I C U F N e w s l e t t e r J u l y 2 0 1 3
&
I N D E P E N D E N T
C o l l e g e s
U n i v e r s i t i e s
of
F l o r i d a
ED H. MOORE, PhD
, P R E S I D E N T (850) 681-3188 emoore@icuf.orgSTU Grad Tapped as Interim DCF Secretary
Governor Rick Scott has tapped Esther Jacobo, a graduate of St. Thomas University's Law school, as interim secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families. Jacobo is the regional managing director for DCF's southern region, which serves Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Jacobo has been on the “frontlines” of the community-based care system. In a statement, Scott said, "I have no doubt that Esther will increase
accountability in the department and enhance child protective ser-vices in order to protect the most vulnerable among us."
In her last position Jacobo supervised the delivery of foster care, adoptions, prevention, child protective investigations and the young adults in the Road to Independence program. "I have confi-dence in Jacobo's ability and leadership," said Alan Abramowitz, executive director of the Florida Guardian ad Litem program. "She is a great advocate. The governor made a great selection." Jacobo also has led DCF’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Program and served as deputy director of its Children’s Legal Services unit. She has been division chief of the domestic crimes unit at the Miami-Dade
state attorney’s office. Esther Jacobo
UM Grant Helps Boost Underrepresented Students
A $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will help the University of Miami boost the number of underrepresented students in the field of biology and could serve as a springboard to their pursuit of advanced degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects. The grant will provide scholarships to some 30 Miami Dade College transfer students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology at UM. It will also provide psychological support and professional development activities for the students, said Michael S. Gaines, professor of biology and assistant provost of undergraduate research and community outreach.
Eckerd Celebrates its 50th Commencement
Eckerd College marked a milestone as it celebrated its 50th Commencement. Nearly 530 graduates received encouraging words throughout the morning, including those by envi-ronmental activist Bill McKibben and Pixar/Walt Disney
Imagineering executive John Lasseter, both of whom received honorary doctorate degrees from Eckerd. The 394 graduates from the Residential Program and the 130 graduates from the Program for Experienced Learners (PEL) adult degree program received their bachelor's degrees in arts and sciences. The graduates hailed from 36 states, including 230 from the State of Florida, and nine countries.
Celebrate the FRAG
Hodges Signs “Got Your 6” Pledge
Hodges University has signed a pledge to join the Education Pillar of Got Your 6 and support student veterans by implementing and enhancing resources, programs and policies to support this popu-lation. Got Your 6 is a campaign that unites the entertainment industry with top veteran-focused nonprofit organizations. The goal of the campaign is to bridge the civilian-military divide by creating a new conversation in America, so that veterans and military families are perceived as leaders and civic assets. Hodges University is joining dozens of colleges and universities nationwide committed to heighten their support for current and future students who are also military veterans.
In the military, “Got your six” means “I’ve got your back.” The saying originated with World War I fighter pilots referencing a plane’s rear as the six o’clock position. It is now a ubiquitous term in the military that highlights the loyalty and cooperation found in military culture.
ERAU Team Wins Cybersecurity Competition
A team of two recent graduates from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, called Team ByteCasters, recently won the first-ever NIKSUN Cybersecurity Tournament. NIKSUN, a cybersecurity and network monitoring company based in Princeton, N.J., tasked two
-person teams with using the IT skills they learned in college to solve four real-world cybersecurity challenges as quickly as possible by an-alyzing recorded Internet traffic. Some of the challenges relied on several techniques, including sifting through large amounts of data; overcoming file encryption; and discovering unknown protocols, to handle simulated scenarios in industrial espionage.
The ByteCasters team members were Embry-Riddle Spring 2013 graduates Michael Kouremetis (B.S. in Computer Science) and Maxwell DeWees (B.S. in Computer Engineering). Both alumni will enter cybersecurity-related master’s degree programs at Purdue University this fall—Kouremetis in Network Security and DeWees in
Beacon Ranked Among State's Best Values
Beacon College made the list of the top six best value colleges in the state, topped only by relatively larger institutions. The list was compiled and released by the ValuePenguin online database service and was based on two simple questions: “How much does it cost in-state students to attend school every year?” and “Upon graduating, are students prepared for today’s workforce – in other words – can they get jobs that pay off their tuition investment?”
According to ValuePenguin, an expensive school that doesn’t adequately prepare its students for real-world jobs can be a huge cost burden. Although Beacon had the highest tuition cost among the top five colleges, it had the lowest default rate (of zero) on both Perkins and Stafford student loans. “The best value colleges in Florida should focus on generating a good return on students’ investment by educating them well, and arming them with the skills and resources needed to pay off any student debt,” the survey stated.
BCU Students Have a Heart to Serve
Bethune-Cookman University’s Pre Medi-cal Society members have successfully become civically engaged in the surrounding community. Recently, they volunteered in an effort to double the amount of food distributed to its homeless residents. They collected the food during Halifax Urban Ministries "Love Your Neighbor" food drive. Thanks to Bethune-Cookman University’s tremendous effort, Halifax Urban Ministries plans to distribute more than 500 tons of food to the local homeless community. That amount more than doubles the 240 tons of food that was distributed in 2011 and additionally allows the company to cater to local families in need. Through the partnership, hundreds of bags of food have been distributed at schools to families
of children that suffer from nutritional challenges. Pre Medical Society members
PBAU Names Associate Dean
Palm Beach Atlantic University has announced the appointment of Ann Killets, former chief academic officer for the School District of Palm Beach County, as associate dean for education programs in the University’s School of Education and Behavioral Studies. “We are excited to have Ann Killets join our School of Education and Behavioral Studies,” said Provost and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Joseph A. Kloba. “Her wisdom, significant experience and demon-strated capacity to positively impact individuals, teams and organizations will strategically assist in the ongoing development of our already stellar undergrad-uate and gradundergrad-uate programs. She also will assist in the development of new leading-edge educational initiatives.”
Keiser Health Care Students Place in Top 10
Six students from Keiser University’s Port St. Lucie and West Palm Beach campuses competed at the Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) National Leadership Conference and Competition. There were 5,300 competitors from across the nation and all of the competing students from Keiser University (KU) placed among the top ten in the nation. Aside from educational activities, the conference provides attendees the chance to tour health care facilities, network with others in the health care field, and interact with different health care associations. “This was an amazing opportunity for our students as it builds professionalism, self-confidence, and prepares them for their future careers,” stated Helen Mills, Medical Assisting Program Coordi-nator and Advisor. “As an educator, attending the workshops allowed me to make contact with high school faculty members who are excited to learn how active our HOSA program is and that their students can continue in the program if they attend KU.”
Back row: (L to R) Helen Mills, Hilary Greever, Brandon Reyes, Troy Tretola,
Michael Empoliti Front row: (L to R)
Katherine Austin, Vincent Fauntleroy
UT Professor Named Young Investigator of the Year
Jacob Wilson, assistant professor of health sciences and human performance, was awarded the Terry J. Housh Young Investigator of the Year award at the National Strength and Conditioning Association National Conference.The award, highly coveted amongst young researchers in the field, is given to a researcher who has been in the field for seven years or less, in recognition of his or her noteworthy contributions to applied exercise and sport science. Together with his students, Wilson has published 20 research papers in 2013 alone and more than 100 since coming to UT in 2010. “This award is a reflection of my students’ hard work and speaks to the caliber and quality of the UT student,” said Wilson.
Also awarded, one of Wilson’s students, Jordan Joy ’12, won the
Student Research Award in the Oral Presentation Master’s category for his presentation “Oral Adenosine Triphosphate Supplementation Improves Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy in Resistance Trained Males.” Joy is enrolled in a master’s degree program through Northeastern University and continues to work with Wilson as a researcher in the UT performance lab. He competed against dozens of other graduate students from across the country to win the award.
Jacob Wilson
FL College Annual Labor Camp a Success
Florida College’s summer Labor Camp has convened for its ninth-consecutive year. The camp is composed of alumni and friends of Florida College who come to-gether every summer to volunteer sweat and toil in exchange for home-cooked food provided by staff, on-campus lodging and even-ing Bible studies. Every year, the camp’s volunteer laborers tackle several minor endeavors—from pressure-washing to mulching to painting—but also aim to complete one major project. At the end of the
week, the 58 campers’ contribution totaled an estimated 1,200 man-hours. Since the camp’s inception, the overall estimated dollar-value of contributed man-hours comes to $250,000.
Flagler Names New Director
Flagler College has announced that Dr. Will Miller has accepted the position of Director of Institu-tional Research, Planning, and Effectiveness. Miller joined the college faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Public Administration Program. He has been a popular instructor and has made many significant con-tributions to the PAD Program, including curriculum development, refinement of student learning outcomes and improvements in other administrative procedures.
NSU Appoints Director of Museum of Art
Nova Southeastern University has announced the appointment of Bonnie Clearwater, M.A., as the new Director of NSU’s Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale. Clearwater joins NSU’s Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami. Clearwater shares the university’s goal of expanding the museum’s educational initiatives, partnerships and cross-disciplinary collaborations to fully integrate the museum into both NSU’s academic and extra-curricular campus life and into the broader art world. “Bonnie has an exceptional track record as a museum director, curator and scholar, and strikes the perfect balance as a creative visionary and administrator with the ability to engage and inspire people of all backgrounds,” said Nova SoutheasternUniversity President and CEO, George L. Hanbury. “Capitalizing on NSU’s academic resources, she will develop new opportunities for synergy between the museum and the university, forging exciting connections between art and education. We look forward to her leadership at NSU’s Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale.”
Bonnie Clearwater
Barry Cited Among Best in Student Return on Investment
Barry University was recently cited among the nation’s best colleges and universities for student return on investment (ROI) by three major collegiate rankings. Barry was named to the Forbes list of America’s Top Colleges and highly-ranked in two ROI-based classifications by Af-fordableCollegesOnline (AC Online). This is the third consecutive year Barry has been included on the list.
In addition to the Forbes list of America’s Top Colleges, Barry was cited in two rankings by AC Online. Barry ranked No. 4 among the “Highest ROI Colleges in Florida,” and No. 23 among the “Top 36 Most Affordable Roman Catholic Colleges with High Starting Salaries for Graduates.” AC Online’s list of colleges with the highest ROI in Florida ranks the 24 colleges in the state where degrees pay off the most. According to AC Online, students who graduate from these colleges earn more over their lifetimes, on average, than graduates from other Florida institutions. With its No. 4 ranking, Barry is the highest-rated school in South Florida and the highest-rated religiously-affiliated university on the list. Barry ranked higher than all the public schools in the state with the exception of the University of Florida.
FL Tech Takes Fifth
Florida Institute of Technology’s 2013 NASA Lunabotics team took fifth place among 50 international teams from eight countries in the Fourth Annual NASA Lunabotics Mining competition at Kennedy Space Center. The team also earned the full complement of 15 points to come in first for the Team Spirit Award, which is based on its helpfulness to the other competing teams. In addition, the team took first place in an unannounced special event, which was to drive their robot through an obstacle course. With the awards came a team plaque, individual certificates and a $500 team scholarship.
The university-level competition is designed to engage and retain students in Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathe-matics (STEM) disciplines. The challenge is for students to design and build a remote-controlled or autonomous excavator, or robot, which can dig and deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms of simulated moon dust, or regolith, within 10 minutes.
Team members & Mascot Pete the Panther
DID YOU KNOW:
20
ICUF
institutions offer nearly
300
fully online degrees
Webber Faculty Named to Sports Hall of Fame
Webber International University’s own William (Bill) Heath was elected to the Polk County Sports Hall of Fame. Heath was a coach at WIU for 26 years before he retired from coaching on May 31st, 2012 and is still involved at the University serving as the Athletic Director. During his coaching career at WIU Heath was the Head Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach 21 years, Head Volleyball Coach 9 years, Head Softball Coach 1 year, Head Women’s Basketball Coach 1 year, Interim Head Men’s Soccer Coach 1 game, Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach 3 years. During that time he coached in 1,310 varsity games or matches and had an overall record of 776 wins and 534
losses. Men’s Tennis alone accounts for 383 wins and 152 losses. Heath also has 17 NAIA National Tourna-ment Appearances 11 of those with the men’s tennis team and 6 with the women’s tennis team. “This is a huge honor for me, my family, and for Webber Interna-tional University” stated Heath. “I absolutely loved coaching, teaching and working with young people, and to be recognized as a Hall of Fame member is absolutely mind boggling to me”, added Heath. “I thank all my former student-athletes and assistant coaches that were with me through this fantastic journey, it has been a blast,” said Heath.
William (Bill) Heath
Stella and William Heath
Lynn Enrollment Projected to be Largest in 6 Years
According to current enrollment numbers, the largest incoming class since 2007 will be starting classes at Lynn University at the end of August, building on an upward trend in enroll-ment that has been maintained over the last four years. “Based on our current numbers, we’re projecting approximately 600 students starting classes this fall,” Gareth Fowles, vice president of enrollment management, said. “This continues our trend of increasing enrollment that can be attributed to a variety of
fac-tors.” The 2012 presidential debate has been seen as one of many factors that helped continue successful growth.
SLU M.S.W. Program Earns Accreditation
Saint Leo University’s innovative, online-based Master of Social Work program has received accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The program has been in candidacy since it began enrolling students in 2009, so all alumni will be consid-ered graduates of an accredited program, in addition to new graduates. Through a CSWE-accredited program, graduates are eligible to take the examination to become Licensed Clinical Social Workers. In addition, the accreditation assures workplac-es, prospective students, and the general public that the Saint Leo program meets the teaching and curricular standards established by the profession.
(left) Dr. Karen Hahn, assoc. dean of School of Education and Social Services and Dr. Cindy Lee, M.S.W. program director
Stetson Dean Wins Student Advocacy
Rosalie Carpenter, assistant dean of students at Stetson University, was awarded the Robert D. Bradshaw Small Colleges Student Advocate Award from the National Association of Student Affairs Administrators (NASPA). The award honors the significant role played by those who champion student issues in a small col-lege setting and beyond. “It was truly an honor just to be nominated for such a prestigious award to represent Stetson in Region III,” said Carpenter. “I was so humbled that students, faculty and staff made the time to write recommendations acknowledging my work as a student advocate. It is my pleasure and privilege to work with our students every day, and they are the ones that this award should go to. Stetson students make it easy and exciting to come
to work every day. I have the best job I could ask for.” Rosalie Carpenter
WU Educating Tomorrow’s Ag Industry
Lauren Lewis, Director of the Ag Studies Program at Warner University was the subject of the feature article on Women In Agriculture in the May issue of Central Florida Ag News. After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Alabama and Texas, Lauren Lewis returned to Polk County to head Lake Wales-based Warner University’s new agricultur-al studies program. The program is expected to help train local youth who might otherwise opt to work, or attend school out of state. Lewis points out that the program is “very unique” because of its strong empha-sis on practical experience. At Warner, graduates will have more than 500 hours of practicum in beef, fruit and vegetable production.
of
Independent Colleges
and Universities
Florida
S P OT L I G H T
S P OT L I G H T
S P OT L I G H T
on this month’s Preferred Vendor
J.P. Morgan
100 N. Tampa Street, Suite 3300 Tampa, FL 33602
http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/jpmorgan/cb/industryexpertise
The Higher Education team at J.P. Morgan provides relationship-based consultation, industry expertise and high-quality commercial banking solutions serving the comprehensive needs of higher education institutions including credit, core and global treasury, leasing, and liquidity solutions.
Primary Contact: Mr. Kyle N. Thomas
Vice President, Higher Education / Not-for-Profit Commercial Banker 813-483-8245 Office
813-369-5788 Fax
Adventist University of Health Sciences
Ave Maria University
Barry University
Beacon College
Bethune-Cookman University
Clearwater Christian College
Eckerd College
Edward Waters College
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Everglades University
Flagler College
Florida College
Florida Institute of Technology
Florida Memorial University
Florida Southern College
Hodges University
Jacksonville University
Keiser University
Lynn University
Nova Southeastern University
Palm Beach Atlantic University
Ringling College of Art and Design
Rollins College
Saint Leo University
St. Thomas University
Southeastern University
Stetson University
The University of Tampa
University of Miami
Warner University
Webber International University