Community Connections

The Judy Genshaft Honors College curriculum emphasizes experiential learning opportunities; from volunteering on their own in local communities to participating in activities embedded into the classroom, students learn to make connections between the textbook and real life.

A: JGHC Community Garden Project

JGHC ‘Rooted in Place’ Community Garden students recycled reclaimed materials and built a trellis to support vegetable growth. Students in this course learn about the vegetable planting and harvest cycles, sustainable gardening practices, and engage in consistent volunteerism to keep the garden growing all year long.

B: Hands-On History

In Spring 2022, JGHC students at USF St. Pete enrolled in a service-learning course called Hands-On History at Heritage Village. Sponsored by a grant from Florida Humanities, JGHC students created an interactive, multimedia installation at Heritage Village with support from museum experts from the Smithsonian Institution. Madeira Beach: On the Waves of Change, explored the intersection of human and environmen- tal history in a small beach town, tackling issues like urban development, climate change, and sea-level rise. Students practiced professional skills from science communication to graphic design while giving back to their community.

C: Helping the Homeless in Sarasota

USF Sarasota-Manatee students partnered with the Office of Multicultural Affairs for an MLK Day of Service to create personal hygiene kits with items donated by faculty, staff, students, and the greater community. Over 100 hygiene kits were then donated to several homeless shelters throughout Manatee County.

D: Community-engaged and Art-based Learning with AMRoC

Students in Professor Carolina Miles’ summer Community Mural Creation course worked together to paint a large canvas mural in the AMRoC Fab Lab located at University Mall, near USF’s Tampa campus. The Advanced Manufacturing & Robotics Center (AMRoC) is a program of the nonprofit Foundation for Community Driven Innovation, dedicated to building capacity in the University Area and Tampa Bay community. AMRoC aims to inspire personal empowerment through creative self-expression and to bridge the manufacturing and industry talent gap through robust project-based engineering education and training. The students in this community-engaged course learned about important concerns and points of pride from community stakeholders and then worked together to design and complete a colorful mural that now hangs in AMRoC.

E: Trunk or Treat in the ‘Pete

USF St. Pete’s JGHC Student Council, under the mentorship of advisor Dani Soluna, pictured, in costume as Ms. Frizzle, hosted more than 300 USF and City of St. Pete employees and their children for our first annual Trunk or Treat. Chancellor Hardigree sponsored decorations for about a dozen trunks, which were filled with candy and toys for community children. Honors students gained valuable leadership and event planning skills, while kids in attendance had a great time participating in activities like face painting, mummy rolling, pumpkin painting, a costume contest, and more.

F: Garden to Table Cooking

Student instructor Kobe Phillips inspired students in the Sustainable Foods Cooking Challenge as part of the curriculum for the ‘Rooted in Place’ JGHC Community Garden course. The JGHC Community Garden is managed by student leaders and volunteers in partnership with the USF Botanical Gardens. Food is harvested and donated to the Feed-A-Bull campus food pantry.

G: Dive into Reading

Each year, the Anna Maria Oyster Bar hosts students from Title I schools across Manatee County for a summer reading program called Dive into Reading. Dr. Cayla Lanier, Assistant Dean of the Judy Genshaft Honors College at USF Sarasota-Manatee, has volunteered as a reading mentor for the last two years, spending an hour once a week with elementary school children reading aloud, practicing sight words, and learning table manners over the course of four weeks. Participating children select a new book each week, which they take with them to build an at-home library, along with a backpack stocked with school supplies once they finish the program. Dr. Lanier hopes to include more honors students in the 2023 program to expand the impact of the program.

H: Sharing USF Pride

Honors Advisor Dani Soluna and Dr. Cayla Lanier, Assistant Dean, marched alongside several USF Honors students and USF alumi in the St. Pete Pride Parade. They handed out special USF Pride beads and got many Horns Up hand signs from parade goers as they walked the route. Go Bulls!

I: Touring the Sarasota Opera House

Sarasota is often called the “City of the Arts.” USFSM Acquisition of Knowledge students took full advantage of our backyard and explored the beautiful Sarasota Opera House through a behind the scenes tour hosted by Director of Development, Scott Guinn. The tour reinforced classroom discussions about performance and the roles we play in our everyday lives, adding a tangible experience to the theoretical discussion held in class.