Pegasus Summer 2014

PEGASUS The Magazine of the University of Central Florida

FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION Education reform takes off

MARCHING ON

New goals for student veterans

“THE END OF AARON” A short story

SUMMER 2014

A field of 2,196 athletes from 45 states and 66 countries swam 1.2 miles, biked 56 miles and ran 13.1 miles to complete Ironman 70.3 Florida presented by UCF.

Hello, UCF.

Some play the game,

OTHERS CHANGE IT.

P E G A S U S covers both.

READ ON.

PEGASUS

VOL. 21 • ISSUE 1 • SUM M ER 2 014

MAILBOX

PUBLISHER University of Central Florida EDITOR IN CHIEF Terry Helms MANAGING EDITOR Michelle Fuentes CREATIVE DIRECTOR Patrick Burt, ’08 ART DIRECTORS Lauren Haar, ’06 Steve Webb EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Eric Michael, ’96 COPY EDITOR Peg Martin PHOTOGRAPHERS Michael Chen Steven Diaz Corryn Lytle PRODUCTION MANAGER Sandy Pouliot ONLINE PRODUCER Roger Wolf, ’07 WEB PROGRAMMERS Jo Dickson, ’10 Brandon Groves, ’07

Heartfelt: Readers responded enthusiastically on Facebook to “Taking Nothing for Granted.”

Rachel Holcombe Jordan Stroman you’re famous.

I love you.

Jordan Stroman Look at you, rock stars! Sarah Goldman, Sam Veatch, Gina Patane, Chris DiDonna, Heather Cheerio Hochstedler Terri Berry I think of my disability as a challenge not a disability. I love how UCF embraces all students.

Pam West Dore’ Way to go!! This is awesome! My almost 18-year-old twins both have CP & are both in wheelchairs.

One will be graduating in 2 months & pursuing college!

This just proves what we’ve always told them... Anything is possible!!! Live without limits!!!

Keith Rowe Maybe my stepdaughter will go here someday.

David Pesek One of the best articles I’ve read in awhile.

Pamela Elmen So glad UCF is working with all their students to get a good education.

Barbara Williams You are no different than any human being. Life is beautiful, I see people that are making a difference for the future. Priceless!!!!

Benjamin James Book This is great inspiration just like my lil brother Jerry Book who even got to go to Japan for the very 1st wheelchair soccer international tournament and he brought the World Cup home.

Debbie Moyer Paul I love to see this happening.

The next issue to be tackled is the one where UCF better accommodates the illnesses you can’t see whether it’s a disease like Crohn’s and colitis, primary immunodeficiency, or a mental health issue.

To read the story, visit ucf.edu/pegasus/disabledstudents-overcome-challenges-of-college.

Pegasus is published by UCF Marketing in partnership with the UCF Foundation, Inc. and the UCF Alumni Association.

Opinions expressed in Pegasus are not necessarily those shared by the University of Central Florida.

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL THURLBY

4 | SUMMER 2014

Email

pegasus@ucf.edu

Mail UCF Marketing P.O. Box 160090 Orlando, FL 32816-0090

Susan Clisham-Langlois Rock on! Do your thing!!!! xo Michelle Maresca Unger Love this ... successful awareness stories! Our kids are able!

Magda Nowakowski Go get them guys :), this is what I teach my 4-year-old son diagnosed with CP. Thank you for being such great examples and idols to look up to for all the children that are facing different challenges.

Kathy Zimmerman It didn’t dawn on me he was in a chair until I looked at the pic for like 3 mins. You don’t look different to me.

James O Slattery Be proud of what you’re doing & yourselves!!!

To read the Facebook post, visit facebook.com/UCF/ posts/10152260130709591.

Lane Press won the Pinnacle Award from the Printing Industries of New England for the quality of its Pegasus printing.

Phone 407.823.2621 Fax

407.823.2567

Cert no. SW-COC-002556

©2014 UCF. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Pegasus is a registered trademark of the UCF Alumni Association.

CONTRIBUTORS Brian Boesch Rae Botsford, ’11 Daniel Britt Milos Bujisic Joshua Colwell J.R. Cook Susan Frith Grace Howard Peter Kerasotis Jason Lee Geoff Levy, ’13 Angie Lewis, ’03 Lure Design, Inc. David James Poissant Emon Reiser, ’14 Roger Roy, ’84 Paul Thurlby PEGASUS ADVISORY BOARD Barb Abney, ’03 Chad Binette, ’06 Anne Botteri Richard Brunson, ’84 Cristina Calvet-Harrold, ’01 Jeff Garner, ’89 John Gill, ’86 Michael Griffin, ’84 Mike Hinn, ’92 Zack Lassiter Gerald McGratty Jr., ’71 Tom Messina, ’84 Michael O’Shaughnessy, ’81 Karl Sooder Dan Ward, ’92

Mailbox Submissions

Emails to the editor should be sent with the writer’s name, graduation year, address and daytime phone number to pegasus@ucf.edu.

Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. Due to volume, we regret that we cannot reply to every letter.

Moved recently? Changed your email address?

Update your contact information: ucfalumni.com/contactupdates

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CONTENTS In Focus 6 On Campus 12 Briefs 14 Robots vs. Astronauts 16 Vertical Archaeology 18 The Lost Years 20 Refresher Course 22 Failure Is Not an Option 24 Marching On 28 Virtual Theatrics 32 “The End of Aaron” 33 AlumKnights 37 Back in the Day 46

“The Newtown school shooting was the most difficult story I’ve ever covered.

There was so much sadness in that town.

I swear the air felt different.” ­—Marci Gonzalez, ’05, ABC News correspondent For more Marci, see “Translating Tragedy” on Page 44.

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IN FOCUS PE GASUS MAGAZI N E Thursday, May 8 Blake Bortles holds a Jaguars jersey with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at Radio City Music Hall.

1 3 5

ST

QB selected

RD

overall pick

college and pro jersey number

21M

$

estimated fouryear contract

TOP OF THE CLASS

“It’s a dream come true to hear your name called and walk across the stage and fly to Jacksonville to meet with everybody. It’s unbelievable.”

—B lake Bortles, ’14, to ESPN 6 | SUMMER 2014

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PHOTO BY ELSA/GETTY IMAGES

NEW KNIGHTS IN THE NFL, 2014 Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars Jeff Godfrey, Houston Texans Storm Johnson, Jacksonville Jaguars Sean Maag, Jacksonville Jaguars Chris Martin, Houston Texans Jordan McCray, Green Bay Packers Justin McCray, Tennessee Titans

NFL DRAFT: TOP 5 QBs, 2014 1. Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars 2. Johnny Manziel, Cleveland Browns 3. Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota Vikings 4. Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders 5. Jimmy Garoppolo, New England Patriots

NFL DRAFT: TOP QB 2010–14 2010, Sam Bradford, Oklahoma, St. Louis Rams 2011, Cam Newton, Auburn, Carolina Panthers 2012, Andrew Luck, Stanford, Indianapolis Colts 2013, EJ Manuel, FSU, Buffalo Bills 2014, Blake Bortles, UCF, Jacksonville Jaguars

Did you know? In 1987, Ted Wilson became the first UCF athlete chosen in an NFL draft.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 7

IN FOCUS PE GASUS MAGAZI N E

ATTENTION GETTING

“It’s amazing — once I explode the balloon, they listen to everything I say.”

— Michael Hampton, chemistry professor 8 | SUMMER 2014

Hampton performed an experiment with flammable hydrogen to illustrate his presentation about energy, chemistry and the environment to a group of fifth-graders that visited UCF to experience campus life during Achieve a College Education Day. Led by The Burnett Honors College, the program encourages educationally disadvantaged students to consider a college education within their reach.

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IMAGES COURTESY OF GRACE HOWARD

FACES OF ORLANDO

“I used to hate Orlando. But when I started walking around downtown, talking with people and taking their photos, I discovered that everyone has a story to tell, each story is unique and, ultimately, humans are interesting.”

— Grace Howard, senior journalism student

For more, visit facesoforlando.tumblr.com.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 9

IN FOCUS PE GASUS MAGAZI N E

HUMAN POWER

“We had been looking at the other teams for a year and a half, studying who was going to be our biggest competition.”

— Brennon Hocker, senior mechanical engineering student 10 | SUMMER 2014

Knightrike, designed and built by seven engineering students, raced to first-place finishes in the speed, endurance and innovation categories to earn the overall No. 1 rank at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Human Powered Vehicle Challenge. Teams from 36 universities converged on the UCF campus to compete for cash prizes and bragging rights.

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IMAGE COURTESY OF JASON LEE

CHAMPION ATTITUDE

“When I was first diagnosed with leukemia at age 16, I set my sights at getting healthy enough to move to Florida and wakeboard year-round.”

—A lexa Score, ’12, former World Wakeboard Association national amateur champion

“Physically, I have to deal with a number of challenges, including bone pain, fatigue and various other side effects, but mentally, my cancer journey has only reinforced my outlook on life. Leukemia has also strengthened the relationships I have with the family and friends who truly care, and for that I am forever grateful.”

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 1 1

MARCH

13

Former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, author of Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress, was the inaugural Presidential Distinguished Visitors Series speaker.

MARCH

18

Actor Josh Radnor, known for his role as Ted Mosby on the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother,” was the student body’s choice for spring speaker.

MARCH

27

Students from the School of Visual Arts and Design collaborated with science, technology, engineering and mathematics students to create work for the STEAM Exhibition at the UCF Art Gallery.

M AY

22

Actress Cheryl Hines, ’90, taught educators improvisation techniques to use in the classroom during the TLE TeachLivE conference, which drew nearly 100 teachers from around the country.

ON CAMPUS and in the community

M AY

16

A competitor at the Science Olympiad National Tournament, which hosted more than 5,000 middle and high school students, launched his egg drop vehicle from a stairway in the Engineering II Atrium.

NE WS A N D N OTES

Briefs “Our core mission as a university is knowledge, and the impact is advancing people’s lives economically and socially for generations.”

Hall of Fame Kicks Matt Prater’s 64-yard field goal broke a 43-year-old NFL record in 2013. The Denver Broncos kicker still holds several kicking and punting records at UCF. His shoes are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “Some of my favorite artifacts are the ones that still have all the mud and bloodstains on them,” says collections curator

O n Aug. 1, A. Dale Whittaker joins UCF as provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Rugby Repeats National Title The Rugby Club won their second consecutive Division I-AA national championship with a win over Arizona.

On the way to their 64-13 victory in the final match at Stanford University’s Steuber Rugby Stadium, the Knights beat teams from LSU, South Carolina and University of California, San Diego.

IMAGE COURTESY OF PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME

Jason Aikens.

14 | SUMMER 2014

ATTOSECONDS The world’s shortest laser pulse — created by physics professor Zenghu Chang — may get up to six times faster thanks to a new five-year, $7.5 million grant. “Dr. Chang’s success in making ever-shorter light pulses helps open a new door to a previously hidden world, where we can watch electrons move in atoms and molecules, and follow chemical reactions as they take place,” said Michael Johnson, physicist and dean of the UCF College of Sciences. To equal a full second, Chang would have to repeat his 67-attosecond pulse experiment 15 million billion times.

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KUDOS ROUNDUP

IT’S BEEN A

STELLAR SEASON

UCF No. 2 Grad Program for Video Game Design

WITH AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE HONORS

Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy has been ranked among the top five in all four Princeton Review sets of rankings since the school opened in downtown Orlando nine years ago.

BASEBALL Coach of the Year Pitcher of the Year

IMAGE COURTESY OF A.J. SOSTAKOWSKI

FOOTBALL Coach of the Year Offensive Player of the Year MEN’S GOLF Player of the Year WOMEN’S GOLF Freshman of the Year Player of the Year MEN’S SOCCER Offensive Player of the Year WOMEN’S SOCCER Coach of the Year Defensive Player of the Year Rookie of the Year SOFTBALL Coaching Staff of the Year Player of the Year MEN’S TENNIS Freshman of the Year

Painting the Field Gold The Knights paintball team won the 2014 NCPA Collegiate Xball National Championships. The 11-member UCF team swept their competition and beat the University of Connecticut Huskies for the title. “Being our first year in Class A, we were excited to see how we stacked up against the rest of the country,” says team president Zak Daughtry. “We’re very fortunate to have a solid roster of experienced players.”

Silver Anniversary

The Department of English is celebrating its student-run literary journal, The Cypress Dome.

The award-winning annual publication features short fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction and art. “When I went up for tenure in 1989, Provost Richard Astro asked, ‘Is there anything the university could be doing to improve your department?’ ” Professor Don Stap remembers. “I [replied], ‘We could use a good student literary journal.’ ” After finding out it had been approved, Stap says, “I was shocked. It was terrific.”

U.S. News & World Report Recommends UCF Graduate Programs

The news magazine, which compiles and analyzes a wide range of data for their annual “Best Colleges” issue, ranked 23 UCF graduate programs among the top 100 in their fields, including education, engineering, computer science, criminal justice, physical therapy, public administration and social work.

Online Nursing Program The College of Nursing program tied Johns Hopkins University and ranked above Duke and Yale at No. 24 on the U.S. News & World Report list.

Green Colleges List

For the second year in a row, UCF made The Princeton Review’s “Guide to Green Colleges.” The guide commends UCF’s biodiesel fleet vehicle program, the student energy conservation competition, and the green computing initiative that has reduced greenhouse emissions and saved $800,000 in energy costs, among other initiatives.

Cyber Defenders Eight UCF students successfully defended a small (and fictitious) business from electronic attacks to win the Raytheon National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. “The team’s strength lies IMAGE COURTESY OF RAYTHEON

in their teamwork, cross-training, and dedication to continue learning and improving,” says Thomas Nedorost, faculty sponsor from the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The UCF team had its photo displayed in Times Square in recognition of its excellence.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 1 5

O PINION MAGA ZI N E PEGASUS

Humans Are Essential in the Exploration of Space “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” With these words, President John F. Kennedy roused America’s support of space exploration in 1962. He also acknowledged the geopolitical competition with the Soviet Union that provided the impetus to make mankind’s greatest technological achievement a possibility. Absent that Cold War motivation, our manned space program has languished in low Earth orbit for the last 40 years.

That drought drives home the point that we must return to the spirit of human exploration of the final frontier exemplified by the Apollo program. The need to see what is over the next horizon — and not to simply

see it, but to actually touch it — is a fundamental aspect of human nature.

Those horizons beckon on countless asteroids, the moon and Mars.

The manned exploration of space is an expression of one of our finest aspects — curiosity. To truly satisfy that curiosity we need to be participants. My colleague correctly points out that the robotic space program is a far more cost-effective means of advancing our scientific knowledge of the universe, and I could not agree more. While valuable advances have been made because of the manned program, it cannot and should not be justified on the grounds of scientific advancement. It is instead about something equally important as science — the inspiration of our species to pursue lofty goals.

Space scientists frequently make the mistake of assuming that

the space exploration budget is a zero-sum game, lamenting the money spent on the manned program that could be used to fund ambitious and scientifically valuable robotic missions. It is naïve to expect that politicians would spend those same billions on purely scientific exploration. If the manned program was canceled today, its budget would disappear, never to be spent on space exploration of any kind. In contrast, the U.S. manned space program enables NASA to maintain a scientific program of space exploration that is by far the largest in the world.

We need to move past the debate of manned versus unmanned programs and recognize that they serve different yet complementary roles, and that each endeavor ultimately strengthens the other.

Joshua Colwell, Ph.D., is a planetary scientist, professor of physics, associate chair of the Department of Physics and assistant director of the Florida Space Institute. His research interests are the origin and evolution of the solar system. He leads the Center for Microgravity Research, which conducts fundamental research enabled by microgravity.

Do we really need humans to explore space? Or are machines a better alternative to reach into the solar system and beyond? Two professors from the UCF Physics Department debate the benefits of manned and unmanned space missions.

Robots Are the Key to Future Space Exploration On the plus side, humans in space provide operational flexibility, inspiration and native intelligence.

On the minus side, that flexibility comes at a steep price. Humans are heavy, fragile, dirty, vulnerable, picky about their environment, and have a low tolerance for the space environment (i.e., high energy radiation, extreme heat and cold, etc.). The fragility of humans, our aversion for risking human life, and the all-too-human need for consumables (food, water and oxygen) require vast amounts of money to pay for the extra engineering and multiple redundant systems we demand to reduce risk to astronauts, as well as for the vastly larger support crews needed to baby-sit every aspect of daily life during a manned space mission.

For crewed spacecraft, Venus and Mercury are impossibly hot, and the asteroid belt and Jupiter are impossibly cold. The longer travel times to these worlds would be a death sentence from radiation exposure, not to mention bone loss and muscle atrophy. Once at an exploration target, humans can be a mixed blessing. Imagine trying to search for life on Mars with human explorers who are shedding pollutants and terrestrial contamination with literally every step and breath.

Fundamentally there is no real choice between robotic and human exploration of space, however.

Both are synergistic and mutually dependent. Robotic exploration is necessary to enable human exploration by setting the context, providing critical information, and reducing the risk to humans.

Imagine how the Apollo program

would have functioned without its robotic precursors — Lunar Orbiter to map the moon’s surface, Ranger to get close-up views of areas that helped perfect NASA’s navigation skills (remember that NASA missed the moon with two of the first three Rangers to get that far), and Surveyor to explore the surface, determine its composition and practice soft landings. Without these robotic precursors it would’ve been impossible to know where to go on the moon, to design the landing hardware, or to have any real idea of what to do once we got there — other than plant the flag.

Is there a choice between human and robotic exploration? Not really.

Considering the current limited range of human exploration, robotic exploration is essential to enable manned missions. For the rest of the solar system, robotic exploration is the only realistic game in town.

Daniel Britt, Ph.D., is a professor of astronomy and a member of the International Astronomical Union and the American Astronomical Society. His research focuses on using remote sensing tools to determine the composition and evolution of solar system objects such as asteroids, comets and Mars. Every NASA rover that’s been sent to the red planet, including the current Curiosity rover, has included equipment Britt designed and built.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY LURE DESIGN, INC.

1166 / |S P SU R IMNMGE 2 R 021 0 414

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VER TICAL ARCHAE OLO GY

UCF anthropologist J. Marla Toyne travels back in time on the face of a 300-foot cliff.

M

ore than a thousand years ago, the Chachapoya people of Peru buried their dead as

close to the heavens as possible.

On the eastern slope of the Andes, the ancient civilization built elaborate tombs using narrow ledges on cliffs as foundations. In this special place called La Petaca, they placed their mummified ancestors and decorated the mausoleums with colorful pictographs. Curiously, they also laid their dead to rest in adjacent caves in the mountains.

UCF Assistant Professor J. Marla Toyne wanted to know more.

D espite decades of grave robbing, the UCF scientist was able to gather human remains and artifacts to inform her studies of the Chachapoya people.

T oyne and her team used a system of ropes to access the 1,000-year-old La Petaca ruins in the Peruvian Andes.

“The pictographs are iconic in the region, and more tourists are arriving at La Petaca,” Toyne says. “However, very little is known about the site — the number of tombs, how they were built, who was buried inside — and our investigation was the first to answer these important questions.”

But to discover these secrets, she would have to learn an entirely new set of skills that she calls “vertical archaeology.”

“Archaeology is a horizontal science — you dig down through layers of dirt — but in this case we’ve flipped it and gone vertical,” says Toyne. “We want to take pictures and make maps and drawings in an environment where we may have to be suspended.”

During a season of fieldwork in summer 2013, Toyne, graduate researcher Lori Epstein and undergraduate volunteer Armando Anzellini, ’13, trained with Project Ukhupacha, a group of cave explorers from Spain’s Jaume I University, to master climbing equipment, tie and disengage knots, and learn to rappel. But once they got to the cliff, they encountered an environment with unforeseen dangers.

“Rocks were falling constantly,” says Toyne of the delicate, crumbling shale that makes up La Petaca’s cliffs. “Every day was very intense, but my [Spanish] colleagues felt confident that we were trained enough to make these ascents, and that made me feel safe.”

Working under an excavation permit from Peru’s Ministry of Culture, Toyne and her team spent almost 30 days on the cliff, documenting the tombs and gathering skeletons and other artifacts that they processed in an improvised laboratory at a local museum for three weeks afterward.

But her work in the region has just begun.

Toyne will scout other Chachapoya sites this summer and lead another team of students back to La Petaca in 2015.

“We identified at least 120 human-made structures used as burial places, including open chamber tombs, platforms and, surprisingly, walkways that connected groups of tombs,” Toyne says. “They likely walked along the rock ledges, cutting stone out to widen the pathways and to get stone to build. Once completed, they filled the tombs by [carrying] up bodies of family members … adults and children were buried together, including both males and females.”

For Toyne, the practice of scaling the cliffs of La Petaca provided a meaningful connection to the Chachapoya people she studies. “Nothing can really put you in the position of what the ancient people were thinking when they decided to risk their lives to build these structures,” she says.

“You can’t get that by looking at a picture or a map. When you’re up there, you recognize that creating this space for the dead meant a lot to them.”

IMAGES COURTESY OF JORDI PUIG/ASOCIACIÓN UKHUPACHA AND ISMAEL MEJÍAS/ASOCIACIÓN UKHUPACHA (INSET)

PE GASUS MAGAZI N E

HIGH-TECH TRACKING PACK Solar-powered satellite transmitters track the at-sea movements of 17 neonate loggerhead sea turtles collected from nests. A tag was adhered to each turtle’s carapace (shell) using a flexible neoprene-acrylic–silicone attachment developed from wetsuits, fingernail polish and hair extension adhesive.

LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLE (ADULT) Scientific name

Caretta caretta

Type

Reptile

Diet

Jellyfish, conch, crabs and occasionally seaweed

Average life span

75 years

Average size

3 feet

Average weight

250 pounds

THE PERFECT TURTLE NURSERY Hatchling loggerhead turtles that find refuge in floating beds of sargassum seaweed have increased chances for survival. The plant, which can grow in colonies that stretch for miles on the ocean surface, creates a prime habitat for many juvenile species.

20 | SUMMER 2014

Benefits include: • Warmer water increases activity of cold-blooded reptiles.

• Sargassum habitat harbors food sources for juvenile turtles.

• Weblike structure of seaweed offers protection from predators.

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Sea Turtles: The Lost Years

After loggerhead turtles hatch, they disappear into the Atlantic Ocean to begin a perilous journey that marine biologists refer to as “the lost years.” In 2013 UCF Assistant Professor Kate Mansfield, along with researchers from Florida Atlantic University, University of Wisconsin, University of Miami and the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center, used satellite trackers to follow juvenile turtles into the unknown. Here’s what they discovered.

TRAVEL TIME The lab-raised turtles were released in the Gulf Stream within floating sargassum mats approximately 12 miles off Florida’s Atlantic coast and monitored for up to 220 days.

WHAT IS THE NORTH ATLANTIC GYRE? Created by weather and wind patterns, this system of oceanic currents circulates around the Atlantic Ocean in a clockwise route bordered by the Eastern United States, Iceland, Western Europe, Western Africa and the equator. Inside the gyre, large, dense colonies of seaweed accumulate in a typically calm area called the Sargasso Sea.

NEWSWORTHY Mansfield and her colleagues discovered that juvenile turtles rarely stayed in waters close to the continental shelf, moved quickly when riding the currents of the North Atlantic Gyre and frequently left these currents to find shelter in the floating seaweed beds of the Sargasso Sea. The research team received media attention from the British Broadcasting Corporation, Entertainment Weekly, National Geographic, National Public Radio, Scientific American, Smithsonian and others. To read Mansfield’s blog, visit biology.cos.ucf.edu/marineturtleresearchgroup.

MAP NOT DRAWN TO SCALE. ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN BOESCH

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KIWI DREAM Ingredients: • 1 kiwi • 1/2 oz. Monin Green Mint syrup • 3 oz. apple juice Cut slice of kiwi. Peel remainder and put into blender with ice and syrup. Blend and pour into highball glass. Top with apple juice. Garnish with kiwi slice.

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7 easy and delicious cocktail recipes for summer The Rosen College of Hospitality Management teaches students the history, manufacturing methods and responsible management of fine spirits for restaurants and other venues in partnership with Bacardi U.S.A. The fine spirits program complements similar classes on beer and wine at the college. Instructor Milos Bujisic and his student J.R. Cook share their favorite recipes for your next gathering. !

CUCUMBER VODKA FIZZ

SUNRISE BELLINI

Ingredients: • 1/4 of a medium-size cucumber • 1 oz. fresh lemon juice • 1/2 oz. simple syrup • 1 1/2 oz. Tito’s Handmade Vodka • 2 oz. club soda

Ingredients: • 2 oz. fresh orange purée • 3 oz. chilled prosecco • 1/2 oz. grenadine

Cut two thin slices of cucumber.

Peel remaining cucumber, and put it into a blender with ice, lemon juice, simple syrup and vodka. Blend and pour everything into highball glass.

Top with club soda. Garnish with cucumber slices.

Pour orange purée into chilled champagne glass and add prosecco.

Stir gently. Pour grenadine around inside edge of glass.

HIGH-END SCREWDRIVER

ORLANDO MARTINI

Ingredients: • 2 oz. Belvedere Intense Vodka • 3 oz. fresh orange juice • 1 oz. Moët & Chandon Champagne • 1 strawberry

Ingredients: • 1 1/2 oz. Genius Fine Vodka, Winter Park Distilling Company, Winter Park • 1 oz. Grand Marnier liqueur • 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice • 2 tbsp. granulated sugar • 1 lime slice

Pour vodka and orange juice into highball glass filled with ice. Stir gently. Top with Champagne.

Garnish with strawberry.

Combine vodka, liqueur and lime juice, shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass rimmed with sugar.

Garnish with lime slice.

VIRGIN FLORIDA SUNRISE

VIRGIN MOJITO

Ingredients: • 4 oz. fresh orange juice • 1/2 oz. grenadine • 1 oz. Fever-Tree Ginger Beer • 1 orange slice • 1 cocktail cherry

Ingredients: • 6 mint sprigs • 2 tsp. brown sugar • 1 fresh lime • 3 oz. club soda

Pour orange juice into highball glass with ice. Add splash of grenadine but do not stir (picture a sunrise).

Top with ginger beer. Garnish with orange slice and cherry.

Muddle mint with sugar and lime slices in old-fashioned glass. Add splash of club soda and fill glass with cracked ice.

Top with club soda. Garnish with mint sprig and lime slice. Serve with straw.

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FAILURE IS

.

It’s a brave new world for our children. Will education reform help or hinder them?

I

n order to meet one of Florida’s new statewide learning goals, UCF student-teacher Danielle Murphy, ’14, stood in front of her kindergarten class and invited them to plunge their hands into a bag of blubber.

Well, not exactly. What Murphy showed her students was a plastic bag filled with vegetable shortening — not unlike the fatty layer that keeps creatures warm in cold climates. She asked what they thought would happen if they covered their hands in the white goo before thrusting them into a bucket of icy water. After discussing it, the students shared their hypotheses with the class. Learning to express ideas orally — clearly and audibly — is one of the Florida standards.

When it was time to test their ideas, “They put their hands in there and figured out they couldn’t feel the cold at all,” she says. “They loved it.”

While Murphy enjoys the challenge of teaching to the new benchmarks in language arts and math, other educators, parents and administrators take issue with the standards, which are adapted from a set of nationwide learning goals known as the Common Core.

The goal of the Common Core is to raise student achievement and provide consistent education from one state to the next. It has been adopted by 45 states, including Florida, and the District of Columbia. Those that adopted the standards earned extra points in their application for federal funds through President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative.

Supporters view the new benchmarks as another step in the right direction for Florida, which launched a series of education reforms in 1996 that continue today. They say the newest standards bring more rigor to the classroom and emphasize critical thinking over memorization.

“I think the key to a good education for our students, and for them to be able to move forward to whatever college and career choices they may make, is to be sure we have rigorous, high academic standards,” says Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart, ’85. She feels the Florida standards have met those criteria.

24 | SUMMER 2014

Opponents object to the way the standards were created as well as to their content. “[Both] conservatives and liberals are starting to question the legitimacy of what is going on in the public schools,” says Ceresta Smith, a teacher in Miami-Dade County and co-founder of United Opt Out National, a nonprofit organization that seeks to eliminate high-stakes testing in public education.

“It’s all standardized test prep,” she says. “There’s no deep learning going on.”

Laura Zorc, co-founder of Florida Parents Against Common Core, calls the state standards mediocre and views their basis in the Common Core as a threat to local control. Her group has been petitioning the Legislature to stop implementation of the benchmarks. “Florida parents are insulted

“We’ve had standards in Florida for a long time, and it did not raise concerns in the past.” and outraged at the governor and the Florida Department of Education’s attempt to deceive the public into thinking that we now have ‘Florida standards’ when clearly we have national standards,” she says.

The debate grows as Florida prepares to introduce an assessment test aligned with the new standards next school year. It will replace the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), which has been given since 1998 to students in grades 3–11. With scores linked to student advancement, school ratings and teacher pay, the stakes continue to be high.

Top Down, Not Top Notch

Critics of the standards argue that the team that wrote the Common Core, developed through the National Governors Association for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers,

included no high school English or mathematics teachers and no university English professors. It did, however, include a number of staff members and consultants from Achieve, an education-reform nonprofit created by business and government leaders in 1996.

Smith, a veteran of 25 years in the classroom, says the new standards put too much pressure on younger students, pushing aside play and socialization. “You’re sitting children at desks far too long.” At the same time, she says, the new standards don’t encourage older students to think deeply enough.

Zorc shares this latter concern. In her view, the Common Core stresses the analysis of excerpted informational texts at the expense of reading classical literature. She also objects to what she calls an emphasis on soft skills, such as global awareness and media literacy, over content learning and the promotion of fuzzy math, of which she says, “The kids are told it’s OK if you get the wrong answer, as long as you can explain how you got your answer.” Zorc feels that as a result, Florida students will fall behind their international peers.

Critics like Smith and Zorc believe that schools place too much emphasis on preparing for standardized tests rather than learning for its own sake. Some parents agree.

Jan Chalhoub, ’95, a Winter Park mother of five students in the Orange County Public Schools system, says, “It’s been such a stressful year for my kindergartner — and kindergarten is supposed to be fun.” She blames the push for students to master sight words and write sentences on the influence of the Common Core and high-stakes testing pressures.

At the same time, her fourth-grader is still struggling with her multiplication tables, which “when we were in school, they drilled into our heads,” she says. “They just focus so much on teaching to take the test that I feel like they’ve missed a lot of fundamentals.”

Though the FCAT created anxiety for her fourthgrader, Chalhoub understood the goals behind the assessments. “I certainly want us to be able to

ILLUSTRATIONS BY PAUL THURLBY

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“One test, although valuable in terms of data collection, simply cannot tell you all there is to know about a child’s academic progress.”

Decades of Education Reform

compete in our education system, and [for] our kids to be as smart as they can be,” she says. “But I want to make sure the focus is still on learning — not on test taking, test results [and] merit-based pay.”

Linking teacher pay and school ratings to student test scores has been a sore point for many teachers and administrators. One problem is that educators are evaluated on the test scores of students they may have never taught, says Karri Williams-Fjeldhe, associate professor and reading education coordinator at UCF’s College of Education and Human Performance (COEHP). “It’s not a direct effect,” she says. “It’s an aggregated score, not broken [down by] specific teachers.”

Some think that data evaluation affects students as well. “One test, although valuable in terms of data collection, simply cannot tell you all there is to know about a child’s academic progress,” says Donna Hackett-Mello, ’04, a second-grade teacher at Arbor Ridge Elementary in Orlando. “These tests should also not be the only factor in determining school grades.”

Lee Baldwin, a COEHP associate professor who formerly served as the senior director of accountability, research and assessment for Orange County Public Schools, favors accountability, but he acknowledges that testing can produce some unintended consequences, such as causing teachers to rely more on worksheets and other learning tools to make sure students are ready to perform well on standardized tests.

“I don’t think anyone was sitting in Tallahassee saying, ‘Let’s eliminate recess,’ but because schools are so fearful they will get a bad grade, they will focus on what they need to do to get a good grade,” he says. But even with these reservations, Baldwin is quick to add that he does not want to eliminate testing.

“It’s not like education was wonderful back in the ’80s before they started accountability,” he says. “You could just look at the national data to know we were not performing as well as we could.”

1983

1996

A commission established by President Reagan

Raising Expectations

“We’ve had standards in Florida for a long time, and it did not raise concerns in the past,” says Commissioner Stewart. She attributes much of the controversy to a misperception that Florida submitted to a federal takeover by adopting the Common Core. “We’re not mandated to do anything by the federal government,” she says. “These are our own standards.”

In Zorc’s view, the original documents were not changed enough.

And because of copyright restrictions by the Council of Chief State School Officers, a nonprofit organization of public education officials that co-owns the Common Core standards, “You do not see deletions, just additions. This is a concern to many of us,” she says. “Florida has given over our state and local control to a copyright.”

Juli Dixon, a professor of mathematics education at the COEHP, helped revise Florida’s math standards in 2007. More recently, she’s written three books to help educators adapt to the Common Core. To her, the updated standards are not a drastic change, but another step forward. “What the Common Core did was bring more rigor and specificity and focus to our [previous] state standards,” she says. She cites how the standards have achieved a better balance in promoting an understanding of both concepts and procedures, the why and what in mathematics.

Dixon does think educators could do a better job explaining to parents why math looks different compared to when they went to school. “It’s

Governors and business leaders at the National

not to create problems for students and parents,” she says. “It’s to help children understand the math we use.” So, while it’s important for students to know that 6 times 7 equals 42, it’s also important to know how they get there. “The conceptual understanding should come first,” she says, so students can build on what they know to tackle more difficult mathematics later on.

Hackett-Mello agrees. “I am on the front lines, [teaching the standards] every day, and I can tell you that it is something my students needed. We are helping students not only learn to use the time-tested methods of problem-solving, but also to find new ways of doing so,” she adds. “The Common Core math is about reaching all of our students.”

Hackett-Mello provides a subtraction lesson that supports Common Core goals: To subtract 326 from 489, you can write it out in the standard way or the following way: Think of 326 as 300, 20, 6.

Now, do 489 minus 300.

Then do 189 minus 20.

Finally, do 169 minus 6.

“This is a strategy that some students and many adults actually use more often than they are aware,” she says. “It is how many people subtract large numbers in their heads. Students are becoming better problem solvers now. That’s what Common Core [and the Florida standards are] all about.”

Seminole County Public Schools Superintendent Walt Griffin, ’81, believes the new standards are more relevant because of their emphasis on critical thinking. With access to the Internet, he says, “Students today have to learn how to discern what is accurate and appropriate information.”

The Florida standards also promote a more thorough understanding of

2001

President Bush signs the No Child Left Behind

publishes “A Nation at Risk,” marking the

Education Summit pledge to work together

Act, which strengthens standards and testing

starting point of standards-based education

to raise standards in public schools, founding

requirements. States are still free to set their

reform implementation.

Achieve, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that

own standards and create their own tests.

will become instrumental in the creation of the

1994

A series of Clinton administration-backed laws

Common Core.

2008

The National Governors Association, state

requires states to set standards and establish

education commissioners and other groups

corresponding tests.

begin organizing development of common standards in math and English language arts for grades K–12.

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language arts, says Commissioner Stewart. “In the past, we’d have students read a passage and [we’d] ask them very functional questions to get at comprehension, such as, ‘What color was Sarah’s dress?’ Students would learn to look for green, dress and Sarah, and they were done. … And now we ask questions like, ‘Why on this particular day would Sarah wear this dress?’ ” To answer, students have to read the entire passage and cite evidence for their answers. “It is a much richer way of instructing students,” she says.

Stewart disagrees with critics who say the standards come at the expense of play. “I think those really good teachers out there know how to incorporate play in their instruction,” she says, “but [students] are in school, even in the primary grades … and I think it is our responsibility to make sure they are moving forward and learning.”

Accountability Equals Improvement

Next spring Florida students will break in a new kind of test based on the Florida standards. According to Commissioner Stewart, the assessment needs to provide “a richer way of being able to glean information from students” than the FCAT did.

While the details are still being worked out on a six-year $220 million contract with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to develop the test, Florida students will be expected to do more than pick out the right multiple-choice answer. As the Florida Department of Education website states, “Students will be asked to create graphs, interact with test content and write and respond in different ways than on traditional tests.”

For some educators that’s a welcome change. Bubbling in the answers on a test like the FCAT “is kind of divorced from what

2009

What Are the Florida Standards?

These statewide goals for public education set specific academic benchmarks in math and English language arts. On Feb. 18, the Florida State Board of Education voted to approve the Mathematics Florida Standards and Language Arts Florida Standards. To inform the updated standards — and in response to public complaints — the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) invited public input during three open meetings held throughout the state, plus a website form to solicit comments and an email address for individuals to send messages directly to the FDOE. From the resulting comments, the department recommended changes to the original Common Core State Standards (which were adopted in July 2010). To read the complete Florida standards, visit fldoe.org.

students do in class every day or once they’re in the workforce,” says UCF Associate Professor Baldwin.

In the selection of AIR, a nonprofit social science and behavior research organization, Stewart says, “We had several key points we were hitting: ensuring an assessment close in cost to the FCAT, close in length of testing time, and that it would work within a grading system in Florida.”

Under Stewart’s plan, the first year’s test scores will be used to create a new baseline to measure student and school progress, and schools will not be penalized for poor grades until the 2015–16 school year.

Stewart became a believer in high-stakes testing when she was the principal of an elementary school that earned an F based on its FCAT scores. “Before we started issuing school grades, Florida was really at the bottom of education nationwide, or close to the bottom,” Stewart says.

“And this past year we were ranked No. 6 in the nation.” (This is according to the Education Week “Quality Counts” report, which considers six areas of educational policy and performance.) “I will tell you that if there weren’t school grades, [my school] would have been critically low performing forever. But with this

impetus, we pulled in teachers from each grade level and developed a plan … We moved from an F to a C in one year,” she says. And more importantly, students began performing on grade level.

Stewart feels it’s up to the teachers and administrators to keep students from feeling stressed about the exams. “If we send the message to students that this consequence is going to happen to you if you don’t do well, we’re sending the wrong message,” she says. “It should be like a theater production. We’ve practiced and practiced for it, and now is our opportunity to shine.”

Governors and state education commissioners

2010

First draft of the standards is released to the

2012

Wyoming becomes the 46th state to adopt

2012–13

PARCC and Smarter Balanced begin pilot

from 48 states plus the District of Columbia

March 10

public for comment.

June 6

the full Common Core standards; Indiana later

School Yr.

testing of new standardized tests.

2014–15

All participating states will begin using new

School Yr.

standardized tests for math and English

commit to developing the Common Core

opts out.

standards. Only Alaska and Texas do not join

2010

Final Common Core standards are released for

the effort.

June 2

states to adopt or reject.

2011–12

Development begins for new standardized

School Yr.

tests tied to the Common Core standards.

2010

Kentucky adopts the Common Core standards

2010

Deadline for adoption of the Common Core

The effort is led by two consortiums of states,

Feb. 10

before they’ve been publicly released, making it

Aug. 2

standards through the Race to the Top

known as PARCC and Smarter Balanced, which

program, allowing states to earn extra points

share $360 million in federal grants to develop

toward competitive federal grants.

the new tests.

the first state to adopt them.

language arts.

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MARCHING ON Student veterans often bond with each other, but are they connecting with traditional UCF students?

M

aybe it’s the way he speaks or the way he carries himself. It’s not hard to tell that UCF criminal justice major Emerson Bielen served in the military, and he’s never surprised when classmates ask.

“The Marine Corps,” he responds. And if they ask if he’s been “you know, over there,” he tells them he spent nine months in Fallujah, Iraq. “Sometimes somebody will ask, ‘Did you ever kill anybody?’ …

And I answer, ‘I’m sure most of the people in the military never killed anybody,’ ” he says.

It’s the kind of awkward experience shared by student veterans that can separate them from other students on campus.

Bielen is philosophical about the misconceptions classmates can have about veterans — ones that he says are shared by society at large. “I think some people do believe we all just killed a lot of people and are messed up in the head,” he says.

But while Bielen knows there are student veterans who face physical and emotional difficulties, he says that for most of his peers the daily challenges are “probably no different from any other student — just trying to stay on top of everything you’ve got to do.”

A GROWING POPULATION

UCF has nearly 1,600 student veterans, a population that has grown from about 200 in 2006.

It is a wave that may not crest for years as more than 2 million Americans have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

While it’s true that veterans share the challenges faced by traditional students, their circumstances often present additional obstacles, says Paul Viau, director of UCF’s Veterans Academic Resource Center (VARC). The center opened three years ago as a one-stop shop for veterans’ resources and has become an academic and social hub for vets, who use its public space and study rooms.

According to Viau, UCF’s veterans are a diverse group. While a few are in their 50s, most are in their late 20s or early 30s. The majority enlisted after high school, served four to 10 years, and came

28 | SUMMER 2014

to UCF after two years at a state college. About 25 percent of UCF’s student veterans are women.

“They often have other things going on outside the classroom — families, jobs or other obligations,” Viau says. “They’re also at a different level of maturity from the more traditional students, so it can be tough for them to fit in on campus.”

A CULTURAL TRANSITION

Bryan Batien, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs psychologist who counsels student veterans at VARC, has witnessed the challenges of readjusting to civilian life.

“Even if you leave out the issues of combat, the military is a very structured environment,” says Batien, himself an Army veteran of the Iraq War. “When you return to civilian life, when you come to a college campus, those are big adjustments. And a lot of veterans aren’t going to feel like they have much in common with the other students here.”

Stacy Schumpert admits she wasn’t going out of her way to get involved in campus life when she came to UCF to pursue her master’s degree in social work.

At age 24, she joined the Air Force after four years of college and served five years of active duty, including a year as a combat operator in Iraq.

Coming to UCF as a single mom and an Air Force Reserve member, she says, “I was really in my shell, just focused on what I was doing.”

But an adviser who was a veteran and a member of the campus veterans’ organization, now the Student Veterans of America UCF Chapter, encouraged Schumpert to get involved. “I showed up at a meeting, and the next thing I know I’m the president,” Schumpert says. “It was that peer-topeer connection that brought me out of my shell. I think that’s really important for veterans, and that’s what we want to build on.”

The Student Veterans of America UCF Chapter and VARC both help to build community with veterans on campus — a place where vets find support, guidance and an understanding ear, Schumpert says. “I think it’s hard for people to

understand if you haven’t served in the military, but this is a group of people you would give your life for,” she says. “I know they’re people I can rely on, because we have shared experiences and values.”

Conversely, Schumpert admits, it can be tough to find common ground with classmates who haven’t shared those kinds of life experiences.

“You’ll see students, especially younger ones, who are wearing sweatpants to presentations or talking on their phones in class,” Schumpert says. “I know I was guilty of the same kinds of things when I was an undergraduate, so I get it. But it still bothers me.”

If the student veterans sometimes don’t know what to make of their civilian classmates, the opposite seems just as true.

A CHALLENGE TO FIT IN

“I never announce that I’m a veteran; I don’t wear a camo backpack or anything,” says Melissa Smith.

“But sometimes it comes up.”

Smith joined the Army at age 17, four days after graduating from high school. She trained as a medic and a nurse, spent three years on active duty, including two years in Iraq, and completed five years in the Army Reserve.

Smith, who is completing her bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences, wants to be a pediatrician and is applying to medical school. She was 25 when she started at UCF, and says she had little in common with other students.

When other students learn she not only enlisted at 17 but also served in Iraq, it’s often a conversation stopper. “I get blank stares a lot,” she says. “People will say, ‘What’s Iraq like? Is it really hot?’ I think they just don’t know how to process it.”

Sometimes people will thank her for her service; Smith would rather they didn’t. “It’s always awkward,” she says. “I’m not sure what it is they’re thanking me for, and I’m never sure how to respond to it. Should I thank them for thanking me?”

For student veteran Lucdwin Luck, the pride and sense of discipline and leadership instilled by his service as a U.S. Marine remain the characteristics by which he defines himself.

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“I want to be involved in the community, maybe even run for political office,” says Lucdwin Luck, political science major. “I want to do something where I’m making a difference.”

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Selected for embassy security duty, his assignments included Japan, Brazil and Syria. In Damascus, Luck was one of five Marines assigned to the security detail. What he took away from those experiences weren’t long stretches far from home or the potential danger, but the unique opportunities it afforded him.

“The Marine Corps was a terrific experience for me,” Luck says. “Here I was, this young guy in these places all around the world, working with diplomats and civilians. I really learned how to interact with people on a level unlike anything I’d ever been exposed to before.”

Those experiences fueled Luck’s thirst to know more about everything. A political science major with minors in business, economics and sociology, Luck is considering a range of careers. “I want to be involved in the community, maybe even run for political office,” he says. “I want to do something where I’m making a difference.”

A STORY OF SUCCESS

While the struggles of veterans are more likely to get public attention, Batien says that the success of student vets at UCF is what should be focused on.

And while some student veterans experience issues related to post-traumatic stress disorder, such as sleep problems or anger issues, Batien says, “[They] are working through it and overcoming it. They’re succeeding.”

Batien’s presence on campus is provided through the VA’s Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership (VITAL) program — one of fewer than two dozen VITAL programs around the country. For the student veterans he’s assisted at UCF, Batien says it’s beneficial that VARC brings together all the resources available on campus: Counseling and Psychological Services, Student Disability Services, Transfer and Transition Services, and Career Services.

VARC resources provided much-needed support when Darrell Holmes needed help. After a career in the Air Force, Holmes tired of temporary work and decided to pursue a degree. But he found he didn’t learn as easily as he had in his youth, and that a hyperawareness of his surroundings made it difficult to tune out distractions.

SOLDIERS TO SCHOLARS: UCF Student Veterans Serve the Community 30 | SUMMER 2014

“That’s why I volunteered to be a peer mentor. I had a hard time connecting with other students when I got here. I’d like to do what I can to make new student vets have an easier time than I did.”

“I was having trouble retaining information,” says Holmes. “I’d listen to a lecture and understand what the professor was saying, but in a few minutes it was gone.” Holmes says he was diagnosed with a learning disability, possibly related to the 12 years he spent as a boxer.

When he turned to VARC, he says, “I was stunned by how quickly they were able to help me. Tutors, extra time for some of my work, a note-taker, even a recorder so that I could repeatedly listen to lectures — it all made a huge difference.”

While his studies have gotten more challenging, his grades have improved, he says. Holmes is confident he’ll attain his goal of earning a law degree and providing other veterans with legal assistance.

“I practically live at VARC,” he says. “It provides that calm and quiet I need to focus on my work, and also a chance to spend time with other vets, people who I feel that common bond with.”

But there are still veterans on campus who haven’t connected to the services that are available to them.

A HUB OF SUPPORT

To help veterans prepare for job interviews, VARC holds an Academic Boot Camp, where volunteer peer mentors have been enlisted from among the student veterans. These mentors are reaching out not only to new students, but also to those who have been on campus for a while, says Schumpert.

“Judging from the reaction we get, a lot of [student veterans] don’t know what’s available, which is what we’re working to change,” she says.

“It’s easier for veterans to open up if they’re talking to other veterans,” says Jeff MacGibbon, ’13, an Air Force veteran and business management

Created in 1996 by former state Rep. Alzo Reddick, the UCF Soldiers to Scholars program works in conjunction with the GI Bill to help honorably discharged veterans achieve their higher education goals. In exchange for five hours per week mentoring atrisk youth, participants are eligible for financial support for tuition, textbooks and housing. Their community service

graduate. “That’s why I volunteered to be a peer mentor. I had a hard time connecting with other students when I got here. I’d like to do what I can to make new student vets have an easier time than I did.”

Bielen, also a peer mentor, says even when the veterans he reaches out to seem reluctant to seek help, at least they know there’s a place to turn.

“We’ll talk about what it’s like being on campus, being older than everybody else and how weird it is or whatever — really just trying to make that connection,” he says.

VARC also hosts a dedicated orientation for incoming student veterans, whether they’re using veterans benefits or not. “UCF is a big place,” Lorine Cisch-Taylor of Transfer and Transition Services told a group of 16 new students at a recent VARC orientation. “There’s a lot of, ‘That’s not my department, you need to go across campus.’ There’s a lot of red tape. My job is to help you cut through that red tape.”

Batien introduced himself at the orientation, tossing two foam rubber hand grenades into the crowd — “stress relievers,” he said to laughter — and told students not to hesitate in turning to him or using available services on campus.

Before marching the new students to registration, Viau encouraged them to use VARC’s lounge and study rooms — “the best-kept secret on campus” — and shared the mantra of VARC staff and volunteers: Use the help that’s here for you.

His closing words were of the sort familiar to anyone who has worn a military uniform: “Your mission now is to finish your degree.”

includes walking children to and from school, facilitating an after-school education program and assisting with regular health fairs run with support from UCF’s School of Social Work and the College of Nursing. Available to those seeking undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees, the program, which operates under the direction of UCF’s Defense Transition

Services, serves about 35 student veterans per year. “It’s a win-win situation,” says Charles Hite, the program’s associate director. “They get their college degree, and they give back to the community.”

For more information, visit soldierstoscholars.org.

Speaking to Student Vets About Their Service

IT’S NOT RUDE to ask veterans about their military service, says Bryan Batien, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs psychologist who counsels UCF student veterans. But it’s important to approach the subject in a way that respects each veteran’s sensitivities.

“Some veterans don’t like to talk about their military experiences, but many others would be glad to share them,” says Batien, an Army veteran of the Iraq War. “But starting out with a question like, ‘Were you in combat?’ can be too intrusive, even insulting,” he says. “Start small, just engage in simple conversation and ask open-ended questions like, ‘What did you do in the military?’ — something they can answer according to their comfort level. And judge by their response whether it’s something they want to talk about or not.”

Batien says it’s worth the time to get to know about the experiences of classmates who have served in the military.

“One of the things I love about veterans on the campus is the richness [of experience] they bring,” he says. “These are people who have not only been around the world, but who have witnessed events that have changed the world.”

As nontraditional students who are a bit older and have vastly different life experiences than most of their classmates, UCF veterans (clockwise from top left) Darrell Holmes, Jeff MacGibbon, Stacy Schumpert and Melissa Smith have discovered a community of their own at the Veterans Academic Resource Center, where Bryan Batien (above) and other staff offer guidance and support.

ARTS

VIRTUAL THEATRICS

A trio of alumni brings Marco Polo to life.

W

hen a dark and dingy prison scene fades quickly into a sunlit desert landscape, it’s evidence of good theater. But when it takes place without stagehands, set pieces or painted backdrops, it’s innovation.

Such state-of-the-art digital projection transformed 13th-century Asia and entertained opera viewers during “The Red Silk Thread: An Epic Tale of Marco Polo.” It’s a trend that Stella Sung, a composer and professor in the UCF School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD), applauds.

“More opera and theater companies are using technology and virtual effects,” Sung says. “The sets are active, not static, and with the animation you can build in movements and scene changes — things that you cannot do with regular sets.”

“The sets are active, not static, and with the animation you can build in movements and scene changes.”

a month to render. Says Knott, “We can do things within the animation that would be very difficult or physically impossible with a regular set.”

Once the digital sets were complete, installing and calibrating the projectors at the theater took about a day. “I’ve seen a few traditional sets that are on a grand scale that have taken a month to get [installed],” says Knott. And the digital approach offers yet another benefit: “It’s more of a green opera since you don’t have all the sets to build,” Rosa says.

“You save trees.”

The completed opera, which premiered at the University of Florida, drew positive reviews from audiences, including a standing ovation that lured Rosa to the stage to take a bow with the performers.

“That was the first time I’ve done anything like that,” Rosa says. “It was surreal because we’re usually the behind-the-scenes people.”

“So many people were asking, ‘How did you make that work?’ ” says Sung, who hopes to produce the opera at other venues. “I think the future of digital sets is very bright, and I’m happy to have several projects in the works with the Ninjaneers.”

To add realism to the digitally projected backgrounds for “The Red Silk Thread: An Epic Tale of Marco Polo,” Ninjaneer Studios employed 3-D effects and subtle animation, creating depth in the artificial sets where singers such as Anthony Offerle performed Stella Sung’s latest opera.

IMAGE COURTESY OF ANI COLLIER

In 2012 Sung, who serves as director of UCF’s Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology and Entertainment (CREATE), approached Winter Springs, Florida, animation company Ninjaneer Studios to collaborate on the

opera production. She had previously worked with the firm’s founders — Chris Brown, ’11, Heather Knott, ’11, and Joe Rosa, ’11 — when they were SVAD students.

“What we were looking at was how to use [technology] to tell the story in a more interesting and active way,” Sung says. “It was a way for me to support our former students.”

The Ninjaneers showed her examples of 3-D projection mapping, which casts animated digital images onto irregular surfaces to create the illusion of depth, movement and real objects where none exist. Sung found their ideas to be imaginative, and together they began the laborious process of designing a virtual world for her opera.

Starting with Sung’s music for inspiration and timing queues, the team researched the era of Marco Polo to guide their interpretation of the court of Kublai Khan, an ancient Mongol emperor. They enhanced each scene with subtle animation, such as flickering sunbeams, swaying lanterns and moving clouds.

“We want [the audience] to be able to see something moving, but not stare at it the whole time,” Rosa says. “The main focus should be the singers.”

Knott led a crew of nine animators to create seven scenes for the two-hour performance. Some scenes, such as a Chinese junk surrounded by shimmering water and moving shadows, took the combined power of four custom-built computers more than

32 | SUMMER 2014

A short story by David James Poissant, assistant professor of creative writing aron calls to say we’re running out of time, and I know that we’re going to have to do it all over again, the collecting, the hiding, the waiting to come out of the dark.

“Grace,” he says. “Where are you? Where are you right now?”

He’s got that warble in his voice, like he’s just swallowed a kazoo, that and the tone that means business, like in movies when the screen splits and we see the people on both ends of the line, the air traffic controller telling the twelve-year-old girl how to land the plane, or the hero asking the chief which color wire to cut.

“Publix,” I say. “I’m at Publix.”

“Perfect,” Aaron says. “I want you to get ten—twenty—gallons of water, eight rolls of duct tape, five pounds of jerky, and a pear.”

He still calls it duck tape, like the bird. Last time I corrected him, he didn’t talk to me for two days, so I let it go.

“Why the pear?” I ask.

“I like pears,” Aaron says, and it’s like he’s saying: Just because the world’s ending, I can’t get a pear, for God’s sake?

Except that, for Aaron, the world is always ending. It’s the third time this year, and it’s only July. I’m thinking last night’s fireworks set him off, but there has to be more to it. Probably he’s off his meds. Aaron loses it, and, nine out of ten times, it means he’s gone off his meds.

Used to be, he’d warn me. “I’m just going to try,” he’d say. “Just for a week or two.”

When I stopped supporting these experiments, he stopped telling me.

Now, I have to guess, which isn’t hard given the things that come out of his mouth. The trick is figuring out how long he’s been off.

First day, he’ll feel nothing. By the end of the first week, he tends to claim a clarity and empathy he hasn’t felt in years. “I want to hump the world!” he’ll say, pulling me onto the bed.

Then, week two will hit, and like clockwork, or something more precise and calculating than clockwork, Aaron will start in on that year’s fear.

It wasn’t always the end of the world. For a while, Aaron was afraid to leave the house. Those weeks were okay. We’d lie in bed, snuggle, watch TV. One time, we watched Labyrinth three times in a row. By the third viewing, Aaron was sobbing. I shook the pills into his palm and he drank them down.

Then there was the year of the bees. Bumblebee or butterfly, it didn’t matter. Aaron would see a bug and freak out. When he was a child, a bee sting put him in the hospital for two days. Now, everywhere he goes, there’s an EpiPen in his pocket. Aaron gets stung, he has less than a minute to plunge the needle into his leg before his throat swells shut. It’s a fear I respect, a fear that makes sense when you’re all the time only seconds away from death.

He’s only been stung the one time, but twice he’s put himself back in the hospital. “I really thought there was a bee,” he’ll say, EpiPen empty in its little tan tube.

This year, though, it’s the apocalypse that’s got Aaron in handcuffs. Not the Rapture or any trumped-up Mayan stuff, but what Aaron calls the real deal.

He doesn’t know how the world will end, only that it will be bad. He doesn’t know when, only that it will be soon.

“Won’t be long now,” he’ll say, canning fruit or sharpening the blade of a knife. “Won’t be long at all.”

I blame his parents. Not for the depression—I mean, maybe that’s their fault. Maybe there’s something messed up with their genes. I don’t know.

I don’t know how DNA works. I only know that his folks bought into the whole Y2K thing, and Aaron’s never been the same since.

Imagine it: You’re eight years old, all of your friends are partying with their families or up late with other friends at New Year’s Eve sleepovers, and, instead of watching the ball drop with your parents, you’re huddled in the basement watching your mom cry.

The basement is stocked with two years’ worth of water, batteries, and green beans. Upstairs, a TV’s been left on, and Dick Clark counts down.

Downstairs, you shut your eyes and wait for the end of the world.

You could say Aaron’s been waiting ever since. I should know. I’ve known Aaron most of his life. In kindergarten he pulled my pigtails, and by high school I was letting him pull down my pants. Neither of us were college material, so, after graduation, he got a job at Arby’s and I got a job down the street at Payless shoes. Sometimes our lunch hours overlap, and we meet at McDonald’s. He smells like old beef and I smell like feet, and we eat our McNuggets and pretend that we’re better than this. Truth is, we’re twenty and we live with our parents, but that’s okay because we have each other, and I’ve come to believe that each other is enough.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 3 3

Most nights I spend at Aaron’s.

His parents call me the daughter they never had, which is sweet but also kind of messed up since they must know I’m sleeping with their son.

At Publix, I get everything off of Aaron’s list that will fit in the cart.

I have a card from my parents to cover food, and, so long as I keep it under two hundred a month, Dad won’t yell. Most meals, I pay for myself so I can stock up on weeks Aaron goes a little crazy. His therapist calls this enabling. I call it love. She says I’m a problem, and I, for one, have agreed to disagree.

At home, I pop the trunk. It’s got a dozen gallons in it, and I grab the first two. I start up the front steps and almost kick over the jar. This I’m used to.

Every few months, we find one, a mason jar fat with amber, lid collared by a yellow bow—a sort of thank-you for ignoring the bees.

A while back, the woman next door set up a hive. Generally, the bees stay on her side of the fence, though, from Aaron’s backyard, you can watch them rise, a fog of tiny helicopters circling the house. Aaron’s mom called the county, but it turns out there’s no law against keeping bees.

She petitioned the homeowners association to dub the neighborhood bee-free, but the beekeeper threatened litigation. In the end, the HOA let the lady keep her bees, provided no one got stung, and, in two years, no one has. The women settled their differences, and now we get honey.

Aaron meets me at the door.

“Sweet!” he says. He pulls the jar from my hand, leaving me to juggle the gallons.

“There’s more in the trunk,” I say.

“Those can wait,” Aaron says. “Get the pear.”

I go back to the car, get the pear, and find Aaron in the basement. This is where he lives. The place is spotless, the way it gets his first week off meds. First he cleans everything, then he lets everything go to hell. The clothes he has on are the clothes he wore yesterday, and I wonder how long it’s been since he slept.

“Come on, come on,” Aaron says.

The basement is two rooms. One’s a bedroom.

The other’s been converted to a living-room-slashkitchen. It’s all belowground, setup intended for the Y2K end that never came.

Aaron’s on the bed, honey jar open between his knees. He balances a plate on top of the jar, and I drop the pear onto it. Aaron likes knives, keeps knives all over the house, and now he pulls one from his pocket, a Swiss Army deal, and unfolds a long blade from the handle. He splits the pear, picks the seeds from the middle, and hands me the plate.

Then I watch as he lowers the blade past the open mouth and deep into the jar’s gold, glorious middle.

The knife rises, and it’s gilded, honey-sheathed.

I lift the plate and wait for the drizzle.

Listen: If your honey comes in a bear-shaped bottle, you’ve never had honey, and if you haven’t had honey, you haven’t lived. Real honey, honey fresh from the comb, is sweet, yes, but it also tastes like clover and sage, like cinnamon and lemon trees. I can’t explain it except to say that, before you die, you owe it to yourself to take a taste.

We eat the pears and make love, and, when we’re done, I run back to the car and unload the gallons, the rolls of tape, the jerky in its fat, five-pound bag.

I make half a dozen trips up and down the stairs, carrying water, and Aaron stocks the gallons in his pantry. What he’s got is an old wardrobe, converted, crowded with shelves. Together, we cut a hole in the drywall just big enough to tuck the wardrobe in. You can hardly tell it’s not a real pantry.

When Aaron gets scared, we stock up. When he comes out of it, we eat whatever we stocked up on.

I come down the stairs with the last gallon, and Aaron is crying.

“There’s no room,” he cries. The pantry is packed. “There’s no more room!” He screams it, then sobs.

I touch his shoulder and he turns, wild-eyed, like a dog touched at the food bowl.

I hold up the last gallon. “We can slide it under the bed,” I say. “We can put it anywhere.” I should know better. There’s no use reasoning with Aaron when he gets this way, and, today, for whatever reason, he’s decided the only food and water we can keep is what fits on the shelves.

“Take it away,” he says. “Give it to Mom and Dad. They’re going to need it.”

Early on in his delusions, this was a sticking point for us.

“People will want in,” Aaron will say, “but you’ve got to be ready. You have to be prepared to tell them no.”

“Even our parents?” I’ll ask.

And Aaron, without a trace of sympathy, will say, “Even them.”

“Okay,” I’ll say.

It bothers me, I’ll admit, imagining my mother and father wandering the bomb-scarred wasteland, scavenging for food while Aaron and I get fat on beef jerky and canned corn. But, then, the end isn’t coming, and so my agreeing with Aaron isn’t the biggest of concessions. Compromising your ethics is one thing. Compromising your hypothetical ethics is another. And so I say, “Okay.”

That okay, it’s like enabling—another word that, in my mouth, means love.

You want to know why I love Aaron. How, you’re wondering. How could she love a man who yells, who cries, who makes her carry jugs of water up and down the stairs? But you’re only seeing Aaron unwell. Aaron at his best is better than you or me, better than anyone I’ve ever known. He’s gentle. He’s kind. But those are just words. Here’s a story: I’m twelve, and, one day, this girl, Mandy Templeton, she empties her carton of milk onto my tray and floods my lunch. “What’re you gonna do,” she says, “cry about it?” I stand, and she pushes me. She calls me names.

We’re at that age where, at lunch, boys sit with boys and girls sit with girls, but Aaron hears this and stands and walks over. He taps Mandy Templeton on the shoulder, and, when she turns, he punches her, hard as he can, right in the mouth. She hits the ground, screaming, spitting blood.

And even though she’s a girl and Aaron’s a boy and the rules of chivalry sort of demand things like this not be done, because Aaron’s so small, always getting picked on and never—I mean never—standing up for himself, and because Mandy’s known by students and teachers alike for her cruelty, Aaron gets ten days expulsion, and that’s it.

Mandy’s teeth never looked right afterward, and no one ever messed with Aaron again.

Here’s another story: Junior year, Aaron takes me to prom. We dance. We kiss. That’s all we’ve ever done. The dance is over, and, instead of driving me home, Aaron surprises me with a hotel room.

We undress and get into bed. Then, just as we’re about to get started, I say, “Wait. I can’t.

I’m not ready.” And, Aaron, he smiles. He strokes my cheek. He says, “Sure, Grace, okay,” and takes me home. No fight, no fuss, not one word meant to make me feel bad.

Most high school guys don’t work that way, but Aaron’s always worked that way. And if the trade-off is that, a few weeks a year, he goes cuckoo, then that’s a trade-off I’m willing to take.

Aaron’s therapist calls him a wounded bird, but, I ask you, who wouldn’t care for a wounded bird? What kind of person sees a bird with a broken wing, cat on the horizon, and walks on by?

And so I buy the water. I tape the windows. I hunker down with Aaron, and, when I can, I get him to take his medication, knowing that, in a few days, it will kick back in and the man I love will come bubbling up from the ocean floor. He’ll break the surface. Exhausted, he’ll rest his head on

I hunker down with Aaron, and, when I can, I get him to take his medication, knowing that, in a few days, it will kick back in and the man I love will come bubbling up from the ocean floor.

34 | SUMMER 2014

my shoulder and say that I deserve better, and I’ll tell him to shut up, and I’ll rub his back and he’ll sleep and I’ll watch.

I carry the extra gallon upstairs. It’s Thursday, our shared day off, but Aaron’s parents are at work. I wonder whether they’ve noticed the change. Most episodes, they don’t. When it comes to Aaron’s parents and Aaron’s illness, check the sand. That’s where you’ll find their heads.

I head back downstairs, and Aaron’s still trying to make room for the jug. Finally, he gives up. He pulls the honey jar down from the high shelf, uncaps it, and sticks a finger in. He puts the finger into his mouth. He does this a few more times. He doesn’t offer me any, and I don’t ask. Off his meds, Aaron can be thoughtless, but I try not to make him feel bad. Guilt’s not a motivator when he’s like this.

Guilt only makes things worse.

He fastens the lid and returns the jar to its place on the shelf. He lies down on the bed, and I lie next to him. The sheets are musty, unwashed.

“It’s going to be tonight,” he says. He shudders.

There’s a pillow under his head, and he pulls it up and over his face.

“How do you know?” I say. I may as well be asking a toddler how the spaghetti sauce got all over the walls, but I have to try.

“I can feel it,” Aaron says, voice thin through the pillow. “It’s here.”

“How does it happen?” I say.

Aaron is quiet so long, I nudge him just to make sure he hasn’t smothered himself. When he jumps, I realize I’ve woken him. He throws the pillow across the room. It hits the TV and falls to the floor.

Aaron pulls the remote from his pocket and turns the TV on. According to the news, there’s been a strike in Pakistan. Something to do with American missiles. Something to do with the threat of nuclear armament.

The anchors theorize. Which countries have the bomb? Which don’t? Tune in at ten to find out—that sort of thing. It’s nothing you don’t see every few days, but it’s all the evidence Aaron needs.

“If there’s a detonation, even a hundred miles away, the fallout alone will keep us underground for ten years,” Aaron says.

That’s a lot of bottled water, I want to say. Instead, I tell him that it’s all right, that no bombs are falling, that I’m here.

I don’t know where Aaron gets his information. Maybe he makes stuff up. Maybe he’s trying to scare me, or maybe he believes what he says.

Some of it he gets online. I know from his laptop’s browser history, which is mostly war and death.

“I love you,” I say.

Aaron changes the channel. More Middle East, more death.

The pill bottle is on the dresser by the bed. I reach it and uncap it.

The next part, I have to be careful.

“How about some medicine, sweetie,” I say, and Aaron knocks the bottle from my hand.

I’m on my hands and knees, picking up the little white pills, when Aaron says the country’s started testing new poisons on its own people.

“They drive them out to New Mexico and gas them,” he says.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” I say.

The first pill’s the hardest, but it’s only the beginning. They’re antipsychotics, not miracle drugs, and sometimes it’s a week before they kick in. Even if I can get this one into him, I have a long road ahead of me.

“It’s totally true,” Aaron says. “I saw footage.”

I let it go. I pick up the last pill.

“I’ll make it worth your while,” I say.

I stand, hands on my hips. Aaron pops the pill.

Do I feel bad? Bad for using my wiles to get a pill into Aaron’s gut?

I do not.

After, I brush my teeth over the kitchen sink. When I move back to the bed, Aaron’s already asleep.

He takes the pill and pulls down his pants.

I’m in no mood, but a deal’s a deal, and it turns out to take almost no time at all.

“I love you,” he says, and, from our bed, I hear him move to the pantry, hear the honey jar lid come unscrewed followed by a quiet, occasional slurping.

“Wake me up for the end of the world,” I say, and Aaron says, “Don’t worry, I will,” no trace of irony, sarcasm, any of it.

He’ll laugh when I tell him. When he’s well, we’ll have dinner someplace nice. We’ll celebrate another episode overcome. I’ll repeat the things he said, and he’ll shake his head, embarrassed, but also amazed.

“I don’t know,” he’ll say. “I don’t know what gets into me.” And he’ll reach across the table and take my hand and squeeze.

The TV comes on and Aaron turns the volume down low. I feel a hand on the back of my head, and I hope it’s not the one covered in honey. He smooths my hair, and I think how this is maybe going to be an easy one. In March, Aaron and I spent an afternoon under the bed. In May, he stayed in the basement, lights off, for a week. I’d leave for work and come home to cups brimming with piss. At the end of the week, it took a day’s worth of laxatives to empty him out.

In the morning, I’ll call Arby’s. Aaron’s boss knows the drill and, to date, has been surprisingly accommodating. Aaron has five days paid vacation left for the year, but I’m hoping to get him back to work in a day, hoping one of these years, by the end of the year, Aaron will have some days left and we’ll go somewhere the way people go places when they’re young and in love.

“Aaron,” I say. “I need you to take your medicine.”

“I will,” he says, but his hand stops smoothing my hair.

“Promise,” I say. “Promise me that in twelve hours you’ll take another pill.”

“I promise,” he says.

Here’s what I know: I know that, one of these times, it’s not going to be so easy. One of these days, no matter what I do, I won’t be able to get Aaron back on his meds. What I don’t know is what comes next. This is my fear, the fear of the unknown.

And, in this way, maybe Aaron and I aren’t so different—two people afraid of things beyond our control. Except that, in the end, I have a pretty good idea whose nightmare is destined to come true.

The mercury’s rising, ice caps flattening into the sea. We’ve got dams collapsing and power plants blowing sky-high, plus enough bombs to make the earth’s surface match the surface of the moon.

The end of the world? It could happen. No one’s denying that.

But it’s the end of Aaron that scares me.

“It’s going to be tonight,” he says. He shudders. There’s a pillow under his head, and he pulls it up and over his face.

It’s almost midnight when he wakes. I’m watching a TV movie, and Aaron puts a hand on my leg.

“Not now, sweetie,” I say. I’m tired. I’m worried. I turn the TV off.

“For me?” he says.

I tell him to take another pill and we’ll talk.

I wake. I turn to put my arm around Aaron, but all I get is pillow.

The TV’s off, the room dark. It’s still dark outside. I check under the bed.

I check the cabinet below the kitchen sink. I check upstairs, then I go back to bed.

But I can’t sleep. Aaron doesn’t leave the basement, not when he’s like this. This is new, and new is scary, and, after a few minutes, I rise and turn on the lights. I move to his side of the bed. There’s a sock on his dresser, weirdly out of place. Beneath the sock, I find the pills, chalky, deformed, and I wonder how long each stayed tucked under his tongue before I looked away. This worries me, but not as much as what I see next, which is the honey jar empty, licked clean.

I tell myself no way could he be where I think he is, but, nights like this, I know better than to underestimate Aaron, and I don’t even bother to tie my shoes.

I’m up the stairs in seconds, out the door and running through the yard in a T-shirt and panties. My laces strike my ankles like the tongues of snakes. There’s a half-moon, and it slicks the driveway in a wet, ivory shine. The garage door is up and the lawn mower’s been pulled out.

Gardening tools scatter the driveway like a tornado came and hit just the garage. I run faster, into the neighbor’s yard.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 3 5

I’ve never seen her backyard, only the bees that rise from it. The perimeter is a fence of wood planks too high to climb, but an open gate tells me which way Aaron went. I pass through the gate and a floodlight flicks on.

And there, in the lamplight, is Aaron. And there is the hive. It’s just a white box, a white, wooden box half a coffin in length.

I don’t see any bees.

No, what I see is Aaron with a rake in his hands. He’s standing as far back from the box as he can, reaching with the rake in what I can only guess is an attempt to pry open the lid. The rake quivers in his hands and the wide metal fan combs the hive.

Also, he’s got an EpiPen in each leg. They bob from his thighs like banderillas from the back of a bull.

I don’t know what a jarful of honey and two shots of adrenaline do to a man, but Aaron doesn’t look good. He shakes, almost convulsing, back heaving with every breath.

I could call 911. I could run back to the house and pick up the phone, but by then it would be too late.

“Aaron,” I say, and he jumps.

“Stay back!” he says. “It’s not safe!” He turns, and his face glistens, soaked, like ten years’ worth of tears just poured out of his eyes.

I’m a few yards away, and I take a step closer. I don’t want to scare him. I don’t want him making any sudden moves.

“I wanted to surprise you,” he says.

“I’m surprised,” I say. “Please, sweetie. Come back to bed.”

“I’m not tired,” he says.

His arms tremble and the rake scrapes the box.

From somewhere, a bee rises and swims, lazy, in the air around us.

“Aaron,” I say. “I want you to put the rake down. Now.” Perhaps they’re sleeping, I think. Perhaps, at night, the bees go to bed and don’t fly and don’t sting. God, I want to believe it.

I take another step forward, and Aaron shrieks.

“Stop!” he says.

I hold up my hands like a bank teller on the wrong end of a gun.

“I just want to help you, Aaron,” I say.

Somewhere in the beekeeper’s house, a light comes on.

“I ate all the honey,” he says, fresh tears fattening his cheeks.

“I don’t care about that.”

“No,” he says. “It’s not fair. You didn’t get any.”

“I did,” I say. “Remember the pear? I had some. I’m fine. The rest was for you.” I take another step. “I don’t even like honey all that much.”

The rake slaps the hive and rattles the lid.

“Don’t lie to me. You love honey. I know it.”

A bee lands on the rake, then lifts back into the sky. Another circles Aaron’s head.

I take another step. I’m close. If I lunged, I could grab the rake, but I don’t know about Aaron. He’s little, and I’m thinking I could take him down, but I worry what it will mean if I’m wrong.

A window opens above us and a head pokes out.

“You kids crazy?” the woman calls. “Get away from there! Get away from there right now!”

A hum has started up in the box, and that can’t be good. It sounds the way a button sounds when it’s come loose from your shirt in the dryer, only multiplied by, like, a thousand.

“Call 911!” I yell, and the window slams shut.

“Aaron,” I say. “Aaron, I want you to put the rake down and come inside.”

He’s looking right at me, but it’s like he can’t hear me, can’t hear past the grim determination to do the thing he set out to do.

He looks at the hive, and a bee lands on his shoulder.

My own tears are coming now. I’m no crier, but I can’t help it.

Because it’s my fault. Because I shouldn’t have slept except when he slept. Because, finding him missing, I can’t believe I went back to bed.

Those five minutes, I think. In those five minutes, I might have found him, stopped him before he left the garage.

“Once the bombs fall, there won’t be any honey,” Aaron says, his voice garbled and faraway-seeming. There are bees in his hair, bees covering the lid of the box, a patina of bees with fat abdomens and bright wings. Their wings shine like diamonds in the security lights, and I give up the hope that Aaron hasn’t been stung.

When we were kids, our moms took us to play at a park with monkey bars and swings and a slide. On one side of the playground, a red pipe rose like a snorkel from the earth. It connected belowground to another pipe that rose from the other end of the park. Each pipe was fitted with a megaphone the shape and size of a showerhead and perforated by the same tiny, black holes. I’d stand at one end and Aaron would stand at the other, and, across the playground, we would throw our voices at each other. Our words came out cavernous, like shouts from behind closed doors. We giggled. We practiced cursing. We told dirty jokes. And, one day, Aaron said, “I love you.” I laughed, and Aaron said, “I do, Grace. I love you.”

We were ten years old, and we’ve said it ever since.

“It’s for you,” he says now, and his voice arrives like an echo, like it used to when he told me he loved me before either of us knew what loving the other meant or what it would mean.

The first sting is in my side. I see the bee caught in my shirt. It wriggles, trying to get free.

“All of the honey,” he says. “For you.”

I leap. I knock Aaron to the ground and pry the rake from his hands. I fling it like a javelin across the yard, far from the hive, and I sit on Aaron’s chest, hands pinning his wrists to the lawn.

A door opens, and a storm trooper steps out.

Or that’s what it looks like, our neighbor dressed in white, some kind of beekeeper’s suit and what looks like a watering can at her side.

Her face is hidden behind something like a mask made for fencing, but, when she speaks, her words pierce the mask, clear and unfiltered.

“I don’t know what you kids are up to,” she says, “but, for the love of God, please don’t move.”

They say that, with enough adrenaline, you can do anything. You hear stories of men wrestling torn arms back from alligators and mothers lifting cars off their kids. I’m on top of Aaron, but I see too late that the weight of my body is nothing compared to what courses through his veins, and I see that I’ve failed him again.

“Please,” I say, and then I’m in the air. I’m flying. I’m falling. I’m tumbling, and I hit something, hard. The hive comes apart, the buzz turns to roar, and the moon, like magic, goes out of the sky.

I hear grunting and turn to see Aaron dragging himself toward me on his elbows. He’s like a soldier passing beneath barbed wire. The woman in the bee suit stands over him, pumping a thin fog from her can into the air.

I feel a sting, then another. My legs are lightning, and, soon, I can’t even look at Aaron, who’s no longer crawling, but rolling, a man on fire.

I look up, into the night, into the heart of the pulsing, vibrating ceiling above.

And then the swarm descends, looking, for all the world, like the end of the world.

“Stay back!” he says. “It’s not safe!” He turns, and his face glistens, soaked, like ten years’ worth of tears just poured out of his eyes.

David James Poissant is an assistant professor of creative writing in the Department of English. This short story appears in the collection The Heaven of Animals, which was published

by Simon & Schuster. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Playboy, The Southern Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train and in the New Stories from the South and Best New American Voices anthologies. Poissant is a winner of the Playboy College Fiction Contest, the RopeWalk Press Editor’s Fiction Chapbook Prize, the George Garrett Fiction Prize and the Matt Clark Editors’ Choice Prize, as well as awards from The Atlantic and Chicago Tribune. He is currently at work on a novel to be published by Simon & Schuster.

FROM THE HEAVEN OF ANIMALS BY DAVID JAMES POISSANT. COMPILATION COPYRIGHT © 2014 BY DAVID JAMES POISSANT. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF SIMON & SCHUSTER, INC.

36 | SUMMER 2014

PEGASUS M AGAZ I NE

PINSTRIPED

Keeping the Yankees healthy is no walk in the park.

In 2013 the New York Yankees were buried beneath an avalanche of injuries and missed the playoffs for only the second time since 1995. During the offseason the franchise spent almost a half-billion dollars to acquire top free agent players — plus one other significant hire. They plucked strength and conditioning coach Matt Krause, ’99, from the Cincinnati Reds.

“We feel like we hired one of the best in the business,” says Brian Cashman, Yankees senior vice president and general manager. “Matt is detail oriented, a great communicator and really knows his business inside and out.”

Matt Krause, ’99, MLB’s 2013 Strength Coach of the Year

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 3 7

ALUMKN IGHTS

BIG LEAGUES One day Krause got a call from the Chicago Cubs’ Bruce Hammel, who

38 | SUMMER 2014

was looking for an intern to help with the organization’s Class A minor league team, the Daytona Cubs.

“I’m thinking, ‘I’m not going to send you an intern. I’ll do it.’ ” “I’m thinking, ‘I’m not going to send you an intern. I’ll do it,’ ” Krause says.

He’d work at UCF with the football team in the morning and the basketball team in the afternoon.

“Then I’d drive to Daytona and work their home games,” he says. “That was my first experience with baseball.”

Impressed by his performance, Hammel approached Krause about a job as a minor league coordinator with the Pittsburgh Pirates. “It was the first time I was able to use all my athletic training skills and all my strength and conditioning skills,” he says. “In [professional baseball], you’ve got to be creative. You’ve got to go on the road where there is no gym and find a way to get your work in for the players. Different facilities now dictate what you can and can’t do.”

His work caught the attention of the Cincinnati Reds, who hired him away from the Pirates. Krause worked 11 years for the Reds, the last nine in the major leagues.

Krause is one of only a few in Major League Baseball who is certified as both an athletic trainer and a strength and conditioning coach. He’s the vice president of the Professional Baseball Strength and Conditioning Coaches Society and sits on the performance committee for the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He’s also a sought-after speaker and has authored papers, including some with Jay Hoffman, chair of UCF’s Department of Educational and Human Sciences. Last year, he won the Nolan Ryan Award, given to MLB’s Strength Coach of the Year.

During his tenure with the Reds,

PHOTOS BY GEOFF LEVY, ’13

DREAM JOB Krause grew up a Yankees fan in Valley Stream, New York. And while his parents were able to help his older siblings pay for college, his father was laid off around the time of Krause’s high school graduation. “There wasn’t financial help for me,” he says, “so I had to figure out a way to get it done.”

Finding creative ways to succeed would become his mantra academically and professionally.

Krause enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was in the reserves from 1992 to 2000. He earned an undergraduate degree in exercise and sports science at East Carolina University, where he caught the attention of Jeff Connors, ECU’s strength coach.

Knowing Krause wanted to get a master’s degree but lacked the finances, Connors said, “I can get you into UCF right now. I know the guy down there, Reese Bridgman.”

There was one catch: The job that would help pay his tuition was in strength and conditioning instead of sports medicine. “I didn’t have any money,” Krause says, “so I was looking for any path to get my master’s degree.” Once at UCF, Krause discovered he loved the work.

“Strength and conditioning fit my personality way better. I like being around the weight room, pushing people and being able to understand the motivational cues of different people.”

After graduating, Krause’s first job was with the Knights. The university was transitioning from Division I-AA to Division I sports and soon attracted NFL-quality athletes like quarterback Daunte Culpepper.

“I probably wouldn’t have been able to learn all the things I wanted to if I wasn’t at UCF,” Krause says.

“I got to work men’s and women’s sports — soccer, football, baseball, cheerleading, crew ... One team would be on an Olympic lifting program and another on a high-intensity program.

So you figure out what works, what people will and won’t do, and how the coaches are going to respond to different things. You also learn your capacity to work.”

In addition to his UCF duties, Krause contacted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ strength and conditioning coordinator and was soon driving to the NFL team’s facility for their summer practices, volunteering in return for the experience.

As director of strength and conditioning for the New York Yankees, Matt Krause, ’99, (top, far right), is responsible for keeping the team’s multimillion-dollar athletes, including superstar shortstop Derek Jeter (above), in top physical shape.

the team was one of the league’s least injured teams. Last season they used the fewest number of players in the game, and used only five starting pitchers through their first 120 games, setting a modern franchise record.

The stats speak to keeping players healthy, and it’s something in which Krause takes particular pride. “You’re only going to win if your best players play,” he says. It was that ability to keep players on the field and in peak shape that caught the attention of the Yankees, who were the league’s most injured team last season.

Krause also built a reputation as someone players want to work with.

“Matt’s great at helping you build a program,” says pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who worked closely with Krause, both in the Pirates’ minor league system and later with the Reds. “It’s his ability to apply what he knows on an individual basis. Some guys are cookie-cutter — not him.

Matt knows what works for me and

that what I need is different from someone else.”

Because he was with Krause in the minor and major leagues, Arroyo also got to see him mature in his profession.

“In the minor leagues, everything is dictated to you,” Arroyo says. “So early on, Matt’s military background came into play. You can be a drill sergeant at that level, and he was. But at the major league level, when you’re dealing with guys making $10 million [or] $20 million, you can’t just order them around. But Matt makes it fun.

He makes the weight room feel like a sanctuary.”

And now that weight room — that sanctuary where 40-year-old Matt Krause thrives — is at Yankee Stadium.

“I do know what I’m getting into,” Krause says, nodding his head.

“But I think I’m old enough now to appreciate it. I’m ready for this opportunity.”

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CLASS NOTES

’70s Barbara Breedlove, ’73, painted her house black and gold in honor of UCF celebrating 50 years.

Rick Lankford, ’75, named deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Marion County (Fla.) Public Schools.

Andrew Titen, ’75, promoted to chief executive officer of Bisk Education in Tampa, Fla. Andrew is a member of the UCF College of Business Administration Hall of Fame.

Rod Nickell, ’77, achieved certification as a laser safety officer at Kennedy Space Center.

Barbara Schroeder, ’78, featured in The Washington Post series “Federal Player,” which profiles federal workers who make a big impact. Barbara works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

’80s Bruce Simpson, ’81, has written more than 40 novels and is now working on screenplays.

Laura Wachtler, ’81, is a counselor and mental health case manager.

Catherine (Barberee) Volz-Garris, ’84, celebrated 30 years with Florida Hospital in 2013, including positions in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units.

Sheila (Bernardi) Jordan, ’86, became the chief information officer of Symantec.

Paul Taylor, ’86, has authored six books of Civil War-era history. His most recent, “Old Slow Town”: Detroit during the Civil War is a ForeWord Reviews “Book of the Year” finalist.

Corina (Morgan) McCorkle, ’87, celebrated 25 years of marriage.

Russ Schenk, ’87, an All-American wrestler, won the silver medal at the Masters of the U.S. Olympics.

David Dangel, ’88, P.E., promoted to principal at Inwood Consulting Engineers in Oviedo, Fla. He is also a member of the Florida Engineering Leadership Institute.

William Hendrickson, ’88, joined Accenture as a senior management consulting executive and managing partner.

Gwenn Paness, ’88, named sales executive at SunGard Relius. She co-founded the New York UCF Alumni Chapter in 1998.

Bert Zegers, ’88, is managing partner at AC Rescue.Biz, which offers air conditioning services throughout Central Florida.

’90s Lewis Lineberger, ’90, founded WaterGreat, which produces an automated solar watering controller.

Douglas Muldoon, ’91, completed his term as president of the FBI National Academy Associates. He was also recognized by Rep. Bill Posey in the Congressional Record. He currently works as the chief of police for the city of Palm Bay, Fla. Greg Tynan, ’92, became an Orange County Circuit Court judge, where he is assigned to the Criminal Felony Division.

Andrew Weinstein, ’92, appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities by President Barack Obama.

Chris Thomas, ’93, is the managing partner of CohnReznick’s Austin, Texas, office and leads the firm’s South/Central region’s affordable housing practice. Chris remains involved with the Florida Coalition of Affordable Housing Providers.

Corps. He currently serves as deputy staff judge advocate at Joint Base San Antonio, where he resides with his wife, Capt. Nicole Mouakar, ’03, also a member of the JAG Corps.

Ryan Sentz, ’99, brewmaster and proprietor of Funky Buddha Brewery in Boca Raton, Fla., has opened a brewery in Oakland Park, Fla.

’00s Sherry Acanfora-Ruohomaki, ’00, awarded the Small Business Administration South Florida District “Woman-Owned Small Business Person of the Year.” Sherry owns K9 Kampus in Melbourne, Fla., a luxury dog day care, boarding, grooming and training facility. Her husband, Davin Ruohomaki, ’00, was appointed by the Greater Orlando Airport Authority as the senior director of planning, engineering, construction, environmental and grants.

John Adams, ’00, will serve as the series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, a new entry in the Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Jeff Graff, ’00, joined Adventist Health System as vice president of treasury.

Juliann Hickey, ’95, appointed senior vice president and Eastern regional manager of underwriting company Title Resources.

Dr. Gideon Lewis, ’00, sports medicine physician and Drink Chia co-founder, named chief medical director of Olympic training facility Star Athletics.

He was the first recipient of the UCF College of Medicine’s Rising Star Award and currently serves as the director of the UCF Pre-Medical Surgical Internship program.

Dan Rini, ’95, president and CEO of RINI Technologies, was awarded a Governor’s Business Ambassador Medal.

Maria (Balderrama) Rodammer, ’00, appointed as the Lake Nona market manager of the Florida Bank of Commerce.

Amanda Chapman, ’96, attorney, promoted to shareholder in the Orlando office of Greenspoon Marder, where she is a member of the firm’s litigation group.

Katie Damien, ’01, UCF film school graduate, and her company, Gorilla With a Mustache Films, won the National Film Challenge — an international competition to make a short film in just one weekend. Their film, “Joint Effort,” will receive a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner.

Michael Johnson, ’94, named managing director of behavioral health with CARF International, a health and human services accrediting body.

Frank Vertolli, ’96, and Ryan Fitzgerald, ’11, cofounded Net Conversion, which focuses on driving bookings/revenue through paid digital marketing, along with comprehensive analytics.

Nabil Ashraf, ’99, received a graduate fellowship from Arizona State University and was selected as a life member of the Phi Kappa Phi and IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu honor societies while a doctorate student in the department of electrical engineering.

Jim Kaplan, ’99, founder and chief operating officer of Chasella Capital Partners, announced a substantial investment in Docurated.

Elvis Santiago, ’99, promoted to major in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s (JAG)

Brady Koch, ’01, director of program innovation at Feeding America in Chicago, named chairman of the 2013 Agency Capacity, Programs and Nutrition Learning Conference.

Jason Olson, ’02, is the executive producer for Central Florida’s WKMG-TV news.

Jim Proce, ’02, promoted to assistant city manager for the city of Rowlett, Texas.

Monika Williams Shealey, ’03, appointed dean of the Rowan University College of Education in Glassboro, N.J.

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IMAGE COURTESY OF GARY BOGDON/TAVISTOCK GROUP

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is moving from New York to a new, 100-plus-court tennis center at Lake Nona. The Florida center will also be the home of UCF’s tennis teams when it opens in late 2016.

“This campus at Lake Nona has all of the ingredients for the beginnings of a world-class sports and human performance cluster with the USTA setting the bar.” — Rasesh Thakkar, ’84, senior managing director of Tavistock Group

Brian Watson, ’03, joined Burr & Forman in its Corporate & Tax and Banking & Real Estate groups.

Tim Sobczak, ’05, joined Dean, Mead, Egerton, Bloodworth, Capouano & Bozarth as an associate in the litigation department.

Craig Ballock, ’04, P.E., promoted to senior geotechnical engineer at Geotechnical and Environmental Consultants. Craig has worked on many community projects in Central Florida, including the Wekiva Parkway, SunRail and the Sanford-Burnham Institute.

Laura (Greer) Askelson, ’06, awarded 2014 “Teacher of the Year.” She represents Lakeside Elementary School in the school district of Clay County, Fla.

Sean Koutsakis, ’04, is vice president market leader of wealth management at Bank of the West.

Robert Luke, ’04, joined Witt/Kieffer, a leading executive search firm, as a New England-based associate.

Amanda (Forbes) Mestdagh, ’04, APR, joined Uproar PR, a full-service public relations and social media firm, as an account manager.

David Buckalew, ’05, named “Meeting Planner of the Year 2013” by Plannernet, a network of more than 1,000 meeting planners across the country.

Patricia (Padilla) Sheppard, ’05, works at The Walt Disney Co. in Burbank, Calif., where she oversees the corporate division’s video and Web strategy.

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Mindy Bess, ’06, started the James Bess Foundation, a nonprofit organization that grants wishes to adults who are struggling with lifethreatening illnesses. The foundation is named after her dad, who died of brain cancer at age 42.

Brittany Bowman, ’06, CPA, was promoted to senior accountant at James Moore.

Stephanie (Butler), ’06, and her husband, Zachary Cleland, ’06, were commissioned into the U.S. Army where Stephanie served as a nurse at Fort Bragg. Zachary is a field artillery captain and will be completing his fourth deployment this year.

Johanna Pedersen, ’06, CPA for James Moore, was installed as the 2014 chair for the Associated Builders and Contractors Emerging Leaders, North Florida Chapter.

Jennifer (Fostoff) Somers, ’07, is a designer for Kenneth Cole Productions in New York.

Shelby Campbell, ’08, received her doctorate in audiology from Nova Southeastern College.

Teresa Epps, ’08, graduated from Florida State University with an M.S. in corporate and public communication, and was promoted to communications specialist at BAE Systems.

Carol Galbicsek, ’08, accepted a marketing specialist position with AVT Simulation based in Orlando.

Megan Licata, ’08, APR, appointed communications manager at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman.

Eleni Roussos, ’08, is the audio-visual coordinator for Marvel in Burbank, Calif.

Tifany (Christensen) Alexander, ’09, is a partner with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate.

Gia Castellino, ’09, promoted to tax manager at Moore, Ellrich & Neal.

Nicholas Chiricosta, ’09, CFP, works for Pro Management Resources, a financial planning firm for professional athletes. He’s married to Justine (Albarano), ’08, a CPA for ABB Optical in South Florida.

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CLASS NOTES Ryan Ernde, ’09, is an associate producer at WFTSTV/ABC Action News in Tampa, Fla.

Mohanned “Mo” Hassan, ’11, won an Academy Award for his work on Disney’s “Frozen.”

Arya Eskamani, ’09, serves as the marketing analyst for KEMET Electronics Corporation.

David Maloney, ’11, named manager of strategic partnerships at the National League of Cities, for which he will oversee corporate engagement.

Kevin Mauter, ’09, returned home to his wife, Gabriella (Gibbons), ’11, after completing a seven-month deployment with the Florida Army National Guard to the Middle East.

Alexia Penna, ’09, joined Eureka Restaurants as the new PR and marketing manager.

’10s Daniel Davis, ’10, admitted to the Florida Bar in September, and co-chaired a jury eminent domain trial in December.

Amanda (Crum) Harding, ’10, earned her M.B.A. from the University of Miami; gave birth to her first child, daughter Vivienne-June, in June 2013; and published a book titled The Woman of the House in September.

Jennie Hayes, ’10, admitted to the Florida Bar and was sworn in by Judge Jack Helinger, for whom she interned during law school.

Jennifer Jacobs, ’10, promoted to associate producer at the Home Shopping Network in St. Petersburg, Fla. Grace Kellermeier, ’10, named “Teacher of the Year” for Volusia County, Fla. She is a French teacher at New Smyrna Beach High School.

Alfredo Ruiz, ’10, CPA, was promoted to associate accountant at James Moore.

Kaleigh Thacker, ’10, is graduating with her juris doctorate from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. Lindsey Turnbull, ’10, launched MissHeard Magazine, a digital teen magazine that focuses on empowerment.

David Wagner, ’10, named to the inaugural class of the Professional Convention Management Association’s “20 in Their Twenties,” a new program to recognize meeting professionals around the world.

Kasey Albright, ’11, named “Rookie of the Year” for the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of Realtors. She was also inducted into the association’s honor society.

Katie Case, ’11, is the marketing manager of online marketing platform Sideqik.

Kristin Harris, ’11, landed her dream job as social editor at Seventeen Magazine in New York.

Matthew Mitchell, ’11, is a presidential management fellow, reporting to Cassius Butts, presidential appointee under President Barack Obama.

Myles Moulton, ’11, started Fishy Itchy, a new outdoor sports clothing and accessories line of performance wear.

Rosalinda Torres, ’11, is an account director for the Midwest region at IZEA, based in Winter Park, Fla. Michelle Cavanaugh-Ronning, ’12, promoted from staff technical writer to communications and design expert for the Ecosystem Development Team.

Christopher Cecil, ’12, promoted from trooper to the rank of sergeant, serving in the cybercrime unit for the Indiana State Police. He also served four years active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps.

David Mariutto, ’12, awarded his master’s degree with distinction from the London School of Economics, and is now assistant analyst at The Feldman Group, a political polling firm in Washington, D.C. Julie Pillot, ’12, and David Drehoff, ’12, invented a tailgating game, for which they made it to the second round of auditions for the television show “Shark Tank.”

Colby Pryor, ’12, embarked on a year of service with AmeriCorps VISTA, using multimedia skills to help promote the Kimball World War I Memorial in West Virginia.

Brent Johnson, ’13, is a personal trainer with Health First Pro-Health & Fitness Centers.

Brianna LaBarge, ’13, is an aerospace engineering rotational development engineer at Honeywell in Phoenix, Ariz., where she previously received an award for her teamwork and team spirit.

Marciana Logu, ’13, is attending Florida Coastal School of Law and was elected to the Student Bar Association, where she’s co-chair of the Multicultural Affairs Committee.

Aaron Rivas, ’13, is a juvenile probation officer in Kissimmee/Osceola County, Fla.

Moved recently? Changed your email address?

In Memoriam Eternal Knights Few situations have the ability to impact a campus community as much as the death of a student. Each year the Eternal Knights Memorial Service honors students who have passed away. This year, 12 lives were celebrated. For more information, visit eternal.sdes.ucf.edu/ceremony.

David Popper, ’10, passed away Jan. 29 at the age of 27. David was known for his magnetic personality, sense of humor and love of golf. He graduated from Winter Park High School, where he was captain of the golf team, and attended Mississippi State University before graduating from UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

David was serving our country in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Nimitz. He returned in December from a 10-month deployment in the Middle East and was stationed in Everett, Wash.

William Safranek, passed away Feb. 17 in a car accident. Bill was a beloved assistant professor for the UCF College of Medicine where he taught microbiology. He served in the U.S. Army from 1978 through 1987 and attained the rank of captain. He earned his B.S. from Saint Peters College in Jersey City, N.J.; his M.S in microbiology from the University of Rhode Island; and his Ph.D. from Temple University in Philadelphia, Penn.

In 2007, he began his full-time teaching career at UCF. In 2010, he was the recipient of the UCF Teaching Incentive Award, and in 2013, he was the College of Medicine’s Founders’ Day honoree for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. The College of Medicine has established the William Safranek Endowed Scholarship in his honor.

Class Notes

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Web ucfalumni.com/classnotes Email knights@ucfalumni.com Mail Pegasus Class Notes P.O. Box 1600406 Orlando, FL 32816-0046 Phone

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Update your contact information: ucfalumni.com/contactupdates

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WEDDINGS & BIRTHS 1. Leah Kahn, ’99, married Becca Goland-Van Ryn Feb. 16 at the Round Hill House in New York.

2. T iffany (Sanders), ’99, married Corey Lamb Oct. 13 at Leu Gardens in Orlando.

Alumni Center. Alumni in the wedding party included Melanie Gonzalez, ’03; Brandon Purginton, ’06; Adam Gill, ’07; Renee Fenton, ’08; Krystal (Klokow) Frick, ’08; Derek Warden, ’08; Drew Speraw, ’09; Taylor Young, ’10; Ben O’Donnell, ’12; and Stephanie Sheppard, ’12.

3. K elly (Erickson), ’02, and her husband, Alan Fowler, ’02, welcomed their first son, Jameson Tyler, Oct. 4.

Joy (Shively), ’08, and her husband, David Givens, ’08, welcomed their son, Joshua Lyle, Jan. 3, 2013.

4. M ichael Ladewski, ’02, married Jaime Larkins, ’10, Nov. 29 at Paradise Cove in Orlando. Alumni in the wedding party included Ken Fluhr, ’01; David Tichauer, ’01; Kevin Bowersox, ’02; Kayla Thomas, ’10; and Erin Shannon, ’13.

15. Stephanie (Wilken), ’08, married Chad Parsons Nov. 22 at the Old Orange Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif. Nicole Stancel, ’08, served as the maid of honor.

5. Leisa (Murphy), ’02, and her husband, Shaun Barber, ’05, welcomed their second son, Ryland, July 12.

6. Kristine (McGuirk) Reed, ’02, and her husband, Jon, welcomed their second child and first son, Clyde Michael, Jan. 24.

7. Rusty Carpenter, ’03, and his wife, Barbie, welcomed their son, Conner James, Dec. 20.

8. J ason Jacobs, ’03, and his wife, Shannon (McDaniel), ’02, welcomed Sydney Hayden Dec. 20.

Tami (Zimmerman), ’03, and her husband, Daniel Lasanta, ’03, welcomed their first child, Max Ronin, Jan. 31.

9. Torey Brewer, ’05, married Staci Harris, ’05, June 2013.

Alumni in the wedding party included Danielle Farlow, ’06; Jackie Martin, ’06; Kathleen McMichaels, ’06; Brittney Draper, ’07; Derek Williams, ’07; Tyler Cyphers, ’08; and Christina Munkberg, ’08.

10. Allison (Herzlich), ’05, married David Arce March 2 in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Candace “Nikki” (Wall) Claud, ’05, and Alicia (Wall) Mazariego, ’09. Also in attendance were Steven Herzlich, ’99; Steve Wall, ’04; Megan Holmstrom, ’05; Joshua Claud, ’06; and Barbie (Liebler) Collins, ’06.

11. Kelly (Otto) Norton, ’05, and her husband, David, welcomed their second daughter, Logan Kate, Jan. 7.

17. Bridget (Downes), ’09, married Kyle Keefe, ’07, Dec. 7 in Orlando. Alumni in the wedding party included Juan Rodriguez, ’04; Aaron Goldstone, ’05; Jason Hussey, ’06; Carrie Henderson, ’07; Guy Dibenedetto, ’08; Ashley (Conyers) Wadell, ’08; and Jessica Knox, ’10.

18. Sam Eppy, ’09, married Kelly Lawrence, ’09, Oct. 26 at The Gasparilla Inn & Club in Boca Grande, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Josh Eggnatz, ’07; Laura Davis, ’08; Mandi Hartman, ’09; Kasey Osman, ’09; and Christina Frucci, ’13.

19. Samantha (Gil), ’09, married Mark Haimes July 20 in Coral Springs, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Kearstin Kelley, ’10, and Lauren Pugliese, ’11.

Viviana (Saez), ’09, married Gabriel Snyder Jan. 30 in Islamorada, Fla. 20. J enn (Bazemore), ’10, married Chris Fundora, ’10, Dec. 21 in Orlando. The couple received a special newlywed blessing from Pope Francis when they joined nine other couples from around the world in Rome in April.

13. Jennifer (Sanders), ’06, and her husband, Stephen Isenberg, ’06, welcomed their second daughter, Cate Monet, Sept. 20.

23. Nadia (Emerson), ’11, and Nick Barnini, ’11, married Jan. 18 in Cocoa, Fla. Fourteen members of the bridal party were fellow alumni.

Joseph Cuffari, ’07, and his wife, Christi, welcomed their first child, Connor, Sept. 26.

24. K asey Harrell, ’11, married Brendan Albright, ’12, Oct. 19 at The Sanctuary Golf Club on Sanibel Island, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Jessica Jenkins, ’11; D.J. Kelmanson, ’12; Alex Tomooka, ’12; and Marissa Marchena, ’13.

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21. Jennifer (Kennelly) Haskell, ’10, and her husband, Brandon, welcomed their first child, Mikaela Jeanene, Nov. 19.

Carly (Pecorelli), ’06, and her husband, Jason Human, ’06, welcomed their first child, Harper Grace, Dec. 17.

14. Michael O’Donnell, ’07, married Annie (Fleming), ’08, Aug. 10 at St. Margaret Mary in Winter Park, Fla. The couple’s reception was held at the UCF FAIRWINDS

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16. Robin (Donnelly), ’09, married Gavin Harper, ’13, Nov. 15 at Leu Gardens in Orlando. Alumni in the wedding party included Kelly Molter, ’09; Lisa Parkin, ’09; Daniel Stitt, ’09; Kimberly Rockwell, ’10; and Christine Stitt, ’10.

22. J ennifer (White), ’10, married Jack Baumgartner, ’09, a former UCF football player, Oct. 26 in Melbourne, Fla. Alumni in the wedding party included Patrick Hines, ’09; Cody Minnich, ’09; Amy Tolley, ’09; Amanda Torres, ’09; Travis Ferrer, ’10; Anna (Parrish) Koach, ’10; Karl Ober, ’10; and Lauren Veres, ’10.

12. E lizabeth (Johnson) Buccianti, ’06, and her husband, Felipe, ’05, welcomed their first son, Lucas Johnson, Dec. 12.

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Translating Tragedy Marci Gonzalez, ’05 ABC News correspondent For the TV news reporter who has covered horrific events from the mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, to the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, dealing with tragedy is part of telling the story.

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a television news reporter. I started doing the televised morning announcements in elementary school, was an anchor of the morning news in middle and high school, and then I chased my love for journalism to UCF.” “When a big story breaks, no matter what time of day or night, I get a phone call and have to run out the door to the airport. I keep a ‘go bag’ semipacked, and then I throw in a few extras based on what kind of story I’m covering. Tornadoes mean rain boots, jeans and T-shirts.

For nonweather stories, I pack dress clothes. The trick I’ve learned is to have a bit of everything, because sometimes news breaks when you’re out covering something else.”

“Each time I’ve had to talk to someone on the worst day of his or her life, I’ve learned a little bit more about the sensitivity and tact needed to cover tragedies. I think you have to approach people with compassion first and foremost, and it has to be genuine — people can see the difference.”

“I think there is a huge misconception that this is a glamorous job. We go for days only being able to sleep for an hour or two a night, followed by 20-hour shifts. We put our makeup on in car mirrors. And bathrooms? Forget it.

Think of natural disasters where everything is destroyed; where do you think all of those reporters take a restroom break? Nowhere. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it is for people who have a passion for working hard and telling impactful stories.”

Homecoming 2014 Events

IMAGES COURTESY OF MARCI GONZALEZ

Five Fantasy Interviews to Do Before I Retire 1. M ishna Prezilus — The little girl who traveled to the U.S. with me after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. I would love to find out how her life turned out in America.

2. A dam Duritz — The lead singer of my all-time favorite band, Counting Crows — because I’m slightly obsessed.

3. A ung San Suu Kyi — 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner. I’ve been interested in the political and human rights issues in Myanmar for years and find her to be one of the most fascinating people in the world.

4. N eale Donald Walsch — Author of the series Conversations with God. I learned a lot about myself through his writing and think it would be one of the most eye-opening, interesting conversations of my life.

5. K atie Couric — I’ve looked up to her since I was a child and continue to admire the risks she’s taken in her career. I even stood outside of the “Today” show during a family vacation to NYC and held a sign that read “Katie’s Future Replacement.” It was a quote from her that encouraged me to take the leap and accept a job at ABC News.

THURSDAY, OCT. 23

FRIDAY, OCT. 24

SATURDAY, OCT. 25

CFE Arena, 6 p.m.

Celebrate the achievements of alumni with an evening that includes a reception, silent auction, dinner, an awards banquet and entertainment.

ChampionsGate Golf Resort, 7:30 a.m.

Play in one of the largest golf tournaments in Central Florida.

UCF FAIRWINDS Alumni Center, three hours before kickoff Enjoy food, drinks, games and music.

Black & Gold Gala

Golf Tournament

Black & Gold Takeover

Downtown Orlando, 9 p.m.

Dress up and party down the night before the big game.

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Indoor Tailgate

UCF vs. Temple

Bright House Networks Stadium, time TBA

For more information, visit ucfalumni.com or call 407.UCF.ALUM (823.2586).

Authors

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Bill Hughes, ’75, wrote his memoir, I’d Rather Be Dead Than Red on the Head, in which he recounts incidents — from a face-to-face encounter with a witch doctor in the African bush to being kidnapped by a terrorist in Beirut. Through all his crazy and even life-threatening adventures, Bill continues to believe that life is basically funny.

Patricia Simmons, ’79, wrote the novel Gathering Shadows. In 1860, Jessie Buchanan is enjoying her Southern lifestyle until a breach between family members and the discovery of love causes conflict.

When the Civil War ends and the Southern way of life is crushed, the murder of a carpetbagger, a hasty trial, a violent hurricane and a close brush with death bring Jessie’s struggles to a climax.

Clarice (Pepper) Fourari, ’91, wrote her memoir, Faith in Family. As a young girl, all Clarice ever wanted was a loving family, as she ached to belong to something or someone.

Due to her father’s suicide, her reality came shattering down. A slew of tragedies became a major pattern in the fabric of her life. Faith in Family is an inspirational piece of material providing the reader with hope through tough times as well as joy-filled days.

Howard Randolph, ’93, authored Herman, a novel describing a convergence of unlikely events that puts the Brown family of Middleton, Fla., in the center of a national struggle for identity and a personal struggle for survival.

Larry Bridgham, ’99, wrote and published his second book, Two Purple Hearts. In the late 1950s in Cambridge, Mass., Vallery falls in love with Ed, an MIT student. But their romance is sidetracked by the murder-suicide of her mother and stepfather. Vallery takes custody of her mentally disturbed younger half-sister, Jeanne, who resents Ed’s presence in their lives.

Steve Cushman, ’99, authored Hospital Work, a chapbook of poetry that deals with aspects of hospital life, whether from the point of view of a patient, X-ray technologist or a doctor. Steve has also authored two previous novels, Portisville and Heart with Joy, as well as the short-story collection, Fracture City.

Robert “Jake” Bebber, ’00, is a contributing author to Culture, Conflict, and Counterinsurgency.

His chapter, titled “Developing an Information Operations Environmental Assessment in Khost Province, Afghanistan,” deals with the challenges to industrialorganizational practitioners in a counterinsurgency operation.

Jesse Bradley, ’01, released his second poetry collection, which is a graphic poetry collection titled The Bones of Us. Jen Glantz, ’10, released her first book, All My Friends Are Engaged, a collection of the author’s dating disaster stories, packed with relatable answers to the age-old, annoying question of, “Why are you still single?”

Jennifer (Chesser) Hammerle, ’97, wrote and published Cowgirl Down, part of her Redneck Debutante series. Rachael Harte, a 15-year-old from Manatee County, Fla., watches, heartbroken, as a beautiful, unknown girl kisses her neighbor and friend, Travis Baxter, on the cheek. She knew she had to do something, but what?

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B ACK IN THE DAY

Cementing a Legacy Memories of one of UCF’s original architects

BY ALYSON OWLES (AS TOLD TO ERIC MICHAEL, ’96) In the spring of 1967, the UCF campus was a construction site. My father, Frederick Owles, was one of the architects assigned to design the first buildings for the newly named Florida Technological University (FTU).

Dad was up for the challenge. He was the former mid-Florida chapter president of the American Institute of Architects and had already built several Orlando-based landmarks after graduating from the University of Florida.

He owned a firm in College Park and was hired by the Florida Board of Regents to join a collective of designers that would build the new university.

His first project for FTU was the all-important library.

Ground was broken during a ceremony in March, and in the weeks to follow heavy equipment began clearing the tall pines, cabbage palms and other trees that grew on the land.

My dad would make regular visits to the site to inspect the contractors’ progress, and often he would bring me and my brother, Ted, along in his red Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme convertible. For a 5-year-old girl, the site was a playground.

Under his watchful eye — and his spare silver hard hat that never fit just right — I would climb to the top of each giant pyramid of sand and dirt and build castles in the dark earth for Barbie, who was my constant companion. I’d return home from these outings with my lacy white socks turned black, which drove my mother crazy.

The completed library opened in July 1968, and I’m proud to say that it remains one of the most iconic and popular places on campus. Over the years UCF kept my father very busy. He contributed designs for classroom buildings, residence halls and Millican Hall, which was his favorite building at UCF.

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Nearly 50 years later he developed Alzheimer’s disease.

On days when he was clear-minded, I would drive him around and point out the dozens of offices, condominiums, youth centers and churches he designed during his productive career.

He especially enjoyed the trips through downtown Orlando because he couldn’t believe it had developed such a skyline.

I think that’s one of the unique and wonderful advantages of being an architect. If you did your work right, you can look at it for decades. You can watch your work age and endure as surrounding neighborhoods change.

One day I said, “Dad, what you’re really going to love is a visit to UCF.” One day I said, “Dad, what you’re really going to love is a visit to UCF.” It had been 10 or 15 years since he had seen the university. We followed Gemini Boulevard around the campus, and he was amazed at how much UCF had grown. He was so proud. When we passed Bright House Networks Stadium, his pride turned to awe. We used to go to football games at the Citrus Bowl, so when he saw the new stadium he became overwhelmed. I saw him brush a tear from his eye, trying to hide his emotion.

I know my dad was honored to have been a part of something that started out very small and developed into something so impressive. He passed away in 2010. And to me, the buildings that my dad designed at UCF remain timeless.

Alyson Owles has established a planned gift to honor her parents that will create two endowed scholarships — one in the College of Arts and Humanities and one in the College of Sciences. They will be named the Fred G. Owles Jr. AIA Endowed Scholarship in Architecture and the Fae B. Owles Endowed Scholarship in Political Science.

Hand-colored architectural renderings from the collection of Alyson Owles show her father Frederick Owles’ original designs for FTU’s library, a classroom building and residence halls.

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“I think the key to a good education for our students, and for them to be able to move forward to whatever college and career choices they may make, is to be sure we have rigorous, high academic standards.”

— Pam Stewart, ’85, Florida Education Commissioner

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