Best of Florida Schools 2004
General Categories—Page 8

Best Welcome Back Event
Party in Pajamas
It’s been a long time since most college students went to their last slumber party. But Broward Community College students had the chance to pull out their Snoopy sleeping bags, pink bunny slippers, and their special blankets last fall when the staff of the Student Life Center at the North Campus welcomed them back to school by throwing a huge pajama party.

“Since it’s been suggested that our students don’t get enough sleep, this year we tied everything into the topics of sleep and tranquility,” said Mareta Sizemore, the center’s director, “The students stayed busy with the wide variety of entertainment options, but our sleep theme was clear.”

Students calmed their frayed nerves after the first week back to school by sitting down at an oxygen bar, four people at a time. After gassing up, they were soon rejuvenated enough to party. Lester the Clown assisted the students in finding their inner pajama party kid by creating balloon hats for them to wear. Body Art by Susan painted tattoos and exotic makeup on willing students hoping to accentuate their sleepwear.

The highlight of the party was dream doctor James McPhee, host of the nationally syndicated radio show The Dream Doctor. During this part of the evening, the public was invited to participate in McPhee’s performance. He started out with a general analysis of dreams, then moved on to his audience’s specific dreams. Both the public and BCC’s students wrote down their own recurring dreams prior to McPhee’s analysis. He picked the papers out of a hat and told the audience what each dream meant.

No pajama party is complete without tons of junk food. Pizza, chips, candy, and cookies were piled high on every table in the area. Since Mom wasn’t around the corner watching, the students gorged themselves as much as possible. They were allowed as much as they could eat under one condition: They had to fill out a survey rating the program before they left. The program received a ranking of “excellent” on 99 percent of the surveys.

“We theme our welcome-back events every year since students keep coming back,“ Sizemore says. “Unfortunately, the sleep theme won’t come back next year.” —JT

Contact Sizemore at msizemor@broward.edu.

Best Family Resource Center
A Finely Tuned Childhood
Florida Gulf Coast University is ready to rev up its motor…skills. Its Family Resource Center develops and fine-tunes the “thinking engines” of the world’s future Einsteins, cultivating motor and language skills in the 56 enrolled children, who range from 6 weeks to 5 years old.

After operating for only one year, the center was accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children in 1999, a prominent recognition that only seven percent of the nation’s early childhood programs can claim.

Dr. Elizabeth Elliot, director, says few childcare providers are accredited because the criteria are very strict, requiring all teachers to hold degrees. “We also have a smaller class size so the children get more personal attention,” she says, adding that they have one teacher for every five children in the preschool program.

“We use a creative-play curriculum in our preschool classroom, and we emphasize early literacy, giving them the foundation for pre-kindergarten skills,” Elliot says.

While test-driving early development skills of children enrolled in the program, the FRC provides a structured learning environment for FGCU students and the entire community. “They encourage you to work there as a volunteer for your service hours,” says Lisa Haynie, a former student volunteer in the nursery.

The program provides an opportunity for teaching and nursing students to learn about childhood education and development.  “We’re open to the community,” Elliot says. “As a university school, we cater to university students, but we also cater to the entire community.” —LD

Contact Elliot at eelliot@fgcu.edu.

Best Remedy for Homesickness
Nurturing Newbies
While adjusting to college life, many students battle homesickness at one time or another. Even the freshmen who longed to escape their old curfews and chores can feel pangs of it now and then. Clearwater Christian College’s remedy combines the perks of having parents around with the freedom of no longer living under their roof.

Through the “Campus Parent/Campus Kid” program, CCC faculty and staff members “adopt” college freshmen, remembering them on birthdays and holidays with gifts, inviting them to their homes, and being mentors they can go to for advice. “It’s something we do for all freshmen whose parents live more than an hour away,” says Mindy Meloon, CCC communications coordinator.

In the students’ dining hall, campus parents often leave gifts for their campus kids on a special table reserved for that purpose. “Students are always checking it, so I think it really means a lot to them,” Meloon says. Once a semester, the campus parents even bring their students’ fantasies of home-cooked cuisine to life, organizing a “Home Sweet Home” event. CCC faculty and staff members volunteer to greet students and offer them homemade desserts after their normal dining hall supper.

A women’s fellowship group, consisting of female faculty and staff members, started the program in 1985. The idea was as an outgrowth of the regular prayer requests they made on behalf of students struggling with homesickness. “Now, most faculty and staff members adopt a few new freshmen each year and often continue to build relationships with their campus kids throughout their college years and even beyond,” Meloon says.

Gestures such as organizing dinners, giving care packages, and leaving encouraging notes in students’ mailboxes don’t go unnoticed. “The Campus Parent/Campus Kid program meant so much to me as a student that I was thrilled to have the opportunity to have campus kids of my own when I started working at CCC,” Meloon says. —AMC

Contact Meloon at development@clearwater.edu.

Best Athletes
Team Philanthropy
Professional athletes know how it works—they give their talents to their team, and the payback? A ton of money. Northwood University athletes know how it works—they give their talents to their team, and the payback? Service to the community.

In November 2002, Athletic Director Rick Smoliak created the “Student-Athlete Council,” a group dedicated to implementing Northwood’s campuswide theme of “Giving Back.” “We’re a business university, and along with this entrepreneurial philosophy, we teach, ‘We’ve got to give back, we’ve got to do it’,” says Bill Caudill, sports information director.

The council is made up of one or two representatives from each athletic team. Members huddle up monthly to choose their service projects, plan their strategies, and aggressively follow through. To dealing with classes, labs, homework, practice, and games, these students add golf clinics for underprivileged kids, toy drives for holiday giving, home repairs for needy families, and fundraising for local charities.

The program’s not mandatory, but all 196 athletes participate. “We don’t have a big program, but there’s a lot of pride involved from team to team,” Caudill says. Council representatives come back to their teams to organize each effort, get commitments from teammates, assign responsibilities, and then, as they say in the parlance, just do it. But the athletes are asked to have more than a willing spirit—they have to be willing to be a role model, too. “Each athletic team is required to conduct classes, seminars, workshops, or clinics and devote time and commitment to outreach programs that will teach and model character,” Caudill says. “It’s more than just a service project.”

Contact Caudill at bcaudill@northwood.edu.

Most Relaxing College Event
PHCC’s Secret to Relaxation
The annoying beep of an alarm clock persists as you roll out of bed and into some school clothes. As you arrive on campus, you get free massages, facials, and smoothies. If you’re a student at a typical Florida school, this kind of treatment exists only in your dreams. But for students at Pasco-Hernando Community College, this dream becomes a reality on Spa Day.

Stress, misery, and tension—most students experience these feelings after a long wave of exams. That’s why every March, PHCC provides a time of renewal and relaxation just before spring break. Over 400 students and faculty members relax and enjoy an on-campus Spa Day. “We all know how students feel after a week of exams,” says Jenny Ashley, office assistant. “Spa Day aids in relaxing students as much as possible.”

Massages, oxygen bars, pop music, wall climbing, hair cuts, trail mix stations, biorhythm charting, stress balls, hot dogs, smoothies, and pizza are provided for every student at the annual event, and the best part is that it’s free! The student activities department and the Student Government Association underwrite all of it. Cosmetology students and local massage therapists provide most of the services, while student groups and organizations manage the posts. The “spa” is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. because that’s when the highest population of students are on campus.

Many women know that a spa day can be truly gratifying, but at PHCC, girls usually wait in line after the guys. “In fact, guys get more haircuts and massages than the women do at the spa day,” says Bob Bade, coordinator of student activities. —OB

Contact Ashley at 727-847-2727 or Bade at badeb@phcc.edu.

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