Tue Aug 31
The Toni Jennings Exceptional Education Institute brought together UCF students from the College of Community Innovation and Education and the College of Health Sciences and Professions, along with Nemours Children’s Hospital, to offer free developmental screenings and resources to students in the Rosen Preschool and the OCPS K-8 Academic Center for Excellence last week. The Parramore Education…
Fri Aug 27
If one word could encapsulate the journey that Martha Lue Stewart has had at UCF, it’s grateful. As the professor submitted grades for her final course last week and packed up the books, photos and other mementos in her office, she reminisced on countless stories. As the first Black woman promoted to the rank of…
Sat Aug 21
Maritza Concha, a lecturer in the School of Public Administration, has been named the next director of the UCF Center for Public and Nonprofit Management (CPNM). Prior to joining UCF full-time in 2019, Concha worked as an evaluator for more than 15 years, primarily supporting nonprofits serving Latin American immigrants, and taught undergraduate students as…
Tue Aug 17
Ever since Terry Greear ’02 shared his harrowing story in a July 28 Facebook post about contracting the coronavirus earlier this year, the world has taken notice. Greear’s story has since appeared in CNN, WESH, the Orlando Sentinel and many other news outlets. His echoes his plea for everyone who is able to get vaccinated because he really can’t stress it…
Fri Aug 6
In her final semester at UCF, Alex Dixon was finally able to complete a task that most college students take for granted: reading a textbook on her own. For the graduating early childhood development and education major, walking across the stage for commencement with her peers this summer seemed like it would take a miracle a decade…
Thu Aug 5
It started with an aversion to math. And now Nisha Phillip Malahoo ’21MEd is fostering a community of learning. A teacher for nearly a decade at Pinewood Elementary, a Title I school in Orange County, Malahoo works to create a classroom experience that’s both exciting and engaging for students. That desire stems from her own…
Fri Jul 23
Barbara Truman ’94 ’96MA, who helped create and develop UCF’s early ventures into online learning, died July 17 from cancer. She was 59. Truman held multiple positions at the university dating back to 1996, beginning when she was a graduate student hired to help build UCF’s inaugural online program. She later was named director of…
Mon Jul 12
UCF Downtown was created with the mission of connecting students to opportunities through networking, internships and jobs. The proximity of the campus to Orlando’s Central Business District places students within walking distance of job and internship opportunities, and for many legal studies alumni they were able to experience that firsthand. The Department of Legal Studies is the largest undergraduate legal studies…
Mon Jul 12
Pegasus Professor Naim Kapucu from the School of Public Administration recently received the Fulbright Distinguished Chair U.S. Scholar Program award to Australia in applied public policy and democratic resilience hosted by Flinders University and Carnegie Mellon University-Australia. The prestigious program provides 470 awards to researchers and teachers in over 125 countries. Kapucu will focus his research on improving the…
Sun Jun 27
Harry O. Hall, a charter faculty member and administrator of the University of Central Florida, died May 31. The professor emeritus was 92. A year before the first students arrived on the then Florida Technological University campus in 1968, he came to the university to draft the operating plan for the College of Education’s undergraduate…
Wed Jun 16
Golden retriever Halo hops onto the hospital bed and cozies up beside five-year-old Kade King, a patient at Nemours Children’s Hospital. Once they are settled, Kade begins reading to his four-legged visitor. “Two dots can make the eyes of a fox. One. Two.” With his head on his paws and big brown eyes staring intently, Halo seems to be…
Mon Jun 7
Shannon Waiters â21 began her UCF journey at eight-months pregnant. She already had one child and was in her late 30s. She had also just retired from 20 years of service in the Army as a senior intelligence analyst. Waiters spent her career analyzing reports from service men and women in the field and turning…
Fri May 28
“Relationships today are faced with multiple stressors,” says Sejal Barden, executive director of the UCF Marriage and Family Research Institute (MFRI) and associate professor of counselor education. “Couples work longer hours, leaving less time to spend with their partners. They live farther away from friends and family, which disconnects couples from community support. They are also dealing with economic…
Mon May 24
As early as 10 years old, Janice Seabrooks-Blackmore remembers teaching children in the neighborhood on her father’s back porch, especially those children who didn’t learn in the same way as others. “It wasn’t called special education back then, but even without that language, I was always intrigued with diverse ways of learning,” says the professor…
Wed May 19
Humans have a weird fascination with body size. We associate body size with health status, emotional well-being, and self-esteem. We even ascribe worth to individuals based on how large or small their bodies are at any given moment in time. Author and educator Roxane Gay wrote poignantly about this in Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body and…
Wed May 12
Colleen Thrailkill ’99EdD spent more than 30 years as an educator before she retired in 2010 — an amazing tenure that’s even more incredible considering the curriculum and instruction alum never set out to be a teacher in the first place. After earning her bachelor’s degree in sociology, she worked at a daycare in Atlanta for a period…
Mon May 10
Due to the breadth of the degrees offered, the more balanced rank of faculty members and, most importantly, the global reach of the school, the Department of Health Management and Informatics received approval to become the School of Global Health Management and Informatics. The designation is effective May 10. “The school will strengthen our ability to…
Fri May 7
Malcolm Butler wanted to be a physicist, and he wanted to win a Nobel Prize. While pursuing his doctorate in physics, Butler began working at an afterschool program, and this experience planted a seed about the possibility of teaching young people for a living. “I was at this Rubicon in my life where I was…
Thu May 6
After spending last summer with my head barely above water as a graduate student at UCF, I was this close to giving up on my dream of earning a degree. My grandmother passed away from COVID-19. My father was diagnosed with severe heart problems that left him wearing a defibrillator. I was the sole financial provider for…
Wed May 5
Pamela Duff ’17 always knew she would become a counselor. As she watched people around her struggle with addiction, she realized she wanted to find a career that would allow her to utilize her skills to help people recover from addictions and learn healthier coping skills. Duff graduates this May with a master’s degree in clinical mental…