South Florida State College

The SFSC Library and the SFSC Honors Program will present a celebration of Harry Potter’s world and a colloquium of undergraduate research on Friday, Feb. 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Building Y, SFSC Highlands Campus.

This second annual event combines a celebration of the magical world of Harry Potter with a colloquium of undergraduate research. Learn more about the original scholarly research happening at SFSC through student and faculty posters and presentations while earning house points, playing games, making crafts, and more inspired by the Wizarding World.

Throughout the day, attendees can take advantage of a photo spot with props or participate in games, such as Match Your Wands or Dragon Challenge Trivia. Crafts available will be House Scarves Lanyard, The Care and Coloring of Magical Creatures, and Wand Box Construction.

Try out Honeydukes Candy Dispenser that now accepts Muggle currency. At noon, a Butterbeer toast to Hogwarts will be held on the first floor of Building Y.

For further information about the celebration or the colloquium, contact Michael Garcia, librarian, at garciam@southflorida.edu or ext. 7305.

AVON PARK, Fla. – Feb. 24, 2020 – South Carolina Ballet returns to the Alan Jay Wildstein Center for the Performing Arts at South Florida State College (SFSC) with a magical production of Cinderella on Saturday, March 7 at 7 p.m. Part of the AdventHealth Trending Now Series, the ballet tells the best-loved fairy tale of love and jealousy in a lush production that is ideal family entertainment. Tickets are $29-$40 with a 50% discount for children and students.

“The stepsisters in this ballet are hysterical,” said Cindy Garren, director of cultural programs at SFSC. “Plus, we have local dancers that have been rehearsing for weeks who will join the professional dancers on stage.”

Cinderella was composed by Sergei Prokofiev during World War II. It was first performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in 1945.

Cinderella is conceived and directed by William Starrett, artist director of South Carolina Ballet. From his start at San Francisco’s Ballet Celeste and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, through appearances as a principal for the Joffrey Ballet and as a member of American Ballet Theatre under the direction of both Lucia Chase and Mikhail Baryshnikov, to guest appearances with over 40 of the world’s most renowned ballet companies, Starrett’s talent as a dancer has earned rave reviews from coast to coast as well as a medal at the very first U.S. International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Miss.

Today, Starrett’s formidable reputation revolves most often around his choreographic and directorial accomplishments. As director and primary choreographer for the past 28 years, he has created or staged over 50 works—including 16 original, full-length ballets, 10 classical full-length ballets, and 16 original narrated one-act ballets for children—in locations throughout the United States and Europe.

Starrett is determined that no one—not even fathers dragged to the performance—will be bored, so there are lots of surprises. “The two ugly stepsisters are actually performed by men,” he said. “They are more actors than dancers, so we have the contrast of the beauty of the fairies and the hysterical stepsisters.”

Tickets can be purchased online at sfscARTS.org, by phone at 863-784-7178, or in person at the SFSC Performing Arts Box Office on the campus of South Florida State College located at 600 West College Drive in Avon Park.

LOCAL CAST FOR CINDERELLA

Cinderella Attendants
Trista Gilliard
Mayleen Gonzalez
Paige Jayna
Reagan Lenihan
Taylor Leiden

Ballroom Attendants
Makenna Smith
Ashley Anderson

Merchant Assistant
Faith Padgett
Katiana Reyes
Rossalyn Schooley

Dragonflies
Sophia Shaffer
Sofiya Balikowsky
Carly Vega
Bailey Toney

Gift Givers
Ariana Bhandare
Talina Oronez
Olivia Heston
Anjali Way

Clocks
Sofiya Balikowsky
Desiree Bassett
Chloe Berlin
Anika Bhandare

Abigail Brinling
Alyssa Coultier
Amelia Heston
Braelynn Hillman
Aubrey Scheipsmeier
Sophia Shaffer
Bailey Toney
Carly Vega
Whytni Adams
Adrienne Ayala
Brooke Blackburn
Ellie Brinling
Emily Clogston
Audrey Coultier
Shayla Farrow
Gabriella Gonzalez
Haley Grace
Sophia Heston
Brylee King
Kattie Mannis
Gabriella Marin
Abigail O’Meara
McKenzie Pletcher
Zoe Pletcher
Karis Register
Aubrey Scheipsmeier
Camille Schwartz
Rossalyn Schooley
Sarah Smith
Annandra Ramkissoon

Taylor Bateman (left) with Amy Bohan in the lab

AVON PARK, Fla.—Feb. 18, 2020—South Florida State College (SFSC) student Taylor Bateman will present a poster explaining her research into feline kidney failure during the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC) at Florida Gulf Coast University on Friday, Feb. 21 and Saturday, Feb. 22.

FURC is an annual multi-disciplinary conference open to all undergraduate researchers in Florida where students present their research in a poster forum. The conference provides students with networking opportunities, workshops, and professional development programs.

Bateman’s research was encouraged by SFSC biology professor, Amy Bohan. “Taylor was a dedicated and motivated student when I first met her in my General Biology II course, and she showed so much enthusiasm for hopping on board with the research project.”

Bohan’s own research has been on congestive heart failure in dogs, but Bateman decided that she wanted to focus on cats. “I’m very much a cat person—I have two cats,” Bateman said. “And the kidney part—it’s minor, but I’ve had kidney problems my whole life, so I wanted to find a study on kidney failure.” In her abstract on the study, she indicates that little research on kidney failure in felines has been done and “there is not much understanding to what causes it and how it can be prevented.”

According to Bohan, Bateman is looking at micro-RNAs and how they play a role in kidney disease in felines. The research began with a search for literature on other such studies, but most of it was related to human renal failure. They, then, gathered the blood samples from cats in renal failure that were provided by local veterinarians. At the conference, Bateman will present her abstract and analysis of the blood samples. Ultimately, Bateman would like to see the work published.

Bateman anticipates presenting her poster at the Experimental Biology (EB) meeting, a gathering of more than 12,000 scientists from around the world to explore the latest developments in a multitude of sciences. The 2000 EB will be held in April in San Diego, Calif.

Bateman graduates from SFSC in May 2020 with an Associate in Arts and will continue her studies at the University of South Florida (USF) at the Sarasota/Manatee Campus. She, originally, planned to study marine biology and wanted to work at MOTE Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota, Fla. But after meeting with an advisor at USF, her interest turned to environmental law with her sights set on the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law.

“I love anything about the planet,” Bateman said. “And I see how much damage is happening to the planet right now. My favorite quote is from Gandhi: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ And I want to see the world change environmentally. That quote really inspired me. With environmental law, I realized I could make more of a change than I would just helping the animals.”

SFSC professors are encouraging undergraduate student research. “If a student wants to do research at SFSC, they can reach out to any of the faculty involved,” Bohan said. “I think that it’s a great way for students to think outside of the classroom, and it’s also been rewarding to see the confidence my students have gained while taking ownership of their projects.”

In fact, two other SFSC students will present posters at the upcoming FURC. Camila Rinoldi and Kyria Wickham, students from Dr. Charlotte Pressler’s Honors English I class, will discuss their research on “The Mass Grave in Sebring’s Pinecrest Cemetery of Moore Haven Victims of the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926.” Dr. James Hawker, SFSC dean of Arts and Sciences, will serve as faculty sponsor for Rinoldi’s research presentation on determining if coral communicate with ultrasonic sounds. Her research began through the Sebring High School International Baccalaureate (IB) program.

Bateman encourages other students to consider participating in a research project at SFSC. “Research at the undergraduate level is something not many people do. Ms. Bohan said from the get go that this is something, typically, done by graduate students. So, I would tell anybody and everybody that they should do this. They can see if a type of research that they’re interested in is being done here at SFSC. If it’s not, see if one of the professors would start it.”

Team members Lovely Lee (left), Kelli Sullivan, and Ethan Morton. Not pictured: Estefani Espinoza and Anthony Zepeda

AVON PARK, Fla. – Feb. 13, 2020 – The Florida College System (FCS) has named six South Florida State College (SFSC) students to the 2020 All-Florida Academic Team.

Each year, the FCS names a Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) All-Florida Academic Team to honor students enrolled in Florida’s public state and community colleges for their academic achievement, leadership, and service to the community.

The SFSC students earning this recognition are Toby Ellison, Estefani Espinoza, Lovely Lee, Ethan Morton, Kelli Sullivan, and Anthony Zepeda. They join 161 of their peers from the 28-member FCS in being named to the academic team.

The six SFSC students will be recognized, formally, at an awards ceremony on Friday, March 6 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Additional honors and scholarships for these students, awarded by PTK, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, and other affiliated foundations and organizations, will be announced at that time.

Team member Toby Ellison

“These students are a wonderful group of scholars who have worked very hard for this honor,” said Michelle Macbeth, PTK advisor and professor of Spanish at SFSC. “Their academic achievement shows the kind of determination and integrity our students at SFSC possess. We are all very proud of them.”

Students named to the All-Florida Academic Team were drawn from SFSC’s Honors Program and the College’s Tau Epsilon chapter of PTK. In nominating students for the All-Florida Academic Team, colleges consider participation in academic honors programs, membership in and awards from collegiate societies, and academic enrichment gained from internships and special projects.

PTK is an honor society that recognizes the academic achievements of community and state college students and helps them to grow as scholars and leaders. The society is made up of over 3.5 million members in the United States and 10 additional nations. For more on PTK, visit ptk.org.

For more information about SFSC’s PTK chapter, contact Macbeth at 863-784-7312.

BSEE students

AVON PARK, Fla. — Feb. 10, 2020 — South Florida State College’s (SFSC) Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education (BSEE) was recently lauded for its student pass rates on the Florida Teacher Certification Examinations (FTCE) in three areas.

The Florida Department of Education oversees the FTCE, and according to its website, the examination “ensures that all teacher candidates demonstrate the necessary content and pedagogical knowledge necessary to effectively instruct students in Florida.” Student who take the exams come from state-approved teacher preparation programs from state universities, state colleges, private colleges and universities, educator preparation institutes (EPIs), and professional development certification programs (PDCPs).

In a recent report prepared by the Florida Department of Education, SFSC BSEE students scored higher than any other state college on the Professional Education examination on their first and best attempts. On their first attempt, 93.5% of SFSC BSEE students passed the Professional Education examination, a rate 3.1% higher than the next highest scoring state college. SFSC BSEE students achieved a 100% passing rate at their best attempt at the exam, scoring 2.6% higher than the next highest scoring state college. “Best attempt is the highest score of all students in all attempts in taking the examination,” said Dr. Maday Leon, lead instructor of the SFSC BSEE program. “Clearly, SFSC has a really high rate of passing the Professional Education examination when compared with other state college bachelor’s degree programs. And our students are very competitive with the state universities, such as the University of Florida with its first attempt pass rate of 95%.”

According to Dr. Leon, SFSC’s BSEE students take the Professional Education examination in the summer before their last semester in the program. “It’s like a midpoint check.”

The BSEE students take subject area exams through the Florida Department of Education in the fall term before their spring classroom internships. “The subject areas are in language arts and reading, science, social science, and mathematics,” Dr. Leon said. “If the students don’t pass all four subject area exams, they don’t go onto their internships.”

SFSC BSEE students scored high on the best attempt at the language arts and reading examination with a 93.8% passing rate in the best attempt. The students also scored high on first attempt on the mathematics examination, with a passing rate of 65.6%.

Dr. Leon maintains that SFSC’s students do well on the FTCE exams because they’re provided the necessary preparation. The Professional Education examination preparation is integrated throughout the BSEE program. Subject area exam preparation is bolstered with an online workshop series through The Learning Liaisons FTCE Workshop Series.

“We’ve known since Day One that a small institution can provide more direct instruction than a larger one,” Dr. Leon said. “Our students receive one-on-one attention and they receive a lot of support and the data now shows that.”

SFSC launched the BSEE program in fall 2014 at SFSC’s Highlands Campus in Avon Park. Those admitted to the two-year program will have completed an Associate in Arts (A.A.), prerequisite education courses, GPA requirements, and the General Knowledge Test of the Florida Teacher Certification Examination. Graduates will be eligible for Florida certification in kindergarten through sixth grade with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Reading endorsements.

For more information about the program, visit southflorida.edu/academic/bsee or call 863–784-7154.

AVON PARK, Fla. – Feb. 6, 2020 – The South Florida State College (SFSC) Library and the SFSC Honors Program will present a celebration of Harry Potter’s world and a colloquium of undergraduate research on Friday, Feb. 28 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., in Building Y, SFSC Highlands Campus, Avon Park.

Try out Honeydukes Candy Dispenser that now accepts Muggle currency. At noon, a Butterbeer toast to Hogwarts will be held on the first floor of Building Y.

For further information about the celebration or the colloquium, contact Michael Garcia, librarian, at garciam@southflorida.edu or 863-784-7305.

Cynthia Barnett

AVON PARK, Fla. – Feb. 3, 2020 – Through a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant, Cynthia Barnett will present “A Water Ethic for Florida” on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 p.m., in Building B, Room 204, on the South Florida State College (SFSC) Highlands Campus in Avon Park. The presentation is free and open to SFSC faculty, high school and college/university educators, and museum and archive professionals. Others who are interested in attending should email Dr. Charlotte Pressler, SFSC professor of English and humanities, at presslerc@southflorida.edu.

Barnett’s presentation at SFSC examines water as a unifying force with the potential to build an environmental ethos across generations.

She is an author of popular books on water and climate change including “Rain: A Natural and Cultural History,” which was long-listed for the National Book Award. Barnett is an Environmental Journalist in Residence at the University of Florida’s (UF) College of Journalism and Communications and an Environmental Fellow at UF’s Bob Graham Center for Public Service, where she works on Environmental Civics: helping develop the service, civic engagement and leadership ethos needed to make progress on the profound challenges facing the world and us.

Barnett earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism, her master’s in environmental history, and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan specializing in freshwater resources. She is the recipient of numerous journalism and book awards and just finished her fourth book, a story of humanity and seashells.