UMBC’s STRiVE leadership and social change retreat has inspired hundreds of undergraduate students in the past 10 years. Now it's your turn.

This year’s STRiVE retreat will take place January 7-11, 2019. STRiVE participants will make new friends, learn about themselves, reflect on values and ethics, work in teams to envision contributions they could make at UMBC, and tackle both simulated and real leadership and social change challenges. Past STRiVE participants have gotten deeply involved in campus organizations and initiatives, and have made phenomenal contributions.

To apply for a spot in STRiVE 2019, complete this form by Sunday, November 11, 2018. 

STRiVE is hosted by UMBC's Center for Democracy and Civic Life, and sponsored by the UMBC Student Government Association. More information on this program is available below.

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STRiVE: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is STRiVE?

STRiVE is an intensive, engaging and exhilarating off-campus leadership retreat (5 days, 4 nights) developed by UMBC to help students become more effective leaders on campus and throughout their lives. STRiVE participants will make new friends, learn about themselves, reflect on values and ethics, work in teams to envision contributions they could make at UMBC, and tackle both simulated and real leadership and social change challenges. The STRiVE experience will include a bonfire, challenge course, games and other fun activities.

Do I have to be an “involved” student to attend STRiVE?

Absolutely not! STRiVE will be helpful to any student regardless of previous involvement or leadership experience. No prior experience is necessary! We are looking for a diverse group of students committed to developing their leadership skills and applying them to create positive change in the campus community. The application asks about campus involvement only to give the STRiVE planning team a sense of the different perspectives participants will bring to the retreat.

When is STRiVE?

The dates for STRiVE will be January 7 - 11, 2019.

Where is STRiVE being held?

STRiVE will be held at Skycroft Conference Center in Middletown, Maryland. Participants will stay in motel-style rooms (sharing a room with 1 other student) and all activities will be held on site. Bus transportation between UMBC and the retreat site will be provided.

How much does it cost to attend STRiVE?

UMBC covers most of the cost of each participant’s attendance. However, there is a participation fee of $100 that helps cover some of the cost of transportation, lodging and food. Money should not be a barrier to attendance, however, and participants will be able to complete a form to request financial assistance.

When is the application due?

Original deadline: Sunday, November 4, 2018. Extended deadline: Sunday, November 11, 2018.

When will are accepted applicants informed?

Applicants will receive an email in late November with additional details about participating in STRiVE.

How can I find out more information about STRiVE?

Please contact David Hoffman at dhoffman@umbc.edu.

Before you start working in an office, it might be hard to believe how much of your workday can be spent sending emails. Even after you’ve gained enough experience to be comfortable drafting professional emails quickly and efficiently, email correspondence can still occupy a significant portion of your time.

Compliance Specialist Whitney Ames is quite the accomplished emailer. When creating Athletic Scholarship agreements for the Division of Student Affairs (DoSA), Ames had to send them individually to over 200 students, many of whom needed reminders and updates to get them to reply. Considering the time-sensitive nature of these forms, in addition to the numerous other tasks that DoSA staff must complete during the same period, it is clear that this system was not ideal for either staff or students. That's why DoSA has prioritized accessibility and quality service as they’ve replaced paper processes with digital workflow.

Working with UMBCs Division of Information Technology (DoIT), DoSA has converted many heavily used paper documents to DocuSign forms that can be signed and submitted electronically. Implemented in numerous departments including Campus Life and Athletics, these digital forms have made life easier for everyone involved. Instead of mailing incoming athletes 15 pages of health and permission forms, Athletics can send them out in a secure email that provides quick, easy access and signing ability on any device. The student athlete can then submit the form electronically, which relieves staff from having to sort and file lots of paper documents as well as scan and upload the document to their electronic medical records.

Assistant Athletic Trainer Kristina Miller says, “DocuSign has streamlined us to the point that our time is now better spent serving the student-athlete instead of dealing with papers everywhere.”

If a student doesn’t respond immediately, DocuSign automatically sends emails reminding them they have a form to sign. The document itself offers instructions and tool tips that tell the signer exactly what they need to know for each field, so DoSA staff do not need to spend a lot of time correcting mistakes. In addition, DocuSign Mobile allows signers to conveniently sign and submit electronic forms directly on their mobile device. DoSA can also track and resend documents when necessary.

According to IT Manager Ken Schreihofer,M.S. ‘11, Information Systems, these tools help meet student expectations of better service, with the first completed forms submitted within minutes of being sent out and total compliance approaching 100%.

Whitney Ames agrees, saying, “the most impressive change has been in our response rate. This year, we sent reminder emails to fewer than 10 students and most aid agreements were returned nearly a month ahead of their normal timeline.”

E-signature technology provides a robust platform with an easy-to-learn interface that can create solutions for numerous administrative concerns. Between DocuSign and Request Tracker (RT), Schreihofer says that DoSA is now running low on paper forms. With the help of automated digital workflows, any department can make gains in sensible efficiency and productivity.

More Info:

• Visit the DocuSign myUMBC Group

• Visit UMBC's FAQ knowledge base

The Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) is a cooperative  Agreement between UMBC and the Earth Science Division of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to integrate scientists with the academic community. It's no surprise then that JCET employs fully functional digital forms in their internal business processes. Utilizing the electronic signature platform DocuSign, JCET is maximizing efficiency by drastically increasing workflow speed. Internal forms that sometimes took weeks to cycle through all the required signers now can be finished in mere hours.

JCET Assistant Director Margo Young began using DocuSign in September 2016. Before, she says, many internal documents would be emailed from UMBC to Goddard, where they were printed, signed, and put in official envelopes to be transported by truck back to UMBC. Since the forms contained sensitive information, they couldn’t simply be sent back by email. This meant that forms could take anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks to complete. Excited by the prospect of speeding things up a bit, Young started converting forms to DocuSign and trickling them into the office workflow.

Although many JCET faculty and staff had never used this new system of signing documents, they were quick to discover how secure and easily accessible this process is. As more and more people started utilizing digital signatures (often with Margo’s helping hand), the payoffs became more and more clear. All around, there was a noticeable decrease in worry over the status of a particular form and last-minute panic when an important document is nowhere to be found. The workflow as a whole became much smoother.    

Since then Young has created 115 digital envelopes and taught three others in her office to create them as well. Recently, Young was able to get a new hire approved by the JCET director right away, even though the director was on vacation in Africa at the time. He simply opened an email on his phone and in moments, the form was approved and already waiting in Young’s inbox for review.

Digital signature technology incorporates advanced security and authentication methods to validate signer identity, resulting in an e-signature that is more legally enforceable than a standard signature. The versatility that comes with being able to create and sign forms on any device, the intuitive user interface, and the secure and efficient transaction process all make e-signature technology an all-purpose tool for any modern business or university.

More Info:

·      Visit the DocuSign myUMBC Group

·      Visit UMBC’s FAQ knowledge base

The Library has two types of study rooms available for student use:

● Reservable Study Rooms:

These 20 rooms can be reserved up to five days in advance. Reservations are limited to 3 hours per person or group each day. Book yours today!

● Open Study Rooms:

These 12 rooms are left open for students to use on a first-come, first-served basis. Each room has four seats.  They are located on the Quiet Floors: rooms 553-558 and 653-658.

Applications are due November 4th for students who would like to attend the first Summit “Student Experience” event. Selected students will receive a package valued at $800, including registration fees, lodging, and a travel stipend. Students will engage in 2-full days of student-focused content and then join the rest of the field for the regularly scheduled 2019 Summit at Indiana University. Students can learn more and apply for this opportunity here. 

Back in 2016, Trisha Wells from Student Affairs left a meeting with Assistant Vice President of Business Systems Joe Kirby to attend a campus budget meeting. She and Kirby had discussed plans to begin testing UMBC’s new electronic signature program, which utilized UMBC’s Enterprise DocuSign plan, by applying it to a department’s current business process. Their main difficulty, however, was finding a volunteer willing to dedicate the time to experiment with new software tools.

As Wells sat in the budget meeting contemplating this, she listened to Greg Capecci, manager of the Walker Ave. Apartments, describe the costs associated with Capstone’s $3600 contract with DocuSign. Wouldn’t it be perfect for Kirby to work with someone already utilizing electronic signatures and simply incorporate them in the UMBC enterprise plan? Before long, Kirby and Capecci were meeting regularly to discuss the different options and uses for electronic signature technology and how it can integrate with business practices that rely on paper or PDF/Word documents.

Since the Walker Ave. Apartments staff work with sensitive information such as Social Security numbers for license applications, it's no surprise that Capecci was already using electronic signature technology. The platform not only provides extensive data encryption and authentication, but also allows administrators to view specific data such as the IP address a form was signed from as well as dates and times a form was viewed.

With electronic signature technology, applications can travel quickly between the student, guarantor, and Capstone via secure email instead of slowly passing through certified mail. By transferring to UMBC’s enterprise contract, Capecci was able to maintain all of his old security and functionality while gaining access to Single Sign On, adding yet another layer of authentication. Also, the money Capstone saved by giving up its individual contract went directly back to the students in the form of cheaper license fees.

Moreover, students can access all of their documents through the same portal. All of their Capstone and UMBC DocuSign forms now use the same inbox, so students no longer have to navigate multiple online locations to view and sign important documents.  

In addition to making the licensing process cheaper, more efficient, and more secure for students, electronic signatures have also made things much easier for the Capstone staff. The templates they create for their forms can offer easy guidance and tooltips that help ensure that forms are filled out completely and accurately on the first try. This means staff spend less time correcting, reprinting, and resending forms on a day-to-day basis. On the rare occasion that a form does need to be resent, it can be done with just a few clicks. The intuitive interface and automated processes of electronic signature technology makes everyone’s work much more productive and streamlined.

Transferring from primarily paper documents to fully digital forms saved Greg Capecci the costs associated with printing, mailing, and storing a large volume of forms, the extra staff required to handle so many paper forms, and the time spent reviewing and correcting documents after submission. Switching over to the UMBC enterprise plan added further security and authentication options at no additional cost. In return, Joe Kirby was able to test the functionality of digital workflow in order to discover more ways it could enhance productivity for other departments on campus. For example, they were able to explore the use of shared envelopes between staff, enhancing their ability to collaboratively manage certain documents.

Now Assistant Vice Provost in the Division of Professional Studies (DPS), Trisha Wells recently partnered with Joe Kirby again to move DPS departmental program agreements into a DocuSign format.  Wells notes that "DocuSign is such a powerful workflow tool and I will continue to move additional business processes every chance I get!"

Stay tuned as more departments share their experience with electronic signatures.

More Info:

·      Visit the DocuSign myUMBC Group

·      Visit UMBC’s FAQ knowledge base