Pegasus Fall 2014

PEGASUS The Magazine of the University of Central Florida

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Kid-Approved How one prosthetic arm is changing many lives.

At the Manjushri Di-Chen Buddhist Learning Center in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, Shannon O’Donnell, ’06, uses a game of Simon Says to teach English to young monks. For more about Shannon, see “Citizen of the World” on Page 36.

IMAGE COURTESY OF SHANNON O’DONNELL

Hello, UCF.

P E G A S U S celebrates

those with a special talent to TEACH people I N A WAY T H AT

E M P OW E R S T H E M .

READ ON.

PEGASUS

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MAILBOX

PUBLISHER University of Central Florida EDITOR IN CHIEF Terry Helms

THERE’S SOMETHING SPECIAL about going to my

P.O. Box here in Germany and pulling out a copy of Pegasus magazine. I still feel close to home and to my wonderful UCF colleagues every time I receive it.

Jackie Toops, ’06 Editor: Danke schön, Jackie.

THE SHORT STORY “THE END OF AARON” was far

too sexually explicit to be published in a college alumni magazine. While the story was well written and showed the writing talent of a university faculty member, the editors of Pegasus should have thought about who is receiving this magazine. It is sent to alumni, many of whom have young children who like to pick up the magazine and read through it. I would never have hesitated to share this publication with a young future Knight until now.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Patrick Burt, ’08

Greta Opela, ’99

PRODUCTION MANAGER Sandy Pouliot

Editor: Greta, we want Pegasus to be enjoyed by Knights of all ages. Perhaps we should devise a rating system by taking a page from the film industry for select future stories. Stay tuned.

THANK YOU for including nonalcoholic cocktail recipes in your Summer 2014 article “Refresher Course.” There are over 10,000 Americans killed each year by drivers under the influence of alcohol, and in 2010 those killed included my husband, son and two stepsons. I hope readers embrace the idea of staying safe by making a plan for a sober ride home before the party starts. Go Knights!

Amy Voelker, ’96 Editor: Amy, I’ll never forget the honor of joining 600 bike riders in a memorial ride for your family. Thank you for your note and for reminding us to be smart and safe.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK; I always look forward to

the next Pegasus. My wife went to Penn State, and we have this thing we do when we clean on Saturday mornings where we cover each other’s alumni magazine up with our own on the coffee table. Needless to say, I appreciate the larger footprint of our publication.

Joe Thalheimer, ’08 Editor: Joe, we love this story.

PEGASUS The Magazine of the University of Central Florida

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Kid-Approved How one prosthetic arm will change many lives.

ON THE COVER

Alex Pring at home and at play wearing his new prosthetic arm built by gift-giving students during an eight-week sprint.

COVER PHOTO BY DANIELLE TAUFER

Pegasus is published by UCF Marketing in partnership with the UCF Foundation, Inc. and the UCF Alumni Association.

Opinions expressed in Pegasus are not necessarily those shared by the University of Central Florida.

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Email

pegasus@ucf.edu

Mail UCF Marketing P.O. Box 160090 Orlando, FL 32816-0090 Phone 407.823.2621 Fax

407.823.2567

MANAGING EDITOR Michelle Fuentes

GREAT ARTICLE. As one of the first ex-servicemen to

enter FTU (sorry — UCF), the kinds of programs you have now would have benefited a lot of my contemporaries who tried college and could not make the adjustment, but who then knew what PTSD was? Few then had any appreciation of what we now know are the hidden results of war, and unfortunately, not a lot cared. Your programs appear to address these things. Those of us that stayed and were in the first graduating class had the advantage that the school then was a small startup venture, where everyone was experiencing and enjoying something totally new, including the educators, administration, etc. For the most part, the biggest challenge many of us faced was finding the line on when to stop challenging the system.

ART DIRECTORS Lauren Haar, ’06 Steve Webb EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Eric Michael, ’96 COPY EDITOR Peg Martin PHOTOGRAPHERS Michael Chen Steven Diaz Corryn Lytle

ONLINE PRODUCER Roger Wolf, ’07 WEB PROGRAMMERS Jo Dickson, ’10 Brandon Groves, ’07 CONTRIBUTORS Enrique del Barco Jeffrey Bindell Regan Dunnick Susan Frith Rachel Ignotofsky Scott Joseph Peter Kerasotis Zenaida Kotala Geoff Levy, ’13 Angie Lewis, ’03 Carol Mundy Shelley Preston Yolanda Sangweni Danielle Taufer PEGASUS ADVISORY BOARD Barb Abney, ’03 Chad Binette, ’06 Anne Botteri Richard Brunson, ’84 Cristina Calvet-Harrold, ’01 Jeff Garner, ’89 John Gill, ’86 Michael Griffin, ’84 Mike Hinn, ’92 Zack Lassiter Gerald McGratty Jr., ’71 Tom Messina, ’84 Michael O’Shaughnessy, ’81 Karl Sooder Dan Ward, ’92

Tim Ackert, ’70 Editor: Thank you, Tim.

Mailbox Submissions

Emails to the editor should be sent with the writer’s name, graduation year, address and daytime phone number to pegasus@ucf.edu.

©2014 University of Central Florida. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Pegasus is a registered trademark of the UCF Alumni Association.

Cert no. SW-COC-002556

Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. Due to volume, we regret that we cannot reply to every letter.

Moved recently? Changed your email address?

Update your contact information: ucfalumni.com/contactupdates

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CONTENTS In Focus

6

On Campus

10

Briefs

12

Put It to the Test

14

No One Said It Would Be Easy 16 Food Chain

17

Piecing Together the Past

20

Kid-Approved

22

Culture Shift

26

Breathe Easy

32

AlumKnights

36

Back in the Day

46

In the “Food Chain,” Knights have a hand in every step.

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IN FOCUS PE GASUS MAGA ZI N E

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ENERGY CENTERS Siemens builds large gas turbines to deliver efficient energy production around the world from manufacturing facilities in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Berlin, Germany.

“The strategic partnership between Siemens Energy and UCF is an excellent example of a collaborative relationship that has produced and continues to produce notable accomplishments in the areas of STEM, social responsibility and leadership development. Siemens is very fortunate to have UCF as one of its key partners in the areas of advanced gas turbine research, recruiting and continuing education.”

— Vinod Philip, ’00, CEO, Siemens Generators Business Segment, Power and Gas Division, MÜlheim, Germany

IMAGE COURTESY OF SIEMENS AG

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PE GASUS MAGA ZI N E

OPEN HOUSE

“Three men cut the 4,200-square-foot house in half with hand tools. The two pieces were moved using a heavy cable winch truck, nine barges pinned together, and a 50-ton crane topping out at 65 feet tall. Each side weighed 100 tons. The joy and enthusiasm shown by the community inspired our whole team, which included more than 100 workers representing 20 trades in the construction, design and engineering fields.”

— Frank Roark, ’74, general contractor WHAT The Capen-Showalter House, built in 1885, is one of only a handful of homes remaining from the founding of Winter Park, Florida.

WHY To avoid demolition, three local nonprofits helped raise $685,000 in 13 months to rescue the house by moving it to the grounds of the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens.

IMAGES COURTESY OF MAURICE RODRIGUEZ OF MR. MAURICE PHOTOGRAPHY, PHIL ESCHBACH AND THE ALBIN POLASEK MUSEUM & SCULPTURE GARDENS

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IN FOCUS PEGASUS M AGAZ I NE

“The house would be lost if we didn’t pilot an all-out effort to save it. Now it can start a new life serving the community.

Moving day brought out the best in all of us.”

— Debbie Komanski, ’79, executive director, Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens

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ON CAMPUS Students used longboards and other modes of transport to move into UCF’s 11 housing communities.

Welcome Back

President Hitt outlined the university’s plan to hire 200 new faculty members and addressed other items at the Faculty Welcome event in the Student Union.

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Students celebrated their return to campus during Pegasus Palooza’s Concert Knight featuring “The X Factor” winners Alex Kinsey and Sierra Deaton, ’13.

Knightro greeted more than 1,000 College of Business Administration students at the Welcome to the Majors event.

Fans erupted for a Knights’ touchdown during a Croke Park Classic watch party outside the CFE Arena.

Defensive lineman A.J. Wooten raced a young Knights fan during the annual UCF FanFest at Bright House Networks Stadium.

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NE WS A N D N OTES

Briefs

Camp Chef In a study-abroad

IMAGE COURTESY OF KAREN BIRAIMAH

program to Botswana, 10

UCF Metro

undergraduates performed two weeks of servicelearning and cultural activities in Remote Area Dweller schools in addition to a visit to Chobe National Park.

The program was led by Karen Biraimah, director, International and Special Programs in the College of Education and Human Performance.

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WUCF-FM is the nation’s highest-rated public jazz radio station. “We’re on a roll basically. Why? Just playing more music and playing only the best music. No one else in Orlando is really doing what we are doing, so music lovers are turning to us,” says Kayonne Riley, director. To listen, visit wucf.ucf.edu.

“I am proud to announce a landmark decision … In the spirit of progress and subject to obtaining the necessary state funding and approvals, UCF — the most popular student choice in Florida and the second-largest university in America — will expand in downtown Orlando!”

Excerpt from President Hitt’s speech at the UCF Focus Breakfast

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KUDOS ROUNDUP

The 100% Club

The Doctor of Physical Therapy program in the College of Health and Public Affairs brings in stellar students and prepares them exceedingly well for the national licensing exam. Each student graduating from 2010 through 2013 has passed the national licensure exam.

U.S. News

The 2015 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings placed UCF 173rd among national universities and 97th among public universities, tied for 58th overall and 43rd among public institutions for the “Best Colleges for Veterans,” and the No. 3 “Up-and-Coming” university.

When 1+1=11 Eleven universities will work together to increase the rate at which students from low-income and minority backgrounds graduate. The newly formed University Innovation Alliance will develop and test new initiatives, share data and scale best practices among members. For more information, visit theuia.org.

“I’m very excited to announce that membership in the Golden Knights Club has gone over 4,000 for the first time. To our new members and those of you who have supported us for years, thank you!”

Todd Stansbury, vice president and director of athletics

Inventor Wu

Shin-Tson Wu, UCF Pegasus Professor of Optics, joins Thomas Edison, John Gorrie, Robert Cade and others in the inaugural class of the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame.

Wu’s work has improved the liquidcrystal displays of items such as smartphones and television screens.

Let’s Ride Two new buses, which hold up to 54 students each and travel 500 miles per day to and from the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, were built with the latest safety features. Buses are outfitted with GPS trackers, tablets and cameras to monitor safe-driving habits and vehicle maintenance at all times.

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FACULTY OP INION

Opinion Put It to the Test

Can physics, one of the oldest academic disciplines in world history, be taught with a modern approach to teaching — without lectures and tests? Two faculty members weigh in.

Pro Lectures/Tests

In a time when comprehensive studies have shown that instructor-student interaction is at the essence of an effective education methodology, defending traditional instruction — the prototypical education without interaction method — may seem irrational. However, we should not disregard traditional instruction in its entirety, particularly because this is a method under which a significant number of students feel most comfortable. Usually these are students who like to use the lectures as a guide and base their learning on independent study. (I was one of them.) But even for those students, lecturing can be made much more productive if interactive learning tools are included in the equation. Indeed, this is one of the solutions that we have developed over the last few years in the Physics Department, in parallel with our interactionbased instruction initiatives in order to offer UCF undergraduates the most diverse education scenario.

To be more specific, in traditional physics courses, the lab and the lecture sections are separate, and unfortunately, lectures may be given to up to 300 students at once. One can easily understand how faculty-student interaction is greatly diminished under these conditions. In addition, students often feel the lab and lecture contents are out of sync, which is unavoidable as the course advances due to calendar limitations. Scheduling all students in a lecture class into the same laboratory sections helps. But the bottom line is to make students aware of the fact that physics, like other sciences, is mainly driven by experiments and not the other way around. We have had great success in this respect at UCF. Labs are designed to be highly interactive and are supported online, so all students are prompted to work in groups during practice sessions and individually before and after their lab days. In addition, interactive tools that encourage student participation and discussion are routinely used in our lectures, definitively helping with the assimilation of the material, even in large enrollment sections.

A healthy mixture of enhanced traditional instruction and interactivebased methods may stand as a model for modern educational institutions such as UCF. Enrique del Barco, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Physics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Barcelona for his investigations of spin quantum dynamics in single-molecule magnets. His research at UCF focuses on fundamental low-temperature magnetic and transport properties of low-dimensional systems, including molecular nanomagnets, magnetic nanostructures and graphene.

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No Lectures/No Tests

After a long industrial career, I was fortunate to be hired by UCF’s Physics Department, where I have been teaching for about 10 years. When I began lecturing, I noticed that most of my students stared at me with glazed eyes.

When I shared my observation with fellow faculty members, my experience wasn’t all that unusual. Physics education research has documented that the average student attending a physics lecture zones out after about 10 minutes.

This is not what I would refer to as a successful process.

Enter Harvard professor Eric Mazur, who developed a successful lecturefree format for his physics course and did away with exams. This class format is used in two sections of the introductory physics course at UCF this fall.

The approach requires intense student involvement utilizing learning teams, pre-reading monitoring and team-based projects.

The observation that most student learning takes place while reading a textbook suggests that the reason students may not do well in physics is that they read their textbook only when absolutely necessary, which is usually prior to an exam or a quiz. Up until now, it wasn’t possible for an instructor to verify that students were reading the material, but thanks to a program developed at MIT, it is now possible to verify the veracity with which reading is occurring.

As a result, the learning is more assured, and class activity can be used to reinforce it. So, voilà, no lecture is needed!

Finally, the last component of this course format is the recognition that studying for exams produces only transient and shallow learning. So instead of exams, we use qualitative questions to analyze students’ knowledge. If a student answers incorrectly, they consult with their team and repeat the question in order to answer correctly. Most times, students are also permitted to use any reference material they wish, including the Internet. With all of the information readily available, there is no need to memorize material, and study is replaced by using the information gained in the team projects. This method mimics how engineers work on the job, giving students the opportunity to experience practical problem-solving.

Jeffrey Bindell, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of Physics who joined UCF after a long industrial career with Bell Laboratories working on semiconductor device development and analysis. He spends about half of his time working with the Florida High Tech Corridor’s techPATH group, where he delivers STEM-related programs to middle and high school students in 23 Florida counties.

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ILLUSTRATION BY REGAN DUNNICK

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PARTNERSHIP

NO ONE SAID IT WOULD BE EASY Training initiative brings Romania and UCF together.

“Romania is in a unique situation right now as a recent entrant to the European Union trying to professionalize its bureaucracy to align with European standards,” says Thomas Bryer, associate professor and director of the Center for Public and Nonprofit Management in the College of Health and Public Affairs.

“They are interested in having good government. They are interested in having open, sustainable tourism.

And they’re interested in supporting a good business climate.”

ENTER UCF The American system of public administration offers examples that Romania’s officials want to emulate, especially the relative uniformity and consistency in how our government officials do their jobs. So the UCF Division of Continuing Education has created a training program through a partnership with the Romanian Review of Local Public Administration and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA).

The certificates in public management and city management draw upon the expertise of Bryer and eight other faculty members on topics ranging from civic engagement and human resources to ethics and strategic planning. Online learning modules will help Romanian city and county managers and mayors gain “a common base of knowledge” about the course material before meeting with their instructors, explains David Laney, interim director of UCF’s Division of Continuing Education.

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Romanian officials want to professionalize their public services.

The certificate program is an exciting project, Laney says. “It is a worthwhile thing to do as an international partnership on the part of UCF when you have an appreciation for what it is the people of Romania are attempting to accomplish.”

The partnership formed last fall when the ASPA asked UCF to host a Romanian delegation. The Good Governance Exchange brought Romanian officials to Central Florida for panel discussions with their American counterparts and field visits to Orlando City Hall, Second Harvest Food Bank, Evans Community School and other sites. On a reciprocal visit to Romania, Bryer and a delegation of UCF professors and students met mayors and local government administrators and toured various agencies.

“I think the most impressive part was the cooperative side of local government [in the U.S.],” says Cristina Mîţă, managing editor of the Romanian Review of Local Public Administration. “We were surprised to see that UCF has partnerships with local governments and with the private sector, and that they work together to solve problems.”

During the trip to City Hall, Mîţă was equally surprised to learn about the many citizens who donate their time there throughout the year. “You can’t do that in Romania,” she says. “There is no rule prohibiting volunteering, but there are no procedures in place and the employees at city hall have no idea how to handle someone who wants to volunteer.” Volunteering used to be compulsory in Romania, Mîţă explains. “After the revolution, when people heard about volunteering, they were a bit skeptical.”

FULL CIRCLE “We are still learning about democracy,” says Mîţă. “The challenge is to teach the citizens that democracy also comes with responsibilities and that being a citizen does not mean only voting and paying your taxes.”

Becoming a member of the EU in 2007 has led to a host of new environmental and other regulations in Romania, Mîţă says. “But the good part is this will eventually lead to a better quality of life for Romanian citizens.” She says that Romania’s local governments are beginning to work together more, forming associations to manage landfills and other infrastructures.

According to Bryer, the Romanians have their own practices worth emulating.

While visiting the city of Tulcea, he noticed that the city council members sat around a circular table while the audience was seated above. “It was sort of a flip of what we’re used to in the United States, where council members sit above everybody,” he says. “I couldn’t help but think, ‘Does this create more civility than we have in the U.S.?’ ” He adds, “My hope is to not only teach some technical skills, but also to open channels for some robust dialogues across nations so we can improve the systems on both sides.”

Bryer’s goal is for the Romania partnership to eventually lead to study-abroad opportunities for UCF students and, as its value is demonstrated, for the certificate program to be extended to other emerging democracies. “There are a lot of opportunities for this kind of work.”

“We are still learning about democracy.”

The Facts: Romania Location: Capital: Government type: Government branches:

Source: CIA World Factbook

Southeastern Europe Bucharest Republic (Est. 1996) Executive (president and prime minister), Legislative (parliament includes Senate and Chamber of Deputies), Judicial (High Court of Cassation and Justice, Supreme Constitutional Court)

Political parties: 11 Population: 21,729,871 Literacy: 97.7% (age 15 and older) Economy: 6.4% agriculture, 34.2% industry,

59.4% services Labor force: 29% agriculture, 28.6% industry,

42.4% services Unemployment rate: 7.3% Inflation rate: 3.2%

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Food Chain

The path from farm-to-fork is being cut by Knights.

T

he notion of eating local isn’t new; there used to be no other option. People ate what was available, either from their own gardens or from a nearby farm. The idea of a fresh strawberry in winter was absurd.

As consumers become more concerned about the integrity of the food they eat and

the impact its production has on the environment, local food growers and the people who support them are more in demand. And all along this alternative supply chain, you can find UCF alumni fostering change.

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FO OD CHA IN

Planting the Seed

Delivering the Goods

Growing a Community

Fertilizing a Movement

For Jonathan Winfrey, ’10, a seed is not just a seed — it has a history.

Winfrey is the owner and operator of Organic Sanctuary, a farm in Geneva, Florida, which specializes in heirloom seeds. On a restaurant menu, the term “heirloom” is often associated with tomatoes or other produce, but it doesn’t mean that it has been in the chef’s family for generations. It signifies that the produce has been grown from seeds with an organic heritage. Though there isn’t a standard definition for heirloom, “I would say … it’s been bred true to parent variety for at least a hundred years,” says Winfrey, who majored in environmental science.

Winfrey’s business resembles less a commercial farm than a house with several large garden plots.

There are carambola and Key lime trees, sunflowers, tomato plants and Seminole pumpkins that were a staple of the Native Americans who once lived in the area. He eats some of what he grows in his “food forest,” but the real value is the bounty of seeds that he carefully harvests from each plant.

“It can take up to several weeks to get a good seed ready,” he says. Each must go through a drying process that requires daily attention.

When they’re ready, the seeds are packaged by hand and sold through the Organic Sanctuary website or in specialty stores.

As a distributor, Rebecca ReisMiller, ’06, helped restaurants interested in serving fresh, local ingredients find the people who grow them.

Reis-Miller, who has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration, helped lead Slow Food Orlando, a grassroots organization chapter that promotes environmentally friendly food production. With her co-leader Trish Strawn, she created Growing Synergy, a food distribution company in Central Florida that works with local farmers and artisans.

“When we started our company,” Reis-Miller says, “we wanted to focus on supporting small farmers who use grass-fed production methods.”

Then several large hotels sought out Growing Synergy for their access to fresh, local products that include poultry, beef, fruits and vegetables.

“A lot of the hotels don’t want their guests going off-site to dine,” she says, “so they’re really improving the quality of the products they have in-house.”

Reis-Miller recently left Growing Synergy and has joined her husband, Charles Miller, ’03, in his business, Lake Nona Deli and Market. She continues to advocate for local food purveyors, including Growing Synergy, and offers locally produced goods that include bread, coffee, produce and eggs.

When Dandelion Communitea Cafe opened as a counter-service establishment in Orlando’s Mills 50 district, owner Julie Norris, ’01, worried about the long lines of people waiting to order her vegan and vegetarian dishes. She converted to full service with staffers taking tableside orders.

“It was the worst thing we ever did, because I didn’t realize how much actual community engagement happened in that line.” As a result, she switched back to counter service.

For Norris, food fosters connection.

“I like to talk about our relationships with our food,” she says. “Do I know the person that’s making this, growing this, repackaging it?” Norris feels it’s important for her to have firsthand knowledge that her providers are following best practices, so even if their products aren’t certified as organic, she’s certain that they’re of equal integrity.

“The best relation I can have with my food is the food that’s growing in my backyard,” says Norris, “but I can’t get everything from my backyard.” So next she might look to her neighbor’s backyard, then to a local farmer. But she doesn’t feel the need to procure food within a certain mile range. “It’s not so much about local in your ZIP code as localized.”

Norris, whose degree is in business administration, believes that the awareness local food producers bring through their growing practices is key to Florida’s future. “The farm-to-table movement is critical to rounding out our sense of place.”

“A lot can happen across the table over a meal,” says Gabby Lothrop, ’05, who grew up in a large family in Panama. “I’ve always had strong opinions about food.”

When her family moved to the U.S., she was surprised by how much fast food people ate. “So much of our life happened around meals,” she says of her formative years, “and I just didn’t understand why food wasn’t as important here.”

In 2009 Lothrop offered to assist a friend who was starting a community market in Orlando’s Audubon Park neighborhood. “She said, ‘Great, you can be the director,’ ” Lothrop says with a laugh. “We opened with about five vendors, and it was kind of a sad little operation.” Thanks to her leadership, the market flourished and currently hosts more than 30 vendors. Lothrop has since become the managing director of East End Market in Orlando.

Lothrop, who graduated with a degree in political science, was recently named a regional governor for Slow Food USA, whose mission is “good, clean and fair food for all.”

That relationship began when she heard about the Orlando chapter and sought them out for guidance — and connections to local farmers. Now she’s working with other chapters to find unified projects that meet Slow Food USA’s mission, while promoting the pleasures of enjoying delicious food.

“It can take up to several weeks to get a good seed ready.”

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“When we started our company, we wanted to focus on supporting small farmers who use grass-fed production methods.”

“So much of our life happened around meals, and I just didn’t understand why food wasn’t as important here.”

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Building a Hub

Reaping the Benefits

Completing the Cycle

Farm-to-Student

John Rife, ’10, was born into a real estate family — one that developed, among other projects, The Mall at Millenia in Orlando. In college, he was intent on going into film. Both of those fields led him to where he is today as the owner of Orlando’s East End Market, a nexus of artisan food purveyors, a restaurant and an urban garden.

Rife, who earned a master’s degree in digital media, wanted to produce a series of videos about gathering Thanksgiving meal ingredients at local farms. But when he realized it wasn’t feasible, he opted to bring the farmers and purveyors together so people could purchase goods for their own Thanksgiving meals. He approached Lothrop, and the pair organized the highly successful Winter Park Harvest Festival. “We had tears in our eyes and were hugging each other and saying, ‘Wow, people really are interested in this stuff.’ ” Rife went on to use his knowledge of real estate development, remodeling a former church in Orlando to create East End Market.

The two-story building houses local merchants selling items such as artisanal cheeses, produce, sauces, breads and organic juices; a demonstration kitchen; meeting spaces and a full-service restaurant.

And in keeping with Rife’s vision, the entrance to the market is landscaped with a large garden, where produce is grown for use by market tenants.

Alexia Gawlak, ’05, traces her interest in local food sourcing to a chef at culinary school who, in her words, “was a little nuts.” Subscribing to conspiracy theories, the chef was so particular about edibility that “he even made his own cat food,” says Gawlak, who graduated from the Rosen College of Hospitality Management with a B.S. in restaurant and foodservice management.

While she didn’t buy into the chef’s theories, he did prompt her to consider using reliable local food sources.

That notion was emphasized when she went to work at Primo at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes hotel for chefs Melissa Kelly and Kathleen Blake. “They taught me the importance of knowing the farmer,” Gawlak says. “I already knew from cooking local food that it tastes better, it’s fresher and it’s more interesting.”

Gawlak was recently named chef de cuisine at Siro Urban Italian Kitchen at the Orlando World Center Marriott. “Marriott is very committed to this, and that is the reason why I signed up,” she says. At Siro, Gawlak is using local meats and poultry, and, of course, Florida seafood. She has introduced a fritto misto, or mixed platter, with Apalachicola oysters, Florida grouper and Key West pink shrimp. She uses a lot of Florida produce too, but “that slows down a lot for the summer season.”

But seasonal availability is part of what inspires Gawlak about local sourcing. She says it makes her job as a chef easier. “If you’re letting what’s in season drive your menu, you don’t have to think as hard — you already know what’s there.”

Alex Stringfellow, ’12, wants unused foods — peels, rinds and leftovers — to convert into organic compost for farmers and gardeners to use to repeat the growing cycle.

Stringfellow, who has a B.S. in psychology, became interested in composting while managing the edible garden at the UCF Arboretum.

“There’s a whole facet of ecological value of being able to take food from when it’s grown and use it as a resource for our own energy, and then reuse it,” he says.

The initiative, Compost Orlando, which he developed with Kathleen Shannon, ’05, has begun as a residential program but will eventually expand to include restaurants.

The Fresh Market and Publix grocery store chains have donated food-grade buckets for reuse as compost bins. For a monthly fee, participants leave their scrap-filled bins out for pickup by the composters, who use bicycles with trailers to retrieve them, minimizing the company’s carbon footprint.

Currently, the team is serving the Audubon Park, Baldwin Park and Colonialtown neighborhoods in Orlando. They also provide opportunities for customers to drop off their food waste at several locations in the same areas. But no matter how the raw materials come to them, it all ends up in the same place.

“The food comes to us, we process it, and it goes back out to different gardening initiatives.”

Since 2009, the UCF Arboretum has been supplying free fresh produce to students through the Knights Helping Knights Pantry, a campus resource that provides food, toiletries and other necessities to those in need. Seasonal fruits, vegetables and herbs from the arboretum’s volunteer-run organic community garden are donated twice a week to the pantry, which offers up to five food items per day to students.

“The garden fosters a sense of community, and donating to the pantry is a big part of that,” says arboretum coordinator Jennifer Elliott, ’04. “If what you eat is grown close by, it’s healthier for you and the environment.”

“They taught me the importance of knowing the farmer.”

Harvest Time

100 lbs. per month donated by the arboretum during the spring harvest (January–April)

UCF Arboretum Garden Variety FRUITS & VEGETABLES Broccoli Carrots Cauliflower Eggplant Kale Mulberries Okra Peaches Peppers Potatoes

Radishes Squash Strawberries Sweet potatoes Tomatoes Turnips HERBS Basil Lemongrass Mint Rosemary

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Piecing Together the Past

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C

arol Mundy’s home was an unofficial museum before she donated more than 5,000 historical books, photographs and other rare ephemera dating back to the 18th century to the UCF Special Collections & University Archives.

The now-retired airline employee searched thrift stores, yard sales and flea markets around the country, on a mission to develop an understanding of the African-American experience. Today the John C. Hitt Library houses just a portion of what is now called the Carol Mundy Collection, and these are 14 of her favorite finds:

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1 S pider Webs, a Steamer Trunk and Slavery, 1826-86

Cousins Edith Bennett and Lenora Lindley compiled letters, maps and other documents charting the exodus of their ancestors from Liberia, Africa, to Ohio County, Kentucky, into six handmade volumes that they gave to family members. By researching the authors, Mundy was able to make contact with Bennett, who sent her a volume. “It is one of the most wonderful pieces that I’ve ever found.”

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AACP Advertisement, 1957 2N

This booklet by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People predates the 1964 Civil Rights Act. “Any publication that talks about current events is a wonderful source of information because it is a firsthand account.”

3 Jet Magazine Issues, 1963–69

Founded in 1951 by publisher John H. Johnson, Jet was originally billed as “The Weekly Negro News Magazine.”

Printed for 62 years, the magazine continues as a digital brand. “I grew up with this magazine. It was the news for the African-American community, and people loved it.”

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4 Uncle Remus Brand Cane Sugar Syrup

Advertising Fan, date unknown This promotional item depicts the popular AfricanAmerican folktale character created by southern journalist Joel Chandler Harris in 1880. “It’s not necessarily derogatory, just a good example of branding.”

5 Life of William McKinley and Complete Story

of His Assassination, 1901 The real significance of this book is what Mundy found tucked inside of it. “That book contained a yellowing, waxed paper release document for an African-American soldier from the U.S. Army 10th Cavalry [a famous African-American Buffalo Soldiers regiment]. It was my first significant historical piece.”

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“The collection has enriched my life as a human being. My ultimate goal was to share it.”

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6 Ku Klux Klan Medallion, 1975

When Mundy found this metal badge along with a hood, cuff links and a Klansman’s handbook at Shirley’s Trailside Antiques in Winter Garden, Florida, another customer became angry that an African-American woman was buying the items and accosted her with racial slurs. Thankfully, the gun-toting shop owner intervened. “Shirley did an act of bravery that most people would not have done. She saved me that day.”

7 Marionettes, date unknown

Found in a Central Florida antiques mall, these wooden puppets have remained a mystery to Mundy. “When I first saw them, I thought ‘What does it mean that these two are paired together?’ I was so fascinated that I had to have them.”

8 Cream of Wheat Advertisement, 1921

Mundy found “The Fortune Teller” in Grandview, Missouri.

“When I saw this derogatory, stereotypical imagery in early 20th-century advertising, I was fascinated. I wanted to understand my parents’ experience when they looked at items that depicted African-Americans as ignorant.”

9 Mortgage Property Deed for Black Mule Kate, 1911

“African-Americans were prospering in Apopka [Florida] around the turn of the century.” Kate the mule was evidence of this as her deed shows she was mortgaged for $25 by an African-American farmer to help finance his crops. “[Longtime Apopka resident] Michael Gladden gave me a large stack of deeds because he wanted me to see the large amount of property [African-Americans] owned.”

olor: A Tip-Top World Magazine, 1947 C This issue of Color features the late Carter G. Woodson, one of the world’s foremost authorities on African-American history. “I bought that magazine at a thrift store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, because I had never heard of it. It’s the only one I have ever run across in all my collecting.”

Trade Card, 1890

Trade cards were used for advertising since the 17th century.

This example is from the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company in New York. “It is a kinder, more actual depiction on a trade card than a lot of the derogatory advertising from the same period.”

Identification Badge No. 92086, date unknown

Found in a Florida antiques mall, this metal badge is from a shipyard in Portland, Oregon. “During World War II, the Kaiser Company hired 46,000 African-Americans who migrated to Portland to work in the factories after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 banning racial discrimination in defense plants. Everybody who worked there had to have one of these badges for security reasons.”

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1955

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s landmark novel holds special significance for Mundy, as she grew up near the author’s house in Cincinnati. “I was 9 or 10 when I received this book. Once I read it, I started going to the Stowe house to look at where they used to hide people when they were coming through [on the Underground Railroad].”

Romeo and Juliet in Dixieland” postcard, 1890 “ This color postcard depicts a man and woman sharing an intimate moment in a cotton field. “The imagery is not necessarily meant to be derogatory, but African-Americans were [doing more than] just working in cotton fields.”

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Kid-Approved

How one prosthetic arm is changing many lives.

R

ight about lunchtime, 6-year-old Alex Pring releases the Velcro straps holding his prosthetic arm in place and stores the device in his backpack. The arm has done its job for the day, helping the first-grader hold papers in place so he can complete his writing and math assignments. He’s also used it to grab books off the classroom shelves and to draw his teacher’s attention when she asks for volunteers to run a message to the office.

By noon, Alex’s shoulder muscles are tired from supporting his new artificial limb, which was created with 3-D printed plastic parts and circuit boards purchased from Amazon.com Inc., among other items. Learning not to overwork his body as it becomes accustomed to the prosthetic is just one of the many adjustments Alex has made since a team of UCF students engineered the mechanical wonder for him this summer.

“It’s been quite a ride,” says his mother, Alyson Pring. “It’s amazing how he’s adjusting to everything. And his confidence … that’s where it really shows.”

Alex was born missing most of his right arm. His family wanted to buy a prosthetic, but at $40,000, it wasn’t feasible. So Alyson searched online

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for help and discovered e-NABLE, an international organization that connects families with inventors and 3-D printer enthusiasts creating solutions for children with special needs. That’s how she met Albert Manero, ’12, an e-NABLE volunteer who would change their lives forever.

Inspired by Alyson’s desire to help her son, Manero, a Ph.D. student and Fulbright scholar currently studying at the German Aerospace Center, gathered 14 friends with skills ranging from engineering to nursing and pooled their expertise for the volunteer project. During a stressful eight-week sprint, they worked in their spare time and often late into the night to design and construct

“It’s amazing how he’s adjusting to everything. And his confidence … that’s where it really shows.”

Alex’s arm using high-tech tools and a lot of trial and error at the UCF Machine Lab. When Alex received his arm at a July 25 news conference, he became a media sensation. He’s appeared on NBC and ABC evening news shows, and strangers have commented on his “cool robo-arm.” Before the prosthetic, he dreaded people asking him, “What’s wrong with your arm?”

Today, he happily shakes hands with curious people when they approach.

And Alex is enjoying the physical benefits too, like riding his bicycle with better balance and agility.

The transition is a work in progress for all involved. While Alex trains his

muscles to control the arm and builds enough endurance to use it for more than a few hours at a time, the team of student engineers is learning that changing the life of a little boy means changes for them too.

Since the beginning, Manero has been clear about the team’s core values and mission: Assist anyone they can for minimal cost. That’s why they posted all of their work on the prosthetic arm free and online for anyone to use. Resulting requests for help have come from across the U.S., as well as Canada, Belgium and Brazil.

But to stay true to their altruistic mission, the young team must figure out how to expand their labor of love into a legitimate enterprise — all while balancing the demands of college course loads and jobs.

“Our next step is to raise funds to design a version of the arm with a functional elbow,” Manero says.

“Currently we are developing a nonprofit organization to support this, so we can help more of the children who have requested assistance.”

The bendable elbow will give Alex greater range of motion and increase functionality. And there are plans for further improvements such as waterproofing and using more robust materials to better withstand the demands of an active 6-year-old.

For Alex, the prosthetic has not only changed his daily life but also inspired what might be a future in engineering.

“It’s really amazing that he can tell you exactly how the electrodes work to control his arm,” Alyson says. “And whenever [the students] come by to make adjustments, he’s very eager to offer suggestions and discuss what might come next.”

PEGASUS M AGAZ I NE From the day UCF student Tyler Petresky and nurse Tyler Pierce outfitted Alex Pring with his new arm at a July 25 news conference (top right), the resulting media attention, new routines and new abilities have given the 6-year-old new confidence.

Opposite: Albert Manero, ’12, led a volunteer team of 15 classmates and friends to create the low-cost prosthetic with 3-D printers.

PHOTO BY DANIELLE TAUFER

IMAGE COURTESY OF KT CRABB PHOTOGRAPHY

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PHOTO BY DANIELLE TAUFER

PHOTO BY DANIELLE TAUFER

PRICELESS FOR $350, A TEAM OF UCF ENGINEERING STUDENTS BUILT A PROSTHETIC ARM THAT TYPICALLY COSTS $40,000.

In only eight weeks, a team of 15 mechanical, aerospace and computer engineers, a nurse, a seamstress and advisers devised this simple and inexpensive solution to give 6-yearold Alex Pring an arm — for free. Here’s how it works.

CONTROLS

Most mechanical prosthetics use tension created by bending the elbow or wrist to control a grasping hand, but since Alex doesn’t have either, the team chose an electromyography (EMG) sensor. The EMG sensor measures the voltage of his muscles with three electrodes when he flexes. One electrode is placed on top of his bicep, another on the inside of his arm and a third (the ground) on his back. Learning which muscles would trigger the hand was a trial-and-error process of moving the electrodes until the controls worked properly.

“[The EMG] was the right solution because Alex could simply flex a muscle and the hand would react.”

— Mateo Alvarez, lead human interface designer

HAND

The team resized mechanical designer Steve Wood’s Flexy-Hand prosthetic and calibrated it to function safely for a young boy. The 3-D printed pieces include a palm and fingers made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic resin and hinges created with NinjaFlex thermoplastic elastomer (TPE).

Kevlar cords are strung through the fingers and palm and into the forearm, where they are tied to a servomotor that controls the opening and closing of the hand as queued by a sensor on Alex’s bicep that reads electrical impulses.

PARTS

• Kevlar Survival Cord ($6.99 for 25 feet, thinkgeek.com) • NinjaFlex TPE filament for hinges ($51.99 for 0.5 kg spool, amazon.com) • Tippi Micro Gel Grips ($8.99 for 10, officemax.com)

To pull the fingers closed, the team first tried monofilament fishing line, but it stretched out from use over time. Kevlar cord proved to be a stronger solution.

It took 12 hours to 3-D print the palm piece and finger joints.

To increase the grip of the hard plastic fingers, the team added gel grips.

The Kevlar cords can withstand up to 200 pounds of force.

Alex hooks up his own electrodes when he puts on his prosthetic arm.

ELBOW

The elbow is a socket for Alex’s upper arm that provides him adequate leverage to move the prosthetic without a great deal of effort.

A Velcro strap secures his arm in the socket.

To increase comfort, the team suggested using a diabetic sock that enables Alex to move his arm while minimizing skin abrasions.

As Alex grows, the elbow, which takes four hours to 3-D print, will be the most frequently resized component.

The elbow used in the prosthetic is the fourth version attempted, and the team is working on a flexible design that will give Alex even more freedom of movement.

It took six hours to 3-D print the forearm housing.

HARNESS

To distribute the weight of the prosthetic across Alex’s upper body, the team initially selected a neoprene shoulder brace that proved too complicated and provided too little support.

Alex’s mother found a more robust and supportive option online that became the eventual solution.

PARTS

Shock Doctor Ultra Shoulder Support with Stability Control ($59.99, shockdoctor.com)

FOREARM

A natural place to house the electronics, battery and servomotor, fitting these components into a tight space proved a difficult design challenge, requiring eight iterations to achieve the resulting compartment that offers easy accessibility for maintenance and charging.

Due to the lack of muscle development in Alex’s upper arm, shoulder and back, at first he could only wear the prosthetic for short periods. As he becomes stronger, he will use his new arm more frequently and for longer periods.

PARTS

• High torque metal gear servo ($45, amazon.com) • Venom 7.4-volt LiPo Battery ($16.99, amazon.com) • Advancer Technologies Muscle Sensor v3 Kit ($49.95, sparkfun.com) • Arduino Micro board ($25, amazon.com)

“Our first approach was a layered design with a shelf inside for the circuit board to fit beneath and three batteries to be stacked on top. It was way too complicated, especially when we needed to remove things for charging and maintenance.” — Tyler Petresky, lead electronics designer

“This project could not have been done without an amazing interdisciplinary team. Together we are learning to dream big and make a real impact for those in need in the developing world and at home.

We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.”

— Albert Manero, ’12, project lead THE TEAM ALBERT MANERO, ’12, Ph.D. candidate, mechanical engineering • TYLER PETRESKY, sophomore, computer engineering • DOMINIQUE COURBIN, junior, mechanical engineering • JOHN SPARKMAN, ’13, master’s student, mechanical engineering • MATEO ALVAREZ, senior, aerospace engineering • KEVIN TILLER, ’10, consultant • JOSEPH MASSIMO, ’14, consultant • JON ROWE, ’04, master’s student, electrical engineering • STEPHEN SOFRONSKY, ’14, master’s student, aerospace engineering • TODD HARSTON, senior, mechanical engineering • TIM LINDNER, manager, UCF Machine Lab • KATIE MANERO, ’09, photographer • TYLER PIERCE, nurse consultant, videographer • NATHAN PUHR, videographer • CHIE SPARKMAN, seamstress and tailor

PE GASUS MAGAZ MAGA ZIIN NEE PEGASUS

CULTURE “The days of the dumb jock are over.”

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George O’Leary

T

he discussion about the stereotype, however, isn’t over — not when it comes to studentathletes. And UCF is unafraid to lead that discussion, even at a time when institutions are embroiled in academic scandals. So unafraid is head football coach George O’Leary that he is willing to open his books.

“Here, I’ll show you,” he says as he walks to his desk. He picks up a thick, three-ring binder and points to the tabs that delineate offense, defense and special teams. Equally prominent is the academics tab. O’Leary flips to that section and shows how each player’s academic progress is tracked.

Let other schools perpetuate the running jokes that “student-athlete” is an oxymoron or that “dumb jock” is a redundancy. The Knights are on a different trajectory.

“Academics come first here,” O’Leary says.

COME TOGETHER

It’s not just with UCF football though; the emphasis on academics is present in all 16 sports at the school. But to suggest that there is a simple program in place to ensure the academic achievement of UCF’s studentathletes would not only be unfair, it would be an understatement.

“It’s a culture,” says junior Joey Grant, an offensive lineman. “We have high standards for student-athletes, and we instill that culture in each other. We compete against each other to get the best grades. Academics come first at UCF, and when I talk to some of my friends at other schools, I don’t hear that same commitment. I think we’re held to a higher standard than most other schools.”

The numbers back Grant up. If you look at The Associated Press’ 2014 final Top 10 standings, Florida State finished first in the nation on the football field and UCF finished 10th. But if you take those same 10 schools and rank them according to graduation success rate (GSR), the list shows UCF finishing first. Overall, UCF was fourth in the country with its GSR, trailing Notre Dame, Stanford and Duke.

Not coincidentally, the UCF football program’s GSR has trended upward since O’Leary arrived. In Fall 2003, the season before the O’Leary era began, the UCF football team bottomed out with an all-time low GPA of 2.018. In Spring 2014, the overall team GPA was 2.94. And for cynics who think football players are graduating with easy degrees designed to inflate the numbers, O’Leary notes that his 85

2013-14 BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

ACADEMIC TOP 10 UCF ranked No. 10 in the final Associated Press poll, but when graduation success rates are compared, the results are much different.

1. UCF (83%) 2. Clemson (77%) 3. Missouri (74%) 4. Alabama (73%) 5. Oregon (72%) 6. (tie) Auburn and Michigan State (70%) 8. South Carolina (65%) 9. Florida State (58%) 10. Oklahoma (51%) Source: UCF Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport

scholarship players are enrolled in 25 different majors.

UCF’s academic culture permeates the entire athletic department. But as fans know, it’s football that sets the tone at many schools. And at UCF, that starts with O’Leary.

THE GUARANTEE

The head coach delegates much to his assistants, but the one thing he won’t hand over is academics. “It’s hands on,” he declares. O’Leary gets weekly reports on his players’ progress — how they’re doing with tests, assignments, attendance, mandatory study halls and tutoring programs — all of which go into his three-ring binder.

“They miss class and it’s like missing practice,” he says. “Late is also [counted as] absent. Disrespecting a professor isn’t tolerated. Players are also instructed to sit at the front of the class and not next to each other. States O’Leary, “It’s not about your buddy.”

Players say the worst feeling is knowing their name will be read off “The List” following a grueling practice. Players get on The List by violating any of the aforementioned rules of academic conduct, and the result is running wind sprints or doing another physically taxing drill, typically led by the strength coach.

O’Leary has also been known to quiz players early in the semester, asking: “What are your professors’ names?”

And if a player doesn’t know, the coach says, “Then they better know the next time I ask. They better know how to spell it too. The days of the dumb jock are over.”

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Brandon Alexander

It annoys O’Leary when he sees schools use athletes, sending them on their way after their collegeplaying careers are over without the academics to secure their way in the real world. He preaches that football is a means to an end. “People are concerned about winning, and you want to win,” he says. “But you want to win the right way. You never want to jeopardize academics for athletics.

“I tell my coaches all the time when they’re recruiting, ‘If I can’t graduate them, then I don’t want them.’ We’re not going to just run these kids through the mill, use up their athletic ability, and then they’re on the street.”

All players attend mandatory study halls with available tutoring programs, which are provided by Academic Services for StudentAthletes (ASSA). And upperclassman football players often pull aside freshman teammates and tell them that when it comes to academics, O’Leary is serious. The message is that if you want an opportunity to perform on the field, then you’d better

“The trend is for our student-athletes to have a GPA that is at or above the student body.” perform in the classroom first.

“Coach O’Leary always tells us that it’s school first,” says senior Brandon Alexander, a defensive back.

An Orlando native, Alexander joined the football team with the hope of one day becoming a scholarship player. He saw some playing time his freshman season, but he was struggling in the classroom. The athletic department, through ASSA, provides an almost minute-to-minute schedule for its athletes, guiding them through a day of practice, classes, study hall and tutoring.

Student-athletes know that if they don’t keep to the schedule, they’ll

A New Definition of Winning

95

percent

3.55

GPA

33

UCF’s graduation success rate for all sports (highest in the American Athletic Conference and of any public institution in Florida) Highest team grade-point average (Women’s tennis) Student-athletes achieved a 4.0 GPA

fall dangerously, if not hopelessly, behind. In addition to academics, Alexander also struggled to maintain his schedule.

After the season was over, O’Leary called Alexander into his office.

“Coach told me that I had to get my grades up,” he says. “He told me if I didn’t get my act together, he’d have to send me home. That got my attention.”

By availing himself of ASSA’s programs (mainly study hall and tutoring), Alexander brought his GPA up from the 2.3 he registered his first semester. That’s when O’Leary called him into his office again, this time to tell him that he was putting him on scholarship.

“The first person I called was my mom,” Alexander says. “She started crying. It was a big, big day for me.

Coach O’Leary always preaches to us about getting our education. He tells us there is no guarantee we’ll play, but he guarantees us we’ll graduate if we make the commitment in the classroom.”

Major Diversity (Number of athletes by degree track)

233

Student-athletes achieved a 3.0 GPA or higher

63

Student-athletes earned a 3.0 GPA or higher

13

The current streak of UCF studentathletes earning a collective 3.0 GPA or higher

percent

semesters

76

College of Health and Public Affairs

28

69

Interdisciplinary Studies

64

College of Education and Human Performance

58

College of Sciences

49

College of Business Administration

College of Engineering and Computer Science

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College of Medicine

3

College of Nursing

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Figures are from Spring 2014.

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Kimya Massey

Support System How UCF’s Office of Academic Services for Student-Athletes contributes to scholastic success: Academic advising: Staff members work with student-athletes, offering academic counseling, advising, pre-assessment, evaluation and guest coaching programs.

Monitoring and tracking: Student-athletes’ grades are monitored to ensure they are meeting NCAA, American Athletic Conference and UCF benchmarks.

BENCH STRENGTH

Alexander, his teammates and other UCF student-athletes credit the assistance given by ASSA, which is headed by Director Kimya Massey.

“We keep spreadsheets on each student-athlete,” Massey says. “We track and monitor grades. We track every test and every assignment. We get progress reports on every student athlete twice a semester from their professors. We stay on top of it. We’re very intrusive. We don’t want any surprises.”

“We want to succeed, and they want us to succeed,” Alexander says. “It’s a team effort, and it’s really impressive.”

Massey disagrees that studentathletes are given more academic assistance than traditional students.

“The average student can have the same things if they want,” he

Academic support: Approximately 50 undergraduate and graduate students are subject tutors. There are also study halls, mentoring and a summer bridge program.

Data and research: Student-athletes are evaluated using NCAA benchmarks along with academic progress rate, graduation success rate and the federal graduation rate.

Training and development: Personal, professional, time management and organizational skills are instilled.

says. “They have a lot of resources on campus. They have individual tutoring, group tutoring, counselors and advisers.”

What might be surprising, especially to those who cling to the dumb jock stereotype, is that during the 2012–13 academic year the student body average GPA was 3.01 while UCF’s 450 student-athletes recorded an average GPA of 3.14.

During the 2013–14 academic year, student-athletes compiled an average GPA of 3.08, the 13th consecutive semester that UCF’s student-athletes have recorded a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

“The trend,” Massey says, “is for our student-athletes to have a GPA that is at or above the student body.”

“It’s the passion and hard work of our ASSA staff that makes this level of academic achievement possible.”

Much of the success is due to a coordinated effort between academics and athletics, helping ensure that practice schedules, road games and the rigors of athletics don’t hold student-athletes back from being what they primarily are — students.

In many ways, UCF is ahead of the curve as academic data is used more frequently as a recruiting tool. For instance, not only does UCF boast that its football players are in 25 different degree programs, but that its student-athletes are pursuing 67 different majors. UCF currently offers 91 majors.

While much of the recruitment process in the last 30 years focused on training and practice facilities, the trend is toward providing state-of-the-art learning centers.

UCF is expected to open the Wayne

ALL IN THE FAMILY For UCF softball, classroom success is a team effort.

Head Coach Renee Luers-Gillispie holds her studentathletes to high standards, especially in the classroom.

“Our No. 1 goal is to have our players understand that they don’t come to UCF just as an athlete,” she says.

“It’s a privilege to play a sport and earn a scholarship, but you’re here to get an education.”

To ensure success, Luers-Gillispie, who is entering her 14th season at UCF, reinforces teamwork in all aspects of her players’ lives.

“We develop a family atmosphere — watch out for each other and have each other’s back in every situation,” she says. “It’s very personal to me.”

That dynamic has helped the team excel academically — 15 softball players were named to the American Athletic Conference 2014 All-Academic Team — but her goals for her players extend beyond GPAs and graduation rates.

“We’re one of the few universities that actually has a program working to get our student-athletes in line for their next step — their careers,” she says. “We give them the means to get everything they can out of this university, and once they graduate, we’ve been very successful with our players going on to good careers.”

“It’s a privilege to play a sport and earn a scholarship, but you’re here to get an education.”

Densch Center for Student-Athlete Leadership in Fall 2015.

“We’re way past the point of wanting our student-athletes to just get degrees,” Massey says. “We believe that if you’re coming here to UCF, you’re coming for a holistic experience. It’s not just athletically or academically, but rather an experience that hopefully makes you stronger, a better person and prepared for life after college.”

Toward that philosophy, UCF has begun tracking where its student-athletes are five years post-graduation, something Massey

A.J. Rompza, ’12

says is important to Todd Stansbury, UCF’s vice president and director of athletics. Massey says this data will be among the most important statistics tracked by UCF.

RAVING ROMPZA

A.J. Rompza, ’12, may be in one of those studies. A former guard on UCF’s basketball team, Rompza is 24 now, living in his hometown of Chicago after earning a degree in interdisciplinary studies. Today he helps manage his family’s restaurant businesses, with plans to create his own niche in the industry.

“As soon as I walked into the program at UCF, I knew there absolutely wasn’t going to be any slacking,” Rompza says. “It was different from what I heard from my buddies who had gone to other schools. It was much more lenient where they were and they could get away with more things, like not having to go to class. UCF wouldn’t

“As soon as I walked into the program at UCF, I knew there absolutely wasn’t going to be any slacking.” tolerate that. If you were willing to work within the program, the people at UCF were willing to make sure you didn’t fail. … They want you to succeed with what you want to do with your life.”

Like other student-athletes past and present, Rompza described the academic environment as a culture.

“It definitely is,” he says, “and the culture is amazing. There’s positive peer pressure too. We were competing against each other, not just in our sport, but in the classroom.

Being athletes, we’re naturally competitive anyway.”

Rompza recalls his days at UCF starting at 5 a.m. and lasting until the early evening.

HEALTHY COMPETITION Peer pressure motivates UCF volleyball players to excel. When Todd Dagenais took over as head coach of the UCF volleyball program in 2008, the team had won a single conference match in two years. It was the period of rebuilding on the court that spurred a positive side effect in the classroom.

“For any athletic team, the sense of pride [comes from] winning … and it was going to be awhile before we were going to have it on the court,” says the former University of Southern California assistant head coach. “That’s when we made it our point to win championships in the classroom.”

The culture shift began with setting a new goal.

“We wanted to go from having one of the worst

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GPAs in the athletic department to having one of the best,” says Dagenais. “And when we did that, it started to instill that sense of pride.”

The team GPA rose from a respectable 3.11 in 2008 to an athletic department best of 3.46 in 2013. The key to maintaining the trend of excellence has been the academic competition between UCF teams.

“There is really an interesting rivalry,” he says.

“We are all trying to achieve that best grade-point average award every year, and there is a healthy peer pressure where being smart and getting good grades is a badge of honor.”

“It’s structured. It’s demanding.

But that’s good,” he says. “It’s hard, but life is hard. It would annoy me when I’d hear other students say, ‘Oh, you get everything handed to you. You get special treatment.’ It wasn’t that way at all. … They held us accountable. It instilled discipline in me. The whole experience, what it taught me, was priceless.”

HIGHER STANDARD

Joanna Keough, ’13, is one of those students who thought UCF’s studentathletes were perhaps not held to the same standards as others on campus.

“I heard the stereotypes, that grades are given to them, that they’re not really here for school; they’re just

“We wanted to go from having one of the worst GPAs in the athletic department to having one of the best.”

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TEAM STATS BASEBALL

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Twelve players received 2013–14 American Athletic Conference Academic All-American honors

2013 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Team Academic Award

______________________________

______________________________

Not only has Keough, 23, continued to work with student-athletes, she’s now ASSA’s assistant tutor program coordinator and finds herself vehemently dispelling the disparaging stereotype of the student-athlete.

“I get offended now when I hear people say negative things, and I find myself having to educate people about what it’s really like,” she says.

“I don’t like that it’s still a stereotype.

We put in a lot of time and effort. I work hard, and the student-athletes work hard. We keep them to a higher standard than the rest of the student body. I know people like to say dumb jocks, but it’s not that at all.”

GPA 3.26 APR 974 GSR 100*

MEN’S BASKETBALL

SOFTBALL

The team’s perfect 1000 APR rating for 2012–13 was 36 points higher than the national average

A school-record 15 players received 2013–14 American Athletic Conference Academic All-American honors

______________________________

______________________________

here to play sports,” she says.

But then Keough, who is working toward a doctorate in physical therapy, began tutoring studentathletes. “I was pleasantly surprised,” she says. “I saw right away that they were taking it seriously, that they were very hard workers with very busy schedules.”

GPA 3.04 APR 976 GSR 96

GPA 2.78 APR 1000* GSR 67

GPA 3.26 APR 989 GSR 95

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S TENNIS

2013–14 American Athletic Conference Team Academic Excellence Award

2014 Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team

GPA 3.31 APR 979 GSR 100*

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CROSS COUNTRY 2013–14 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team

GPA 3.2 APR 974 GSR 97

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FOOTBALL 2013–14 American Athletic Conference Team Academic Excellence Award

GPA 2.83 APR 994 GSR 90

______________________________ Two players named 2014 Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholars

GPA 3.37 APR 969 GSR 100*

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WOMEN’S GOLF Two players named 2013–14 Women’s Golf Coaches Association AllAmerican Scholars

GPA 3.46 APR 962 GSR 100*

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WOMEN’S TENNIS 2014 Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team

GPA 3.55 APR 1000** GSR 100*

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TRACK & FIELD 2013–14 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association AllAcademic Team

GPA 3.27 APR 955 GSR 97

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VOLLEYBALL 2013–14 American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award

MEN’S GOLF

GPA 3.53 APR 1000* GSR 100*

GPA 3.32 APR 1000** GSR 100*

______________________________ * Perfect rating ** Perfect rating since 2009 GPA and GSR indicate academic year 2013–14 APR indicates academic year 2012–13

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Glossary:

ROWING

APR: “The Academic Progress Rate is a Division I metric developed to track the academic achievement of teams each academic term. A team’s total points are divided by points possible and then multiplied by one thousand to equal the team’s Academic Progress Rate score.” — NCAA.org

Five players named Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association National Scholar-Athletes

GPA 3.21 APR 970 GSR 100*

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MEN’S SOCCER 2013 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Team Academic Award

GPA 3.0 APR 881 GSR 93

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GSR: “The NCAA Graduation Success Rate is designed to show the proportion of student-athletes on any given team who earn a college degree. Graduation-rate data are based on a six-year cohort prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education.”— NCAA.org Source: UCF Athletics Association

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PE GASUS MAGA ZI N E

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Breathe Easy

Keeping children with asthma out of the emergency room is Linda Gibson-Young’s goal.

J

aksael Moreno leaped to swat at a red balloon as it sank slowly in the air. He missed and lunged for another before it hit the floor. Like a pack of rowdy puppies, the

7- and 8-year-olds around him in the classroom dashed and tumbled to keep the floating targets aloft. The camp counselors supervising the frolic were alert; any sort of physical activity is a scary situation for a group of children with asthma who might not recognize when too much fun quickly becomes an emergency. But kids — even ones with asthma — will be kids.

Finding her happy son after playtime, Moreno’s mother, Jessica, smiled. “This is the first time he’s been with so many kids with asthma.”

Like her son, the other boys and girls at Camp Easy 2 Breathe wore belt packs carrying inhalers and peak flow meters to test their lung capacity. Two nurses with an oxygen tank stood at the ready. Youthful exuberance wasn’t something to tolerate — it was a reason to celebrate. And for camp founder Linda Gibson-Young, an assistant professor at the College of Nursing, watching children with asthma chase balloons was

ILLUSTRATIONS BY RACHEL IGNOTOFSKY

a small victory in a long battle.

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B REATHE EASY

Preventing Emergencies Before joining the UCF faculty in 2011, Gibson-Young was a pulmonary nurse who worked with what seemed like an endless line of children who came into the emergency room suffering from painful and sometimes-fatal asthma attacks — many of which were preventable.

“It was heartbreaking to see those children suffer needlessly,” she says.

Most of the children Gibson-Young treated in that Birmingham, Alabama, ER came from low-income homes.

She knew firsthand the challenges all families face when they have a child with a chronic illness. Her own son, Greyson, was diagnosed with asthma in 2010. That experience helped clarify her mission: “My goal in life is to make a difference in the lives of kids with asthma.”

Asthma is the third-leading cause of preventable hospitalization in Florida. As defined by the Florida Department of Health, it is a chronic lung disease characterized by inflammation of the airways and recurring attacks of symptoms such as wheezing, coughing and chest tightness. Inflammation makes the airways sensitive to common irritants such as smoke, pet dander, pollen, mold, chemicals and other airborne triggers.

Currently, there is no cure for asthma, but it can be controlled through medical treatment and environmental management. That control starts with education.

In Osceola County, the number of children visiting emergency rooms because of pediatric asthma is one of the highest in the state. More than 22 percent of the county’s children under the age of 18 have had at least one asthma attack. So GibsonYoung approached Barbara Meeks, chief nurse executive at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, about partnering to create an asthma camp.

Meeks was on board immediately.

She had run medical camps in other states and knew they made a positive impact not only on the children attending them, but also on ER staff swamped with asthma cases.

With support from Nemours and a staff of UCF nursing students, Gibson-Young launched Camp Easy 2 Breathe based on the American Lung Association’s curriculum for children ages 6 to 12. The four-day camp offers activities designed to get kids thinking about how their illness works, such as scavenger hunts highlighting attack triggers and making lung puppets out of paper sacks and construction paper. Children also learn lungstrengthening exercises and participate in physical activities that teach them how to recognize their limits and avoid an attack that may lead them to an emergency room.

“This is the time when children are beginning to take responsibility for their asthma but may not know yet how to look for symptoms,” GibsonYoung says. “That’s where we help.”

“This is the time when children are beginning to take responsibility for their asthma but may not know yet how to look for symptoms.

That’s where we help.”

When an asthma attack occurs, the linings of the airways in the lungs swell as the muscles around them contract and mucus production increases, causing coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, difficulty in breathing and sometimes asphyxiation.

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“I noticed my chest felt a little heavy, and I couldn’t get in a full breath of air. I started to panic and cry, which only made things worse.”

Tobacco smoke • Dust mites • Fragrances • Animal dander • Pollen • Mold • Air pollution • Respiratory infections • Allergies • Extreme weather (humidity or cold) • Exercise • Strong emotional reactions

Managing Asthma

Children squeezed slimy, green “mucus” between their fingers.

They were mixing a sticky concoction of cornstarch, water and green food coloring to help them better understand their asthma.

“What happens when you squeeze the mucus?” a counselor asked.

“Imagine mucus in your body — why is it difficult to breathe?”

“It plugs up your lungs,” a child responded.

“Normalization is a big part of what we do here,” said Melody Wallace, a child life specialist at Nemours. The arts and crafts projects are a way to introduce topics to campers that they may not feel comfortable talking about with non-asthma sufferers. And normalization is the key to getting the children to discuss their challenges.

“So,” asked student nurse Tamesha Rolle, ’14, “what are some of your triggers?”

“Smoke!” yelled one of the boys.

“Pollen!” said another. “Cleaning products!”

“Good. Any more?” asked Rolle.

“Barbie stickers!” a boy shouted out, getting a laugh from the campers and counselors.

The trigger activity set the stage for a special visitor to the camp. Rebecca Campbell, an asthma sufferer on the UCF women’s rowing team, told the children about her first attack.

“I noticed my chest felt a little heavy, and I couldn’t get in a full

breath of air,” she recalled. “I started to panic and cry, which only made things worse. I had heard of asthma before from classmates in elementary school, but I didn’t recognize what was happening to me.” Fortunately, her coach recognized that it was an asthma attack and encouraged Campbell to see a doctor after calming her down.

Rather than backing away from sports, Campbell learned to use an inhaler, cool down with a wet towel over her forehead and take belly breaths when she found it hard to breathe.

“I lived through it, altered my workouts and was forced to find ways to manage on my own,” she said.

“You can find middle ground of being athletic and living with asthma — I’m proof of that.”

Gaining Perspective

Standing on one foot and pulling on his ears, Freddy Roman, ’14, had every camper’s attention.

“Freddy says, hop up and down.”

The giddy campers hopped.

“Stop!” Roman cried. A few did.

“Aw! Freddy didn’t say!”

The remaining campers continued to jump in earnest as Roman watched, monitoring their stamina until he finally gave the order. “Freddy says, stop!”

The kids collapsed into a pile of giggles — still holding their ears.

Roman, along with 36 other nursing students from UCF’s Daytona Beach campus, probably never thought a game of Simon Says would be part of his education. But practical experience garnered from volunteering is an important step for the students, and Camp Easy 2 Breathe provided an integral lesson in working with children. As they educated the campers about their disease, students witnessed the complications and psychological toll that asthma can take on a young patient.

“Some [students] are learning they have a knack for working with kids, while others see the challenges

young patients present,” says nursing professor Angeline Bushy, who observed her students in action.

“This has been great for them.”

Nursing student Crystal Blankenship, ’14, agrees. “You can only read so much about asthma or any medical condition, but when you actually see it and experience it, the knowledge solidifies much quicker.”

Moving Forward

Stomp, stomp, clap. Stomp, stomp, clap.

Entering the classroom filled with their parents and caregivers, the campers wiggled with excitement as they took their places, ready to perform their final skit. GibsonYoung, who spent most of her previous few days flitting around each activity, finally stood still — soaking in the last minutes of camp.

Stomp, stomp, clap. Stomp, stomp, clap.

“We will, we will, BREATHE WELL!” the children chanted.

From the back of the room, counselor Blankenship cheered.

“They are fully capable of doing more than most people give them credit for,” she says. “I saw children looking out for each other, knowing when to tell an adult that their campmate was having trouble breathing. [They] were taking responsibility for their own asthma as well as for others. It was amazing.”

For parent Cherie Dwyer, who collected her 9-year-old son Sean after the skit, there were many good lessons to take home from the camp.

“He learned a lot and enjoyed making friends,” she says. “He’s better at taking his medicine — he now knows that it helps him, and he wants to stay healthy.”

“This is the beginning of a strong community partnership,” says Gibson-Young. “The community of Kissimmee wrapped their arms around us with food donations for our asthma campers and families.

We expect to continue this camp in the future and add more in Central Florida communities.”

ASTHMA IN FLORIDA A 2013 study by the Florida Department of Health shows:

1 in 10

children in Florida suffer from asthma.

Children with asthma miss about

3 times

as much school as other students.

Youth with asthma are at increased risk for depression.

Asthma is the third-leading cause of preventable hospitalization.

47,733

In 2012, children ages 0 to 17 visited emergency rooms for asthma-related issues.

13

children ages 0 to 17 died of asthma-related causes in 2012.

80%

of asthma-related deaths are preventable with proper education and management.

1 in 10

children with lifetime asthma (or their parent) have taken a course on how to manage their asthma.

1 in 3

children with lifetime asthma have received an asthma action plan from a health professional.

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Citizen of the World “In 2008 at Los Angeles International Airport, I watched out the window as the ground crew loaded my bag onto a plane that would take me on a one-way flight to Australia. It was the start of a yearlong around-the-world journey and the realization of my dream to see other places — to find a purpose by experiencing other cultures and countries. I didn’t know it, but that solo trip would evolve into six years of slowly working my way across the globe. Here are five things I’ve learned from a life of travel.”

THE WORLD IS KIND “There are real dangers, but for me, traveling illustrated the inherent kindness in the world.

In every corner of the globe, new friends welcomed me into their homes, helped me when I was sick, and generously shared their cultures.

Travel affords the chance to approach each new place with curiosity and empathy — an approach that is echoed back manifold.”

JOY IS EVERYWHERE “In so many countries I’ve witnessed startling wealth disparities, vastly different educational systems, the effects of political and economic turmoil, and the hard work that goes into mere survival. Yet there was joy in even the most seemingly helpless situations. Long-term travel deepened my perspective on the world and instilled in me a daily practice of thankfulness.”

PEOPLE LIKE US “I’ve spent hundreds of hours in deep conversations with strangers on buses, trains and planes. Each person offered a fascinating story, a nugget of wisdom or a nuance of the local culture. From each I learned a great respect for how different our lives can be, but even more for the shared commonalities.

Laughter, love and community transcend culture and unite us.”

SAFE IS RISKY “The idea of solo travel terrified me. Traveling pushed me into new situations where, at the moment of deepest fear, I realized the chance I was taking was the opportunity to live my life to the fullest. And I don’t mean fears like physical danger, but rather the fears that whisper [to] conform and take the safe path. Those fears prevent us from reaching our goals.”

DOOR OPENER “Smiling is a gift that transcends cultures.

Though you should learn ‘thank you’ and ‘hello’ in the local tongue, language barriers are more easily dealt with than most people think. A simple smile has been the start of many amazing conversations over the years. That little gesture opened the door to offers of kindness because it made me more approachable. I count it among my most valuable possessions on the road.”

Shannon O’Donnell, ’06, has visited more than 40 countries, including South Africa (inset) and Cuba. Her book, The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook, helped the 29-year-old earn one of National Geographic Traveler magazine’s 2013 Traveler of the Year awards.

IMAGES COURTESY OF SHANNON O’DONNELL

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ALUMKN IGHTS

’70s

Bridget (Deere) Dycus, ’87, named Seminole County (Fla.) Teacher of the Year.

Les Harding, ’71, retired after 38 years as an accountant with UCF’s Division of Finance & Accounting.

Kathy (Denton) Pierson, ’87, president of Kathy Pierson Communications, celebrated five years in business July 20.

Donald Brown, ’72, enjoyed a 32-year career with Medicare and Social Security. Since his retirement, he’s been traveling and playing golf.

Jeff Holland, ’88, sends care packages to service members as a volunteer with Kids in Support of Soldiers and has worked with the Reedy Creek Improvement District for more than 26 years.

Mary Jane Henderson, ’72, completed a two-year term as state president for Idaho Alpha Delta Kappa, an international honorary organization for women educators.

Karla Brunig Daubney, ’89, hired as director of HR for Acorn Stairlifts.

Daniel Needham, ’73, CLU, ChFC, transferred to Moors & Cabot, where he was named senior vice president of investments.

’90s

Roger Pynn, ’73, and his public relations team at Curley & Pynn, received several awards at the Florida Public Relations Association Orlando Area Chapter 2014 Image Awards.

’80s David Lenox, ’81, served two terms as president of the British-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida. He is now serving as a board member.

Laura (Lembo) Wachtler, ’81, is a counselor and mental health case manager.

Mark Bateman, ’82, and his wife, Rachel (Ortega), ’83, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in May with their children, Megan Milone, ’11; Mark Jr., ’12; and John, ’14.

Col. John Kreger IV, ’82, retired from the U.S. Air Force after 28 years of service.

Gary Cliff, ’83, is the upright bassist for Sarasota, Fla., band The BoneShakers.

Ken Furton, ’83, is the provost, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Florida International University.

Jill Schenk, ’90, featured as the Inspirational Teacher of the Month for NBC 7 in San Diego.

Dana Fox Mariner, ’91, earned an M.S. in education from Nova Southeastern University. Dana and her husband, Tom, celebrated their 25th anniversary Feb. 4.

Cindy Dalecki, ’92, is celebrating the fourth anniversary of her company, Marketing 2 Go. Andrew Weinstein, ’92, managing attorney of Weinstein Law Firm, re-elected to serve on the Board of Governors of the American Association for Justice. He was also named to the 2014 Florida Super Lawyers list.

Scott Kaylor, ’93, owner of Wackadoo’s Grub & Brew in the UCF Student Union, won first place for ribs at the 4th Annual Cocoa Village BBQ & Blues event, which took place in Cocoa, Fla., in June.

Kord Kutchins, ’93, appointed vice president of business development for JHT, a servicedisabled, veteran-owned business specializing in training and simulation in the Central Florida Research Park.

Joseph Jones, ’95, joined Berger Singerman as a partner and member of its business, finance and tax team in its Tallahassee, Fla., office.

Stephen “Skip” Kerkhof Sr., ’84, appointed fire chief for the Mount Dora (Fla.) Fire Department.

Melissa Hardy, ’96, and her son were featured on national posters for Food Allergy Research and Education, as well as in an Allergic Living magazine ad.

Lisa Spence, ’84, won the Staples Advantage 2014 Sales Excellence Award. She is an inside account consultant for Staples.

Paul Skinner, ’96, hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu just two months after heart surgery.

Felicia Ryerson, ’85, chief learning officer for Florida Virtual School, inducted into the U.S. Distance Learning Association Hall of Fame.

Doug Weiner, ’96, joined American Momentum Bank as senior vice president and senior commercial relationship manager.

Teri (Chandler) Awwad, ’86, named 2013–14 Meeting Professionals International Rocky Mountain Chapter Meeting Planner of the Year.

Kristin (Miles) Anderson, ’97, won the Van Cliburn Foundation’s amateur piano video contest. She is an HR consultant and serves on the Irving (Texas) Symphony Orchestra board of directors.

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CLASS NOTES

Lori Alexander, ’87, elected to serve as president of the Southeast Lipid Association at the National Lipid Association Annual Scientific Sessions held in May.

Love Yourself to Lose the Weight In 2013 Rod Durham, ’86, was turning 50 and concerned that his best years were in the past.

The high school drama teacher wanted to make a drastic lifestyle change, and the TV series “Extreme Weight Loss” gave him the tools, motivation and support to make it happen. A little more than a year later, the former UCF Homecoming King has shed 188 pounds along with a ton of regret.

“Diets are science to me. You put in less and move more, and your body is going to drop weight. That is not where transformation happens. When I think of the past year, I never think of the weight loss as the transformation.

The real change was in my head — putting myself first and truly loving myself. It was revolutionary.”

“To love yourself, you keep your promises to yourself. The word ‘no’ became part of a new arsenal that I had not used before. Most people who are morbidly obese, there is something triggering it. Food becomes something that it shouldn’t be. You run to it when things get difficult. What I needed to do, was to get rid of the ‘difficult.’ ” “For the first time in my life, I did. Instead of saying, ‘Oh, I’ll do it tomorrow,’ I did it. And I learned that I was a bit of a warrior through the process. I found out that I’m as strong as an ox, and that I could do things like run a 5K even though I’d never walked a mile. When you do something like that, then you know you can do anything.”

PEGASUS M AGAZ I NE Brandy Gill, ’97, appointed creative director at Fry Hammond Barr, a marketing and communications agency.

Gonzalo La Cava, ’97, promoted to area superintendent of Central Learning Community of Fulton County Schools in Atlanta. He is also the founder and president of the Georgia Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents.

Tiffany Payne, ’97, a BakerHostetler partner, appointed to the UCF Alumni Association board of directors.

Kelli Price, ’97, launched her photography business in the Atlanta area.

Gregory Kuzma, ’98, hired as director of communications for Ascend Performing Arts, a nonprofit in Denver.

Jennifer Nyiri, ’98, jewelry designer, had her earrings worn by a character on The CW’s “The Vampire Diaries.”

John Trollinger, ’98, built a four-seat airplane and flew it for the first time in May. Pietro Mastroserio, ’99, awarded Teacher of the Year for 2013–14 at J.A. Dobbins Middle School in Powder Springs, Ga. Jennifer McVan, ’99, promoted to director of media relations for Florida Hospital West Florida Region.

Rania (Girgis) Sadrack, ’99, is a new shareholder in TLC Engineering for Architecture, where she works in health care business development. She is a member of the Florida Healthcare Engineers Association and the president of the Central Florida Society for Marketing Professional Services Chapter.

Joseph Smith, ’99, named president of the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers. He is the first clerk from St. Lucie County to serve on the executive committee and as president of the governing board.

Ryan Bethea, ’02, promoted to senior district manager with Godiva Chocolatier.

Phil Dalhausser, ’02, named a brand ambassador for Gillette Body razor. Phil is an Olympic gold medalist and beach volleyball pro.

Colleen (Sheehy) Mulholland, ’02, appointed assistant dean of the School of Education at the University of Indianapolis. She also earned promotion to associate professor with tenure.

Andrew Vona, ’02, is an editor for “Drunk History” on Comedy Central.

’00s

Joseph Regenstein, ’03, elected to the UCF Alumni Association board of directors and accepted a senior analyst position with Verizon.

Michael D’Amelio, ’01; David Krawczyk, ’01; and Mark MacGregor, ’01, own and operate Physical Therapy Specialists in three Orlando offices.

Marshal Blessing, ’04, earned an M.S. degree in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Nicholas Guittar, ’01, published his first peerreviewed book, Coming Out: The New Dynamics.

Nick is an assistant professor of sociology at Valdosta State University.

Sara Graditor, ’04, joined Holland & Knight’s corporate practice as an associate in Miami.

Diana Bjorkman Wade, ’01, completed her Ph.D. in special education from the University of Kansas.

Logan Baker, ’02, joined Shuffield, Lowman & Wilson as an associate in the tax section.

Andrew Bosko, ’05, received the Franchisee of the Year award and Highest Volume Sales award for 2013, as owner/operator of Beef ‘O’ Brady’s in North Lakeland, Fla. Cynthia Lambert, ’05, received Image awards from the Florida Public Relations Association’s Orlando Area Chapter.

Backpack to Boardroom Dan Demole, ’01, Jingle Punks co-founder Through fortuitous meetings with strangers around the world, Dan Demole has become a music media innovator. His company allows TV, film and video game producers to find and license original songs in a searchable online database. It has grown into a full-service music production firm with in-house composers, offices on three continents and clients such as “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and “The Voice.”

“I was a 22-year-old kid right out of school with a house, a car and a dog. But I still needed to figure out what I really wanted to do. So I sold everything I owned, put my life in a backpack and off I went. I surfed my way up the coast of South Africa. In India I studied with Buddhist monks. I went to Australia, Thailand and Japan. It was the most transformative step I’ve taken in my life.”

“All my important transitional moments have been based around relationships. There have been people who set me on a path for success. As much as it’s luck, it’s also being prepared to accept opportunities and not back away.”

“I met my business partner at a Black Keys concert in Brooklyn. He played in bands for years and had all this music that he wanted to sell to TV shows. He said he wished there was a search engine that producers could use to find his music, and I thought I could build something like that.”

“We’re trying to redefine the modern music and media company. We want to be the hyper publishing model that utilizes technology to find solutions for media producers.”

PHOTO BY GEOFF LEVY, ’13

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ALUMKN IGHTS Jessica Malave, ’05, joined Lowe’s Companies in Mooresville, N.C., as an account manager in the marketing, advertising and communications department.

Ashley Shapiro, ’05, became an associate at Greenblatt, Pierce, Engle, Funt & Flores. She will practice out of the firm’s Philadelphia and Haddonfield, N.J., offices.

UCF and a faculty member at Belhaven University.

Her dissertation, titled “Winning applicants: An exploratory case study of selection factors of recruiters and hiring managers,” will be published

by ProQuest. Katheryn is also the CEO of 1st HR Matters and 1st Choice Career Services.

Richard Wright, ’05, took a job with Walt Disney Imagineering, designing rides for the new Shanghai Disneyland Park.

Stephen Ruff, ’08, and his wife Karen, ’08, returned from Afghanistan and are currently serving at Ford Hood, Texas. Stephen took his second command of a military police company, while Karen is the brigade S1 for the 1st Air Calvary Brigade.

Laura Kern, ’06, received an Image Award from the Florida Public Relations Association’s Orlando Area Chapter.

Annie Warshaw, ’08, named to the third annual “Double Chai in the Chi: 36 Under 36” list of young Jewish movers and shakers in Chicago.

Vilma (Fernandez) Mazpule, ’06, relocated back to Orlando after accepting an assistant front office manager position at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld.

Casey Clark, ’09, graduated from Columbia University with an M.S. in nursing as a family nurse practitioner. He and his wife, Rebekah (Christian), ’09, reside in Lakeland, Fla.

Krista Peckyno, ’06, appointed in-house counsel for the Denali Group in Pittsburgh. Krista was also admitted to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Lily Hafter, ’09, is a police officer with the Davie (Fla.) Police Department.

Jonathan Costanza, ’07, joined VALIC and will serve as a financial adviser for UCF employees.

Bryce Hudson, ’07, graduated from the Directors Guild of America training program and is now employed as an assistant director on the TNT show “Major Crimes.”

Shaloni Prine, ’07, received an Image Award from the Florida Public Relations Association’s Orlando Area Chapter.

Jessica (McCloud) Redman, ’07, and Geoffrey Salant, ’10, FAMU law graduates, opened their mobile law firm, Redman & Salant, and are helping clients with business planning, estate planning and family law.

Tim Markijohn, ’09, graduated in May with a dual degree M.B.A./M.H.A. from Pfeiffer University.

William Rigdon, ’09, graduated from the University of South Carolina with his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. He began a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Connecticut Center for Clean Energy Engineering.

Robert Ruiz, ’09, passed the Florida Bar Exam.

Katie Stern, ’09, honored as a recipient of EXPO’s Rising Star Award for her work overseeing electronics industry events for UBM Tech, including DesignCon and the upcoming Designers of Things.

Nicole Virtue, ’09, promoted to chief operating officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando.

’10s Sean Callahan, ’10, graduated with his juris doctor from Florida A&M University College of Law in May and took the Florida Bar Exam in July.

Isaiah Chavez, ’10, promoted to on-air talent/ producer for the “Johnny B Show” on 102.5 FM in Tampa, Fla. Stefanie Dedmon, ’10, received the Daniel J. Buker Special Recognition Award at the 2014 Florida National Dental Convention.

Jack Demetree, ’10, graduated with his juris doctor from St. Thomas University School of Law in May. Armando Diaz, ’10, hired as a senior public relations associate for Ernst & Young in Washington, D.C.

GUARDIAN OF THE REEF Jay Easterbrook, ’85, (right) and his wife Nancy are protecting the fragile coral ecosystem of their adopted home of Grand Cayman by creating artificial reefs off the Caribbean island. Their latest project, Guardian of the Reef, is a commissioned 13-foot bronze statue installed 67 feet below the surface. One dollar from each dive made to the statue will go toward funding conservation education programs for local schoolchildren.

Jason Taub, ’07, launched JustBOGOS.com, a money-saving service that attracted the attention of the Sun Sentinel.

Dr. Robert Easton III, ’08, completed medical school and is a resident in anesthesiology at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio.

Carl “Matt” Efird, ’08, is the budget administrator for the city of Greenville, S.C. Teresa Epps, ’08, is a communications representative at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth, Texas.

Kirsten (Benfield) Evans, ’08, launched Baby Boot Camp — Orlando, a stroller-based fitness program that is designed to help women with fitness.

Jonathan Helms, ’08, earned an M.A. in Christian ministries from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.

Katheryn Meagher, ’08, received her Ph.D. in organization management in HR from Capella University. She is an adjunct faculty member at

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CLASS NOTES Jennifer Glucklich, ’10, is the banquet manager for the historic Lenox Hotel in Boston.

Timothy Medeiros, ’12, is a legislative correspondent for U.S. Rep. David Jolly.

Daniel Lewis, ’10, admitted to the Florida Bar and incorporated his private legal firm specializing in estate planning and elder care in Sanford, Fla.

Alex Perschka, ’12, hired as the assistant tourism director for his hometown of Oconee County, Ga.

Hannah Markwardt, ’10, moved to Seattle, where she is a program assistant in the Allied Health Division at Seattle Central College and volunteers as a gallery ambassador at the Museum of History & Industry.

Kelly Rose, ’10, graduated with her juris doctor from Barry University School of Law in May. Nikki (Garrett) Wagner, ’10, is the assistant director of the Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Florida.

Eden Wetherell, ’10, is a solar consultant for Sungevity Solar in Oakland, Calif.

Sarah Allen, ’11, received the Daisy Award, which honors extraordinary nurses, from Florida Hospital for Children for the month of April.

Bradley Campagna, ’11, is a cytogenetic technologist for NeoGenomics Laboratories in Fort Myers, Fla. Jennifer (Gibson) Landress, ’11, promoted to stewardship and special projects manager at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

April Heyward, ’13, published in the May/June 2014 NCURA Magazine. She co-authored “Evolution and Future Research Administration: Disruptors, Black Swans and Wicked Problems, Oh My!” with UCF Assistant Professor Jo Ann Smith.

Grant Heston, ’13, named the 2014 Public Relations Professional of the Year for Career Excellence by the Florida Public Relations Association’s Orlando Area Chapter.

Matthew Hodges, ’13, is a professional engineer trainee for the Florida Department of Transportation.

Tanner Jones, ’13, is in Orlando-based band You Blew It! Brianna LaBarge, ’13, an aerospace rotational development engineer for Honeywell, was accepted into the Transatlantic Program for Young Aerospace Technology Leaders in Germany.

Tim Langham, ’13, is a real estate agent for the UCF area.

Benjamin Murray, ’13, is in South Korea with his wife, Stevie Hamlin, to teach English.

Carlyn Topkin, ’11, named director of the newly established Hammond Digital+, a boutique firm within Lou Hammond & Associates.

Peter Ng, ’13, accepted a sales position with Chicago-23.

Sydney Chernoff, ’12, received a Teacher Excellence Award from Success Academy Charter Schools in New York City.

Kristen Quinones, ’13, joined the Winter Park (Fla.) Chamber of Commerce as event marketing coordinator.

Anna Eskamani, ’12, promoted to director of external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando.

Cody Ellsworth, ’14, is an aspiring professional race car driver in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge series and recently won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Geoffrey Fischer, ’12; Brittney Atkins, ’10; Patrick Cahill, ’10; Vanja Jonjic, ’10; Jonathan West, ’10; Ashley Gousse, ’11; and Craig Hughes, ’12, are Lockheed Martin colleagues.

Shelby Olson, ’14, attended the Clinton Global Initiative University conference and began serving with City Year Orlando in July.

Jordan Henry, ’12, is the assistant to the producer for ABC’s “Revenge.”

THE FOLLOWING IS AN NCAA NOTICE THAT MUST BE IN THIS ISSUE OF PEGASUS TO MEET UCF AND NCAA REQUIREMENTS. NCAA COMPLIANCE The UCF men’s basketball and football programs are on probation until Feb. 9, 2017, for NCAA violations involving the impermissible recruiting activity of outside third parties, impermissible benefits, an impermissible recruiting inducement, unethical conduct, failure to monitor and lack of institutional control. The penalties include: public reprimand and censure; five years of probation through Feb. 9, 2017; men’s basketball postseason ban for the 2012–13 season; a reduced number of initial scholarships and total scholarships each year for

three years; less coaches permitted to recruit off-campus at any one time for two years; reduction in the available number of recruiting evaluation and recruiting person days for two years; reduction in the number of paid official visits for prospects for two years; head and assistant men’s basketball coaches are prohibited from recruiting in July 2013; vacation of all basketball victories in which an ineligible student-athlete participated in 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11; head men’s basketball coach Donnie Jones was given a show cause over the next three years and will be required to complete additional rules training for three years.

In response to the infractions, the institution has increased its compliance staff, as well as its compliance

In Memoriam Eugene “Bud” Skennion, ’80, passed away Nov. 11, 2013, at age 57. He led a prosperous career in sales/marketing in the electrical manufacturing industry that took him and his wife of 34 years, Gail, to live in Florida, Texas and California. He was with Rockwell Automation for more than 25 years and ended his career at Eaton Corporation.

Nicholas Sierra passed away April 22 after a long battle with cancer. He was unable to graduate. Nick was a loving son, brother and friend.

Class Notes Send us your announcements and high-resolution photos (minimum 3 megapixels, 300 dpi). Submissions are included as space permits. Class notes may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium.

Web ucfalumni.com/classnotes Email knights@ucfalumni.com Mail Pegasus Class Notes P.O. Box 1600406 Orlando, FL 32816-0046 Phone

800.330.ALUM (2586)

Moved recently? Changed your email address?

Update your contact information: ucfalumni.com/contactupdates

Correction: In the Summer 2014 issue of Pegasus, Ryan Fitzgerald was incorrectly listed as an alumnus. educational and monitoring efforts. A greater emphasis has been placed on educating coaches, staff and fans on the rules and regulations concerning representatives of athletics interests and third-party representatives.

UCF has instituted the use of compliance and recruiting software for all athletics programs. In addition, the compliance office now shares a dual-reporting structure to the Vice President and Director of Athletics and the University’s Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer. UCF will continue its efforts of promoting a culture of compliance throughout the university and becoming a national model for athletics compliance.

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WEDDINGS & BIRTHS 1. Michelle (Matura), ’94, and Robert Rimes, ’94, married Feb. 8 at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater Beach, Fla. 2. Sandra Archer, ’97, and Corey, ’96, welcomed their third son, Sean Gordon, April 20.

3. Tracy Whittaker, ’97, married Jeff Polakowski Feb. 8 at the Postcard Inn at Holiday Isle in Islamorada, Fla. 4. Erin Casey, ’98, married Garfield Mills in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in May. 5. Sean Michelsen, ’02, and Kellie (Zavada), ’06, welcomed twins Parker Krogh and Kendall Therese Jan. 7.

Kimberly (Nelson), ’02, married Jonathan Adams, ’05, May 18 at the Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas.

L eah Moritz, ’04, and her fiancé, James Womack, welcomed their first son, Jasper Joseph, Sept. 12, 2013.

6. J acey (Brown), ’05, and Mike Poppell married May 24 at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando. Alumni in the wedding party included April (Patrick) Smith, ’05; Michelle (Bunker) Fynan, ’06; Bethany (Howse) Adams, ’07; and Lindsey (Patrick) Norris, ’07.

7. A shley Fisher, ’05, and her husband, Dr. Chad Rudnick, welcomed their daughter, Aria Gem, Oct. 7.

8. J ennifer (Krantz), ’05, and Brandon Wilson, ’05, welcomed their daughter, Hayley Madeline, March 13.

17. Erin (Turner), ’08, married David Oglethorpe, ’13, March 1 in Longwood, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Kyle Keefe, ’07; Julie (Zimmerman) LeFils, ’07; Ashley (Conyers) Wadell, ’08; Samantha (Gil) Haimes, ’09; Bridget (Downes) Keefe, ’09; and Jacqui Arnst, ’11.

Lauren Jo Black, ’09, and her husband, Ryan, ’07, welcomed their son, Dawson Ryan, March 12.

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18. Jenna (Fadely), ’09, married Andrew Nelson, ’10, May 3 in Nashville, Tenn.

Melissa (Hirsch), ’09, married Eric Sutliff, ’08, May 24 in Boca Raton, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Jen Glantz, ’10; Jaya Oleksnianski, ’10; and Allison Blum Peterson, ’10.

19. Kaitlin (Martinez), ’09, married Kevin Thomas, ’09, April 10 in Ballyvaughan, Ireland.

Natasha (Rey), ’09, married Joshua “Brandon” Buz, ’09, April 4 at The Royal Crest Room in St. Cloud, Fla. 20. Amy (Robinson), ’09, married Greg Earl, ’07, June 15 at the Riverhouse in Palmetto, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Charles Harrod, ’09; Stephanie (Rampersad) Ziegler, ’09; and Caitlyn (McManus) Distler, ’10.

Dafna Toledo, ’09, and Oren Klein, ’09, married in Miami Beach June 7.

21. Nicole Willis, ’09, married Ben Meyerson July 4 in Chicago.

9. Tiffany (Martin), ’05, and Joey Zingaretti, ’09, welcomed their second daughter, Sophia Hope, Sept. 30, 2013.

Patricia (Ballard), ’10, and Kyle Manecci, ’11, married April 5 in Brandon, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Charlie Friedrich, ’11; Eric Hutzel, ’13; Carlos Montalvo, ’13; R.J. Morrison, ’13; and Morgan Casselton, ’14.

10. Evan Rosenberg, ’05, and his wife, Kimberly, ’04, welcomed their first child, Ashlyn Leigh, May 20.

Carly Hart, ’10, and her husband, Jonathan, ’05, welcomed their first child, Isabella Marie, Dec. 14.

11. Kristen (Jackson), ’06, married Michael O’Keefe March 8 at the Shades of Green at Walt Disney World Resort. Alumni in the wedding party included Jennifer (Tuttell) Arnholtz, ’06; Jenny McNamara, ’07; Angela Jackson, ’08; Sarah Jackson, ’10; and Karl Huhta, ’13.

Kelley (Imbach), ’10, married Kegan Nelmapius, ’11, Oct. 26.

12. Melissa (Montanez), ’06, and her husband, David Collazo, ’07, welcomed their first child, Mia Isabel, April 8.

13. Shelbey (Aleshire) Rudling, ’06, and her husband, Will, ’06, welcomed their second son, Landon, Aug. 14, 2013.

22. Alicia (Beardsley), ’11, married Travis Pigon, ’10, Nov. 15 in St. Augustine, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Kim Deeb Hertz, ’06; Nicole Deeb Gell, ’08; Brooke Coscarart, ’10; Cody Pigon, ’10; Daniel Carey, ’11; Andrea Essick, ’11; Megan Cassell, ’12; Chase DeMarco, ’12; Sean Fletcher, ’12; and Medardo Cevallos, ’14.

14. Keith Beriswill, ’07, and his wife, Rebecca (Simonson), ’08, welcomed their second child and first son, Eli Gerard, June 21.

23. Catherine Bertram, ’11, and Zach Chastain, ’11, welcomed their first child, Desiree Alana, Feb. 20.

Jorge Chavez, ’07, and Erin (Solomon), ’08, welcomed their first child, Natalie Elena, Jan. 27.

Kassidy (Isselbacher), ’11, married Nicholas Marino, ’10, Jan. 20 at the Lake Mary (Fla.) Events Center.

15. Christopher Tomko, ’07, and Helen (Pastrana), ’07, welcomed their second son, Noah Anthony, May 27.

Jonathan Jones, ’11, married Kayla (Smith), ’11, Feb. 15 in Winter Springs, Fla.

David Umana, ’10, and Chantal Levy, ’10, married at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas July 18.

16. J enna (Barnes), ’08, married Wes Halliwell, ’03, March 8 in Orlando.

Alumni in the wedding party included Brad Sexton, ’03; Darrah Winkler, ’06; Ian Cordell, ’10; Megan McNamara, ’11; and Carlos Rosales, ’13.

24. Michael Cooke, ’12, and Brittney (Adams), ’12, married June 1 in Sarasota, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Rachael (Blankenbecklor) Swertfeger, ’11; Bethany (Bowles) Aguad, ’12; Tony Aguad, ’12; Stacy Glass, ’12; R.D. Sharninghouse Jr., ’12; and Daniel Freppon, ’13.

Ashley (Lancaster), ’08, and her husband, Erwin, welcomed their son, Josiah, Feb. 13.

25. Katelyn (Searcy), ’12, and Jimmy Funchess, ’13, married Aug. 24 in Oviedo, Fla.

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ALUMKN IGHTS FROM THE PAGES OF ESSENCE:

NFL Star Asante Samuel on Going Back to School to Earn College Degree With two Super Bowl rings and a successful decade-long career in the NFL, Asante Samuel still had one more accomplishment on his wish list: to finish the credits needed to complete his college degree. The Atlanta Falcons corner back recently returned to his alma mater, the University of Central Florida, to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary studies with a minor in Sociology and Education.

Here, Samuel shares how he hopes his story will inspire a younger generation and how mentoring has been his way of giving back to his community.

ESSENCE: Was going back to school something that had been lingering ever since you were drafted from college 10 years ago?

SAMUEL: It started crossing my mind my sixth year in the league. I started doing my homework on it and went to attack it.

When I first enrolled in college back in the day I was a business major. To make sure I could finish up this time around and make it fit my schedule I changed my major to Interdisciplinary studies and took online classes. So that made it easier for me. I didn’t take too many classes during the season. I would take one class during the season and load up more during the off-season so I could make sure I had more time.

ESSENCE: It’s not often that professional athletes go back to school. What motivated you?

SAMUEL: Being in the position I’m in and having children and wanting to show them that this is what it’s all about. Education is the most important thing and it can’t be taken from you. I wanted to let them know that if I can do it anyone can do it. It’s about being a role model and giving back.

ESSENCE: How did friends and fellow NFL players respond to you telling them that you were back in college?

SAMUEL: They were excited and this goes for the young NFL guys too. Me being a veteran in the league and showing those young guys that I’ve been in the NFL, made all sorts of money and I’m still going back to get my degree. I hope I can be that role model to inspire a lot of people to do the same.

ESSENCE: What would you like to do with the degree?

SAMUEL: I don’t know if I’ll ever use it, but I got it just in case.

I’d like to work with kids you know, to show them how to attack life and learn how to be successful.

ESSENCE: What did you learn about yourself by going back into that student mode?

SAMUEL: That it’s much harder than it used to be. I had to get reacquainted because I had been removed for so long. That was the main thing.

ESSENCE: What are some of the things you’d like young people to take away from your story?

SAMUEL: That education is important and that it’s a way of life. A lot of people say you don’t need education to be successful but it’s essential and very important to have that degree. It makes life much easier for you. I didn’t value education when I was growing up. It wasn’t only until I got older that I realized how important it is. Being a little knucklehead kid I did what I had to do back then. Now I know better. It’s opened up a new world for me.

I recently started a foundation called Bring It Home Single Moms to empower single moms. Being that I grew up in a single parent home and didn’t have an adult male role model to keep me in line I had to learn on my own. As an adult I realized how much more I would have known if a male figure would have been on top of me to help me out, so it inspired me to want to do this. ©2013 ESSENCE COMMUNICATIONS INC. AND TIME INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED/ TRANSLATED FROM ESSENCE AND PUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION OF ESSENCE COMMUNICATIONS INC. AND TIME INC. REPRODUCTION IN ANY MANNER IN ANY LANGUAGE IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED.

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Asante Samuel, ’13, played for UCF from 1999–2002. He was drafted the following year by the New England Patriots and earned his UCF degree 10 years later.

Authors

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There comes a time in a student’s doctoral studies when the comforting structure of classes and group projects is done. Alone, the student must write, research, present, defend and finish a significant body of work. Dissertation Fundamentals for the Social Sciences: For that time when you find yourself academically… alone was written by Leo Mallette, ’75.

Horse Tales, the first book authored

by Larry Killam, ’81, is a collection of biblical stories exploring what horses might say if they could speak.

Stories include “The Horse and the Roman Soldier,” “Paul and Antonio,” “The Donkey” and “The Cowboy’s First Gift.”

John Phillips, ’82, released Boots to Loafers: Finding Your New True North, which outlines the process military members should follow when joining the private sector.

This book covers topics from demilitarizing your résumé to interviewing, compensation and more.

J. Scott George, ’84, authored Living Beyond Ordinary: Discovering Authentic Significance and Purpose, an inspirational story of how an Orlando charity was created and its positive effects on the hundreds of thousands of people in Central Florida it’s served.

Vickie Claiborne, ’90, authored Media Servers for Lighting Programmers: A Comprehensive Guide to Working with Digital Lighting, a reference guide of devices that are the industry standard for live event productions, TV and theater performances.

Hidden in the Everglades lies an archaeological secret that will change the behavior of mankind forever. An ancient journal, a Florida lighthouse and a modern-day expedition converge in a quest in Shattered Consequences by Brian Lackovic, ’94.

Adam Rutstein, ’04, authored My Planet is Purple, a story designed to spark the imaginations of young readers while teaching them to respect and protect the environment.

Lauren Berger, ’06, authored her second book, Welcome to the Real World: Finding Your Place, Perfecting Your Work, and Turning Your Job Into Your Dream Career, an essential guide for the workplace novice that encourages readers to be bold, take risks and understand their value.

Breena Perdit is free from the Elemental gifts that would condemn her to a life in the army. That is, until her father is jailed as a traitor to the throne along with the secrets from his last mission as the king’s assassin — secrets that could help the king win a war. Threats of Sky and Sea is the debut young adult novel by Jennifer Baggiero, ’10, who writes under the pen name Jennifer Ellision.

Shannon (Baraclough) Bell, ’10, published her first novel, a paranormal romance titled The Mortal One. In Quarter Life Crisis, Sean is a disenchanted college grad and burgeoning alcoholic, and Lauren is a college dropout turned working mother in the midst of a failing marriage. When the two meet, an event takes place that will change their perception of what it means to be truly happy. Written by Patrick Anderson Jr., ’11, the novel served as his master’s thesis at UCF. Kandi Steiner, ’12, published Song Chaser. Tanner West has tried to shake his feelings for his longtime best friend, Paisley Bronson. She was the perfect girl to fit the lyrics in his favorite songs, but when she fell in love with another man, he had no resolve to find love again. But when Kellee Brooks shows up at his favorite bar, he realizes there may be another verse to his song after all.

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Back in F R OM THE ARCHIV ES

Pegasus Unleashed

On April 5, 1968, President Millican introduced a “meaningful and distinctive” seal design.

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ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE

the Day PEGASUS M AGAZ I NE

“This generation has a rendezvous with space and the stars.”

The FTU President’s Medallion worn

by President Charles Millican.

President Charles Millican was the university’s first president.

President Trevor Colbourn posed with the new seal after FTU’s name change to the University of Central Florida in 1978.

IMAGES COURTESY OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

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