SUMMER 2014
I n d i v i d u a l s a n d g i f t s t h at a r e t r a n s f o r m i n g U C F
Big Program,
Based in a borrowed beach cottage since 2005, UCF’s renowned Marine Turtle Research Group is slated for a badly needed new home
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t came as something of a surprise when UCF sea turtle researcher Kate Mansfield turned up in Glamour magazine. Sure, her first-of-its-kind data about where endangered marine turtles go during their so-called “lost years” — the time between when they hatch and head to sea and when they return to near-shore waters as large juveniles — also garnered coverage in National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine and an interview on NPR’s Science Friday, but those were more or less expected. Apparently it was her methods, rather than her data, that caught Glamour’s interest. For years, Mansfield and her colleagues had been trying to figure out how to attach satellite tracking devices to the hard, slippery shells of fast-growing young turtles. The solution, it turned out, was manicure
acrylic (turtle shells are made of keratin, just like fingernails) and hair-extension glue. Which goes to show that groundbreaking science isn’t entirely dependent on the latest technology and facilities; sometimes you make do with what you’ve got. For better or worse, that’s exactly what UCF’s Marine Turtle Research Group has been doing since 2004, when its headquarters at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in southern Brevard County were destroyed by a hurricane. The next year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service generously loaned UCF the small “beach house” that has served ever since as the group’s base of operations. But now the old house is bursting at the seams, almost literally, without enough space for the research group’s boats, ATVs and other equipment;
How Did You Spend Your Summer Vacation? COME FALL, nine Burnett Honors College students will have a ready answer to the timeworn summer vacation question: They tracked cheetahs on South Africa’s Nambiti Game Reserve, worked on a sustainable energy project in the rural township of Pomolong, and upgraded facilities at a nearby school. Such service-learning programs, which rely in large part on the support of private donors, turn what students learn in the classroom into the kinds of experiences that can permanently change lives — not just their own but also those of the people they help.
inadequate data connections; poor insulation leading to high energy costs; and cramped sleeping and showering quarters for the students and faculty who often spend days at a time there. In response, the UCF Foundation has committed to helping raise funds to construct a new home for the renowned program, which, despite its challenges, has amassed one of the largest and most valuable sea turtle datasets in the world, based on more than 30 years of observation along the southern Brevard coastline, among the planet’s most important nesting areas. Plans for the new facility — and designation of numerous naming opportunities — are still being finalized, but additional details are available from Director of Development Ray Allen at 407.823.1952 or ray.allen@ucf.edu.
THE BIG NUMBER
$5,100,000 Approximate contribution to UCF’s budget in fiscal year 2014 from the university’s endowment, a new record
As of May, the university’s endowment, the total of all endowed gifts plus their earnings, stood at roughly $152.3 million. An endowed gift is a donation that is kept and invested by the foundation, rather than spent. Each year, a percentage of the earnings — the spendable amount — is used to help meet whatever needs the donor has designated, while the remainder is re-invested. Growing the endowment — which, due in part to the university’s young age, is relatively small on a per-student basis — is among the foundation’s highest priorities.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Abernethy, NMFS permit 1551
Small House
Message from the CEO
Connecting the Dots
Same Road, Other Direction Jim Hopes walked away from his art for a more conventional career. Now he makes it easier for young artists like Hannah Miller to make a different choice.
Dear friends: Sea turtles and manicure products. Puppets and business degrees. Gaming apps and autism. If I were to ask you to connect the dots among these apparently unrelated topics, you’d be scratching your head — unless you’d first read the stories in this issue of our newsletter. In learning more about the work of UCF Associate Professor Kate Mansfield, undergraduate student Hannah Miller and Assistant Professor Trey Vasquez, you’ll also learn what they have in common — that is, besides their connection to UCF. They are talented, creative, resourceful and committed, and all have benefited from the power of philanthropy as “innovation fuel.” Donors like Jim Hopes, who funded Miller’s scholarship, understand that private support is about much more than dollars. Gifts from Jim and other insightful donors also provide something of greater value to our students and faculty: encouragement, confidence and the freedom to be truly innovative in exploring new solutions and new paths to the future. You’ll often hear UCF Foundation representatives tout unrestricted giving — making gifts that may be designated for a certain department or program, but don’t impose further limitations on their use. In essence, this type of support gives the green light to our talented students, teachers and researchers, urging them to take risks, try counterintuitive approaches and quite possibly speed discovery of “the next big thing.” Kate Mansfield and her colleagues, for example, are clearly doing groundbreaking work even in their “make-do” environment. Imagine how much more they’ll be able to do in a facility that literally and figuratively opens new doors into this vital area of research. Similarly, giving facilitates the kind of interdisciplinary partnerships that Trey Vasquez has found so important to his work. That’s the power of philanthropy at work. It connects the dots among creative individuals, imaginative ideas and innovative actions. As always, the UCF Foundation is here to connect you to the dreams you’d like to make possible at UCF and beyond.
Warm regards,
Robert J. Holmes CEO, UCF Foundation, Inc.
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annah Miller knows what you probably think about her decision five years ago to leave a career in IT and become a puppeteer, and she’s perfectly OK with it. In fact, before you even have a chance to say it, she laughs easily and finishes the sentence for you: “And then I ran away and joined the circus.” Certainly that’s an easy thing to think. It’s impulsive enough, after all, to leave a stable job to concentrate on oil painting or jazz saxophone or writing the Great American Novel. But puppetry? The fact is, though, you’d be mistaken. Because Miller, now a full-time art student, is pragmatic, mature and levelheaded with an ambitious career goal and a solid plan for achieving it. It just happens to involve puppets. That’s a big part of what made her stand out among more than 100 applicants this year for one of several J.R. Hopes Art Scholarships awarded annually to UCF students demonstrating not only artistic talent and financial need but also well-developed visions for careers in the arts. In Miller’s case, that vision includes creating a permanent physical home for fine art puppetry, a colony dedicated to the development and evolution of the art. “Building a community around the medium that I love,” she says, “is what’s most important to me.” But doing so takes more than just talent, so Miller is minoring in nonprofit administration and plans to pursue an M.B.A. next. She’s also
gaining valuable experience as director of marketing and public relations for IBEX Puppetry, the Orlando company run by Heather Henson, daughter of Muppets creator Jim Henson. Listening to Miller talk this way — about marketing and grants and business school — it’s easy to forget that she’s first and foremost a very accomplished artist. Right up until she picks up what amounts to a rumpled bandana with its corners stuffed into wooden rings and with a few deceptively small motions, almost absent-mindedly, brings it to life in a series of disconcertingly human gestures and attitudes. The irony here — and the beauty, too — is that UCF Foundation board member Jim Hopes, who funds the scholarships each year, traveled almost the same road as Miller but in the opposite direction, walking away from his artistic aspirations for a more conventional career. Even though that decision led to notable success as senior vice president of marketing at AOLTime Warner and an early retirement to focus on philanthropy, Hopes still regrets it at some level. “If I could do everything all over again,” he said at a recent lunch with this year’s scholarship winners, “I would be in your seats, at this table, with an art career in front of me. Hands down. Because if you do great art, you can just affect people’s lives in amazing ways.” Which is exactly what Hopes himself is doing by making it easier for promising young artists like Miller — 23 of them so far — to pursue their passions.
“Because if you do great art, you can just affect people’s lives in amazing ways.”
UCF Receives Nearly $2 Million for Defense Research UCF earned five research grants in May worth nearly $2 million from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), placing UCF among the top three university award recipients in the nation. The funding will help UCF purchase state-of-the-art research equipment, benefiting science education, medical training and the preparation of troops. This year DURIP funded 149 of the 735 proposals it received, disbursing a total of $39.9 million. UCF, the University of
Illinois and Rutgers University were the only universities awarded five grants. Other Florida universities receiving awards this year were the University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University, with one award each. “Our faculty have consistently shown that they can compete with the best,” says M.J. Soileau, vice president for research and commercialization at UCF, “and the equipment purchased with these awards will position them even better for future funding.”
SUMMER 2014
From Virtual to Reality Trey Vasquez on using tech to teach empathy to autistic children Winner of a prestigious new award for early-career faculty at UCF, child, family and community sciences professor Trey Vasquez uses simulated learning environments to teach children with autism
to interpret facial expressions. Not being able to read subtle body
language is a characteristic, to varying degrees, of the disorder that affects 1 in 68 American children.
Incentives like the $10,000 Reach for the Stars Award, given for
the first time this year to Vasquez and seven others, help attract
and retain the kind of top faculty who make a difference not just in UCF’s reputation but in our community and our lives. The funding
of such incentives, though, depends in large part on private support.
Winding career path I started as a public school teacher. I taught kids with learning differences — including those with autism — in a middle school resource math class and integrated technology into the curriculum. It really helped my students understand the material better, so I went back to school and became a school psychologist to help train teachers to work with kids with special learning needs. At the same time I began to do research, focusing on evaluating academic outcomes for students with autism. Empathy app We [Vasquez along with Dr. Darin Hughes of the Synthetic Reality Lab at UCF’s Institute for Simulation
and Training] created an app with characters called “WUBees” to help kids on the autism spectrum pick up subtle nonverbal cues that will help them feel empathy and communicate more effectively. The WUBees have different facial expressions and also do things like jump up and down when they’re mad or have to use the bathroom. The kids have to be able to figure out what their WUBee needs. The initial results have been promising. We have seen outcomes in five sessions of 20-minute game play trials. It’s a good first step. Extradisciplinary I came to UCF as a visiting instructor of exceptional student education five years ago. The opportunity to work not only in education but in the field of
simulation and training in the simulation capital of the world was very exciting to me. Working on the app has been a joint effort with other faculty members and researchers [in the Institute for Simulation and Training, College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Nursing and elsewhere]. It’s so important to talk outside of one’s discipline. What’s next Our next step is to see if what the students learned through using the app and playing the games will translate from understanding virtual behavior to understanding behaviors in the real world. My hope is that we’ll be able to make the app available to the public in the future.
USTA Partners with UCF on ‘New Home for American Tennis’
In mid-May at a joint news conference with UCF President John C. Hitt, Gov. Rick Scott, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced construction of a 63-acre, 100-plus-court tennis center at Lake Nona, near UCF’s College of Medicine. “This new home for American tennis will truly be a game-changer for our sport,” said USTA chairman of the board and president Dave Haggerty.
The center will likely have the same effect on UCF tennis. The university is partnering with the USTA on the project, which includes a state-of-theart, 12-court collegiate venue with 1,200 elevated seats for spectators. The UCF men’s and women’s varsity programs will play their home matches at the venue, and university leaders hope also to host future NCAA national tournaments. “Anytime you have a big facility that’s going to have national exposure, and the best players in the U.S. will be training there, that just opens up so many opportunities for UCF,” said Bobby Cashman, UCF men’s tennis head coach. Of course, the benefits extend beyond the university. “UCF has embraced this project because it impacts academics, community partnerships, economic development and athletics,” said President Hitt. “Our students, our tennis players and our entire community will benefit from having the finest tennis facilities in the country at Lake Nona.” In order to help fund construction of the center — and of a new, 12-court practice facility on campus — the UCF Foundation has committed to raising $5 million in private support. Numerous naming opportunities exist, both on campus and at Lake Nona. To lean more, contact Mark Wright, assistant vice president, athletics development, at 407.823.2001 or mwright@athletics.ucf.edu.
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SUMMER 2014
‘ Tremendous Wisdom and Experience’ New board chair Phyllis Klock to guide foundation efforts “Phyllis brings tremendous wisdom and experience to the position,” said UCF President John C. Hitt recently of the new chair of the foundation’s board of directors, Phyllis Klock. “I know few people more committed to not only the UCF Foundation and the board, but to the university’s mission and strategic priorities.” Klock, who served previously on the board from 1997 through 2005 and who was appointed by then-Governor Jeb Bush as a charter member of the UCF Board of Trustees, officially began her two-year term as chair July 1. For the previous year, she had served as vice chair under outgoing chair Judy Albertson. Retired president and COO of CompBenefits, a health benefits company since acquired by Humana, Klock had worked earlier in her career as a coordinator in UCF’s College of Business Administration. “I’m delighted to have Phyllis chairing the foundation’s board at such a pivotal moment in UCF’s history,” said Hitt. “She will provide strong, focused leadership to guide our efforts as our comprehensive campaign evolves.” Klock also sets an inspiring example for donors. In addition to a long and varied record of giving, she has contributed her time to — and shared her expertise with — search committees, the UCF Athletics Board, the UCF Town & Gown Council and more, even volunteering at a recent student government-sponsored community service event.
New Provost Named A. Dale Whittaker, a Purdue University vice provost committed to student success, innovation and partnerships, has been selected from among more than 60 applicants as UCF’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. Whittaker, who has served in multiple faculty and leadership positions at Purdue and Texas A&M, was most recently Purdue’s vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs. He is also a professor of agricultural and biological engineering. “I’m deeply committed to lifting lives and livelihoods through knowledge,” he says. “Our core mission as a university is knowledge, and the impact is advancing people’s lives economically and socially for generations.”
An Uncommon Legacy
Stuart Fullerton, namesake, architect and primary collector of the Stuart M. Fullerton Collection of Arthropods at the University of Central Florida (known affectionately as The Bug Closet) passed away in April at the age of 74. It was a loss not only to the College of Sciences and the entire university but to the broader scientific community — and the world, for that matter. After retiring from a career as a museum and zoo curator in 1990, Fullerton, a 1978 UCF graduate, spent much of the remainder of his life collecting and classifying insects in Central Florida — including the parasitic wasps he was especially fascinated with — and creating what
Honoring Donors at Spring Events
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UCF Foundation, Inc. 12424 Research Parkway, Suite 250 Orlando, Florida 32826-3208 407.882.1220 ucffoundation.org
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is today one of the major research collections in the U.S. with over 500,000 specimens. He also taught entomology at UCF, unpaid, while quietly funding the vast majority of the creation and operation of The Bug Closet with in-kind gifts of equipment and specimens as well as cash gifts and a generous estate gift. Ultimately his giving exceeded $1 million, although the scores of students and colleagues whose letters and tributes flooded in after his death — most of whom had no idea of Fullerton’s philanthropy — remembered him primarily for the single-minded passion and infectious enthusiasm that had inspired so many of them.
Recognition events are one way the foundation thanks those whose generosity shapes UCF, and this spring we had the pleasure of hosting several. In March, after the Believe 2014 faculty and staff campaign, we invited all participating donors to a lunch at the UCF FAIRWINDS Alumni Center (1), where President Hitt announced a remarkable 20 percent increase in participation over the year before. Early the next month, we honored members of the President’s Circle — including David and Michelle Peck (2) — with a reception at the UCF Art Gallery. Membership is reserved for donors who give $1,000 to $24,999 for immediate use within the past year. Several weeks later (3), John Harris and Sean DeMartino of Balfour Beatty Construction joined President Hitt, foundation CEO Bob Holmes and College of Medicine Dean Deborah German to celebrate the company’s entry into the Colbourn Society, for donors making cumulative gifts of $1 million or more. Then, near the end of May, we treated members of the Millican Society — donors who have included UCF in their estate plans — to lunch and a wine tasting presentation (4) at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
The University of Central Florida Foundation, Inc. is the official fundraising organization and recipient of gifts for the University of Central Florida. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the university’s primary partner in securing philanthropic resources. The foundation encourages, stewards and celebrates charitable contributions from alumni and friends to support the University of Central Florida. It is governed by a board of directors, consisting of alumni and friends who volunteer their time to support the foundation’s efforts and programs.