Pegasus Magazine Spring 2019

The Magazine of the University of Central Florida

SPRING 2019

For Marcie (Swilley) Washington ’83, beating the odds is just part of the game.

BEAM ME UP Collaboration. Camaraderie. Community pride. Prior to topping off the construction of Dr. Phillips Academic Commons at UCF Downtown, the final steel beam was signed by students and supporters from UCF, Valencia College, the city of Orlando and nearby Parramore neighborhood. The first classes will be held on August 26, 2019.

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PEGASUS

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CHIEF OF STAFF AND VP FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Grant J. Heston ’13MBA AVP FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Patrick Burt ’08MA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Laura J. Cole CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ron Boucher ’92 ASSISTANT CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lauren (Haar) Waters ’06 STAFF WRITERS Bree (Adamson) Watson ’04 Nicole Dudenhoefer ’17 Jenna Marina Lee

TWITTER I READ THE ARTICLE ABOUT THE ACCOMPLISHMENT of the UCF programming team in the Fall 2018 issue (“The Strategists”) with pleasure. It brought back memories of over 30 years ago. I was on both UCF programming teams in ’86 and ’87, when we came in second in the world. When we won fourth place in 1986 in Cincinnati, people were surprised and wondered, “Who is UCF?” The next year in St. Louis when Jim Duke ’86, Jim Geist ’87, David Vanbrackle ’84 ’89MS and I finished just slightly behind Stanford University, people knew who we were!

Back then, the world of programming competition was small but no less challenging, with a lot of powerhouses such as Stanford, MIT and Harvard. Since then, the UCF programming team has become a powerhouse on its own. I am proud to be a part of the program’s history.

Congratulations and best wishes to all UCF teams. » NHAN TRAN ’88

SOMETHING TO CONSIDER MOVING FORWARD: I appreciate that the magazine is overly large since the university is also very large. The layout and photos are quite impressive.

However, there are some articles that are overwhelmed by the graphics. I am thinking of the article about the computer programming team. It was a fascinating story in very small print with bright, large distracting graphics.

Other articles are written in very small type in spite of the size of the magazine, such as “Believe the Heup!”

» TERRY GILLAM ’78MED

Editor’s response: We apologize that those articles proved to be challenging reading experiences due to the graphics and copy size. We had several conversations about this and found what we hope is a satisfactory solution, which we’ve incorporated into this issue and will continue moving forward.

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

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

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Email:

pegasus@ucf.edu

Mail: UCF Marketing P.O. Box 160090 Orlando, FL 32816-0090 Phone: 407.882.1238

@JasonG23 – Jan. 31 The new Pegasus mag came today. Front to back, nothing but @UCF_Football.

Brought a tear to my eye! Is it August yet??? #ChargeOn #UCF

@CACrush – Jan. 31 This was very well done! Awesome keepsake of an amazing year!! @UCF_Football please pass along to the Pegasus staff!

@CoreyAppelbaum – Feb. 6 Got my #Pegasus magazine football edition and they are very smart to highlight the individual behind the @UCF_Football account, my alma mater’s #socialmedia game is strong #ChargeOn

@jeffreyworks – Feb. 6 Who did this great #illustration for the UCF Pegasus magazine cover? Can’t find a credit inside mag #design #orlando #print @UCF Our designer, Janeza Dino. Isn’t it incredible? @jeffreyworks Yes, it’s wonderful! Pegasus magazine has been looking sharp lately. I’m a UCF alum, work in the creative arts, and even collect old magazines. I was very happy to see the fine work done for this issue. Good job, all!

@rockcrobsta – Feb. 6 @ucf_marcdaniels just read your piece in Pegasus. What a beautiful summary of an incredible run and look to what’s ahead. Thanks for being our voice. #OnlyTheBeginning #ChargeOn

©2019 University of Central Florida. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

Pegasus is a registered trademark of UCF Alumni.

ART DIRECTOR Steve Webb DESIGNERS Mario Carrillo Janeza Dino COPY EDITOR Peg Martin MULTIMEDIA Thomas Bell ’08 Jasmine Kettenacker Nick Leyva ’15 Lauren Schoepfer ’17 Austin Warren PRODUCTION MANAGER Sandy Pouliot WEB Jim Barnes Cadie Brown RJ Bruneel ’97 Jo Dickson ’11 Kim Spencer Roger Wolf ’07 CONTRIBUTORS Jeffrey C. Billman ’01 ’10MA Canopy Design LLC Layla Ferris ’18 Gene Kruckemyer ’73 Eric Michael ’96 Dan Morrell Kevin Pavik Lexi Senior ’11 ’16MFA Robert Stephens Kirsten Ulve Stephen Voss PEGASUS ADVISORY BOARD Chad Binette ’06MPA Richard Brunson ’84 Cristina Calvet-Harrold ’01 ’03MBA John Gill ’86 Michael Griffin ’84 Mike Hinn ’92 Gerald McGratty Jr. ’71 ’72MBA Michael O’Shaughnessy ’81 Dan Ward ’92

INBOX 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, style and clarity, and may be published in any medium. Due to volume, we regret that we cannot reply to every letter.

MOVED RECENTLY? NEED TO UPDATE YOUR INFO? Update your contact information: ucfalumni.com/contactupdates

Contents 6 In Focus 12 Briefs 14 On Campus 16 Making Mars 17 The Feed 18 Just Say Om 19 A New Day for Tea 20 House of Highlights 21 Senior Class 22 How Nanotech Can Improve What We’re Wearing 24 Unstoppable 28 Next Level 32 A Tale of Two Bands 36 Driving the Future 38 Class Notes 42 Weddings & Births 46 Why I Am a Festival Kid

P R O V O S T ’ S PAT H Elizabeth A. Dooley was named provost and vice president for academic affairs. She is the first African American and first woman to hold that title at UCF. Dooley previously served as UCF’s vice provost for teaching and learning and the dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies, and came to UCF after a 25-year career in teaching, research and leadership.

“I look forward to continuing to work each day to help achieve our university’s goal of becoming America’s 21stcentury preeminent university.”

— Elizabeth A. Dooley, UCF provost

In Focus FOSTERING GROWTH Medical advances are increasing the chances for children to overcome chronic illnesses. But many children who survive end up significantly behind their peers in education and career potential, as hospitals lack the teaching staff and resources to provide each child with meaningful and effective instruction. To address this issue, more than 50 UCF student-teachers and faculty have partnered with healthcare professionals to create UCF’s PedsAcademy [pronounced “peeds,” after pediatrics] at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Lake Nona.

Since the program’s launch in August, these educators have been providing tailored instruction, both academic and medical. These lessons allow young patients to take a break from being strictly a patient and become immersed in learning through virtual reality, robotics, 3D printers and other high-tech learning tools. And PedsAcademy is the world’s first pediatric school program that uses curriculum specifically tailored to a child’s disease.

Teaching methods and lessons are based on research into cognitive development and the effects of specific diseases on learning, so patients are taught using learning tools conducive to their physical limitations and sensory conditions.

“Our purpose is to provide a rich, meaningful, educational experience so [kids with chronic illnesses] aren’t just keeping pace with their healthy, typically developing peers, but that they’re actually getting extraordinary educational opportunities while in the hospital,” says Megan Nickels, the PedsAcademy faculty director and a UCF assistant professor of STEM education.

On an average day, up to 60 PedsAcademy children receive at least three hours of instruction. The program doesn’t just benefit children receiving care at Nemours — siblings of patients can take advantage of the educational services too.

To watch a video and learn more about PedsAcademy, visit ucf.edu/pegasus.

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PHOTO BY LELAND DUTCHER

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PHOTO BY KEVIN MACIA

In Focus HOLDING COURT The men’s and women’s basketball teams kept the momentum rolling from UCF’s stellar football season with exceptional performances of their own this year.

Under the leadership of head coaches Johnny Dawkins and Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, the programs produced two of the winningest seasons in UCF history, and the nation noticed. The men’s team broke through the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2011, and the women’s program consistently received votes in the national polls throughout the season.

PHOTO BY LELAND DUTCHER

“It’s been an honor to represent UCF these last five years. Being from Orlando, I’m proud to be able to lead the city’s hometown team and give it our all for the community.”

— BJ Taylor ’18, senior guard

1,000

Career points scored by junior guard Kay Kay Wright, senior center Tacko Fall and senior guard BJ Taylor ’18

50

Wins at UCF by both men’s and women’s head coaches Johnny Dawkins and Katie Abrahamson-Henderson — the fastest achieved by head coaches since 1984

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Points UCF outscored USF by in the Knights’ four combined wins this season for a clean sweep of the War On I-4 Rivalry Series

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Regular season victories for women’s basketball — a new school record

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Postseason appearances (NCAA or NIT/WNIT tournaments) by both programs in UCF’s Division I history

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Houston’s national ranking when the men’s basketball team upset the Cougars on the road March 2, marking the Knights’ second-highest ranked win in school history *Stats were last updated on March 6, when this issue went to print.

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PHOTO BY CONOR KVATEK

In Focus CYBER CENTRAL As the need for cybersecurity experts across the nation grows, UCF has created a space where students interested in the field can develop their skills. The Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab, located in the Engineering I building, opened in February to foster the next generation of cybersecurity.

The 970-square-foot lab will serve as a learning hub, classroom and the practice center for Hack@UCF, the university’s cyberdefense club. The student organization has more than 350 members and has placed first in 41 competitions since 2013.

“Having a centralized space will streamline the way we organize our meetings and practices,” says Hack@UCF president David Maria, a senior studying computer engineering. “With this lab, we can practice for competitions, host workshops and speakers, provide cybersecurity tools and resources, give our student members a sense of community and help get them ready for future careers. It’s not just a practice space. It’s a home for us.”

Since Hack@UCF members spend many hours sitting in front of computers, the lab includes ergonomically designed chairs to ensure they’re comfortable. The high-tech space also includes whiteboard tables, several TVs and a projection display to enhance collaborative work efforts.

Last year, Lockheed Martin donated $1.5 million to UCF to help create the facility and fund software and technology to support the lab. The defense company will also provide training and mentorship to engineering students for the next 20 years. UCF provides more graduates to aerospace and defense companies than any other university in the nation.

In 2016, the university was named a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyberdefense Education by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

To watch a video of the lab’s grand opening and learn more, visit ucf.edu/pegasus.

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Briefs

CULTURAL CONVERSATIONS UCF philosophy professor Cyrus Zargar was recently named the Al-Ghazali Endowed Distinguished Professor.

The position, which is funded by the Islamic Center of Orlando, recognizes Zargar’s achievements and allows him to advance his research and promote conversation, education and community outreach about Islamic studies.

“I hope to make UCF a center of discussions — a center of learning where scholars and artists from around the U.S. and the world are heard by a curious and participating campus community.”

CYRUS ZARGAR

¡VAMOS KNIGHTS! The U.S. Department of Education officially designated UCF a Hispanic Serving Institution, allowing the university to vie for federal grants to enhance the educational experience of Hispanic and low-income students. The university qualified for the designation as more than a quarter of full-time undergraduate students are Hispanic.

LANGUAGE

UCF’s English Language Institute recently partnered with the city of Orlando’s Hispanic Office for Local Assistance to provide free classes to new Spanish-speaking residents. At the end of February, 25 students completed the eight-week program, which was taught by two UCF instructors and teaching assistants.

The fellowship has provided me the confidence to pursue my goals in tackling scientific challenges on renewable energy conversion.”

— Xiaofeng Feng, UCF assistant professor of physics, on being named a Sloan Research Fellow — UCF’s first. The award recognizes early career scientists that demonstrate high promise. Collectively, past Sloan Research Fellows have received 47 Nobel Prizes, 17 Fields Medals in mathematics, 69 National Medals of Science and 18 John Bates Clark Medals in economics.

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PRESIDENTIAL UPDATE UCF’s Board of Trustees accepted the resignation of President Dale Whittaker during an emergency meeting in February. At the time of publication, the board appointed Vice President Thad Seymour Jr. as temporary interim president until a permanent replacement is confirmed.

“UCF is a place that expands opportunity, thinks boldly and unleashes incredible talent. And I remain convinced our best years are ahead.”

— Interim President Thad Seymour Jr., vice president for partnerships and chief innovation officer

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Supplier of graduates to U.S. aerospace and defense industries (Aviation Week)

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Collegiate Cyberdefense Team in the nation

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# Thomas Wahl, an assistant professor of engineering, has joined the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to provide expertise on sea-level rise and coastal flooding. The panel of experts presents the impact of climate change in a report that is shared internationally every six years.

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UCF cheerleading in Game Day and University World Cup championships

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Hospitality and hotel management school in the world (CEOWorld Magazine)

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A VOTERFRIENDLY CAMPUS UCF was one of only 123 campuses in the nation — and one of only five in Florida — designated a “Voter Friendly Campus”

by Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project. The designation recognizes campuses that promote voter registration and voting and develop a culture of democratic engagement.

Online undergraduate programs for veterans in the nation (U.S. News & World Report)

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Hundreds of Apopka farmworkers will get easier access to healthcare thanks to a $395,000 Florida Blue Foundation grant that will fund resources for free clinics led by students and faculty in UCF’s Comprehensive Medical Care Outreach Team. An additional $600,000 grant from the Florida Blue Foundation helped UCF establish the Parramore Healthy Community Coalition to focus on health education in the downtown district.

Online undergraduate programs in the nation (U.S. News & World Report)

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College health services in the nation (The Princeton Review)

TOP

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Online graduate nursing programs in the nation (U.S. News & World Report)

Public research universities in the nation (Top American Research Universities 2017 Annual Report) U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 1 3

NOV.

9

UCF cheerleaders were all smiles during Spirit Splash at the Reflecting Pond.

NOV.

8

Students attended Concert Knight with Ella Mai and A$AP Ferg as part of Homecoming.

NOV.

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ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi spoke with students at the Nicholson School of Communication and Media before College GameDay. 14 | SPRING 2019

DEC.

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A group of Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy graduates showed off their master’s thesis game projects.

FEB.

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Students laughed and broke bread with Knightro at the Gather Luncheon in the Cape Florida Ballroom.

PEGASUS

FEB.

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Gerard Flood received a hug from his son, after he and five other patrol officers were sworn in to the UCF Police Department.

JAN.

9

A student studied by the palm trees on Memory Mall.

NOV.

7

UCF honored the more than 1,400 student veterans enrolled in the fall semester with a flag for each on Memory Mall.

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

Artifact

UCF researchers are setting the standard for extraterrestrial soil.

BY BREE WATSON ’04 magine a big, metal machine, similar to a food processor. But instead of shredding cabbage for coleslaw or pureeing chickpeas for hummus, it’s pulverizing rocks and minerals to make out-of-this-world dirt.

This is a familiar scene for Kevin Cannon, a researcher who founded the nonprofit Exolith Lab, an extension of UCF’s Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science. Cannon and his team of undergraduate students crush, sieve and carefully combine pure minerals to create research-grade simulants that replicate the physical, chemical and spectral makeup of soil on the moon, Mars and asteroids.

“Before humans ever set foot on Mars, scientists need to perform a lot of experiments,” says Cannon. “We need Martian soil to do that.” Even though NASA has landed multiple rovers on our neighbor planet, they are years away from ferrying even a small amount of material back to Earth. In the meantime, researchers prefer to use soil simulants like those made by Exolith Lab because they can be produced in large quantities with consistency.

HERE’S THE SCOOP ON MARS SIMULANT NOT-SO-SECRET RECIPE Mars Global Simulant (MGS-1) is made up of 11 minerals and non-crystal materials, including plagioclase and basaltic glass. Small amounts of ferrihydrite and hematite provide the soil’s signature reddish hue. The team recently returned from a trip to Montana, where they gathered more than two tons of pure silicate rock from the Stillwater Mine.

ACTUAL MGS-1 SIMULANT

ANALYZE THIS NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, used X-ray technology to analyze soil samples taken from the Rocknest site in the Gale crater. This is the basis for Cannon and team’s MGS-1 recipe.

ORGANIC MATTERS “A lot of [researchers] are interested in plant growth,” says Cannon. “And it turns out if you try to grow plants with just the default simulant [that we produce], they will not grow. There’s no organic carbon, no nutrients. And the particle size is too coarse — like sand.” Cannon says that to be able to grow plants, the soil will likely need to be sifted and supplemented, perhaps with clay found on a different part of Mars or enriched with help from common earthworms.

BUILDING BLOCKS “There’s also a lot of interest in making building material,” says Cannon.

Researchers are developing 3D printers that use simulants as ink to create bricks, tools and other objects. Other engineers are using a high-pressure hammer to smash the simulant and form small but strong blocks that do not require a binding agent.

A TON OF INTEREST At $20 per kilogram of MGS-1, the price is within reach for fans of the red planet — however, the simulated interstellar soil is only available to space agencies and other researchers. To date, the largest request for Mars and lunar simulants has been for 1,000 pounds, which was ordered

by NASA.

Learn more at ucf.edu/pegasus.

(NOT ACTUAL MARTIAN)

Find more @

ucf.edu/today

The Feed @UCF

@University of Central Florida

Conservation Collaboration

UCF is teaming up with Conservation Florida to advocate for natural lands and wildlife. bit.ly/ucf-conservation-florida

Destination: Space UCF continues to reach for the stars with experiments aboard Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin’s New Shepard. bit.ly/ucf-three-peat

Creative Control

A UCF graduate student is creating custom controllers for gamers with disabilities around the globe. bit.ly/ucf-creative-control

The Pikachu Effect

How playing Pokémon Go could promote a sense of community belonging. bit.ly/ucf-pikachu-effect

Be Our Guest

Pegasus Hotel, UCF’s first on-campus hotel, is slated to open in early 2020. bit.ly/ucf-be-our-guest

WHAT’S TRENDING ON...

UCF TODAY Dungeons & Dads

UCF Associate Professor David James Poissant shares his love of fantasy in this ode to Dungeons & Dragons. bit.ly/ucf-dungeons-dads

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

Jan. 31 @ourmedschool Construction has begun for the @UCF Lake Nona Medical Center! It’ll be open in 2020. #UCF #ThisIsOrlando #meded Feb. 2 @lulubayy [Tolulope Omokore] It really is bigger than basketball with our coaching staff at UCF

University of Central Florida Jan. 29, 2019

These photos from the UCF cheerleading team’s time at the National Championship has our minds blown.

Full story at bit.ly/ucf-cheer-2019

@CoachEas1 and

@coolkesh42 stayed after practice to prepare me for my grad school interview that’s coming up!

Feb. 19 @vivid99_ The @backstreetboys got their start in the @citybeautiful so I knew they’d be

Survivor Speaks

@UCF fans!

A UCF student opens up about her experience as a Parkland shooting survivor. bit.ly/ucf-parkland

Bad Bosses

UCF professors Shannon Taylor and Robert Folger’s research explains how a bad boss might influence others to be better leaders. bit.ly/ucf-bosses

1.2K

42 comments

107 Shares

Jennifer Hobbs They are awesome!! Love watching them!!

KaRon Bryson-Emmert This is a team of absolutely amazing athletes Dee Pollard Beasley-Schultz Charge on and cheer on!

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 1 7

JUST

SAY

Here are five ways meditation can create positive benefits in your life, according to Koopsen.

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Learn how to just be.

“One of the challenges in our lives today is that we’re so busy doing. Meditation focuses on just being fully present, which is really powerful. It helps me stay focused on what is in front of me right in the moment, so I don’t worry as much, and I enjoy people and experiences much more fully.”

Reduce anxiety and symptoms of depression.

“Just 30 seconds to a minute of meditation can make a difference.

It improves sleep.

It decreases our tendency to worry or be anxious. It increases feelings of happiness. And it increases our resilience and adaptability to a lot of our stressors.”

Meditation has been an influential practice across the globe for thousands of years. But you might not realize how the ancient art can improve your life.

BY ERIC MICHAEL ’96 Cyndie Koopsen, a nurse educator and co-author of Spirituality, Health, and Healing: An Integrative Approach, teaches people from all walks of life to incorporate meditation in their daily routines for a variety of powerful benefits. Her online course, Certificate in Meditation, is one of hundreds of low-cost classes offered by UCF Continuing Education. “[As a nurse] I took care of clients from different countries and cultural backgrounds, and I learned about many other kinds of healing systems using therapeutic modalities that seemed to work really well for them,” Koopsen says. “I felt like an entire new world was really opened up for me in terms of healthcare.”

Through her experience of helping women through labor and delivery, Koopsen learned how the foundations of meditation — guided imagery, breathing techniques and mindfulness — could be powerful tools for healing. A growing body of medical research published by the Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health suggests meditation can have medical benefits. Koopsen’s experience changed her views on holistic medicine, along with her perspective on her own life.

“I believe strongly that the connection of the mind, body and spirit is absolutely essential for being healthy,” she says. “Meditation and mindfulness — being present in the moment — are incredibly powerful in terms of what they can do for a variety of aspects of health.”

Improve pain management.

Inspire mindful eating.

“Pain can be mental as well as physical.

Meditation works effectively with both acute and chronic pain, so it can actually reduce the need for medication.”

“Mindful eating means not eating when we’re distracted, not eating on the go, and enjoying the presence of others at a meal. When people eat mindfully, they eat more nutritious food.

They enjoy it more.

And they eat less. It makes eating a joyful experience.”

Experience more joy.

“When we are calmer, less anxious and more present, we feel empowered to help ourselves stay healthy — or to heal. I also think that when we’re mindful, we are much more aware of the beauty that’s around us. And we tend to focus on more positive things, which gives us a greater sense of joy.”

Launchpad

WHO

Bryon and Kyle White THE INSPIRATION

You may not spend much time thinking about tea.

Two UCF brothers want to change that.

BY GENE KRUCKEMYER ’73

Sit back, relax, and enjoy a sip of tea from the only caffeinated plant native to North America — an antioxidant-laden, jitterfree drink that’s been consumed for more than 10,000 years.

Its name is yaupon [pronounced yoh-pon], and while popular in the distant past, it became known more as an ornamental rather than a food source in the last century.

That is, until brothers Bryon White ’09 and Kyle, a senior majoring in event management, decided to revive the ancient superfood and create a new product for 21st-century tea drinkers.

Grown in the southeastern United States, yaupon holly was traded by Native Americans to make tea for ceremonies and recreation. During the Civil War, Southerners often drank yaupon tea in place of coffee and black tea.

“Yaupon is such a great edible plant, and it deserves a spot in your cupboard,” says Bryon, who earned a bachelor’s degree in legal studies at UCF. The Yaupon Brothers Tea Co. started in 2012, and a year later it became the first processor and grower of yaupon to earn USDA organic certification. The brothers project that the ongoing trend toward natural foods and herbal teas will boost sales in the coming years.

“We’ve got a lot of happy customers,” Bryon says. “Some of them appreciate the novelty of the product, and some just like the way it tastes and that it’s grown right here in Florida.”

The brothers have a 12-acre farm in New Smyrna Beach, several land leases throughout the state, a production facility in Edgewater, and they helped start the American Yaupon Association with nine other new companies to promote yaupon.

They also promote yaupon business opportunities to farmers, especially citrus growers whose crops have been hit by harsh weather and disease the past several years.

“With yaupon being native, it does not need any fertilizer or pesticides and requires very little water,” Kyle says. “This leads to a crop that is more profitable for farmers while leaving less environmental impact on its surrounding area.

“To us, it’s a no-brainer. Americans should be drinking more yaupon.”

Bryon said the brothers read about Native American consumption of yaupon and were intrigued. “We thought that if it tasted good, somebody would already be making a product from it,” he says.

“But upon researching this, we couldn’t find any yaupon products for sale.”

THE PITCH

A native-grown tea that provides a jitter-free caffeine boost and is a potent source of antioxidants. “[More than 150] million Americans drink tea every day, and basically all of it is imported from overseas.

Yaupon provides the same benefits … and it grows right here [in Florida],” Bryon says.

BACKERS

UCF’s 2017 Joust New Venture Competition ($62,000) Rally: The Social Enterprises Accelerator ($25,000) WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT

85 U.S. stores, 17 stores in London, 13 in Ireland, and locally at Lucky’s Market, Downtown Credo, Infusion Tea, Dandelion Communitea Café and others.

It can also be found on Amazon and YauponBrothers.com.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 1 9

Before he even graduated, Omar Raja ’16 launched a popular Instagram account and landed a career with Bleacher Report. Here’s how he made it happen.

BY NICOLE DUDENHOEFER ’17 Omar Raja ’16 has always loved sports, and he remembers a specific moment from his childhood when he felt its magic. Before a blacked-out playoff game between the Colts and Dolphins, Raja and his father, along with their friends, loaded up a car and drove from their home in Miami to Naples, Florida, to watch the game.

“We were all watching this game in a small, little hotel room with 15 to 20 people. I’ve never seen more grown men pray for a Dolphins win in my life,” Raja says. “That was the moment for me when I was like, ‘Oh wow, this is special.’ ” As the creator of Bleacher Report’s House of Highlights, Raja’s job is to curate sports moments his 12 million Instagram followers connect with — the majority of which are instances of athletes’ expressions that he turns into relatable memes.

“We don’t just get the dunk and assist and the touchdown passes that everyone else gets. We find moments in sports that nobody else finds … and we do it before everybody else — consistently,” Raja says.

That consistency first developed in August 2014 as Raja was entering his junior year at UCF. LeBron James had just left the Miami Heat, and Raja was looking for certain highlights that he couldn’t find on any social platform.

The business major spent three weeks looking for clips and began posting them to an Instagram page he called “House of Highlights.”

By early 2016 — five months before Raja’s graduation — sports culture website Bleacher Report acquired Raja’s account and offered him a full-time job running it. His

20 | SPRING 2019

day-to-day operations change on a monthly basis, but they usually include creating content, posting to the account and traveling to pitch to brands. Raja undoubtedly loves what he does, but it can be challenging.

“The hardest part about [creating] content is you and I can both watch the same video and have different opinions on it,” Raja says. “You can’t please everybody. You’ve just got to please the majority.”

Last year, House of Highlights expanded beyond its Instagram success with the launch of a live Twitter show. While it was nerve-wracking for Raja to meet athletes when he first started working in the industry, he now comfortably sits down with them, gaining behindthe-scenes insights and capturing moments no one else does, as he always has.

“We found when athletes open up, when they’re being honest about what they felt about a certain teammate or a coach, or give more details on what happened during a game, it’s what’s most successful with our audience,” Raja says. “What’s great about sports is it makes people from different walks of life come together and celebrate moments that they’re passionate about.”

PEGASUS

C O L L E G E A F T E R R E T I R E M E N T ? A C T U A L LY, I T M A K E S A L O T O F S E N S E .

BY JENNA MARINA LEE

T

hroughout the academic year, hundreds of eager students come to UCF’s Student Union to attend lectures by faculty on a range of topics. Many show up early to find a good seat and catch up with friends while sipping on a cup of hot coffee.

These students are the “senior class” of the Learning Institute for Elders (LIFE) at UCF. LIFE was organized nearly 30 years ago as a partnership with the university to offer noncredit courses and access to UCF resources, such as the library, for adults age 50 and over.

And people are clamoring to join. The group currently stands at 798 members, up 148 members from just two years ago. The waitlist averages 300 to 400 people in any given year, and the wait time is between nine and 21 months, according to LIFE program coordinator Leslie Collin.

Given today’s life expectancy rates, it’s not all that surprising that today’s retirees are finding value in going back to school. On average, a man who reaches age 65 today can expect to live until age 84 while a woman can expect to live until age 87, according to the Social Security Administration.

“That’s at least two decades of life available for exploring new opportunities for work, leisure and civic engagement,” says Denise Gammonley, associate professor of social work and coordinator of UCF’s aging studies minor.

“UCF ALREADY HELPS OLDER ADULTS ACHIEVE A VISION OF PURPOSEFUL AND PRODUCTIVE AGING, BUT I THINK THERE ARE WAYS WE CAN TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL.”

Gammonley is one of the leads of UCF’s disability, aging and technology faculty cluster, a group of professors and researchers who are linking health interventions with technology to help populations of all ages.

Gammonley says the faculty cluster’s research has the potential to foster what she likes to call purposeful aging, or engaging in activities that are personally meaningful. Research shows that having such a purpose is a predicator of longevity.

For Todd Bowers ’77, a LIFE board member, that means staying active. “I think there are people that just know being around something as vibrant as UCF and all these young people is good for them.

We put a high value on lifelong learning,” he says.

It’s a mutually beneficial relationship for UCF. LIFE members frequently participate and contribute to research studies, and donate to the university.

“UCF already engages with older adults and helps them achieve a vision of purposeful and productive aging, but I think there are ways we can take it to the next level,” Gammonley says.

Enter Legacy Pointe at UCF, a senior living community close to the university’s main campus, due for completion in late 2020. Legacy Pointe will give residents options for independent, assisted or skilled nursing residences. Residents will also have access to high-quality programs from the university.

In turn, students will have the opportunity to grow from interprofessional educational events, internships and service learning at the facility. “[Residents] have this vast amount of knowledge and talent that many of them want to share with the UCF community,” says Gammonley. “We’re also very excited about being able to create new models of clinical care. Our relationship with Legacy Pointe will allow us to put our research to the test in the real world.”

To learn more about senior living options at Legacy Pointe at UCF, visit LegacyPointeAtUCF.com.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 2 1

Hair Restoration

So as we watch, we might think, “Can’t we get someone to work on clothing like this for real?” Turns out, researchers at UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center are perfecting a number of concepts that you might consider marvelous. And we’re closer to wearing them than you think.

The latest installment in the series of Marvel movies, Captain Marvel, gives us yet another reason to, well, marvel. But what is it exactly that makes us watch these films in awe?

The superheroes are somehow less super and less heroic when wearing jeans and button-down shirts. It’s those suits. They shield. They morph.

They are mythical wonders said to be birthed from nanotechnology.

BY ROBERT STEPHENS

The same textile fibers that charge devices could also be molded into adhesive patches used for heart monitoring, eliminating the need for hospital stays.

Heart-monitor Patches

Estimated arrival: three to five years

Researcher: Jayan Thomas, associate professor of materials science and engineering

Tech: Energy harvesting and storing in the form of wired fabric

Portability of energy has always been a huge challenge, which is why you often see people crowded around electrical outlets at airports to charge their phones. By weaving wired fabric into a shirt or jacket, you could charge a device just by putting it into a pocket.

Device-charging Shirts

Patches that treat cancer? Hats that stimulate hair growth? Jackets that charge your smartphone? UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center is an epicenter of futuristic wearables.

Estimated arrival: two to three years

Researcher: Dong

Tech: QLEDs

Elite athletes sometimes use light therapy to stimulate cell repair. With Dong’s invention, an athlete at any level could wear QLEDs instead of lying prone at a doctor’s office. In theory, QLEDs could also be applied like bandages to quickly heal open wounds. Dong has a prototype ready. “Like any invention,” says Dong, “it’s a matter of finding a partner who can help scale it up.”

Cell and Wound Repair

Estimated arrival: four years, pending government approval

Researcher: Dong

Tech: QLEDs

QLEDs are also generating interest with medical researchers.

Light-emitting devices could be wrapped around cancerous areas — skin and oral cancers, in particular — allowing patients to receive treatment while going about their daily lives.

Cancer Treatment Patches

Estimated arrival: within two years

Researcher: Yajie Dong, assistant professor of materials science and engineering

Tech: QLEDs

Hard helmets with rigid LEDs or lasers have been used in crude methods to stimulate hair growth.

But the flexibility of quantum dot light-emitting devices (QLEDs), will make it possible for people to wear less cumbersome caps while the concentrated light addresses alopecia.

Estimated arrival: five to 10 years

Researchers: Zhai and Fox

Tech: Carbon nanotube composites

Bullet-resistant vests stop bullets one layer at a time through the transfer of kinetic energy. But a suit using carbon nanotube mesh could, in theory, better stop higher-energy bullets and knife blades from fully penetrating.

Indestructible Suits

Estimated arrival: 30 years

Researchers: Lei Zhai, professor of nanotechnology and chemistry, and graduate assistant David Fox Jr. ’16

Tech: Carbon nanotube composites, known as self-correcting fibers

Imagine your shirt or jacket rips, and then you watch it miraculously repair itself. That’s essentially what carbon nanotube composites can do — draw energy to the juncture of a tear, then reconnect the material.

“The interesting thing about carbon nanotubes is that they can induce changes in the molecules around them if [the molecules are] stretched or torn,” says David Fox Jr. ’16.

“These sorts of materials can be integrated into self-healing materials, like fabric, that arrange themselves on the molecular level.”

Self-repairing Clothes

Estimated arrival: five to 10 years

Researcher: Thomas

Tech: Energy harvesting and storing in the form of wired fabric

AFTER BECOMING THE FIRST AFRICANAMERICAN WOMAN TO GRADUATE FROM UCF’S ENGINEERING PROGRAM, MARCIE (SWILLEY) WASHINGTON ’83 WORKED FOR NASA, BECAME AN ORDAINED MINISTER, AND SURVIVED HER HEART STOPPING FOR 22 MINUTES. NOW, SHE’S TACKLING HER NEXT CHALLENGE: CANCER.

24 | SPRING 2019

PEGASUS

BY ROBERT STEPHENS

S

hortly after 2 a.m. on May 16, 2015, the medical staff at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., began pulling declaration of death paperwork for Marcie (Swilley) Washington ’83. A blood clot had done what no obstacle had been able to do during Washington’s 54 years: It stopped her relentless heart.

Half an hour earlier, a nurse found Washington on the floor of her hospital room. By the time doctors responded, the heart that drove Washington to become the first African-American woman to earn an engineering degree at UCF had been still for at least five minutes.

They quickly began resuscitation procedures on the heart that empowered Washington to break scoring records as a player on the Knights basketball team. Ten minutes passed. Fifteen. After 22 minutes, there was nothing more they could do to revive the heart that inspired Washington to explore the unknown during a storied career at NASA. Everyone left the room except for one nurse.

The most dreaded middle-of-thenight phone call would be made to the Fort Washington, Maryland, home where Washington lived with her family — husband, Larry; children,

Talia, Tyreese and Taurus; and her mother, Erma.

The nurse reached out to touch Washington’s femoral artery one last time. “Wait …”

Wait.

This is not an obituary.

When Larry and Erma arrived at the hospital, Washington’s heart was beating again, though there was still no guarantee she’d survive until sunrise.

“It wasn’t pleasant to see her like that,” says Erma, who, upon walking into her daughter’s room at 3:30 a.m., went to a window to pray. (Larry still has a difficult time talking about “that night” as the family calls it.) “She was transcending, leaving us. But as I stood there praying, I received an unspeakable peace, as if I was being told, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ ” By late morning, Washington’s resilience had driven family and friends to their knees in thanks.

Her heart had just taken a long break during an amazing journey.

Washington was going to be OK. It’s the fall of 1979. Washington has just begun her studies at UCF, and the young university is little more than a gap in the forest. Forty-five minutes away, Walt Disney World has become Florida’s biggest tourist attraction, and the nation’s space program has taken root on the coast. Things are changing around — and within — UCF. Whether she realizes it or not, Washington is about to blaze new trails of her own.

“From as far back as I remember, she was always very driven and determined, but she’s always been too respectful of others to consider herself first,” says Barbara Brown ’96MS, who grew up with Washington in Palatka, Florida, and now works as the chief technologist at Kennedy Space Center.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 2 5

Of the 12,022 students enrolled at UCF in the fall of 1979, Washington and Brown estimate that fewer than 5 percent were black. The number of African-American women to earn a degree from the engineering college?

Exactly zero. Washington would change that.

“I never thought of it as doing something that hadn’t been done,” Washington says. “I love math and science, and I’m outgoing, so I knew industrial engineering would be a good fit. That was my focus. The instructors and students didn’t treat me differently. Being a black female in the engineering college? It didn’t faze me.”

It also didn’t faze her when she and her fellow first-year students were told at orientation that half of them who planned to study engineering would find the work too rigorous and change majors.

“It’s true, I wondered if I’d make it through a few classes,” says Pam Ford ’83 ’91MS, who studied engineering and roomed with Washington during their first year.

“But being around Marcie every day

26 | SPRING 2019

helped. She was like the Energizer Bunny, full of optimism, ready to finish whatever she started.”

Washington had a tight schedule, which included waking up at 5:30 a.m. for basketball practice. Despite the fact that she was among the leading scorers in Florida during her senior season at Palatka High School, Washington had to earn a spot on the UCF roster as a 5-foot-6-inch guard on a partial scholarship.

“I loved the challenge,” says Washington, now 58. “Growing up, I had to prove to the boys in the park that I belonged.” Washington’s scrappy style stamped an identity on a UCF team that went 23-9 in just its third season of organized play.

It’s going to be OK, Marcie. She coveted those words. “It took the pressure off. I knew everything would be fine from that point forward.”

Set free from her fear of failing others, nothing would deter her from graduating and starting a career as an industrial engineer — not even failing a class the next semester. All she’d needed was a little comfort from home.

Washington was recruited by Kennedy Space Center over dinner at Red Lobster. “I laugh when I think how recruiters would come to UCF to interview black engineering students,” she says. “There weren’t many of us to interview.”

early 1960s, would remain relatively anonymous until the release of the book and movie Hidden Figures in 2016. There were subtle similarities in Washington’s experience early on.

“Some people assumed I was a note taker,” she says. “But again, none of that fazed me. I had the best job with the best organization in the world.”

Washington worked in the Mission Planning Office of Shuttle Operations at KSC, tasked with writing schedules for the shuttle, and calculating factors such as orbiters and ground equipment to determine how many missions could be planned by the year 2000. Her fascination with code and technology piqued whenever service people came into the office to work on

“I DON’T WANT TO READ ABOUT DYING. “She was unstoppable on and off the court,” says Ford. “To this day, I’ve always wondered how she did it.”

Washington admits, however, that she had one brief period of doubt toward the end of her freshman year.

The stress of basketball and her course load led to a fear of letting others down. That spring, she called her mom to tell her she wasn’t sure she could continue juggling it all.

Erma knew that Washington needed reassurance. “If you want to come home, we’ll find something else for you,” she said. “It’s going to be OK, Marcie.”

I’m only interested in living.”

Convinced that NASA wanted her intelligence and not a skin color, Washington decided to temporarily ditch her ideas about working at Walt Disney Imagineering. She’d give the government one year of her professional life. One year.

When she arrived for work at the space center, she saw the computers and the launchpad and the team that would work on the shuttle program.

To a self-proclaimed math and science junkie, it was like arriving on a new planet.

“On my second day, I got my security clearance and stood there under the space shuttle,” Washington says. “I was trying to keep my cool, but it literally made me breathless.

I knew right then I’d work for NASA until someone threw me out.” (No one would. She retired 33 years later.)

At that time, she had never heard of mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan.

Johnson, Jackson and Vaughan, the African-American women who helped make America’s earliest space launches successful in the

the computer system, and she’d often ask the techs questions while they worked.

“That epitomizes what we’re about at NASA,” says Brown. “She was humble enough to ask for counsel and critiques, she had the desire to excel, and she couldn’t get enough of it.”

But nothing prepared Washington for what happened on January 28, 1986. Shortly before noon, she stood inside the space center for a countdown before stepping outside into the cold to watch the shuttle Challenger lift off from the nearby launchpad and — 73 seconds later — break apart.

“I thought, ‘Am I seeing what I think I see?’ The offices were quiet for weeks. What can you say? We didn’t know where the program would go from there.”

PEGASUS

Washington was about to head into uncharted terrain again. Among the changes made in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster, NASA transferred their most highly trained experts to its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Washington was among the people chosen to re-energize the space program.

The teams worked ridiculous hours, breaking old paradigms about space-lab development and experimenting with new programming ideas for satellite delivery. Washington thrived on the work. She also made inroads in places like Moscow and Germany, never thinking about the fact she was often the only black woman among white men until one morning when she had no way to curl her hair and no one to lend her a little help. Using reverse engineering, she ripped a brown paper bag into strips and created her own rollers.

“That’s why I felt so right at NASA,” she says. “It embodies the American spirit and a lesson my parents instilled in me: Don’t tell us there’s something we cannot do.”

Washington would need to heed those words again, years later, when she faced her biggest obstacle yet.

While getting ready for work one day in 2014, Washington slipped on the stairs and initially thought she’d pulled a muscle in her back. When she finally went for an MRI, she and her family received unexpected news: Washington had a mass in her back and was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells.

And so started her chemotherapy journey.

Two years before the diagnosis, Washington had been ordained as a minister at Fort Foote Baptist Church in Fort Washington, Maryland. The little girl who committed her life to Jesus at 9 years old was now the Rev. Marcietta Washington.

“That’s where she’d always drawn her strength and optimism,” says Ford, who coincidentally moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1992, four years after Washington moved

THE FIRST LADY

She entered UCF as Marcietta Swilley in 1979 and, four years later, left behind a list of firsts:

Marcie Swilley with future husband, Larry Washington, at NASA headquarters in 1995

there. “In college, no matter what was going on, she leaned on her faith in the Lord.”

Despite being unable to stand for more than two minutes at a time and the bones in her back turning brittle enough to break, she continued working for NASA and studying anything that made her a better engineer, minister, wife and mother.

There was one subject, however, that she refused to learn about: multiple myeloma.

It must be a part of me.”

After two weeks, Washington was out of the hospital. A week later, she completed the rehab that was supposed to take three weeks. One by one, the barriers kept coming — and she kept overcoming them. A broken back. A bone marrow transplant.

Being her own donor for the bone marrow transplant. She grew so weak that, for awhile, she needed three hours to regain her strength after brushing her teeth. Through it all, she

“Some people assumed I was a note taker [at NASA].

But again, none of that fazed me. I had the best job with the best organization in the world.”

“I don’t want to read about dying,” Washington would say. “I’m only interested in living.”

Early on May 16, 2015, she needed all of it. The optimism. The faith. The friends from her days in Palatka and Orlando and at NASA. Word that her heart stopped for minutes before restarting spread so widely that more than 30 people would eventually arrive at the hospital. There, a doctor told her family, “I have no idea how she’s alive.”

No one could explain what happened next either. As the family discussed options in the likelihood of brain damage, they heard a voice: “I’m not brain-dead.” From her bed, less than 24 hours after nearly dying, Washington proceeded to state and solve the quadratic equation.

Point made. She would need that kind of resolve to relearn all the basics — how to sit up, how to eat and how to walk again.

“The athleticism kicked in,” Washington says. “When I played basketball, no matter how tired I was, I never wanted to come out of a game.

FIRST African-American woman to graduate from the College of Engineering FIRST women’s basketball player in UCF history to score 1,000 career points

sermon. “I saw the same energy and determination that I saw at UCF. It hasn’t changed in nearly 40 years,” she says.

Washington’s determination is being put to the test once more — she started cancer treatments again in March last year.

She tires easily. But she also travels and reads and passes life lessons to anyone in her path. She talks about moving forward and working for what you believe in, about the value of respect and faith. And yes, she now stresses the importance of pausing to catch your breath. Because when you do that, maybe you can hear the simple-yet-powerful advice her mother offered during her freshman year: It’s going to be OK.

remembered how her dad, who died when she was 15, told her to fight for anything important: better streets in the community, an engineering degree, life.

“It’s strange to hear my mom tell people how I died ‘that night.’ I wasn’t really dead, but I have chills right now just talking about it. To be where I am now, I think of how my mom and dad told me I could do anything when I was growing up, and how everything would be OK.” When Washington walked back into church after being absent for several months, the pastor stopped everything and watched her move to a seat. Row by row, parishioners stood up to applaud. “Take a good look, ladies and gentlemen,” said the pastor. “This is a real-life miracle.”

Washington officially retired from NASA on February 28, 2017. But she did not stop working. As she says, “I can’t preach from the grave.”

Ford made the 40-minute drive to Washington’s church recently to listen to her college roommate’s

FIRST player to lead her team in steals for three straight seasons. Only three players have done it since. She still ranks fourth all-time in steals (250) and sixth in assists (326) in UCF’s record book.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 2 7

Esports is a fast-rising, billion-dollar industry that is threatening to overtake traditional sports. So what is it, exactly?

BY DAN MORRELL close-cropped hair, a few days of

screen controlling little spaceships

beard growth and a black headset.

trying to eradicate other vessels with

selection of characters,

He raises his arms in victory, fists up,

digital torpedoes. The winner received

weapons and some

mouth open in a celebratory cheer. He

a subscription to Rolling Stone.

All right, boys!”

After a careful

thanks the audience, making special

Luke McKinley kicks off a league

note of a financial supporter. Then he

gaming consoles in the 1980s, there

playoff match against Arizona State

announces an upcoming $50 follower

was the odd tournament here or

University.

giveaway and reminds them that he’ll

there — a National Space Invaders

be streaming tomorrow at 5 p.m. and

Championship run by Atari in

game-streaming platform, follows a

will have some scrimmages after that.

1980 that brought out a reported

blur of action as he and his four team

But for now, sleep. “I have to be up

10,000 people; the Nintendo World

members busy themselves fortifying

early for class in the morning.”

Championship series that started

McKinley’s feed on Twitch, a video

their assigned onscreen locations.

McKinley is part of a revolution.

in 1990, touring 30 U.S. cities in its inaugural year.

The dozen or so people tuned in

Market intelligence company Newzoo

to the match hear the UCF team’s

estimates that the global esports

chatter and see a view of McKinley’s

industry will be worth $1 billion

gaming was sporadic in the U.S., Asia

computer screen — a first-person

this year and $650 million in North

was undergoing a revolution, says

perspective of a tactical shooter, a

America alone by 2021. Epic Games,

Ben Noel, executive director of UCF’s

purple assault rifle adorned with a tiny

creator of the smash hit game

Florida Interactive Entertainment

yellow duck bouncing in front of him.

Fortnite, has a reported valuation of

Academy. He saw that region’s

$15 billion, making them worth about

ascendance in competitive gaming

leader of the UCF Gaming Knights’

as much as Pinterest and Lyft. The

while working as an executive for

top Rainbow Six Siege team, calls out

Overwatch League — the first-ever

video game giant EA Sports in the

orders. “Jelly and Zombie, make your

professional league dedicated to a

1990s. It was aided by both the

way to the workshop.” The teammates

specific video game — drew 861,000

spread of broadband internet access

check in with reports from their

viewers per minute via both streaming

and a unique cultural factor: “Very few

various locations. He compliments

and TV broadcasts in its inaugural

Asian cultures have their living rooms

skillful kills. “Nice. Niiiiiice.” He doles

season this year, with the finals

set up like American families might —

out advice. He is quarterbacking.

broadcast on ESPN.

with game systems at the center of

McKinley, who is manager and team

There are several different ways to

McKinley is surprised it took this

But while the growth of competitive

it,” says Noel. “So kids have to go out

win a round, and they include killing

long. “Why didn’t [this happen]

to game centers and places like that

all of the opposing team’s characters,

sooner?” he says. “Because the

to get their gaming on.” The gradual

not dying or defusing a bomb during

opportunities were there.” Either

evolution to larger competitions in

a three-minute scrum. The first team

way, the masses are waking to the

larger spaces was natural.

to six rounds wins the match; the first

revolution underway.

As broadband access swept across the United States, connected gaming

to two matches wins the whole thing.

ASU takes the first match, 6-3. “We’re

he first known video game

competitions began to rise, and with

a second-half team,” says one of the

competition is thought to

it, interest in taking those gaming

UCF players. It’s prophetic. The next

have been held in October

round goes 6-1 for UCF, and UCF wins

1972 with the Intergalactic

the final round, 6-2.

battles into real spaces.

Alex Chiricosta ’14 has been part

Spacewar Olympics at Stanford’s

of that scene since its early days. The

Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

founding president of the Gaming

10 p.m., ends around 1 a.m. McKinley

Chronicled in a 9,000-word article in

Knights, Chiricosta is a gaming events

reminds his team to be good sports

Rolling Stone — and photographed by

specialist at Red Bull. Chiricosta says

and type “gg” (“good game”) to

the now-iconic photographer Annie

the momentum that esports has today

the other team. The stream then

Leibovitz — the event featured about

is the result of a grassroots movement

flashes to a live shot of McKinley —

20 players hovering over a small

finally finding a market.

The game, which began about

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CANOPY DESIGN LLC

With the mass availability of home

pregame strategy talk, UCF student

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 2 9

THE MOMENTUM THAT ESPORTS HAS TODAY IS THE RESULT OF A GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT FINALLY FINDING A MARKET. “There’s more involvement and

There was a cultural hurdle that

minimum to events,” he says. There’s

Redlick, who spent more than 20

also practical work negotiating

years working in professional sports

sponsorship agreements and creative

prior to joining UCF. “And yet, if I put

work in determining how his team can

an esports project in front of them,

elevate the audience experience.

they’re falling over each other to

Wing’s focus is communications.

Every morning, he checks some of the

volunteer to work on it.”

Even traditional sports powers

popular online community gaming

are seeing the promise of esports.

hubs to see both what’s trending

Owners of the New York Mets and

and what fires might need to be put

Los Angeles Rams, among others,

out. Then, the communications plan:

bought an Overwatch franchise

plotting editorial content, scheduling

league team last year. Icons Joe

blog posts, strategizing social media.

Montana and Michael Jordan have

more opportunity,” he says. “Today,

gaming had to overcome, too, says

“I think the way esports is growing,

made substantial investments in

anybody can become a full-time

McKinley. Video gaming used to be

there’s just a ton of opportunity for

the industry. The NBA even has its

streamer.” Someone, such as McKinley,

considered nerdy. Today, he says, the

folks from different disciplines to

own esports league, which held its

who streams their play live online,

rise of global sensations like Fortnite

come in and be involved,” he says.

inaugural season this summer, with

getting money either from adoring

have erased that stigma. “My brother,

fans making donations or from

he’s in high school, all of his friends

interest in esports gigs is surging.

other in the league’s trademark

sponsorships or both. “It’s obviously

play [Fortnite] — and if you don’t play

“In the sports business program,

NBA 2K game.

very hard, and there’s a lot of luck

it, then they all ask you why you don’t

probably more than half are students

and skill and hard work that goes

play it, and it’s like you have to come

who would take jobs in esports if they

world of traditional sports? For all

with it, but 10 years ago, that wasn’t

up with a specific reason.”

were offered them,” he says.

of its unique structures, esports has

Mike Redlick*, director of external

a thing at all.”

Streaming has enabled the growth of esports, he says, and has provided

According to Jarley, the student

Why so much interest from the

some familiar components, says

he industry’s rise has

affairs and partnership relations

Jarley. “Arenas, stages, coaches,

created new career paths.

for UCF’s DeVos Sport Business

trainers, participants — some of those things are the same.”

a platform for stars to emerge. One of

When Gaming Knights vice

Management Program, says he’s

them: Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, a gamer

president Audrey Luce started

seen the pronounced interest in

known for his masterful playing of the

teams competing against each

at UCF, she wanted to be a YouTuber.

Showing advertisers and sponsors

esports while leading New York City

that there is an audience is crucial.

game Fortnite and who has 10 million

“Now I’m thinking of becoming a

student networking trips. “We can

“[Esports is] reaching a specific

followers on the Twitch streaming

Twitch streamer,” she says. She’s on

arrange meetings for the students

demographic that’s very difficult for

platform, became the first esports

the A team for UCF’s PlayerUnknown’s

at different league offices, and they

sports teams and sports marketers to

player to appear on the cover of ESPN

Battlegrounds team and the B team

have no interest in going to Major

reach,” Redlick says. This audience is

The Magazine and reportedly makes

for the Rainbow Six Siege team.

League Baseball. They have very little

the younger generation — the ones

more than $500,000 a month.

But to be a successful streamer

interest in meeting with motor sports,

who grew up idolizing Ninja instead

who is able to garner the necessary

or meeting with golf or tennis,” says

of Nolan Ryan.

And streaming has flourished because it’s become democratized,

subscriptions and donations, she

says Chiricosta. “It’s easy now. You

needs to develop a supportive

don’t need a $3,000 computer to

online fan base.

stream.”

Robert Wing ’10, associate esports manager at Blizzard — makers of the

But there are myriad options in esports beyond the actual gameplay.

“There are marketing roles, there

popular Overwatch game — still hears

are coaching roles, there are athlete

stories of the “olden days” from some

support roles for lack of a better

of his colleagues. “Back when people

term,” says Paul Jarley, dean of the

were driving themselves out to events

College of Business. “I don’t know

and bringing their consoles with

yet if esports participants have

them,” he says.

agents, but it wouldn’t shock me. I

It was more casual back then.

mean, they have their own sneakers.”

Today, there’s more of a focus on the

(Shoemaker K-Swiss unveiled a

business side. “I think what you’re

signature sneaker for the Immortals

seeing now across the industry is

esports franchise in April 2018.)

much more of a shift into, ‘How do

At Red Bull, Chiricosta focuses

we make this a thing that’s going to

on event production. “I’m traveling

be around in 30 years?’ ” Wing says.

probably three times a month

*Redlick died earlier this year. This feature was finalized a month prior to his death, and he had reviewed and approved his quotes. We honor his memory and expertise.

30 | SPRING 2019

he Gaming Knights became an official sports club in April 2018. It now has about 150 dues-paying members and, over the summer, added a special esports chapter.

The difference between the regular Gaming Knights club members and the esports members, says the club’s esports director Kevin Quiroga, is that the esports members have an athlete’s approach.

“You have to keep up your physique, you have to be healthy, you have to sleep right, you have to keep a clear mental state for every game, you need to learn how to pick yourself up from losing games,” he says. There’s practice, skill-honing exercises, team-building work — just like any other sport. And while the esports players might be competing in the same games as the rest of their

o where does esports go

Gaming Knights peers, the settings

from here?

are constricted to make the games purer tests of skill.

Quiroga uses the analogy of

Wall Street forecasts huge growth. Goldman Sachs estimates esports will have

backyard soccer. When you are

300 million fans and be a $3 billion

playing casually, maybe you don’t

business by 2022. Morgan Stanley

blow a whistle for every little

estimates that a forthcoming Call

infraction. Maybe the goal posts

of Duty esports franchise will be

are two ferns. “But when you play

worth $100 million alone by 2020.

competitive soccer, you’re always

Venture capital investment — money

going to play on the same size field,

that is looking to make money — in

you’re always going to play with the

esports totaled $701 million in the

same rules,” he says.

first half of 2018 alone, according

YOU HAVE TO KEEP UP YOUR PHYSIQUE, YOU HAVE TO BE HEALTHY, YOU HAVE TO SLEEP RIGHT, YOU HAVE TO KEEP A CLEAR MENTAL STATE FOR EVERY GAME, YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PICK YOURSELF UP FROM LOSING GAMES.”

to Crunchbase research. And just

its niche. “The younger generation has

at the game, but they’re a really good

restructuring the Gaming Knights’

down the street from UCF, Full

played a lot of games, but many times

person to watch [and] talk to because

esports division with the hope of

Sail is investing $6 million in an

kids will outgrow that.”

of how active they are with the

eventually readying the teams for the

11,200-square-foot esports arena.

Quiroga is in the midst of

next level: scholarship sports, with

But Ben Noel is cautious in the face

McKinley is preparing for the

community,” McKinley says. And then

longer haul — he plans on going pro.

you have the athletes — the serious

bigger facilities, bright lights and

of the hype. “I compare it to a young

He doesn’t need to make the amount

competitors who are revered for their

screaming fans. “The whole nine yards

person’s version of the World Series

of money that Ninja does, though

technical acumen. “Personally, I want

that everyone else has as UCF football

of Poker,” he says. It’s a phenomenon

that would be great. There is an

to see myself fall into more of the

or soccer or basketball — we want the

that came along, generated some

acceptable middle ground.

professional side,” he says. “I love that

same exact thing,” Quiroga says.

crossover interest, but stayed within

“I know smaller-time streamers that transition to full-time streamers, and

THE WHOLE NINE YARDS THAT EVERYONE ELSE HAS AS UCF

competitive aspect.”

It’s intense, McKinley says. “It may

essentially they quit their day job,”

not be physical, but mentally, there

McKinley says. “They, on average,

is a lot of pressure.” This is especially

are making about $4,000 a month.”

true during live competitions. “When

There are basically two paths ahead

you’re on that main stage, when

he sees as an esports competitor.

you’re looking at that monitor, you

FOOTBALL OR SOCCER OR BASKETBALL

There’s the more casual celebrity

may not necessarily see it, but you

— WE WANT THE SAME EXACT THING.”

player who excels at the social aspect

know for a fact that thousands of

of gaming. “They may not be the best

people are watching you.”

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 3 1

g band. marchin School ewater High the Edg ffner led “Del” Kie Delbert

Wilson James “Chief” the began directing ol ho Jones High Sc in marching band the 1950s.

Members of the Jones High School band pose together before the iconic Unisphere at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.

BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN ’01 ’10MA

rlando in the mid 1900s wasn’t Selma, Alabama, or Little Rock, Arkansas — places that are synonymous with the violent struggles and protests of the civil rights movement.

Orlando, however, was segregated.

The newly constructed Interstate 4 cut off Parramore, an African-American neighborhood named for a former mayor and Confederate captain, from downtown and white society.

There was systemic white supremacy. As in many parts of the country, white kids went to better schools; their parents had better opportunities.

There were protests — black high school students arrested for trying to order from the lunch counter at Woolworth’s — and violence — in 1920 a white mob killed African Americans in Ocoee in an effort to suppress black voting, to cite just one example. But by midcentury, the city’s officials tried to tamp down tensions before they spread. The City Beautiful was careful to project an image of peaceful coexistence to the outside world.

With the civil rights movement embroiling the nation, Orlando leaders were faced with an important decision: Who would they send to represent the city at the 1964 World’s Fair — the all-black band from Jones High School or the all-white band from Edgewater?

There was some truth to this projection, at least relative to the rest of the South. Segregated though it was, Parramore thrived, full of culture, commerce and wealth.

And at the center of it was Jones High School, the black high school believed to have been established in 1895.

“Jones was central to the community,” says Ben Brotemarkle, executive director of the Florida Historical Society. “Everybody in the community went there. It has had some pretty prominent graduates over the years. Of course, Chief Wilson was a pretty big part of that.”

By Chief Wilson, he means James Wilson, who died in December at age 90. From 1950 to 1990, Wilson taught music at Jones and led its marching

band to greatness. And in 1964, as Southern senators were filibustering the Civil Rights Act, Wilson and his band — about 100 parents and students in total — took a trip to New York City that fundamentally reshaped Orlando, the city he called home the rest of his life.

“I might be taking too much credit, but we were the catalyst for the integration of the whole community,” Wilson once said.

He wasn’t taking too much credit.

If anything, Wilson was taking too little. Not only did the New York World’s Fair trip help facilitate the desegregation of Orlando, but the harmonious image it sent to the world might have prodded a certain theme park entrepreneur to give Orlando a closer look.

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

Through their passion for music, Wilson and Kieffner forged an enduring friendship.

Photos courtesy of Jones High School Historical Society Inc., Marilyn Kieffner and Edgewater High School

34 | SPRING 2019

his is the story that the new documentary Marching Forward aims to tell. The film covers more than the World’s Fair trip.

It’s also about the nuances of race relations in Orlando during the latter days of Jim Crow and the unlikely friendship forged between Wilson and Delbert Kieffner, the white bandleader at Edgewater High School.

It’s about tireless devotion to musical excellence and the foundation of traditions that remain to this day. And it’s about how the synchronicity of all those things may have helped lure Walt Disney World to Central Florida.

In other words, it’s a complex, layered story, difficult for even a skilled documentarian to pack into a 60-minute feature. The accomplishment is all the more remarkable when you consider that it was pieced together by two professors and a handful of UCF students, most of whom had no background in documentary filmmaking — and even more so when you realize that it’s a good film on its own merits, smartly crafted and edited, with poignant interviews interspersed with archival footage and animation.

This is the fourth documentary that associate professor of history Robert Cassanello and associate professor of film Lisa Mills ’99MA have made in the past decade along with students in their Honors Advanced Documentary Workshop class. Their 2014 film, Filthy Dreamers, won an Emmy in the College Television Awards in 2016.

But Marching Forward, which is scheduled to premiere at the Florida Film Festival in April, is Cassanello and Mills’ most ambitious endeavor.

That’s not just because it’s their first feature-length film, meaning it’s twice as long as their other projects, but also because it’s the first examining events that took place in their backyard.

“For the previous films, we consciously chose a subject matter outside the area,” Cassanello says.

But for this project, they wanted to do something about the community.

And in the fall of 2015, Cassanello was part of a local panel that was doing a retrospective on the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. One of his co-panelists was an Orlando Sentinel writer who brought up the Jones band and its trip to the World’s Fair in 1964. Cassanello and Mills were intrigued.

“We’ve seen many documentaries about the well-known heroes of the civil rights movement. Chief and Del are the unsung heroes. They took risks and did what was right despite the color lines of the time. That took courage,” says Cassanello.

Jones had the best band in town — even if they were from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks — and everyone knew it. They played at events everywhere in Orlando, on the white and black sides of town. Along the way, Wilson forged partnerships with white business owners and musicians, and became friends with Del Kieffner, the demanding Marine who directed the marching band at Edgewater.

“He was a very good friend of mine,” Wilson says in the documentary. “And we always protected our relationship.”

Then came the 1964–65 World’s Fair in New York City. Bands from all over the country sent in films of their performances, seeking an invitation to perform at this marquee event.

Edgewater got an invite; Jones did not.

That decision produced some discontent among Orlando’s AfricanAmerican community, to say the least. Most in the community thought Chief’s band was more exciting, more cutting-edge, more in demand, lauded with awards. People thought that the only reason they were being shut out of the trip to the Big Apple was because the color of their skin.

Chief and Del are the unsung heroes.

They took risks and did what was right despite the color lines of the time. That took courage.” he not-so-simple story goes like this: When Wilson, a graduate of Florida A&M’s marquee Marching 100, arrived at Jones as a civics and history teacher in 1950, Orange County’s school system had a small music department and no dedicated music teachers.

Few of his students had, or could play, an instrument. A no-nonsense disciplinarian, Wilson was both was feared and beloved. With help from the community, he scoured pawn shops and attics for spare instruments, and worked in lessons and band practice around his classes.

By the early 1960s, he was Jones’ full-time band director, and he’d made them a premier ensemble in Orlando.

Jones’ loyalists wrote letters to the newspapers and put pressure on city leaders. It didn’t take long for the city to come around: Both bands would go, white and black. Not at the same time, but they would go — if they each could raise the required $25,000, a little over $128 per member. The schools held fundraisers — bake sales, rummage sales — separately at first. But on a few occasions, the schools partnered, black and white kids washing cars and participating in community fundraisers.

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Then, two white girls from Edgewater and two black girls from Jones were photographed together on the front page of the Orlando Sentinel, the paper’s first photo of blacks and whites in the same picture. Most African-American news then was relegated to the separate “Negro” section, which was printed on pink paper.

Realizing what the story of sending black and white bands to New York would show the world, the Sentinel’s publisher, Martin Andersen, got his paper behind Jones’ effort, selling trees to fund the trip. And Wilson and Kieffner together asked the city and county for equal funding for both groups, making it all but impossible for politicians to give Jones less.

“I don’t think there was much intentionality on the part of city leaders,” Cassanello says. “I think they were shamed into inviting Jones.

They were also shamed into providing Jones with equal funding.”

“We integrated the system more or less, by the kids and other bands seeing us working together. It made a very harmonious thing in this particular district,” Wilson told the film crew. “Then we started meeting together, and we broke down a lot of barriers.”

Edgewater went in May 1964, right before finals; Jones in July, with a stop in Washington, D.C., the week President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.

tinel)

(Courtesy of the Orlando Sen

Importantly, as Richard Foglesong, author of Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando, told filmmakers, that World’s Fair was a proving ground for Disney, which was looking to build a theme park east of the Mississippi. It was at the 1964 World’s Fair that Disney showcased the inspiration for and technology behind such park staples as It’s a Small World, the Carousel of Progress and the PeopleMover. Seven years later, Kieffner, with Wilson’s help, organized the marching band parade for the opening of Walt Disney World.

That these two events are connected, as Foglesong suggests, may be a stretch. It certainly involves conjecture. But if there’s even a kernel of truth to it, then those bands’ trips were more important to Orlando and Florida than anyone involved could have possibly imagined.

rlando was different.

Orlando had to be different.

If it wasn’t different then — if the image it projected to the world in 1964 looked more like the Deep South and less than an oasis of relative racial tranquility — the Orlando of 2018 would be a radically different place. There’d be no Disney World. Which would almost certainly have meant no Universal Orlando Resort, no SeaWorld, no International Drive, no explosion of population growth and a hospitality industry to match, no tourism base to put Orlando on the map, and likely a much smaller University of Central Florida.

All of that can be traced, at least indirectly, to Jones’ and Edgewater’s bands traveling to New York City 55 years ago.

“The context is so important,” Foglesong says. “It was the mid-1960s.

Florida was in the South, but it wasn’t Birmingham. Disney didn’t want to be in Birmingham. Here you have something from Orlando that reflects well on the city as the kind of place where the Disney company might want to be.”

The story of Jones’ and Edgewaters’ bands, Brotemarkle says, could help re-instill the neighborhood’s sense of pride. “I think knowing the history of your community can always make you feel more connected to where you’re living.”

And maybe this film could do the same for the students at Jones today.

“A lot of people don’t know what African Americans went through in the ’50s and ’60s,” says Barbara Burns, a majorette in that 1964 Jones

It certainly was a major milestone for the African-American community. It certainly instilled a sense of pride and was a major accomplishment that the entire community got behind.”

Perhaps Walt Disney never noticed those two Orlando bands — Cassanello admits the film is engaging in some speculation, that the dates simply align. But the bands’ presence didn’t hurt, and it told the story Orlando wanted to tell about itself, even if that story wasn’t the whole truth. (A few years later, when Orange County schools started to desegregate, the mostly white schools got the most renowned black teachers — including, for one semester before he insisted on returning to Jones, Wilson — while the mostly black schools got the least experienced white teachers.)

Certainly, if Orlando was beset by racial strife, if it was another Birmingham, Disney would have looked elsewhere.

Regardless, Jones’ trip was a seminal moment for Orlando’s civil rights evolution.

“I don’t know how big an impact it had on the white community,” Brotemarkle says. “It certainly was a major milestone for the AfricanAmerican community. It certainly instilled a sense of pride and was a major accomplishment that the entire community got behind. In that regard, it was a big contributor to the civil rights movement.”

After desegregation, Brotemarkle points out, Parramore languished.

Wealthier black families moved out; slumlords and homeless shelters moved in. City revitalization efforts sputtered and faltered.

marching band who later taught math there for 28 years. “And I think it would enlighten some of the students at Jones to see the struggle that Jones went through to be as great as they are now. When I was in school there, there were no white people around. By [Jones and Edgewater high] schools coming together, it made a difference, and people could see that all people are the same.”

Burns continues: “When I had children, I made sure they didn’t feel inferior. This film is going to show how far we’ve come, and how two men and music brought these schools together.”

AlumKnights

THE DRIVING

FUTURE

Self-driving cars were once science fiction fantasy. Today, Jason Eichenholz ’95MS ’98PhD and his company, Luminar, are making them a reality.

BY NICOLE DUDENHOEFER ’17

O

ver the past several years, self-driving cars have become the next major frontier in transportation.

At the forefront of this movement is Luminar, a sevenyear-old company co-founded by Jason Eichenholz ’95MS ’98PhD. The company, which is based in Silicon Valley and Orlando, has developed more efficient and affordable methods for creating the technology behind these vehicles. So much so, they’ve earned partnerships with Audi, Toyota, Volvo and more than a dozen other autonomous vehicle programs.

“Our partnerships allow us to take the technology we’re developing and deploy it in the real world with real customers and get the kind of feedback needed to continue to innovate and make the product better,” Eichenholz says.

Leading the race to create the first fully autonomous car is lidar, a sensor that uses infrared light to measure distance and enable autonomous vehicles to detect or “see” their surroundings.

The lidar developed by Luminar can see almost 10 times farther than other sensors, even for objects with less than 10 percent reflectivity. This allows the company’s software to perceive pedestrians in detail — even detecting their limbs in the dark — and anticipate what their next move will be.

“Luminar’s sensor architecture is incredibly efficient to build in terms of cost and time. It uses only one laser and one receiver, as opposed to most autonomous vehicle lidar sensors that use 64 lasers and 64 receivers.

Pursuing this architecture from the beginning means it was designed from the chip level up to be scalable into consumer vehicles, both from a manufacturability and a cost standpoint,” Eichenholz says.

36 | SPRING 2019

CAPTURED WITH LUMINAR LIDAR

THE RACE TO CREATE SELF-DRIVING CARS: SETTING EXPECTATIONS

The SAE (former Society of Automotive Engineers) recognizes six levels of autonomous driving, ranging from 0 to 5. Most newer vehicles on the road today are levels 1 to 2, in which systems — such as automatic braking and park assist — are performed by the car. Vehicles within levels 3 to 5 aren’t commercially available at this time, but many automakers are working toward level 5 vehicles, which will be able to operate without a driver under all conditions. “While advanced driver-assistance systems can be great, there are limitations to what these systems can do today. People typically over-rely on them, thinking [the cars are] actually self-driving when [they are using] assistance features, and that [can lead to accidents].”

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

“Cars are not able to perceive the world around them, and yet we’re asking cars and computers to provide higher-than-human-level performance and reliability.

I think if you look at the current trajectory of how cars are improving, you’re looking at decades before technology is safer than a human in every driving scenario, anywhere.”

REDUCING COSTS

“The most fundamental thing is the receiver technology. Instead of using only silicone as the receiver, we use a very small piece of InGaAs, indium gallium arsenide, to do the photo detection. It’s a very common semiconductor material that is usually expensive to manufacture. We figured out how to do it for about $3.”

USING A DIFFERENT WAVELENGTH

“Years ago, we fundamentally made a decision to operate [the lasers used for lidar] at a different wavelength band, 1550 nanometers [compared to the industry average of 905 nanometers, which can damage eyes]. This allows us to see further and have a much higher spatial resolution — all while being safer.”

ADAPTING TO DRIVERS

“The needs of sensors for self-driving vehicles are so different from customer to customer or from driving condition to driving condition. Because of this we’ve designed our system to change dynamically to adapt to user needs.”

IMPROVING ACCESSIBILITY

While there are major concerns surrounding the safety of self-driving vehicles, they could eventually make transportation easier for the millions of people in the United States who are unable to drive. “I have a son, a 13 year old whom I adore, who has autism. I’m pretty sure he’s never going to get a driver’s license.

I desperately want safe, reliable transportation for my son so he can have a quality of life. So I can [rely on] self-driving vehicles [to] safely get him from point A to point B. So this is very personal for me.”

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

Class Notes

Design director Patrick Greenish ’02 leads the creative direction for popular children’s magazine Highlights. He is featured in the documentary 44 Pages, which chronicles the creation of the 70th anniversary issue of the magazine.

To learn more, visit ucf.edu/pegasus.

1975

1989

Carolyn (Bovis) Courson retired from governmental accounting after 30 years.

Karla (Rollins) Carta is the owner and director of Serendipity Learning Center in Casselberry, FL.

John Craft ’77MA retired as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

Mary (Sauer) Garner ’82MS retired after 25 years with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and 40 years in the computer industry.

William Stephenson retired after 20 years as manager of the Cocoa (FL) Utilities and Public Works departments.

1978 Tom Bell retired after 43 years in the broadcast industry.

1982 Brian Corpening is the chief diversity officer at California State University, Monterey Bay.

38 | SPRING 2019

1991 Michael Bywaletz is a region leader at Ramey Kemp & Associates, a transportation design and planning practice in Charlotte, NC.

1992 Tom Leek, a Republican, was re-elected to represent District 25 in Florida’s House of Representatives.

He serves as chair of the Select Subcommittee on Member Conduct and vice chair of the Public Integrity and Ethics Committee.

1993 Mauricio Garcia, assistant director of student life at Seminole State College, was inducted into the 2018 Florida College System Hall of Fame for the Student Government Division.

Dewane Pace ’05MBA is CEO of Haxtun Hospital District in Colorado.

1997

1994

Abigail (Petters) Beaty is a sales force consultant at Ventas Consulting.

Judy Lindquist ’03MEd was awarded the 2018 James J. Horgan Award from the Florida Historical Society for her second book, Forcing Change.

Jaime Abigail Quick joined Faegre Baker Daniels’ Minneapolis office, where she practices marital and family law.

1995

1998

Janet Stephenson is a school improvement resource teacher and administrator for the Brevard County (FL) School Board.

Col. Gregory Kuzma was named the future plans director at the United States Indo-Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii.

Randall Szott, a Democrat, was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives.

Anthony Mickle won a Nova Award, Lockheed Martin’s highest honor. He also plays bass in Americana band Beemo with fellow Knights and Lockheed Martin engineers.

1996 Rene Plasencia, a Republican, was re-elected to represent District 50 in Florida’s House of Representatives.

Wes Sumner earned his doctorate in business administration from Florida Institute of Technology, where he serves as vice president for marketing and communications.

2000 Stephanie Darden Bennett was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She is the president of Prismatic, a marketing agency.

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2001 Joshua Murdock ’02MA ’04MEd was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He heads the Orange County Library System’s Technology and Education Center and is an associate professor at Valencia College.

Ambia Valentine was named 2017–18 Teacher of the Year at Union Park Elementary in Orlando.

2003 Chris Baeten is CEO of Knight Federal Solutions, which provides support services to the Department of Defense and was recently named one of the 50 Florida Companies to Watch by GrowFL. Everett Jones is CEO and founder of TechPays Foundation. He was recently featured on a WFTV segment for his company’s efforts to teach coding to elementary schoolage children in Central Florida.

Scott Mifsud and his wife created Just Events, which was included on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat, was re-elected to represent District 49 in Florida’s House of Representatives.

2004 William Alt is the assistant chief of quality management for the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System.

Shannon Tarrant founded WeddingVenueMap.com.

2005 Matthew Martin is the athletic director for Jasper County High School in Georgia.

2008

Jaime Soto ’12MS is the owner of Simverge Software.

Othmane Benafan ’09MS ’12PhD is a materials research engineer and was awarded the Abe Silverstein Medal for outstanding research contributions at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

Lindsay (Strong) Keegan is a senior communications leader for GE Aviation Supply Chain.

Liz (Dellner) Logsdon is a managing attorney leading the investigations unit for Disability Rights California.

Evan Rosenberg is senior counsel at Ritter Chusid in Coral Springs, FL.

2006 Sean Carrigan is a senior engineer at Dewberry Orlando.

Brad Elliott was named among the National Business Aviation Association’s Top 40 Under 40. He is the general manager of Desert Jet Center.

Laura Kern was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She is the director of digital marketing and associate director of social media for Rollins College.

Trey Vick was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He is the CEO of V 3 Capital Group, a commercial real estate firm in Maitland.

2007

Jesse Anderson is a director at Tuggle Duggins law firm.

Sara (Branham) Melvin was installed as the 2018–19 president of the Meeting Professionals International Tampa Bay Area Chapter.

Marcus Fernandez serves on the board of directors for the Make-AWish Foundation of Southern Florida.

Mario Caraballo is managing partner of The Capital Grille – The Mall at Millenia in Orlando.

Kaleb Harrell was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He is the co-founder and CEO of Hawkers Asian Street Fare.

Greg Davis is the senior integrity management analyst at NiSource.

Chris Latvala, a Republican, was re-elected to represent District 67 in Florida’s House of Representatives.

Rachel Levy was named among the “Double Chai in the Chi: Chicago’s Jewish 36 Under 36.” She is director of national accounts at The Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, FL.

Keri Guilbault ’10EdD is an assistant professor and a coordinator of the certificate and master’s degree programs in gifted education at Johns Hopkins University.

Allison (Gallagher) Collings ’13MS is an emergency room nurse practitioner at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, VA. Joy (Shively) Givens received the 2018 Rehoboth Beach Reads Short Story Award for “The Tooth Fairy’s Helper.”

2009 Capt. Sean Charvet recently received the Helicopter Aviation Award and the U.S. Marine Corps Exceptional Aviator Award for a mission he flew in Yemen.

Kyle Horth is an associate at Burr & Forman in Orlando.

Carey Sobel was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He is a partner and chief strategy officer at 321, a digital marketing agency.

2011 Samantha (Brown) Austin is a nurse practitioner at the Florida Arthritis Center.

Kasey (Harrell) Albright was elected president of the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of Realtors for 2019.

Jessica Korthuis was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She is the chief brand strategist and founder of Sohuis, a digital communications and design consultant agency.

Lauren (Madden) Ung is a clinical nurse in the pediatric cardiothoracic intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Claire (Supplice) Burnett ’12MBA ’13MSBM is a brand developer for ACAP Health.

2012 Anna Eskamani ’15MNM ’15MPA, a Democrat, was elected to represent District 47 in Florida’s House of Representatives.

Mike La Rosa, a Republican, was re-elected to represent District 42 in in Florida’s House of Representatives.

Albert Manero ’14MS ’16PhD was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He is CEO of Limbitless Solutions, a nonprofit organization that provides 3D-printed prosthetics for children.

Vincent Nunchuck is an associate at Fuerst, Ittleman, David & Joseph law firm in Miami.

Austin Turner was appointed to serve on The Florida Bar Environmental and Land Use Law Section Committee.

2013 Kristen Clark ’17MS was awarded a two-year Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, where she is pursuing a doctorate.

Christina Fleming ’17MBA is a travel blogger, contributor to the Facebook live show Townie Tourist and a marketer for digital agency Designzillas in Orlando.

Andrew Haberman is a financial analyst at Universal Orlando.

Amber (Heyna) Allen is an obstetrics and gynecology resident physician at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, CA. Mike Kilbride was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He is the assistant vice president of UCF Downtown.

Sean Osmond ’16MS was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He is the marketing director at AVT Simulation.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 3 9

Nicole Olympio earned a doctor of pharmacy degree in May 2018 from Nova Southeastern University and was promoted to assistant pharmacy manager at Publix.

Joel Ortega is an associate at Chartwell Law in Miami.

Jed Prest is a principal and practice leader at Baker Barrios Architects.

Kelly Quintero was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She is the director of advocacy and government relations at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

Jessica Wittekind was promoted to controller at the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

2014 Kayla (Fuit) Laymon is the owner of Florida Beach Weddings.

Naomi Joseph is a financial planning assistant at Holland Financial.

Steffanie (Morrison) Changsan is a teacher in Scott County Schools in Lexington, KY. Jennifer Nunn was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She is vice president for The Balmoral Group.

Brittany O’Neill won an ATG Media Up and Comer Award. She is a librarian at Louisiana State University.

Kristen Wiley was named among Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She is the founder and CEO of Statusphere, an influencer marketing company.

Mandee Youse was a visual effects assistant coordinator for the movie Aquaman.

2015 Brandon Holmes is an associate at Broad and Cassel law firm.

Frances Anne Kriss passed the Medical-Surgical Nursing certification exam.

Pamela Sanders is the associate chief nursing officer at Tampa General Hospital.

2016 Sara Dawson was promoted to professional development manager at the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

2017 Cynthia Dubs is a tenure-track nursing professor at Hillsborough Community College.

Morgan Holewinski is a staffing manager at Robert Half.

Amber Mariano, a Republican, was re-elected to represent District 36 in Florida’s House of Representatives.

Amanda Schultz is in the nursing residency program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

2018 Alexandra Bussjaeger is co-executive director of the environmental education nonprofit Grades of Green.

Kelly Levy is director of surgical services at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital in Tampa.

Heriberto Rivera-Beltran is an advanced registered nurse practitioner at PHCA Medical Group.

James Skinner is a retail specialist at Heybo Outdoors in South Carolina.

Damian Suski is the product scientist for JourneyLabs.

As an editor for MuslimGirl.com, Azmia Magane ’07 ’09MSW advocates for Muslim women. Now the social worker is raising awareness as an ambassador for the Lupus Foundation of America. To read her story, visit ucf.edu/pegasus.

40 | SPRING 2019

PEGASUS

ALUMNI AUTHORS

Ralph S. Souders ’73 wrote Lost in the Water: An Ocean City Tragedy.

William E. Lewis ’74 wrote A Voice from the Heavens: God’s Universe Revealed in the Holy Bible and Software Testing and Continuous Quality Improvement (Third Edition).

Sally (Kesselman) Browne ’75 wrote I’ll Love Ye Forever: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey through Long Term Care.

Susan Lilley ’75 ’80MA wrote Venus in Retrograde.

J. Scott George ’84 wrote Abundant Living 365: Breaking Through Every Day to a Blessed Life and Abundant Living Manifesto: Discovering Your Manuscript for a Blessed Life.

Jeremy Pirnat ’95 wrote the graphic novel Astral Genesis.

Melissa Lewis ’97 wrote The Angel Wears Prana: The Journey of a Healer.

Francis Rutledge Hammes ’00 wrote A Curious Matter of Men with Wings.

Chester Wallace ’01 wrote Stories of the Winecoff Fire: A Dedication to the Memory of the 119.

Kimberly Beaman ’04 ’08MA wrote My Little Cupcake.

Derek Nankivil ’05 co-authored a chapter in the textbook Mechanobiology in Health and Disease.

SCORE THE NEW PLATE. just

Will Wight ’11 ’13MFA wrote the Cradle series.

to upgrade* *Does not include the cost of tag renewal. Other fees may apply.

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Morgan (Durham) Leary ’12 wrote Wayne the Whale.

Ray Shipman ’12 wrote No Grades No Play: Balancing School and Sports.

In Memoriam

Crystal Read ’05 died on May 20, 2018.

Tim McLaughlin ’72 died on October 27, 2018.

Jonathan Swallows ’10 died on June 21, 2018.

Marlene Ricchuito ’74 ’75MEd died on November 30, 2018.

Bradley Hutchcraft ’15 died on August 28, 2018.

Michael C. Gilliam ’93MBA died on April 30, 2018.

Adam Rosen ’15 died on November 23, 2018.

KnightYourRide.com

Michael Redlick died on January 12, 2019. Since 2013, Redlick served as director of external affairs and partnership relations for the DeVos Sport Business Management Program.

Prior to joining UCF, he had an illustrious career in the sports industry as a senior executive with the NFL and NBA. He was also a longtime member of the executive committee of the National Sports Forum.

Boris Zeldovich died on December 16, 2018. A professor emeritus of optics, photonics and physics, Zeldovich joined the UCF faculty in 1994, and his research focused on optical phase conjugation and optical speckle waves. He was a member of The Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and a recipient of the Max Born Award from The Optical Society and the USSR State Prize.

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Weddings & Births 1 Denver Marlow ’99 and wife Ashley welcomed Austin Ryan on November 3, 2018.

15 Jason Wehking ’06 and wife Katherine welcomed Hailey Page on July 13, 2018.

Bradley Marshall ’00 ’03MBA and wife Ashley welcomed Anderson on June 13, 2018.

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Anthony Brock ’07 and wife Stephanie welcomed Evelyn Winter on December 25, 2017.

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Alyssa (Boehm) Luther ’02 and husband Travis welcomed Ryder James on January 30, 2018.

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Chris Naylor ’07 married Brittany Sharman on November 10, 2018.

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Tara Thomas ’02 and Brian Shumate welcomed Alexander Christian Emmanuel on April 27, 2018.

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18 Amie Conner ’08 married Luie Lugo on June 3, 2017.

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Karin Grant ’03 and Timothy Brown welcomed Madelyn Avery on July 26, 2018.

4 Blair McBride ’03 and wife Nicole welcomed Harper Kate on August 10, 2018.

20 Rich O’Toole ’08 married Jamie Wisto on June 1, 2018.

21 Alison Shoemaker ’08 married Brian Delaney on July 1, 2017.

5 Jessica O’Boyle ’03 married Ankit Kohli on June 2, 2017.

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Adam Reed ’03 married Elizabeth Reitz on October 5, 2018.

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Bree (Adamson) ’04 and Brett Watson ’09 welcomed Wyatt Lewis on August 4, 2018.

Nathan Bickel ’09MS ’10PhD married Fengyuan Chen on January 13, 2018.

Annette Cheney ’09 married Houston Williams on October 27, 2017.

Jennifer Clifford ’09 married Eric Pederson on July 21, 2018.

Robin (Donnelly) Harper ’09 and husband Gavin welcomed Allison Grace on May 28, 2018.

Michelle Boyer ’04 married John Paul Skubinski on 8 August 18, 2018.

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Matthew Gordon ’04 and wife Sara welcomed Luke on July 28, 2018.

Kasey Klein ’04 married Brian Wisnom on March 18, 2018.

10 Jaimie Washo ’04 married John Spivey ’86 ’87MPA on November 21, 2017.

11 Natalie (Campbell) Mead ’05 and husband James welcomed Emily Kathryn on March 15, 2017.

Rachel Henderson ’05 married Brad McDonald on March 3, 2018.

Tabitha Hendricks ’05 married Ian McPherson on April 1, 2018.

12 Lauren Saydah ’05 and Gregory Muller welcomed Remington on April 18, 2018.

13 Catalina Bejarano ’06 and Stephen Krates welcomed Sophia Evangeline on March 24, 2018.

14 Kristen Menger ’06 and Joseph LeFebvre had a commitment ceremony in May 2018.

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22 Sheila (Fulmer) Wright ’09 and husband Zach welcomed Nolan on December 18, 2017.

23 Myah (Le) Hoang ’09 and husband Scott welcomed Dawson Phoenix on July 3, 2018.

24 Christiana Luciano ’09 ’11MEd married Lewis Lowder on June 16, 2018.

Emma Kendrick ’08MA ’12PhD married Shannon Cavanagh on September 16, 2017.

Katlyn (Tissue) ’09 ’11MBA and Blake Kachman ’10 welcomed Keith Moon on September 15, 2017.

25 Ashley (Vance) ’09 ’11MA and Collier Faubion ’10 welcomed Collier Millican on April 25, 2018.

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26 Luis Vazquez ’09 married Kristin Henning on October 13, 2018.

27 Jennifer Benton ’10 married Steven Harrison ’11 on May 26, 2018.

28 Brad Friedman ’10 married Stephanie Strauss on May 27, 2018.

29 Lindsay Gartrell ’10 married Christopher Nock on March 24, 2018.

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Weddings & Births 30 Nichelle Tait ’10 married Dwayne Barrett ’08 ’10MS on July 6, 2018.

31 Kasey (Harrell) ’11 and Brendan Albright ’12 welcomed Bryce Stephen on March 22, 2018.

40 Kate Mullen ’14 married Kent Blosser ’13 on April 29, 2018.

Megan (Reid) ’11 and Daniel Andrews ’12 welcomed Harper Finn on July 1, 2018.

Elizabeth Hopkins ’14 married Roddey Smith ’16 on April 7, 2018.

41 Diana Symes-Barravecchio ’14 married Jeffrey Wisner ’14 on June 13, 2018.

32 Kara Bottomley ’12 married Kyle Bettis ’12 on November 24, 2017.

Kaylee Wolf ’14 married Justin McCarty on November 2, 2018.

33 Lindsey Brown ’12 married Dan Rodz on October 6, 2018.

Susan Austin ’15 married William Lambert on June 9, 2018.

Stephanie (Eaton) ’12 and Ryan Kagan ’11 welcomed Harvey James on June 6, 2018.

42 Gina Colubiale ’15 married Thomas Wooleyhan ’12 on April 14, 2018.

Michelle Fowler ’12 married Andrew Roger May on July 7, 2018.

Kaila (Cunningham) ’15 and Tyrie Carter ’14 ’16MS welcomed Ky Avery on April 2, 2018.

34 Jennifer Gonzalez ’12 ’15MA married Colin Bailey ’11 ’17 on January 15, 2018.

43 Jonell Gregor ’15 married Brendan Radabaugh on September 29, 2018.

35 Lauren (Howard) ’12 ’17DPT and Carey Sobel ’09 welcomed Sloan Olivia on October 10, 2018.

36 Brittany Janssen ’12 married Stephen Wilsman ’13 on July 31, 2018.

44 Olivia Miller ’15 married Chris Shelton ’11 ’18MBA on June 2, 2018.

Ekaterina Marchenko ’15 married Matthew Kilianek ’07 on July 28, 2018.

Lyndsay Kane ’12 married Zachary McBride on March 17, 2018.

Anna Latrobe ’12 ’13MSA married David Burgher ’13 on January 2, 2016.

45 Alexis Brandenburger ’16 married Ryan Walker ’17 on July 21, 2018.

Sheila Newman ’12 married Jeff Erdley on October 20, 2017.

Kelly Errico ’13 married Gregory Taylor on August 27, 2017.

46 Savannah (Olson) Hardman ’16 and husband Ryan welcomed Oliver Kol on June 26, 2018.

Brooke (Nance) ’15 and William Ryerson ’15 welcomed Liam on June 30, 2018.

Bianca Rodriguez ’16 married James Kerr ’16 on January 13, 2018.

38 Jessica (Thacker) ’13 and Isaiah McCrary ’13 welcomed Makayla on June 16, 2018.

47 Alysa Silva ’16 married Kyle Costello ’12 on May 19, 2018.

Claire (Boeddeker) ’14 and Michael Lehnert ’14 welcomed Palmer Michael on March 31, 2018.

39 Kelsey Chantry ’14 married Dalon Helm on December 28, 2017.

Rachel Davis ’14 married Jonathan Connell on March 24, 2018.

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Lianny Hernandez ’16 and Laurenzo Richardson ’17 welcomed Liam on May 4, 2018.

37 Heather Herrera ’13 married John Adkins on April 21, 2018.

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Katarina Pedit ’17 married Adam Dahl on September 15, 2018.

Stephanie Sheffield ’17MNM married Romario De La Hoz on May 26, 2018.

49 Marly Santillan ’18 married Timothy Flowers ’17 on May 26, 2018.

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Why I _____________________

BY LEXI SENIOR ’11 ’16MFA

Nearly a decade after my first time at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, I’m still shaking endless amounts of dust out of my camp gear. There are things about music festivals that never leave you.

Things like rainbow-colored tent cities snapped and hammered into place in mere minutes, the solace we call home when the sun rises. Or captivated crowds wrapped in tie-dye and hemp, swollen with fervent adoration for the band playing. Or artfully produced visuals, so deliciously disruptive from everyday life that they make you forget there is any other place but the one you’re standing in at that very moment.

I’ve called many wildernesses, hills and hotels home in the last nine years, including the 650-acre farm of Bonnaroo; the woods of Suwannee Hulaween, Bear Creek, Okeechobee, and Zen Awakening in Florida, and Electric Forest in Michigan; the grassy hillsides of Washington for Sasquatch; the raucous streets of New Orleans’ Buku and Baltimore’s Moonrise; the circus sprawl of Orlando’s Electric Daisy Carnival; and the palm-lined paradise of Miami’s iii Points. This is the life of a dedicated festivalgoer. And since my first fateful fest in 2010, I’ve learned these spectacles offer more than stages with kaleidoscopic lights and loud speakers — these massive events form eccentric alt societies where all are welcome.

Promoters of the historic Woodstock event announced a 50th anniversary celebration this August. It will be one of more than 200 music festivals in the U.S. this year, but it reigns as the most important in name. It was the catalyst for a scene that more than 32 million Americans now partake in each year. The impact of Woodstock’s countercultural vibrations continues to allow people to embrace their inner freaks and most altruistic energies, as The Beatles would say, “All together now.”

While music is what originally lured me in, it’s my festival family that keeps me going back. The festival community, to put it simply, rejoices in a lack of routine and regulation. It’s mostly youth-oriented, but festival elders are often beside us while we find small, sweet freedoms dancing in dust storms, wearing fringe and face paint, unapologetic in our actions. Long days and nights of hustling from stage to stage have introduced surprise encounters so dreamlike I sometimes feel like I wished a portal into existence.

How can I best share with you the joy of a moment so singular, you know that it will never happen again? Should

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I tell you about being honored for a good deed with a pin that granted passageway to a secret speakeasy deep in the woods? Or about an intimate conversation with four elderly women throwing a wild 70th birthday celebration, watching a jam band with the reverence of churchgoers?

Or about riding a Ferris wheel at midnight with stars glittering in constellations above, a headliner belting out below, and best friends by my side?

Nowadays, most festivals offer such a wide variety of acts that you can see rock legends like Robert Plant or Elton John, a couple of intriguing indie bands, a fourhour String Cheese Incident set, and an up-and-coming producer all in one day. Most of my friends and I have made it to as many as 30 sets in a single weekend. Festivals make it possible to see the amount of shows you could see in a year in a few days.

This, all of this, is why I love festivals. I’m humbled by these unconventional utopias, knowing there are thousands of others looking to celebrate an escape from reality, who are invested in music, art, meditation and protest, all from varying heritages and social backgrounds.

What we take back home with us is much more than memories of the music — it’s a shared mindset.

From organizers and operators to entertainers and attendees, festivalgoers believe in the freedom to be yourself (a cliché, perhaps, but meant with heart) wholly and always. We’ve manifested a place where you can dress how you want, dance how you feel or kiss whom you please. Where all body shapes and sizes are present and proud. Where you can celebrate peacemaking, imagination and individuality among others who hold similar values.

And while we inevitably have to return to our realities, where we wear our work clothes and sit at desks or serve tables or sell houses, we seek the sparkle of sequins and the glimpses of glitter behind collared shirts and pencil skirts. We know where we belong: All together now.

Lexi Senior ’11 ’17MFA is a roaming writer. Her writing has appeared in literary journals such as Paper Darts, Cheap Pop, Crab Fat Magazine and Gravel. Follow her travels on Instagram @lexilovely or connect with her at AlexisSenior.com.

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A showcase of creativity, innovation and collaboration The fifth annual UCF Celebrates the Arts festival features art and performances by UCF students and faculty celebrating the resilience of the human spirit and the triumph of overcoming adversity. Enjoy an array of free and ticketed events ranging from the historic tragedy of Titanic the musical to a staged reading of the dystopian novel Station Eleven and author talk with Emily St. John Mandel.

• Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts • Tickets, schedule and more at arts.ucf.edu.