IMPACT, Spring 2018

impact T h e m a g a z i n e o f IGNI T E : T h e C a m p a i g n f o r U C F

Future focused

Mariah MORGENSTERN

Degrees in hand, this year’s first-generation graduates look toward the next challenge

Cinema Studies Major, Aspiring Filmmaker

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Inside Spring 2018 | Issue 1, Volume 2

CONGRATULATIONS, DR. WHITTAKER! On March 9, after an intensive, nationwide search process, the UCF Board of Trustees voted unanimously to select Dale Whittaker as UCF’s fifth president. Twenty days later, the Florida Board of Governors unanimously confirmed the trustees’ choice. Whittaker, who served as UCF Provost from 2014 until stepping down in April to prepare for his new role, calls the UCF presidency “the best job in the United States.”

A steadfast and influential supporter of UCF Advancement’s engagement and fundraising work, Whittaker sees philanthropy as the “margin of excellence that brings UCF’s impact to life.” His presidency begins July 1.

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UCF President-elect Dale Whittaker outside Millican Hall

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“I feel like I’ve set myself up for a good future because now I have both the degree and the experience.”

— Perri Faulk, first-generation graduate

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F lash P oints Rosengrens’ historic commitment / football breakfast / graduation success rate / presidential awards / new colleges / UCF Day of Giving

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T en M inutes with …

UCF Coastal Director and Pegasus Professor of Biology Graham Worthy

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perspecti v e Walt Disney World Resort CEO George Kalogridis ’76

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future - focused First-generation students are among UCF’s most inspiring graduates. Meet some of the trailblazers earning their degrees this spring.

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countdown IGNITE Campaign at a glance / campaign by the numbers / John C. Hitt Initiative for Faculty Excellence / record support for athletics Cover photograph by Malcolm Yawn

Impact is published three times annually by UCF Advancement for alumni, friends and partners of the university who have made philanthropic commitments to IGNITE: The Campaign for UCF. Please direct correspondence and address changes to foundation@ucf.edu or Impact Editor, 12424 Research Parkway, Suite 250, Orlando, FL 32826.

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VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT AND CEO, UCF Foundation, Inc. Michael J. Morsberger, CFRE

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS Stephen Toth (interim)

EDITOR Zack Thomas

ART DIRECTOR John Sizing jspublicationdesign.com

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HANNAH ESTES

Football Breakfast Sets Record “This university and football program are so intertwined into the community here in Orlando,” said football head coach Josh Heupel at the UCF Football Breakfast in late April. “This is a great opportunity to get out and meet a lot of people that are passionate about the university and the football program.”

Hosted at the Interlachen Country Club by the financial management firm MPC Wealth, together with law firm Shutts & Bowen, the breakfast allowed supporters of the athletics program to network with Heupel, UCF President John C. Hitt, Vice President and Director of

Jim ‘81 and Julia Rosengren at the President’s Appreciation Reception in 2017

Personal Connection

A historic commitment from Jim and Julia Rosengren supports diverse areas.

A new $6.6 million gift commitment from Jim ’81 and Julia Rosengren — among the largest in UCF history from an alumnus — benefits areas ranging from sea turtle research to football and languages to PTSD treatment.

“We just decided to spread the love around a little bit,” Jim says. “It is important to us to be able to take some of our wealth and put it in areas we are passionate about.”

The Rosengrens have a deep personal connection to each of the areas they support: PTSD treatment, sea turtles, language programs, science and football.

After returning from Iraq with severe PTSD symptoms, Jim’s son Josh was successfully treated at the UCF RESTORES clinic, which will benefit from the gift. His love of Knights football goes back to his student days as a ROTC cadet commander, when he fired a cannon to celebrate team touchdowns at the Citrus Bowl.

Julia accompanied sea turtle researchers during their work at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge and wanted to help them continue their mission. And her passion for travel and languages moved the Rosengrens to support foreign-language programs.

“We couldn’t choose,” Julia says. “We wanted to be part of something that really captured us.”

“We couldn’t choose.

We wanted to be part of something that really captured us.”

“At 94 percent, @UCFKnights have the highest Graduation Success Rate of any public #NCAA Division I FBS school ... talk about ‘national champs!’ ” — President-elect Dale Whittaker on Twitter on April 6, National StudentAthlete Day. The Knights have led all public universities in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision for four years running and this year trailed only six private institutions: Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt and Boston College.

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Head coach Josh Heupel greets Knights supporters.

Athletics Danny White and several prominent student-athletes.

Over the last five years, the event has raised more than $150,000 cumulatively. The $40,000 raised this year — a new record — will be directed to the UCF Football Excellence Fund, intended to marshal support from alumni and friends to build the financial foundation necessary to compete at the highest level.

“The future is bright, and it just keeps getting better and better,” said Heupel.

Several of the partners at MPC Wealth are UCF alumni, including Tony Moreno, Jr. ’91, who also serves on the UCF Foundation Board of Directors. “We have the momentum to not only grow the program, but to create a great tradition,” said Moreno. contact: To learn more about supporting UCF Athletics, call 407.823.1000 or visit ucfgoldenknightsclub.com.

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Awards Season This spring, UCF President John C. Hitt honored donors Bob and Carol Garvy with the UCF President’s Award and longtime partner Siemens with the UCF Partnership Award.

The Garvys have long been committed friends of UCF, providing generous support for the construction of the Wayne Densch Center for Student-Athlete Leadership, for UCF Downtown and for the recently named Garvy Center for Student-Athlete Nutrition. Bob has also served on UCF’s Board of Trustees since 2011.

Siemens and UCF, over the course of some 30 years, have collaborated on academic research and development of the energy sector. “This long-standing partnership prepares our students for today’s challenges and builds the high-tech workforce that will serve the community for decades to come,” said President Hitt during a ceremony on campus.

Siemens Energy CEO Steve Connor with President Hitt

President Hitt with Carol and Bob Garvy

UCF’s Lake Nona Campus will be home to the planned Academic Health Sciences Center and the new College of Health Professions and Sciences.

Two New Colleges Formed Academic reorganization will align existing strengths.

Starting in July, UCF will have two new colleges and a new inter-college school, made up of existing and new academic programs. As part of an academic reorganization, the colleges of Education and Human Performance and of Health and Public Affairs will no longer exist.

The new College of Health Professions and Sciences will be part of a planned Academic Health Sciences Center along with the College of Medicine and College of Nursing. It will comprise programs like athletic training, physical therapy, social work and communications sciences and disorders.

The College of Community Innovation and Education will include a variety of programs and departments spanning areas like education, public administration, urban planning, counselor education, legal studies, criminal justice, health management and architecture.

The inter-college Nicholson School of Communication and Media will focus on content creation, digital art and communication. It will include programs from the current Nicholson School of Communication, the School of Visual Arts and Design and the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.

“The restructuring aligns our strengths in areas of opportunity and organizational changes that will better position our students, faculty and staff for the future,” says Dale Whittaker, UCF president-elect.

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“By leveraging our talents and ideas in these emerging areas, UCF will be a national leader in 21st-century education.”

Number of alumni and friends who combined to donate more than $157,000 on the first-ever UCF Day of Giving March 29, nearly doubling the UCF Fund’s goal of 1,000 donors in 24 hours.

Gifts came in from 33 states, Puerto Rico and the U.K. to support a range of priorities and areas, the most popular of which were scholarships for firstgeneration students, the Marching Knights’ new practice building, the Parent and Family Fund and the College of Business.

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You’ve said the coastal zone extends about 100 miles inland, which covers all of Florida. How do you define “coastal?”

Coastal isn’t just the outline of the continents. It’s as far offshore as the terrestrial environment influences and as far inland as the marine environment influences.

Our summer sea breeze collision thunderstorms in Central Florida, for example, are marine in origin.

And Central Florida influences the marine environment in a number of ways, including storm runoff that finds its way into estuaries. The headwaters of the Kissimmee River and the Everglades system are also here in Central Florida, so we influence the marine environment as far away as South Florida.

10 minutes with...

Graham Worthy

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Director, UCF Coastal

What are some of the specific threats and challenges you see for coastal communities now and in the future?

We’re looking at sea level rise, storm surge, coastal erosion and other direct, physical threats, but we’re also looking at the way climate change is allowing species to move into new areas — not just things like lionfish and Burmese pythons but also smaller organisms and invasive diseases like Zika.

There are other issues, too.

For example, in South Florida, the Floridan Aquifer, where most of our drinking water comes from, is recharged by the Everglades. But with less water in the Everglades and increasing rates of removal from the aquifer, saltwater can push into the porous limestone in place of the freshwater. You wouldn’t expect this, but Miami is among the 10 cities in the world most at risk to run out of drinking water.

All of that has ramifications on our social systems and our economies. So part of our philosophy is not to look just at those issues but put them into a bigger context and understand how all of those different things interrelate.

he newly formed National Center for Integrated Coastal Research — UCF Coastal, for short — brings together engineers, biologists, chemists, economists, public policy and hazard assessment experts, emergency managers, social scientists and biomedical researchers in a massively interdisciplinary effort to address the manifold challenges facing coastal communities as a result of population growth and climate change.

Aside from the sheer variety of disciplines represented by its team members, what sets UCF Coastal apart from similar think tank groups is a primary commitment to understanding the coastal zone as a cohesive ecological-social-economic system, in which human security and wellbeing are interdependent “We need to with ecological security and wellbeing. Rather than assigning blame or issuing dire warnings, UCF get stakeholders Coastal pursues practical, balanced approaches sitting at the same to making coastal communities better prepared, table and talking more resilient and more sustainable. to each other.

At the center’s helm is biology department chair and Pegasus Professor Graham Worthy, an easygoing marine mammal expert committed to So what is there to be done bridging what he calls the gap between science about things like that? and society.

To say that we can solve these

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MORE ONLINE: Learn more about UCF Coastal and opportunities to support the center’s work at ucf.edu/research/coastal-center. issues is unrealistic. The future will be mitigating their impacts.

Ultimately, the goal is to make our coastal communities more resilient and ecologically friendly. The fact is that population growth in Florida isn’t going to slow down. A thousand people a day move here. But as we develop those new communities, we can improve our infrastructure and get smarter about where we place things. If you know an area is going to be flooded, don’t build a bunch of hotels and expensive homes there.

That seems like common sense, but it often isn’t heeded. How do you succeed in changing development patterns?

I think people are recognizing more and more that these aren’t just wild, hare-brained predictions.

They’re things that are happening today. We’re living through this now. I think the hurricanes last year really hit home with people. So did the toxic algal blooms in South Florida in 2016 associated with discharges from Lake Okeechobee. As these events become more regular, people are going to recognize that we do need to spend some money on infrastructure, we do need to pay attention to these issues and get smarter about things.

There’s always two extremes: protect and preserve ecosystems or even put them back the way they were and, at the other end of the spectrum, develop everything

Notes of Gratitude In this space, we feature excerpts from thank you letters the foundation receives from students whose lives have been changed by donors like you. Barbara Vehabovic, who earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2016, is now pursuing a master’s in clinical mental health counseling.

and pave over the world. Neither of those is realistic. In fact, the economic security of human communities and the ecological security of ecosystems are inextricably linked. Ultimately, we need to find a balance, and that’s part of our challenge. You rarely get all the stakeholders in the same place at the same time, and when you do, it’s at meetings or hearings with the two sides yelling at each other. That’s our world, but it’s not productive.

We need to get those stakeholders sitting at the same tables and talking to each other.

Say you come up with workable solutions to some of these issues.

How can those be implemented in the real world?

One of our primary goals is to communicate our findings effectively to the public and to assist policy makers and other decision makers in coastal communities. It’s important for us to speak clearly and precisely, but it’s also important to be understood and avoid jargon if we want to bridge the gap between science and society. All of our researchers have their own independent research programs, but as a team, our collaborative and interdisciplinary approach allows us to look at things at perhaps a higher level and provide practical, science-based information and guidance. I think that will make the center a tremendous resource for communities.

PERSPECTIVE

Countless Achievements Thoughts on President Hitt’s legacy

As I reflect on the legacy of Dr. John C. Hitt’s tenure leading UCF, I am struck by the interesting parallels between the university and Walt Disney World. Both opened their doors to the public within a few years of the other and both have grown significantly since those early days. When I attended UCF, it was still Florida Technological University, and mine was one of those legendary classes that graduated in the fountain. Since that day, as a UCF alumnus, it has been a pleasure to watch this proud university grow in stature.

And the lion’s share of UCF’s growth took place since 1992 when Dr. Hitt took the helm as president of the university. From that moment, he set in motion the capability of UCF to continually excel at delivering quality higher education and research capabilities while also creating the university that will serve our region, the state, the nation and — indeed — the world, for generations to come.

Today, thanks to his stalwart efforts, UCF is now the largest university on a single campus in the United States or Canada.

It is the largest university in Florida, and has the largest undergraduate population in the United States. Yet, when I visit there, I still sense a university that values and invests deeply in the individual. As a university, it is a true masterpiece, and the name that deserves to be written in its corner is that of Dr. John C. Hitt.

On behalf of our entire Cast at Walt Disney World, we commend Dr. Hitt for his countless achievements and thank him for his years of service and friendship.

—George A. Kalogridis serves as president of the Walt Disney World Resort, where he oversees a workforce of 74,000 Cast Members at four theme parks and 28 resort hotels, all at the world’s premier family vacation destination. Born and raised in Central Florida, he currently serves on the boards of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission Governors Council, The Florida Council of 100, Give Kids the World and onePULSE Foundation. George earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Central Florida in 1976.

As a gra du at e st ud en t in th e me nt al he alt h cou ns eli ng pro gra m, I am for ev er gra te ful for th e Do ris H. Le st er M er it Sc hol ar sh ip.

I ha ve be en int er es te d in ps yc hol ogy sin ce hig h sc hoo l, an d th er e is not hin g I am mo re pa ss ion at e ab out th an he lpin g gui de oth er s tow ar d livi ng a ha ppy life .

M y pa re nt s we re re fug ee s of th e Bo sn ian wa r, an d wh en I wa s 5 ye ar s old , th ey mo ve d to Am er ica to giv e me th e ch an ce of a be tte r ed uc at ion . Th ey ar e my he roe s, not onl y for th e sa cri fic es th ey ma de , bu t for te ac hin g me th e va lue of mo ne y, ge ne ros ity an d ap pre cia tio n. Th an k you ag ain .

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Future–

The obstacles first-generation students face are well-documented, as are the kinds of support that can help them along the way.

What gets less attention is the often extraordinary promise of those who succeed.

focused students — among the highest percentages in Florida.

Once these students successfully acclimate to college life, though, we stop paying such close attention to them. We know them for the distinctive challenges they face, not for their successes, and once those challenges are behind them — the scholarships and grants awarded, the bridge programs completed, the credit hours accumulating — we refocus on the next incoming class.

But the fact is that many of these trailblazers are among UCF’s most promising and inspiring graduates. Keenly aware of what’s riding on their success, they are ambitious, motivated and proud as they accept their diplomas and look forward to their next challenges. We caught up with half a dozen spring 2018 graduates the week before their commencement ceremonies.

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photographs by malcolm yawn

There’s little doubt that earning a degree is harder for students who are the first in their families to attend college. They’re more likely to come from lower-income households than their classmates and to have to balance their studies with part- or full-time jobs. Without family members who have been to college, they can struggle to understand the expectations of their new environment. In some cases, they contend with disapproval from parents who don’t see the value of a college education or with guilt over their decision. All of which combines to produce a significantly lower graduation rate for firstgeneration students than for those with collegeeducated family members.

Fortunately, financial aid and innovative programming dedicated to first-generation student success make a meaningful difference.

Nearly 18,000 first-generation students have earned UCF bachelor’s degrees in the past five years alone, and retention rates have increased significantly. Today more than a quarter of UCF’s 56,000 undergraduates are first-generation

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New Expectation

Samantha Medina, Political Science Major, Rising Law Student Being a first-generation student hasn’t just changed Samantha Medina’s life — it’s changed the direction of her entire family.

“My parents have always encouraged us,” she says. “In our family, the saying is ‘Medinas don’t settle.’ But I’ve set the bar higher, and now college is the new expectation for my family.”

The impacts on the next generation of her family can already be seen. The youngest of five siblings, Medina is changing how her brothers and sister view the future for their own children.

Medina lights up as she talks about a young nephew with whom she spends a lot of time. “Seeing me succeed at UCF has made

my nephew’s parents a lot more comfortable with the idea that one day he’ll go off to school. It’s already something they know he can do, and they are grooming him to go to college.”

After graduation, Medina will put her prelaw-track political science degree to use when she attends law school on a full

scholarship at the University of Tennessee. Ultimately, she plans to practice family law in South Florida.

“I’m going to fight for children and help families through the toughest times they can possibly go through,” she says. I

“I’ve set the bar higher, and now college is the new expectation for my family.

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Connection

Tristin Halfman, Psychology Major, Rising Graduate Student When Tristin Halfman’s high school band traveled from Naples to Orlando for a competition during his sophomore year, UCF gave them a campus tour. “I wasn’t even thinking about college,” he says now, “but I loved it. I felt a connection.” He returned later with his mother for another tour and applied not long after that.

Halfman’s parents — a construction superintendent and a partner in a small business — supported the idea wholeheartedly. “They wanted me and my brother to go to college more than anything,” he says, “because they didn’t have the chance.”

But without scholarship support, college wasn’t in the cards. Fortunately, a combination of good grades, high test scores, hard work and financial need translated to a financial aid package that brought UCF within reach.

And Halfman has made the most of it, graduating in four years with a degree in psychology and a year of experience under his belt as a research assistant at UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training, where he studies team performance in complex environments and high-stakes situations. Next is a UCF master’s degree in industrial and organizational psychology, which starts this fall, and then, if all goes according to plan, a career as a management consultant.

It’s a life that suits Halfman well — study, research, professional aspirations — but he remains acutely aware of how easily things might have turned out differently. “I don’t take it for granted,” he says, “not any of it.”

“I wasn’t even thinking about college, but I loved it. I felt a connection.

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Triple the Impact

Giving to First-Generation Scholarships with a New 2:1 Match Program Giving to scholarships that help firstgeneration students afford college has always been an extraordinarily powerful way to effect positive change, but Florida lawmakers made it even more so in 2006 with the First Generation Matching Grant program. The program matched donations for first-generation scholarships on a dollar-

for-dollar basis, effectively doubling the impact of private support.

Now, the new Excellence in Higher Education Act of 2018, passed by the legislature this spring, increases that match to 2:1 starting in July. In other words, for every dollar private donors give to a state university for first-generation scholarships,

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Florida will kick in two more. It’s a remarkable opportunity to help.

To make a convenient online gift, visit ucffoundation.org/givetofirstgen. To learn about more ways to help, including establishing an endowed scholarship, contact Susan Murray at 407.882.1210 or susan.murray@ucf.edu.

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Long Journey Perri Faulk, Event Management Major, Figure Skating Coach, Aspiring Olympic Committee Member Of the 8,177 UCF grads this spring, there is probably only one professional ice skating princess. And although she’ll be walking (not gliding) across the stage, Perri Faulk will fit the bill when she collects her diploma in event management from the Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

Faulk, currently a skating coach, will combine her expertise on the ice with her education to manage skating competitions and shows. Her dream is to serve on the Olympic Committee as a skating events organizer.

Like the figure-eights she performs with ease, Faulk’s educational journey didn’t follow a straight path. After several

years of traveling the world as a skater (including time as a Disney on Ice princess), she studied marketing online, attended two different state colleges and ultimately came to UCF. “It’s been a long journey, but I’ve ended up exactly where I wanted to be.”

Thanks to private donors and grants for first-generation students, most of her time at UCF was paid for, making her goals more attainable and helping her earn a spot on the Dean’s List every semester.

Faulk, who is expecting her first child this summer, views her pursuit of a degree as an investment in herself. “We are starting a family, and I feel like I’ve set myself up for a good future because now I have both the degree and the experience.

This is something I always wanted to prove to myself that I could do.” I

“It’s been a long journey, but I’ve ended up exactly where I wanted to be.

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Network

Jeacovy Gayle, Software Development Major, CEO, Gayle Technologies If there’s a plus to running your own web and software development business while going to school full time — aside from the income, of course — it’s the fact that you can largely set your own work hours. Which is exactly what Jeacovy Gayle did, often coding late into the night at local coffee shops in order to pay the bills and still have time for school during the day.

Five years ago, Gayle, who moved with his parents to Central Florida from Jamaica when he was 7, couldn’t have foreseen either the growth of his company, Gayle Technologies, or his degree in software development. “College wasn’t really on my mind,” he says now. “You go to school, you get good grades, you come out, you get a job. My parents weren’t alumni of some college that they wanted me to go to.”

Still, he ended up giving it a shot, enrolling at Valencia College to study information technology.

It was only two years, he figured, and then he could get to work. That led to an internship where Gayle learned more about software development and was encouraged to pursue a bachelor’s degree. “It’s always been the people I’ve met along the way that have helped,” he says, “getting that knowledge and just growing my network.”

Now Gayle is ready to focus on his company, bringing on more developers to expand his range of enterprise applications, which include a legal case management solution and an aviation-specific keyboard app for pilots’ preflight tablets.

After that? “I’m interested in machine learning and artificial intelligence,” he says. “I’ll be looking into graduate school a year or two down the line.” I

“It’s always been the people I’ve met along

After School

Ricci Bachar, English Literature Major, Fourth Grade Teacher, Aspiring Graduate Student When Ricci Bachar left UCF after two years, her father worried she’d never go back. “I switched majors twice and realized I hadn’t really found my passion,” she says. She put college on hold,

and then life took over.

She married her high school sweetheart and had two boys, now 6 and 9. She began working as a substitute teacher and as a caregiver for her father, who

“They know that after we finish our school day, I go home and study.

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Playbook

Mariah Morgenstern, Cinema Studies Major, Aspiring Filmmaker

the way that have helped.

” “Going to college wasn’t in my playbook at all,” says Mariah Morgenstern. But now, ready to graduate with her degree in cinema studies, she believes the experience has “shaped so much about who I am now.”

A first-generation student from South Florida who finished two years of college in her hometown, Morgenstern was ready to quit before getting to UCF. “I was discouraged and felt as though I was wasting my time and money,” she says.

When she entered the film program at UCF, she soon found herself on a film set in a small

passed away after a long battle with ALS. In 2014, she decided it was time to finish her degree. “My father never got to see me return to school, but I am honoring him when I graduate,” she says. She will do so with a 4.0 in her major, English Literature.

Now a fourth grade teacher at a private school, Bachar talks to her students about the importance of working hard and tries to lead by example. “They know that after we finish our school day, I go home and study, she says. Their talks are likely making an impact: one student aims to become President

of the United States; another, a pediatrician. Bachar’s future goals include a master’s degree in women’s studies and teaching at the college level.

She believes her sons notice the effort that she and her husband, a current UCF student studying mechanical engineering, are making in college but wants them to understand that it doesn’t feel like work if you find your passion. “It makes all the difference in your life,” she says.

“Once you find it, everything falls into place.” I

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“Going to college wasn’t in my playbook at all, but it has shaped so much about who I am now.

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acting role. The experience proved pivotal. “I was able to observe all the technical elements of filmmaking, and it was inspiring. I wanted to do it all.”

She credits her professors with teaching her not only how to truly learn instead of memorizing, but also how to fail in an industry that is highly competitive. “I don’t view failure as negative; instead I’m ready to embrace the hardships I might have to face.”

She recently finished “At Most,” a “short quirky film about growing up and chasing your dream, no matter the cost,” that she hopes to submit to the Florida Film Festival.

Morgenstern’s dream is to work for a big studio and make films that encourage people to go to the cinema instead of relying on in-home streaming. “I’m a traditionalist,” she says. “Going to the movies is so important to American film history and something I hope to contribute to.”

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IGNITE AT A GLANCE IGNITE: The Campaign for UCF is an intense, focused and strategic effort to channel the collective resources of our alumni, friends, partners, faculty and staff toward the common goal of infusing the university with $500 million in mission-critical private support by 2019.

Goal $500 million Projected completion June 30, 2019 Leadership IGNITE is powered by volunteers — the UCF Alumni and UCF Foundation boards as well as thousands more at many different levels — whose efforts are steered by a dedicated and dynamic Campaign Cabinet: Richard J. Walsh ‘77, ‘83MS, HC’15 Chair, IGNITE: The Campaign for UCF Nelson J. Marchioli ’72, Chair, UCF Foundation Board of Directors Phyllis A. Klock Lawrence J. Chastang ’80 Michael J. Grindstaff ’78 Allen R. Weiss ’76, Honorary Member Michael J. Morsberger, Ex Officio Vice President for Advancement and CEO, UCF Foundation, Inc.

Priorities: Student Success By expanding access through alternative pathways, by making a UCF education affordable to all deserving students through scholarships and fellowships, and by expanding programs that enrich the student experience and prepare students for success after graduation, we will continually strive to offer the best education to one of the nation’s largest and most diverse student bodies.

Academic Excellence By attracting and retaining top faculty members, by supporting the work of interdisciplinary faculty clusters, by helping fund critical research, and by providing the most advanced learning facilities and technologies, we will further elevate UCF’s academic environment and spur exciting and relevant discoveries.

Growth and Opportunity By leveraging existing strengths, seeking strategic partnerships and pursuing new opportunities — including expanding UCF’s presence in downtown Orlando, promoting interdisciplinary endeavors to develop innovative health care solutions, contributing to a healthier environment, and expanding global initiatives — we will strive to lift lives and livelihoods across Central Florida and beyond.

IGNITE CAMPAIGN PROGRESS (July 1, 2011 - May 16, 2018)

Friends

Corporations

24%

34%

%

Alumni

Remaining

$116,419,131 23%

Foundations

$ 500

DONOR CLASSIFICATION

20%

Progress

$383,580,869 77%

MILLION

Government

10%

Organizations

6%

6%

Buildings and Equipment

27%

Current Use

%

55%

82 months 85%

96

DESIGNATED USE

Endowment

Elapsed

Remaining

14 months 15%

MONTHS

17%

Undetermined

1%

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A fundraising initiative bearing the transformative president’s name seeks to create new endowed faculty positions.

gift spotlight

talking about what he would like to focus on as president emeritus. In his view, recruiting and retaining top faculty are critical to UCF’s future success.

The Hitt Initiative will provide a unique opportunity for the university to partner with donors to honor his vision and contributions.”

Five new positions have already been established, representing some $7 million in giving: the Steve Goldman National Young Composers Professorship of Music and Composition, the FAIRWINDS Credit Union Professorship in Financial Technology in the College of Business, a professorship in botanical medicine established by Florida Apothecary, a chair at the UCF RESTORES clinic established

by Jim ’81 and Julia Rosengren, and the James and Julia Rosengren Endowed Distinguished Professorship in the College of Sciences.

Partnering to Honor President Hitt’s Vision Unveiled this spring, the John C. Hitt Initiative for Faculty Excellence seeks to secure $10 million in private support for new endowed faculty positions in honor of the outgoing president’s service to UCF. These prestigious positions, created through gift commitments of $1 million or more, play a vital role in attracting the very best professors to UCF and supporting their life-changing research, scholarship and teaching.

“Not long after President Hitt announced his retirement in October,” IGNITE Campaign Chair Rick Walsh Walsh ’77 ’83MS ’HC15 said in announcing the initiative, “we began

For more information about the Hitt Initiative and endowed faculty positions, contact Bill Dean at 407.882.1220 or william.dean@ucf.edu.

Support for Athletics Breaks Records for Second Year Running

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An increasing share of philanthropic support for the Knights comes from committed alumni.

iscal year 2017 was a record year for athletics fundraising at UCF with $17.3 million in total commitments, of which $10.7 million came in the form of cash gifts. As FY18 nears its end, FY17’s cash record has already been bested with $10.9 million. Total commitments stand at nearly $16 million and are expected to also surpass last year’s figure by June 30.

A growing portion of that support is coming from UCF alumni.

“Much of our past success has been due to the support of some amazing community friends,” says Deputy Athletic Director for Championship Resources Mark Wright. “Now, we’re starting to see many highly successful UCF alumni start to get involved as well. Combining our community friends with these invested alumni, our future is very bright.”

Support for UCF Athletics now totals about $80 million of the nearly $370 million committed so far to the IGNITE Campaign.

igniteucf.org

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Thank You, President Hitt

By any measure, the University of Central Florida has flourished during President John C. Hitt’s extraordinary 26-year tenure. Since he assumed the presidency in 1992, enrollment has tripled; average entering freshman GPAs have increased dramatically; external research funding has quintupled; minority enrollment has grown from 15 percent to 45 percent; an honors college, medical school and football stadium have been opened; a new downtown campus and a teaching hospital are in the works; and UCF has gained a national reputation as an innovator in higher education.

Yet among those achievements and many more, one stands out: of the roughly 325,000 degrees earned by UCF students since the first commencement ceremony in 1970, President Hitt has conferred more than 270,000. “There’s no better tool than a college degree to improve social and economic mobility,” he has said. And if that’s the case, it’s hard to imagine a more far-reaching legacy than having your name at the bottom of well in excess of a quarter-million of them.