A Monopoly on College Park

Imagine it: An acquaintance in one of your classes asked to look over some of your homework to see if you’d understood the assignment the same way. Turns out, they secretly copied your answers, and now you’re involved in an academic snafu. You’re pretty upset about it—in fact, you might even say you’re in a Swamp of Despair.

That’s exactly where you’d be sent to sort out the mess, according to a new game that 284 first-year students have played in their UNIV 100 classes this fall. My Maryland Odyssey, a Terp-ified blend of Monopoly and Life, asks students in the one-credit seminar to move through an M-shaped board that puts them through tough situations they may encounter throughout college, provoking conversation and brainstorming about how to handle them.

Created by management and organization Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies Cynthia Stevens and graduate assistant Chetachukwu Agwoeme  ’20, the game aims to help students “overwhelmed by the changes” of starting college and, for most, living away from home for the first time, said Stevens. 

Inspired by a design thinking workshop at Stanford University and a game Stevens had previously created to help students understand the job searching process, Stevens drew a mockup on a gigantic sheet of paper, she said, which has since turned into several laminated copies.

The goal is for all four players to graduate with tokens (a role currently filled by colored paper clips) across four areas: academic success, emotional and financial health, leisure, and values and character. As the students move through the game (each leg of the M represents one year of college), they’re tested by situations like being rejected from a coveted job, facing money woes when textbooks cost more than anticipated or forgetting to back up their laptop. Along the way, they’re sometimes directed to pick among three cards: “Take a Chance,” “Swamp of Despair” and “Culture Shock.”

“It’s a really nice, interactive way for students to get to know each other,” said Rudraksh Nighot ’21, a teaching assistant for UNIV 100. “We could have just done a lecture or presentation on the same things, but students got more hands-on.”

Nighot hopes that students see My Maryland Odyssey as a crib sheet for their entire Maryland experience. “It’s good for them to get the perspective that college isn’t just semester to semester—there are long-term professional or social goals.”