Best of Florida Schools 2004
General Categories—Page 10

Best Summer Camp System
FC’s Happy Campers
How long can a kid sit in front of the TV playing X-Box for a summer or watching re-runs of his favorite cartoons? At Florida College’s summer camp program, kids have a blast without being glued to the tube.

FC hosted the first decade of its summer camp for children right on The Temple Terrace campus. However, for the last 14 years, the main summer camp has been in Fruitland Park. The small camp system that first started in the 1960s for children of all ages has now expanded to 23 camps throughout the nation. There’s a two-fold emphasis of spiritual growth and fun while hopefully recruiting kids for FC. “We want kids to go to the summer camp and say ‘Boy, that’s the college I want to go to,’” says Ralph Walker, director of alumni and public relations.

Students interested in volunteering apply for a counselor “camp friend” position. Twenty-five applicants are then chosen each year to travel to one of 19 states throughout the country to work with eight-to-18-year-old campers. Camps span the country from California to Minnesota. “The student volunteers enjoy traveling to new states and meeting these kids,” says Matt Qualls, director of admissions. “They cultivate a relationship with the campers.”

These one-week overnight camps consist of daily Bible devotion, talents shows, horseback riding, high ropes courses, wall climbing, and theme park trips. The activities vary from camp to camp because of the location and climate, but each camp’s main objective is to recruit for FC. Nearly 70 percent of current FC students have attended at least one of the school’s camps at some point in their lives.

“It is obvious that the camp system is successful in recruiting students to the school,” Walker says. “It’s the single most effective recruitment effort we have.” —OB

Contact Walker at walkerr@floridacollege.edu.

Best Mascot
The Stu-minator
When the young owner of four baby turtles accidentally dropped them into a sewer, they unknowingly wandered into strange ooze, turning them into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Young Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, giving him the “spider sense” and stickiness to become Spiderman. Donald Desormoux used his powers to create St. Thomas University’s own mascot—Stu the Bobcat. He can bring a smile to a child’s face or excite wavering fans in a nanosecond.

Desormoux, a STU senior, thought the university lacked school spirit. He decided to cure this by creating a school mascot—a character students could look to for a blast of energy and charisma. Thus, Stu the Bobcat was born.

Stu commits himself to a lot of community service and collects no fees from charity events. The dancing bobcat donated his time to N’Sync’s “Challenge for the Children.” Stu also signed up to play in “The Legends Game,” benefiting the Joe DiMaggio Hospital.

“I love seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces because it really makes people happy,” Desormoux says, ”That’s the best reward I could receive.”

Just as Kryptonite weakens Superman, Stu could lose his powers because of poor communication. To avoid this, he set up a web site to help with his weekly schedule. Professors and clubs constantly beg Stu to attend their open houses or orientations. The bobcat comes out to shake hands, perform a dance routine, and take pictures with fans.

Desormoux is graduating in May, but not to worry Stu the Bobcat fans! The original Stu plans to pass on all of his secret super powers to the student he’s training to replace him. —JT

Contact Desormoux at lcourtle@stu.edu or http://www.stu.edu/low/mascot.asp.

Best Cyberspace Experience
Computaschool
More than 3,000 Saint Leo University students never attend class. But they still graduate, many of them with honors. What’s the trick? They’re enrolled in the Center for On-line Learning, the university’s internet-based degree program. Through the center, classroom attendance is never required, students set their own schedules, and they “attend class” anytime, anywhere they have access to a computer with an internet connection.

Through the Center for On-line Learning, Saint Leo provides degree programs that reach students in more than 33 countries. Most on-line students work full time and face the daily challenge of balancing work and family while trying to complete their degree.

The degree requirements and course curriculum are the same as all other Saint Leo courses taught in the traditional classroom setting. Although students never see their professors or classmates, they participate through chat rooms, discussion questions, and e-mail.

 "Saint Leo's on-line programs offer a rigorous curriculum that’s delivered through highly qualified educators that not only prepare focused students for graduate school, but ensure that they posses the skills required by today's demanding employers,” says Derek Sedlack, a program alumnus. “The flexible
schedules and high-tech web interfaces are instrumental in allowing working adults to manage professional and scholastic endeavors."

Beyond those routes of communication, students also interact with one another through a newly defined on-line student activities program called iRoar (Involvement through Redefined On-line Activities and Resources). iRoar gives on-line students, faculty, and staff access to various academic and professional resources, personalized calendars, message boards, chat rooms, activities, and a centralized information hub. Many students form lasting friendships with their virtual classmates, and several have journeyed to the University Campus to participate in the commencement exercises, their first face-to-face meeting with their professors and peers. —JC

Contact Assistant Director of Public Relations Jacqui Cash at jacqui.cash@saintleo.edu.

Best Alternative Collegiate Sport
Thumb to Thumb Combat
The Student Government at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale recently developed a new workout program for their students that combines endurance, mental strength, quickness, and a little bit of luck. And these students have thumbs of steel to show for it from competing in the quarterly video game tournaments hosted in the student center since summer 2003. “It was in big demand from the students,” says Dan Figueroa, SG vice president. “So we just decided to answer them.”

Using money from their budget, SG officers elected to buy one Microsoft Xbox and one Nintendo GameCube system. The four tournaments so far have featured the games Fuzion Frenzy, Dead or Alive 3, Soul Calibur II, and Super Smash Brothers Melee.

Weeks before the tournament, posted sign-up sheets fill up within days. Then, 32 participants are randomly placed in single elimination brackets. In anticipation of the big day, gamers spend countless hours lounging on the couches and chairs in the student center perfecting their skills and honing their strategies. “You can’t pry the controllers out of their hands,” says Joel Nemes, director of student and alumni relations.

In addition to the actual gamers, the day of the tournament normally draws a crowd of 30 to 50 eager spectators. Everyone has a close-up view of the action because the games are played on a 7-by-8 foot projection screen. As players are eliminated and the competition boils down to two finalists, the room teems with tension and excitement, Nemes says. “The crowd is divided into two cheering sections,” he says. “When one person wins, everyone starts yelling and high-fiving—it’s really crazy.” In the past, prizes have included video game action figures and video game gift certificates.

One of the most memorable tournaments took place when a girl walked in at the last minute and decided to take an empty spot on the bracket. “She actually won the whole thing,” Nemes says. “Here you have all these guys who have been practicing for weeks, and she walks in cold and wins it.” —CG

Contact Figueroa at figfami@bellsouth.net or Nemes at nemesj@aii.edu.

Best New Sports Team
Tending Their Goals
In the summer of 2002, more than a billion people sat glued to their TVs, watching the World Cup soccer tournament live from Korea and Japan. Nigerians threatened to riot if power outages interrupted their team’s coverage; Arab and Jewish neighbors put their differences aside to watch games together…and most Americans slept soundly during all tournament broadcasts.

While the United States has been slow to embrace the world’s favorite pastime, soccer is slowly gaining popularity here, particularly among kids. As they grow up and hope to continue playing, new teams such as Polk Community College’s Lady Viking Soccer Team are born.

The Lady Vikings kicked off their first season last fall, playing against local four-year colleges with long-standing programs. The team overcame late scheduling and recruiting, injuries to key players, and limited funding to finish with a record of one win, five losses, and two ties. With three of those losses decided by only one goal, the players learned a lot this season and expect to improve next year.

The team’s strongest point was their defense, which should be a force to reckon with in the future. “Offense wins games, but defense wins championships, so I started with defense,” says Coach Bill Read. “Our keeper was, in my opinion, the best in the state, and she saved our team several times.”

Read approached PCC’s president last year about starting a women’s soccer program. “We discussed that many young ladies were being left out of the system due to too few places to play and advance their education,” he says. About six months later, the athletic director gave Read the go-ahead to start a team and asked him to be its coach. Read, who played soccer at the University of Central Florida and in Ecuador, started his recruitment at home by convincing his daughter—a high school all-county player—to join the team. “It’ll take a little time to get some tradition and establish a program, but if I can convince enough quality players to stay home and play for PCC, we’ll be successful,” Read says.

Next year, the Lady Vikings plan to lace up their soccer cleats at the regional tournament and to play a tougher schedule, including some out-of-state community colleges. While they hope to win more games, it’s not the team’s sole focus. “My philosophy is simple: I want these ladies to get an education first, have fun, but also win,” Read says. “Overall, I think we had a positive season. I know we had fun and we’ll have even more fun next year.” —AMC

Contact Read at tiger77@tambabay.rr.com.

Copyright © 2006 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved