At this moment, somewhere in The Commons, the Prove It! selection committee is going through proposals, weighing their merits, and envisioning what the campus would be like if they were implemented.  The proposals--13 of them--were submitted earlier this year by teams of students competing for a $30,000 implementation grant and $5,000 cash prize.  Each proposal sets forth a vision and step-by-step plan for improving something about campus life.  The selection committee's goal is to identify an outstanding group of finalists.  The winner from among those finalists will be chosen through a student vote.

I sat in on the first few minutes of the committee's meeting, and it was thrilling to watch the group work.  The members include campus leaders from the administration, faculty, staff and student body.  Some of the students are SGA members (SGA conceived, developed and is sponsoring Prove It!); others not.  One was selected at random from the entire undergraduate population.  The spirit in the room is amazing: Everyone truly believes that UMBC students have the creativity, passion and entrepreneurial skills to pull these big projects off.  The committee members are volunteering their time because they know this is a big deal: Prove It! is a groundbreaking way to say to an entire campus community, "We all create this place together."  Other campuses have launched contests modeled after Prove It!, but UMBC's is the original.

Stay tuned for more Prove It! news in the next few weeks; it's about to get really interesting.