Best of Florida Schools 2005
Web-Only Categories—Page 2

Best Show of Nursing Skills
UNF’s Highway Hero
Though her heart was racing, Haley Thomas knew what she had to do. On her way to the University of North Florida’s nursing convocation, Thomas spotted a two-car accident on the side of the interstate. Among the wreckage, she saw two people on the ground, unable to move.

Immediately, Thomas told her husband to pull the car over and, in her high heels, she raced toward the victims. “I didn’t know if my services as a nurse were needed, but there were no ambulances there, so I had to go check,” Thomas says.

Though she had practiced CPR on mannequins in nursing school, this was Thomas’ first time putting her skills to the test. Though the female victim was already dead, Thomas thought there was still hope for the woman’s husband. All of Thomas’ training came rushing back as she performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and felt the man gasping for air.

Finally, the paramedics arrived on the scene, and a helicopter transported the man to the hospital. “I was tearful and scared,” Thomas says. With blood on her formal black dress and cuts on her knees from the glass, the soon-to-be nurse pulled herself together and continued on to her pinning ceremony.

Though she arrived very late, the convocation had been delayed because other car accidents around town held up students. Thomas was the last to cross the stage to receive her pin, but when she did, the speaker told the audience of her heroic roadside efforts. The announcer also introduced Thomas’ mother and grandmother, who are both graduates of UNF’s nursing school.

The next day, Thomas read in the newspaper that the man she tried to help had died. Thomas says she couldn’t stop thinking about the accident, replaying it over and over in her mind.  “I kept asking my husband, ‘Did I do everything right?’” she says. “It took a while before I could finally feel proud about what I did.” –LD

Contact Thomas at haleyloden@yahoo.com.

Best Athletics Outreach
Playing with Numbers
Points and percentages, dribbling and dividing, shooting and subtracting—what do these things have in common? For students at Fletcher Middle School in Jacksonville, sports and math go hand in hand.

The Lady Ospreys basketball team at the University of North Florida has a winning record, and the students at Fletcher are keeping score. Three years ago, teacher Kathy Poe teamed up with her former student and UNF basketball coach Nancy Miller for a little student-player one-on-one.

Each of Poe’s students “adopts” a UNF women’s basketball player and keeps track of all her statistics as a fun way to learn math. “It’s a creative and unique way to approaching a subject that students tend to have a difficult time with,” Miller says. “It’s also a good way to have our student athletes serve as role models for the kids.”

The Lady Ospreys visit the classroom at the beginning of the season to meet their middle school fans and get the students excited about the project. During the season, students eagerly await the results of every game, tracking their players’ progress and ultimately learning skills that will put them ahead of the game when it’s time to take the FCAT.

The class even got to cheer their team on at one of the games and posed for pictures with their players in the locker room. The high-scoring season culminated in a final project where students presented the players with trophies, life-size posters, and playing cards to highlight their personal stats.

While the students polish their math skills, UNF players witness the value of community service, Miller says. “Student athletes are highly visible and have the ability to impact younger children in a very positive way,” she says. “If young people are taught early on that education can be fun and interesting, it bodes well for them later in life.” –LD

Contact Miller at nmiller@unf.edu.

Best Campus Parties
The Fun Doesn’t Stop
Students and staff at the University of South Florida aren’t full of “bull” when they say they like to have a good time. These Bulls start the year off with a bang and keep the party going through the fall, wrapping things up in October with their traditional homecoming celebration.

In order to show incoming freshmen and transfer students what partying at USF is all about, the Campus Activities Board organizes a yearly “Round Up” to start the semester. The 2004 event featured an appearance by a member of the cast of The Real World New Orleans series on MTV. Also, students enjoyed the sarcastic humor of stand-up comedienne Kathy Griffin, who has made appearances on Suddenly Susan, Celebrity Mole, and Seinfeld. Between meeting celebrities and fellow students, event-goers enjoyed live music, free food, and interactive games. “It’s a welcoming for the freshmen and a good way to usher them into the society of the campus,” says Michael Palin, student assistant. “Their eyes get all wide, and they can see what they can expect for the rest of the year.”

But, the fun doesn’t end there. In fact, the party only gets bigger and better when USF’s homecoming celebration rolls around. Starting in 1964, this event was scheduled around basketball games for many years because USF didn’t have a football team. However, when they finally did begin a football program in 1997, USF held two homecoming celebrations—one for the last traditional basketball homecoming and again in October for the first football homecoming.

The week of festivities, which has since been named “SuperBull,” kicks off with a Dance Marathon charity event. In the following days, students have a myriad of events to choose from: a two-day carnival, a flag-football competition, a Kick Off Celebration with the homecoming court, a fireworks show, a comedy show, a barbecue, a movie on the lawn, a collection of inflatable games, a “Running of the Bulls” parade, a masquerade ball, and the basketball team’s season opening “Midnight Madness.” “It’s a pretty fully packed week of activities and events,” Palin says. “It gets everybody pumped up and gets some school spirit going.”

One of the most time-honored traditions at USF is the bonfire, which has fallen by the wayside at other schools due to safety concerns. However, the Bulls know how to keep the flames at bay as cheerleaders, band members, athletes, and students gather around the ceremonial blaze. During the event, the mascot of the opposing team is crowned as the centerpiece of a ready-to-burn wood tower. It’s a memorable night each year that USF faculty, alumni, students, and fans enjoy together, Palin says. “It’s a good time for everybody to just go crazy, have some fun, and take their mind off classes.” –CG

Contact Palin at (813) 974-7795.

Best College Sports Play
Movin’ On Up
“USF has arrived!” President Judy Genshaft said as she accepted the school’s invitation to join the Big East football conference. The University of South Florida will leave Conference USA and join one of the nation’s premier athletic conferences next fall, aligning itself with academic and athletic heavyweights like Syracuse University in New York, Rutgers University in New Jersey, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In moving to the Big East, USF is climbing two rungs in the nation’s athletic ladder.

“The football program has risen from non-existence in 1995 to a top-35 Division I-A program in 2003,” says Jennifer Johnson, USF senior. “The Bulls athletic programs are enjoying a fast-paced ascent to becoming nationally recognized programs.”

Their recent success is echoed by the motto of the school’s athletic programs: “We don’t follow traditions—we create them.” The Bulls have sent more teams to NCAA post-season play than any current member of Conference USA. USF also sponsors 18 sports, all of which will now compete in the Big East Conference.

A new athletic-training center will accompany the Bulls in their transition. The 14,000-square-foot facility will house the football team and 12 other athletic programs and coaching staffs. Features of the building include a 10,000-square-foot strength and conditioning center, sports medicine services, and an academic-enrichment center for student athletes. “USF has the necessary resources and capabilities to develop lasting university partners in the Big East Conference, which will help advance the USF brand as a national research university,” Johnson says. –JJ

Contact Media Relations Coordinator Jacqui Cash at jcash@amin.usf.edu.

Best ROTC Facilities
UWF Makes the Jump
Shooting their students with paint balls and throwing them in black-hawk helicopters wasn’t enough for the University of West Florida. Now they’re throwing their students off a 40-foot tower. And the students love it.

UWF added a rappelling tower to their campus ROTC program last year. The new tower, located on the baseball/softball complex, gives students an opportunity to train in rappelling, gain upper body strength, and boost self-confidence.

“It’s a real challenge that you don’t have to leave campus to get,” says Maj. Stephen Duckworth, assistant professor of military science. “It’s certainly had a positive impact on our program, in that it provides an on-campus training tool that builds confidence in our students, while providing both a mental and physical challenge.”

Most students agree the tower is indeed a challenge. Although many are scared the first time, after they try it, they just can’t wait to go off again. Once they overcome their fears and rappel the tower, their self-confidence grows immensely, Duckworth says.

The rappelling tower is having other positive paybacks, too. Students in the ROTC program are evaluated the summer between their junior and senior year by an independent committee out of Fort Lewis, Wash. One of the skills they’re evaluated on is rappelling.

“In the past, some of our students weren’t able to get some of the awards because it was the very first time they encountered it, and they didn’t perform as well as they would have had they had a chance to practice it,” Duckworth says. “Now that we’re doing it every semester, and the students are going off the tower every semester, they’re getting so much better at it.”

The tower is being used as a base for other obstacles as well. On one side of the tower is a cargo net to build upper-body strength, and on the other is a helicopter skid. The skid allows the students to rappel without a wall, as if they were actually rappelling off a hovering helicopter. The tower is also being used as a base for the school’s low-ropes course, and there are plans to build a high-ropes course soon. In addition, the school is only months away from turning one side of the tower into a rock-climbing wall.

The tower was built through the joint efforts of this Pensacola school and the U.S. Army. The school provided the land and materials, and the Army provided construction engineers out of Fort Rucker, Ala., to build the tower. “Everyone who’s seen it agrees that it’s one of the best constructed towers they’ve ever seen, whether civilian or military,” Duckworth says. “The guys really put a lot of effort into doing a good job for us.”

That effort definitely paid off. The tower made it through Hurricane Ivan with only a few loose boards, while buildings and trees around it were damaged severely.

“The thing I enjoy most about operating the tower is seeing the students when they come off—how excited they are, and how they have a renewed confidence,” Duckworth says. —JW

Contact Duckworth at sduckworth@uwf.edu.

Copyright © 2006 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved