Welcome to Do Good Plaza

Here at the University of Maryland, we’re inspiring chance-takers and difference-makers to apply their passion and ideas to make a positive impact, now. Powered by the Do Good Institute, we’re building a Do Good Generation in all sectors and fields of study.

Our interactive and collaborative campus exhibits are here to celebrate the different ways our university is united in purpose to Do Good. Explore the exhibits to hear from Terps across our Do Good Campus about what inspires them, the questions that sparked their ideas and the impact they’ve created.

The Rings

The University’s first-of-its-kind live art display is meant to inspire and delight visitors to campus. The new interactive public art exhibit leading to Thurgood Marshall Hall serves as a reminder of the University of Maryland’s commitment to tackling the grand challenges of our time, inspiring guests with the voices of chance-takers and difference-makers.

Standing 12 feet tall, the installation consists of five sculptural rings that are sensor-activated with dual speakers. When visitors pass through the center, an animated pulse of light and a chorus of voices emanates from the interior of the ring. As campus tours and guests walk through the Rings they’ll connect with voices from the UMD community, sharing the impact they have made on the campus and world.

Explore the Quotes and Questions Featured in the Rings

By partnering with cemeteries in DC to put in water-retaining infrastructure, we've been able to save 7 million gallons of water each year.
This is where I learned the power of community, the power of belonging, the power of acceptance.
We have rescued 27 million pounds of food from going to waste.
Doing good means listening to the community and doing the best you can to serve them.
We've raised over $6 million for the patients and families at Children's National Hospital.
It's important to make doing good simple, accessible, and concrete because you can attract more people to help out that way.
The idea of doing good is embedded in UMD.
UMD and the Do Good Institute helped us grow from a grassroots student org to a legit nonprofit with 8 full time staff members.
By the end of our first year, we had about 100 student volunteers and donated about 30,000 meals
We are supplying essential medications to millions of refugees in need.
We've helped to clean millions of gallons of rainwater per year before it flows into the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.
I just want to see the University of Maryland become the number one mental health institution in the world. As students, we can make this happen.
We started here on campus with one farm stand and grew to serve 10 different states and thousands of customers every week.
The most important thing I've learned is that no action is too small. We can make a difference in our communities.
We hold a 12 hour dance marathon to raise awareness and support Children's National Hospital
It all started with a Post-it note in a classroom —we wrote down all the craziest fundraising ideas and we said, why not?
We trained about 50 students who went out and trained over 8,000 African farmers.
We started food recoveries at Maryland, but we've replicated our model on over 190 campuses.
We've provided recycled medications to over 600,000 individuals.
It was important to me to advocate for those who couldn't advocate for themselves, especially those who had been arrested or jailed.
I saw the connection between human well-being and environmental degradation and knew I wanted to be part of the solution.
Real impact is possible when you bring people together who believe in something.
We’ve saved 35 million pounds of produce from going to waste and donated about 1.5 million pounds of produce.
We fundraised to build a school in Honduras. Each grilled cheese we sold bought a cinder block for the school.
Doing good is knowing that there really are no boundaries between us. As long as we are on this earth, we are each other's keeper.
The dining hall allowed us to recover uneaten food and donate it to a food pantry, but that was just the start.
We saved and delivered $8 million worth of desperately needed medications to Ukraine.
This is where I learned the power of building relationships. At the end of the day, that what gets you great outcomes.
The core of our work is acceptance. We’re creating spaces where people feel belonging and a sense of connection with each other.
The Do Good Challenge prepared us for Shark Tank. Both pitches resulted in us getting more resources to fight food waste and food insecurity
My mom always instilled in me that if you see someone in need, you have to do what you can. You have to use your power to help.
Together, we build schools for youth who are at risk of gang violence, hunger, and poverty in Honduras.
By the end of our first year, we had about 100 student volunteers and donated about 30,000 meals
For me, "Hey counterparts, what do you guys need?" is the best question you can ask — we don't come in with a savior mentality.
Our awareness campaign helped free 9 falsely imprisoned journalists.
Our network of 200+ campus-based food recoveries has donated over 10 million meals to hunger-fighting partners.
$500 may not sound like a lot, but when we got that first grant from the Do Good Institute, it was the world to us.
It wasn't just a story, it was someone's livelihood.
We started food recoveries at Maryland, but we've replicated our model on over 190 campuses.
Every action matters. I'm sitting here today because for decades individuals decided to stand up for civil rights.
Talking to other students and listening to their stories, we saw a great need we felt we had to do something about.
40 million Americans are food insecure while 40% of the food grown in this country goes to waste. We wanted to use the food waste problem to address food insecurity and hunger.
We saw our community struggling during COVID, so we decided to help. By the end of our first year we served about 3.7 million meals.
Doing good means listening to the community and doing the best you can to serve them.
We believed we could connect with African farmers in a meaningful way and help elevate families out of hunger and poverty.
The dining hall allowed us to recover uneaten food and donate it to a food pantry, but that was just the start.
Bringing about change can start with something small.
If you see something wrong in the world, don't wait for someone else to fix it.
We helped make mental health a top priority at the University of Maryland, investing in mental health first aid and mental health resilience training.
To me, social entrepreneurship is the most powerful tool on the planet to really create true, meaningful, lasting change.
It started as just one family helping another family, but we grew to match the need we saw in our community.
It’s inspiring to see the smiles on patients’ faces and the joy our work brings to them and their families
In one night, we raised almost $1000 dollars to help build a school in Honduras by selling grilled cheese to students coming home from the bars.
For me, campus is an incredible network of support, an ecosystem of individuals that want to see you succeed.
UMD and the Do Good Institute helped us grow from a grassroots student org to a legit nonprofit with 8 full time staff members.
We saw a problem that nobody was doing anything about and decided to tackle it.
I'm here because of the good that others have done for me.
This is where I immersed myself in the intersection between science, technology, and policy.
We only have one lifetime to make change in the world and doing good is the principle by which I choose to live my life.
We help about a thousand families get the food and other resources they need on a regular basis.
Resolve yourself to make a better future, because that's where you're going to spend the rest of your life
Being on stage at the Do Good Challenge Finals is, to this day, my favorite college experience.
Hunger is a pretty complicated problem and it doesn't have only one solution. That's why we approach it from multiple directions to help families in need.
I never would have been able to achieve the impact I have without the people I've met at UMD.
To do good is a way to live your life. It's a service.
Doing good means being able to build a better future so that new generations do not have to go through the same struggles that we have.
Our network of 200+ campus-based food recoveries has donated over 10 million meals to hunger-fighting partners.
Winning the Do Good Challenge was absolutely huge for us. It gave us this sense of momentum, and convinced others to invest.

What's a personal experience that motivated you to do something good for others?
How can you make doing good part of your everyday life?
What does doing good mean to you?
What would you do if you had 24 hours to change the world?
There is so much in the world somebody should do something about. Can you be that somebody?
How can you make change?
How do you want to 'Do Good'?
What's your wildest dream for a thriving world, and how would you make it a reality?
How can you use your education for good?
What excites you the most in life, and how could you use that excitement for doing good?
What does your ideal world look like?
What's a personal experience that motivated you to do something good for others?
What sparks your interest?
What does doing good mean to you?
What's your wildest dream for a thriving world, and how would you make it a reality?
Do Good.

Do Good Sculpture

This iconic, three-dimensional sculpture of the words “Do Good” symbolizes UMD’s positions as the nation's first Do Good Campus, where Terps are inspired to turn their ideas into action and tackle today’s grand challenges. The 8-foot-tall aluminum sculpture is illuminated with more than 300 LED modules that can create thousands of colors.

During Maryland Day 2023, joined by President Pines, Dean Orr, Provost Rice, campus and community leaders, we officially unveiled the new campus icon. During the unveiling ceremony, President Pines shared:

Countless people have been touched by the Terp students, faculty and staff who want to change our world for the better. By continuing to grow our Do Good campus, we are making sure that we inspire Terps to keep turning their ideas into action and make an impact in communities both near and far to College Park.

Darryll J. Pines University of Maryland President

Change the World

On the ground floor of Thurgood Marshall Hall, this exhibit tells the stories of Terps — students, faculty, staff and alums — who are making an impact on campus, in their communities and across the world. The interactive exhibit features four interactive touchscreens that allow passersby to immerse themselves with life-size and in-depth storytelling, with overhead, holosonic speakers that make you feel as if the subject is speaking directly to you. Each story presents a question relating to their organization, like “Can cemeteries fight climate change?” which also hints at how they provided a solution for their issue. Explore the current stories below.