Best of Florida Schools 2004
General Categories—Page 2

Best Health Care
Healthy Collaborations
Health care is always a hot topic in any election year, and voters hope that the candidates are more than just talk. But at Florida State University, you can read their lips, “We’re taking action!” Two programs—Total Health Empowerment for Ladies of Color (The LOC) and Community Medical Outreach—are making sure people’s health care needs are being met.

Total Health Empowerment for Ladies of Color (The LOC), the brainchild of personnel at the Thagard Student Health Center, began in February 2003 with the goal of “raising awareness about minority women’s health issues, from the physical to the spiritual to the mental, while teaching and learning with the campus community,” says Marsha Fridie, graduate administrative assistant. After a summer of recruiting and strategic planning, the group launched into a schedule that, although full of fun events, hopes to make health care day-to-day for its target audience—a traditionally underserved population.

The lure of free food captured the attention of two hundred participants at the recent “Ethnic Food Fair” and got the word about upcoming events such as “World AIDS Day” and programs dealing with nutrition, breast cancer, and HIV. “It’s been great because we do our events in collaboration with other minority groups on campus,” Fridie says. “Our turnout has been huge.”

Mehran Heravi, student founder of Community Medical Outreach (CMO), took his collaborative efforts beyond FSU’s campus and into farms of Southwest Florida to reach the workers there. “We go to where the farmworkers are, as well as serving in the clinic, since so many of them are worried about seeking medical attention,” Heravi says. Having served on a ten-day trip with International Medical Outreach in Haiti, Heravi knew that caring for the indigent was a work he could continue back in the States as an undergrad. “Doctors don’t mind donating their time, but somebody had to organize the clinic, the supplies, the resources, and the funds,” he says.

CMO participants are all med-school-bound undergraduates who, under the doctors’ supervision, check blood pressure, glucose, and general wellness of the farmworkers. “I wanted the group to provide a taste of med school and give people intensive hands-on patient care experience,” Hevari says. “When I left Haiti, I couldn’t imagine that my effort would end with 10 days of work.” —SRR

Contact Fridie at mfridie@admin.fsu.edu or visit www.tshc.fsu.edu, or contact Hevari at mmh3999@garnet.fsu.edu or visit www.cmo-fsu.com.

Best Multilingual Courses
Opening Windows for Spanish Students
When working on computers, it’s hard to believe that you and the machine speak the same language. If it's tough for English-speaking students to understand computers, imagine what it's like for those who only speak Spanish.

Florida Community College—Jacksonville's Continuing Education program offers on-line computer classes for Spanish-speaking students. “The classes were specially created to serve the Spanish-speaking community," says Elyse Brady, continuing education and special project administrative assistant. "It's for those that don't have access to a computer at home but want to improve their computer skills, or those that have a computer at work and want to improve their job skills."

The classes let the students get their feet wet with programs such as QuickBooks, PowerPoint, Introducción a Internet, Comercio Electronico, Creación de Páginas Web, Programación Java, Word, Excel, and Liderazgo, Comunicación y Motivación, plus a live session of Computer Basics en Español. FCCJ even provides a web page with help in Spanish.

"We've had a pretty good response from the students. It seems that they like the program and the way that it's presented," says Professor Olmes Corrales. "We even have two people from Brazil that wanted to take the classes on-line. With the internet, you can reach people from anywhere in the world." —MAC 

Contact Brady at 904-633-8292 or visit Continuing Education at www.fccj.edu/con-ed.

Best Environmental Involvement
Keeping Tabs on Flippered Friends
Sailors traveling long ago encountered strange sea creatures that they believed were half human and half fish. The animals, which they called “mermaids,” weren’t long-haired sirens—they were manatees. Today, facing threats such as pollution, weather changes, and boat collisions, these gentle giants have become almost as rare as the mermaids of lore. However, favorable weather conditions and education efforts in Duval County have helped manatees make a comeback there. Last July, researchers from Jacksonville University’s biology and marine science department spotted 160 of the creatures in local waterways—a record for the region.

Every two weeks, weather permitting, Dr. A. Quinton White, Dr. Gerry Pinto, or former student Seth Barr flies over the St. Johns River and Intracoastal Waterway to count manatees. Trying to locate sea cows in the dark, tannic acid-stained river from a two-seater plane can be challenging, since manatees are visible only when near the surface. But by flying “low and slow,” an observer can identify the creatures which, according to White, “look like a baked potato floating in a vat of tea.”

White, dean of JU’s College of Arts and Sciences and a professor, has conducted research on the St. Johns River for more than 25 years. He began focusing more closely on its manatees 10 years ago, when the Jacksonville Waterways Commission contacted him for information about these aquatic mammals. “As we looked into existing research, we discovered that there wasn’t much data on manatees in Northeast Florida,” White says. “We proposed a three-year study to establish a baseline, and that was 10 years ago.”

White attributes the manatee population’s recent growth in Duval County to both the overall increase in manatees statewide and to the high amount of rainfall last summer, which promoted growth of aquatic vegetation that the animals eat. Marine boaters also have learned to heed signs and warnings, driving more slowly through manatee-inhabited waters. “We work hard to educate [boaters] and their awareness seems quite strong,” White says. —AMC

Contact White at qwhite@ju.edu.

Best Engineering Project
Putting Concrete Ideas to…Float
If your plane was about to crash, would you want a concrete life jacket? If you were on a cruise, would you freak out if you saw concrete life boats? Engineering students at Florida Institute of Technology might be able to make them work—after all, they make concrete canoes.

Engineering students usually stick to the design aspect of constructing. But engineering students at FIT follow through with their configurations and build concrete canoes to race in competitions against colleges across the nation. This tradition began in 1991 when student Eric Primavera and some buddies took a road trip to Mississippi State University. The group watched the events of the National Concrete Canoe Competition and came back to school determined to create their own concrete canoe for the races the next year.

The National Concrete Canoe Competition registers 25 colleges that meet annually within their regions and duke it out. The actual event consists of five races, a 10-page technical paper, and a five-minute presentation. Judges announce the winners during a banquet the last day of competition.

“The students develop teamwork; they have many obstacles to overcome like some work part-time and they’re all on different levels of education. They’re forced to learn how to schedule because they all have to get together and practice on the canoe three or four times a week,” says Dr. Paul Cosentino, civil engineering professor and faculty advisor. “They also sharpen their engineering thought processes because they’ve learned to be efficient when they’re engineers, not just design something that can’t be built.”

Unfortunately, the group was disqualified last year at the national competition. They hope to make a comeback this spring in the Southeast Regional Competition.

There aren’t any tryouts—the group welcomes anyone who enjoys engineering and canoe construction. Just don’t wear your concrete shoes! —JT

Contact Cosentino at cosentin@fit.edu.

Best Computer Event
Meet the Freaks and Geeks
It sounds like a nightmare dating convention where lonely nerds are introduced to scary-looking members of the opposite sex. But in reality, “Freaks and Geeks” is nothing of the kind.

The yearly tournament offers students in the digital media and networking departments at Seminole Community College the opportunity to show off their skills and learn about job opportunities in the world of digital media. Aspiring techies (Geeks) and digital artists (Freaks) encounter networking and learning opportunities, as well as the chance to have a little fun.

“The digital media students are a rare breed of artists and techies,” says Michael Kappers, program manager for the digital media department and tournament founder. “They have to be analytical as well as creative.”

Started as a way of repaying students for the passion and hard work they place in projects assigned to them by their professors, “Freaks and Geeks” includes a series of competitions.

In the 2003 event, students competed in networked video games such as Unreal Tournament and Medal of Honor and a Capture the Flag team tournament. Tournament winners each received an Xbox game donated by Coleman Technologies, and EA Sports donated about 100 T-shirts to the event.

The most important feature of the event, however, is the series of guest speakers from print, advertising, web, gaming, and networking industries who participate. Representatives from Tiburon/EA Sports, Disney Feature Animation, Microsoft, Abbot Printing, and the Orlando Sentinel were among the many who gave demonstrations and portfolio reviews at the event.

“Teachers and professors can lecture until they are blue in the face, but when the students hear it from the industry, they tend to respect what’s being taught to them a little more,” says Kappers. “They work and study a little harder to reach their goal.”

The event has also been the inspiration for two officially recognized student organizations, the Digital Media Club and the Networking Club. —MDJ

Contact Kappers at kappersm@scc-fl.edu.

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