Centric Magazine Fall 2023

Interesting, innovative, and inspiring people in the UCF community

W

aves are fundamental to our lives. Like the ocean, life itself is never still. There are constant changes and challenges that generate a rhythmic push and pull.

How I see it, waves are an imperative part of growing. We need to be pushed — to try new things that intimidate us and achieve things we thought were unimaginable. We also need to be pulled — back to our senses when things get rough or we forget who we are to our core.

Without waves, life would be a mundane cycle of inaction.

In our adolescence, we wave goodbye to past eras while saying hello to stellar opportunities ahead.

This point in our life is filled with so much uncertainty, which can be terrifying — but also inspiring.

As we move through our university experience and into the world beyond, we face a new set of tides.

New forces will push and pull us, continuing the flow, but in an unprecedented way. In these moments we should remind ourselves that these phases are simply part of life’s process.

While navigating adulthood, it is important to take a step back and realize where you are, right here and now. The present is fleeting. As a person who constantly thinks about the future, I have to remind myself to enjoy my life where it is now. I am often reminded of these lyrics from the song “Vienna” by Billy Joel: “Slow down you’re doing fine, you can’t be everything you want to be before it’s time.”

It feels like just a month ago I was a freshman entering the journalism program and stressing over my entry level classes, while celebrating my final year as a teenager. I am now a junior taking on internships and cherishing the moments I spend with my family and friends more than ever.

The Centric staff and I experienced a collective sequence of waves during the Fall 2023 semester. We pushed each other to think and create like never before. We also pulled each other back when our creations diverged from the Centric mission. Through this we were able to use three key words to guide us in this issue, which are referenced throughout: stellar, era, and waves.

With this Fall 2023 issue, we hope you’re able to see yourself in these stories and visuals. We also hope you will gain a sense of community and grow a better understanding of yourself and those around you.

Even though we are all sailing on our own paths, we have found ourselves at the same check point here in Central Florida. For whatever reason you’re here, we are glad you’re on this journey with us. L

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

1

by Gabriella Valencia hile Arielle Valiente quietly waited outside her physics classroom, a man approached her and asked what her name and major was.

Valiente told him aerospace engineering was her major and he looked at her funny. Confused, she asked him why he made a weird face, and his response was “aerospace isn’t a very girly major.” She was shocked. This is one of the many experiences Valiente has had being a female aerospace engineering student.

Valiente said that most people don’t understand how isolating it is to walk into a class and realize there is no other woman in the room. There is this pressure placed on women in engineering, mixed with the fact there are so few of them, that feeds into the stigma that they must be extraordinary.

“I feel like we’re so hard on ourselves, if you’re not doing amazing, you don’t have a place here,” Valiente said.

Senior aerospace engineering major, Cassidy Amon, said it’s a common experience to be one of the few, if not the only girl involved in a project and that it can feel challenging at times.

“It feels like you can’t make a mistake,” Amon said. She encourages aspiring female aerospace engineers to keep their head up and work hard.

That is why Valiente is thankful to have the women in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), which she serves as treasurer for.

“People in the workforce are a lot better, they’re older and experienced,” Valiente said. The “annoying and rude” people are slowly being weeded out because engineering is all about collaboration and if you’re incapable of collaborating with everyone then “how are you going to get anything done,” Valiente said.

After her internship, Valiente came back to UCF more motivated and tried giving the men in her class the benefit of the doubt, but she was constantly appalled by some of their behavior. That trial period ended quickly when a male-dominated engineering club showed no respect to SWE during a tenting event.

As the Barbie movie taught Valiente, women kind of live in this limbo of trying to be perfectly in the middle because if they are too assertive, they are seen as mean, but if they are too nice, they are a pushover. She thinks the key is to address issues, but to maintain your composure.

to continue to be if women don’t stick to it,” Valiente said.

“We honestly bond about the crappy things that happened to us,” Valiente said.

Valiente’s advice for boys: Think before you speak.

Other girls from SWE have gotten jobs or internships and are assumed to be something else other than an engineer, like a human resource or finance major.

Valiente hopes to be a role model for future women engineers. She feels like some people aren’t super feminine in the field because they think they won’t be taken seriously, she said.

Valiente received an internship at Lockheed Martin in the summer of 2023. Going into her internship, Valiente had her guard up and had the attitude of ‘stay away from all men, find the women and seek shelter,’ she said. All other female interns at Lockheed Martin had the same attitude due to similar experiences, but they were still some of the nicest people she had ever met.

2

“I let a few bad seeds ruin my perception of everyone,” Valiente said.

FALL 2023

Valiente’s advice for girls: Don’t let the fact that the environment is mostly men discourage you.

What is most desirable in a work environment is if you have a good work ethic and are hardworking.

“This is a male dominated field and it’s going

“I hope when people see me in the field they think ‘oh Arielle is so bubbly and girly, that means I can be my bubbly, girly self too.’” Valiente said. “I hope that it gives them more confidence in themselves, and be who they are and to feel more confident as a woman in that space.” L

ls her love for makeup and How a student brand ambassador channe tions and creativity fashion into a job that promotes connec

Not just creating content, but doing what I love and being recognized for it by brands I think is the biggest thing for me.

by Makayla Gray amie Simmons, senior integrated business major, is in her ambassador era as she promotes NYX Cosmetics and the clothing store Pretty Little Thing. As a job, she models stylish clothing pieces and showcases trendy makeup products on the social media platforms TikTok and Instagram. This role enhances each brand’s identity and outreach and offers her exclusive perks and benefits. Simmons receives monetary payment and products from NYX Cosmetics. She also gets clothing, gift cards, and store credit from Pretty Little Thing. As glamorous as it may sound to get paid to do makeup tutorials, life as a campus ambassador isn’t all that meets the eye. The time commitment, however, is worth it for Simmons.

“Not just creating content, but doing what I love and being recognized for it by brands I think is the biggest thing for me,” Simmons said.

When did you realize social media was your thing?

Jamie Simmons: I think even when I was younger in middle school, watching NikkieTutorials and Jackie Ania [and] all of them. Those beauty YouTubers really inspired me to want to be like them. I even wanted to start my own makeup YouTube channel. When I got NYX Cosmetics that was just like a blessing for me because I thought that was so cool that I could kind of be like who I used to look up to. Clothing wise, I’ve always been into fashion. Me and my older sister used to watch the show “Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane” and “America’s Next Top Model”…getting these ambassadorships from these brands and creating my own style is something that I knew I always wanted to do.

What’s a typical day in your life working for both brands?

Simmons: …I wake up and do my makeup for class which is literally all NYX Cosmetics, and then sometimes I even wear a Pretty Little Thing to school so I’m doubling it. I go to class then I try to film content, if I can, almost every single day so I have stuff lined up. When I get home I do a little bit of homework and then I’ll film a TikTok and my makeup look for NYX Cosmetics. I’ll put an outfit on and go out and take photos wherever I am in my Pretty Little Thing outfits so I get both in one day if I’m already ready and then go home, go to sleep and repeat.

What are the biggest challenges of balancing work and academics?

Simmons: I think the main part is it’s just challenging that I also have school…

Having to go outside of my house and film this content is kind of difficult with school involved as well, and having to plan around that.

How does your job contribute to the UCF student community?

Simmons: I really want my career to be in marketing, whether it’s the music industry, whether it’s the fashion industry, makeup industry, I just really love marketing. These aren’t my first two brand ambassadorships, but I do love marketing myself and I feel like that helps me with my résumé because it teaches me how to market with other brands as well. So it’s just a great opportunity for me in that way. I feel like for UCF, it’s such a big campus and to have ambassadors of big companies like NYX Cosmetics and Pretty Little Thing, it’s kind of marketing for the school as well.L

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

3

I

n a world where the concrete jungle often overshadows the natural one, have you ever paused to identify the silent green residents on your daily path? Most people are unable to name a single plant that thrives right on their block. It’s a phenomenon that passionate botany and plant biology student Corian Keim calls “plant blindness.”

Carpenter bee

“Plant blindness is the single hardest thing about trying to encourage people to get into ecology,” Keim said. “You see all these charismatic animals like giant pandas or tigers and people want to root for them, it’s hard to get them to root for a plant species that only has 11 known populations left in Florida.”

The UCF campus is filled with lush vegetation of both native and exotic plant species that most people don’t know about. The Arboretum and natural lands, for example, are home to over 800 acres of native plants and pollinator species.

Keim serves as president of the UCF Botanical Society and is an advocate for native plant species.

They said most botanists agree that native plant species were here before European colonization, although some species got moved around by Native Americans.

Native plants, compared to commercial plants, have been around for a very long time and evolved to adapt to the specific conditions of their environment. Popular species such as Sunshine Mimosa, Frogfruit or Tropical Sage don’t require a lot of water, fertilizer, or maintenance if placed in the correct environment. For the Central Florida area, Keim said native plants thrive best in conditions with hot summers and mild winters, frequent rainfall and well-draining, sandy soil.

Frogfruit

Beyond aesthetics, native species encourage crucial pollinators to come back into urban spaces. Pollinator species that Keim regularly observes around Orlando are the Zebra Longwing or Gulf Fritillary butterflies and Bombus bumblebees. They said a lot of anthropologists have a hard time getting people to care about pollinator species other than the Monarch butterfly or honeybee.

“Honeybees aren’t even native and besides that, they’re not even good pollinators,” Keim said. “Not a lot of people know honeybees are not native anywhere in the United States and honey-producing bees are derived from either Africa or Europe.”

Native plants are also useful for water and soil conservation. High-maintenance plants require extra fertilizer and introduce contaminants into the soil, eventually seeping into the water supply and causing issues like algae or fungal blooms. Keim reminds us of the infamous red tides that are a result of fertilizer runoff, specifically from agriculture.

“If you don’t have a yard, even with just a windowsill, you can have a native plant. If you have a balcony or any area that has access outside you can have pollinator plants,” Keim said.

Take a moment to appreciate the greenery around you. You might find a newfound appreciation for the native plants that play a vital role in our ecosystem, not only enhancing the beauty of our surroundings but also contributing to the well-being of our environment and its inhabitants. L

4

FALL 2023

Gulf Fritillary butterfly

Q: Can anyone have a green thumb?

Sunshine Mimosa

A: Anyone with enough dedication can. I’ve met people who say they could kill a succulent, but the thing is, I used to kill succulents too. There is a lot of false information everywhere online. I read you can just stick succulents on a windowsill and water them once a month and it’s perfectly fine, but that is not reality. It’s all about doing it wrong and then learning about it for the next time.

Q: W hat are basic tips for beginner native owners?

Illustrations by Beatriz Quintana

A: A lot of windows absorb or deflect UV rays, so when you think you’re putting your plant in an area where it is going to get full sun the whole day, it’s actually only getting about two hours of sun.

On top of that, people will only give the plant about a tablespoon of water and that’s just not enough.

Get a native plant, get a species that is used to solid sandy soil like milkweed, blazing star or green eyes. Put it in a pot taller than it is wide with a little bit of sand and high draining mix and anyone could probably keep a native plant alive.

Q: W hat natives should you plant to attract pollinators? lowtail butterfly Eastern Tiger Swal

A: Typically, if you’re looking to attract hummingbirds, you would choose a tubular red flower such as firebush, coral honeysuckle or cardinal flower. For butterflies, they are attracted to brightly colored flowers of any shape and use their long tongues to get nectar. Moths will be attracted to anything with bright colors as well, but they really only appear at night. You can’t plant anything that’s not going to attract some kind of insect because even beetles will be pollinators.

Q: W hat about the fear of insects?

A: I understand that a lot of people are afraid of insects, and I don’t want to discount them, but it can be a rewarding experience to see pollinators come into your yard. They’ll just fly about, visit the flowers and mind their own business, even wasps. Most people don’t know that aggressive and territorial social wasps only compromise less than 10% of wasp species. If you have plants for them to feed off of rather than just clean-cut St. Augustine grass, they most likely won’t just be protecting the nest, they’ll be out searching for food.

Purple

Passio nfl

Q: W here is more quality information available? ower

A: Florida Native Plant Society, you’re bound to see some examples of garden designs that have been done with natives. They also have Gardening with Natives, and these are just a couple of resources you can visit to give some of the most common species that are used and they talk about the care requirements and benefits of putting it in your yard.

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

5

Culpepper is the Knights’ all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns with 11,412 and 84, respectively, and finished sixth all-time in college football history in total offense with 12,459 yards. Culpepper, the 11th pick of the 1999 draft by the Minnesota Vikings, went on to have an 11-year career in the league, making three Pro Bowls, and scoring 183 total touchdowns.

Fall became a nationwide sensation during his time in Orlando because of his towering 7-foot-6-inch stature. He was a 4-year starter at UCF, averaging 10.1 points and 7.7 rebounds a game while shooting 74% from the field. He made the 2018-19 All-AAC team and was the conference’s defensive player of the year in the 2016-17 season. As a professional, he played with the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers during his 3-year NBA career.

6

FALL 2023

On October 4, 2023, Smith posted a trio of photos to her X (formally Twitter) account, revealing her new vivid blue hair.

The post amassed over 20,000 views. Besides her striking appearance, Smith has placed first in numerous track and field events.

Jones was the first person in UCF history to win the American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year award in 2021 when she won the AAC 100m Hurdles Championship. In 2022 and 2023, she placed first in American Indoor and Outdoor Championships and qualified for both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships.

As a hitter, Best’s keen eyes helped her set records as the all-time leader in batting average (.384), runs scored (216), RBIs (213), hits (285), home runs (71), slugging percentage (.756) and total bases (562). She hit 26 home runs in the 2005 season, which is currently in the top 10 for home runs in college softball history.

Photos courtesy of UCF

Besides becoming the first person in UCF history to be named a first-team All-American and UCF volleyball’s all-time leader in kills with 2,563, Melville received the university’s most prestigious student award, the Order of Pegasus. The award is given to students who “display incredible academic achievement, university involvement, leadership, and community service.”

Akers was widely regarded as the best female player in the world during her career. She was a star on the 1991 and 1999 World Cup champion USA teams and won the Golden Shoe award in 1991, an honor given to the highest goal scorer of the FIFA World Cup. The 4-time All-American at UCF is the Knight’s second all-time scorer and was inducted into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998 and the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2004.

Milton was the leader of the undefeated 2017 team. He finished eighth in Heisman voting that season and followed that up with a sixth place finish the following season. On top of his performances on the field, Milton embodied the true meaning of a leader when he volunteered to give up his starting quarterback job to freshman Dillon Gabriel following Milton’s devastating injury versus USF in 2018. After sitting out the entire 2019 season due to injury, Milton entered the transfer portal in December 2020 and subsequently transferred to FSU, playing in six games for the Noles in one of the greatest comebacks in college sports.

DuBose was the first member of the men’s soccer team to be selected to the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame. During his career as UCF’s best goalie, he was named to the All-American team three times. He set school records for career shutouts (25), season shutouts (eight), lifetime goals against average (0.91), and season goals against average (0.49) in 1976 while leading UCF (Florida Technological University at the time) to a 15-1-1 record.

U

CF has been home to many spectacular athletes. There are Knights in professional ranks across the country — a testament to the athletes who come through the university and their stellar abilities. Each of UCF’s athletes possesses unique qualities that make them stand out in a positive light. Centric combined some of their distinctive characteristics to create “the ultimate UCF athlete.” L

by Nicolas Salvat

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

7

by Hannah Kaliszak

T

he worldview on tattoos continues to change as Generation Z incorporates them into their lifestyle, normalizing ink more than ever before. Views on tattoos vary from being seen as “trashy, lacking self-respect, or unclean” according to sites and blogs, to being seen as self-expression and art of its own. Tattoos can be used as a form of processing grief, expressing culture, or reclaiming one’s body.

evolving to reflect the trends of this generation

a term referring to a tattoo. “Look at his ink.”

shortened version of the word “tattoo.”

referring to a full body part covered in tattoos, usually the arm from the shoulder to the wrist.

pre-designed tattoo art provided at tattoo shops.

a technique using dots to create images and shading for a different visual effect.

a style of tattoo that combines realistic and abstract elements with black and red ink.

when fading or imperfections of a returning tattoo is corrected.

8

FALL 2023

By emphasizing the importance of self-expression and identity, this generation has altered the perception of tattoos into something more positive. Tattoos have become widely celebrated with the use of social media, becoming a widespread art form that connects and promotes artists and influences tattoo trends and perceptions for the body-art world.

Gen Z favors minimalism and personally symbolic tattoos compared to past generations that showed larger interest in bold lines, tribal, script, abstract, and patriotic or peace symbols. Minimalism aligns with the straightforward and visually pleasing aesthetic that Gen Z idolizes. These subtle tattoos are assumed to be more photogenic, concealable for career flexibility, and less of a commitment. They have shifted to a more discreet aesthetic that allows expression without an overwhelming appearance.

Growing up in a detail-oriented culture, the intricacy of fine line art is appealing.

Not only are tattoos used for aesthetic purposes, but they’re used to express support for activism in this generation that values inclusion and positive change.

Gen Z’s influence has grown so strong that the diversity of tattoos in the workplace have become more accepted. Workplace norms evolve as the generation continues to be more inclusive of individuality and employers begin to comprehend and accommodate to the importance of self-expression.

Multiple UCF students have noticed the increase in allowing tattoos at work.

“When I was growing up, I was told I was not going to get a job if you have certain tattoos,” Maya Akialis, junior game designing major said.

“I feel like some people still see people with tattoos and go ‘bluh,’ but it’s like an expression of creativity.”

Maddox Birr, freshman computer engineering major, has a moth tattoo in remembrance for the friend he lost in high school. Birr has had multiple manager roles and said he has not heard a negative comment or been told to cover up his ink even once. In fact, his current job has even complimented his tattoos.

Olympia Wahl, sophomore English major, believes the style of tattoo in a professional setting can affect a job.

John Lawrence is a tattoo artist at Realm Tattoos, a local shop. At the age of six, he began drawing people and animals, which is where his fascination with the artistry developed. Growing up, he went into creative jobs like cake decorating and doing artwork for Universal Studios. After seeing a tattoo magazine and what they were doing with ink, needles, and skin, he said he had to learn how to do it.

“I went out and found someone to do an apprenticeship. I did that for 18 months, I quit my job, and the rest is history,” Lawrence said.

Now, his favorite part of tattooing a person is their reaction.

“The good reaction [is] when you do a memorial piece and someone cries, or a portrait of their mom that they miss, or you get to cover something up that was a bad memory for somebody,” Lawrence said.

When it comes to tattooing a first timer, Lawrence said they do better than those who have gotten tattoos for years. Newbies expect the worst, and it’s never as bad as they think it will be. He said their normal reaction runs along the lines of “I really wanted to do this for years, I did it, and it looks great and I’m happy with it.”

Lawrence expressed how common tattoos are becoming.

“People that aren’t in our generation are more prone to see tattoos as unprofessional or that we make irrational decisions and can’t be trusted,” Wahl said.

Senior game designer Emily Goracke said she has never agreed with covering tattoos because it makes people cover up their identity. She can “understand if you have inappropriate tattoos to an extent, but other than that it’s none of your business what I choose to put on my body.”

Tattoo acceptance and normalization have come a long way, and Gen Z has helped sway the negative ink perspective into a more positive light. Instead of a threat, it’s self-expression. Instead of a ‘bad person,’ they’re a person like any other, just with a different way of showing their creative identity.

“I tattoo a lot of professionals.

First responders, nurses, surgeons, chiropractors, lawyers. It used to be very taboo to have a tattoo, you’d have to be right out of prison or some hard criminal,” he said. “Daughters and moms come and get tattoos together and it’s nothing like it was not even 15 years ago. You can tell that by how Disney’s a little more relaxed if you don’t have anything offensive, they don’t care. So, it’s slowly making its way into the limelight,” Lawrence said.

In the long run, Gen Z will be seen as the staple of tattoo industry growth, shaping the acceptance and trends of ink. As time progresses, maybe the next generation will offer a new wave of tattoo culture. L

“I think Gen Z has helped really drive the tattoo market,” Birr said.

“I think we have changed the negative connotation into a new positive one that allows for appreciation of the art and self-expression through tattoos.”

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

9

b Manuela Salinas By:

S

occer, or "fútbol" in Spanish, is one of the most unifying and important sports in Hispanic communities worldwide. For the Latin community, soccer means union, life and family.

Their hearts beat to the rhythmic echo of the ball because soccer is a form of expression. It is a universal language that breaks barriers and connects generations.

At UCF, Latino students share that feeling so much that they decided to create a space to share their passion for soccer at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. Guadalupe Molinari, president of the Argentinian Student Association, said that her organization and the Peruvian Student Association started the first Latin Cup at UCF. This cup is a soccer competition where eight Hispanic-registered student organizations compete to share their love for the sport and its culture. "Having created this competition helped us create a family," Molinari said.

For many people, soccer is a tradition that extends across many generations. Molinari said that since she was a child, her family gathered in front of the television to immerse themselves in every minute of an Argentine team's match. Nicolas Levy, a junior industrial engineering major and Venezuelan soccer player, shares that feeling. "I was born in a soccer family," Levy said. He started playing soccer at the age of four with his older brother and said he has not stopped since. “Soccer is a lifestyle,” Levy said.

The colors of the team shirts are a symbol of comradery and loyalty.

Even the names of players become heroes and role models. In the Latin Cup, passion is present in every play and every scream of celebration. Matheus Agramunt, a senior finance major and vice president of the Brazilian Student Association, said that passion for soccer is one of the main Brazilian characteristics. "Soccer to us is more than just a sport. It is something that we play day and night with love for the game," Agramunt said. "We like to express soccer as if it were art with flicks and tricks on the field."

10

FALL 2023

THIS COMPETITION HELPED

Photos by courtesy Keiraof Gilmore Keira Gilmore

US CREATE A FAMILY.

The adrenaline when they lace up their cleats and get ready to compete is a feeling that all players share. "People won't see me making speeches to my team, but they will see my face with the desire to win," said Enzo Alisson, junior information technology major and Brazilian player at the cup.

Winning a soccer game goes beyond a title. Levy said that winning is the pride of representing your country and giving happiness to everyone watching you.

Soccer is an opportunity to bring a community together regardless of gender or age. For example, Kristin Nurnberg, a freshman media production and management major and Ecuadorian player, said women also participate in the UCF Latin Cup. Nurnberg said the opportunity to represent women in each game means a lot to her as it shows that women can also give their all on the field.

"We are capable of everything although some people think we don't know how to play," Nurnberg said. "My teammates celebrate the effort of the women on the team and that feels amazing and rewarding."

Soccer is a passion that flows through the veins and settles deep within the hearts of an entire community. The creation of the UCF Latin Cup exemplifies the desire to share this deep love for the game. This competition has fostered a sense of family among Hispanic student organizations by allowing them to share and celebrate their common language: El futbol. L

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

11

Words an

d Photo

12

FALL 2023

s by Ha yden C

hurch

W

e traveled over 1,000 miles from home to work on a film we had no plan for. Eight UCF film students occupied every room of a $30-a-night motel for 15 days in Jet, Oklahoma.

With UCF funding everything, we were determined to fully immerse ourselves in this ambitious project. We all knew this was a one-of-a-kind experience and completely unheard of at an undergraduate level.

just as much a part of it. In our off time, we would sit around and talk about the scenes we shot that day.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we arrived in Oklahoma. Professor Phil Peters had explained the process of making an entire feature film with no script, but it was still hard to deal with the fact that we were going in completely unprepared.

Connected to the motel was the town’s liquor store. The first time I entered the small wooden building, I was greeted by the one-legged owner and his dog, who immediately peed on the floor.

Months before, I sat in Professor Peters’ office as he clicked through the Google Maps street view of Jet, Oklahoma. Empty roads and deteriorated buildings occupied the main street of the 202-population town. Peters had visited a couple of times with the film’s director Miloš Ajdinović, a UCF Film MFA graduate and former professor. The two have worked for years, researching ultra-low-budget filmmaking techniques. This process involves a small cast, developing characters prior to the production, and then improvising the film’s plot as it’s filmed.

When I asked a local about the “For Sale” sign outside the Salt Plains Motel, he laughed.

This process created quite a challenge for our small crew of undergrads since it was most of our first time working on a feature film. Every day we woke up not knowing what we would be filming. This was exciting some days. On other days, it was extremely overwhelming.

Because of this, the days were long. It’s one thing to be working on your friend’s short film and shooting for 3 days in an off-campus apartment, but this felt so much more real.

Before arriving in Jet, Ajdinović cast three actresses to star in the film and immediately began rehearsals. Emily Holder, Clarissa Cozzoni and Kendall Cavener had the responsibility of shaping the film’s story. The three, deciding they would portray sisters from the small town, proceeded to write diary entries, fleshing out their relationship and histories.

Our food options were limited in Jet. Peters constantly referred to the area as a “food desert.” The only restaurant in a 10-mile radius was a small grill inside the town’s gas station. I ate a cheeseburger with fries and a large Coke almost every day.

“They’ve been trying to sell that place for years,” said Lindeen Evans, owner of Yoder Gas. Our presence in the small town seemed to be the most exciting thing to happen in a long time. As I sat in Evans’ office, decorated with his extensive hat collection and homemade taxidermy, he described the town’s heyday. Jet is most known for its proximity to Salt Plains State Park, a massive wildlife refuge and salt lake. Evans described thousands flooding to the Plains for camping and swimming.

Over time, however, the salt lake dried up, and so did the tourism. Almost every local that brought up the salt lake explained that now it’s so shallow you could walk all the way across it, feeling fish bones breaking under your feet.

The night we wrapped shooting, we were invited to a barbecue at the mayor’s house.

This was a soothing gesture after our final, anxiety-filled, day of shooting. The film’s story had reached a tense point, where it became difficult to figure out an ending.

We reached a consensus to set up a confrontation between the three sisters. This was a hard scene for our actresses. We had shot for two weeks where they improvised every piece of dialogue. Now they had to perform a satisfying finale. We shot three 25 to 30-minute takes with varying endings, which all ended with the actresses screaming and cursing at each other in the streets of the quiet, conservative town.

The first scene we shot involved two of the sisters having their first conversation in ten years. It was a tough scene for the crew and actors, as we still didn’t have a grasp on the characters and the film’s story. It was evident we would have to adapt to the The locals were thankfully unbothered. That night, we ate meat

by Hayden Church unfamiliar process very quickly. directly off the grill and those of us over 21 drank Coors Lights out of massive coolers in the back of the mayor’s pickup truck.

Lots of complications came from making a film with no plan.

The night ended with me riding on the back of an ATV while Early in the shoot, it became clear that our main characters needthe mayor’s 10-year-old son drove. ed a house. Professor Peters and our Unit Production Manager Logan Schmideler got to work to find an empty, fully furnished At the time of publication, the film’s title is “The Long Road house we could use for an entire week in the 173-acre town.

Home” and is not set to come out for over a year.

Their persistence paid off and our production quickly shifted When I started at UCF, I had no idea there would be an opporinto a small two-bedroom, one-story, spider-infested home right tunity to work on an assignment like this. We acted as guinea off the main street. There was one rule -- we weren’t allowed pigs in a style of filmmaking unknown to most. I remember hearto use the home’s bathroom, which became very frustrating ing that a couple of students turned down working on this projthroughout our 12-hour shoot days. ect, but to me, it was a no-brainer. We learned what it’s like to work on a real feature film production. It was, without a doubt, As the actresses worked and developed the story, the crew was the highlight of my undergraduate career. L CENTRIC MAGAZINE

13

We never met the owners of the house we were shooting in. Professor Peters explained that it was last occupied by an older widow. When she began dating another widower in the town, she moved in with him down the street, but couldn’t bring herself to sell her old home.

For the film, my position was 2nd unit camera operator. This means that while the main crew was filming, I would get tons of b-roll and establishing shots. This led to hours of myself walking around the town alone. One day, I was walking behind the overgrown dirt trail behind the Jiffy Mart and was stopped by a local driving by. He insisted that I take the number of an 84-year-old man who had lived in Jet his whole life. I tried to explain to him that we were not making a documentary, but I took the number.

14

FALL 2023

The motel’s owners, Donna and Michael Keller, kept pretty busy during our time in Jet. Along with keeping our rooms clean, Donna would pick up shifts at the Jiffy Mart where we ate most of our meals. She made a good quesadilla and would fold my clothes that I left on the floor, which made me feel guilty. Michael was the sole employee of Salt Plains Liquor, which was connected to the motel. One day, a couple of our crew members complained about their AC units having some dust.

Later, I saw Michael spraying the units with a hose.

We spent days filming in the house with no AC. In the nearly untouched vintage kitchen, we discovered an old radio system built into the wall. In between setups, we would blast music throughout the dusty one-story home. Some of my best memories involve singing, dancing and sweating.

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

15

by Leticia Silva

Finding support in tough times.

B

eing the eldest of nine children, Yuriem Rodriguez, junior secondary education major, always felt a sense of responsibility to take care of others. This feeling has often been accompanied by stress and anxiety.

When she graduated high school in 2009, she joined the military, even though she wanted to go to college.

“I thought about going to college, but I knew I wasn’t mentally there to focus on school,” Rodriguez said.

While in the military, Rodriguez said she faced multiple hardships and felt mentally drained. After years of being deployed, her contract ended and she chose not to reenlist to spend more time with her siblings.

Rodriguez worked full-time for a few years while helping take care of her siblings, still struggling with her mental health. In 2018, she moved from Pennsylvania to Florida to pursue her long-awaited college experience and become a secondary education teacher.

“I was like, I’m going back to school. I’m getting my degree. Nothing is stopping me this time,” Rodriguez said.

As she began her college career in 2020, something actually did stop her, COVID-19.

“I was like, ‘you got to be kidding me,’ like, there’s always another obstacle,” Rodriguez said.

During the academic year 2021-22, CAPS offered services to 5,769 students from UCF and Valencia’s downtown campus, according to their annual report.

Of those who got services from CAPS, 64% displayed symptoms of anxiety and 44% displayed symptoms of depression. Ninety-five percent of UCF students who were included in the annual report said that CAPS has been helpful and effective in their lives. Vanessa Stein, assistant director of CAPS, introduced effective coping strategies and exercises that students can use that do not require them to seek professional help.

Stein said educating yourself on mental health and recognizing the signs and symptoms of anxiety and depression are some of the most beneficial things you can do to better your mental health.

Some symptoms to look out for include: low-mood, irritability, loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed, worry, fear, thoughts that feel like they are out of control and fear of judgment.

Feeling discouraged, Rodriguez tried to find ways to cope with her feelings through the saying; “hurt, feel, pray, heal”

Stein also discussed an application provided through the UCF app, “Togetherall,” that allows students to anonymously communicate with other students about mental health struggles, reminding students they are never alone.

“You can’t get through it if you don’t let yourself accept whatever it is that is going on,” Rodriguez said.

“We try to offer services where everyone is safe,” Stein said.

Through finding comfort in her emotions, letting herself hurt, reaching out to trusted people in her life and setting goals for herself, she pushed through the anxiety, depression, and stress.

Though Stein recognizes that not everyone needs therapy or professional counseling, she recommends having a support system when going through difficult times.

“If you have to cry because you’re stressed out, cry, like, let it all out,” Rodriguez said. “Then you’re going to be like, alright, why am I even crying at this point? I’m good, I let it out. I feel better. I feel refreshed.”

“Let someone know, even if it’s not a counselor,” Stein said. “If it’s a friend, if it’s a trusted family member, if it’s a religious figure, whoever that is, because you never want to be alone.”

At UCF, the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) offers initial assessments, therapy, workshops, crisis interventions and more to any enrolled-health-fee paying student, according to UCF’s website.

Stein said that self-care is extremely important when it comes to mental health. Recognizing changes in sleeping, eating, physical and social habits and making the appropriate adjustments can allow almost anyone to help themselves through challenging situations. L

at UCF

displayed symptoms of anxiety

students surveyed 16

FALL 2023

displayed symptoms of depression

by Kyla Woodard

S

elf-proclaimed ‘yogis’ are waving goodbye to the noise and embracing the quiet. From the stretching of muscles to loads of calming breathing techniques, the practice of yoga has become a popular approach to soothing the inner mind.

Sarah Reed, junior and early childhood development and education major, has been practicing yoga for about a year, and said that it has become a way for her to feel empowered. Diagnosed with anxiety at a young age, Reed said she struggles with being in her own head daily.

Illustrations by Victor Davila

“[Anxiety] really affects my daily life because I just struggle to do things and get out of the house,” Reed said. “And, I just worry constantly about everything, even random scenarios. And I think, for yoga, I just get to forget all of that.”

According to the Yoga Journal, yoga is credited as a way to practice selfcare and reject the stigma surrounding mental health disorders.

Anxiety disorders are one of the most common forms of illness amongst students. According to The Center for Advancing Health and a 2021 Healthy Minds Network survey, 31% of college students have an anxiety diagnosis.

However, taking the time to stretch their limbs and breathe deeply can lead students on a journey of mental solitude.

UCF Health Sciences lecturer, A’Naja Newsome, elaborated on some of the positive effects that yoga can have on the mental health of young adults. “[In] yoga classes, there’s this community aspect. There’s this social support aspect. And, we know that social support is highly correlated with positive mental health in college students,” Newsome said.

Newsome noted that people who regularly exercise tend to possess more structured, forward-looking characteristics. Ultimately, leading to better coping strategies for handling stressors.

Traditional yoga stances such as the cat-cow pose, lion pose, warrior poses and child’s pose are forms of gentle exercise mainly rooted in clearing the mind with soothing breaths.

“They have to realize how their breathing is powerful,” said Shiva Jahani, a yoga instructor and lecturer in the College of Community Innovation and Education.

Jahani explained that learning how to properly breathe is fundamental to giving proper control and power to the nervous system.

Doing something as simple as sitting the wrong way can put more pressure on the chest, negatively affecting a person’s breathing, leading to higher levels of stress and anxiety.

For this reason, Jahani said that taking the time to pose the body in mindful positions is helpful. Jahani added that practicing yoga techniques can immediately change a person’s nervous system and shift them to a confident mindset.

Freshman and biotechnology major Valentina Dajcz said that since starting yoga, she has felt the positive connection between her body and mind.

Dajcz said that doing yoga allows her to stretch, while putting her mind to the mat.

“I think it’s nice to have a moment for yourself to settle down, to relax, to meditate, to connect with the present,” Dajcz said.

Reed said that one of her favorite poses to do is the relaxing child’s pose, as facing the floor allows her to maintain her focus.

“I just have to focus on my breath. And I think that really helps my anxiety because my brain is going so fast all the time,” Reed said. “And, it just gives me a minute to be in the moment and be mindful of my body and myself, and not worry about the others around me.”

From being a niche practice in Indian culture, to becoming a global phenomenon, yoga continues to make its mark. With the help of a mat, a water bottle, and a heavy mind, achieving peace has been made easier.

“That’s the beauty of yoga. Knowing yourself, who you are, and what you can do,” Jahani said. L CENTRIC MAGAZINE

17

in my “stan” era Exploring the effects of having a stan account at a formative age

Follow

madison.schluter

tan culture changed the world — it not only became a determining factor in what charts in the music industry, but it also changed how society views celebrities. While the term “stan” was brought into popular culture by Eminem in his 2000 song “Stan” as a fusion between the words “stalker” and “fan,” it has been adopted to describe extremely dedicated fans in online spaces and ultimately began in 2010 with the rise of One Direction.

In the early 2010’s, people (mainly teens and pre-teens) began running “stan accounts” like it was a business; posting multiple times a day, making edits and videos to support their favorite celebrity or fandom.

For clinical psychology major Madison Schluter, her middle school memories were largely associated with fandom merchandise, internet friends and making edits for Tumblr and Twitter, now known as “X”. She considered herself a “Directioner” and dedicated time and money to supporting bands like One Direction. She also had multiple accounts dedicated to different celebrities. She remembers students skipping school to go to “Playlist Live” or “DigiTour” to see their favorite content creators or waiting in line at a concert venue to see their favorite artists perform, and this still rings true today.

Most students at UCF now were very young in 2010, but many were active in stan culture. It existed on virtually every social media platform but dominated Tumblr, Instagram and X. madison.schluter:

2,356 notes “I made a lot of [internet] friends during the years of my life that I didn’t really have a lot of [local] friends. I made connections that I would’ve never made and it was really nice to have a community of people who enjoyed the same thing,” Schluter said. “But unregulated internet use at a young age definitely did something. I think that goes for a lot of our generation.”

Stan accounts have been known to provide a community for people from across the world to meet others with the same interests. “Internet friends” became a huge phenomenon and people have been video chatting and even flying across the world to meet the friends they made through stan accounts.

While this could be seen as a safety hazard, it is a norm for many users.

Advertising and public relations major Amanda Janvier, who had stan accounts for Ariana Grande, Dan and Phil, and BTS, has internet friends from across the country.

18

FALL 2023

“I met a lot of my friends through stan Twitter,” Janvier said. “One of my best friends [is] from K-pop Twitter and stan Twitter, I literally went to New York to see her and I’ve seen her twice now.”

Being on the internet so actively at such formative ages has been proven to have shaped the minds of an entire generation. According to the Child Mind Institute, kids are growing up with more anxiety and less self-esteem in correlation to social media use. While having a stan account was seen as positive by many, it also had significant downsides.

Specifically Stan Twitter, which has a reputation for being an extremely toxic environment where fandoms often bring each other down. Some even doxx people with differing opinions. Doxxing is the malicious publication of information on the internet such as home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. This platform also has a reputation for directly fueling “cancel culture” which has been a controversial topic over the years.

Stan culture is not completely one-sided. Sometimes, celebrities interact back. For stans of Taylor Swift (AKA Swifties) encounters with Taylor Nation are sought after. While Taylor Nation is a Taylor Swift fan club in itself, it is practically an extension of her marketing and PR teams.

Swift will often find her most dedicated Swifties on social media and invite them to exclusive events: meet and greets, listening parties and, most recently, the red carpet of “The Eras Tour Film” premiere. Swift used to be active on Tumblr and would directly interact with fans a lot.

Natasha Martinez, who has considered herself a Swiftie for the last decade, was contacted by Taylor Nation after Swift followed her on Tumblr in 2015. Taylor Nation invited Martinez to meet Swift before the Reputation World Tour.

“Taylor does an incredible job of making fans feel seen and loved, even in her post-tumblr era,” Martinez said. “She held secret sessions for 3 albums, inviting hundreds of fans to her house to listen to the album before its release and met all of them. Taylor Nation does a good job organizing these events and making sure fans are having fun.”

Stan culture has changed a lot over the years, but stan accounts are still alive and well. Now that Elon Musk has taken over what was once Twitter with intentions to charge users, X is facing the potential loss of accounts who used the platform to interact within their fandoms. Many stans are moving to TikTok to post video edits of their favorite artists or characters. This generation of college students has grown up with stan culture and both will continue to evolve as the internet does. L

Photos courtesy of Madison Schluter

by Alexandra Sullivan

How UCF achieved the dreams of its alumni and joined the Big 12 he 2023 UCF football season was a monumental one for the program, as it was the university’s first time in the Big 12 Conference. The Big 12 is part of the Power Five football conferences, which are historically the most successful conferences in Division I football.

Rising to football prominence came quickly for the young university. Starting the program’s history in 1979 in Division III, all 14 coaches were unpaid and there were no scholarships for the players. The players and coaches competed solely for the love of the game and believed that Orlando provided the team a bright future.

Since then, UCF’s football team has allowed the dreams of these founding players to become a reality, climbing seven more divisions since the early ‘80s.

Photos courtesy of UCF

During the program’s first season in the American Athletic Conference, UCF went 12-1, winning the conference and earning an appearance against the high-flying offense of the Big 12 champion, Baylor, as 17-point underdogs. The Knights emerged victorious, pulling off a massive 51-45 upset and becoming the youngest program to win the Fiesta Bowl.

Three players from three historic seasons shared their experiences and feelings toward the team’s ever growing accomplishments.

1979 -1981 RON JOHNSON Safety “There was so much unbridled enthusiasm on that first team. Being in Orlando, I believed this had the possibility to be one of those giant universities. The growth opportunity was virtually unlimited. There was no history, everything was unknown. Everything was on the table.

We didn’t have money, but we did have fans. We set a [Divison III] record for home attendance. We had 14,188 screaming drunk fans because the legal drinking age was 18. It was loud.

To us, it felt kinda like as big time as you could get.”

2011 - 2014 TERRANCE PLUMMER Linebacker, Fiesta Bowl Defensive MVP “The biggest difference between the AAC and Conference USA, in my opinion, was just exposure. If you won the AAC, you were an automatic qualifier for a New Year’s Game, and that was huge because we were all great players who got looked over because of size and people saying we wouldn’t be great. We had the opportunity to prove that we were worthy of the big stage, and I think for us during that time period, it meant the most to us. We were meant for this moment. We a ‘big dawg’ now.”

2018 - 2023 ALEC HOLLER Tight End and Captain “It’s extremely special to see the foundation that’s been laid before us by...those guys that weren’t on scholarships,” Holler said. “Now they’re able to see what we’re doing out on the field and knowing that every single week that we go out to perform, we’re playing for those guys as well and all the past alumKnights. It’s really cool to see the growth.”

With UCF now having the opportunity to win in the Big 12, Holler said “It’s something that Knight Nation deserves.” L

FROM UNDERDOG TO UNDENIABLE

by Isaiah Delgado

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

19

By: Camila Escobar

E

very year, hundreds of UCF students choose to leave their homes and venture into foreign lands to continue their education with various study abroad programs. UCF and Rosen College of Hospitality Management have partnerships with many institutions globally from Germany to South Korea. These four students shared their adventures and how the memories of those precious moments abroad will stay engraved in their hearts forever.

Taylor Haycock is a senior at UCF majoring in political science. She studied abroad at Leuphana University in Lüneburg Germany for the winter semester in 2022.

a bucket list originally to go to a music festival, a concert internationally, and stay in hostels, and I was able to check off everything on it… I think to anyone who’s debating studying abroad, you just gotta do it, it doesn’t matter how scary it is… Travel as much as you can because the time that you spend there is precious.”

Sage Kehr is a senior political science major with minors in math, music, and international business. In furthering his minor in international business, he decided to study abroad at the University of Seoul in South Korea from Feb. 27 to June 22.

“I grew up in Germany for a few years because my dad was in the military, so that’s kind of where the love started… I’m pursuing a Fulbright grant, which is a Fulbright ETA, which stands for English teaching assistantship.

It’s a government funded program where you go for a year and you teach English at a German primary or Middle High School equivalent…

Luckily for me, there was a German exchange program through UCF… I took German politics, political sociology, and culture, and security and international politics. I was also taking German as a foreign language, so I was working on my German while I was there, which was fantastic… When I didn’t have class, I was able to explore, which was so fun. Leuphana gives you a student card, which is kind of like your ID. It gives you free public transportation in Lower Saxony.

It was definitely my favorite part…

What I really wanted out of this experience was that language exposure, speaking with other people, you know, in the language and in the place where it’s most spoken and I feel like I definitely got that… I went away with the German perspective on political issues, and an understanding of the German government and its institutions that I didn’t have before.”

“Ultimately, my goal is to specialize in intellectual property and become a lawyer for musicians and protect artistry. So I knew I wanted to pick a study abroad program that had something to do with those things and find a way to synthesize them together… Korea was interesting, because it was somewhere that I was unfamiliar with. It was also somewhere that I know has a very large entertainment industry… I knew going over there that I wanted to join a club or do something to get involved, because I didn’t want it to be like a typical touristy semester abroad, I wanted to know what it felt like to live there… Meeting my Seoulmate group and joining a music club made my homesickness go away a little bit, and I truly believe that the music club was the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in college… If I could pinpoint one moment that was life changing for me though, it would be May 24th. I was hanging out with friends eating food at a restaurant we went to all the time. The lights dim and two of my best friends walk in with a cake and everyone starts singing happy birthday in English. They not only took the time to plan a surprise party but had also learned the entire birthday song in English for me… It was the moment where it stopped feeling like I was studying abroad and it started feeling like I just moved to a new home for a semester.”

Tye Rothberg is a Rosen College of Hospitality Management alumnus who majored in entertainment management. In 2022, Rothberg attended IULM University, a private communications college in the heart of Milan.

Vivianys Soto is a senior health sciences major. She attended a master’s graduate school in May 2022 called La Universitat de Barcelona in Spain.

“When I first got to college, I had a list of things I wanted to do, and studying abroad was very high on that list… I’ve always been really enamored with Italian culture after I visited in 2019 with my family. So when I saw Milan on the list, I definitely wanted to check that out… I studied in Milan for three months then backpacked parts of Europe for another three months… I did an internship at the Cannes International Film Festival in France which is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world… I also camped in the Dolomites which is a crazy mountain range in Italy and sledded down the Alps in Switzerland right at the base of the Matterhorn…When classes started it was really fun to get into the routine of going to school in Italy. I only had class Tuesdays and Thursdays, which made it much easier to travel on my time off… I made

“I had always wanted to go to Spain and since I know the language, it was the obvious choice for me… While I was there, we visited every monument in Barcelona, one of my favorites being La Sagrada Familia…

As for our classes, we visited hospitals, and then we also visited a research lab… There, we learned about how they did their research, and how the medicine itself, and health care is provided in Barcelona… I will say something that really caught my eye was how people treated you over there. I thought they were going to be more stubborn, but they were very nice, which I loved. It reminded me a lot of Puerto Rico, where I am from, which made it feel a little bit more homey… Living in Barcelona gave me a broader outlook on life… The lifestyle here in the US is so much different from Spain. Here we live in such a rush, paycheck by paycheck, and it’s so overwhelming, but over there, they don’t live to work, they work to live.” L

“It was the moment where it stopped feeling like I was studying abroad and it started feeling like I just moved to a new home for a semester.”

20

FALL 2023

four UCF students share their journeys studying abroad

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

21

Photos courtesy of Taylor Haycock, Vivianys Soto, Tye Rothberg, Sage Kehr

By Adrienne Labay

“They repeated a question I had for my soul, and someone made it into a song.”

T

his quote comes from UCF alumna Kelle Groom. She is a poet, writer, and editor who returned to her alma mater during the Fall 2023 semester to celebrate the publishing of her latest work, “How To Live”, her second memoir.

UCF’s organization, Writers in the Sun, hosted Groom as a guest speaker to inspire the new generation of writers. Krista Ruffo, a junior creative writing major, opened the event by describing Groom and her work.

“It’s just kind of a confidence boost when I see a fellow writer getting up and speaking and just hearing what she wrote.” Ruffo said. “It just gives me inspiration.”

Photo courtesy of Kelle Groom

Kerrigan Azme is a sophomore creative writing major and a member of Writers in the Sun. Azme was a volunteer at the event and was particularly moved by Groom’s work.

“I feel like… she was so descriptive of the space that she was in and she really inhabited it,” Azme said. “It was really interesting, I felt like I learned a lot as a writer, like the specificity she was giving. I loved it.”

“How To Live” describes the four years Groom spent as a traveling author.

During these years, she did residencies and fellowships, and lived in artist housing. The book explores several different themes, such as the concept of home. The work is published as a series of essays, organized by place.

The book, however, was almost published as a different creature altogether.

Groom said an editor asked her to rewrite the book to be in chronological order, which caused a rift in her process.

Groom said she rewrote the work and connected all the pieces, but by the end of it, she said it felt fake and that she “didn’t even like the book.”

After this set back, rewriting the book again accomplished something of meaning for her.

“It made me feel confident in what it was,” Groom said. “I couldn’t do what someone else wanted with their vision…. It made me feel more certain that this was the way it should be.”

Groom’s other works include her first memoir, “I Wore the Ocean In the Shape Of a Girl”, which she published in 2011 after working on it for almost two decades.

It details her struggles with alcoholism and the death of her infant son, whom she had given up for adoption.

“And so, since I had given him away, I had always had this hunger to know anything about his life,” Groom said. “But my family was so crushed by what had happened, the death, that no one could speak of him…I couldn’t find out.”

Since Groom could not learn more about her son, her memoir instead talked about Brogden, the town her son had lived in before his passing.

These two memoirs are not all Groom has to show, in fact she has been a writer almost her entire life.

22

FALL 2023

“My mom has all these poems that I wrote when I was five and six years old,” Groom said. “My dad got me a typewriter when I was maybe ten. And so I would just write, I just wrote stories.”

According to the Poetry Foundation, Groom has written four books of poetry. Her first published book was “Underwater City” in 2004. Then she published “Luckily” (2006) and “Five Kingdoms” (2010), both of which are Florida Book Award winners. In 2017, she published her poetry book, “Spill”. Groom continues to publish poetry and her works have appeared in The New Yorker, The Best American Poetry and Ploughshares.

Groom attended UCF three separate times to continue her education. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in English in 1989, a master of arts in English and creative writing in 1995, and received a master of fine arts (MFA) in creative writing and an MFA in English and poetry in 2008.

“I think that the most important thing, being, having a university environment really did give me a lot of support, but it was just having a community, having peers…” Groom said.

By coming back to her roots to speak with UCF’s future poets and writers, Groom has set an example of what hard work and perseverance can accomplish throughout a writer’s journey. L

How a student’s dream of creating a manga, a Japanese inspired comic book, became a reality.

Pizarro contacted Lértora and commissioned him to work on illustrations that would complement the scripts. This led to them fully working on “Tanaka” together and making Pizarro’s dream visually come to life.

by Andrew Hamilton

I Photos courtesy of Gabriel Pizarro

t took one student’s childhood dream and an artist from Chile to create a manga with an online presence of over 20,000 views. Gabriel Pizarro, a sophomore graphic design student, has dreamt of creating a manga since he was a child. With the Internet’s help, his dream came true.

The manga is titled “Tanaka” and is meant to show how “revenge and anger can destroy a person that was once happy”, as described by Pizarro. Pizarro named “Tanaka” after the main character, Leroy Tanaka. “Tanaka” was released in the Spring 2023 semester and covers Volume 1 of the story including 40 fully illustrated pages. Volume 2 of the manga was set to be released in November 2023.

At the time of publication, “Tanaka” had 23,000 views on Manga Plus Creators and Pizarro promoted it on Reddit, X, and Instagram.

He posted on UCF’s Reddit, and other writing communities, which attributed to “getting the manga out there,” as he stated. Pizarro also posted “Tanaka” on Puerto Rican-based Reddit pages because of his Puerto Rican background.

Before Pizarro made “Tanaka”, he had been working on an anime character’s face for a clothing design for his company, GP Clothes.

This eventually led to him forming the design for the main character of “Tanaka”, giving more progress to his vision. He wrote dialogue scripts for the manga he wanted to create and after some of his friends supported him in making a full-fledged production, he sought out help with illustrations.

Pizarro saw the previous work of artist Salvatore Lértora in his advertisement on Fiver, a freelance service website, and decided that he would be the best fit for the visual component of “Tanaka”. Lértora had his start on Fiver making illustrations for people in 2019, when he got his first digital tablet. He said when he was 14 years-old he wanted to support his parents financially, so he turned to illustrations on Fiver as a job.

Their workflow process was very organized. Pizarro would have descriptions of panels on the pages such as a character doing a certain action in Panel 1. He would then work with Lértora on how these visuals would come out and adhere to his script.

Lértora said that “Tanaka” was the first manga that he had been asked to illustrate. A struggle that Lértora faced was turning dialogue-based scenes into illustrations, as he has a more “action-focused style” in his other works.

Lértora said that communication between him and Pizarro was “very pleasant” despite the different time zones, due to Lértora being in Chile.

Pizarro and Lértora were able to communicate in Spanish with each other, which made the process easier for them both.

Pizarro stated that “some pages were ideas that he came up with, a lot I always really liked and some I had to tell him to change because I wasn’t a huge fan of it.” At the end of the day, however, Pizarro said that “we would always be on the same page when it came to his and my ideas.”

Pizarro used a lot of existing anime and pop culture to influence the tone and story structure for his manga. He stated that the anime “Attack on Titan” inspired the overall tone and start of the story, as well as “Dragon Ball Z” for the action scenes.

When asked about what he would recommend to others who want to pursue artistic ideas, Pizarro encouraged others to give it a shot. He stressed that making the story meaningful to the audience is what matters the most.

Pizarro also encourages others to get on the manga-making train, as there is a lack of U.S. manga artists due to its Japanese heritage. Connecting with new people from faraway places can lead to accomplishing great things in one’s personal life, and Pizarro and Lértora are perfect examples of that. Through mutual work between individuals, these two worked to make their dreams come together and create a product that shows just how resourceful and hardworking people can be.

The first volume of “Tanaka” can be read on Medibang.com. L CENTRIC MAGAZINE

23

by Valeria Bartra

C

ontraception has been the sole responsibility of women for years, but that soon could change.

Women have about 11 options for birth control while men only have two — condoms or vasectomy.

Some people are unaware of the new options for men that have been developing for years. One of the most common forms of contraception for women is being modified and tested for men’s use as well: the pill.

Alexander Conger, 20, is a junior finance major who has been interested in taking male birth control since high school. Conger believes that as a single man, he would have more control over the chances of causing an unwanted pregnancy by having extra protection. Taking a contraceptive for Conger also means confidence and security in himself.

Conger said, “I would like to have control over my body and make sure my partner and I are safe.”

24

FALL 2023

“ Vasectomies are minimally invasive procedures that cut the vas deferens tube in a man’s scrotum. Vasectomies are 99% effective.

11-beta-MNTDC, a hormonal oral contraceptive pill for men, completed Phase I testing in 2020, but researchers haven’t announced a Phase II test at this time. Some of the more common side effects encountered were nothing short of what women sometimes encounter on birth control pills. Fatigue, acne and headaches were the most common.

Few reported mildly decreased sex drive and mild erectile dysfunction. Blood tests also revealed more serious side effects such as an increase in bad cholesterol, rise in creatinine levels which could cause kidney trouble, and a drop in SHBG which can raise the risk of Type 2 diabetes and other conditions in males.

According to Stanford Medicine, there are two ways to reverse vasectomies. Vasovasotomy (90-95% successful) and vasoepididymostomy (65-70% successful).

A hormonal gel called NES/T gel has completed two phases of human testing. Side effects such as acne, decreased libido, mood swings, insomnia, headaches, asthma exacerbation and depression occurred in less than 30% of men.

According to the National Institutes of Health, there is also a non-hormonal compound pill called TDI-11861 that temporarily immobilizes sperm but has only been tested on mice. This pill has not created any adverse side effects so far.

Conger would take a male birth control pill if it was regulated and widely accepted, but if it wasn’t, he would have second thoughts.

Joshua Conn, 22, is a fifth year hospitality major. He said he would “immediately” take a birth control pill.

“I’d still have the protection,” he said. “I’m not looking for babies any time soon. Also, I feel like girls all take it, so what’s the difference with a guy taking it?” Conn has even considered getting a vasectomy.

According to Planned Parenthood, condoms are about 87% effective at preventing pregnancies. About 13 out of 100 pregnancies occur while using condoms.

TDI-11861 inhibits an enzyme called soluble adenylyl cyclase that causes sperm to move.

Sperm immobilization lasted for up to two and a half hours.

Vasectomies are minimally invasive, reversible procedures that, according to NHS Inform, are over 99% effective at preventing pregnancy One non-hormonal gel that works similarly to a vasectomy is ADAM. This gel blocks sperm from traveling past it and liquifies after one to three years depending on preference. According to the Contraline website, ADAM is planned to begin testing in 2024.

Options for contraception are extremely important in the case that one doesn’t work or isn’t appealing to the individual, there should be alternatives. Robyn Schickler is the current chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood in Southwest and Central Florida as well as an OBGYN and family planning specialist who has been in practice for about four years. She believes that the number of women seeking birth control will stay the same for a while after male birth control is released to the public.

“Many women want to take control of themselves just to be absolutely sure, but my guess is it will stay the same,” said Schickler.

Schickler said that male birth control “Was not taken up very well because men did not like the side effects. We [women] throughout history have dealt with the side effects.”

Taking any form of birth control is a personal decision that many women make in order to avoid pregnancy. Soon, men will be able to make that decision as well. While the side effects do seem to be alarming to some men, some women see them as part of the birth control experience. The only way to have contraception without side effects is to use non-hormonal birth control or to abstain from having sex. Now that there will be more options, men and women can learn to share the responsibility of contraception and Gen-Z might become the generation of male birth control. L

TDI-11861 inhibits an enzyme called soluble adenylyl cyclase that causes sperm to move.

Sperm immobilization lasted for up to two and a half hours.

According to Contraline’s website, ADAM has begun human testing in 2022 in Australia and plans to expand to other countries in 2024.

NES/T gel is a combination gel of nesterone and testosterone that is applied to the shoulders and upper arms daily to suppress sperm production.

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

25

by David De Los Santos he dreaded “freshman 15.” Coming into college, this is a major fear for many first-time students. This expression refers to the belief that after entering college, many freshmen gain 15 pounds. This isn’t entirely true, but over 50% of freshmen gain an average of 11.22 pounds in their first year, according to a study by the National Library of Medicine.

This sudden weight gain could be attributed to the stress of being in a new environment, but also to the increased amount of fast food college students typically consume.

A study done by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro found that college students eat fast food 70% more often than non-college-attending adults within the same community. According to a NYU study, college students on average eat fast food one to three times a week.

Cheryl Cavaliere is a registered dietitian nutritionist and a lecturer of human nutrition at UCF’s College of Health Sciences and Professions.

“I witness students each day paying a high price for their Chick-fil-A sandwiches and other fastfood places on campus,” Cavaliere said. “I know this purchase is made out of convenience and flavor impulse rather than a consideration for the most nutritious choice or even fully considering the cost.”

Convenience is a major reason to opt for fast food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans aged 18 to 24 spend 21 minutes on average preparing a meal. McDonalds, the largest fast food chain in the world, can prepare food within three to five minutes, according to their website.

Kanison Simms is a senior health sciences major who plans meals and cooks regularly. He began cooking his freshman year of college and has been enjoying it ever since. Simms believes that his ability to eat a good breakfast, lunch, and dinner is what helps him have the energy to get through the day.

26

FALL 2023

“I started cooking due to survival,” Simms said.

“Just acclimating to the college environment, I didn’t know how to sustain myself. The first question was, ‘What do you buy?’”

Aetna is a health insurance and health care benefit company that provides people with information and resources to make better healthcare decisions, according to their website.

By cooking, people can avoid highly processed and high-sodium fast foods and frozen meals.

In addition, cooking allows the person to be involved in the entire food creation process and gain a better understanding of what is going on in their body, according to Aetna.

People also tend to eat lower portions when they eat at home since they are less likely to serve themselves restaurant-sized portions that are often big enough to feed more than one person, according to Aetna.

Another benefit to cooking at home is that students can save money.

According to Forbes, in 2018 the average price for a restaurant delivered meal was $20.37, while the average price for a home cooked meal was $4.31. The average price of a commercially made meal with no delivery was $13, which is still 325% more expensive than eating at home.

Abdallah Mbowe is a senior health sciences major who cooks and meal preps on a weekly basis.

He shops at a variety of grocery stores such as Publix, Walmart and Aldi.

“The biggest reason I cook right now is just how expensive it is to eat out,” Mbowe said. “I shop at different stores because things will be cheaper depending on where you go. My favorite store right now is Aldi because the prices are cheap even without deals.” L

“

> > > > > Illustration by Anabel Barker

T

Publix Eggs, Large (12 count)

2.59

Butterball Natural Inspirations Fully Cooked Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties (8 count)

5.19

Kellogg’s Eggo Frozen Waffles, Frozen Breakfast, Breakfast Food, Chocolatey Chip (10 count)

3.99

Publix Ham, Black Forest, Thin Sliced (9oz)

5.53

Publix Cheese, Sharp Cheddar (10 slices)

2.77

Publix Rice, Jasmine (2 lbs)

3.87

Publix Bread, 100% Whole Wheat (20 oz)

3.31

Publix Chicken Tenderloins, 99% Fat Free, USDA Grade A, Vegetable Fed (1.13 lbs)

7.88

Publix Salad Blend, Classic (16 oz)

3.29

2 bags of Birds Eye Steamfresh Mixed Vegetables Frozen Vegetables (10 oz each)

5.50

Publix Fresh Ground Turkey, 93% Lean USDA-Inspected (16 oz)

5.53

Publix Fettuccine (16 oz)

1.65

Tasteful Selections Honey Gold Nibbles Baby Potatoes (16 oz)

5.53

Publix Pasta Sauce, Tomato, Garlic & Onion (24 oz)

2.11

Publix Butter, Salted, Sweet Cream (8 oz)

3.43

Vigo Olive Oil, Extra Virgin, Cold Pressed (3.85 oz)

3.09

Publix Salt (26 oz)

1.23

Publix Black Pepper, Ground (1.5 oz)

2.37

Goya Adobo with Pepper All Purpose Seasoning (8 oz)

2.65

Badia Spices Garlic Powder (3 oz)

2.37

Badia Spices Onion Powder (2.75 oz)

2.11

Badia Spices Oregano (0.5 oz)

2.59

3 Yellow Onions

3.36

2 Green Peppers

3.12

2 Beefsteak Tomatoes

2.54

Bananas (1 lb)

0.76

Quaker Granola Bars, Chewy, Chocolate Chip (8 count)

4.25

Simply Orange Pulp Free Juice Bottle (1.75 L)

5.19

Total:

97.80 or $13.97 a day for the week CENTRIC MAGAZINE

27

S

ound is produced due to the vibration of objects which creates a pressure wave. That wave causes surrounding particles to vibrate and move other particles which transmit sound. When you’re listening to your favorite song, the sound waves of music have proven to positively impact your mental health. Music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, pain, mental alertness and memory.

Here are some songs that the Centric staff turned to throughout the creation of this magazine to make waves for our own mental health.

Makayla Gray Hey Blondie by Dominic Fike Tummy Hurts by Reneé Rapp

Jillian Proudfoot I’M THAT GIRL by Beyoncé Fallen Fruit by Lorde

Alexandra Sullivan

New Romantics (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift R.E.M by Ariana Grande

Camila Escobar Bongos by Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B Wonderland (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift

Leticia Silva Snooze by SZ A Worth It by Offset feat. Don Toliver

Valeria Bartra After The Storm by Kali Uchis, Tyler, the Creator, Bootsy Collins Mientras Me Curo Del Cora by Karol G Megan Bauries Just Dance by Lady Gaga Jaded by Disclosure Hayden Church Come Monday by Jimmy Buffett Gucci Flip Flops by Bhad Bhabie

28

FALL 2023

Our playlist: “Sound Waves”

David De Los Santos Mimi’s Delivery Service by Good Kid HVN ON E ARTH by Lil Tecca and Kodak Black Isaiah Delgado Terry by Action Bronson Annabel by 49 Winchester Andrew Hamilton Cosmic Girl by Jamiroquai You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Momma Said)

by Kendrick Lamar Hannah Kaliszak HG4 by Rod Wave Ain’t Nothing New by Tee Grizzley Adrienne Labay Live Like a Warrior by Matisyahu Lions by Skillet Manuela Salinas Infante NX T X SIENTAS SOLX by Feid Bajo El Agua by Manuel Medrano Nicolas Salvat Perro Negro by Bad Bunny Virginia Beach by Drake Gabriella Valencia get him back! by Olivia Rodrigo Save your Tears by The Weeknd Kyla Woodard September by Earth, Wind & Fire Slide by Calvin Harris ft. Frank Ocean, Migos

Eric Michael Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster by Thee Oh Sees Ummon by Slift

Centric is the University of Central Florida’s student-run magazine that spotlights interesting, innovative and inspiring people in the UCF community — students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Editor-in-Chief Makayla Gray

Creative Director Jillian Proudfoot

Digital Director Alexandra Sullivan

Brand Engagement Director Camila Escobar

Copy Chief Leticia Silva

Staff Writers

Valeria Bartra Megan Bauries Hayden Church David De Los Santos Isaiah Delgado Andrew Hamilton Hannah Kaliszak Adrienne Labay Manuela Salinas Infante Nicolas Salvat Gabriella Valencia Kyla Woodard

Contributing Photographer Keira Gilmore

Contributing Illustrators Anabel Barker Victor Davila Coryn Flavin Natalie Plastina Beatriz Quintana Kayley Ullett Brenna Wold

Faculty Advisor Eric Michael

Founder

Rick Brunson Nicholson School of Communication and Media Director Dr. Robert Littlefield Special thanks to Dave Carriere, Victor Davila, Mary Frances Emmons, Patrick Greenish, Samantha Olson, Jamie Rich and the UCF Print Shop.

Centric is published annually each fall by students from the Nicholson School of Communication and Media at the University of Central Florida. Content may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Get More Centric Online

For more original content, photos and video, visit nicholsonstudentmedia.com/centric.

Engage with Us on Instagram

@centricmagazine

CENTRIC MAGAZINE

29

Cover illustration by Natalie Plastina