Shriver Center

Shriver Center Board, l-r: Provost Arthur Johnson, Shriver Center Director John Martello, Timothy Shriver, Sargent Shriver, Freeman Hrabowski, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. University Photographs, UARC 2013-013-14-0564. View larger

Resolution and Signatories to the Resolution Establishing The Shriver Center, December 14, 1993. President's office records, Collection 50, UARC 2008-38. View larger

The Shriver Center was dedicated at UMBC on December 14, 1993. It is named in honor of Sargent Shriver, founder of VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), Head Start, the Job Corps, and the first director of the Peace Corps and the Office of Economic Opportunity, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics. The Shriver Center strives to promote the “integration of civic engagement, teaching, learning, and discovery on campus, regionally, and nationally so that each advances the others for the benefit of society.” Each year the Shriver Center helps place students with businesses as well as non-profits, enabling them to combine work and service with education.