UMBC’s 2025 Homecoming hypes up the Retriever community
Another dog-tastic weekend is in the books with the conclusion of UMBC’s 2025 Homecoming celebration. Past, present, and future Retrievers enjoyed more than 40 events this year, participating in popular UMBC classics such as the Homecoming Bonfire, GRIT-X, the Carnival, and especially, the Puppy Parade.
Check out the festivities at this year’s—thankfully, not rainy—Homecoming!
Firing up Homecoming
UMBC’s annual Homecoming Bonfire was a perfect way to kick off the Homecoming festivities and create a nice warm welcome for attendees. The UMBC Down and Dirty Dawg Band brought the spirit as family and friends gathered around the Bonfire.
A warm welcome to Homecoming. (Photos by Tanzila Malik and Kayla Logue)
Retriever Madness returned to hype up the Retriever community for all the athletics teams playing during Homecoming and beyond. UMBC’s athletics teams came together with the campus community to introduce themselves before the basketball season began, and volunteers played games—including a dance battle—to win amazing prizes and Retriever swag.
Homecoming hype at Retriever Madness. (Photos by Trey Stewart, Hanna Rojas-Rhodes, and Kayla Logue)
Also hot this Homecoming celebration were the UMBC GRIT-X presentations. This annual series of presentations celebrates the passion and achievements of UMBC’s alumni, faculty, and graduate students. The TED-style talks invite the community into ongoing research on campus, as well as invite alumni experts to share about their work in cutting-edge fields.
Shaness D. Kemp, dance, takes to the stage at GRIT-X.
Tents were set up along Erickson Field with different clubs, departments, organizations, and vendors. At the Division of Professional Studies booth, Gowtham Karaka, M.P.S. ’24, played six simultaneous games of chess, against six different opponents, for nearly four hours straight. In total, he faced 28 challengers, and not one managed to beat him.
Provost Manfred van Dulmen, right, was one of Karaka’s 28 challengers. (Photo courtesy of Allison Jones)
In order for all these events to work smoothly, volunteers from across campus worked to help create a fun and welcoming atmosphere for Homecoming guests. Gavin Gilliland, assistant director of first-year academic programs, explained his eagerness to help out: “I chose to volunteer at Homecoming because it’s so community focused. It’s a way to connect with the UMBC community broadly and interact not only with current students, faculty, and staff, but alumni, parents, guests, friends of UMBC, community members, and more.”
Gilliland, who helped check people into the Alumni and Friends Welcome Tent on Saturday, said that “being a small part of such a big day is an easy way to make an impact. I’m a people person and I love making small talk and helping people find their way, not just in my day job but at events like Homecoming as well. My favorite part of the day was seeing it all come together and seeing all of the friendly faces enjoying the celebrations.”
Attendees could choose to carve or paint their Homecoming pumpkins.
Fun, family, and friends
A “phun” and out of this world event at Homecoming was Phun Phamily Physics. Attendees got to explore the UMBC Observatory with a rotation of family-friendly physics and astronomy demonstrations, as well as tour the control room and dome of the UMBC Observatory—the largest optical telescope on the East Coast!
Volunteers helped facilitate family-friendly physics and astronomy demonstrations.
Bringing folks back down to Earth, a record number of runners and walkers participated in this year’s sold-out Retriever 5K and Family Fun Run, exploring the highs and lows of aptly-named Hilltop Circle. This event’s emphasis was on camaraderie, bringing together all paces and styles to enjoy the fun.
Everyone is a winner at the Homecoming 5K and Family Fun Run.
At a more sedate pace later in the day, furry friends, big and small, showed off their costumes in the Puppy Parade! After strutting their stuff, it was time for the costume competition. From mermaids to spaghetti and meatballs, dog breeds of all kinds showed their true “Retriever” spirit!
Puppies strutting their stuff! (Kayla Logue/UMBC)
Retriever spirit at the Puppy Parade.
The Homecoming Carnival is one of UMBC’s main events. Jenn Harvey Miranda ’09, modern languages and linguistics, M.A. ’11, TESOL, celebrated this year’s Homecoming by bringing her family for the first time to enjoy all the festivities. “It was pretty incredible being back on campus, especially since this fall marks exactly 20 years since I started there as a freshman! I was surprised at how being physically back in the space where so many memories took place transported me so completely back to my college days,” says Miranda.
The carnival fun continued after dark.
“It was really special thinking back on the many friendships that were forged over my years there, and I’m so grateful I got to share the day with two of those very friends who I joined at Homecoming. And my 4-year-old is still talking about all of the rides he got to go on, so he had a lot of fun too.”
Posted: October 20, 2025, 4:18 PM