That’s #UMWMade

Engineering battle bots. Launching startups. Building domains. Re-designing the clothes hanger. Imagining a different way to end poverty – and creating an international conversation about it.

All of the above? UMW-made.

With 3D-printed plastic wheels and a micro-controller, this student-built battle bot is run through an app. #UMWMade

UMW students and faculty created “domainosaurs” to promote Domain of One’s Own. #UMWMade

UMW senior Kendall Parker claimed a national award for her political science paper and broke school records as a member of the UMW Women’s Basketball team. #UMWMade

Known as the place where “great minds get to work,” UMW employs, enrolls, and produces movers, shakers, and change-makers. Getting to work is what we do – producing, creating, leading, influencing, and building – in communities around the world.

And not by chance. From the moment you step on campus, you’re immersed in a high-impact learning environment that takes you beyond the classroom. You’re surrounded by faculty who advise, research and offer opportunities for real-world experiences. You become part of an infrastructure designed for innovation – think Domain of One’s Own, the UMW ThinkLab, and the James Farmer Multicultural Center, just to get started.

“I’ve worked at a lot of institutions of higher education, and they all talk about ‘creation’ but UMW is unique insofar as they also walk the walk.” – Lee Skallerup Bessette, Instructional Technology Specialist

Along with students, professor Shawn Humphrey created not one but three social impact organizations, including the Two Dollar Challenge, and wrote the manifesto that is leading today’s conversation in the global poverty landscape. Senior Morgan Wellman became co-owner of Ladyburg, a natural bath and body works company, in her second year of college. Historic preservation students, alongside geology professor Stephen Hanna, have spent three years conducting groundbreaking research on the slavery narratives of plantations in the south.

And the UMW-made story keeps going. Abbas Haider ’12 and Robert Davis ’12 started America’s first bulletproof clothing line as students and were recently named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30. Heather Mullins Crislip ’95, CEO of the Richmond-based HOME, is on a civil rights mission focused on fair housing. Ken Fulk ’87 is a world-renowned design mastermind who is sought out by celebrities and has a Pottery Barn line.

College of Education students demonstrate Makers Space projects for Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney. #UMWMade

Students paint a reclaimed bike for a bicycle loan project.

A raku-fired ceramics collection by UMW art students, now on display at the Fredericksburg Visitor’s Center. #UMWMade

These are just a few of the powerful stories spilling out of our classrooms. And now it’s your turn to tell the story.

Get to work, UMW! Tell us what UMW has helped you make or how UMW has helped make you who you are today.

Share your story on social media with #UMWMade, or send your story to social@umw.edu.