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We partner to advance the public good

Our future is tied to and interconnected with our local, state, national, and international partners. We will create and sustain partnerships that allow our research to have impact locally and globally, our education to prepare students for civic engagement and impact, and our service to create solutions for a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient world.

Announcing New Campuswide Investments in Do Good

Fearlessly Forward Initiatives

Building in the Discovery District

Discovery District

Since its founding in 2004, The University of Maryland’s research park has dramatically grown in size and scope. The Discovery District today features many private and governmental organizations with thousands of employees working in more than 2 million square feet of office space.

Building in the Discovery District

Discovery District

The Discovery District is fostering research and industry partnerships, supporting small businesses, and nurturing the growth of next-generation technology ventures. It encompasses cutting-edge startups, longstanding firms, co-working space, a public charter school, stylish eateries, a top-flight hotel, easy connections via the College Park Metro Station, and much more.

The Discovery District is also the headquarters for the Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC), the DOD APEX Accelerator, and the Mid-Atlantic Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC).

In addition, a transformative new mixed-use development named Aviation Landing will enable the research park to attract more ventures, startups, and small businesses to the community. This 1.3 million-square-foot project will include housing units, outdoor space, and retail and commercial research and innovation facilities.


Do Good Plaza at UMD

Do Good Campus

We’re proud to be a Do Good Campus, developing and growing programs that are centered around supporting all Terps to take what they are passionate about and make an impact.

Do Good Plaza at UMD

Do Good Campus

The Do Good Campus Fund supports efforts by faculty, staff and student groups to reimagine learning in our classrooms and communities with Do Good learning principles: experiential, inclusive, innovative, social impact-oriented and in service of humanity. The fund awards faculty and staff who are looking to enhance academic or co-curricular programs focused on social impact, as well as student groups who are looking to enhance their social impact.

In support of our Do Good Campus expansion, the Do Good Campus Strategic Leadership Council is a group of senior administrators from colleges, schools and units across campus. The Council members support the operation of the Do Good Campus Fund, support students in their unit to access growing Do Good Institute program opportunities, and surface new collaborative opportunities to advance our Do Good Campus. The Council members also manage the nomination and awarding of Provost's Do Good Innovator Awards to celebrate the social impact already being made by faculty and staff across campus. The awards recognize excellence by members of the campus community who create, nurture, expand and amplify social impact through education, programs and research, both in and outside the classroom.

The Do Good Institute inspires and equips Terps to apply their passions and ideas to make a positive impact, now. DGI offers hands-on experiences, funding opportunities, engaging curriculum, and effective programs that prepare Terps with the skills, experiences and resources to Do Good throughout their lives.

Other Do Good efforts and investments include the Do Good Challenge, Accelerator Fellows, Endowed Professorships, and Impact Interns.

Provost Jennifer Rice, Dean of the College of Education Kimberly Griffin, and PGCPS CEO Monica Goldson review partnership MOU

Center for Community Engagement

Animated by our excellence in community-engaged scholarship and learning, and responding to faculty, student, staff and community member voices who advocated for greater support and coordination of this mission-critical work, the University of Maryland will create a new Center for Community Engagement in the Division of Academic Affairs.

Provost Jennifer Rice, Dean of the College of Education Kimberly Griffin, and PGCPS CEO Monica Goldson review partnership MOU

Center for Community Engagement

The Center will ensure that community engagement is woven into the very fabric, values, and identity of the institution. The new Center will coordinate with current units in the Division of Academic Affairs, Division of Student Affairs, Division of Administration, Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Teaching & Learning Transformation Center, and other units across campus to support existing activities as well as cultivate new opportunities for community-engaged scholarship, instruction, and service aligned with our mission as a public, land-grant, research-intensive university.

Functionally, the Center will provide strategic vision and leadership for UMD community engagement; develop and support partnerships locally and globally; offer training and development opportunities on community engagement best practices for faculty, staff, and students; integrate community engagement into reward and recognition systems; and support logistics and collaboration across units and divisions.

Student celebrates with their family at College Park Academy’s 2023 graduation ceremony

Welcoming Students from Prince George's and Baltimore

The university is accelerating efforts to support students in Prince George’s County and Baltimore high schools seeking admission to The University of Maryland.

Student celebrates with their family at College Park Academy’s 2023 graduation ceremony

Welcoming Students from Prince George's and Baltimore

Enrollment Management continues to make strides in increasing access and strengthening its pipeline from Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. These efforts include expanding staff to continue the critical work in this area, enhancing the Maryland Ascent Program (MAP) and increasing contact and communication with admitted students from these areas

Long-term strategic partnerships with Prince George’s County Public Schools and the College of Education’s Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement include, among other resources:

  • The President’s Virtual High School Course: Calculus in PGCPS

  • The Learning Recovery Networked Improvement Community Initiative tackles problems of practice related to mathematics achievement, social and emotional learning, and learning recovery

  • The EdD in School System Leadership with cohorts of PGCPS principals, teacher leaders, and administrators studying equity, continuous improvement, and leadership in an innovative, job-embedded doctoral program

Combined picture of The Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering and University of Maryland Baltimore BioPark

MPower Professorship Program

The MPower Professorship Program, a collaboration between The University of Maryland and the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB), is a named professorship that fosters collaborations between faculty at the two institutions working together on the nation’s most pressing issues.

Combined picture of The Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering and University of Maryland Baltimore BioPark

MPower Professorship Program

The MPower Professorship award includes funding to support professors’ salaries or supplemental research activities and is part of the MPowering the State initiative, which leverages the unique strengths of both institutions.

The inaugural cohort of researchers was selected in November 2021 and new cohorts are announced yearly. Over $1 Million MPower funds have been disbursed. Faculty receiving the award have, so far, represented the fields of arts and humanities, behavioral and social sciences, computer science, dentistry, engineering, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health.

Strategic Commitment Goals

Campus and state leaders at the Maryland Mesonet Signing event

Goal 1

Expand our impact through strategic research partnerships with local, state, national, and global stakeholders.

Goal 1

Expand our impact through strategic research partnerships with local, state, national, and global stakeholders.

Objectives

  • Create more flexible structures for collaborative, multidisciplinary research, and creative activities that are responsive to grand challenges and state priorities.
  • Accelerate collaboration within the national capital region to ensure our scholarship has an immediate and meaningful impact on policy and practice.
  • Realize the possibilities of “MPowering the State” in partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore to strengthen and serve the state of Maryland through collaborative and transformative research and instruction.
A student presents during the 2022 Pitch Dingman Competition

Goal 2

Catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship for inclusive economic development.

Goal 2

Catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship for inclusive economic development.

Objectives

  • Improve the vitality of the state of Maryland by growing and supporting the next generation of diverse innovators, creators, entrepreneurs, artists, and small businesses.
  • Facilitate the transfer of technology and commercialization of our greatest discoveries.
  • Coordinate and grow our innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem on campus and in the Discovery District.
Christopher Walsh, Professor of Plant Science and Landscape, pictured with his graduate assistant, Julia Harshman, developers of a new apple tree variety, the Antietam Blush, photographed at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville, MD

Goal 3

Enhance the economy, educational outcomes, social justice, quality of life, and civic engagement of our neighbors and neighborhoods through relationship-building and ongoing commitment to partnerships.

Goal 3

Enhance the economy, educational outcomes, social justice, quality of life, and civic engagement of our neighbors and neighborhoods through relationship-building and ongoing commitment to partnerships.

Objectives

  • Ensure our university is an engaged and responsive partner with the city of College Park, Prince George’s County, and the state of Maryland as together we seek to improve the quality of life and full participation of our citizenry.
  • Grow and strengthen our partnerships to enhance the PK-20 educational ecosystem for the state.
  • Create opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and alumni to become involved in state and local civic engagement.

FEARLESSLY FORWARD IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE AND IMPACT FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD: THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND STRATEGIC PLAN  is a living document and will evolve and grow as we do. Please visit this site to follow our progress as we move fearlessly forward.

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