For two months, Morales, a junior at FIU studying elementary education, had been living in her car in the parking lot of the student health center. She showered at the FIU gym and ate food from the Fresh Food Company, where she worked, given to her by a kind supervisor. She never told the supervisor she had no place to live. She thinks the woman just sensed that she could use some help.

Morales never wanted to think of herself as homeless. She called herself a “nomad.”

“People expect a homeless person to look all dirty,’’ she said. “But any student you pass by, they could be homeless and you’d never know it.’’

Morales, now 21, found herself with nowhere to live after her parents divorced and her father, unemployed, drinking heavily and in a deep depression, told her she had to move out to make room for his new girlfriend. Her stepmother was diagnosed with cancer and unable to help. Her extended family lived in Costa Rica.

She never asked anyone for help because she figured there were plenty of people facing worse circumstances.

She didn’t want to think of herself as a beggar, or worse, hopeless.

A national trend

In any given semester at FIU, there are dozens of students with similar stories – living on the streets, in cars or shelters, or abandoned by those who were supposed to protect and care for them.

Some have suffered abuse or neglect and bounced from one foster home to another; others have suffered the loss of a parent, landing them in state custody or, if they are 18 or older, on their own.

One student slept outside the Frost Art Museum for several days until an FIU advisor helped him find housing.

The struggles of homeless and former foster care youth in higher education is a national issue that advocates say is finally getting the attention it deserves.

More than 30 states, including Florida, now provide scholarships, grants or tuition exemptions to foster care youth who have “aged out” of the system and want to go to college. A federal program provides up to $5,000 annually to those who enroll in college.

Students who are homeless are also eligible for free tuition and fee waivers at state colleges and universities, though the process to prove homelessness can be daunting.

Still, experts say the needs of students who have endured so much so early in life run far beyond the financial.

Lacking a solid support system, they struggle to navigate the bureaucracies of higher education and financial aid. Many need help academically to succeed at the college level. Others suffer from mental or emotional problems brought on by childhood trauma.

FIU is one of a growing number of universities and colleges in the country working to create a more holistic solution, built around addressing all of a student’s needs, whether academic, physical, emotional or mental.

The university’s Fostering Panther Pride program offers former foster care and homeless students a safety net throughout their college years.

The program is winning praise from advocates in Florida and around the country.

“When you have a young person who has been mistreated, neglected or abused, you’ve got to provide them with a supportive community so they can succeed,’’ said Brett McNaught, CEO of Educate Tomorrow, a Miami-based nonprofit that provided an initial $35,000 to fund FIU’s program. “Getting an academic institution like FIU to focus on this population is a game-changer.’’

National experts – who are working to identify what works and what doesn’t at colleges and universities around the country – agree and say FIU is on the right track.

“The research has shown that these kids are not going to college and if they do, once there, they have trouble succeeding,’’ said John Emerson, a postsecondary education advisor with Casey Family Programs. “So while scholarships are important, it’s not enough.”

Launched in November 2013 by FIU’s Office of Engagement, Fostering Panther Pride combines the one-on-one guidance of a dedicated success coach with mentoring, academic and financial assistance and a network of outreach focused on everything from study skills and internships to balancing a checkbook and preparing a resume.

Struggling to succeed

The challenges – and the numbers – are daunting. In Fall 2014, FIU estimated there were more than 80 former foster care and homeless youth enrolled at the university. The latter were “couch-surfing” with friends, doubling up with other families, or living in shelters or their cars. Nearly a third of the students were on academic probation with GPAs of less than a 2.0.

University records that indicate whether a student has been granted a tuition exemption make it possible to identify those coming from foster care or who might be homeless. The real challenge is reaching the students to provide the help they need.

Professors, even close friends, often have no idea of their struggles. Students hesitate to be labeled or linked to anything that might identify them as homeless or from foster care.

“These are kids who have traveled a long way through valleys most people will never see,’’ said Kirk Brown, the director of extended foster care for the Florida Department of Children and Families. “It’s up to us to get them to the end.’’

Read students’ personal stories: Homeless students find open doors at FIU

Without intervention, the odds of success are not in their favor. Nationally, fewer than 10 percent of former foster care youth enroll in college and fewer than 3 percent make it to graduation.

Florida – and Miami-Dade County – are at the epicenter of the problem. The state has the third highest foster care population in the country – nearly 20,000 children in 2012. Of these, more than 4,800 live in Miami-Dade.

The county also has the largest number of homeless children in the state – more than 6,400 in 2012-13, including those in shelters, hotels, cars, parks or “doubled-up” with other families.

“For some of these kids, school is the only consistency in their lives,’’ said Debra Albo-Steiger, program manager for Project UPSTART, the homeless education division of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. “Against all odds, they get their high school diploma, so we want to ensure they are able to go to college. What’s happening at FIU is very exciting.”

Overcoming the odds

Despite the obstacles, the success stories at FIU are plentiful – even incredible.

At 15, Kevin Love watched as every member of his immediate family – his mother, sister and two brothers – were locked up.

He ended up in foster care and though he went through periods of hopelessness, several role models helped him find his way to FIU, where he became a resident advisor, joined a fraternity and was accepted into the Order of Omega Greek honor society.

Love graduated in spring of 2015 with a degree in civil engineering and accepted a position with the construction firm of Moss & Associates. He wants to use his experience to show others that they, too, can find success.

“The kids I used to know are out selling drugs and getting into fights,’’ he said. “I want to use what I’ve been through to help push other people in the right direction. There’s no use having a story if you don’t use it for something good.’’

Kenya Adeola, recognized as a “Worlds Ahead Graduate” at commencement in the spring of 2015, lived in nine different foster homes by the time she was 18. She refuses to let that experience define her.

Getting an education – and breaking the cycle of drug addiction and abuse she was born into – has been her number one priority.

“I had a period where I was very angry, very depressed,’’ said Adeola, who earned her degree in Spanish. “School became my only outlet. I knew that, if I didn’t do it for myself, who would?’’

At FIU, Adeola was a peer advisor, a member of the homecoming committee and participated in Academy of Leaders. This summer, she completed two internships in Washington, D.C., one as a legislative aide to Sen. Tim Scott, the other for the Congressional Coalition for Adoption Institute, where she helped draft policy for children in foster care.

“These are students who refuse to let their circumstances define them,’’ said President Mark B. Rosenberg, who has touted what he calls FIU’s “super stars” on television, in speeches and at commencement.

“What they have seen – and overcome – is a testament to their strength and resilience. We don’t take credit for their success. But we are committed to supporting them in whatever way they need.”

Support for FIU’s program – from the private, nonprofit and public sectors – has been considerable. In addition to Educate Tomorrow, the Miami Foundation, the Miami Coalition for the Homeless, Voices for Children and UPS Foundation all stepped forward with funding to launch the program. Helping Abused, Neglected and Disadvantaged Youth (HANDY), a nonprofit based in Fort Lauderdale, and Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe have helped with planning and referrals.

FIU alumnus Chad Moss ‘94, a board member at HANDY and mentor to a former foster care student at FIU, has committed $10,000 per year for five years for students from the program who are first in their families to attend college. The state matches those dollars for a total impact of $100,000.

“I view this as an investment in lives,’’ said Moss, a member of the FIU Foundation Board of Directors. “I firmly believe in early intervention in youngsters’ lives to show them there is a ladder to a better way of life.’’

In a major milestone for the program, the state Legislature this year allocated a recurring commitment of $300,000 annually to fund housing and other assistance.

One anonymous FIU employee donated $10,000 to cover the cost of on-campus housing and meals for one student this year.

“It’s overwhelming what this program has done in a very short time,’’ said Janie Valdes, assistant vice president of undergraduate education, who oversees the program. “Much of that is due to the uber-commitment of our staff. And the work of Ana Ramos.’’

Ramos, the program’s success coach and a former teacher and social worker from Honduras, is the heart of Fostering Panther Pride. Hers is a dedicated, fulltime position focused solely on helping students navigate the myriad services for which they may be eligible, both inside and outside the university.

“I clear the path for them,’’ Ramos explains. “Whether it’s housing, financial aid or food stamps, I help them meet their needs so they can graduate on time. I can’t work harder than they work, but I can help them make a plan and prioritize what’s most important.”

Douglas Robertson, dean of undergraduate education, has described Ramos as the “earth mother” of Fostering Panther Pride.

“The university has lots of tools to help students succeed – some high tech and some high touch,’’ he said. “For these students, Ana Ramos is a lifeline to all of that.’’

That lifeline can mean the difference between persevering – and giving up.

“It’s hard enough for students with family support to navigate the system of higher education,’’ said Charisse Grant, senior vice president for programs at the Miami Foundation, which provided an initial grant of $15,000 for FIU’s program and has committed another $25,000 this year. “To attempt to create that kind of a support in a university setting is really significant.”

Working for change

With the right support, students who have faced the worst circumstances can succeed. Students in Fostering Panther Pride are demonstrating that.

Ashley Hunter, a senior majoring in psychology, lived in six different foster homes after the state removed her from her father’s care when she was in elementary school. Both her parents were addicted to drugs. Her father is now in prison.

Hunter came to FIU from Miami Dade College in January 2014 and said she felt alone and scared. Soon she met Ana Ramos and the team at Fostering Panther Pride.

“Kids in foster care are often overlooked,’’ Hunter said. “We’re on our own, so having that extra support, someone you can call when you have a question, is so important.’’

For Christian Aguilar, attending FIU has brought more stability to his life than he’s had in years. After his mother died, he bounced from one relative to another before landing in foster care at 17.

At 18, while still a senior in high school, he found an apartment with a co-worker and thought his situation was turning around. Then, outside his Kendall apartment late one night, he was shot in the stomach by three masked gunmen in an attempted carjacking. He spent two weeks in the hospital and another couple months recuperating. His attackers have not been caught.

“It was surreal,’’ said Aguilar, who with the support of Educate Tomorrow managed to graduate high school and enrolled at FIU in Fall 2014. “It’s a miracle that I’m alive and I’m here for a purpose.’’

Though he has struggled academically, he said he knows that Fostering Panther Pride is there to support him. “I’m not going to give up,” he said, “and I know they aren’t giving up on me.’’

Researching how students succeed

Just as essential as the services FIU is providing is research to document results, experts say.

“Collecting data on the impact these programs have on student progress and retention is critical to their sustainability,’’ said John Emerson, a postsecondary education advisor with Casey Family Programs. “Funders want to see results.’’

A portion of the state dollars for Fostering Panther Pride will fund faculty and student research into former foster care and homeless youth. In addition, the university is tracking grades, retention and graduation statistics, as well as employment and enrollment in graduate or professional school.

“Our vantage point as a research university is that we have an opportunity to engage our faculty who are either already doing original research on these underrepresented populations or are interested in doing so,’’ said Janie Valdes, assistant vice president of undergraduate education, which oversees Fostering Pather Pride.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the findings will further inform how best to support our students, as well as make a significant contribution to the existing literature,’’ said Valdes. “At the core, our faculty are adding a puzzle piece that no one else can add.”

“For these are all our children, we will all profit by, or pay for, whatever they become.”
— James Baldwin

For more information on the Fostering Panther Pride program, click here or contact Ana Ramos at 305-348-6106 or by email at anramos@fiu.edu. To make a donation, click here.

Omar Lopez-Chahoud ’90 takes joy in introducing up-and-coming artists to the masses

The glitz and glamour that accompany one of the world’s largest gatherings of art—think celebrities and late-night after parties—resonate little with Omar Lopez-Chahoud. Despite his intensive involvement with the scene that surrounds Art Basel Miami Beach, held earlier this month, he does what he does for one reason alone: love.

Since 2012, the independent curator has directed a critically acclaimed concurrent fair, Untitled, that this year corralled works represented by 127 galleries and museums from more than 20 countries.

“I’m always looking after the artist,” he says, exhausted but happy as hundreds—later in the day it would be thousands—walk through the stunning, high-ceilinged, temperature-controlled tent in which it all took place. “As curators, we try not only to put a show together, but we become almost like the advisor, the guide, the shepherd.”

Much of that sensibility, an almost-paternalistic approach to nurturing the next generation, comes from Lopez-Chahoud’s own background as a painter. Trained in France and then at FIU, Yale and the Royal Academy of Arts in London—he left behind his own art for good more than a dozen years ago—he recognizes the inherent difficulty in making a living from creative production, so he champions new work wherever he can.

Based in New York, Lopez-Chahoud has curated shows around the world. Earlier this year he worked on a “grassroots” exhibit with artists in Nicaragua and brought together a cross section of contemporary works from Central America for an exhibition in Washington, D.C. He also curated a show for Columbia University’s MFA program that, he says, gave him special joy as he interacted with young artists just starting out. In between he traveled to Paris, Venice, Montreal and elsewhere to connect with artists, gallery owners, museum directors and others to discover “art that has integrity, that is well researched,” he says, art that he felt should make an appearance in South Florida.

“It could be very quiet art, or it could be about ideas or even touching upon the social and the political,” he says. “Art that is important, significant. This is what I have tried to do here.”

Within the 50,000-square-foot temporary space set up on the sand at Ocean Drive and 12^th Street—where a mix of fancily clad art aficionados and flip flop-shod tourists together braved the grainy terrain—art director Lopez-Chahoud, with help from two assisting Parisian curators, gave the curious public something to see.

Among the intriguing finds on display: flat, wall-hung geometric metalworks painted so as to appear to float in mid-air; a nearly 12-foot-tall stack of slipcovered books; a video of someone sweeping dirt and detritus under a rug of live green sod; a wall-mounted cabinet of found objects; a wooden table strewn with shells and other small specimens begging for inspection.

What Lopez-Chahoud wishes for each of the artists behind these pieces, many of whom are lesser known than their peers in the official Art Basel show at the convention center: “that their works go to important collections, museum collections, because we want to make sure that these works are well taken care of for future generations and that people can have them as a reference of what our time, the present time, was like.”

Exuding calm and quick to show kindness—a cousin interrupts him at the fair to introduce a friend and he warmly obliges, despite a line of others pressing for his time—Lopez-Chahoud keeps a tight and hectic schedule. Meeting at the fair with big-time collectors and visiting curators, giving them personal tours and making important introductions to others in the business, he speaks sincerely of wishing to create opportunities for the artists, helping to develop their careers and giving everyone else the chance to share in the treasures.

“At the end of the day, the idea is that many of these works end up in public displays. Museums are where a lot of this art goes, [art] that is owned by the community. The community has access to it,” he says, “and that’s the idea.”

For more than 10 years, Garfield Jarrett proudly wore the uniform of a U.S. Marine. Military service was both his passion and his career. But injuries sustained during a 2008 roadside attack in Iraq ended it all.

Granted a medical discharge, Jarrett returned home to South Florida and enrolled at FIU to pursue a bachelor’s degree in social work. Driven by a desire to help others, Jarrett graduated and promptly started on a master’s degree in the same field. Yet he felt adrift in his new reality.

Then one day on campus, a flyer caught his attention. It announced a new agriculture program for military veterans. Suddenly, Jarrett’s aimlessness gave way to fond childhood memories of growing up on his grandfather’s sugarcane plantation in Jamaica. The possibilities brought a smile to his face.

A recognized need

Florida has large numbers of minority and new farmers. The most recent USDA Agricultural Census identified more than 10,000 operators as having farmed for less than 10 years, of which more than 4,000 are Hispanic and roughly 750 are women. The majority are located in South Florida and many, according to the Coalition of Florida Farmworkers Organizations, represent an emerging trend in Miami-Dade County: They are both farmworkers—that is, they labor for others who own land—as well as decision-making farmers, who lease land on the side to cultivate on their own as a means of supplementing income.

Separately, Florida has a growing population of recent veterans—some 200,000 have returned to or moved to the state since 2008, according to the U.S. Census—and the largest portion has made its home in Miami-Dade County. As many as 10 percent are currently unemployed.

Two professors in the Department of Earth and Environmentwithin the College of Arts & Sciences know the statistics well. Ten years ago, Krish Jayachandran and Mahadev Bhat founded FIU’s Agroecology Program, a research-based and experiential learning academic track geared to educating students to work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and in related businesses. As the pair and their students took advantage of the living lab all around them—that is, the surrounding farm areas, including places such as Homestead and the Redland Agriculture Area, home of the nation’s winter vegetable garden—they began to see ripe possibilities.

The professors say, and local USDA officials concur, that plenty of individuals are willing and able to put in the time and effort required of such an endeavor, but they lack the means and knowledge to get up and running. Bhat and Jayachandran characterize the ramping up of even a small parcel as “a very complicated process.”

“It’s not just finding a piece of land and putting in plants. If you really want to make a living out of that you have to do it very systematically,” Bhat said. “You need all the resources that are required, including financial resources, and then you need to have the know how.”

The latter includes an understanding of local vegetation and growing seasons, soil and climate, pest control and irrigation, not to mention budgeting, planning, marketing and more. Daunting as all that might sound, the rewards are there for the motivated.

“Even with one acre in South Florida, if they learn all these techniques, it is profitable,” Jayachandran said.

Read more: A passion for agroecology

FIU in the forefront

Already involved with the local farm community, Bhat and Jayachandran, in collaboration with retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills, who now serves as president of non-profit Redland Ahead, debuted the Veterans and Small Farmers Outreach Program at FIU in early 2015. The initiative caters to former soldiers and new or aspiring minority farmers. Just as FIU’s College of Business runs a successful small business development center for budding entrepreneurs, Bhat and Jayachandran have established the equivalent for would-be farmers.

Funding comes from a source that understands the value of fostering new enterprise: the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Office of Advocacy and Outreach. With the current staff of the USDA already busy serving traditional, established farmers, legislators appropriated funds to mobilize universities and nonprofits around the country to help new agricultural startups. In 2012, the USDA launched the Hispanic-Serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities (HSACU) program, which was approved in the 2008 farm bill. FIU was among the first universities in the nation to receive the designation.

The professors already had a history of securing grants from the USDA: Combined, they have brought in approximately $7 million over the years from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to conduct research, train students and engage in community activities. So the two jumped at the opportunity given by the USDA to apply for nearly $170,000 in support of the local farming population. The grant has since been renewed for a second year.

At around the very same time that Garfield Jarrett was wondering where his life was headed, the professors were putting some of the recently awarded USDA money toward launching the Veterans and Small Farmers Outreach Program in the heart of South Florida farm country, the Redland Agriculture Area.

Facilitating financial help

Within the first nine months of launching, the program directly served more than 90 new farmers. Many wanted information about USDA microloans—up to $50,000 in support of startup enterprises—and FIU staff worked with them to complete the required application.

“We help them figure out what documents they need to bring in, how to fill it out, what kind of information they need,” says Nina De la Rosa, the farm education and outreach coordinator at FIU and an alumna of the university. “Every client takes about three to four hours.”

De la Rosa translates the application for her Spanish-speaking clients, which account for the vast majority of those who walk through the door, the greatest numbers hailing from Central America. Language barriers aside, the 8-10 page document simply scares off some people looking to break into the industry.

“It’s a little confusing,” agrees Nancy Mundo, the farm loan manager at the USDA’s local Farm Services Agency and one of the people who refers clients to De la Rosa. “Farmers usually want to be on their farms. If you give them the application, a lot of them may not come back because they don’t want to fill out that application because it’s too intimidating.”

The allure of financial help has achieved its goal of “trying to bring people into the farming industry,” Mundo said. But with the popularity of the microloan program has come even more work for an already overwhelmed agency.

“Without [FIU’s] help, we would be bombarded, and we are bombarded. That is just one area that has been alleviated: We don’t have to sit with the potential borrower and help him or her fill in the application. Nina helps them, and it takes a burden off us.”

In addition to assisting with the all-important paperwork, De la Rosa and a student assistant organize monthly workshops led by USDA officers, experts from FIU and others within the industry. These address technical skills such as beekeeping, composting and disease management. And meetings on business topics such as budgeting and marketing are offered, regularly bringing together as many as 20 participants at a time to take notes, share experiences and get to know one another.

First-rate field experiences

Also critically important, the program gives would-be farmers a chance to participate in “rotations” at several of the 16 local farms with which FIU has established partnerships.

Jarrett likens the opportunity to the practicum he completed for his social work master’s degree, which had him working under supervision at a VA hospital, a substance abuse treatment center and a nursing home. Here, aspiring farmers learn the ropes by serving paid apprenticeships in farm management at established operations that specialize in fruit and vegetable production, animal husbandry and nursery-plant production.

De la Rosa has seen firsthand how the experience of working under seasoned farmers changes participants’ outlooks, often moving them from simply a strong desire to work the land to something akin to determination. “Their business mindset is where we see the greatest shift,” she said. “It’s no longer ‘I’m going to do this because I love it.’ It’s ‘I’m going to do this because I love it, and I’m going to sit and plan how to make it profitable.’”

And she adds, “The main idea of the rotations is trying to create a new network of people that will be able to help these farmers. It would be great if you have one mentor, but it’s even better if you have four or maybe five.”

With his twin degrees from FIU in hand, Jarrett was among the first to enroll in the program and take advantage of all it offers.

“It opened my eyes to the resources that were out there,” he says, resources “that you wouldn’t know about unless you were in the industry or an established farmer.” Such knowledge helped Jarrett understand that he qualified for free soil testing of a property that he currently leases and on which he grows kale, Brussels sprouts, peppers and other crops. Another option open to him: up to $15,000 in help for irrigation work and pest management, the latter an especially important concern as he seeks to establish himself as an organic producer, one who chooses natural methods over herbicides and pesticides.

And getting to know the right people, as De la Rosa stressed, has boosted his chances of success. “As long as you’re willing to do the hard work, a lot of them are willing to help you,” Jarrett says of the more-experienced farmers and others he has met.

Agro-industry opportunities

Nestled between Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park, southwest Miami-Dade County is the future for agroecology in the state, Jayachandran believes. Throughout Florida, more than 1.5 million people work in the state’s agriculture, natural resources and food processing industries, and that number is on the rise. In Miami-Dade County alone, agriculture has a nearly $2.7 billion annual economic impact, all the while occupying just 6 percent of the county’s available land, according to the South Dade Chamber of Commerce.

Bhat and Jayachandran believe this high-return industry represents untapped potential. By educating students and farmers about sustainable agriculture and farm business management, they are creating an ecosystem they hope will promote environmentally sustainable practices, positively impact food security and foster economic growth within the region. The two embrace education and innovation as the means to get there.

“Agriculture education is not just [about] a practice of farming. It is science and technology,” Jayachandran says. “It is exploring and discovering about biogeochemical processes, nutrient cycling, on-farm and off-farm pollution remediation measures, surface and groundwater management, bioenergy, food safety and security. If we are going to feed more than 9 billion people in the future, we have to get creative in how we use our soil resources and water resources.”

Achieving many of these goals requires research collaborations across FIU and with other higher education institutions. For example, agri-scientists and researchers in the International Center for Tropical Botany, a collaboration between FIU and the National Tropical Botanical Garden, work closely together to study and cultivate plants that could have new uses. The Agroecology Program is also working with the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management to develop farm-to-table food programs.

And a partnership with the University of Florida, the state’s land grant university, could lead to establishing an important facility in the heart of Miami’s agricultural community. While the idea is still in early consideration, the ultimate goal is to create a business incubator built around product development and food science. Such a facility in southwest Miami-Dade County would create jobs and promote entrepreneurial enterprises.

“The nation’s Hispanic-Serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities can accelerate research, and complement the extension and teaching of our land-grant universities,” said Arts & Sciences Dean Mike Heithaus. “At FIU alone, we are helping to develop more resilient crops, combat invasive pests, develop agribusiness opportunities and training the next generation of farmers. In many ways, the collaboration and complementary roles played by FIU and UF are a metaphor for what future collaboration with HSACUs should look like.”

Because Homestead and the Redland Agricultural Area are home to a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants, Jayachandran says it is a prime location for future research and economic development initiatives in agroecology. Already he and students have set up test plots to study plant biofuels and naturally occurring bacteria with the potential to serve as organic pesticides.

A blooming future

A lot of good could come out of the increased attention to South Florida’s agricultural landscape. Garfield Jarrett knows this on a personal level. Like Bhat and Jayachandran and others with a vested interest in the Miami-Dade farming community, he too has a vision.

More than just making a living, he hopes to combine his work on the land—in addition to crops, he also raises goats, sheep, chicken and ducks—with his social work background to change the lives of others. He looks forward to one day providing families with tours of his farm and inviting veterans and others to volunteer as a means to helping them heal, just as working the land has done for him. Through agriculture, he has found both a calling and a place where he truly feels at home.

“When I’m out there with nature,” he says, “it’s my way of coping, of doing something positive.”

The Dominican Republic native worked part-time at a bank in high school. Upon graduation, she enrolled at FIU to pursue a career in finance. But an essay project in an English class piqued her interest in the environment, specifically pollution. She shifted her career aspirations and began pursuing a degree in environmental studies. During that same time, she married her high school sweetheart, bought her first home and started a family.

“When I was eight months pregnant, my environmental sciences labs involved taking water samples from filthy canals and trekking the Everglades swamps in a kayak to study ecological restoration. I loved it,” Alvarez-Ventura said.

After the birth of her daughter, she landed an internship at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water in Washington D.C. Upon completion, she was offered a job as an environmental science tech with the agency, but decided to return home to Miami and further her education.

Like many before her, Alvarez-Ventura was drawn by the enthusiasm of Earth and Environment professors Mahadev Bhat, pictured above with Alvarez-Ventura, and Krish Jayachandran. Likewise, the professors were impressed with her. They helped her secure a research assistantship to pursue a master’s degree. She devoted her thesis to studying colony collapse disorder — a serious disease affecting honeybee colony health and its ability to pollinate crops. Alvarez-Ventura found the support she needed to finish her studies, but she also found a family at FIU.

Today, she is the program coordinator with the FIU Agroecology Program and continues to foster new relationships throughout Miami-Dade County. She works closely with the program’s Organic Garden, which was designated a People’s Garden—one that benefits the community and invites the collaboration of various partners—by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She also helps develop and manage programs for local communities, area K-12 schools and more.

Read more: Cultivating success

Since its inception in 2005, the Agroecology Program has awarded more than 150 scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students like Alvarez-Ventura. In 2012, FIU became one of the first universities in the nation to receive the USDA’s Hispanic-Serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities designation, which Alvarez-Ventura says is a testament to her alma mater’s commitment to people like her.

Looking to the future, she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. and mentor the next generation of female and minority agriscientists as an extension of what her mentors did for her.

“Agroecology can address many of the food security and environmental challenges we’re facing now as a society, as well as the challenges we’ll face in the future as our population continues to grow,” Alvarez-Ventura said. “I hope to give the next generation of agriscientists opportunities in research, professional development and outreach early on their academic careers so they are prepared to undertake these challenges.”

• WSVN-TV Anchor
• Bachelor of Science in Communication, 1989
• Torch Award recipient, 2015

What ignited your passion for news?

I’m naturally an inquisitive person interested in what’s going on around me. It’s probably not a big surprise I ended up doing a job where I get to ask people questions. I enjoy telling their stories.

Your light-hearted on-camera persona differs from how many news anchors portray themselves. Where does this come from?

It’s just me being me. My personality comes through during the broadcast. My greatest compliment is when people meet me and tell me I’m just like I am on TV. Viewers can spot a fake from a mile away.

You have covered every type of news. Is one most satisfying to you?

I’ve covered history-making events like Princess Diana’s death, Prince William and Kate’s royal wedding and the election of Pope Francis, to name a few. Whenever I’m covering something of that magnitude, I take a minute to remind myself how lucky I am to witness history firsthand. Those stories are the ones I’ll be telling my friends in the nursing home.

Do you have a secret to staying energized in what is a very demanding job?

No secrets, really. I just try to lead a balanced life. I have a boyfriend I adore, and we love to travel. I have great friends and a wonderful family. I love my work, but I can also disconnect from it completely.

What advice do you have for young people looking to break into broadcast news?

I would tell young people to be prepared to start small and work their way up. Young people today think they can graduate and sit at the anchor desk. That’s not the way it works. My first job was at a cable station where I shot and edited my own video in English and Spanish. I would also tell them to be prepared to move away to some small town for their first job if that’s what it takes.

Do you have an FIU memory to share?

I just remember being at FIU and wanting to do this so badly. I couldn’t wait to graduate to get my career started. My TV broadcasting class final project was to shoot and edit three stories about FIU, and that tape landed me my first job at the cable station.

How do you decompress?

I love eating out for my Bite with Belkys blog, then coming home, plopping on the couch and watching anything that’s on Bravo.

“FIU has really become an example for others around the state,’’ said Brett McNaught, CEO of Educate Tomorrow, a Miami-based nonprofit. “What they are doing is leading the way for other universities.”

What FIU is doing is providing support through Fostering Panther Pride, which assists homeless and former foster care youth who are enrolled at the university.

Juna Joseph was one of those students who, without that help, could have fallen through the cracks.

When her mother died after a lengthy illness in June 2013, Joseph, a junior at the time, became homeless. Overwhelmed and unsure where to turn, she considered dropping out of FIU.

But instead she reached out to an advisor and found help through Fostering Panther Pride. The group rallied around Joseph, helping her find on-campus housing, a job at Chili’s, even the pants and shirt she needed for her first day of work.

Today, she has her bachelor’s degree in social work and works as a care coordinator for a private agency. She plans to pursue a master’s and hopes to one day help students with experiences similar to hers – the “forgotten children’’ she calls them.

“This has all been an amazing experience,’’ said Joseph, who was called out as a Worlds Ahead Graduate at the summer 2014 commencement. “I used to be so negative. Now I’m excited for my future. I know my mother is up there smiling.’’

From nights spent sleeping in her car, Vanessa Morales said her life changed when someone noticed her and called FIU police. The officer asked her where she lived. When she tearfully told him she had no place to go, he told her, “We’re going to find you a place to sleep tonight.’’

That night, with Ana Ramos’ help, Vanessa moved into an on-campus apartment. Since then, Ramos has helped her successfully apply for a tuition waiver and grants. With a place to call home, her grades have improved considerably – from a 2.0 GPA to a 3.8.

In the dorm at Parkview Hall she shares with three other young women, a large window overlooks FIU Stadium. Perched in front of the glass are four hand-painted signs that read “Shine bright,’’ “Pray continually,’’ “Love eternally” and “Dream peacefully.”

Vanessa said they are powerful reminders of how far she has come.

“This whole experience has helped me grow,’’ she said. “I now know that asking for help is okay. Sometimes people need a little help.’’

Read more: FIU offers hope, help to former foster care, homeless students

Claudia Galofre-Krevat ’78, chef at Claudia’s Mesa, joined the “Lentil Underground” book tour during a week of educational and cooking events in San Francisco in February, cooking for journalist and food author Michael Pollan.

Del Sebastian Placides ’79, MS ’93 was invited by the University of Washington State Historical Society and other organizations to speak about his two recent nonfiction books, “The Home Front Kid,” published in 2014 and chronicling his childhood in a South Philadelphia neighborhood in the shadow of World War II, and “Runaway Boy from Bicolandia,” published in 2013 and telling his father’s life story.


1980s

Justo Pozo ’80 was elected to the FIU Board of Trustees for a five-year term.

Maria Elena González ’80 was awarded grand prize at the 30th Annual Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts at the MGLC-International Centre for Graphic Arts in Slovenia for her “Tree Talk Series.”

James Border ’81, vice president and global tax counsel for Carnival Corporation and PLC, was reappointed chairman of the Global Tax Committee for the Cruise Lines International Association, which represents 64 separate cruise lines throughout the world on matters of international tax policy and regulation.

Mark Chmielarski ’85, a shareholder in Greenspoon Marder Law’s Orlando office, was nominated to the Leadership Group of the Volusia County Association for Responsible Development, a non-profit association for Central Florida professionals who work in various aspects of land development. The association focuses on environmental issues, regulatory changes of federal, state and local governments, and current planning for land development.


1990s

Gonzalo Acevedo ’91, MBA ‘10, who currently serves on The Wolfsonian-FIU Museum Board of Advisors and the FIU Alumni Association Executive Committee, has taken the position of senior vice president and managing director of the AllianceBernstein, L.P., Private Wealth Management office in Miami.

Rosary Plana-Falero ’91 MBA ’94 joined Coconut Grove Bank as executive vice president of private banking.

Mabel Morales ’94 MS ’97 was named president of the Florida Art Education Association.

Francis Rodriguez ’95 was named partner in charge of the Shutts & Bowen LLP Miami firm. In 2014, he was appointed to FIU’s President’s Council.

Ralph Rosado ’96, MA ’03 is president of Rosado and Associates, an urban planning and economic development strategy firm based in Miami. Holder of a second master’s degree from Princeton and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, he serves as research fellow at FIU’s Metropolitan Center and an instructor of graduate and professional programs at FIU and the University of Miami. Most recently his efforts on behalf of a resident-led effort to establish a neighborhood park earned him a Grassroots Initiative Award from the Gold Coast APA Chapter. And his idea for redesigning local bus shelters to make them more attractive and more protective against the elements garnered an award in the Miami Foundation’s 2015 Public Space Challenge.

Armando Hernandez ’89 MS ’96, president and CEO of Hernandez & Company, has been selected by the National Academy of Public Accounting Professionals as one of the 2015 “Top 10 Public Accounting Professionals” in Florida.

David Barbeito ’97, M.Acc ’03 and Cristina Perez ’98, MS ‘01 were named partners at De La Hoz, Perez & Barbeito, P.A.

Lourdes Oroza Ed.D. ’97 was named president of Miami Dade College’s Kendall Campus.

Ian Rambarran ’98 received the distinction of Top Lawyer in Sacramento from Sacramento Magazine for exemplary practice in both construction and business/corporate law.

Beth Goldstein MS ’99 was named Florida Outstanding Secondary Art Educator of the Year. She was honored by the Florida Art Education Association in October 2014.


2000s

Jorge Grossmann ’00 composed the piece “Notus,” which will be performed by the Grammy award-winning Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra at the inaugural concert of the Festival Latinoamericano de Música in October.

Mike Gonzalez MS ’01 was named the Junior and Middle School Administrator of the Year by the Wisconsin Association of School Councils.

Robert Noroña MBA ’01 was promoted to senior vice president at Ocean Bank.

Joanne Bashford Ed.D. ’02 was named president of Miami Dade College’s InterAmerican Campus.

Justo Torres ’02 was named director of contracts and grants at North Carolina State University.

Zameer Upadhya ’03 was named one of Houston Business Journal’s 2015 “40 Under 40” business leaders.

Vivian Gonzalez MS ’04, Ed.S. ’07 was a semi-finalist for the inaugural Music Educator Award presented by the Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Foundation.

Casandra Roache Henriquez ’04, MPH ’06 married motivational speaker Andy Henriquez in Riviera Maya, Mexico, on Oct. 18, 2015.

Breny DaParre Garcia ’05, MA ’07, Ph.D. ‘15 has been appointed assistant vice president of Institutional Relations for FIU. In this role, she leads select institutional and presidential initiatives pertaining to key university donors and prospects, community partners, academic organizations, student success and constituent relations. Breny also volunteers her time as a board member for FIU’s Young Alumni Council and Janelle’s Wishing Well Foundation and recently was elected to a two-year term on the national Supreme Council of Phi Sigma Sigma sorority. She has served the organization for 10 years as a member of multiple committees and task forces as well as a chapter key advisor.

Carolina Sarassa ’05 is a three-time Emmy award- and a four-time National Gabriel award-winning news anchor and correspondent for MundoFOX National Network News in Los Angeles. Prior to joining that organization, she was the anchor and producer for Univision’s KINC in Las Vegas and a correspondent for the news-magazine show “Primer Impacto” and, before that, anchored and reported for Univision KORO in Texas. Carolina has served on the board of governors for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is currently a board member for the LA Press Club.

Adding to her list of accomplishments, Sarassa last year saw the publication of “Dancing on her Grave,” the true story of the brutal murder of a college-educated Las Vegas showgirl, a crime that shocked and riveted the public. Sarassa co-authored the book, which recounts the months of investigation that led to the apprehension of a suspect and his subsequent trial and life imprisonment.

Brian Matijevic ’08 joined U.S. Century Bank as assistant vice president, treasury officer.

Charles Rego ’08, president of the Veterans Panther Network, has recently moved to Boston with his wife and family for six months to complete his master’s degree at Harvard.

Daniela Ottati ’09, Ph.D. ’15, an adjunct professor of communication arts in the College of Architecture + The Arts, was presented with a proclamation honoring her continuous dedication and commitment to education by City of Aventura Mayor Enid Weisman and the city council.

Marla Baldomero ’09, MS ’13 and Daniel Oliu ‘11, who met at FIU freshman year and spent their first year together hanging out at the Barnes & Noble cafe in the Graham Center, were married July 11, 2015.

Latoya Brown ’08, JD ’13 was elected to the Dade County Bar Association Board of Directors, where she will serve a three-year term as director for Group 1.

Liliana Korn Custy ’09, a professor in the Department of Interior Architecture, spoke for the fourth year in a row at the National Homebuilders Association International Builders Show in January.


2010s

Rebecca Rodriguez MS ’10, an associate at the GrayRobinson, P.A., Fort Lauderdale office, was accepted to Leadership Fort Lauderdale’s Class XXII. Leadership Fort Lauderdale is a tri-county program intended to help business leaders understand local issues and create a strong bond with fellow graduates.

Elizabeth Fernandez ’10 passed the Florida Bar Exam and has joined EPGD Law as an attorney.

Christin “Cici” Battle ’11, ’14, former Biscayne Bay Campus Student Government Association president, moved to Cali, Colombia, where she teaches leadership development and industry-specific English to college students as a full-time volunteer through the Colombian government and Volunteer Colombia. While there, she is also working with women and girls’ organizations to do capacity building, program development and fundraising.

Helena Ramirez ’11, former president of the Student Government Association and eastern coalitions coordinator for LIBRE Initiative, was featured in Forbes 2015 30 Under 30 in Law and Policy for her work as the inaugural chair of She Should Run’s Frontrunners, which encourages women to run for public office, as well as her work with Hispanic churches, entrepreneurs and women for the Koch-affiliated conservative group.

Steven Cruz ’12, representing the Alpha Chi Chapter of Beta Theta Pi at the 176th General Convention in Orlando in August, was recognized as Rookie District Chief of the Year.

Michael Perez ’12, Latin America marketing and promotions associate at The Walt Disney Company, was a featured speaker at the Idea Center, presenting the various ways Disney uses creativity to support brand initiatives.

Katie Edwards JD ’12, a state representative was given the 2015 Florida Chamber Distinguished Advocate award by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Andy Señor ’13 directed a Spanish production of Jonathon Larson’s musical “RENT” in Cuba. It is the first Broadway show that has been produced in Cuba in 50 years.

Dylan Gonzalez JD ’14 and Igor Hernandez ’09, JD ’13, FIU Law and Trial Team alumni, placed second and third, respectively, during the 2015 Legal Eagle Closing Argument Competition.

Nick Aquart ’14, former Student Government Association senator and founder of Hope2o International, a nonprofit organization devoted to finding solutions to the global water crisis, earned an internship with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Paola Katherine Rodriguez ’15 had her photographic work “Takia,” a part of her series “Broken Free,” which documents the stories of victims of abuse, featured in the Fifth Annual Exposure Award reception’s portraiture collection at the Musée du Louvre.

Nathalie Alfonso ’15 curated her “Among Body Marks,” created in conjunction with FIU Department of Art and Art History professor Michael Namkung, at The Projects/FATVillage in Fort Lauderdale in February.

Clara-Meretan Kiah ’15 was hired as a full-time staff writer for the Division of External Relations.

Twelve FIU alumni were honored in Legacy magazine’s 2015 40 Under 40 Leaders of Today and Tomorrow in July 2015. They were chosen for making a significant contribution within their fields and in the local community. Honored were Kareem Brantley MSF ’02; Kenol Thomas ’02; Theo Williams ’02; Kristina Jones ’07, MS ’11; Calonie Gray MS ’07, Ph.D. ’09; David Coleman MBA ’08; Kenasha Paul ’10; Jonise Sainvil MPA ’11; Mikhaile Solomon M.Arch. ’11; Adia McKenzie ’12; Donna Comrie Ph.D. ’13; and Jadine Louissaint MBA ’13.

One can make the argument that FIU’s men’s soccer program has the most impressive and accomplished history of any sports program in the university’s history.

The program has been around since the university opened in 1972, winning two Division II championships in the early 1980s and making a memorable run to the NCAA Division I championship game in 1996.

Major League Soccer greats Steve Ralston, Robin Fraser and Tyrone Marshall all played at FIU during those golden years for the program, but those days have been gone for quite some time now.

At the time Head Coach Scott Calabrese was hired in 2014, it had been years since FIU had sniffed at the chance to compete in the Conference USA tournament and even longer since the team had an above .500 record.

Calabrese was tasked with accomplishing what his recent predecessors had failed to do: bring back a sustainable winning culture to FIU men’s soccer. And with the way his team has performed on the pitch this season, he may be close to doing just that.

In only his second year at the helm, the program is enjoyed its best season in years. The Panthers rapidly climbed up the national rankings while putting together an impressive seven-game winning streak, peaking at
No. 14 in the country in National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll in early October.

“Everything was clicking during that period. We moved the ball incredibly well, we had tons of confidence moving forward and it was a great feeling,” Calabrese says.

Success, however, brings with it a new set of challenges, including a large target on their backs from teams no longer overlooking FIU on the pitch.

“A lot of teams have adjusted to prevent us from being effective and that is actually something we’re not used to,” Calabrese says. “It’s a different kind of challenge.”

But after concluding the regular season with a 9-6-1 record and securing a spot in the conference tournament, the Panthers completed an improbable run through the tournament and clinched their first ever Conference USA championship after defeating Marshall 1-0 in the final.

By winning the conference championship, the Panthers earned an automatic bid to NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004.

“They did everything that they were asked to do and more. They’ve earned it,” Calabrese said after beating Marshall. “When you get in the tournament, it’s just about an opportunity and the guys seized it.”

But men’s soccer isn’t the only program this fall that is enjoying a resurgence.

Out of the cage

Football Head Coach Ron Turner inherited a program that was in shambles when he took over in 2013.

When he arrived, the memories of T.Y. Hilton making plays worthy of a SportsCenter Top 10 plays segment and helping send FIU to its only two bowl game appearances seemed to be nothing more than a distant memory.

Since then, it has been a slow – but steady – and often painful climb for the Panthers as Turner has attempted to reinvent the program.

After winning just one game in 2013, the Panthers saw a noticeable improvement a year later thanks to the surprising play of several new faces and a stronger-than-expected defense, winning four games and losing a handful of others by less than a touchdown.

This season, a slightly more experienced but still relatively young Panthers squad matched last year’s win total almost a month earlier than they did in 2014 and picked up their fifth win of the season against Charlotte on Nov. 7.

It’s the most wins the program has had since the team earned a trip to the Beef O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl in 2011, and they’ve done so despite suffering a series of nagging injuries to starters in a number of key positions throughout the season.

“I don’t know if I have ever been in a situation where I’ve had this many guys out because of injuries,” Turner said. “It has definitely taken a toll, but I admire these guys and the perseverance they’ve had to put us in the position we are now.”

Quarterback Alex McGough has played a huge part in that success since winning the job early on last year as a freshman. Now in his sophomore year, McGough has continued to impress and is in the midst of what could be considered the best season any FIU quarterback has ever had.

In 2015, McGough broke single season records for most touchdown passes (21), passing yards (2,722) and highest completion percentage (64 percent).

“It’s a total team effort. When I make plays, that means my wide receivers are making plays,” McGough said.

Many of the team’s key contributors are still freshmen, sophomores or juniors, and as they continue to grow and develop, the program could be close to a breakout season.

“We’ve played well this year, we just have to make the plays when it really matters consistently,” McGough added. “At some points we have, and at other points we’ve lacked that. If we come together and play as a unit, we can score a lot of points.”

Finally clicking

The rebuilding process has been a bit slower for Indoor Volleyball Head Coach Rita Buck-Crockett, who came on board after the conclusion of the 2011 season. But in her fourth season that process finally seems to be showing glimpses of what could be a bright future on the court.

After enjoying several years of success thanks in large part to the duo of Yarimar Rosa and Natalia Valentin – today stars of Puerto Rico’s national team – the Panthers failed to keep the momentum going after
their departures.

But with most of her starters returning with another year of experience, along with the addition of some key players such as Miami-Dade transfer Katie Hogan, Buck-Crockett was confident prior to the 2015 season that her team was poised for a turnaround.

Her optimism proved to be justified. The team finished the season with 15 wins – the highest win total in the Buck-Crockett era thus far – and a spot in the Conference USA Championships after missing out last season.

“Since I’ve been here, this is the best indoor team I’ve had,” Buck-Crockett said. “I’m really happy with how the team is progressing. I think we’re getting there – getting to where we want to be. We just have to keep moving forward.”

A spark at home

Success at home has been an essential boost for all three programs this season.

The football team played well for most of the season at home, winning four of its five games at FIU Stadium. In those four victories at home, the Panthers won by an average 27.8 points.

The men’s soccer team has won five games, earned one draw and lost just once in its seven home matches at FIU Soccer Stadium this season while the indoor volleyball team finished with an 8-7 record at FIU Arena.

“It’s always really important to make your home field a fortress, where nine out of ten times you’re going to get the result you’re looking for,” Calabrese said.

The recent success for each program, after an extended period of struggles and challenges, has begun to instill an essential ingredient for any coach trying to rebuild a program: belief.

“Our players believe in each other and they believe that we’re doing the right things,” Calabrese says. “When you have that kind of belief and that kind of foundation, you can continue to improve. And I expect us to continue improving in the years to come.”

Every FIU graduate will now have access to the association’s benefits for free, including its alumni networking programs and events, career development resources, the FIU Panther Perks program, which features discounts at retail establishments nationwide, and more. The idea is to provide new ways for FIU graduates to connect with the university and with each other nationwide.

“I was thrilled when I heard the news about these strategic changes,” said alumna Maria D. Garcia ’05, JD ’08, who serves as secretary of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. “We’re part of an exciting time at FIU, and I look forward to even more alumni engagement at our alma mater.”

Tiffany Roman Biffa, a former Student Government Association vice president who graduated in December, intends to move to Washington, D.C. soon to start her new job, so the Panther Network of Greater Washington, D.C. will be a valuable resource for her to connect with fellow alumni in a new city. She said her fellow alumni can all benefit from being part of the Alumni Association.

“I am excited to see how the Alumni Association will share networking and other benefits with young alumni and current FIU students,” she said.

With these changes comes the end of annual and lifetime memberships. Former lifetime members will be recognized as FIU Forever Panthers, and the membership fees they paid will now be counted as tax-deductible, charitable donations to the university.

Former lifetime members will also be among the first alumni privy to special benefits, including priority registration and reduced pricing at events, a desktop calendar and more.

“We are excited for the future evolution of our organization,”said Duane Wiles, associate vice president for Alumni Relations & Annual Givingand executive director of the Alumni Association, “which we hope will help us better serve all alumni.”

During a break in classes, sophomore psychology major Jacob Barasch wants nothing more than to get in some concentrated exercise and move on with his day. He loves the convenience of FIU’s gym at MMC, but the crowds are killing him.

“It takes me two hours to get in a 45-minute workout,” he said. “There’s a lot of waiting.”

And no wonder: In August 2005 FIU Recreation Services opened the newly painted doors of the campus recreation center to FIU’s 27,000 students. In just 10 years, the student body has doubled, and now the facility is packed with students, faculty, staff and alumni looking to do their bodies good. During each of the past two academic years, the facility has consistently handled more than 400,000 uses.

So the latest news is very welcome: Plans are underway to more than double the size of the Wellness & Recreation Center – MMC, as it’s now known, by the fall of 2017.

A $25 million infusion from the Florida Capital Improvement Trust Fund, Student Government Association and FIU’s Department of Housing will allow for a more than 60,000-square-foot expansion. Set to begin construction in the spring of 2016, the center will surpass the national average for fitness space for colleges, roughly one square foot per student.

“Recreation centers are very important,” said Larry Lunsford, vice president for Student Affairs. “It goes beyond giving students a place to work out. Today, rec centers are also a place for relaxation and socialization. We know that exercise is good for your health, both physically and mentally, and healthy students do better in school. The expansion will accommodate more students and give them the tools they need to either learn or maintain healthy lifestyle habits.”

The expansion will include:

• A three-court basketball gymnasium, for a total of five indoor courts
• 6,600 square feet of fitness space to accommodate new state-of-the-art cardio equipment including top brand names TechnoGym and Star Trac
• A 6,500-square-foot strength room featuring TechnoGym, Hammer Strength and other branded equipment
• 3,000 square feet of additional men’s and women’s locker rooms, including two gender-neutral shower/changing rooms and two gender-neutral bathrooms
• Three new fitness rooms dedicated to activities such as Spinning, martial arts and other types of small-group training
• A dedicated office for personal trainers and clients
• A racquetball/squash convertible court, plus one dedicated racquetball court
• A new student lounge area with comfortable seating, TVs and device charging stations
• West facing views of the Nature Preserve
• A 1/12 mile indoor jogging/walking track
• Two outdoor basketball courts
• A sand volleyball court with spectator seating
• A new south-facing grand entrance

“I know it will be an excellent facility for us,” said Robert Frye, director of the Wellness & Recreation Center – MMC. “Certainly in how we compare to other state university schools, after the expansion, we will be in the upper half.”

Expectations are high as the design team is HKS Architects and Moss Construction, the same pair responsible for the three-time award winning Parkview Hall residence hall. The existing recreation center will remain open throughout the construction.

The Wellness and Recreation Center – BBC is also open to students, faculty, staff and the community, located at the Biscayne Bay Campus.

Andrew De La Rosa was an FIU undergraduate studying computer engineering when he enrolled in an elective course with a beguiling name: Ethical Hacking.

The course, taught by Professor Alexander Pons, teaches students how to expose vulnerabilities in computer systems without actually breaking in. “In order to protect, you need to know how to compromise,” Pons explained. “When you want to protect your home, you don’t look for a police officer. You look for a crook who knows how to get in and build your defenses around that.”

Ethical Hacking has become one of the College of Engineering & Computing‘s most popular classes, regularly drawing more than 100 students, including online students from other universities. It’s one of more than two dozen classes in cybersecurity taught at FIU by a dozen professors in fields as varied as criminal justice, business and international policy, not to mention computer science and engineering. In just a few years, cybersecurity has quietly grown into a major university-wide initiative, driven by an insatiable demand from industry.

“Cybersecurity is the need of the hour,” said Shekhar Bhansali, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). “Our cybersecurity classes are a pragmatic mix that start with foundations and go on to hands-on applications and real-world examples.”

Enroll in an FIU MOOC on the subject of cybersecurity.

This past March, after a rigorous review, FIU was designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. It’s one of seven universities in Florida to get the designation, which is expected to increase grant and research opportunities for FIU.

A leader in cybersecurity academics

FIU is one of the first public universities to offer a graduate degree program in cybersecurity and an undergraduate degree with a concentration in this field.

The undergraduate track has 50 students and includes cutting-edge classes in malware analysis, digital forensics and security of the Internet of Things. Student research topics sound like the titles of Hollywood cybercrime capers: Pharming, Creating Exploits, Keyloggers.

“My students are getting hired after four years in college at an exorbitant amount of money,” said Pons, who serves as a director for cybersecurity within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

In January, FIU launched a one-year online master’s in network security after surveys indicated a strong interest among working professionals. The program already has 23 students enrolled. This fall, FIU will offer a joint master’s in cybersecurity between ECE and Computer Science, a nod to the multi-departmental nature of the field.

Spreading the word

FIU’s cybersecurity program is gaining in renown. In 2014, the Center for Digital Government recognized FIU in the education category of the Cybersecurity Leadership and Innovation Awards for the university’s commitment to greater data security.

To help build awareness of its program among business owners and corporate leaders, FIU offered a free, six-hour online course in cybersecurity to eMerge Americas conference participants in early May. Later that month, it hosted a CIO roundtable discussion.

Matt Gallo with Miami firm United Data Technologies said the demand for cybersecurity professionals is exploding. “We’re just breaking the barrier of businesses becoming aware of the importance of digital security,” Gallo said. “By studying it, you’re setting yourself up at an early stage in your career for an area that’s going to be overwhelming in the coming years.”

“Murky ethical and legal waters”

The heart of a cybersecurity education happens in the laboratory, where students hack into closed computer systems under the constant supervision of technical assistants. In the past 18 months, FIU has established three new research and teaching laboratories on cybersecurity, including the Advanced Wireless and Security Lab (ADWISE) and the Cyber-Physical Systems Security Lab (CSL). But even in these contained environments, things can go wrong.

For his class project, De La Rosa—the student in the Ethical Hacking class—decided to attack Bluetooth, a technology standard used to exchange data over short distances. He wanted to show that weaknesses in Bluetooth could allow him to download someone’s private contacts. He picked a device at random on the FIU campus and hacked into it.

“When I ran the serial number, I saw it was registered to campus police,” De La Rosa said. He rushed to the police substation at the FIU Engineering Center to explain.

“You’re lucky you told me,” the officer told him. “Even if you’re doing this for a class, I could have arrested you.” Florida punishes unauthorized access to a computer system as a felony.

Pons said a key goal of the program is to help students navigate the murky ethical and legal waters of cybersecurity. Pons says De La Rosa’s mistake was to hack a device at random. He counsels all students to avoid scanning any systems that don’t belong to them or where they don’t have written consent beforehand.

De La Rosa said that incident was one of the most profound learning experiences of his life. “It’s made me anal retentive,” he said of his more cautious approach to hacking.

Pons agrees that the “rules” of hacking are not simple. “Let’s say a student runs a tool against a website and finds a vulnerability. What does the student do? Expose the vulnerability? Or stay silent?” he asks. “Sometimes doing the right thing can get you in trouble. The fact that you’re even trying those doors can be seen as suspicious.”

De La Rosa’s run-in with campus police didn’t deter his studies. De La Rosa, whose friends call him Sherlock, graduated in December; he’s now pursuing a master’s in network security at FIU.

“Information is dangerous,” De La Rosa said. “We’re learning how to disrupt systems. If we use that for malicious purpose or financial gain, it destroys the reason behind doing the entire program.”

By Eric Barton

The first people started lining up outside FIU’s Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic around 7 a.m. on Aug. 18, 2012. By the time the doors to the clinic opened two hours later, hundreds were in line.

They were all looking for help with the paperwork required under what was the then-new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gave work permits and temporary protection to individuals who had been brought to the U.S. before they were 16 years old.

It was all a bit overwhelming for Kenia Garcia, at the time a student at FIU’s College of Law and a volunteer at the clinic. She soon realized that every case in front of her was so much more than just paperwork.

“These were people who had been holding on to nothing for so long,” Garcia recalled. “All these people wanted was to come out of the shadows, and we could help them do it.”

Ensuring opportunity

Since then, the clinic, along with a coalition of lawyers, nonprofits and volunteers, has processed more than 2,000 applications. It’s a routine drill that should be little more than filling out the right forms. Yet without access to the free help, these children of immigrants might well have had to spend thousands of dollars on private legal fees—if they could afford it.

The DACA applications have become a major focus for FIU’s clinic, which was already the last resort for many South Florida immigrants. It opened in 2004 and has become an important provider of legal services to the poor while giving law students the opportunity to practice under the supervision of seasoned attorneys.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is create something like a teaching hospital for the law,” said Juan Carlos Gomez, the clinic’s director. “Part of this is exposing students to a world they never thought they would deal with and exposing them to actual people with real problems.” About 70 law students volunteer each semester, and the clinic is currently working on DACA renewals, which have to be filed every two years.

Driven by personal history

Gomez says his own interest in the work goes back to the time when he saw his father sent to a labor camp in Cuba. Persecuted by Castro supporters, the family emigrated to the United States in the 1970s on one of the so-called Freedom Flights.

Obama’s campus visit recognizes FIU’s commitment to immigrants

“People like my family didn’t have a chance in Cuba. We had a chance here,” Gomez said. “We’re not fighting the U.S. government,” he said of the clinic’s mission. “We’re trying to work with it, to work fairly within the law, to make sure everybody has an opportunity.”

Garcia likewise recalled her own history while working as a volunteer at the clinic. When she was 15, her family crowded into a homemade raft with their dog and two other families. They spent 23 hours at sea before making it to Florida. That memory fueled her drive to help others.

“At one point I had 18 open cases,” she recalled. “I realized each one of these files was a family. Every file I worked on was someone’s future,” said Garcia, who earned her JD in 2012 and has since opened a practice focused on immigration law.

And as Gomez meets with new applicants, he remembers a saying his father often repeated: “El hambre duele,” hunger hurts. Gomez knew many of the DACA kids grew up wanting the simple things their friends took for granted. They feared getting pulled over because, for example, they couldn’t get a driver’s license. They didn’t bother applying for colleges because they weren’t allowed to receive financial aid.

“These are kids who had no hope,” Gomez said. “For the most part they were hopeless, and now they have hope again.”

FIU graduate David Menasche ’97 would die of brain cancer just a few weeks later.  We were at his home that evening to do a dry-run for the upcoming 2014 TEDxFIU live show, where he was slated to be our star speaker. The theme for the event: Fearless Journey.

Thing is, as the TEDxFIU organizer, I wasn’t sure what might come out of the mouth of this tattooed free-thinker.

He might talk of how, as a teen in the skate punk scene, he didn’t especially enjoy school. Or his many years as a high school English teacher at Coral Reef, where he was beloved by his students. He might quote a Walt Whitman poem or drop a Modest Mouse lyric or recall the writing of his book, “The Priority List,” that chronicles his brave quest to live fully as he was dying.

OR — he might talk about the time he was hitchhiking unsuccessfully in Alabama – with full-on brain cancer, mostly blind and with a cane. Frustrated as cars passed by, he pulled out a joint from his medical marijuana stash, lit it and held it out in the road. That did the trick. Within 30 seconds, a wild-eyed, high-as-a-kite trucker named Teddy scooped him up and the two took off on a bare-knuckled Fear and Loathing escapade to Pensacola.

He might tell THAT story. In front of the president of the university. And donors. And the dean of the College of Education.

When I suggested that might not be the best story for the university crowd, the author and teacher looked at me incredulous. “That is a great story!” he all but shouted at me.

I couldn’t argue.

The maddening and glorious thing about David was that he didn’t take direction or fall in line. The poet and rebel and the teacher and the skateboarding punk were all him and he couldn’t choose to be one or the other. David was going to do his thing, his way. Even dying. And so that evening in his Hollywood home, with his former student and TEDxFIU production manager Ayxa Vecino to his left and TEDxFIU emcee Alberto Padron to his right and me on the floor, he did just that. There was no coaching this speaker. No rehearsal.

We sat, as thousands before us, students of David. We listened and learned.

* * *

The only people for me are the mad ones,

the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved,

desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn

or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn

like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.

Jack Kerouac

* * *

FIU English Education Professor Gail Gregg was sitting in her office one evening when a frazzled undergrad showed up at her doorstep. He introduced himself and explained that he’d just been thrown out of a class for challenging a professor’s teaching philosophy. He wanted help.

“I want to be an English teacher so bad,” he told her. “I have a vision that teaching is all about asking questions. Having students respond to the questions. Asking more questions and probing.”

Looking back on her first encounter with David Menasche, Gregg says, “He was teaching me right from the get-go what his vision and philosophy were and he hadn’t even graduated from college yet.”

Gregg allowed Menasche to enroll in her class and discovered the timeless truth that sometimes the student is the teacher. “I think he taught me more than I taught him as to what literature should be, life experiences combined with the literature.”

Teaching came to David unexpectedly. A self-described “smart-alecky kid” from Miami, he was never enthusiastic about school. But as the son of bookstore owners, Menasche had a love of the written word from childhood. At first, he thought he might be writer. He applied for a summer internship at Spin magazine and was assigned to review a stack of CDs with a 24-hour deadline. “I listened to the CDs and sat at my typewriter and froze. How did I dare criticize the work of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, one of my favorite bands?” he recalls in his book. By morning, aching and exhausted, he knew the writing life wasn’t for him.

A professor recommended he participate in the Teachers and Writers Program in the New York public schools. He was assigned to teach first graders in upstate New York. “On the very first day, I decided I wasn’t going to reach the kids by the book.”

He read to them from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
 How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than he.
 I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Little hands shot up. “I looked out at my six-year-old students, sitting Indian style in front of me, and I saw wonder in their eyes,” he wrote.

Rather than dissect the poem, Menasche had a better idea. He sent the first-graders outside with post-it notes to write their own poems. “Jot down what you see outside on the notes,” he directed them. Back inside, they arranged the post-it notes into a poem. The kids bounced with delight at their creation.

“That was it,” David wrote. “There was no turning back. That was the moment I knew I wanted to be a teacher.”

* * *

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul –

and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.

Emily Dickinson

* * *

Menasche was one of the founding faculty members of Coral Reef Senior High School and during his 15 years he built a cult-like following among students. His former student Jessica Parker says she heard about the “cool, hip journalism teacher,” but discovered so much more once she took him for AP English. On the first day of class, he asked the students to share one special thing about themselves that no one else had. And in that way, each student was made to feel seen and heard.

“David was a very personal teacher,” said Parker, a painter and art teacher for at-risk teens. “He did not look at a class of 25 as one group. He instead saw 25 different individuals, with 25 different opinions, feelings and stories. He wanted to know every one of us.”

Menasche practiced a kind of fierce honesty in the classroom that created safe space for young people. It started on day one of his first class at Coral Reef. The very first teenager to walk into his classroom stumbled in drunk. It wasn’t even 8 a.m. The new teacher walked right up to the teen and saw a bit of himself.

“It wasn’t that long ago that I was a moody, defiant, reckless teenager, taking risks, breaking rules, rebelling against my parents and every other authority figure I could find,” Menasche wrote. “I was plenty rebellious when I was 15.”

The teen fessed up that he’d been drinking. Menasche told him, “Don’t ever come to my class like this again.” He didn’t write him up that day. Instead, Menasche decided to be there for the kid who was clearly begging for attention. “I never came to class drunk again,” the student says in Menasche’s book, “and I never missed Menasche’s class. I ditched class all the time, but never his.”

With all his students, Menasche spoke often about honesty and being true to themselves. And inevitably, every year, one or two gay kids would “come out.” Others would admit to cutting or burning themselves. The trust in those moments of truth was never violated.

“I knew how difficult it was for them and how brave they were for doing it, and I’d seen how it changed their lives when I and their peers accepted them for the totality of who they were,” Menasche wrote.

When it came to literature, Parker said, Menasche pushed students to go deeper and find meaning. All discourse was welcome. Sometimes, he’d do an end run around the obvious and take students to places they didn’t anticipate. “Yeah, this book is dry,” he would say, “but here is why it’s important.”

“I think what he really wanted to show his students was that they were important. And they should feel important,” Parker said. “That’s a big gift to a 17-year-old whose thoughts and feelings are usually thrown to the side as a phase or deemed unimportant.”

In 2012, Menasche won Miami-Dade County Teacher of the Year for his region. College of Education Dean Delia Garcia says it was clear to her then that Menasche was special. “Some teachers have that gift,” she said. “He was one of those teachers who impact the lives of their students from the start. If we all aim to have a certain percentage of what he was able to achieve in his lifetime, I think we are all doing a good job.”

In the 11th grade, William LaSalle lived in a rough neighborhood and found a friend in Menasche during hard times. He was being pressured to go to college but wanted to go into the Navy. Menasche helped him figure it out. “David told me, ‘Measure twice, cut once,’” LaSalle said. “Everything in life you have to look at it twice and make sure it’s exactly what you want to do. Once you cut it, that’s it. There’s no putting the pieces back. It’s been my motto ever since.”

The connections Menasche made with his students didn’t end after graduation. Many considered him a lifelong confidant. Those friendships, it turns out, would circle back to him later as he searched for meaning at the end of his life.

After high school, LaSalle went on to become a Navy Seal and special warfare operator. The two kept in touch during LaSalle’s tours in Afghanistan. The soldier confided in his teacher.

“I’m not going to lie, I was scared out of my mind,” LaSalle said. “All the training in the world doesn’t prepare you for what you see over there. There were a lot of life-and-death decisions. It doesn’t matter what religion you practice, no human is designed to kill another human and feel good about it. He helped me cope with a lot of things. He was just there for me. He just listened.”

* * *

Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind.

But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill.

Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was a horse between your legs

and a carbine under one leg and a hill and a valley and a stream

with trees along it and the far side of the valley and the hills beyond.

Ernest Hemingway

* * *

The cancer diagnosis could not have been any worse. Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive form of brain cancer known to man and has a survival rate of less than three months in 50 percent of patients. Menasche beat the odds in near-miraculous terms. After his 2006 diagnosis, he continued to work at Coral Reef for six more years while undergoing countless rounds of chemo and radiation and surgery, and while enduring partial paralysis in his legs and arms.

During the summer of 2012, he was playing pool with a friend when white spots began to cloud his vision. He was overcome with dizziness. He got in his car to drive four miles to his house and slammed into a truck. Tests showed that his brain had swelled and he’d lost 80 percent of his vision.

He knew he was spiraling. He desperately wanted to return to the classroom but it seemed unlikely. He recounted the words of Tupac Shakur, words he’d shared with his students more than once. “You can spend minutes, hours days weeks or even months overanalyzing a situation, trying to put the pieces back together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened…or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the F on.”

He dialed Coral Reef Senior High School.

“A two-minute phone call and just like that, my life’s work, my reason for getting up every day at dark-thirty, was gone,” he wrote in his book.

Later, he went for a regular check-up and learned his kidneys were failing. His doctor said he needed to try new, experimental medication.

“I don’t know what it was – maybe the condescending way in which he was taking charge of my life – but I felt the old David infiltrate my body,” he wrote.

No. He was done with drugs. He was done with the treatments.

“The cancer was going to kill me,” he wrote. “But taking drugs to prolong a life of misery was a choice. My choice.”

That day began a new chapter, one in which Menasche, in his own words, would “really live.”

* * *

Do not go gentle into that good night…

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

* * *

A road trip around the country seemed the plan of a madman. Paralyzed, mostly blind and dying of brain cancer, Menasche called it his vision quest. He would travel around the country to visit his former students and see if he’d made a difference in their lives. He posted his plan on Facebook: “Let me know where you are and if you’ve got a couch for the night.”

The response came immediately. Students from 50 cities responded within two days. He hung the Dylan Thomas quote on his porch, and left on a Friday in November 2012.

In New Orleans, with his former student Melissa, he met the Reverend Goat Carson who “cleansed” him with herbs and a Native American chant. He realized on a 14-hour Amtrak ride that he had finally learned to accept the help of others, and, in doing so, accepted himself. In Manhattan, Menasche was having a hard time reading street signs in the busy crowd. A nice woman named Jessica helped him find the way to his meeting spot with a former student. When David arrived with his escort, his student was incredulous. Jessica was “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker.

Menasche’s book describes in great detail the heart-warming and life-affirming moments, as well as the hijinks and humor, of his vision quest. The Priority List is being turned into a Warner Brothers film starring Steve Carell.

“I firmly believed before I set out that I would die on the road. But I didn’t. I lived on the road.. It didn’t kill me. It saved me.”

That, at least in part, is what David taught us. The only barriers to living your life fully are the ones you impose on yourself. He reminds us to show up for life and for the people in your life. Be real. Be unafraid of breaking a few rules.

When Menasche’s trip ended in January 2013, he’d traveled for 101 days visiting 36 cities and meeting 75 former students. He described the trip in the words of Huckleberry Finn, there “warn’t no home like a raft.”

* * * 

It honestly was beautifully done
We’d tried to hide the daylight from the sun
But even if we had been sure enough it’s true we really didn’t know
Even if we knew which way to head but still we probably wouldn’t go

Fire it up Fire it up

Modest Mouse

* * *

The poetry of Menasche’s tattoos was a site to behold. A 45-rpm record adapter on his left forearm. Be Brave on his right wrist. The cover of the 2007 Modest Mouse album, a hot air balloon weighed down by an anchor on his back. Menasche was one cool, hip punk until the end.

On the evening of our last visit with Menache, Oct. 28, 2014, he sat in his favorite lazy boy chair and filled the time with his stories. Padron, Vecino and I had come with a plan but tossed it aside. We became quietly aware that our role was to shut up and listen. It was the last time he would share his story. His downturn happened almost immediately after that night, and he was too sick to give his TED talk.

Alberto asked him a question that could have had an epic answer. The stuff of Dickinson and Nietzsche. David, how have you defied the odds of this brain cancer and lived so long?

Menasche grinned. We said nothing as he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it open. Tattooed across his chest were two words:

I DECIDE.

David Mesnache died Nov. 20, 2014, at age 41.

* * *

Editor’s Note: Quotes from David are taken from his 2014 Touchstone book, “The Priority List, A Teacher’s Final Quest to Discover Life’s Greatest Lessons.” Staff writer Chrystian Tejedor assisted in the reporting of this story….After I arrived home that evening, I wrote to David and thanked him for his time and openness. I sent him a Mary Oliver poem, and he responded quickly: “This is beautiful….As long as we all see.” This is the poem:

The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations, though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
but little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do-
determined to save
the only life you could save.
♦

Now, National Science Foundation-funded research conducted by Professor Zahra Hazari shows that’s not really the case.

“Much of becoming a math person and pursuing a related STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) career has to do with being recognized and becoming interested – not just being able to do it,” said Hazari, who specializes in STEM Education at FIU’s College of Education and STEM Transformation Institute. “This is important for promoting math education for everyone since it is not just about confidence and performance.”

Hazari worked with colleagues Jennifer D. Cribbs from Western Kentucky University, and Philip M. Sadler and Gerhard Sonnert, both from Harvard University. Their research, published recently in the journal Child Development, suggests that interest and recognition are key factors that can help students become “math persons,” while confidence in one’s abilities is not enough.

To arrive at their conclusions, the team surveyed more than 9,000 college calculus students from across the country.

Data analysis revealed that while belief in one’s competence and performance is indeed a factor to seeing oneself as a math person, it is secondary to the individual’s interest in the subject and the recognition received from teachers, parents, relatives or friends.

“It is surprising that a student who becomes confident in their math abilities, will not necessarily develop a math identity,” Hazari said. “We really have to engage students in more meaningful ways through their own interests and help them overcome challenges and recognize them for doing so. If we want to empower students and provide access to STEM careers, it can’t just be about confidence and performance. Attitudes and personal motivation matters immensely.”

This summer parents can help their children become math people with these simple tips from Hazari:

• Have your child teach or help a younger sibling or friend with a math problem.
• Help your child connect math to something they’re interested in (figuring out Lebron James’ shooting percentage in the NBA Finals or the proportion of water to Kool-Aid that makes the best popsicle).
• Shower your child with encouragement and public kudos if they solve a challenging math problem.
• And don’t forget to hold your child to high expectations in math. Believing they can do challenging math is another way of recognizing them.

Twins Nicolas and Esteban Wulff dream of opportunity. They dream of working hard to achieve success. They dream of a college education.

When President Barack Obama visited campusFeb. 25 for a town hall on immigration, the FIU community came together to dream with them. The brothers were among a handful of FIU students selected to participate in the historic event because their story is emblematic of the national dialogue in support of immigration reform.

The Wulff brothers arrived in the United States when they were 5 years old. They had packed up their toys and made the journey from Colombia to reunite with their mom who had come a couple years earlier to earn money to support them. The distance had become too big a strain on the family.

The family decided to risk it all and stay in the country together — illegally.

“We grew up American,” says Nicolas.

They attended elementary school, middle school, high school… but they were stuck. They didn’t have a Social Security card, so no real jobs; no driver’s license, so limited mobility; nor a bank account, so no meaningful savings for the future.

Still, they believed. Their mother told them the key to success was an education and they worked hard, graduating with honors from high school and taking as many classes as they could afford at Miami Dade College.

Then in 2012, President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would not deport certain undocumented youth who came to the United States as children. The brothers were overjoyed. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) changed everything for them. Having completed the paperwork, the two received notice by Aug. of 2012 that they each qualified for a renewable two-year exemption from deportation and a work permit.

“I feel like I’m finally moving forward. We’re not stuck in limbo anymore,” Esteban says.

For Nicolas, preparation finally met opportunity. “I got my first legal job and used it to pay for college,” he says.

The Hope Clinic: Law students help young people in immigration limbo

A 1997 report, The Americans by the National Research Council, found that immigrants – both legal and undocumented – with college degrees save the government money, while those with just a high school diploma consume more in services than they contribute in taxes.

“People like me that who grown up here for the vast majority of our lives are here to stay,” Nicolas says. “It doesn’t make sense to handicap us financially and academically – and make it considerably more difficult for us to graduate from college and live a productive life. It’s a win-win situation. Students get the education and training to succeed, and the economy and job market gets a stronger, smarter, more productive workforce. In the long run, it favors everyone.”

Both Nicolas and Esteban are now studying at FIU, joining more than 50 FIU students who have benefited from a tuition waiver that allows them to pay in-state tuition, which is approximately one-third the price of out-of-state tuition.

FIU is the first public university in Florida to offer in-state tuition to students who have qualified for DACA. Before, local undocumented students paid out-of-state tuition.

During the opening remarks at the town hall, Obama congratulated FIU for its diversity.

FIU is the largest Hispanic-serving university in the nation and the largest producer of Hispanic graduates in the country.

Later, FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg noted, “President Obama wanted to speak at our university because our community is a community of immigrants. No one at our university is a foreigner.”

The Wulff brothers have become advocates for their peers. They were previously actively involved with the Students Working for Equal Rights organization, and Nicolas interned at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute with Congressman Joe Garcia’s office. He represented FIU at a Champions of Change event at the White House promoting the effect DACA status has had on undocumented students.

Nicolas says the goal for him and other DACA students is “to be successful and contribute.”

He adds, “As cliched as it sounds, America is the land of opportunity. That is the whole reason my mom moved here from Colombia 23 years ago. At my current job in an immigration legal office, I fill out asylum packets almost every day, and I talk to people who have lived in the worst conditions in other countries and see the United States as a way out.

“I might not have all the benefits granted to a U.S. citizen, or a lawful permanent resident, yet – but this is the hand I was dealt, and through smart, hard work, I will accomplish what I set out to do.”

Nicolas graduated this past spring with a bachelor’s in political science and was cited by President Mark B. Rosenberg as a standout graduate. He hopes to pursue a graduate degree in economics and a certificate in project management. Esteban is working on his final three semesters and hopes to take his degree in economics to the technology industry.

Both are optimistic about immigration reform. They are living their dream—taking advantage of the opportunity. But they still await the realization of the ultimate dream: becoming a citizen of the only county they’ve known.

Esteban says, “To me, an American is a person who wants to achieve. It’s a state of mind more than a nationality.” ♦

You started your teaching career in 1976 at FIU and have been president for nearly six years. What does this anniversary mean to you?

It symbolizes a coming of age. It’s a marker in the evolution of the university and the community. I was used to being around universities that were created in the 1700s and the 1800s in this country. It’s unique to have such a large and impactful public university that is so young. In those early days, when I started at the university, we more often than not cursed our youthfulness and fundamentally saw it as a disadvantage. Today it’s clear to me our youthfulness is an advantage. It gives us the opportunity to extend ourselves in ways that are consistent with our mission, in ways that many older universities are reluctant to do because their value propositions are based on exclusivity. Our value proposition is based on engagement and inclusivity. Those are elements of our rootedness and organic culture that we need to celebrate and be proud of. Finding ways to build bridges is who we are and what we do.

A lot has shifted in higher education during that time. What changes have had the biggest impact on FIU?

I don’t really look at the university without understanding the broader global and national context. So, I think the world has become a lot more complex and diverse and fragmented. Financial and economic power is shifting away from the U.S. gradually.

Nationally we are reflecting that fragmentation. The country is far more dependent upon new skills and competencies that, for the most part, can only be taught and learned through a higher education context, a university context. It’s a country where natural resources are less and less central to competitiveness and human talent is more central. The university in that context is very, very well situated to thrive.

At the local level, the community is far more diversified and complex than it was when the university was opened. The community is far more conscious of its potential and its reach, and it has become mainstream nationally and globally in its identity. So that carries with it some opportunities and some obligation and some challenges that reflect squarely on the university and how it evolves over the next few years.

What academic trends are on the horizon that will be influential for FIU’s future direction?

First, universities have lost their monopoly on learning. Second, the “massification” of high-speed digital technologies has had a major impact upon us. Third, the growing opportunity that comes about in human potential as it relates to wellness, health and performance is almost exponential.

And a fourth trend that I think is very, very important is China and the willingness of China and the Chinese people to go beyond their boundaries and to extend their culture and extend their economic and financial and technical wherewithal. That will be a major driver of 21st century movements.

The other element is the trend toward disruption and the growing power of disruptive forces, whether they are technological or religious or racial. I see that as a very powerful social element in
the change.

Across time, you will see us moving away from discipline-based education and opportunities for people to more cause-based or mission-based. Whether it’s health and wellness, or life extension or related to those, the university will have to respond. It will be more cause-based and problem-based education and certification.

What does that mean for the academic experience of tomorrow’s students?

Academic experience will become far more tailored to individual interests and cognitive capabilities and mission orientations. We will move to more personalized education. Traditionally, we have addressed massification and expansion of higher education wholesale, but I think as we move to greater technological sophistication, we will have much more specialized modules and modalities that will fit specific interests in a more personal fashion. Education will become far more fragmented based on technical competencies, based on personal mission orientations and interests and far more normalized within the life span of the human being.

Our university in particular is moving into partnership-solution logic to bring value to our community, to bring value globally as well. That increasingly will be the wave of the future.

How about trends in research? Where are we going?

The research will be far more solutions-oriented, far more applied, far more driven by team-based multidisciplinary groups and far more data driven as a consequence of large data sets and big data. You will see not just classic researchers. You will see also individuals with specific competencies, in terms of experience, solutions and applications.

You also will have research teams that include people with anthropological and sociological competency. So, I’m not worried about the humanities disappearing or the social sciences disappearing. The more we aggregate data, the more we will need the involvement of those who understand family matters, family organization, community organization, sociological and political dynamics.

The areas we have aligned around in generic terms include arts and entertainment from a consumer orientation, which is going to require serious research. In terms of health, we’ll have significant moves forward in life extension and quality of life. You are also going to see blending of human-machine cognition, where you really won’t know where the traditional human being ends and life forms that are manufactured or fabricated begin. You are already seeing that with artificial limbs and the whole debate over whether people with artificial limbs have an advantage. You are seeing it with cataract removal and lenses that are manmade and are very effective. I see incredible things happening there. That will involve, as well, emphasis and people who are more skilled in dealing with normative sociology issues.

Obviously environment, the enhanced skills to maintain environmental reconstruction and the whole issue of sustainability are major. Water and energy increasingly will be even more major. We have to do a lot more work in those areas.

Let’s talk global. What are the major international and global trends that matter to FIU?

I do think China is a major, major area that we have to do a lot more work on, just understanding a country, a formation of that magnitude demographically, economically, financially, technologically. The estimate is, that by the year 2040, China’s GDP will be $123 trillion. The European Community and the U.S. combined will be $30-35 trillion. Let’s assume we’re off by even 40 percent. You are still dealing with an entity that is on the order of three times the size of the United States and Europe in terms of production. That is something we need to come to grips with.

Where we are growing globally relates to the life of the mind. It is critically important that we do a better job; and we have staked out this ground on the Global Learning initiative. International understanding was one of the original university goals. We start with doing a better job of making sure our students interact more with students from other countries and with other perspectives.

We also have to find ways to replicate the look and feel of the world of work that students are going into by ensuring our students have important opportunities to experience different cultures and different ways of doing things. That can be through study abroad or cross-national collaborative design simulations or research projects.

So, let’s talk about engagement. In a broad sense, what will the “public’ of public higher education mean for FIU going forward?

“Public” will connote a certain value proposition that the public university is the platform for addressing the challenges and opportunities that come about through social change. Public universities have the obligation to make sure there is broader awareness of those challenges and opportunities and to make sure there’s a capability to address them.

New strategic plan sets ambitious goals for next five years

What do you see happening in terms of the funding aspects of public higher education and how we sustain the university in the future?

I’m not one of those people who is going to curse the darkness in that sense. Times change, and we have to change with them. We are perfectly situated to change and prosper because we have the human talent and values proposition and the organizational culture to successfully thrive in this much more complex and ambiguous environment.

Therefore, we should expect as we do that we are able to, and we must diversify our financial base. There will always be some funding coming from the state as a public institution, but we should expect across time that as we become more successful and larger, that funding will diminish in size and scale and percentage. Why? If we are creating value, we’re able to monetize that value in a way that enables us to have sustainability.

This country is enormously wealthy, and this country is full of dreamers and people who are able to turn dreams into reality and then want to help others. I’m confident that as we become more successful, we will see more philanthropy and more purposeful giving coming into the university on one hand, and we will be able to monetize that value in a way that will enable us to maintain a cadre and corpus of talent that will enhance the institution.

We’ve built out the MMC and we have the opportunity to go bigger with the additional fairgrounds acreage. What will FIU look like for the next generation?

It’s the next generation that expansion to the fairgrounds is all about. I do still see the need for brick and mortar. Traditional research requires state-of-the-art facilities and labor; and people are social animals who feel the need to gather and share their learning and experiences. Even if we do a lot more education in a personalized, just-in-time, modular fashion, there will be a need to bring people together to share learning and benefit from the serendipity of one-on-one, face-to-face relationships.

In the case of the Maidique campus, our academic health center has the potential to become a billion-dollar stand-alone enterprise in 20 years. That is my vision for it because of the exponential improvements in health and advances in health research that will take on a logic of its own. That in part is why we need the additional acreage to the south of us.

We will probably see more specialized centers and sites out there across time similar to Brickell or South Beach or I-75 or China. We will see more as we can develop business models that work. That provides value in communities that might not be able to access our main platforms.

At a core mission level, what are we doing today that will ensure we thrive tomorrow?

One, we are becoming far more student-centric and far more committed to how to improve student performance. Within the next 10 years, we are going to have individualized cognitive measures that will allow better understanding of where a student enters into the learning curve and measures how much a student is able to learn. That will be aggregated by programs and disciplines and institutions and globally benchmarked.

Two, our ability to survive is going to be based on our willingness to depart from traditional approaches to access and traditional measures of success. If we continue to base admissions on SAT scores and ACT scores, we are going to miss some of the truly unbelievable talent in this community that just wants a chance to be in an embracing and intense learning environment. I don’t believe in open admission as such, but I do believe that admission should be a function of measuring talent and talent potential as opposed to more traditional indicators of success that are completely misaligned with our demographics and our geography. We have a sacred obligation to advance that human potential.

I mentioned in the 50th anniversary prayer meeting that in many ways our divinity is hope and opportunity. We must never forget that’s what we bring to the table: hope for people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to get an education and learn at such a dynamic place, and opportunity in that there’s a perception out there that FIU students are well prepared and that opens incredible opportunity they might not otherwise have. That’s who we are.

Community outreach and engagement

As the public research university in one of the country’s largest metro areas, FIU increasingly will serve as a solutions center globally in the coming decades. Through partnerships and engagement efforts, the university is already tackling a spectrum of issues and challenges, most notably improving the K-12 public school system and increasing college access opportunities.

Building on that demonstrated success, the university will continue to enter into strategic partnerships that will have important ramifications for our world. Three initiatives launched in 2015 are emblematic of the cooperative efforts that will drive the university’s future direction.

To help meet the need for high-quality professionals ready to step into the workforce, FIU has collaborated with the Beacon Council, South Florida industry leaders and the region’s other educational institutions to launch the Talent Development Network. Its aim: to provide new internships in key sectors of the local economy. A new partnership with Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., the Royal@FIU World Stage Collaborative, is fostering new connections between the performing arts and hospitality and tourism.

Recognizing that there is strength in numbers, FIU has partnered with its sister institutions in two of the state’s other large urban areas to create the Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Research Universities. FIU, the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida are working together to improve college graduation rates, share best practices across the board and create a more united voice at the state level.

“We view our role in working with valued partners — whether public, private or nonprofit — as unlocking catalytic momentum that leads to community-wide transformation,” said FIU Vice President for Engagement Saif Ishoof. “Collaboration has maximum impact when the greatest needs are tackled through the exponential addition of resources and people.”

Creative initiatives in the arts

Over the past 15 years, Miami has undergone a cultural renaissance. The arrival of Art Basel in 2002 drew attention to Miami’s burgeoning art scene and fueled an influx of artists, collectors, buyers and appreciators of the arts in South Florida. A new community of people interested in building Miami’s reputation in the arts emerged.

With three public museums, a college dedicated to the arts, a partnership with Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., and plans to reopen the Coconut Grove Playhouse, FIU’s role in this cultural revolution is significant.

FIU students and alumni have been involved in creating murals and music, theater and fine arts throughout South Florida; and moving forward, the university will continue to influence the arts in Miami by expanding its outreach and partnerships in the community.

The Wolfsonian-FIU museum hopes to expand its international presence by digitizing its collection and creating a virtual world visitors can access any time online, a project that got its start with a $5 million grant from the Knight Foundation in 2013. The collection already has begun to appear online, and future ideas for the virtual museum include podcast series, panoramic tours and curator-guided video tours of exhibits, all intended to pique the interests of “superfans,” or niche audiences.

The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum will extend a helping hand into the younger community in Miami, especially those in low-income communities, starting with a partnership with Sweetwater Elementary to build the school’s art program and bring its students on field trips to the museum. The Frost hopes to create similar programs in elementary schools all over the county.

This March, the university unveiled its Royal@FIU World Stage Collaborative, a partnership with RCL to build a 130,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art training facility at the Biscayne Bay Campus. The building features classrooms, three-story studios, a 300-seat theater and a 20,000-square-foot costume-making facility, where students will have the chance to take classes, earn paid internships and train alongside hospitality and entertainment professionals.

The university also recently announced an initiative to reopen the Coconut Grove Playhouse, which was once a thriving and popular theater in South Florida until it closed its doors in 2006. Reopening the Playhouse will offer theater students a chance to work with actors, costume and set designers, and other behind-the-scenes production, giving them the chance to work and learn alongside professionals in their field.

FIU in the Next Gen: Education | Research

Urban design and architecture

As ever-greater numbers of permanent residents as well as visitors flock to our tropical paradise over the coming decades, FIU will play a larger role in shaping South Florida’s built environment in support of a dynamic, sustainable future. Projects that serve the common good increasingly will include the expert and innovative contributions of FIU professors and students.

Collaboration has already begun with the City of Sweetwater, adjacent to the Modesto A. Maidique Campus. The university has offered design ideas for a revitalized downtown corridor. A signature bridge — both functional as well as symbolic of a new relationship between FIU and the city — will be erected with federal monies to span the busy seven-lane highway that currently separates the two entities in hopes of strengthening ties and sharing assets. Students will be able to take advantage of new shops, restaurants and housing opening off campus, while residents will have access to campus sporting and cultural events as well as lectures and more. The School of Architecture has suggested that new development within the city center include the intentional addition of “walkability features,” such as improved sidewalks, landscaping and public art, to boost its attractiveness and people-friendly quotient.

Emphasis on the human element likewise informs the FIU-Miami Creative City Initiative, a think tank of experts on urban issues with the goal of harnessing local creative and entrepreneurial forces. The team includes School of Architecture professor Roberto Rovira and is engaging local business and civic leaders along with students and the greater community in dialogue on how creativity, culture and design can drive a regional economy.

Turning to a public university to help reinvigorate public space makes sense, says Rovira, who involves his students in a variety of projects through his “Catalysts of the Urban Canvas” course. “We’re perfect in the sense that we have a fresh set of eyes every single year. We have a student body and a faculty who are trained from day one to think in visionary ways, to think in transformative ways, to be unafraid.” ♦

Six FIU students, all aspiring writers, were selected last fall to take part in a six-week   Everglades wilderness expedition  in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. They went on three, daylong trips exploring the prairies, marshes and sloughs of the vast South Florida wetlands area that is both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. They also took a four-day canoe camping trek along the park’s remote Wilderness Waterway.

The students recorded their life-changing experiences in the River of Grass in stories, poems and essays that were posted online. Samples of their work appear below, along with a documentary about their journey in the wild.

The FIU students included: Alexandra Mosquera (journalism), Bryan Palacio ( English), Nicole Zummar (communications), Zoraida Pastor (journalism and   psychology), Sandeep Varry (global strategic communications) and Alina Rafikova (global strategic communications).

Hover over the popups on students’ images to read about their experiences.

Sea level rise and water conservation

Not just a natural resource, water in the 21st century also has become a commodity and a challenge in the face of climate change. FIU researchers are working to ensure the next 50 years aren’t like the last, which have been full of controversy and uncertainty.

In the next generation, people won’t be talking about how to protect the Everglades, South Florida’s water supply or the communities along the coastline. They will be doing it. Miami Beach’s landscape already will have changed with the rising seas. But as the College of Arts & Sciences Dean Mike Heithaus attests, today’s generation will be defined by its response to climate change. And that response will determine the challenges faced by the next.

For scientists, the conversation focuses on how to adapt. Partnerships forged today with the City of Miami Beach, the Everglades Foundation and others will shape the future of South Florida. As a result, communities along coastlines throughout the world will define their responses, redesign their infrastructures and revise their building codes based on what South Florida scientists, architects and engineers research today. In the next 50 years, South Florida’s role of a living laboratory will evolve into proven examples of solutions that work.

Yet in 2065, certain truths likely will remain. Florida will continue to be the lowest and flattest state in the country. Miami’s water supply will remain dependent on the Biscayne Aquifer, which rests beneath the Florida Everglades. And the seas will be higher, though how high remains a mystery. Some say a foot by 2100, while others believe it could be as high as six feet.

It is difficult to plan based on best guesses. But FIU ecologist Rene Price says statistical certainties will come very soon. She says that in just a few years scientists will be able to predict how high the seas will rise over time. That will give communities time to prepare. During the next 50 years, governments will be able to develop and execute plans based on realistic expectations for the 22nd century.

The foundation for these plans will largely come from the research being done at FIU. Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine recently said that what people cannot imagine today will actually be what is invented to make coastal cities resilient in the future. Today, students and faculty throughout FIU are dreaming up the potential solutions that could help define water in South Florida in 2065 and beyond.

Disaster mitigation and urban resilience

As climate change and urban population growth create stress upon the natural environment, FIU researchers are looking at ways to help government agencies and other stakeholders understand related challenges to our built environment. The goal: to support better design, improved construction and long-term management of resources.

Predicting the future is never easy, but the Infrastructure System-of-Systems Research Group within the OHL School of Construction aims to introduce a degree of clarity in a climate of uncertainty. The team is developing computational models that will demonstrate how physical infrastructure might perform under a variety of conditions. The term “systems-of-systems” refers to a holistic approach that looks at infrastructure as complex and interdependent. To underscore the value of a wide view, professor of construction management Ali Mostafavi gives the example of frequent inland flooding, which can lead to pumping station failure, sewage-system backups and contamination of the water supply.

“From one event,” he says, “you can see the cascading impacts.”

This and other studies complement university research efforts focused on disaster mitigation. The International Hurricane Research Center, for example, has for nearly two decades brought together scientists to probe how urban areas can best prepare for high-threat storms. And the College of Engineering and Computing’s Wall of Wind — the largest and most powerful university research facility of its kind — investigates how construction materials perform under extreme conditions, tests whose outcomes can influence Florida building codes.

The work of the university helps demonstrate that decisions made today can change the course ahead and encourages public policy for the long haul.

FIU in the Next Gen: Education | Partnerships

Neuroscience and brain imaging

A person enters a doctor’s office for a physical. As part of the routine, blood pressure is taken and temperature recorded and, finally, the brain is scanned.

In a single scan, lurking disorders within the mind and body are revealed. A doctor can diagnose neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as psychological issues including depression and even addiction. Symptoms may or may not be present. The need for lengthy testing and intensive evaluations are no more. A single scan. A snapshot of the brain. A picture that tells a story and gives a roadmap for curing or overcoming problems.

The science isn’t there yet, but in the next 50 years, FIU researchers believe it will get there.

According to Angela Laird, director of FIU’s Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging Center, in 50 years, with a prick of your finger and a hand-held imaging device, clinicians may be able to immediately assess your health status in terms of physical, emotional, genetic and neurobiological profiles, and then prescribe an optimized treatment strategy based on your unique brain signatures.

The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It makes up 2 percent of a body’s mass yet uses 20 percent of its blood and oxygen supply. It controls the way we think. It controls our movements. It dictates the way we make decisions. And it determines how we recall memories. It is powerful and yet fragile.

FIU scientists from across the disciplines – medicine, nursing, education, engineering, arts and sciences – have dedicated their careers to understanding mental processes in the healthy and diseased human brain. They study brain activity, including language, cognition, emotion, action, sensory perception and mental health, while working to develop new technologies in cognitive neuroimaging.

Through collaborative research, the future is likely to bring advances in neurotechnology that allow physicians to tap into or activate the nervous system to provide personalized neurotherapy, says Ranu Jung, chair of biomedical engineering and interim dean of the College of Engineering & Computing.

But more than diagnostics and treatment, FIU researchers believe cognitive neuroscience also can lead to better students. It is likely that students in the class of 2065 will be taught using methods developed from studies under way today. Using neuroimaging techniques, these studies examine how college STEM majors learn reasoning and problem-solving skills. Understanding this could help educators better craft the way these courses are taught in the future.

Today’s FIU scientists hope that someday the brain scan will be as routine as an EKG. ♦

The students of tomorrow

What will the next generation of FIU students look like?

Currently, FIU’s demographics mirror that of the surrounding community of Miami-Dade County. According to the Office of Planning & Institutional Research at FIU, Hispanic students make up 63 percent of the student population, women make up 56 percent and 12 percent are black or African-American as of the Spring 2015 semester.

And while FIU currently enrolls a large number of first-generation college students, 50 years from now, many of the university’s students may be their children and grandchildren.

“There will be fewer first-generation students as a growing number of those who enroll will be the sons and daughters of our alumni,” says Jody Glassman, director of Undergraduate Admissions. “It will be a different kind of Miami we serve in 50 years.”

University leaders believe that FIU will maintain its status as a majority-minority institution as many other universities may begin to mirror FIU’s diversity. The Pew Research Center predicts that by 2050, the Hispanic population in the U.S. will triple to 128 million. Miami, as a gateway to Latin America, is expected to continue to be a metropolitan city that boasts a Hispanic majority – and FIU will reflect that.

“We look like the future,” says Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Lunsford. “Other universities have goals for what we have already accomplished. We want to be well represented in our diversity in the future. We want to be proud of our diversity over the next 50 years.”

International and public affairs

Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger in Haiti. Combating malaria and other diseases in Africa. Ensuring environmental stability in India. Unifying the Korean peninsula. Establishing peace between Israel and Palestine.

Such far-reaching and forward-looking aspirations represent the global vision for FIU’s newly renamed Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs in the College of Arts & Sciences. Supported by a transformational $20 million gift, the school is now poised to become one of the world’s top academic centers dedicated to international understanding, economic development, peace and security.

“This gift reinforces FIU’s destiny as a preeminent center for international education and global problem-solving,” says FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg.

Researchers working within the auspices of the six-year-old school have dedicated their careers to understanding the complexities of our transnational and globalized society and how to fill a broad range of basic human needs, including health, education and equality, according to Associate Director Shlomi Dinar. Through the disciplines of sociology, economics, politics, law and criminal justice, religion and others, they study the wide range of issues that make up how countries, governments and societies relate to one another. The school brings together experts to analyze problems and find sustainable solutions through an interdisciplinary lens.

The recent contribution has created an endowment in support of academic, research and public affairs initiatives focused on transnational studies, international institutions and security policy in the Americas. The gift also will support the construction of a state-of-the-art building that will unify the school’s resources and researchers to foster collaboration, interdisciplinary innovation and student success.

FIU’s approach to the social sciences integrates theory and practice at every level. Students are taught inside the classroom using innovative curriculum and cutting-edge research. Their classroom learning is paired with real-life, global-learning experiences, including study abroad and internship opportunities. Those who master particular issues in the social sciences also gain a wide range of transferable skills, including analytical, management and leadership, communication, consensus-building and negotiation.

Situated in Miami, the school will educate leaders who can not only connect the Americas but bridge them with Africa, the Middle East, Asia and other regions poised for growth in upcoming decades. With a diverse student body, the Green School will graduate leaders who drive the innovation needed to establish global cooperation, economic equality and peace in the 
next generation.

FIU in the Next Gen: Partnerships | Research

Specialized and online education

As master’s degrees become more important for graduates to stand out in crowded job markets, the future will see more and more working professionals taking classes at FIU part-time, probably through a wide variety of online programs available.

Popular “4+1” programs, which allow undergraduate students to pursue an accelerated master’s degree in addition to their bachelor’s degrees, will grow as will high-level professional certificates. A number of “niche” majors tailored toward specialized topics and subjects also could become the norm at FIU, attracting specific types of students to FIU.

“Universities become important in the way they open the door for careers,” says Benjamin Baez, a professor of higher education at the College of Education. “You’ll see more of a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and specialized majors to attract specific groups of people rather than generic degrees.”

With the rise of online programs, virtual classrooms and other technologies in recent years, many wonder whether or not the “traditional” college campus will become obsolete. But university leaders believe that technological advances and a more traditional college campus will be a part of FIU’s future.

As online programs and other technological advances improve access for a larger number of students and more student housing facilities are built both on campus and in the surrounding area, there could be an uptick in both students living on campus and also those taking classes part-time or fully online. ♦

For 30 years, Beverly Dalrymple has helped students develop personal leadership skills

In her small office on the second floor of the Graham Center, Beverly Dalrymple Ed.D. ’00 recalled where she began at FIU 30 years ago, in Career Services. Through the years, Dalrymple has helped students beyond providing them job-placement assistance. Instead, she guided them on journeys of personal development, journeys that would lead them to work that connects to their passions.

As Dalrymple retires this spring, she is credited with building what is the now the thriving and successful Student Affairs Center for Leadership and Service.

“It emphasizes that leadership doesn’t belong to a position. It’s a skill,” Dalrymple said. “Everyone can and needs to develop their leadership skills.”

With just a graduate assistant in tow, Dalrymple opened the center in 2000 and focused heavily on collaborations with other units and academic departments. She was a shoo-in for the job, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Lunsford remembers.

“Beverly would do presentations on career services in my First Year Experience class,” recalled Lunsford of her participation in the freshman course. “I recognized how good she was, how well she related to the students. When we had the opening for the center, we wanted her for the role.”

The center’s leadership programs focus on three outcomes: increasing students’ self knowledge of how they personally perform and interact with others; building leadership competency, which includes understanding the functions of leadership and how to begin practicing the requisite skills; and fostering civic or social responsibility so as to engage as a member of the global community.

Alfonso “Alfie” Leon ’09 JD ’14 carries those lessons close to the heart.

“Once I met her, I could tell she was someone that was open to listening about what students were dealing with,” he said. “I got involved in Alternative Breaks and had an opportunity to travel to Panama City, Panama, where I got to work with kids that were in need. When I came back, I told Dr. Dalrymple that the experience changed me for the best. I noticed that leadership is about caring about everyone – from the top to the bottom.”

In 2002, the center was still in its infancy when Dalrymple was diagnosed with cancer. One year later, she came back more determined than ever. In fact, she started researching how to add an academic component that would fit with the program.

“I had a different sense of what I wanted,” she said of coming back to campus. “I decided this is what I want to do and I’m going to find a way to do it.”

Dalrymple sought out the help of Susan Himberg, a professor of dietetics and nutrition (and today the director of Academic Planning and Accountability). The two partnered up on what eventually became an academic certificate program in Professional Leadership Studies. More than 100 students have earned the certificate, which is offered today through the Department of Public Administration in the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs.

Dalrymple has always focused on empowering students to chart their own paths, and leadership training was no different. She wanted students to both understand and practice the application of leadership. “As a student, you learn about your leadership style in these programs and then move to teach someone else,” she said. “Students are always engaged with teaching others what they learned.” How they do that includes organizing wildly successful, large-scale campus fundraising events such as Relay For Life, which supports the American Cancer Society, and Dance Marathon, which supports a children’s hospital. They help campus clubs and other organizations by serving as leadership consultants through LEAD Team.

Leon traveled with Dalrymple and other students during Thanksgiving break of 2005 to Biloxi, Mississippi. They spent time rebuilding homes after Hurricane Katrina and helping displaced families. Leon says that’s when he felt like Dalrymple became his family, too.

“Dr. D showcased that leadership is building relationships,” he said. “I loved every moment working with her. What she’s been doing here for 30 years has now become the forefront of everything in our community. A lot of those leaders that came out of FIU are now helping people in the community.”

Luly Sanchez ’15 worked with Dr. D for the past four years on Relay For Life. She likewise benefited from the older woman’s influence. “She was great,” she said, “honestly, one of the most influential people in my life.”

Dalrymple has found great fulfillment in seeing young people embrace the challenges of service and leadership. “Students who’ve graduated or participated in our programs have the desire and empathy to address problems in the world,” she said. “They see it as their job. Seeing what they do, when students tell their story about what they’ve learned or how participation in a program has challenged them to grow, when I hear them tell the other students about their learning – that’s the proudest moment.”

In the 2014-2015 academic year alone, nearly 9,000 students interacted with the center and logged more than 65,000 community service hours.

“I’d put her with the founders of this university,” said Lunsford. “She’s been one of the giants making things happen on this campus. She adopted the philosophy of ‘We can always do more for our students’ and surrounded herself with people who also believed that.”

Of her retirement and leaving FIU, Dalrymple admitted that it’s hard doing things for the last time. She shared that she keeps a drawer full of notes from former students. “It’s like being a little point in their trajectory to where they are going,” she said, with typical modesty, of her impact on them.

Dalrymple plans to continue building relationships when she relocates to Savannah, Georgia. Although rather than with students, she says, she hopes it will be with a great golf instructor.

When university leaders began thinking about FIU’s next strategic plan two years ago, they knew it had to be different. Higher education was deep in the throes of historic change. The students, faculty, staff, alumni and community leaders who participated in the planning process viewed it as a chance to embrace the opportunities inherent in this seismic shift.

The result is FIUBeyondPossible2020, the university’s bold vision for the next five years.

Initiated by Provost Kenneth G. Furton and conceived at an important moment in the life of the university, the plan’s focus is on improving student success, identifying and investing in preeminent programs, expanding the research enterprise and enrollment, and achieving greater financial sustainability.

FIUBeyondPossible2020 reflects the input of more than 150 members of the university community. Endorsed by the Board of Trustees in March, it is 68 pages of history and context, strategies and goals. Its powerful message is summed up in two sentences found early in the document: “The plan’s name, FIUBeyondPossible2020, reflects the fact that these are precedent-setting goals. We plan to be the first public, majority-minority research institution to achieve these goals; because in achieving these goals, FIU will better serve our students, faculty, staff and community.”

The plan reaffirms the areas of focus identified in the previous strategic plan: arts, environment, globalization and health. Each of these areas is related to FIU’s mission, and university leaders believe these areas still have potential for significant and sustained growth, as well as myriad opportunities for engagement at the local and global levels.

For the skeptics who believe the plan is too ambitious, Furton has a message: “We’ve done lots of things at FIU that no one thought we could do.”

“The New Normal”

A fundamental difference between this plan and previous plans is the purposeful alignment between FIU’s strategic plan and the Florida Board of Governors’ (BOG) Performance Funding Model, which tracks 10 performance goals and awards dollars based upon each university’s ability to do well in those areas.

“We have a responsibility to make sure that we stay on the edge of responsiveness,” said President Mark B. Rosenberg in January at a town hall meeting to introduce FIUBeyondPossible2020. “The funding will not arrive unless we perform.”

Thirty of 50 states now use performance-funding models, according to Furton, who called the paradigm “the new normal.” The model demands increased accountability and efficiency, focusing on nine metrics on undergraduate student success outcomes and one metric on percentage of graduate degrees in strategic emphasis. Universities are ranked and can potentially receive (or lose) funding based on their score using the BOG model.

Implementation

A plan is only as good as its implementation, and leaders acknowledge that reaching the goals set forth in FIUBeyondPossible2020 will not be easy. At the January town hall, Rosenberg said
it would require “soul searching” and faculty buy-in. But ultimately, he told attendees, “This is a shared responsibility. No one is exempt.”

The provost has created multiple implementation committees with a steering committee to oversee the process. The initial committee will meet over the course of the summer. Furton appointed Nicole Kaufman Glasgow associate vice provost of operations and strategy implementation to provide leadership in the implementation of the plan moving forward.

Says Furton, “We need everyone to join us in creating a future worthy of FIU. This is the best way that we can be truly worlds ahead for our students and the greater community.”

• Improve the first-to-second-year retention rate of first-time-in-college students from 76 to 90 percent
• Boost six-year graduation rate among first-time-in-college students from 53 to 70 percent
• Increase four-year graduation rate of state college (AA) transfer students from 64 to 70 percent
• Increase enrollment to 65,000, and increase use of digital technologies to enhance face-to-face and distance learning
• Expand experiential learning opportunities for students, to include growing student internships from 4,637 to 6,000 annually
• Increase research expenditures from $130 million annually to $200 million annually
• Increase by 30 percent the number of Ph.D. degrees granted to more than 200 annually
• Nurture an expansion in patents and startups from an average of two per year to 20 annually
• Grow philanthropic giving to achieve the Next Horizon capital campaign goal of $750 million ♦

Deborah O’Neil’s first cover as editor of FIU Magazine featured His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Her last will feature U.S. President Barack Obama.

O’Neil, the second editor in FIU Magazine’s 20-year history, is stepping down on July 1 after 11 years leading the publication. O’Neil, who has moved to the Boston area with her family, will remain a staff writer for the university.

O’Neil shepherded the magazine during a time of transition and growth for FIU and its External Relations department. She made the magazine the flagship publication of the university, introducing exacting professional standards, a keen design aesthetic, and a career journalist’s eye for detail and story.

“This magazine is not an institutional puff piece,” O’Neil said. “We tell difficult stories, complex stories, and give voice to the hidden places and people who are the true spirit of FIU.”

FIU Magazine under her direction expanded its scope and ambition to include first-person essays, point-counter-point op-eds, documentary style photography and videography, special issues including one featuring alumni in California’s wine country, and the university’s first international reporting expedition, to Papua New Guinea. (Click here to see Deborah’s pick’s for the magazine’s best work in the past decade.)

She experimented with multiple forms of storytelling, from charticles to audio pieces to interactive online graphics to stylized photo spreads. She launched the online magazine in 2012 and is helping to launch a tablet edition this fall. A documentary she produced with videographer Tim Long on the Papua New Guinea trip even aired for six months on a local PBS station.

“Deborah transformed the enterprise of the magazine,” said Professor Emeritus Stephen Fain, a member of the magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board for the past decade. “She evolved the nature of the stories and the character of the magazine, looking beyond the moment and recognizing the potentials that were all around us.”

The magazine is one of the largest in higher education, with a print readership of 225,000 and 35,000 online subscribers. In a 2014 survey, 89 percent of readers rated the publication Excellent or Good. During her tenure, the magazine won industry awards for its design, writing, illustrations and cover photos. In 2013, it won the coveted General Excellence Grand Prize for Magazines from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Higher Education and in 2011, O’Neil won the General Excellence in Feature Writing.

Student Affairs Vice President Larry Lunsford said, “She made the magazine what it is. An impressive and successful alumni magazine is important to a university in that it, like athletics, is the tie that binds alumni and others to the institution. It’s not just a PR mouthpiece. She improved the quality of the magazine—from content, to excellent photography, to type of paper. She can leave with pride for the legacy she leaves behind.”

Creative Collaboration

One of O’Neil’s first moves was to create an Editorial Advisory Board with representatives from each college and school to receive feedback, input and perspective from around the university. The board is still in place and meets quarterly to discuss each upcoming issue.

“I’ve always admired Deborah for standing up for what she believed and holding strong to her convictions,” said advisory board member Duane Wiles, Associate Vice President of Alumni Relations and Executive Director of the Alumni Association. “As a result of her strong convictions, we now see more alumni stories dispersed throughout the magazine and featured online.”

Staff and advisors of the magazine said O’Neil combined exacting standards with a collaborative spirit, bringing the best out of those she worked with, even interns.

“The magazine could so easily become a competitive place where people vie for bylines,” Fain said. “Instead, it’s a place where people are celebrated at all steps in the process.”

FIU Magazine Managing Editor Alexandra Pecharich said O’Neil’s loss will be felt keenly. “She is a storyteller par excellence, and I have learned more from her as a writer and an editor of others’ work than from anyone else,” Pecharich said. “Her impressive technical skills are coupled with a boundless enthusiasm for FIU, a combination that made her the ideal leader of a publication that thoughtfully captures the university’s growing impact on the local community and beyond.”

For the past 11 years, Aileen Solá-Trautmann worked side-by-side with O’Neil as art director in charge of the visual presentation.

“Deborah and I had our ups and downs, me fighting for bigger photos and white space, her fighting for the content. I always wanted her to cut words,” Solà-Trautmann said. “With time, we learned to compromise.”

This creative friction led to a publication as celebrated for its striking visuals as its stirring storytelling. One of the magazine’s signature accomplishments in the past decade, Wiles said, was the use and placement of larger pictures throughout the magazine to help tell the FIU story.

“Making a magazine a deeply creative, collaborative process and I have been incredibly blessed to work with inspiring photographers, videographers, illustrators, designers and especially the magazine’s endlessly talented art director, Aileen Sola,” O’Neil said. “We have all been committed to creating a magazine that can hold its own on any coffee table next to Time Magazine or Sports Illustrated.”

Telling the story

O’Neil’s first love is the written word. She started her journalism career at age 15 writing high school news for her community newspaper in Salem, New Hampshire. After graduating from the University of South Florida, O’Neil worked for six years as as a police, courts, government and investigative reporter at The St. Petersburg Times (now called The Tampa Bay Times.).

“I tell Deborah she is an artist with words,” Solà-Trautmann said. “She can paint a story with her writing.”

O’Neil has a lifelong interest in religion and spirituality, a topic that threads through her academic and journalistic work. She is a devoted practitioner of yoga and went through the demanding training to be certified as an advanced instructor while running the magazine.

Her 2002 coverage of the Church of Scientology for The St. Petersburg Times was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in investigative and explanatory journalism, won the prestigious Gerald Loeb Award and was selected for inclusion in Vintage Book’s 2003 edition of The Best Business Stories of the Year.

She left the newspaper in 2002 to pursue her interest in religious studies and earned a masters degree in religion at FIU’s Latin American and Caribbean Center. The administration got word that a prize-winning journalist was enrolled as a student, and in 2004 she was recruited to serve as a university writer. She soon became editor of the magazine and speechwriter to former FIU President Modesto A. Maidique.

Her most ambitious project for the magazine was an international reporting project following FIU researcher Tudor Parfitt as he explored the claims of a tribe in Papua New Guinea that it was one of the lost tribes of Israel. She traveled there with Parfitt, Tim Long and a group of four students and chronicled the entire experience in a special print and online package that remains one of the magazine’s best-read stories.

“For more than a decade, I got to help shape the voice of FIU: all of its aspirations and accomplishments, stumbling and soaring,” O’Neil said. “I am a graduate, a one-time journalism instructor, a staff member, and I married an FIU professor. My FIU roots go deep, and I got to pour all of that perspective and love into the magazine.”

Advisory board member Fain said O’Neil was constantly looking for ways to improve the magazine. An alumnus of three colleges, Fain got into the habit of sending her issues of his other alumni magazines. “She loves learning from other magazines to make FIU’s better. Her goal was the make it one of the best alumni magazines in the country, which she accomplished.”

Fain said he has only one criticism of the magazine: “That they don’t print enough copies and put it in enough places. It’s a product to be very proud of. It shows the full dimensions of the university.”

For more than a decade I’ve been having a lot of fun at FIU Magazine. We’ve done some kooky, brave and incredibly meaningful stories across multiple media platforms. As FIU celebrates its 50^th anniversary and I step down as editor, here’s a look back at some of my favorite pieces from FIU Magazine.

The Wine issue: When the Alumni Association decided to organize a trip to California wine country, we got to wondering how many graduates of our hospitality program are working in the heart of the American wine industry. There were so many that Marketing Director Eddie Merille I went out there for a week to capture their stories, and we made a special issue around it. Yes, we get paid to do these things.

A dream realized: Our law school students helped get a Haitian immigrant released from Krome Detention Center in Southwest Miami-Dade County, and we put him on the cover of our issue, “The Last Hope.”  

Ode to a beloved student: Professor Bill Beesting wrote a first-person essay about what he learned from a beloved student who died.

Serving with grace: An FIU graduate/social worker is helping Florida homeless families put their lives back together. FIU Magazine staff writer Sissi Aguila and photographer Doug Garland followed Beth Davalos on the streets of Seminole County and produced this stunning documentary style package.

Musical journey: Music was the theme of our debut issue of FIU Magazine online and Latin musician, composer and FIU alumnus Tony Succar was our headliner. He went on to become the featured performer in our first TEDxFIU and his video has captured more than 330,000 views. He is still doing amazing things in the world of music.

The story abroad: In 2013, the magazine undertook its first international reporting project, to Papua New Guinea, to tell the story of researcher Tudor Parfitt and four students. The special package in the magazine is one of our best-read stories, and the PBS documentary about the project aired for 6 months on the Miami station WLRN.

Don’t stop believing: This is my all-time favorite story that I ever wrote, The Four Horsemen. It’s the story of four diehard FIU alumni and their passion for this special place. Theirs is a story of devotion and it was synthesized in one epic moment of FIU history. I learned so much from these amazing guys about what it means to be a community of hope.

One big old question: When FIU launched its first national brand campaign, Worlds Ahead, we knew we had to do something special with the magazine. We kept mocking up cover ideas. FIU External Relations Senior Vice President Sandra Gonzalez-Levy kept sending them back, “You can do better.” Then, one evening, late, FIU Magazine Art Director Aileen Sola and designer Oscar Negret, created this, what I consider our most provocative, honest and bold cover.

The Education Effect: When FIU decided to partner with Miami Northwestern Senior High School to raise performance, there was a lot to consider. We told the story of this now amazingly successful partnership but the hope it represents was captured perfectly in this award-winning cover photo of then-high school sophomore Marcus Postell.

Named for a 54-year-old who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2005, the Linda Fenner Mammography Health Facility is a state-of-the-art clinic on wheels run by FIU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. It offers a 3D mammogram to any woman who needs one but exists primarily to serve those who have limited options due to lack of health insurance.

Toni De La Barra, clinical manager of the OB/GYN department at the nonprofit Borinquen Health Centers, which caters to low-income individuals, welcomed the bus when it stopped for the day outside her location in the Design District, a mixed area of low-income housing and newly developed luxury retailers. The easy access meant those on her waiting list could finally get no-cost preventive care.

“Normally, we would try and seek out the cheapest option for our patients,” De La Barra explains, “but sometimes it still doesn’t help. They’re stuck. They have to seek childcare. They have to take two or three buses. They have to seek the money. Seventy dollars to them is a lot of money.”

Breaking down barriers

Enter the mammovan, an answer for women who face such deterrents.

“Any barrier that’s there, we’ll try and break that by being mobile and going to them,” says Lorraine Nowakowski, director of clinical initiatives for FIU’s Green Family Foundation NeighborhoodHELP, a community outreach program that includes the mammography facility and much more. Nowakowski rides the bus out to meet patients and take their information prior to screening. That critical step ensures that FIU staff can follow up with results and contact those whose scans indicate the need for additional services elsewhere, in which case referrals can be made for an MRI, a biopsy or even a visit to an oncologist or a surgeon.

“This is full service,” Nowakowski says, “and what that means is that we not only take an x-ray, but we have that continuity of care. It’s our responsibility.”

While scans are read off-site by a board-certified radiologist contracted by FIU, the imaging takes place on the bus using the most advanced mammography equipment available, even better than what some hospitals have, Nowakowski says. Two small changing rooms lead to the exam area, similar in size to that of clinical spaces in medical centers and doctors’ offices. There, Dana Stankiewicz, an experienced radiology technician, plies not just technical expertise but compassion.

“These women have never [before] had this opportunity,” says Stankiewicz, who in an easy-going manner takes the time to explain the entire process to patients. “Their fear is high. Their anxiety is high. So my job is to bring their anxiety down.”

Building bridges

The mobile mammography facility is accredited by the American College of Radiology and reflects the same high level of care provided by the innovative NeighborhoodHELP program under whose umbrella it operates. The Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine launched the program in 2010 as a way to train medical and other students while serving the community. It brings together medical, nursing, social and legal services to provide comprehensive assistance to those who need it most. In addition to home visits by FIU students and the faculty who oversee them, two buses outfitted as doctors’ offices visit low-income areas throughout greater Miami to offer primary-care services and specialist referrals.

Dr. Pedro Greer, a dean at the medical school, advocated for the mammography unit when his research pointed up a glaring need.

“We superimposed metastatic cancer data on the area in which we were working,” says Greer, speaking of statistics for the largely African-American suburb of Miami Gardens, with a population of more than 110,000 and no hospital within its boundaries. “We had the highest rate of breast cancer in Florida and the third highest in the country.”

Greer, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work on behalf of the indigent, likens the lack of available health care in some places to what might be expected in a third-world country. And he decries the absence of easy transportation and flexible healthcare-provider service hours that keeps the working poor from getting the help they need. “We have the science,” he says, “but we haven’t built the bridges to get to the science.”

The mammography facility provides that bridge thanks to the generous support of the Braman Family Foundation—the mammovan is named for foundation principal Irma Braman’s late sister—and a matching gift from the Batchelor Foundation. It currently goes out once per week and stops at sites such as Chapman Partnership for Homeless, Camillus House and other shelters.

Kimberly Ferrer recently got her first mammogram, compliments of the mammovan.

“I’m over 40. Women should start getting mammograms at that age, and I put it off for a few years,” says Ferrer, who has no health insurance despite her husband’s being employed.

“It was time to take action. I wouldn’t have gone and done it had it not been available for me today. Getting a mammogram today gives me peace of mind.”

Last summer, some 35,000 visitors each week streamed to a previously forlorn patch of Philadelphia waterfront rejuvenated by a placemaking initiative that emphasized the fast, the cheap and the temporary. They sprawled in hammocks suspended over the water and dined on a flotilla of barges that had been repurposed into a verdant setting in which to enjoy brews and burgers. Landscape architect David Fierabend MLA ’06 says he considered both the site’s context and its intended users as he transformed the space.

“You can start with a concept and some rough design ideas, but none of that is important if it isn’t organic to the site,” he says. “This was an underutilized space which had great bones: a small harbor area, mature shade trees and gentle slopes. I let those dictate the end use. For example, the hammocks and floating barges extended the park onto the water, while the shipping containers reflected the fact that the Delaware is still an active shipping channel.”

It’s fair to say that the project — called Spruce Street Harbor Park — has proved to be Fierabend’s greatest success. As principal and founder of Groundswell, which has offices in Philadelphia and New Jersey, the 55-year-old Fierabend juggles projects that range from converting a 1940s Bay Area naval aircraft hangar into a distillery to repurposing a derelict Philadelphia alley into a neighborhood gateway.

He’s usually found dressed in chukka boots and jeans, but he brands himself a “lifestyle designer,” which sounds like he should be wearing a suit and coaching folks through transitions in their personal lives.

What he’s really getting at, though, is the recognition that “sights, sounds, smells, and textures all call to mind different thoughts, emotions, memories, and ideas.” It’s an understanding he traces to a successful stint in retail that resulted from a series of “weird meetings and random happenings.”

Back in the early-’80s, he was a recent college grad from central New Jersey brandishing a marketing degree that he wasn’t sure how to leverage. A chance encounter with the owner of a high-end clothing boutique lured him from the executive training program at Macy’s. “She was like Auntie Mame, she drove a Rolls, she draped herself in furs,” he smiles. “I thought, hmmm, this could be for me.”

Soon enough, “she had me picking fabrics and colors — I guess I tapped into some unknown passion because what I picked, sold.” It was there that Fierabend first recognized the value of appealing to all of the senses. “People enjoy that kind of curated experience across the board, in any design,” he says, “whether it’s display merchandising or landscape architecture.”

When the owner retired, Fierabend assumed the store’s inventory and expanded to some 20 stores along the East Coast. “Things just grew organically,” he remembers, brushing back a shock of gray hair.

Eventually, the chain’s made-in-America concept became diluted as hometown mills shut down and manufacturing shifted abroad. Fierabend began closing stores as their leases came up and, at age 42, found himself in search of a new path. He remembered how he had loved watching his father cultivate the family’s rose bushes. He thought about how much he enjoyed gardening at his own home in Newport, Rhode Island. And, he came across an article about landscape design.

Back to school, he would go.

Researching graduate programs in the field, he honed in on FIU. “It was sunny, warm and had a brand new school of architecture,” Fierabend says, referring to FIU’s completion in 2003 of the signature Bernard Schumi-designed building that houses the now-35-year-old School of Architecture. Once on campus, he was reinvigorated — and reinvented. “I had so many inspiring instructors,” he recalls. “Maya Lin, Andres Duany, people from Arquitectonica.” Their varied disciplines and courses fostered an interest in public space that has since become central to his work. A studio class brought him to work on a master plan for a gated community in Peru, while his master’s thesis, completed in Dec. 2006, saw him re-envision a Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park in Trenton.

In 2006, just before he graduated, Fierabend received an invitation to contribute to Quark Park, a conceptual garden in Princeton devoted to the wonders of science. It set him on a path of collaboration with other designers and artists that he still pursues. And, its accolades quickly translated into commissions for Fierabend to design residential gardens in New Jersey’s toniest towns, such as Princeton and Newport, with which he was already familiar.

From there, forays in the public realm followed; first to design restaurants with significant outdoor components like one whose garden was adorned with repurposed pipes and reclaimed wood. Larger canvases followed, such as Spruce Street Harbor Park and then a riverfront ice skating rink, tricked out with a complete apres-ski environment of fire pits and haystack “sofas.”

It’s been a whirlwind, but Fierabend’s personal life remains tranquil. He lives in a log cabin with his long-time partner on 14 pastoral acres in central New Jersey, where he indulges in gardening, his “favorite form of meditation,” and thinks and draws and putters.

Inspiration, he says, is all around. “Whether it’s the feel of an everyday material or the reflection of light through a window or the sound of laughter, I think about how I might remake it and bring it to other people.”

JoAnn Greco is a freelance journalist based in Philadelphia.

First, what makes a leader great is not merely natural-born charisma and intellect. Of course, those qualities help. However, there is a science to effective leadership beyond innate personality and it can be learned.

Second, having vision as a leader is not about grandiose statements framed on a wall. It’s giving people reason to show up, buy in and give their best to your organization.

Finally, there’s no such thing as a perfect leader. All leaders have some strengths and weaknesses. The key is to know yourself well enough to recognize how those affect your leadership.

These ideas form the foundation for the FIU Center for Leadership’s approach to training better leaders and it’s one that is winning accolades and growing enrollment from around the country. In just the past year, the Center was ranked #1 in the country, topping more than 300 educational institutions, including some of the county’s most elite, for the Leadership 500 Excellence Award. Among the key criteria in the selection was feedback from program alumni.

Closer to home, the Office of the Provost granted the center the prestigious status of university-wide center. With the new designation come opportunities for broader collaborations, expanded research and enhanced leadership capacity across disciplines. And, the center’s robust calendar of lectures and public events drew record attendance of more than 2,500 students, faculty, staff and community members. Among the high-profile guests they have hosted: Sushi Maki CEO Abe Ng, Harvard business professor and author Rosabeth Moss Kanter and the father of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman.

“We wanted to be number one in executive education and professional development programs and we achieved that last year,” said Director of Strategy and Implementation Mayra Beers, who has been with the Center since it was founded by FIU President Emeritus Modesto A. Maidique in 2006. Professor Nathan Hiller, professor in the College of Business, also serves as Academic Director for the Center.

“Our long-term goal is to become a resource center on leadership for the university, the community, the nation and even internationally,” Beers said. “We have something to offer that is practical and helps make better leaders.”

To date, more than 600 individuals have graduated from the Center’s various training programs for senior executives, women, principals, physicians, high-potential leaders and young executives. At the conclusion of each session, participants are asked to rank the programs on a scale of 1 to 5. On average, participants rank the programs a 4.8.  Read more from alumni of the Center for Leadership here.

Arnold Montgomery, the administrative director of the Office of Educational Equity, Access, and Diversity for Miami Dade County Public Schools, attended the Principals Leadership Development Program (PLDP). He was impressed that the center utilizes current research-based strategies for leadership development and pushed participants to examine the traits of their leadership style, as well as personal health and wellbeing in a holistic manner.

“The PLDP provided an opportunity to self-reflect, review, analyze, and self-critique what we do as leaders and this ignited a renewed impetus for personal improvement,” he said.

Related: What makes a good leader?

The Center’s approach to leadership training is built on a competency model developed by Professor Hiller and colleagues in 2006. The model has two pillars. First in order to be an effective leader, one must know thyself. Much of the center’s training focuses on self-examination.

“We help leaders understand themselves and try to tap the leadership qualities that are authentic to them,” Beers said.

The second pillar of the model is a set of skills and abilities related to effective leadership that can be learned.

“Some are more natural to people,” Hiller said. “But people can, through deliberate attention and practice of well validated techniques and principles, become more effective in their leadership roles. We can’t take people from 0 to 100 but we can take them from 50 to 60 or 70 to 82. And these small changes can have huge effects.”

The notion of vision in leadership, Hiller said, is a good example. Not everyone comes into theprogram with a clear idea of what vision is and how it is applied. The program clarifies that vision is not about charisma, but creating a narrative so that everyone in the organization has a shared framework for why their work matters and where they are headed.

The catch is a leader must believe in the vision or no one else will.

“We ask, ‘Are you doing this in ways that are authentic to you?’ This is not about you channeling the charisma of Martin Luther King Jr.,” Hiller said. “It’s hard. At the end of the session some of the participants have made progress but are still wrestling with it. That’s fine – leadership development is a journey. We’re just trying to accelerate it.”

The lesson on vision development turned out to be critically important for Solana Cozzo, senior business leader at MasterCard Worldwide Latin America and the Caribbean Prepaid Cards. When she did The Women Leaders Program, she was seven months pregnant and preparing her team to manage the business while she was on leave.

“It became clear how crucial it was for me to articulate a clear, simple strategy for my business that the team could easily embrace and take forward while I was away.” she said.

Guided by the Women’s Leadership Program, Cozzo did the work and says it has paid off. “I worked with them to articulate our vision and strategy and to this day, everyone on my team owns, understands and is inspired by what we are doing and where we are headed.”

The new Talent Development Network (TDN) will offer college students hundreds of newly created internships in key South Florida industries where highest job growth is predicted. TDN will educate both students and employers on best practices for leveraging and creating meaningful internships.  The program will also encourage students to stay and build their careers in South Florida through a specially designed civic engagement and leadership program that’s part of the internship.

In addition, K-12 and university educators are working with local business and industry leaders to align classroom curricula and training with the job skills students will need in the future.

TDN is the first major initiative of the Academic Leaders Council of “One Community One Goal,” a strategic plan to enhance economic development in South Florida. Led by the Beacon Council, South Florida’s economic development agency, One Community One Goal focuses on seven target industries and the educational system that supports economic prosperity. The Academic Leaders Council is an alliance of Miami’s six major higher education institutions, along with the public school system, in support of the strategic plan.

“We’ve grown up and so has Miami-Dade,” said FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg. “To further advance as a city of the future with a diverse economy, a global economy, it starts right here in the classroom.”

Surveys of South Florida’s industry and business sectors identified the need to better nurture Miami’s talented students so they are workforce ready. Simultaneously, One Community One Goal aims to strengthen the local economy so that Miami’s most talented young minds can build successful careers in South Florida and become the industry leaders of the future.

This spring, TDN will launch a free online portal that consolidates newly created paid internship opportunities at Miami’s top companies for students at FIU, Barry University, Florida Memorial University, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College, St. Thomas University and the University of Miami.

Described as Match.com meets Monster, the TDN website brings together students and job recruiters in one easy-to-use site. So far, American Airlines, Baptist Health South Florida, Dosal Tobacco Corporation and the Miami Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau have signed on as early supporters.

Students will be able to log in and peruse internship listings; however, in order to apply, the university’s career services office must first sign off on their profile.  At FIU, Career Services staff will review resumes and assist students with interview skills prior to their application. The Beacon Council has also established an agreement with CareerSource South Florida to assist students free-of-charge with resumes and interview skills. Students will have the option of visiting any of the CareerSource satellite offices in the region.

Also good news for students: Companies can list only paid internships in the Talent Development Network.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers 63 percent of paid interns received at least one job offer after graduation, while only 37 percent of unpaid interns got an offer. Overall, paid interns did significantly better than other job applicants: The median starting salary for new grads with paid internship experience is $51,930—far outdistancing their counterparts with an unpaid internship earning a median salary of $35,721.

“Students are getting access to a much bigger market,” said Steve Rojas Tallon, the TDN program lead who is coordinating the effort between all the institutions, overseeing the development of the online portal and heading the recruitment effort. “It’s all one in place. When you join forces you get that much greater and focused impact.”

The internships will be offered in the seven key industries of One Community One Goal:

• Hospitality and tourism
• Information technology
• Banking and finance,
• Life sciences and healthcare
• Trade and logistics
• Creative industries
• Aviation

To identify the target industries, the Beacon Council commissioned a study looking at local and national demand trends with the 600-plus occupations in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics database. The occupations within these industries are forecasted to have high rates of growth and to hire large numbers of workers in the future.

“We are creating talent pools for our industries and affording not just the large companies to have interns but the small and medium businesses that make up the bulk of Miami-Dade County business,” said Joe Hovancak, vice president of Strategic Planning & Market Development at The Beacon Council. “We are going to show the companies that recruit outside Miami that the talent is here.”

FIU educational leaders are already meeting with leaders of the seven industries to examine how degree programs can better prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow.

“Our approach is to be a solution center for the community,” said Rosenberg, who, along with the presidents of all six higher education institutions and the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, sits on the Academic Leaders Council. “We believe in these sectors of opportunity that have been identified by One Community One Goal…You will find significant FIU investments in these areas as a consequence of the direction highlighted by One Community One Goal.”

The buzz term being used within One Community One Goal is “educational ecosystem.” With widespread community buy-in, South Florida leaders are developing a network that unifies education — the K-12 public school system, the colleges and universities, various job-training programs — with industry and business to support economic development.

“It’s internships but it’s so much bigger than that,” said Nicole Kaufman, assistant vice president of FIU’s Office of Engagement, which has been integrally involved in the project. “We are coming around the table with an intentional strategy to prepare and retain our talent for the growth industries identified through One Community One Goal.”

Behind the scenes, a research analyst will be tracking the success of the Talent Development Network by looking at a number of measures including employer satisfaction with the interns, the numbers of students who have already started their careers before graduating and the numbers of students who receive a position where they interned.

This initiative will serve as national best practice for other communities seeking to align education and industry to promote economic prosperity, said Hovancak.

“This is really a game changer,” he said. “The champions of our industry who are leading the target industries for growth are partnering with the academic institutions and together they are creating the Talent Development Network. When we talk about this we get word like, ‘brilliant’ and ‘awesome’ and ‘This is just what we need.’ “

Ever since Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon almost 46 years ago, our knowledge of the universe has changed dramatically.

More than 1,000 planets have been discovered orbiting distant stars. Black holes are now known to be present at the center of most galaxies, including the Milky Way. Most of the universe’s matter is dark and invisible. 

Yet, the fundamental questions remain.

What is out there?
How big is the universe?
Are we alone? 

The excitement in these questions, and the fact they have gone unanswered for centuries, is what drives FIU’s astrophysicists. And now, for the first time in FIU’s history, these researchers have a permanent home on campus for observing beyond Earth’s sky. In 2013, FIU opened the Stocker AstroScience Center, a fully equipped, modern observatory and research center. In November of 2014, the AstroScience Center debuted a new 24-inch telescope, South Florida’s only research-grade telescope complete with accessories needed for research and teaching. 

The facility, whose construction has been a 20-year endeavor for physics professor James Webb, was made possible by a gift from retired educator Carl Stocker. The four-story building features classrooms and research labs, along with its signature silver dome housing the main telescope. To operate that telescope, as well as partner telescopes in New Mexico, Chile and the Canary Islands, the Stocker AstroScience Center features a control room that is inspired as much by Hollywood as NASA. Its design might remind fans of the bridge on the popular TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

It should come as no surprise that Webb is a fan of “Star Trek.” But that’s not where his fascination with space began. His passion is rooted in a childhood memory of seeing Saturn for the first time. Then, he was using a cheap telescope he bought at Kmart with money earned mowing lawns. Today, in addition to the international array of telescopes at his fingertips, the main viewer in Stocker is capable of observing the moon, asteroids, comets and, yes, Saturn.

“Unifier of people”
In a field where the areas of study are described with words like stellar and extragalactic, it’s easy to see why students such as Daniella Roberts have chosen this field of physics for their careers.

“We don’t know much about our universe and that inspires me to try and figure out how it all works,” said Roberts, a senior from Ecuador who studies telescopic images of quasars.

Walter Van Hamme, a physicist and associate director of FIU’s School of Integrated Science and Humanity, believes the unknown dimension of astronomy is a great unifier of people. Throughout humanity, people have looked up to the stars and wondered.

“Humans are fascinated by what they see in the night sky. Witness, for example, the many thriving amateur astronomy and star gazing clubs scattered around the world,” Van Hamme said. “Undoubtedly, this fascination is due to the innate need of humans to understand what the universe is, what the role we play in it is, where we come from and where we are going.”  

The FIU Astronomy Club is among the groups to which Van Hamme is referring. Hosting several “star parties” every semester, the club reaches an audience of students, faculty and community members who participate.

Tech advances
“With advances in technology come new and better tools for astronomers to observe the skies, leading to a steady stream of new and exciting discoveries,” Van Hamme said. “It is almost certain that some of these planets have life as we know it. The discovery of an Earth-like planet with signs of life is just a matter of time. I fully expect it to happen in our lifetime.”

Astronomers also play a role in global safety. The world was reminded of this in 2013 when Russia was struck by a meteor the same day that an asteroid made a record-close pass to Earth. The meteor caused a shockwave that injured more than 1,000 people. While the two astronomical events were not related, both generated worldwide media attention. That is why astronomers are trying to map anything they can detect that is moving within the solar system, according to physics professor Caroline Simpson.

“If we do track something that appears to have what is called an Earth-crossing orbit, it is considered a potentially hazardous asteroid or near-Earth object,” Simpson said.

All of FIU’s astronomers are as much explorers as they are scientists. Astronomy professor Fiorella Terenzi seeks the aesthetics of space, searching for distant sounds. She specializes in recording radio waves from far-away galaxies and turning them into music, making her one of the first astronomers in the world to study the sounds of space in an aesthetic context. For her, space is as much about its beauty as its mystery. 

But there’s still mystery in it. And that’s why astronomy has a new, permanent home at FIU.

Very Important Panther: Hiram Hernandez ’03

• Financial Adviser, Eagle Strategies LLC
• Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Finance, 2003
• Founding Member, FIU Young Alumni Council
• Lifetime Member, FIU Alumni Association

What is your fondest memory of FIU?
Definitely time spent in the Green Library. I would daydream while sitting on a sofa on the fifth-floor, near the windows that overlook Miami, and think about how much potential there was in the world and how I just had to take advantage of it. A lot of my life choices were made there, including to completely change gears and switch majors from computer science to finance. It’s also where I wrote love notes to my now-wife, back in the days before texting.

How did FIU prepare you for your career? Is there a class or professor that stood out?
The best preparation I received from FIU was learning to work with other personality styles. That is what I do every day now in working with my clients. You have to understand people and be sensitive to the reality that we are all very different but very similar at the same time.

What is the best advice you have ever received?
The best advice I have ever received came from a training I did in Dallas two years ago: Know the difference between your goals and your desires. Your goals are the things you can control with your hard work, persistency and tenacity and your desires are the things you cannot control. Once I understood that and really internalized it, my stress level went down significantly overnight! I focus my time an energy on my goals and I pray for my desires to happen!

You are involved with your alma mater, including recently participating in Panther Alumni Week (PAW)? Why make the time?
I volunteer my time because I am grateful for FIU and the doors that graduating from FIU has opened for me. I also believe that giving back is the best way to receive. PAW is a great opportunity to come back to campus and see the amazing growth FIU is going through, and it’s also great to share in the excitement current students have about the choice they made to come to FIU.

What is your proudest accomplishment?
My proudest accomplishment is when a family member, friend, colleague or client tells me that they are thankful I am a part of their life because they know they can count on me if they were ever in need. I was taught that if I was going to dedicate my time to anything, to give it 110% or not do it at all. I try to live that in everything I do.

How do you spend your time when you are not working? How do you decompress?
My two boys, both under the age of two, are my downtime. As a business owner, you never really decompress 100 percent, but spending time with my boys helps me forget about the real world for a little while and just focus on them. Children are the best blessing a family can have because they exemplify unconditional love, and that’s hard to find these days in a fast-moving, instant-gratification world.

The doctor gave her pain medication, but then she had a seizure that knocked her unconscious.

A spinal tap revealed she had Neuromyelitis Optica, an autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system and is particularly aggressive in young people.

After four months in the hospital, she began to regain her vision and some upper-body mobility, but she would be confined to a wheelchair the rest of her life.

Staggering medical bills threatened Peluchette’s dream of attending college, and she found herself nominated for the Miami Herald’s “Wish Book Project,” a section of the newpaper that runs in November and December and features members of the community in need of assistance.

Peluchette was already familiar with FIU, where she had taken a summer class on campus as part of a high school-based dual-enrollment program that earned her an associate’s degree from the university.

FIU’s Honors College immediately took an interest in the determined Peluchette and quickly set about coordinating a scholarship and housing for her in Everglades Hall.

“My first day in college, I don’t think my parents slept a wink,” Peluchette said. Soon however, their fears were allayed. “When I came to FIU, we just felt more at ease the second we got here. FIU is always very welcoming.”

Peluchette, who is now a sophomore studying finance, said everyone here from the janitors to the faculty is always willing to help her without her having to ask.

Peluchette is not the only “Wish Book” nominee in whom the Honors College has taken interest.

Dean Lesley Northup reads the Wish Book stories to scan for stories of high school students with great potential but also great need. When she sees one that appears a fit with the Honors College, her first reaction is “We can fix that.” With a little more research and conferring with staff, she finds out what is possible.

“Like FIU, we in Honors consider ourselves a solution center,” Northup said. “This works both ways: We can solve a problem for these special students, and by coming to Honors and FIU, they help us build a college of hard-working, motivated students.”

“And heck,” she said, “it’s just the right thing to do.”

Online access for the community do-gooder

Stephanie Flores, a freshman majoring in biology and education, appeared in a Wish Book story because she needed a computer and Internet access at home. The Honors College reached out to her last year, offering her a laptop and a grant to pay for Internet.

As a student at Southridge Senior High School, Flores spent her evenings, weekends and holidays in the school office using the computer to complete her class assignments because she didn’t have one at home.

Despite the pressure from her assignments, Flores managed to clock over 2,500 hours of community service through the Parent-Teacher Association, recruiting students for volunteer work. But being so involved in high school left Flores no extra time to get her license, so her dad now drives her to and from FIU everyday for class.

Since many of her assignments are on BlackBoard.com, the university’s online-campus platform, having Internet at home makes her family’s lives much easier.

“Now I don’t have to say so late at school, and I have easy access at home when I don’t have time to go to the university,” Flores said.

Flores, who is the first in her family to attend college, said the Honors College surprised her with its generosity.

“In the Honors College, I made some new friends,” Flores said. “It’s challenging, but it’s interesting.”

Scholarship for a robotics wiz
Even prospective FIU students, like Nathan Hagood, have benefitted from the Honors College’s outreach through Wish Book.

Hagood is a senior at North Miami Beach High School who hopes to study engineering and computer science at FIU in the fall.

He was one of the first students in the Miami-Dade County Public School District to be certified in LabVIEW, a system-design platform for programming, and he works with engineering and design programs like AutoCAD and Dream Weaver.

His love for engineering and robotics stemmed from an interest in gaming and programming in middle school.

In high school, he joined the high school robotics club and built robots for competition for three years before the program lost funding.

“Basically, I had a passion for it,” said Hagood, which is why he now spends his free time teaching younger students how to build robots using Legos.

The Honors College contacted Hagood last year after seeing his “Wish Book” article in the Miami Herald, offering him a scholarship and entrance to the Honors College, pending receipt of his ACT scores.

“I just couldn’t believe that one article in the Herald got him noticed like that,” said Hagood’s mother, Kathleen, 44. “I was ecstatic.”

How does Hagood feel about the prospect of entering FIU as a member of the Honors College?

“I always like a challenge,” he said.

More than 250 alumni in a variety of fields and industries spoke individually to classes and during panel sessions to drive home that what students learn day in and day out can have a direct translation to the work they will eventually do.

That message came through loud and clear during a visit by Gustavo Diaz ’00, MS ’05 to a graduate engineering management class. The pharmaceutical technology specialist spoke to more than 30 men and women enrolled in the Total Quality Management course.

“This is an opportunity not just to give back to the school but to stress how important this class really is in the grand scheme of things,” said Diaz, who himself took the same course more than a decade ago and says he still owns the textbook. “I’ve learned how applicable the class has been in my industry. You can literally make a career out of what you learn in this class.”

Diaz provides technical support for the manufacture of time-release medication at a South Florida plant owned by global pharmaceutical giant Actavis. With that location producing 2.8 billion capsules and tablets annually, Diaz explained, “It is critically important to stay focused everyday.”

Diaz’s daily responsibilities include safeguarding against and responding to potential problems including everything from equipment failures and power outages to potential mistakes in the precision weighing of raw pharmaceutical materials prior to production.  In addition, he works to prevent production-line errors that could send a product into the wrong packaging.

In class Diaz talked about how he regularly runs analyses to makes sure the company is meeting its manufacturing goals and maintaining standards.

“Always graph your data,” he stressed to the students when explaining how he helps keep efficiency and quality at their highest. Graphing the data—something he learned in the TQM class —gives him a clear visual as he works to make adjustments as needed, and he showed the students ways to get there.

To reinforce what they had already covered, Professor Karen Schmahl broke in during Diaz’s lecture to ask them, “Do you recognize this as what you just did today?”

Schmahl had met Diaz weeks earlier during a meeting of the American Society for Quality, of which the two are members, and seized the chance to invite him to speak.

“Bringing in an industry professional that has direct experience in a class subject can really motivate students,” she said. “We had just learned an analysis technique that he incorporated in his example. It let the students know where we are actually headed in learning to solve industry problems.”

Diaz earned an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from FIU and went straight into a quality assurance position at a local generic-drug manufacturer. His job was to review production supervisors’ written documentation and look for any irregularities that might indicate a departure from established processes. While he understood the critical importance of his job with regard to customer safety, Diaz says, he often found the work tedious and monotonous. To keep things interesting, he took advantage of the opportunity to learn whatever he could and within a year broke into the companies Technical Services Department.

“I was fresh in the industry. I was hungry,” Diaz recalls. And so he started reading about statistical analysis as a way to grasp and deal with problems in various manufacturing environments, something he had learned about at FIU—in this very class—but that pharma had yet to fully embrace.

Soon he started asking around at work, “Why aren’t we applying these concepts? We have a new way of looking at data.” Eventually his boss recognized that Diaz was onto something and that the “reams and reams” of data sitting unused should be put to work.

Within two years, Diaz took a job as a quality engineer at Actavis, which insisted that he complete Six Sigma Black Belt training—a program that teaches participants to master a set of techniques and tools for process improvement—and paid for his return to FIU for a master’s.

Diaz says the value of his graduate degree was in preparing him to do critical analysis and to deal with issues and concerns that arise.

“More than anything, it’s the way that I think,” he says of what his company wants from him. “I think [the degree] prepared me in that I provided a fresh perspective. I might be able to see things or ask questions that other people working there for years didn’t ask.

“The best is being able to fix problems. That’s really what engineering is all about.”

Student Sashidhar Chintalapati, a mechanical engineer from India, appreciated Diaz’s words. Hearing that the Total Quality Management course alone could provide the basis for a career inspired Chintalapati, currently in the first semester of the master’s program.

“I learned we can get a job out of what we experience [here],” he said enthusiastically. “I have a pretty good future.”

Thousands of people around the world are tuning in to listen to the fearless journey of two FIU undergraduates who spoke at TEDxFIU 2014. The TEDx talks of Dion Von Moltke and Karla Gutierrez on the official YouTube channel have captured nearly 10,000 views in just a few short months.

Von Moltke is a business major and professional racecar driver. In his talk, “What does it take to be a racecar driver,” he shared the challenges, setbacks and triumphs he’s faced making it in the highly competitive world of professional racing. His appearance at FIU has even made its way into the national media. In an interview with Wheels, an online magazine, he described the experience of being involved in TEDxFIU.

“It was a great experience; I learned a lot, and met a lot of great people,” he told the magazine. “I really enjoyed it, and I hope someone gets inspiration from it,” Von Moltke said. “The other speakers were such amazing people, I kind of felt like ‘what am I doing here?’”

In her TEDxFIU talk, “Finding my inner song,” Gutierrez shared her very personal journey of giving up financial stability to pursue her dream of being a musician. She was the sole performer at TEDXFIU and left the audience breathless with her songs.

In an interview with the newsletter of her college, CARTA, Gutierrez said she hopes her TEDxFIU talk will inspire others. “I like Ted Talks because I feel connected to the idea of sharing stories that would encourage others to focus on the joy and continuous discovery of life, accepting challenges and overcoming fears.”

If you didn’t make it to TEDxFIU 2014, check out their talks below. And if you are interested in applying to be a speaker, applications are now open. This year’s theme is Always Forward and the deadline is March 27. The application can be found at Tedxfiu.com.

Miami native Francesca Menes ’08, MPA ’13 knows something about getting the job done. The policy and advocacy coordinator for Florida Immigrant Coalition, an alliance of more than 50 immigrant-rights organizations, she has quickly learned to navigate the political world in support of those who are often on the lowest rung of society. With undergraduate degrees in political science and women’s studies and a master’s in public administration, all from FIU, she holds appointments on Miami-Dade County’s Community Action Agency Board and Commission for Women, and she serves as a vice president for the Miami-Dade Young Democrats. In November, the Miami Herald named Menes, 29, one of “20 under 40 Emerging Leaders in South Florida.”

What motivates you to work on behalf of some of Florida’s least enfranchised individuals and families?
I’m a child of immigrants. My parents came from Haiti. I was raised to be proud of my cultural heritage. I am thankful to work in a space that allows me to contribute to the rich and vibrant community of immigrants in South Florida and the state. I am humbled to be a part of this movement.

What would you like everyone to know about the people that you advocate for?
I would say they are the strongest people I have ever met. In some cases, they risked their lives to get here by boarding rickety boats and ships or crossing the desert. They leave their home countries to seek a better life for themselves and their families. They are beautiful and inspiring.

Immigration is such a hot-button topic. What do you say to those who don’t wish to extend a hand to these new arrivals?
I remind them that our nation has been, and continues to be, built on the backs of immigrants, whether they came here voluntarily, by force through slavery or undocumented. Some had no choice but to come because of the harsh treatment and social and economic conditions they were experiencing in their homelands. We must find ways to accept them into our culture and our communities.

And what do you say to those you are trying to help?
I tell them, “I am here to provide you with the tools to make you feel comfortable so that I don’t have to be your voice. I am your support so that you can share your own story.”

What prepared you for the work you are doing?
I’m very thankful to FIU for the experiences that shaped who I am today. As a student I was a member of the political science and women’s studies honor societies. I was active in Voices for Change, which is the Planned Parenthood action group at FIU, and in the FIU chapter of NOW. I also twice visited Washington D.C., once for a conference of women student leaders at Georgetown University and the other for a career-exploration trip.

I should also mention the impact of one of my favorite courses at FIU, “Social Movements, Gender, Justice.” We had the leaders of social organizations coming to our class almost every week. They emphasized that one cannot look at issues just through a political lens but that we need to understand the human aspect of legislation.

You recently came to campus as part of Panther Alumni Week to speak with students in the classroom. What advice did you give?
Take the time to figure out what you want to do with your life. Take advantage of all FIU has to offer. Get involved and be active, not only on campus but off campus as well. Learning about the surrounding communities helps you grow and contributes clarity to the journey ahead.

Nadia Farrugia graduated from high school in England in 2011 and faced a dilemma.

She grew up swimming, but because of a lack collegiate athletics in most of the world – including England – the majority of international student-athletes have to choose either to attend a university or go into full-time training for their respective sport.

But for some, there is a third option – one that thousands have decided to take: come to America and become a student-athlete.

The United States is the only country in the world where scholarships are offered to student-athletes, making it an attractive alternative for international student-athletes looking to pursue a degree and compete in athletics at the same time. 

Farrugia decided to cross the pond and do just that.

A WORTHWHILE RISK
When FIU swimming and diving Head Coach Randy Horner arrived at FIU in 2010, he had a plan.

While many of the country’s major programs swipe up the nation’s top homegrown talent, Horner decided to widen his recruiting circles and look beyond borders for talent.

There were just four international student-athletes on the roster when Horner first arrived. Five years later, that number has risen to 18, and they now make up the majority of the 31-member roster.

A total of 11 countries across four different continents are represented among the group, including Canada, Bolivia, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Botswana, Italy, Slovakia, South Africa and Poland.

“We prosper by that approach,” Horner says. “Major programs may pass on certain athletes, but we take more of a gamble. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s a gamble we have to take.”

And that gamble has paid off.

After going undefeated in dual meets during the 2014-2015 season, the Panthers were crowned the 2015 Conference USA champions on Feb. 21 after the winning eight titles and breaking 11 school records over the course of the conference’s four-day championship meet in Knoxville, Tenn.

Horner was rewarded with Conference USA Coach of the Year honors for leading the program to its first ever conference title since its inception in 2003. 

And a quick glance through the swimming and diving program’s record books demonstrates how significant a role the team’s international student-athletes have played in the team’s recent success.

As of March 2015, nearly every single individual record in the program’s history belongs to a student-athlete from outside the U.S. and many of those records were established in the five years of Horner’s coaching tenure.

Johanna Gustafsdottir, a senior from Iceland and the 2014-2015 Conference USA Swimmer of the Year, is one of the names that you’ll find scattered all over the record books, holding the most individual records (four) and a part of two relay team records.

And Horner has managed to recruit all these international student-athletes without ever stepping foot outside of the United States. His work is all done through websites, Skype calls, emails and phone conversations. It’s all his budget allows for, and yet he gets the job done.

Having grown up in a small rural farm town in Missouri, Horner says that coaching international student-athletes has open his eyes to a wide range of different cultures and provided him with valuable experiences. 

“I couldn’t tell you where half these countries were back then. There wasn’t even a Chinese restaurant where I grew up,” he says. “Now I’ve coached kids from all over the world, and you learn so much from them. I hope to one day travel to some of these countries myself.”

BUMPS ALONG THE WAY
The concept of teamwork and collaboration is embedded into American sports culture and collegiate athletics, and Horner stresses the importance of the team concept to his new players from the very beginning.

“From day one, all we walk about is the team. If you put yourself above the team, there isn’t a place for you on the team,” Horner says.

But in a sport like swimming and diving, which is naturally individualized, it is harder for some of the international student-athletes to accept – let alone embrace – the team philosophy.

“In Spain, I swam for me and not for anyone else,” said Sonia Perez. “All the team activities we would do were hard at first and overwhelming.”

Add to the mix that cultural differences, language barriers and personal preferences amongst a diverse group of international student-athletes can sometimes cause friction and conflict. Even the thermostats in dorm rooms could cause problems among roommates.

“They’re roommates on campus and one person might be freezing at 70 degrees and another is cooking if it’s 68,” Horner says recalling issues amongst his swimmers. “There is conflict, but in a family there is conflict. It’s about learning to work though those things and resolving those conflicts.”

And in the end, many of them – including Perez – did overcome those challenges to become wildly successful at FIU by leaning on each other and encouraging one another to press forward.

“There are hard moments when you feel like you’re alone, but you see all these people feeling the same and you know you’re not,” Perez says. “It feels like you have a second family.”

Perez recalls how in her senior year, competing in the Missouri Invite, having teammates cheer her on helped her achieve a program and Conference USA record in the 400-yard individual medley that secured her a spot in the NCAA Championships the following March. 

“It was a great moment because of the team,” says Perez, who became the first swimmer in program history to compete in an NCAA championship final. “I really saw that they were there for me, they cared for me and gave me the energy to make that cut. And I wanted to do the same for them.”

FUTURE AMBITIONS
When Gustafsdottir watched her sister, Eygló, swim for Iceland in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, it sparked something inside her. A member of the Icelandic National Team herself, Gustafsdottir has set her sights on competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

“When I watched my sister compete, I knew that’s what I wanted to do and I can’t quit without reaching that point,” Gustafsdottir says.

If she qualifies, she might see some of her current FIU teammates there in Brazil.

According to Horner, junior swimmer Karin Tomeckova (Slovakia) and freshman Naomi Ruele (Botswana) also have a chance to compete for their respective countries in 2016.

In the Slovak Championships in 2011, Tomeckova won the 200-meter backstroke while finishing runner-up in the 50-meter and 100-meter backstroke. Ruele has emerged as a swimming sensation in Botswana, winning a silver medal in the 2^nd annual African Youth Games in May 2014.

Former Panther Trudi Maree is the only FIU swimmer who has competed in an Olympics, representing South Africa in 2012.

Meanwhile, Farrugia and Perez, have plans beyond the pool.

Farrugia, who is majoring in dietetics, plans on pursuing her master’s degree and eventually becoming a sports nutritionist for a college athletic program in the U.S.

Perez graduated in December 2014 with a degree in hospitality and wants to work in the U.S. for a few years to gain some experience before returning to Spain. Her dream job is to become a wedding planner.

Regardless of their future ambitions, they each have little regrets about leaving their home countries to come to FIU, and they believe they have set the foundation for something special in the years to come.

“We feel the team has come so far and I want to see it keep growing and see FIU make a name for itself,” Farrugia says. “I want to come back in 10 years and see how great this team is.” 

Patrick “Chip” Cassidy ’75, a professor in the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, received the 2014 FIU President’s Council Worlds Ahead Award.


1980s

Joseph Haj ’84 received the 2014 Zelda Fichandler Award, which recognizes an outstanding director or choreographer who is transforming the regional arts landscape, from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Michelle Otero Valdes ’89 recently spoke at the Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute in New Orleans on “International Conventions and their Applicability in U.S. Maritime Cases.”


1990s

Charles A. Garavaglia MA ’91 was elected chairman of the City of Miami’s planning, zoning and appeals board.

Evelyn Pacino Sanguinetti ’93 ran on the Republican ticket in November and was elected lieutenant governor of Illinois. The Hialeah-raised daughter of Cuban and Ecuadorian parents majored in piano performance at FIU before going on to law school and positions as an assistant district attorney and a councilwoman in the Chicago suburb where she currently lives with her husband and three children.

Elena M. Dieppa ’94 recently sold a portion of her company, Clear Sky Property Management, and joined Boutique Hospitality Management, which manages properties in Miami, Atlanta and Panama. She is currently engaged and will marry Alexander Puga on Feb. 5, 2015.

Eugene Butler Jr. MA ‘95 was recently promoted from interim executive director for Exceptional Education and director for Middle Schools to the assistant superintendent for Student Services in the Tucson Unified School District in Tucson, Ariz.

Ana Maria Rodriguez ’99 was recently re-elected to the City of Doral Council for a second four-year term.


2000s

Chi Ali ’00 and Veronica Trujillo were married July 19, 2014, in Galveston, Texas, and later celebrated in the Caribbean.

Richard LaBarbera ’02 and Jillian Mayer’07 received the 2014 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship.

Roxanne Molina ’00, MA ’06, Ph.D. ’12 was recently recognized as an Emerging Leader by PDK International, a global association of education professionals.

Catherine Poindujour ’05 was recently awarded an educational specialist degree in school psychology from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Carolina Sarassa ’05 is a three-time Emmy award- and a four-time National Gabriel award-winning news anchor and correspondent for MundoFOX National Network News in Los Angeles. Prior to joining that organization, she was the anchor and producer for Univision’s KINC in Las Vegas and a correspondent for the news-magazine show Primer Impacto and, before that, anchored and reported for Univision KORO in Texas. Sarassa has served on the board of governors for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is currently a board member for the LA Press Club.

Adding to her list of accomplishments, Sarassa in April will see the publication of “Dancing on her Grave,” the true story of the brutal murder of a college-educated Las Vegas showgirl, a crime that shocked and riveted the public. Sarassa co-authored the book, which recounts the months of investigation that led to the apprehension of a suspect and his subsequent trial and life imprisonment.

Randy Mora ’06 was recently appointed Town Attorney for Kenneth City in Pinellas County, Fla.

Fabienne Kellerhals-Perez ’07 and Armando Perez welcomed their first daughter, Camilla Julia, on March 8, 2014.

Jacklyn Meyer ’08, MS ’10, and Arthur “AJ” Meyer ’09, MS ’11, welcomed their little Panther, son Greyson Parker Meyer, on Nov. 6, 2014.

Esther Colombo-Cruz MA ’08 recently showcased several of her paintings in an exhibition at the Museo Rosa Galisteo in Sante Fe, Argentina. President Rosenberg has also selected her artwork for display in the Reagan Presidential House beginning in November.


2010s

Sarah Bartels ’10 is currently working as a producer and casting director for a short film called Two Secrets. This is her first major film project since graduating from FIU.

Jenise Fernandez ’10 recently accepted a reporter position as a member of the local Channel 10 (WPLG) news team. Her previous experience includes working as an assignment reporter for KATC-TV 3 in Lafayette, La., and WEAR-TV in Pensacola, Fla.

Christi Fraga ’10 is the current vice mayor of Doral and youngest councilwoman in the city’s history. She was also recently appointed to the 2014-2015 Miami-Dade County League of Cities Board of Directors where she will focus on efficient government administration across municipalities.

Brian Ortiz ’11 was recently awarded the Ring of Honor from Pepsi, the company’s highest award for employee recognition.

Jose Pagliery ’11, a technology writer for CCNMoney, published his first book, Bitcoin and the Future of Money, about the currency’s mysterious beginnings, its dark side and its economic impact.

Rachel Fernandez ’12 and Emilio A. Urgell ’11were married on Dec. 7, 2013, at the Coconut Palm Inn in Tavernier, Fla.

Mary Larsen ’12 showcased her paintings in two recent Miami-based art exhibitions: “Short Story” and “11 / 11 – Eleven Artists on the Eleventh Month.”

Carmen Ferrer MIA ’14 has been accepted into the boating and nautical design doctoral degree program at the University of Genoa in Italy. 

“This is a situation that I happen to have a tremendous amount of knowledge about and experience with,” she explains, “and it’s impossible, if I’m asked, for me to say, ‘no.’”

What drives Marty is a commitment that comes from deep within. Born in Cuba and raised in the United States since the age of 4, she credits her grandfather as a powerful influence.

“He said it so many times, what a generous country this was and how we owed them a debt,” Marty remembers. “And I felt the weight of that.”

And so she enlisted after medical school and embarked on a career that would lead to specializations in infectious diseases, disaster medicine and the science, medical response and policy related to weapons of mass destruction. Her unique trajectory began with her studying some of the most loathsome diseases known to man, starting with the oldest: leprosy.

An uncommon education

“Who wants to go work with a disease that is that disfiguring?” Marty, 57, recalls asking herself while stationed at the former Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. “I was scared. It’s contagious.”

Still, she took the assignment, inspired largely by the man who would become an early mentor.

“It was his humanity. It was his own willingness to sacrifice himself,” Marty says of renowned microbiologist Dr. Wayne Meyers’ profound influence upon her. “He led by example.”

Meyers, 90, doesn’t recall any squeamishness on Marty’s part. But he does remember a hard-working young physician who joined him on trips to leper colonies, helped him hunt down African monkeys with non-lethal darts so as to test them as possible carriers and co-wrote scientific papers with him.

“It did not surprise me,” he says of his one-time protégé’s successful efforts in the Ebola battle. “Typical of Aileen Marty.”

Her education under Meyers was followed by another fascinating chapter. In the mid-1990s, Marty was called to the State Department. “The Soviet Union had broken down, and some of their defectors had been debriefed,” she recalls. “We learned how they had been manipulating small pox and plague to make them more dangerous.”

Later she would hear of other countries’ deployments of biological agents such as anthrax and viral hemorrhagic fevers. “I wound up with top-secret clearances and learned of unbelievably nasty ideas that people had accomplished all over the place,” she says. “And among those very, very frightening diseases was Ebola.”

On the ground in West Africa

The WHO has several times called upon Marty to take assignments around the world, and in August she began a month-long stay in Nigeria, then-little affected by Ebola but very near the line of fire.

The outbreak—naturally occurring and not the product of terrorism—was first reported in March of 2014. It has resulted in the infections of more than 20,700 people in West Africa and, as of early January, more than 8,200 known deaths, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

In Nigeria Marty worked daily from dawn until almost midnight in challenging conditions to train screeners, doctors, nurses and others to recognize potentially infected persons entering the country via airport, seaport or border crossing. She also developed processes and secured needed equipment and resources. That work has paid off. As of early January, Nigeria remained Ebola-free. But the epidemic still rages, and ending it remains a worldwide concern. The WHO estimates that $1 billion will be spent before the contagion is eradicated.

A potential game-changer

Upon Marty’s return home in the fall, media flocked to hear her story. In one interview, she happened to mention the lack of precaution surrounding her re-entry into the United States: The very types of questions she had taught screeners in Nigeria to ask of incoming visitors were never put to her by customs or other officials. “Nobody had asked, nobody had cared,” Marty recalls.

Within days, Marty’s comment loomed prescient. A Liberian national who had worked with Ebola patients entered the United States via Washington, D.C., before continuing on to Texas. Following the disease’s typical 21-day incubation period, the man became sick and sought treatment. He eventually died but not before two nurses who cared for him in Dallas had contracted the illness.

Unworried for herself but nonetheless taking responsibility for her health, Marty had been monitoring her vital signs with a fitness bracelet, the kind that records body temperature and pulse and is available at sporting goods stores. A fever would indicate a potential problem, although that information alone is not enough to prove Ebola.

And then it occurred to her: Why don’t we use such monitors on Ebola patients in the wards? Why not slap a bracelet, complete with GPS capability, on those who have been in high-risk contact with infected individuals but show no symptoms (and, therefore, are not contagious) and follow them electronically?

Already 700 health care workers have contracted the disease in West Africa, where treating patients is expensive and cumbersome. The gear workers don includes an average of $100 of protective wear, such as a coverall suit and gloves, that must be discarded after a maximum-two-hour use. And the gear’s bulkiness—which impedes health care workers’ hearing, vision and manual dexterity—does not allow for a patient-centered experience.

Suddenly, Marty had a 21st-century solution to bring to the table. Existing technology—in the form of a $120 fitness bracelet—could provide myriad benefits: “We will get better information on the patients, more accurate data with less risk to health care workers, which leads to better management of the patients and better survival of everybody.”

Marty introduced her idea in a CNN online op-ed and soon was contacted by an organization interested in running a pilot program. That trial launched in January with 100 patients at a treatment center in Sierra Leone. Each was outfitted with an electronic bracelet that records body temperature, oxygen saturation and other vitals. Via a free app and Internet connected specifically for the project, the staff keeps track of patients’ data. Those with “bad” numbers can be identified for additional interventions while the others continue with prescribed treatments without the burden of examination.

A humanitarian to the core

In January Marty flew back to Africa, this time to Equatorial Guinea, a country free from the virus (not to be confused with Guinea, one of the worst hit). There she again led screening efforts, this time in anticipation of the Africa Cup of Nations, a soccer tournament typically attended by thousands.

And already she is planning to tread again where many rightly fear. As early as March Marty hopes to return, this time to observe the pilot program in Sierra Leone. Her tirelessness remains but a reflection of who she is. 

“I think it’s really important to make sure that we do things that make a difference,” she says, “that we can feel at the end of the day, or even at the end of our lives, that we’ve made a real difference.”

Take a look at an aerial image from South Beach to the Everglades and consider the terrain. Notice the shades of gray, orange and blue of the roads, roofs and lakes. Attempting to find patches of undeveloped land in this city can be a daunting task. In fact, less than 3 percent of Miami’s native pine rockland habitat still remains. But within this chaotic tapestry of concrete and palms that we call home, the FIU Nature Preservestands out like an emerald in the sand.

More than 6,000 years old, the 16-acre preserve at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus has never been more alive. Boasting about 10,000 visitors a year, it is home to more than 450 plant and animal species, including many that are endangered. It serves as a living laboratory for more than 25 different FIU courses, as well as an outdoor classroom/park for local schoolchildren and residents. In a relatively small space, the preserve contains three distinct ecosystems – tropical hardwood hammocks, freshwater wetlands and one of the most endangered habitats in the world, the pine rocklands.

As rare and valuable as these ecosystems are, if they are not functional and accessible, their true value is lost. For many years the future of this urban oasis was uncertain, but a recent revival effort, initiated in 2010, has solidified the preserve’s place on an already-dense university campus.

“Pre-2010 – when there were narrow trails, no lighting, no signage and no staff – this was a pretty scary place to be. People didn’t like coming out here because it was not safe,” says program coordinator for the Office of University Sustainability Ryan Vogel ’12, ’14, who has championed the revitalization of the preserve for the last four years as its official caretaker.

In 1978, professor John Parker, along with other faculty members, founded the FIU Nature Preserve with the idea that if this small piece of land was left untouched, it would eventually develop into a thriving ecosystem for plants, wildlife and, most importantly, students. For more than 30 years, Parker and other volunteers protected the valuable land from development. Yet during that time, the Nature Preserve was more an unrealized vision than valued space. Relying only on student volunteers to maintain it proved insufficient, and eventually the preserve developed its share of problems: stray dogs, garbage, overgrown trails,  invasive exotic species and the occasional homeless resident.

With every new building constructed at FIU, the preserve seemed to move closer to the center of MMC. As the campus grew around it, the preserve seemed doomed for development. Much like the rest of Miami, land at FIU is a scarce commodity. The urban forest could no longer be ignored. A case for protecting it had to be made. To many, it was obvious that the busier university life became, the more the community needed just what the Nature Preserve has to offer.

“Preserving natural spaces is like preserving art,”said art Professor Gretchen Scharnagl, who has been using the preserve to inspire student artwork for many years. Her students have spent countless hours under its canopy with pencil and sketchbook in hand, tapping into an endless source of creative inspiration. .

“It is often hard to justify with dollar values,” she said, “but I would argue the dollar value is priceless.”

In 2010, Vogel, along with faculty, staff and more than 2,500 student volunteers, began bringing renewed purpose to the preserve. The process of clearing out invasive species and garbage, relocating stray dogs and setting up proper signage took four years of manual labor and smart spending during an era of statewide budget cuts.

Professor Joel Heinen of the Department of Earth and Environment has served as faculty advisor for the preserve since 2005 and raised $100,000 for an endowment through the support of the Martin Foundation, from FIU faculty and staff who contributed to the Ignite campaign and through annual benefit concerts. In addition Vogel created the FIU Urban Forestry Internship Program through support from the Florida Forest Service, the FIU Department of Biological Sciences and the FIU Department of Earth and Environment. Paid interns made the revitalization possible. Soon a once-hidden lake at the north end was revealed to the public, and today it has become a popular backdrop for the hosting of martial arts and yoga classes. Heinen says, “For all those years many people worked very hard at it without an overall plan. It’s difficult to get things done when relying only on volunteers. But now that all of that has been done, I think it’s very, very good.”

Perhaps the most significant addition to the preserve is the half-mile jogging path and exercise equipment that now border it. The popular workout circuit was created with leftover construction funds from the preserve’s newest next-door neighbor, Parkview Student Housing.

From the outset of the massive construction project that became Parkview, Director for Facilities Planning Jim Wassenaar understood the danger of building so close to the preserve.

“When the president selected the building site for Parkview, it created some concern as to how the two would coexist,” Wassenaar says. “The reality is, the preserve has become a part of the university fabric. We see joggers out there day and night. We see people engaged with this space in a way that we had always dreamed of. ”

In its new role, the preserve is more accessible than ever to the local community. It has become a training facility for many university sports teams and local high school track teams, as well as hosted environmental education workshops, concerts, yoga and martial arts classes and even several 5k runs.

Ian Wogan ’10 practiced yoga in the preserve as a student. “It’s much better than doing yoga in a classroom. The fresh air, the trees – it really is nice to have all this on an urban campus.” Since graduating, Wogan has been able to give back to the preserve, donating time to clear paths and trim trees through his landscaping company, True Tree Service.

Connie Amram, a staff member in the Division of External Relations, makes use of the preserve’s walking trail several nights a week. “I love walking out from my office at the end of the day and getting some exercise around the perimeter. The rubber walking trail is great on my knees, and it feels safe to walk at night with all of the additional lighting.”

Today, the FIU Nature Preserve’s beauty doesn’t just come from the lush vegetation and musical wildlife, it comes from its functionality and accessibility. No longer is it only a place to study or admire from afar but a place for the community to enjoy and utilize daily.   ♦