Launching Success

SCF Launching

Baseball’s 60th Anniversary Season

SCF’s baseball team closed on a successful 60th season, following a winning tradition since Coach Bob Wynn founded the baseball program at SCF in 1958 and helped to form the Florida College System Activities Association (FCSAA) to promote sports and other activities in the junior colleges. “Baseball was his expertise, and he established a program of excellence from the beginning,” said coach Tim Hill II, SCF’s third baseball coach since the program began. Hill coached under his dad, Tim Hill Sr., before taking over the program. “We recruit based on that tradition. We don’t have to tell players, ‘you’re going to turn the program around.” Part of the team’s tradition of success, Hill said, is that every baseball coach has cared about the players personally and how they are doing academically. So it’s no surprise the team ended the season as the Suncoast Conference champions and with a Team Academic Excellence Award. SCF baseball’s reputation isn’t limited to the region or to the conference; it’s national. “Sometimes I think our reputation is stronger outside of our community than within it,” Hill said. “I get calls from coaches, players and the media from across the country wanting to talk about the program and what we have planned.” There are a few programs that rival SCF each year, and sometimes over several seasons, but none that have been able to sustain their reputation for six decades. “This program has stayed on top for a long time,” Hill said.

Phi Beta Lambda

SCF business students, competing against more than 1,250 students from colleges and universities across the country, took top awards at the Future Business Leaders of AmericaPhi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) National Leadership Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland, in June 2018. SCF students, Anne Miller, Jennifer Dolan, Mirco Susan, Ann Wright and Richard Wright, had the opportunity to participate in the Institute for Leaders (IFL) workshops, seminars and conferences after SCF’s team won more than a dozen awards at the FBLA-PBL State Leadership Conference. The four who competed at the national conference took first or second place at the state competition. SCF students took home the following national honors: Y Anne Miller: first place advertising; second place marketing concepts and eighth place management concepts. Y Jennifer Dolan: first place health care administration. Y Christopher Davis: ninth place project management. SCF had a team of coaches, including Louis O. Okonkwo, who has served as the PBL advisor at SCF Venice and recently retired; Judy Hangartner, Amy Santos and Marina Cosgrove, the new PBL advisor for the SCF Venice chapter.

Success

Model UN Team

Representing the Netherlands this year, SCF’s Model UN Team added to its award-winning record at the 2018 Southern Regional Model United Nations (SRMUN) conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. Model UN teams role-play ambassadors and debate a wide range of topics during a simulated session of the United Nations. SCF won two team-wide awards and one individual award. The team received a Best Position Paper award, its 11th consecutive in the category since 2013. SCF also received an Honorable Delegation award for its performance at the conference, a particularly noteworthy achievement as six of the seven students were participating in Model UN for the first time. Jose Alarcon, head delegate, and Dean Elnaas, delegate, also won Outstanding Delegation individual awards for their work on the United Nations Development Programme. “I’m very proud of our Model UN delegation and their hard work and dedication to representing both the Netherlands and SCF at SRMUN,” said Daniel Fuerstman, associate professor and Model UN advisor.

State College of Florida Collegiate School (SCFCS)

SCFCS is an innovative model designed to nurture motivation, independence and ensure student success while guiding students toward higher education. Innovative teaching and creative leadership combine to accomplish this mission. Each student is encouraged to learn to work independently, with other students, and with instructors to meet his or her goals. The school was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2016 for being an exemplary, high-performing school. It also has received the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) Commissioner of Education’s designation of a high-achieving charter school and has been named a School of Excellence, a 3-year designation. In awarding the school the School of Excellence designation, the FLDOE recognized that SCFCS has received an A grade every year since it opened and scored above 90 percent in the state’s final percentile ranks since 2015.