Onwards and Upwards

The Collegiate School at FSU Panama City

By Joshua Duke

On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael made its historic landfall, forever changing the landscape of the Florida Panhandle. The first Category 5 to hit Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Michael caused unprecedented levels of devastation throughout the region, wiping whole towns off the map. In the aftermath of the storm, communities struggled to find a sense of normalcy.

One of the seriously damaged locations was Tyndall Air Force Base, located near Panama City. The base has existed in some capacity since 1941, predating the establishment of the actual U.S. Air Force by six years, but Hurricane Michael left its fate in doubt. The high winds of the storm and devastating path of destruction caused billions of dollars’ worth of damages to the base, which is home to thousands of Air Force personnel and their families. The community worried that with the extensive damage, the military might consider closing the base.

Five years later, much of the region still sports scars from Hurricane Michael. Swaths of highway stretch across the landscape with fallen trees partially cleared on either side. Even now blue tarps cling to roofs of houses. Small towns that were struggling before Michael have shrunk even more as people moved on instead of trying to rebuild.

But like many wounds, some parts of the area became stronger after such intense pain. Tyndall Air Force Base is one such instance. Even though Hurricane Michael damaged nearly every building, the Air Force committed to rebuilding and improving the base. This decision was a huge relief to the region, which sees nearly a third of its economic activity revolve around Tyndall. The rebuilding of Tyndall Air Force Base promises to make it more important than ever, especially since the base is being modernized and will house the newest generation of military aircraft, the F-35 Lightning II.

There is a resilience to the area, and as the individuals who call Panama City home soldier on, it became clear that the men and women who serve our country needed and deserved additional support. With that in mind, Florida State University and community leaders came together in 2020 to begin a conversation about creating a new school to serve military families. Three years later, The Collegiate School at Florida State University is set to welcome students and provide a great education to the children of military servicemembers.

A DREAM TAKES FLIGHT

A team of dedicated educators have helped make The Collegiate School a reality. Dean Randy Hanna of FSU Panama City campus and Dean Damon Andrew of the FSU College of Education have long advocated for this new lab school, seeing the importance of providing military families with exceptional education. Debbi Whitaker was then tasked with being the school’s first director. Additionally, Dr. Elizabeth Crowe, assistant dean at Florida State University Panama City, and Gillian Gregory, program director of FSU Schools, both have worked hard to make The Collegiate School a reality.

Video featuring Debbi Whitaker: bit.ly/fsutcs-video

With the team assembled, it was time to lay out the vision for the new school. Before the idea of The Collegiate School could take off, though, there were some significant roadblocks to overcome. A state statue limited the number of lab schools a university could have, and with FSU already home to two, this rule needed to change before the conversation could proceed. Crowe credits significant work from FSU administration to find a compromise, and eventually the Florida Legislature passed a change to make an exception to this limitation if the lab school served military families.

The next challenge was funding. There, the team sought to turn another dark chapter in Florida’s history into a promise for the future: the Triumph Gulf Coast grant program, which was established after the BP oil spill to revitalize the Florida panhandle. Through this program, the team secured the initial grant money to start the school.

SERVING THOSE WHO SERVE

The persistence in making The Collegiate School a reality stems from a strong desire to help military families in the area. “After Hurricane Michael, all of the efforts of the community went into trying to make sure Tyndall would be rebuilt, because it’s such an economic part of the community and the future of our community,” said Crowe.

Based on enrollment trends, Crowe believes the area will continue to see an increase in students, due in large part to the servicemembers stationed at Tyndall. “Part of the rebuild is that it’s the base of the future, so we’re going to see K-12 increases in enrollment, and as Tyndall becomes a really desirable base to live, they’re going to want to attract the best and brightest servicemen and women, who will, of course, come with children.”

2023’s projected enrollment estimates over 3,500 additional students in the Panama City area from 2020. However, Crowe states that The Collegiate School will do more than just address this influx of students; it will also address the relatively low rate of post-secondary attainment. In fact, Crowe says that she envisions The Collegiate School addressing this issue in surrounding counties as well.

“You could easily live in Gulf County and be working at the Air Force base,” said Crowe. “So one of our goals from a community perspective is to help increase the number of individuals here in Bay County who have post-secondary degrees and/or career training that will help them be gainfully employed especially after exiting high school.”

AD ASTRA

Beyond just the preparation, Crowe explained that The Collegiate School will help inspire students to dream big. “We want kids and students in high school to have college and career aspirations. We feel like that starts early on in high school; it’s not something you wait until 11th or 12th grade to try and instill in students.”

A major benefit of The Collegiate School is that students will have opportunities to earn college credit hours while they complete their high school education. “Being in a collegiate environment is a big deal if you’re a first-generation college student,” said school director Debbi Whitaker. She says she knows from experience, as she was the first person to attend college in her family.

Whitaker also believes that the school’s structure will help guide students. Too frequently, schools assume “that kids know how to get in our doors here at FSU, but that’s not the way it feels when you’re the first college student in your family,” Whitaker said. “It’s a path that you have to navigate, and so we feel like getting kids on campus consistently and being part of the FSU culture of learning and exploration will help them see themselves as college students in the future.”

MULTIROLE EDUCATION

Another objective of the school is to let students explore potential futures. “We don’t think everyone has to go to college to be successful, obviously, but we do want them to have career ideas,” said Crowe. The school will offer certifications along with collegiate studies. “That means I can be working towards being a college student, and I can be working on industry certifications that will allow me to be very skilled in my trade or in my career path.”

“Many of the students in Bay County we believe can achieve great things if great things are offered for them to achieve,” added Whitaker. “We want to have individualized plans for all of our students. We know not every student is the same, and so why then should their high school experience and their college experience be the same?”

Veterans Hall at FSU Panama City

This flexibility of education exists at the heart of The Collegiate School. The school plans to offer three different pathways for students to achieve success throughout their lives. The first path is designed for students who wish to attend a university. “We know that we have some kids in Bay County who not only know what college they want to go to, but what their major is going to be and how many classes they need to have in high school,” said Whitaker. “They’re ready to go.”

The next group takes a different approach: they know that they don’t want to go to college and are interested in exploring technical professions. For this group, Whitaker says that “we want to embed some of this career training into their high school experience, so that if they’re 18 and they’ve graduated high school and don’t plan on going to college, we can get them into a great paying job.”

Whitaker expects this type of job growth to accelerate in the area. “We believe in the next four to five years that there are going to be a lot of job opportunities not only at Tyndall, but also in some other industries that our local business development associates are trying to bring into our area.”

The third pathway is a combination of the two, giving students an opportunity to explore both college and technical education. Whitaker acknowledges that not every student knows what they want to do, and so this pathway is ideal for exploration.

TIME TO SOAR

Whatever path students choose, Whitaker believes that The Collegiate School is “a win-win in so many different ways for so many students and families. We’re very excited about the support that we’ve had from Florida State University’s College of Education, the support we have from our community, and the excitement that we’ve already received from families and students.”

As she reflects on the journey to opening the school, Whitaker marvels at the community’s resiliency, despite the great challenges facing the region. “We’ve learned how to come together despite all of our differences, whether that’s economic differences, religious, political differences— we all really banded together in a way that we had really not done before Hurricane Michael.”

Despite the devastation and sorrow caused by the hurricane, Whitaker says that the rebuilding process has revealed new ways of moving forward. “We don’t have to do things the way they’ve always been done. We’re open now to a freshness of ideas.” In the past, Whitaker says, things were done, and they would end up “‘okay,’ but I think we’re realizing that ‘okay’ is not good enough anymore.”

With The Collegiate School, she sees an opportunity to build a brighter future for the region and the generations to come. The hope is to maintain what has made the area so special—the Bay County roots, as Whitaker calls it. For a community as resilient as this one, there is no doubt that the sky is the limit for the students attending The Collegiate School.

The Collegiate School at FSU Panama City will welcome its first class of students for the 2023-24 school year, and applications to enroll at the school are open now. Learn more at tcs.fsu.edu.