Aidan Janssen, Reporter
As graduation approaches, many families are preparing to send their children away from home to a college or university campus — places, from the perspective of home, which are full of unknowns.
In order to combat such variables when it comes to health and safety, teacher Nicky Wilks has helped to create a startup app, called Umergency, which is a comprehensive option for storing emergency information pertinent to the campus-centric location of individuals.
“Umergency is a mobile app designed for college students and their parents to help them stay connected [and] prepare for and respond to emergency situations while students are on campus and away from home,” said Wilks.
In his role as vice president, Wilks manages a team of developers and monitors the app’s success.
Umergency is available on iOS and Android operating systems, and is completely free to students. For parents, the app carries a $10 annual fee or a $20 lifetime subscription.
As of now, the app has 10,000 downloads, and over 1,000 different colleges and universities around the U.S. are registered in the company’s database.
“We’ve created a giving-back program where a portion of all proceeds of sales we make for students at a certain school or through a partner organization would go into a scholarship fund,” said Wilks.
When signing up for Umergency, customers are required to enter their insurance card and sign a medical consent form, providing consent to medical treatment in the case of an emergency. Customers can also link contacts, such as a doctor or even a roommate, to the app.
Any information stored in the app is stored using industry-standard data-protection methods, and is only made accessible to people whom the individual has pre-selected.
Additionally, the “alert beacon” can be selected to alert specific people.
For more information regarding the Umergency app, visit their website or approach Wilks in the computer lab.