In October 2024, more than 400,000 UMGC alumni, students, faculty and staff were invited to harness their creativity to transform the communities in which they live and work by participating in Homecoming 2024 and embracing their imaginations - the theme for this year’s celebration. The UMGC community united to explore the boundless ingenuity and infinite possibilities of innovation empowering opportunities for change both today and in the future.
Homecoming 2024: Embrace Your Imagination
UMGC Homecoming 2024 fostered a sense of belonging and school pride offering signature in-person celebrations in the United States, Asia, and Europe. Celebrations were also hosted at UMGC Regional Centers on U.S. military bases in California, Texas, and Hawaii bringing Homecoming to the University’s vast military population.
Additionally, for the second year, UMGC Homecoming 2024 offered two opportunities to connect with community members globally through a Virtual Networking Hour and Virtual Homecoming in the Metaverse - a futuristic digital space designed for participants to explore, network, and learn. This virtual offering allowed Homecoming participation to extend across 48 states and 11 countries. This diverse and talented community connected with each other expanding their ever-growing UMGC network.
Opportunity to Connect
In it’s seventh year, Homecoming is an opportunity to celebrate and unite the greater community while creating a sense of university pride. This year, once again, proved that Homecoming has evolved into a powerful networking opportunity for our UMGC community to further develop connections on a much larger global scale.
In addition to networking opportunities between UMGC students and alumni to increase personal and career growth, select students were able to connect with their UMGC Success Coaches – a staff role established to remove barriers for students to help them reach graduation. The ability for students to meet their Success Coaches and to also connect with each other through a common interest via one of the 17 UMGC University Clubs, further helped to unite the University’s global footprint to develop and strengthen the community at this year’s Homecoming celebrations.
“Homecoming is such a special time of year at UMGC,” says UMGC Associate Vice President of Alumni Relations Nikki Sandoval. “It is an opportunity for the entire UMGC community to unite each fall to come together for a sense of community and belonging, while providing opportunities for networking and mentorship.”
Spirit Week
UMGC Spirit Week 2024 kicked off Homecoming creating an external global social media buzz and internal university staff engagement, inviting all to show off their university pride. Social media themes included Magical Monday - Spotlight Your Muse, Talent Tuesday - Showcase Your Special Flair, Whimsical Wednesday - Share Your Latest Creations, Imaginative Thursday - Describe Your Dream Destination, and High-Five Friday - Share Your Wins and Celebrate Your Champions.
Participation in Spirit Week using #HomecomingUMGC gave three lucky members of the UMGC student and alumni communities a chance to win a Homecoming 2024 eco-friendly swag pack. The more community members liked, engaged, and commented on the Spirit Week posts, the more entries that were entered for a chance to win.
Additionally, during Spirit Week and throughout the Homecoming season, university special phone greetings were created to further engage not only the alumni and student communities, but to demonstrate school pride to prospective students too. Spirit Week alone garnered 36,492 impressions with a record 9.5% engagement rate on social media, spreading the value of a UMGC education.
Spirit Week 2024 also offered the UMGC faculty and staff community an opportunity to come together around the globe. Brought together by the university Staff Advisory Councils, each day featured a theme and activity Photo Contest posted on the university’s internal intranet site The Source. This activity not only increased awareness of Homecoming networking activities to share with students, but also increased awareness of resources and support offered by the Staff Advisory Councils. The Photo Contest resulted in 115 contest submissions, with 14,648 total number of visits for contest submissions votes.
Homecoming Celebrations
While the Regional Homecoming Celebrations held in Hawaii, Texas, and California kicked off on October 3rd, the main Homecoming celebration was held on October 10 at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Adelphi, MD. Master of Ceremonies D’Yanna Craighead '05 shared her education and career journey as an African American women working as a senior level leader working in the technology field representing only three percent of the U.S. working in computing.
Craighead conveyed a message of belonging and how the first time she stepped into a high school coding class she was the only person of color. Craighead enrolled in UMGC’s MBA program emerging with the skillset to manage technology teams all while balancing becoming a new mom
Today she manages a team of engineers to launch technology and create magic on cruise ships all over the world while inspiring others to achieve their career goals. Craighead shared how she has worked for several large brands in the technology space including IBM, Delta Airlines, and Disney, but how being a technology leader is not all of her. Craighead shared that the full version of her was also an aspiring author and inspirational speaker embracing her imagination to publish her first book, The Butterfly Code.
“I often compare our lives to the journey of a butterfly,” shares Craighead. “It starts out in one form, but in order to become the full version of itself, it must evolve and go through a transformation that’s uncomfortable but necessary in order to fly.”
UMGC President Dr. Gregory Fowler attended many of the Homecoming celebrations in-person delivering remarks. Dr. Fowler invited the UMGC global community to “embrace their imagination” during this Homecoming season has an opportunity to drive innovation, inspire change, and bring dreams to life.
“Every day, you have the opportunity to harness your creativity and transform the communities in which we live and work,” says Dr. Fowler. “That is how we embrace our imagination - by working constantly to bring the right learning experiences within reach for anyone who needs more than traditional higher education can offer.
Attendees enjoyed a fun-filled evening of engaging activities, including a chance to:
- Grow their professional networks and celebrate star achievements in the “Imagination Networking Area” with fellow students and graduates.
- Enjoy swag giveaways, fun photos, food, drinks, live DJ music, dancing and more!
- Learn about UMGC community benefits, exclusive career resources and engaging opportunities to stay connected.
The Homecoming 2024 Germany Celebration was hosted on Oct. 18 at the Heidelberg Castle marking a special tribute to the Campus’ 75th anniversary of providing education opportunities throughout Europe. The Homecoming 2024 Japan Celebration was hosted on October 25 at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo. This year, the campus distributed environmentally friendly UMGC swag items in honor of UMGC Alumni Achiever Award recipient Alexander Abel ‘23 and being named a Langenberg Legacy Fellow by the University System of Maryland because of an action-oriented project he initiated at the UMGC Asia Campus to address threats to the environment. The global members of the UMGC community enjoyed both fun-filled evenings of opportunities to connect with fellow classmates and alumni while growing their network.
At both celebrations, participants had the chance to:
- Hear remarks from UMGC’s senior leaders .
- Expand their professional networks by connecting with fellow students and graduates .
- Celebrate their achievements with their global UMGC community.
- Participate in UMGC gear giveaways.
- Enjoy hors d'oeuvres, music and more!
While there was not a fee to participate in UMGC Homecoming, generous participants contributed $3,575 to meet the increasing needs of students through UMGC’s Student Aid for Emergency Relief (SAFER) Fund. SAFER provides direct aid to students worldwide experiencing financial hardship related to an unforeseen emergency.
Celebrations in the Metaverse
Those who wanted to join the party but weren’t able to do so in person had the opportunity to celebrate virtually. Homecoming reached beyond the world we know and ventured into the Metaverse, a digital space to explore, network, and learn.
In addition to connecting with each other, the Metaverse platform granted students and alumni the opportunity to connect with leadership and faculty representing each of the three UMGC academic schools - Business, Cyber and Information Technology, and Integrative and Professional Studies - prior to Homecoming during the Virtual Networking Hour. Furthermore, faculty, students and alumni had the chance to connect and learn more about select UMGC alumni entrepreneurs in the Business Connect Center, and had a chance to explore more than 17 UMGC clubs and organizations. Attendees were also invited to participate in four engagement activities to include the virtual Autograph Wall and participate in the Create a Design and What’s In Common spaces.
Homecoming 2024 by the Numbers
Homecoming 2024 was a great success resulting in the following:
Attendees participated from across the country and around the globe, representing 11 countries and 48 states and U.S. territories.
2,027 UMGC community members registered for all Homecoming activities, cultivating relationships with the University.
979 UMGC community members attended Homecoming activities connecting directly with their alma mater and tapping into their UMGC network.
185 participants attended in the metaverse!
223,850 impressions across social media spreading the UMGC brand through the event hashtag #HomecomingUMGC.
1,955 pieces of UMGC swag were distributed across the Homecoming celebrations for attendees to showcase their school pride.
876 homecoming registrants updated their job title/employer noting career advancement.
$3,575 was raised for scholarships and the Student Aid for Emergency Relief (SAFER) fund to help UMGC students in need.
35 former students attended, reconnecting with the university.
Did you miss the fun?
Want to relive all the Homecoming 2024 Celebrations? Be sure to explore the Homecoming 2024 Photo Galleries. Also, visit the alumni website to learn more about future UMGC alumni events and programming.
Read more UMGC alumni news.