SFSC Posts Enrollment Increase

AVON PARK, Fla.–Aug. 31, 2015–With fewer student heading off to Florida’s colleges for the fourth straight year, South Florida State College posted the second largest increase in enrollment in the Florida College System.

SFSC reported a 2.21 percent increase in full-time enrollment, falling behind the state’s top performer, Pasco-Hernando State College, which saw an 8.6 percent jump in enrollment after opening a fifth campus to serve rapidly growing Pasco County.

Only six state colleges in the 28-member system showed enrollment increases, all reporting modest gains from the previous year. The remaining 20 state and community colleges registered declines in full-time enrollment.

“Our uptick in enrollment conveys that our vibrant approach to fulfilling our mission is working,” said Dr. Thomas C. Leitzel, SFSC’s president.   “We are offering high-quality academic programs leading to employment and accompanying high levels of compensation for our graduates.”

Higher education experts have long observed a trend in college enrollment. When a recession hits the economy, the unemployed flock to the safe harbor of America’s colleges.

After the Great Recession pushed the labor market into a tailspin in 2008, enrollment in Florida’s college system hit a peak of 372,050 in 2011. With the unemployment rate sloping downward since 2010, enrollment dropped to 334,178 in 2015, a 10.1 percent decline.

SFSC has seen its enrollment follow a similar trend, with fewer students filling its classrooms each year.

This year’s rise in SFSC’s enrollment comes on the heels of Dr. Leitzel’s ongoing effort to boost enrollment. It follows other enrollment increases seen in prior years.

“We are razor focused on boosting enrollment,” said Dr. Christopher van der Kaay, SFSC’s executive director of institutional effectiveness, planning, and technology.

“Enrollment management is something every administrator here talks about, thinks about, and plans for as we navigate the challenges affecting colleges, here in Florida and across the country.”

Nationwide, college enrollment is off by 1 million since the spring of 2011, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit higher education research institution.

When Dr. Leitzel took office in 2013, he set in motion a raft of initiatives to boost enrollment.

The most visible project was the Experience Orange marketing drive in fall 2014. The college targeted its key demographic of 18- to 24-year-olds with a media campaign that played off SFSC’s colors with a blend of humor and irreverence.

But the campaign’s purpose was serious: It prodded young people into taking a fresh look at the range of career and educational opportunities available to them at SFSC.

“The student experience in SFSC’s learning environment is the key element in the campaign,” Leitzel said.  “The experience leads to engagement for our learners, which is essential for completing their programs and securing a job leading to a productive career.”

The addition of a bachelor’s degree program in supervision and management has also boosted enrollment, according to Dr. van der Kaay, who tracks performance data for the college.

Enrollment data for the last academic year show that nearly 100 students were taking classes leading to a four-year degree.

SFSC transitioned from a two-year community college to a state college offering four-year degrees in 2012.

SFSC’s current academic term started Aug. 24 and Dr. van der Kaay said final enrollment figures won’t be available until all programs complete registration.

Going forward, new programs and marketing drives will boost enrollment as long as there are prospective students available to fill the seats.

“Enrollments fluctuate in predictable and unpredictable ways,” Dr. Leitzel said.

Administrators at SFSC have their eyes on one prediction. The U.S. Department of Education projects the number of Florida’s graduating high school seniors will start a modest decline in 2018.

“What we know is that enrollment increased last year,” Dr. Leitzel said. “Future enrollment is uncertain.”

AVON PARK, Fla.–Aug. 27, 2015–South Florida State College will hold a one-day educational workshop on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

As the official and private use of UAVs spreads, SFSC aims to educate law enforcement and the public on how first responders can harness this emerging technology to save lives. At the same time, UAVs, when used by criminals or terrorists, have the potential to cause great harm, a danger to which law enforcement agencies must be alert.

The workshop is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 25, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., on SFSC’s Highlands Campus in Avon Park. There is no charge to attend. (The precise location will be announced as the event draws nearer and the college gauges the expected turnout.)

“We plan to cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of UAVs,” said Curtis Ivy, director of criminal justice programs at SFSC’s public service academy. “Rapidly growing UAV use by public agencies and by criminals, along with media attention, spurred us to put on this workshop.”

UAVs, popularly but erroneously referred to as drones, are remotely-piloted aerial vehicles. A UAV can travel from its launch point and hover over a distant location, capturing video of a far-off crash site, delivering life-saving equipment to a stranded hiker, or an explosive device to crowded stadium.

While the workshop will mainly educate law enforcement, the public is invited to attend.

Ivy said law enforcement personnel and other first responders will learn about options for deploying UAVs in a broad array of situations. From lifeguards using UAVs to get a life vest to a swimmer caught up in a riptide, to searching for a missing child, to delivering a critical medical device to a remote location, Ivy said public agencies can put UAVs to use in ways that don’t involve direct enforcement of the law.

At the same time, Ivy said law enforcement agencies must be alert to the potential for criminals to adopt this technology. He cited a recent instance in which illegal drugs were smuggled into a prison by a UAV operated from a pickup truck parked near the facility. The UAV easily flew over the fence, dropped a load of drugs in the prison yard, and returned to its operator.

Two experienced UAV operators will lead the workshop. Sgt. Joe Marble, of the Hardee County Sheriff’s Office, will focus on what first responders need to know about UAV technology and use. John Byrd, professor of electronics at SFSC, will join Marble to showcase the potential deployment of UAVs with a live demonstration.

To reserve a seat for the workshop, or for more information, call SFSC’s Criminal Justice academy at 863-784-7280 or email publicservice@southflorida.edu.

AVON PARK, Fla.–Aug. 20, 2015–South Florida State College celebrated the grand opening of its new bookstore Monday, with a ribbon-cutting officiated by SFSC’s trustees, as employees, and a few confused students, looked on from the store’s crowded aisles.

The store still occupies the same space in the Cornelius P. Cornelius Student Services Building on the Highlands Campus but it underwent a major renovation and change in management.

“The students and employees are just loving it,” said Christine Andrewski, the store’s manager. “They tell me they enjoy the completely revamped look and feel of the campus store.”

Andrewski added that patrons say they like the expanded variety of SFSC-branded apparel, the addition of a coffee bar, and an inviting layout that includes seating.

As part of SFSC president Thomas C. Leitzel’s institution-wide drive to enhance student experience and engagement, the college’s district board of trustees approved a request for proposals last May seeking a new operator for the bookstore.

The Follett Corporation won the competition to operate what is now known as the “campus store.” It immediately installed new management and embarked on a major renovation of the store’s interiors.

Now, students, SFSC employees, and members of the community can shop while sipping Starbucks coffee in a brilliantly lighted store with walls emblazoned with large student-oriented photographs.

Visitors to the campus store will find mannequins modeling SFSC hoodies that, along with other apparel, are reduced 25 percent until Aug. 20. The campus store will hold a student-focused discount on Aug. 27, when apparel will be reduced 20 percent.

As college employees joined the trustees and Follett employees for the ribbon cutting that included cake and coffee, a few students trickled in to buy their books before the start of classes on Monday.

The campus store will remain open for extended hours until Aug. 29, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Thursday, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday.

Follett is higher education’s largest bookseller and retailer of college apparel, with 1,200 campus stores and more than 1,600 virtual stores nationwide. Follett also offers an online service—accessible through SFSC’s website– that allows students and the public to purchase books and apparel through the Web.

AVON PARK, Fla.–Aug. 20, 2015–South Florida State College’s Criminal Justice Academy (CJA) is offering a Concealed Weapons Permit course. This course is required to carry a concealed weapon in Florida. Topics to be covered include Florida Statutes, use of deadly force, carry restrictions, and live fire exercises. The course will be held on Saturday, Oct. 3, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. The cost is $55, and the course number (CRN) is 11411.

For information, equipment list, and maps to the range, contact Richard Morey, coordinator, at 863-784-7285. Register at any SFSC campus or center. Pre-registration is required.

AVON PARK, Fla.–Aug. 13, 2015–Ricki Vann, class of 2011, chose South Florida State College thinking she would play intercollegiate volleyball, earn her associate degree, and then transfer to a four-year university.

Vann had options for sure admission at several universities. Still, she had a special choice, one she thought might prove too daunting.

“As I was nearing graduation from SFSC, I thought I would apply to Barry University in Miami Shores,” Vann said. “But I really wanted to go the University of Florida.”

Vann said she had a respectable GPA at SFSC. But with thousands of high-performing transfer students from across the state vying for a seat at the Gainesville-based university, Vann thought she might have set her sights too high.

When not on the volleyball court or in class, the Highlands County native interned at a Sebring country music radio station. It was there she learned a career in broadcasting was in her future. Her most pressing decision was where she would finish out her education.

In her second year at SFSC, Vann recalled she was struggling through a biology class taught by James Broen, who was keen to offer her tips on how to prepare for class examinations. One day he asked where she planned to finish up her undergraduate work.

“I told Dr. Broen I wanted to be a Gator but wasn’t sure if I would apply,” Vann said. “He told me I could make it into the University of Florida, ‘After all, Ricki, you’ll be getting your degree from SFSC, so you can do it.’”

Vann said that Broen’s words of encouragement gave her the boost she needed to get through his class and the motivation to apply to the University of Florida.

“I applied and got accepted,” Vann said. “Broen’s support was awesome and it made all the difference for me.”

At Florida, Vann studied broadcast journalism, earning her degree in 2013 and gaining invaluable experience through two internships at local radio stations.

Vann parlayed that education and experience into the job that she had wished for: a spot as an on-air reporter with WEAR, an ABC affiliate in Pensacola, Fla. Vann’s classmates at SFSC will remember her as Vicki Vann Albritton. She now uses her middle name as her surname in her professional role.

“I always remember my time at SFSC and the solid foundation that made my success possible,” Vann said. “Playing volleyball I learned teamwork, I acquired knowledge in the classroom, and learned how to treat people from my time with the faculty and staff at SFSC.”

Vann said she’s on the career path of her dreams, one that keeps her busy. In addition to her current assignment, she will take on sports reporting for a sister station later this month.

“I won’t be going back to Sebring until Christmas,” Vann said, with an air of playful apprehension. “I sleep now whenever I can, sometimes even in my car,” she joked.

 Looking back on her choice of colleges coming out of high school, Vann said that while she chose SFSC mainly to take advantage of the volleyball scholarship, she has come to appreciate another benefit of studying at a college where the headcount was under 2,500.

“One of the fondest memories I have is the individual attention I received from faculty and counselors,” Vann recalled. “I also got a chance to play volleyball, serve in student government, and really get to know people, which is not easy to do at large university like Florida.”

Now 24 years old, and one year into her marriage with husband Riley Stewart, Vann said her tight schedule has her putting off plans to start a family anytime soon.

Does Vann have any advice for folks trying to settle on a college? Drawing on her experience at SFSC and the University of Florida, Vann takes a practical view.

“I’d tell them not to cancel out plans to attend SFSC because they want the so-called four-year experience,” Vann said. “You can get that ‘college experience’ at SFSC and in a more intimate setting.”

She said students can enhance their time at SFSC by getting involved in student government, spending more time hanging out on campus, and nurturing a sense of school spirit.

What’s more, she noted when she left SFSC for the University of Florida, she had already completed all her core courses, allowing her to focus exclusively on her major’s coursework.

“I was amused meeting students who were worrying about history 101 with 900 students in the same room,” Vann said.

“I was way past that and focusing exclusively on my major,” Vann said. “I can thank SFSC for that.”

AVON PARK, Fla.–Aug. 6, 2015–Leadership Highlands is accepting applications for the class of 2016 through Aug. 31. Leadership Highlands familiarizes participants with the infrastructure, agencies, and economic enterprises that exist in Highlands County; exposes participants to the range of needs in the community and identifies resources to meet those needs; provides participants with the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with each other and existing community leaders; and encourages civic participation and volunteer involvement in the community.  

The program is a partnership between South Florida State College (SFSC) and the Avon Park, Lake Placid, and Sebring chambers of commerce and is administered by SFSC. Each class includes an orientation in August, a retreat in September, and nine monthly themed sessions that include an overnight trip to Tallahassee and graduation ceremony in June. Previous classes have included visits to the Lake Placid murals, Sebring Regional Airport, local hospitals, city and county governments, and the court system.  

For more information, visit Leadership Highlands or contact Kris Juve, program director, at 784-7189 or juvek@southflorida.edu. Complete an application and return it by Aug. 31 to the Avon Park, Lake Placid, or Sebring chamber of commerce, or mail to Leadership Highlands, Attn: Kris Juve, SFSC, 600 W. College Drive, Avon Park, FL 33825.

AVON PARK, Fla.–Aug. 5, 2015–South Florida State College has an option for people who dropped out of high school and now want the satisfaction of completing their diploma.

SFSC’s Adult Education Department helps students earn a State of Florida high school diploma through the General Educational Development (GED) process. Because classes are offered during morning, afternoon, and evening hours at various SFSC locations, students can create a course of study that meets their individual needs and allows them to work at their own pace.

In August, SFSC’s Adult Education is hosting two open houses that explain how the GED program works and signs up students for classes.

The first will be on Monday, Aug. 10, at 6 p.m., in Building 200 at the SFSC Lake Placid Center, 500 E. Interlake Blvd., Lake Placid. Another will be on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 6 p.m., at The Teacherage, 501 Lemon St., Sebring.

“We’ll explain what the program is, how to get involved, and how learning is individualized for each person,” said John Rousch, director, Adult Education. “If you don’t have a high school diploma, now is the time to take that step, because career and lifestyle need a foundation in education. It’s an investment in your future.”

For more information about SFSC’s GED program, call the Adult Education Department at 784-7441.

AVON PARK, Fla.–Aug. 4, 2015–South Florida State College graduated 20 practical nurses (LPN) at a ceremony on July 30.

With scores of family, friends, and well-wishers looking on from the seats of SFSC’s Theatre for the Performing Arts, the graduates, wearing traditional white uniforms, took to the stage, sitting 10 abreast under a large banner depicting the college’s seal.

They had just completed SFSC’s 11-month practical nurse program and will soon sit for their licensing examinations, looking to start hands-on work later this summer.

Craig Pyle, a critical care nurse at Highlands Regional Medical Center with 20 years of clinical experience, accepted the students’ invitation to serve as the guest speaker and offer them a glimpse of the challenges that await them.

Pyle, a graduate of SFSC, told the students that, while they work intensely in a one-on-one relationship with a patient, nurses are not solo practitioners.

“Nurses work best as part of a team,” Pyle said. “A team that includes physicians, technicians, aides, and other nurses too.”

“But you must never forget the patient, and the family, is an important part of that team.”

Pyle went on to tell the graduates that the responsibility for quality health care rests not solely with the nurses and physicians. He said patients shoulder a good share of that burden.

“The more the nurse does to educate his or her patients that they share in that responsibility, then the better outcomes they will have.”

The class president, Rani Gobble, then recalled the ups and downs of the students’ 11 months together, and marveled at how much they had learned.

“At the start of the course we thought we know how to wash are hands properly,” Gobble said. “Boy were we wrong.”

Saying they weren’t just a class but a pack that had forged special relationships among themselves, Gobble exhorted her fellow graduates to remember always how far they had come.

“Let us use what we have learned here and be the best nurses we can be,” Gobble said.

But before the class could take its turn observing ceremonies stretching back to the 19 century, they had an award of their own to confer. The class tapped Denis Morales, a staff assistant at SFSC’s nursing education program, as the recipient of the Golden Duck award.

Each graduating class of SFSC nursing students gives the award to a person who contributes in a special way to their learning and development as a nurse. The award’s significance is based on the D.U.C.K. motto: Developing, Understanding, Compassion, and Knowledge.

Continuing a custom initiated by Florence Nightingale, recognized as the founder of modern nursing, the graduating students then received their nursing pins, a symbol of their hard work and achievement.

In recent graduation ceremonies, students accept their nursing pins from a person of their choice, in most instances a relative who they see as a pillar of support in their lives.

One by one, husbands, mothers, and children mounted the stage, embraced their loved one, and pinned their new nurse.

The graduates, with the lapels of their uniforms now sporting their pins, then clasped a lighted white lantern. This tradition, a rite of passage also initiated by Nightingale, signifies the courage, compassion, selflessness each new nurse is called to, Dr. Michelle Heston, SFSC’s nursing program director, told the assembly.

“Be ever mindful of the nurses who have gone before you,” Dr. Heston said. “And be ever mindful of nurses who will serve with you.”

The new nurses then filed off the stage into the audience to greet their loved ones.

The graduates were: Kristen Angel, Emmy Austin, Cristal Badillo, Veronica DeLoera, Stephanie Esquivel, Tina Evans, James Garza, Vanessa Garza, Rani Gobble, Robert Keene, Jenise Lopez, Maria Lopez, Katerine Love, Lindsey Lovett, Adna Metayer, Kelsey Murray, Tania Salinas, Christy Singletary, Kattie Vanderpool, and Manuela Vela.

In addition to the LPN program, SFSC also offers associate degree in nursing (ADN) options for students interested in becoming registered nurses: a two-year Generic-RN program and a one-year Transition-LPN to RN program. This year SFSC launched a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN), which can be completed in two years.

For more information on nursing at SFSC, visit the nursing education page at www.southflorida.edu or call 863-784-7225.