
Impact Stories
Accelerate UMass
Discover how our community of alumni, faculty, students, parents, and friends are making a lasting difference. Explore their stories and see how you can contribute to the UMass legacy.

- Grow Investment
- Magnify Impact
A New Home for the School of Public Health and Health Sciences
The new SPHHS Hub will serve as a central space for learning and innovation that will benefit students and communities both inside and outside the commonwealth.
- Revolutionize Access
Designing a Degree to Drive Social Change
Through the Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration (BDIC) program, Zuzana Zilkova ’05 built the foundation for a global career focused on reducing harm and fostering human connection.
- Revolutionize Access
- Magnify Impact
- Grow Investment
Celebrating Accelerate in the Big Apple
UMass Amherst alumni, parents, and friends gathered at The New York Historical to recognize the university’s longstanding commitment to the humanities, the fine arts, and access to historical source materials.- Revolutionize Access
From Pointe Shoes to Planet-Saving Fashion
Alumna Jillian Clark ’08 is using her Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration (BDIC) to tackle the textile waste crisis.
- Magnify Impact
- Graduate School
From Mentees to Mentors: Two UMass Alumni Pay It Forward on the West Coast
When Anne Soon Choi MA’00 and Mariappan “Jawa” Jawaharlal PhD’94 discovered they shared the connection of being UMass Amherst Graduate School alumni, it wasn’t at a reunion in Massachusetts, but during a…

- Revolutionize Access
- Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences
Building A Culture of Giving
This year, a group of student ambassadors from the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) stepped up to publicize the opportunity to support their college through UMassGives.
- Revolutionize Access
- Graduate School
Shaping Leaders through Graduate Education
Finalists from the Graduate School’s Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition talk about the opportunities for both academic and professional development at UMass Amherst.
- Revolutionize Access
- College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Elevating First-Generation Voices
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) RISE Fellow Leandra Mageski ’26 created a podcast to help first-generation students navigate college life.
- Magnify Impact
- College of Natural Sciences