By Niamh Gray

The Adele H. Stamp Student Union hosted Stamp Text Quest on April 17, an event where students participated in a 12-hour scavenger hunt. 

From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., participants received text messages every hour containing detailed information about the contents, history and numerous resources offered by the Stamp Student Union. The event provided an excellent opportunity for the participants to learn more about and connect with the student union. 

The text quest consisted of statements and questions like, “The Office of Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy (MICA) is hosting events in celebration of Southwest Asian and North American (SWANA) Month and Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi American (APIDA) Month. You can learn more by visiting their office. In the hallway where MICA’s front door is, could you tell us how many poster cases there are? (For 3 points).”

Laura Hood, the manager of Stamp Programs, coordinated the Stamp Text Quest. 

“Students remember the fun things they do on campus — not always the academic [things]. In my area, it is about creating the student experience and student traditions,” Hood said. “Stamp Text Quest was just one of those things that I could do to get students out of their residence halls and get them engaged in resources on campus.”

The event was part of UMD’s Spring into Stamp campaign, which featured various collaborative and engaging events on campus since the start of spring and leading up to the end of the semester.

The three students with the highest points received a voucher of $100 each to spend at the University Bookstore.

One of the three winners, Nitin Kanchinadam, shared his experience with Stamp Text Quest.

“I think the event brought a portion of UMD’s community together,” the senior computer science major said. “It was fun seeing other people also trying to figure out the answer to each question at the same time as me. I even met a couple of new people through the Text Quest.”

Jityaashri Gurubaskaran, an information science major and another quest winner, expressed that the event was an excellent opportunity to strengthen the UMD community.

“I think it had a lot of students engaged in a fun activity that was different from their day-to-day lives. It made my week so much more interesting rather than just going back and forth from classes,” she said.  “It gave us an opportunity to hang out with students and foster some friendly competition.”

Despite being held for the first time and having a brief window of advertisement, the quest was quite successful. At one point, over 130 students participated according to Hood. 

Hood expressed that all the feedback received for the event was extremely positive. She has full confidence that STAMP Text Quest will be returning to UMD in the near future.

“We now have the platform. We now know that it works. We can expand these text quests,” Hood said. We could collaborate with lots of different groups on campus to highlight what they are doing, or different areas like Memorial Chapel or Eppley Center. There is just a ton of opportunity.”

Featured Image: Stamp Student Union on April 17, 2024. Photo by Niamh Gray.