The student newspaper at USF St. Petersburg
September 3, 2013 | Volume 48 | Issue 02
Greenhouse fosters small businesses pg. 3
Special Feature: The Freshmen Diaires. The first week is always tough, see how the newbies fared.
pg. 5
For veteran, study abroad trip brings memories of war By Jennifer Nesslar Staff Reporter It was about midnight on a day in early June when a group of USF St. Petersburg students landed at Hanoi International Airport in Vietnam. For Fred McCoy, a senior citizen auditor at USFSP, this wasn’t just an airport — it was a battlefield, and a runway he had bombed. Hanoi International was once Phuc Yen airfield, North Vietnam’s largest airbase during the Vietnam War. “It was a little eerie,” McCoy said of his return, having served two tours in Vietnam in 1967 and 1970. During the latter, he flew aircrafts from a Navy carrier. McCoy became a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force in 1964. His nearly 30-year career took him across the world to stations in Japan, Thailand, Spain and Italy. In the 1980s, McCoy flew F-16s at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. He retired in 1990 as a colonel while living in Italy and moved to St. Petersburg where he worked for Jabil Circuit, an international electronics manufacturing company. In 2010, McCoy began taking advantage of the senior auditing program at USFSP, which allows Florida residents who are 60 or older to enroll for free in certain classes Frank Biafora, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, asked McCoy to join him on a study abroad trip to Vietnam that he leads every year. He agreed. “I wanted to go back,” McCoy said, explaining that he wanted to see how the country had changed since the war. He was glad to be on the trip, but admits the experience was difficult. “In my mind it was the enemy’s capital,” he said. Biafora intentionally takes students to North Vietnam because it’s culturally different than the South — a division made after World War II. While the South still retains the influences of capitalism, the North is clearly communist and Biafora wants students to experience that.
See VET, pg. 3
WIZ•NES•KUH
Taylor Austin/The Crow’s Nest
Sophia Wisniewska knew from a young age that she’d grow up to be a world traveler and studier of languages. Now, the multilingual, health enthusiast, selfdescribed Pink Floyd nut has settled down in the Sunshine State as the regional chancellor for USF St. Petersburg.
By Chelsea Tatham Staff Reporter Wisniewska grew up on a farm in Poland, where she helped pick fruits and plant potatoes. Her mother worked in a paper bag factory and would often bring her work home to earn more money. Wiskniewska’s first job was helping her mother fold and glue paper bags. Her family moved to the United States when she was 10. In high school, she worked at a drugstore and as an administrative assistant and in college she worked as a peer counselor. Having had so many odd jobs, she jokes that she was “ready to
collect social security at 23.” Wisniewska earned her doctorate in Russian Language and spent brief periods studying in Russia during school. By the time she graduated, however, the Sputnik era was over and there wasn’t much use for the Russian language in the United States. So instead, she took a job in higher education and worked her way up from there. Before coming to USFSP, she was the chancellor at Penn State Brandywine for eight years. Though she is divorced and has no children, she has many nieces and nephews from her two younger sisters and two older brothers. The chancellor is fluent in Polish
and Russian and can do research in French and German. She enjoys purchasing art for her home and has a small collection of original pieces by Polish artists. During the interview process for USFSP’s chancellor position, she fell in love with the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts; so much so, she bought a yearlong membership the day she visited. “I guess I was pretty confident about getting the job,” she said. Wisniewska describes her music taste as eclectic, citing African music and classical orchestras in her list of favorites. At the top of her list, however, is Pink Floyd, a band she’s seen live more than a dozen
times. “I’m a little bit of a groupie,” she said. “If I didn’t accept this job, I’d probably be in Italy for their world tour.” Wisniewska also enjoys cooking and leisurely reading. On her nightstand at the moment is “Aleph,” a novel about self-discovery by Paulo Coelho, author of “The Alchemist.” As a child, Wisniewska wasn’t able to help out much in the kitchen. She notes that her mother was “a bit of a control freak” when it came to cooking.
See CHANCELLOR, pg. 3