Homecoming 2022 Project
The Homecoming 2022 Project was selected the Fall 2023 Job Well Done Group Project Award. The project team consisted of Stanyell Odom, Jen Dress, Laura Schraven, Simon Reilly, Candace Martinez-Doane, Maureen Cromer, Seth Nagel, Bobby Lubazewski, Katharine Scrivener, Bernadette Darby, Jess Wyatt, and Bogda Soltys.
Homecoming at UMBC is a time to reconnect, see how much the campus has grown, and show your Retriever pride! It’s a time for alumni, faculty, staff, current students, families, and friends to come together and have a PAWsitively BARKING good time. We host an annual week of events including an annual bonfire, alumni affinity reunions, carnival, athletic events, and much more.
Planning for Homecoming 2022 began in the late spring/early summer with the steering committee consisting of representatives from the Office of Institutional Advancement (OIA), Campus Life, and Athletics. With Homecoming 2021 being a great success post Covid, Homecoming 2022 was an opportunity to elevate the experience for those who were longtime Homecoming attendees and an opportunity to bring in our newest community members.
To say that organizing Homecoming is challenging and difficult is an understatement. A group of colleagues come together each year with one single goal – giving the campus community a memorable experience that they and their families and friends can enjoy. It’s a time for the community to take in UMBC in a different way than what they experience in their daily work lives.
We also use Homecoming as an event to retain students to our campus community. It falls around the six week mark of a new student joining our community, a time where someone may be re-thinking if they’re where they belong. With a plethora of events and opportunities to connect with peers and those outside of their usual social network, students can feel like they’re part of a larger community and make the decision to become a Retriever for life.
Each unit – OIA, Student Affairs and Athletics – is charged with making sure that there are events and activities to engage their constituency – alumni, students, parents, and athletes (both current and former) and the committee takes on the additional charge of ensuring that faculty and staff are engaged through connections with the University Steering committee. We share this to illustrate that this is a committee that initiates working together, leveraging on another’s strengths, and doing the really hard work of delivering a program that isn’t perfect by any means – but is created with the best of intentions and with an immense amount of pride.
The Homecoming 2022 project truly embodies UMBC’s core values inclusive excellence, collaboration, innovation, and impact. Homecoming offered 27 events including LEGO building, a carnival, and various Athletic and sporting events. Thanks to the combine efforts and coordination of the event, approximately 4,000 carnival wristbands were sold, over 2,000 people registered in advance, and around 130 runners participated in the 5K marathon.