, Katie Arostegui, Dr. Charmaine Weston, Erik Swanson, Esteban Rincan, Dr. Paul Miller, Evan Miller, Emily Miller, Daniel Umana, Megan Cooperman, Dr. Christine Crefton, and Ken Nelson for sharing their knowledge and creating meaningful experiences throughout the day.

Special thanks go to Kimberly Bloch Rincan for facilitating Belonging by Design, and to panelists Krista Leitch Walker, Carla Ammerman, Javon Inman, and Dr. Gigi Secuban for beginning the conference with an honest and hopeful conversation about belonging.

MCRPA is also grateful to:

HRSTM, for sponsoring lunch.

Maria Martinez and Career Services, for sponsoring conference and session materials.

The ignITe Hub and CareerCatchers, Inc., for offering the LinkedIn Lunch and Learn.

Megan Cooperman, for creating and supporting the Wellness Room.

Priyanka Kalia and the ECEC team, for their patience, professionalism, logistical support, and care from the beginning of planning through the conference day.

Ken Nelson, for leading the Hidden Gems of ECEC Story Walk and helping participants understand the meaning, people, and community behind the location.

The facilities and technology teams, for preparing the rooms, equipment, and building for the event.

The Professional Development Committee led by Kimberly Bloch-Rincan and Daniel Umana, and MCRPA leadership team, for guiding the planning and carrying the work through completion.

Every volunteer, photographer, presenter, participant, and employee who helped before, during, and after the conference, for contributing to a day that felt welcoming, thoughtful, and connected.

Maria Martinez: Making a Difference Award for Community Heart and Service

Maria was recognized for two years of exemplary leadership as Co-Chair of the Community Engagement and Events Committee, for helping secure departmental support for the conference, and for the care, kindness, consistency, and friendship she brought to MCRPA. Maria was the colleague who checked in, noticed what was needed, and helped people feel less alone in the work. Her award recognized not only what she contributed, but the warmth and humanity with which she contributed it.

Carla Ammerman: Making a Difference Award for Engagement Stewardship

Carla was recognized for two years of dedicated service as MCRPA Secretary, thoughtful guidance, HRSTM partnership, and her consistent willingness to help whenever support was needed. Her title captured only part of her contribution. Carla helped keep the work moving, offered perspective during important conversations, supported employee engagement, and served as a trusted partner and steady advisor.

John Amoroso: Making a Difference Award for Strategic Communications Leadership

John was recognized for two years of exemplary leadership as Chair of Membership, Marketing, and Communications. His award honored innovative communication, thoughtful design, grounded strategy, and dedicated service that elevated MCRPA’s voice. John helped the association communicate more clearly, document its work more meaningfully, and present its programs and member stories with creativity, organization, humor, and care.

Kimberly Bloch Rincan: Making a Difference Award for Facilitative Leadership and Conference Stewardship

Kimberly was recognized for two years of exemplary leadership as Chair of the Professional Development Committee. Her award honored thoughtful facilitation, meaningful professional development, and the operational leadership that helped bring the conference to life. Kimberly had a gift for holding space, asking the right questions, and helping people feel comfortable enough to participate honestly. She also carried much of the work participants never saw, including planning, maps, logistics, operations, details, problem-solving, and the coordination required to keep the conference moving.

Daniel Umana: Making a Difference Award for Emerging Impact and Synergy

Daniel was recognized for his outstanding service as Vice Chair of the Professional Development Committee and for bringing new energy, ideas, and connection to MCRPA. His award honored the creativity, collaboration, curiosity, follow-through, and immediate impact he brought to the association. Daniel listened carefully, noticed connections among people and possibilities, and helped turn ideas into meaningful experiences. Although he stepped into the vice chair role during MCRPA’s final year, his contributions strengthened both the association and its first full conference.

The Clearest Lesson

The conference began by asking participants when they felt that they belonged.

It ended by asking them to consider one moment they wanted to remember, one person they had connected with, and one action they could take to help belonging grow in their own corner of Montgomery College.

Between those two reflections was a day built by employees who believed that learning, personal growth, creativity, wellness, and human connection belong together.

The conference was not simply a larger version of the annual retreat. It was the culmination of a 15-year experiment in employee-led community.

It demonstrated what can happen when people are invited to share what they know, try something new, lead from where they are, care for themselves, recognize one another, and build relationships beyond their usual organizational boundaries.

People grow when they are given meaningful opportunities.

Leadership can begin anywhere.

Relationships matter.

Belonging does not happen by accident.

It is built one invitation, one conversation, one shared experience, and one act of welcome at a time.

This day happened because people said yes.

So did the 15 years that came before it.

How do you fit 15 years of people, programs, photographs, friendships, leadership, service, laughter, and change into one film?

That was the challenge behind Learn. Grow. Belong.: The MCRPA Story.

MCRPA’s history filled newsletters, annual reviews, event flyers, photographs, videos, presentations, member profiles, survey responses, and the memories of employees who helped build the association. We knew the documentary could not include every person, program, or milestone. It needed to do something more important.

It needed to help people understand what MCRPA felt like.

Evan Miller accepted that challenge.

Evan is a senior film student at McDaniel College and the son of MCRPA Vice President Dr. Paul Miller. That connection gave him a unique place from which to approach the project. He was close enough to understand why MCRPA mattered to the people involved, but far enough outside its daily work to see the organization with fresh eyes.

It was especially meaningful to have MCRPA’s story interpreted by someone from the same generation as many of the students Montgomery College serves. Evan brought the perspective of a young adult still shaping his own education, career, and sense of professional identity. Through his eyes, the documentary connected the history of an employee organization to the student-centered purpose behind our work.

MCRPA existed to support employees, but the growth of employees never stops with them. When employees build confidence, strengthen relationships, learn new skills, and better understand their institution, that growth influences how they support students and one another.

Evan helped us see that connection.

He worked with years of archival photographs, newsletters, videos, event materials, interviews, and conference footage. From that enormous collection, he shaped a story about more than activities.

The film traces MCRPA from its origins as the Montgomery College Young Professionals Association through its evolution into the Montgomery College Rising Professionals Association. That change reflected an important understanding: rising was never about age. It was about growth, purpose, service, leadership, and continuing to become.

The documentary revisits professional development programs, annual retreats, mentoring, service projects, social gatherings, travel, creative experiences, leadership opportunities, and the many ways employees found one another across campuses and departments.

It also remembers the COVID years, when employees could no longer gather in the same rooms but still needed connection. MCRPA adapted through virtual programs, conversations, testimonials, and shared experiences that helped sustain community during an uncertain period.

Evan did not try to turn those 15 years into a complete chronological record. No single film could hold every event or recognize every contribution.

Instead, he looked for the meaning inside the history.

He found it in employees laughing together.

He found it in people presenting for the first time.

He found it in shared meals, creative projects, volunteer work, difficult conversations, travel, mentorship, leadership, and moments when someone who arrived alone left feeling connected.

He found it in the people who planned events, moved chairs, welcomed new members, shared resources, encouraged colleagues, and kept showing up.

The events were the evidence.

The people were the story.

The documentary premiered at the MCRPA 11th Annual Conference on June 9, 2026. Watching the film together allowed longtime members to recognize moments they had helped create and gave newer participants a fuller understanding of the community they had entered.

For some, the film brought back memories of programs, people, and earlier chapters of their careers. For others, it revealed the breadth of an organization they had only recently discovered.

One conference participant wrote: “I loved the documentary and all MCRPA represents.”

Another reflected: “I wished I had joined sooner.”

Those responses capture what made the premiere so meaningful. The film did not simply explain what MCRPA had done. It helped people feel the cumulative weight of 15 years of employees creating opportunities for one another.

Evan also filmed the conference itself, allowing the documentary to connect MCRPA’s history with its present. The final scenes show employees arriving, learning, reflecting, creating, volunteering, laughing, and building new relationships.

Those scenes remind us that an organization’s legacy is not found only in old documents or photographs. It remains alive in the people who carry its lessons forward.

Evan, thank you for approaching this project with curiosity, patience, care, and respect.

Thank you for listening to our stories and finding the human meaning within an enormous archive.

Thank you for helping us recognize moments we had lived through but had not always stopped to understand.

Thank you for showing us our own organization from a new perspective.

Most of all, thank you for creating something that will remain after MCRPA’s formal activity pauses.

Because of your work, future employees, students, leaders, and employee resource groups will be able to see what MCRPA created, what its members valued, and what became possible when employees chose to show up for one another.

The documentary is both a record and a gift.

It preserves where we have been while leaving room for others to imagine what might come next.

Watch the Documentary

Learn. Grow. Belong.: The MCRPA Story

Find Your People was designed as a conversation, not a presentation.

The session created space for employees to reconnect, reflect on what made MCRPA meaningful, and consider the future of the association.

Participants began with a simple prompt:

In one word or short phrase, what brought you here today?

The central question followed:

If MCRPA disappeared tomorrow, what would Montgomery College lose?

It was a powerful question because it moved the conversation beyond a list of programs.

It asked participants to name the human and institutional value of the organization.

What would be lost if employees no longer had this particular space for cross-campus relationships, leadership development, renewal, support, service, and belonging?

Participants were invited to choose among three breakout conversations.

Leadership Pathways

This conversation focused on what makes employees hesitate to step into leadership, what support would make leadership feel more possible, and what role someone might try if success were guaranteed.

Programming and Events

This conversation invited members to identify what MCRPA should do more often, what had run its course, what remained missing, and what the organization provided that could not be found elsewhere at Montgomery College.

Visibility and Influence

This conversation focused on how MCRPA showed up across the College, what partnerships could be strengthened, and how member contributions could receive more meaningful recognition.

The session was designed to keep member voices at the center.

It recognized that leadership does not begin only after someone receives a title. Leadership often begins when a person shows up, contributes an idea, helps another employee, facilitates a conversation, or decides that something worth protecting is also worth helping to build.

The closing prompt asked participants to finish one sentence:

If MCRPA is going to matter next year, it must...

At the time, the question was an invitation to imagine MCRPA’s future.

Today, it also helps us identify what should carry forward into the future of employee resource groups at Montgomery College.

MCRPA matters because people found one another.

It mattered because employees made space for voices, ideas, relationships, and leadership that might otherwise have remained disconnected.

Not every meaningful professional relationship begins in a meeting.

Sometimes it begins during a game, a creative activity, a shared meal, an outing, or a conversation that has nothing to do with a person’s regular job.

Five Weeks of Fun reflected an important part of MCRPA’s identity.

Professional growth matters. So do laughter, friendship, rest, play, and the chance to experience colleagues as whole people.

These activities gave members a lower-pressure way to participate. They also offered opportunities to include family or friends, explore the community, and spend time together outside the usual structure of College work.

The value of the series was not limited to any one activity.

The larger purpose was to make connection easier.

A person might attend because the event sounded fun. They might leave having met someone from another campus, learned about another part of the College, or formed a friendship that continued long after the activity ended.

That is how community often grows.

Not through one large moment, but through repeated invitations to show up, talk, laugh, and find common ground.

Thank you to Maria Martinez and Nichole Land, and the Community Engagement and Events Committee for creating opportunities for MCRPA members to connect through joy.

People Joined to Find Connection

In the larger feedback round, networking was selected by 35 respondents, making it the most common reason for membership. People joined for practical reasons, but they often found something more personal.

They met colleagues from different campuses and departments. They discovered how other parts of the College worked. They found people they could contact when they had questions. Some formed friendships that continued outside work.

One member wrote: “Since becoming a member, I have met so many like-minded colleagues across the College. Without my involvement in MCRPA, I would not have connected with these individuals.”

Another said: “The professional relationships and friendships outside of work are what make being part of the Association so meaningful to me.”

MCRPA Helped People Grow

Members reported that MCRPA gave them opportunities to present, lead meetings, join committees, serve through governance, develop technology skills, practice public speaking, apply for jobs, and better understand the College. One member wrote: “I have learned leadership skills and had the opportunity to apply them.” Another explained: “I took on leadership opportunities that I did not think I was qualified or able to do because of my level at the College. I was given the courage to take on opportunities and do what I needed to be successful.” Others described increased confidence, clearer professional goals, expanded networks, and the ability to contribute beyond their formal job descriptions.

Relationships Were the Strongest Impact

Findings show that MCRPA’s impact extended beyond attendance at events. The relationships moved with people back into their departments, projects, governance work, professional development, and everyday problem-solving.

Members Found Belonging and Support

Several members described MCRPA as a place where they felt more seen, supported, and able to be themselves. One wrote: “Being part of MCRPA has reminded me how important it is to have spaces within the College that prioritize connection, professional growth, and mutual support.” Another said: “It is one of the few places where I feel like people show up as their full selves, and that matters.” Another wrote: “MCRPA gave me hope and space to really belong. It gave me my confidence back.” Another called MCRPA: “A proof of concept for what belonging should look like.”

These comments describe more than satisfaction with an organization. They describe what happens when employees experience community inside their workplace.

Participation Was Not Equally Easy

Members also identified barriers.

In the larger feedback round, scheduled work conflicts were selected by 29 respondents. Inconvenient event locations were selected by 17. Last-minute work conflicts were selected by 12. Eleven said their role did not easily allow time away from regular responsibilities.

Other barriers included cost, mobility, part-time employment, caregiving, workload coverage, and discomfort with networking. The lesson is clear. Interest was not the only factor determining participation. Employees also needed time, access, supervisor understanding, manageable workloads, and programming that considered different schedules, locations, personalities, and responsibilities.

Members Still Believe These Spaces Matter

Members did not only tell us what MCRPA meant. They told Montgomery College what employees continue to need. They need ways to find one another. They need spaces that cross organizational boundaries. They need opportunities to learn and lead outside formal hierarchies. They need encouragement, mentorship, recognition, and a sense that their growth matters to the institution.

It begins with action.

Members led when they facilitated a meeting, welcomed a new employee, presented a workshop, organized an event, volunteered, joined governance, shared a resource, mentored someone, or asked a question that needed to be asked.

Member feedback includes repeated examples of people doing things they had not previously imagined themselves doing.

Members described leading governance, applying for jobs, giving speeches, presenting workshops, learning new technology, chairing committees, organizing programs, and making professional connections across the College.

One member wrote: “I have taken on new leadership opportunities that I did not think I was qualified or able to do because of my level at the College. I was given the courage to take on opportunities and do what I needed to be successful.”

Another wrote: “I have learned leadership skills and had the opportunity to apply them.”

A member who moved from attending an event to serving on the leadership team described learning the inner workings of the organization and gaining experience leading meetings.

These stories matter because many employees wait to be told they are ready.

MCRPA gave people smaller, supported opportunities to begin.

A person could volunteer for one task.

They could help plan one event.

They could share one area of expertise.

They could facilitate part of a meeting.

They could move from participant to presenter, from member to committee volunteer, or from committee volunteer to officer.

Not every member wanted a formal leadership role, and that was never the only measure of involvement.

Leadership could also mean being dependable, making an introduction, encouraging another person, contributing an idea, or helping a colleague understand how to navigate the College.

MCRPA’s history shows what becomes possible when employees have room to practice.

People do not always begin with confidence.

Sometimes confidence comes after the opportunity.

Sometimes a person needs someone else to see their ability before they can see it themselves.

The next generation of employee resource groups should preserve that pathway.

Give people meaningful work.

Let them try.

Support them while they learn.

Recognize what they contribute.

Help them understand that leadership can begin exactly where they are.

Continuity means preserving an organization’s purpose, values, knowledge, records, relationships, and lessons so they can survive leadership transitions and inform future decisions. MCRPA’s bylaws created two-year leadership terms and allowed an officer to serve one successive term in the same role.

That structure was designed to protect the organization from becoming dependent on one person. It also created an expectation that leadership would renew. My two consecutive terms as president, from 2022 to 2026, are now complete. Honoring that limit is not a retreat from leadership. It is part of responsible leadership.

Healthy organizations need procedures that remain meaningful even when following them requires change. They need records that allow future leaders to understand what came before them. They need transitions that preserve institutional knowledge while making room for new ideas, voices, and approaches.

MCRPA’s pause creates time to complete that work responsibly. Continuity also means carrying the lessons forward. MCRPA demonstrated the value of employee connection, professional development, leadership practice, mentorship, service, creativity, and belonging. It also demonstrated how difficult sustained volunteer leadership becomes without dependable time, resources, institutional guidance, and distributed responsibility.

Preserving both parts of the story is an act of stewardship.

The pause honors what MCRPA built by giving Montgomery College the opportunity to consider how the work might be supported more sustainably in the future.

What Should Never Be Lost

When members were asked what should continue into the future, they did not begin with event names.

They began with people. They named relationships, welcome, mentorship, employee voice, professional learning, leadership, support, and the ability to connect across organizational boundaries. Their words should guide whatever comes next.

“The connections and lack of hierarchy should never be lost.”

“MCRPA should never lose its focus on building relationships, sharing knowledge, and supporting one another.”

“Cross-campus connections, and making everyone feel included regardless of how long they have been at MC or what department they come from.”

“The professional relationships and friendships outside work are what make being part of the Association so meaningful to me.”

“Relationships are at the root of growth.”

“Employee voices need to be heard and be at the table.”

“We all have the ability to lift one another up regardless of our division or department.”

“This organization is one of the best examples of how the College can cultivate a sense of belonging for everyone.”

“MCRPA gave me hope and space to really belong. It gave me my confidence back.”

“I took on leadership opportunities I did not think I was qualified or able to do.”

“It is one of the few places where people show up as their full selves, and that matters.”

“Wonderful group. Please keep the spirit of this work going.”

What Should Continue

Relationships across campuses and departments

Welcome without hierarchy

Mentorship and encouragement

Employee voice

Professional learning

Community service

Leadership opportunities

Creativity and joy

Recognition

Space to show up fully

The formal organization is pausing.

These values do not have to.

Rise Forward

For 15 years, MCRPA helped employees find one another.

We learned together.

We grew together.

We served together.

We took chances.

We built relationships across campuses, departments, roles, and titles.

We created room for people to be seen.

We reminded one another that leadership can begin anywhere.

The formal chapter is pausing.

The relationships and leadership it created continue.

Keep finding one another.

Keep making room.

Keep sharing what you know.

Keep noticing who needs an invitation.

Keep building the kind of workplace where people can say:

I belong here.

Your story matters.

Your work matters.

Your belonging matters.

As MCRPA pauses, we trust that what rises next will carry forward the relationships, courage, and sense of belonging we built together.

When we rise, we rise together.

~Dr. Christine Crefton