DEAGAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH LAB AIMS TO RAISE BAR FOR STUDENT ARCHAEOLOGISTS

By Anna Boone

Dr. Kathy Deagan sees the future of Flagler’s archaeology program as promising – brimming with potential and the enthusiasm of students working there.

“I have always thought that Flagler College should be one of the premier training grounds for undergraduate archeologists,” said the Distinguished Research Curator in Archaeology Emerita at the University of Florida.

Since receiving her doctorate in anthropology from the University of Florida in 1974, Deagan built an extensive career in archaeological and anthropological research and education. But even before concluding her studies, Deagan was conducting research and fieldwork in St. Augustine.

It was in part Deagan’s belief that as the Nation’s Oldest City, St. Augustine is one “of the better places for training of archeologists in the country.” That is part of what influenced her to become the lead donor for Flagler’s Deagan Archaeological Research Lab, which opened this past spring. Deagan is also a member of the Flagler College Board of Trustees.

For archaeology and anthropology professors like Dr. Lori Lee, the lab will provide students with the resources, space and collaborative environment to successfully analyze locallysourced artifacts and work to accurately inform the narrative of St. Augustine’s history.

As a major collaborator in its development, Lee said the lab will feature tools like advanced artifact cataloging and ArcGIS geospatial software on computers, high-powered microscopes, archaeological flotation devices and artifact collection storage areas. She said working with this high-level equipment will help students “build confidence and professional knowledge” while giving them “a really strong foundation” for future research and careers. But Deagan said the lab will also benefit students beyond these two fields.

“There’s a lot of cross-disciplinary fertilization in an archaeology lab,” she said.

History, forensics, natural sciences and zoology are some of the fields that Deagan said are well suited for collaboration in an archaeological setting.

Deagan hopes the lab’s potential for interdisciplinary work along with the professional-grade tools for analysis will draw students and researchers alike to Flagler’s archaeology program.

“If things continue to go the way they are, we will begin to attract many more students from many different places,” she said.

Flagler Launches Institute For Classical Education

In the summer of 2022, Flagler College received funding from the state of Florida to further its efforts in classical and liberal education by establishing a Classical Institute. The work under the state funding continues the growth of the established Flagler Core Curriculum through the hiring of faculty and staff, as well as faculty development.

It also helps develop new external programming to share Flagler’s model of classical and liberal education with educators across the state.

Flagler’s Core reflects the College’s modern version of the classical liberal arts, intended to foster what Plato called the Good and the Common Good. The Core is designed around a deeply intentional immersion in Flagler’s Core Values, integrated with instruction in the vital skills necessary for our students to flourish not just academically, but in the workplace, in civic life and as “whole people.”

Through a broad and shared curriculum focused in the liberal arts and sciences, students learn to take intellectual risks and to understand how the various academic disciplines engage the world. They also learn the tools necessary for active participation in a free and democratic society committed to free speech and inquiry, and to dialogue across difference.

The Institute plans to host workshops, conferences and guest scholars – as well as to provide fellowship & mentorship opportunities for students and teachers at the K-12 level – in order to share Flagler’s philosophy of education with an audience beyond the College. We seek, through all of this work, to cultivate a “higher purpose” in higher education at a time of great national need.

Innovation Center Brings

New Opportunities To Flagler

When the Brown Innovation Center opened this past spring at Flagler, it wasn’t just a chance to show off the lab’s fancy 3D printers and laser cutter, but also to foster multidisciplinary collaboration across campus to find solutions for pressing challenges.

That’s been the goal of the center since it was first proposed by its director, Allison Roberts, who also serves as Enactus Faculty Mentor and Peter and Sue Freytag Associate Professor of Economics.

“About 5 years ago, we were working on a strategic plan for the College and one of the points of emphasis was to have more multidisciplinary opportunities for students to work together and collaborate,” said Roberts. “The idea for the Innovation Center came to me at that time while trying to figure out ways to get students from different disciplines to work together and solve problems.”

Roberts runs the center with Jason Schwab, the technology director and an assistant professor of Visual Art.

The center has been busy in its first couple of months welcoming classes of all different disciplines, hosting events like Design Week and Business Week, and serving as the home of ENACTUS, which stands for Entrepreneurial Action for Others Creates a Better World for Us All.

“Really it's a space for us to live up to our core values,” Roberts said. “All of the things that we want to be as a college, as a college community, we can make happen in this space.”

The center is located on the first floor of the Ringhaver Student Center where the campus bookstore used to be. It is named for Bradley J. and Mandy Crupi Brown, two Flagler alumni who have continued to give back to the College over the years, including Bradley’s current service on the Board of Trustees. The couple made a major gift to the College to make the center a reality.

In addition to meeting space for collaboration amongst faculty, students, staff and the community, the center also includes 3D printers, a laser cutter, a 3D scanner, sewing machines and a Cricut machine.

The start of the fall semester gave students a first glimpse at Flagler College’s Five Star Plan, a multi-million dollar initiative designed to lead improvements and enhancements across campus facilities, technology and the student experience. But that is just the beginning, and there are even more changes coming to campus throughout 2023.

1 Major Renovations

This included major renovations to Ponce Hall’s historic residential wings, redesigns in Lewis and Cedar Halls, and even a kayak launch onto the San Sebastian River at Abare Hall. Some of the residential enhancements included modernized rooms, flooring and furniture, the addition of common and study areas, kitchen spaces and laundry rooms. Flagler’s Learning Resource Center also moved into an expanded space in the Proctor Library offering additional tutoring services in one-onone and small group settings.

2 Student Experience

Beyond facilities, the 5 Star Plan placed a priority on improving the overall student experience. It aims to connect students with one another and their Flagler community through exciting on and off-campus opportunities. This meant creating events like a live circus performance, movies in the pool, off-campus field trips, exclusive concerts, sporting events and outdoor activities.

3 Lacrosse And Intramural Sports Field

The launch of the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams also brought Flagler’s newest Athletics facility with a turf field that is also home to the College’s intramural sports like flag-football, soccer and others. The field is located parallel to Old Moultrie Road and sits beyond the center field wall of Drysdale Field. The first game at the Flagler Lacrosse Field was played on Feb. 9, 2022.

4 Technology Improvements

Technology updates like improved Internet connections will streamline the student experience while improving access to needed academic resources. These technological improvements will allow the College to operate more efficiently and improve its customer service focus.

5 Flagler College Tennis Center

For the first time since the facility was constructed in 1983, the Flagler College Tennis Center has a brand new court surface. The six-court facility underwent a comprehensive overhaul, complete with foundational reinforcement, the installation of curbing along the outside of the facility, new paint and state-of-the-art, energy efficient LED lighting.

6 Ponce Renovation

The Ponce is undergoing an ambitious renovation and restoration effort of its residential spaces. The project includes enhancements to the Mezzanine, entirely new and modernized electrical, HVAC and plumbing systems along with renovated laundry and bathroom spaces in this National Historic Landmark.

7 Kayak Launch

The addition of a dock, kayak launch and kayaks at Abare Hall on the banks of the Sebastian River have enhanced the student experience through a partnership with the Environmental Science Program and Campus Recreation. The kayak launch area is also being utilized for scientific research, fishing and yoga at sunset.

By Anna Boone | Photo by Mind Power Marketing

his past fall, new students began taking classes in Flagler College’s newly launched Core Curriculum, which replaced

Through this curriculum, students are given the tools to develop skills like social scientific inquiry, ethical and quantitative reasoning and oral communication. The program begins with the First-Year Seminar and culminates with FlagSHIP (Flagler Sophomore High Impact Practice), a program that merges learning and interacting across communities.

But at its “core,” Doug Keaton, Flagler’s faculty director of Classical & Liberal Education and Core Curriculum and a professor of Philosophy, said the goal has been to increase student engagement, which has already become apparent.

Flagler College Magazine sat down with Keaton to learn more about this transformational new program and how it will reshape education at the College.

Q� HOW DID THIS NEW CORE CURRICULUM COME ABOUT?

A� It was developed over the past four years by the entire faculty. And I think probably every office on campus in one way or another has had some say in how our new general education program goes. The faculty got together in round table discussions and had arguments and good conversations for a couple years.

Faculty went to conferences around the country to talk to other colleges that are doing the same kind of work, to see what kinds of ideas are in the air and what kinds of innovations are really proving to be helpful for different schools around the country. After a lot of those conversations, a lot of that research, we decided upon a specific general education reform plan for our school.

Q� WITH THE CORE, WHAT IS THE COLLEGE TRYING TO ADDRESS?

A� The core curriculum is trying to teach students how to think for themselves. No matter what they're majoring in, there are certain skills we have to have in order to really become our own people who think our own thoughts. And the idea is then that we want to offer a selection of classes that will provide a set of skills that assist the student in doing that. … The other way to think about it is that the point of general education is to create citizens who are skilled thinkers and knowledgeable thinkers, and therefore good voters for a healthy democracy.

Q� WHAT WERE SOME OF THE REASONS TO MAKE CHANGES TO THE GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM AT FLAGLER?

A� Flagler decided to make this change because we used to have what is generally considered a 20th century model. That kind of system is basically an arrangement of introductory courses from various parts of the school that we ask students to take like Psych 101, Business 101, Science 101. The reason that's a bit out of date and not ideal is because that collection of classes doesn't really have any rhyme or reason to it.

So, rather than simply ask students to select from a suite of classes that have already existed, we are moving toward a system intended specifically to fulfill this promise to make our students into well-rounded, rich, self-thinking individuals. What the faculty have done is designed almost 100 different classes... that are something that they personally find fascinating, enriching and valuable.

Q CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW THE CORE IS FOCUSED ON CERTAIN SKILLS YOU WANT THEM TO LEARN?

A� At the heart of the new core curriculum are the nine key academic skills that we want all of our students to have. These nine skills grew out of years of conversation amongst the faculty, and also with our Career Development Center, to figure out exactly what the skills are that companies and businesses around the country are looking for from college graduates. So, we developed these nine skills as the heart of our core curriculum to make sure our students get that: academic writing, oral communication, natural scientific inquiry, social scientific inquiry, creativity, an art class, quantitative reasoning, social and cultural inquiry, historical inquiry and ethical reasoning. Those are nine different ways of thinking, nine different ways of approaching a problem, nine different ways of looking at life.

Q� WHAT KIND OF CLASSES ARE BEING OFFERED?

A� They're teaching classes like Dance, The Mirror of Society. Or Science of Pandemics. Or Living in a Digital World. These are all classes that professors wanted to teach and design. You don't have to wait until your third or fourth year before you're taking a class with a professor who really wants to be teaching that specific class.

Furthermore, our hope is that the titles of these classes and the content of these classes feel less like high school and more like life. And that they're more relatable and more interesting to the students right off the bat. There's a wide variety of choices because we've made a lot of classes because our faculty have lots and lots of interests.

Q� YOU'RE ALSO TEACHING SOME OF THESE CLASSES� CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR PROCESS OF DEVELOPING THEM?

A� For me, I had to learn to teach a different kind of class in order to teach a core class. Because one thing that we've insisted upon is that the core classes be what we call skill-based, not contentbased. What that means is if I teach a regular philosophy class, I might want students to learn what this philosopher said and what that philosopher said maybe over the course of 1,000 years of philosophers, and they have to memorize a lot of it.

But for a skill-based course, that's definitely not the idea. The idea is instead that students do more of their own work, do more of their own thinking. The idea is not to have to memorize, but rather to engage in coursework and course activities that convey and ask us to practice a set of skills.

Q� HOW ARE STUDENTS INTERACTING DIFFERENTLY WITH THE NEW COURSEWORK?

A That level of engagement has been superior to previous years, and I've heard that both in my own class and also from faculty teaching other classes. [Students say] they're just so much easier to engage with and it's so much easier to understand why we're asking you to learn this stuff because to them it's not abstract. It relates to things they already have some connection with, some grip on in the world.

Architectural photographer Amy Martz spent several days at Flagler College recently capturing images of Ponce Hall, the centerpiece of the College and the former Hotel Ponce de Leon. As she wandered the halls, lavish rooms and lush courtyard of this National Historic Landmark built by Henry Flagler in 1888, she captured another side of this architectural masterpiece. Her photos will make you take a new look at intricate details of the Ponce you thought you knew so well. Rediscover the Ponce through the keen eye and creative lens of Martz.

By Morgan Goodwill,

From impeding on their food sources to creating issues with bringing clean water into the household, the Middle Eastern country of Jordan has been learning how to navigate these impacts through scientific solutions and communicating the need for change to their people.

Flagler College’s FlagSHIP program created a course to explore the water scarcity issues that Jordan’s society faces day-to-day, led by Natural Sciences Department Chair Jessica Veenstra and Communication Associate Professor Tracey Eaton. Now the College is continuing to develop the relationships they created while in Jordan in the summer of 2022. Dr. Raed Al-Tabini, the College’s primary contact and a director for the School for International Training, will be coming to St. Augustine to discuss the water scarcity issues in Jordan. Veenstra will introduce Dr. Al-Tabini to students interested in the course, as they hope to rerun it in January 2024.

“Florida is a state where there’s just an incredible abundance of water in many ways, and there’s water all around us,” Veenstra said. “So it was really interesting to bring the students to a really completely opposite environment where they are so extremely water-limited.”

The students participated in homestays, where they stayed with domestic families in the area. This experience allowed them to learn about the environment from a grounded level instead of just seeing it through the eyes of scientists, politicians and business professionals.

“Being one of the first Flagler groups to go to the Middle East and learning about the water scarcity issue was truly eyeopening,” said Matthew Dutton, ‘22.

Flagler students like Dutton are used to being surrounded by water, and Jordanians don’t have that luxury. Being able to hear from individuals living in the area and learn from the source was one of the biggest takeaways from the excursion.

Alongside learning from the locals of Jordan, the course participants entered conversations with scientists and communicators from the local area.

“Learning the culture and more about the water crisis was a unique experience that I’ll never forget. I was shocked to find out that each citizen is allocated around 40 liters of fresh water, [equal to] about a 5-minute shower, per day,” Dutton explained. The country and its entire region depend on groundwater resources that cannot replenish, similar to the oil resources that the world relies on. Veenstra and the students found it interesting and surprising that this was the population’s go-to water source.

However, switching the population’s resources from groundwater to a more sustainable one has been challenging. Not only does Jordan have to do their part in educating the public as to why it should be switching its resources, but there are also political battles at hand.

“Students met with leading scientists who are studying the water crisis in Jordan and learned that international cooperation is vital to solving such difficult problems,” said Eaton.

Israel, one of Jordan’s neighboring countries, shares one of the few water resources available in their region, the Jordan River. Politicians in Jordan and Israel have a balance they must maintain so both populations can share the natural resource.

“Rivers don’t know the boundaries of Israel versus Jordan. Right? They just flow where they flow. And so, these two countries that get along now but certainly have their issues with each other have to share this water resource, right? And so, there are ways that surrounding countries can take more water, and it becomes difficult to establish whose rights are whose,” Veenstra explained.

But the trip wasn’t just about navigating environmental issues and political tensions. The communal experience also gave Flagler students a one-of-a-kind chance to take took Arabic courses, dive into the Dead Sea and explore the ancient archeological site, Petra.

“Students told me that the trip helped dispel some common misconceptions about the Middle East,” Eaton said, “As we left, several students said they were so impressed with Jordan that they hoped to return one day.”