A LESSON IN REFLECTION
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ITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HEAVY on the minds and hearts of his Honors students in the summer of 2020, Dr. Gary Mormino shifted the focus of his online “Food & History” Honors course to allow them to reflect on their current experience. He asked them to write essays about how food played a part in their pandemic experiences, and how, many years in the future, they might reflect back on how these circumstances and their ties with food helped shape their lives. Three of the student essays were featured in a July Tampa Bay Times newspaper article titled “Of Meals, a Pandemic and an Imagined Last Day on Earth | Essays.” Millena (Milla) Levin, a biomedical sciences major, reflected on how her parents and grandparents faced food shortages growing up in the Soviet Union during times of war and communism. In her essay she explains how the unavailability of certain food items at the beginning of the pandemic brought these memories back for her family. Levin went on to commend her relatives for persevering through those times, and related that the same perseverance would see them through the current crisis. She concluded her essay with these inspiring words: “The power of people coming together is underestimated but that is how my relatives survived the war — and the Soviet Union. And that is how we will survive the pandemic.” Isha Harshe, a double major in cell and molecular biology and psychology, and Amanda Tresgallos, an English major, also had their essays included in the newspaper article. They each responded to an assignment from Mormino to describe their ideal final meal in their 90’s. Both students reflected on how important food is to their family’s story, and Tresgallos wrote about her grandmother’s difficult life in Havana. “When her family lost everything, the recipes that make my heart sing endured,” she writes in her essay. “I am grateful to Dr. Mormino for arranging his class in a way that would allow the students to reflect on their current circumstances with support and perspective,” says Dr. Charles Adams, Dean of the Judy Genshaft Honors College. “These essays are really well done, and our College is proud of the thought and care that the students put into them. I am pleased that they were able to be included in the newspaper in their entirety and the stories they tell will stay with me for a long time.”
14 UNIVERSITY of SOUTH FLORIDA
PROVOST’S SCHOLARS STAY INVOLVED
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HEN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC required a shift to virtual learning and cancelled all in-person university events, the Provost’s Scholars Program (PSP) team rose to the challenge of continuing to support their high-performing students in the new and unfamiliar landscape. PSP is housed in the Judy Genshaft Honors College and began in 2011. It is a professional and personal development program which allows students who enter as freshmen to graduate one year ahead of their peers. The program’s holistic approach to education allows students to apply knowledge learned through coursework to experiences outside of the classroom. Its three ‘pillars’ or core requirements are intended to prepare students for their next step after college, whether further study or a job. In addition to their graduation requirements, PSP students must study abroad or away, research or participate in professional development, and complete leadership or service experiences. In order to accomplish an ambitious academic schedule and the required components of PSP, students work with the program director, advisor, and mentors who assist them with individualized plans. When the university went virtual in spring 2020, PSP staff quickly transformed their advising, events, and celebrations to a Microsoft TEAMS format, and even held a live virtual graduation ceremony, which included the university’s Provost and Executive Vice President, Dr. Ralph Wilcox.
