“These changes create a dynamic educational ecosystem that engages faculty, staff and students in the creation of integrative learning opportunities that go beyond the classroom,� said Elizabeth A. Dooley, interim provost.

“These changes create a dynamic educational ecosystem that engages faculty, staff and students in the creation of integrative learning opportunities that go beyond the classroom,� said Elizabeth A. Dooley, interim provost. “Thank you to all whose work has made this realignment possible and helped to better position our university and students for the future.�

College of Health Professions and Sciences

As part of the newly created Academic Health Sciences Center along with the College of Medicine and the College of Nursing, the College of Health Professions and Sciences will be focused on educating students for rewarding careers in prevention, diagnosis or therapy at hospitals, community-based and specialized-care facilities, schools, and nonprofit and social service agencies.

The college will be led by José Fernández, who will serve as the interim dean until Aug. 8. Jeffery Stout, founding director of the School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy, will take over then as interim dean until a founding dean is appointed.

The search for the founding dean has begun and will progress through the fall. Deborah German will continue to lead our new Academic Health Sciences Center as vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine.

College of Community Innovation and Education

The anchor of our Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Downtown campus, the College of Community Innovation and Education brings together community-facing programs engaged with the social and economic fabric of thriving, modern cities and grounded in transformative education.

Pamela “Sissiâ€� Carroll, who served as dean of the former College of Education and Human Performance, has been selected as founding dean of the college. Several, but not all, of its academic programs will move downtown in Fall 2019 when Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Downtown opens.

Nicholson School of Communication and Media

An interdisciplinary, inter-college school, , includes communication, digital media and film programs and will redefine content creation, digital art and communication for the 21^st century.

Robert Littlefield, director of the former Nicholson School of Communication, was named founding director of the school. Several of its programs also will move downtown in Fall 2019.

Together, these changes mean that the College of Education and Human Performance and College of Health and Public Affairs will no longer exist, as programs, centers and institutes will be realigned in the new colleges.

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Moore joined Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ in 1994 as the university’s first full-time percussion professor. He became chair of the Music Department from 2009 to 2013, and he began his role as the director of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s newly created School of Performing Arts in 2013.

“From a pool of terrific candidates, Professor Moore stood out because of his strong leadership abilities and his innovative vision for strengthening the college’s academic and interdisciplinary research mission at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½,â€� said Provost and Executive Vice President A. Dale Whittaker.

During his music and teaching career, Moore has been involved with more than 60 literary and music projects as an author, composer or arranger, and is an international performer, lecturer, clinician and soloist. His work on several local boards and committees has helped build awareness of the arts and relationships with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ partners. In his new role, he will advance the college while continuing to enhance Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s arts presence in our community and beyond.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to join Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s outstanding senior academic leadership team,â€� Moore said. “Throughout my career, I have always enjoyed collaborating with faculty, students and our community partners. This new position will allow me to expand on those activities and enhance our presence even more.â€�

Moore holds a bachelor’s in music education from the University of North Texas and a master’s in percussion performance from the University of Wisconsin.

He is also the Region 7 chair of the National Association of Schools of Music, serving on its board of directors as well as the board of advisors for the Percussive Arts Society.

Under his leadership as director of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s School of Performing Arts, both the theatre and music departments received accreditation or reaccreditation from the National Association of Schools of Theatre and National Association of Schools of Music. Moore also helped create Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts, a multi-week festival that highlights Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s arts and interdisciplinary programs that recently held its second season.

“When you consider our opportunities as we pursue recognition as a Florida preeminent university, along with campus performance-space construction and also our involvement with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Downtown, it is a very exciting time for the arts and humanities at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½,â€� Moore said. “I can’t wait to get started!â€�

Moore will be taking over the role of dean from José Fernández, who will be stepping down and returning to the history faculty this fall. Fernández has been dean of the College of Arts & Humanities since 2006.

Dr. Steven Chicurel-Stein of the Theatre Department has been named interim director of the School of Performing Arts while a search is conducted to fill the role permanently.

The STARTALK mission is to increase the number of Americans learning and speaking critically needed foreign languages that are not widely taught in the United States. The intensive summer program was open to the commmunity and sponsored by The National Security Language Initiative and U.S. Department of Defense.

“The Russian language program at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ is an important asset to the nation’s strategic language reserve and teaches one of the critical languages targeted in the National Security Language Initiative program,â€� said Alla Kourova, an assistant professor of Russian who received an $89,000 grant for the program. “In today’s global community, doing business with other cultures has become inevitable.â€�

The students were instructed by Kourova, Tatiana Norman and Natalia Reilly, and students from the Russian language course, Anna Ramires, Jake Cranmer, Rebecca Kaiser, Gabriela Wolk, Alex Wolstenholm and Amanda Ans. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ students who participated in a U.S.-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program earlier in the year also were invited to give presentations on topics relating to Russian culture and the history of Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russian names, and Russian Orthodoxy.

Students met three weeks for classroom instructions, extra-curricular activities and field trips. Each day lunches were prepared by the Russian café Lacomka in Winter Park, which gave the students a taste of Russia.

On the program’s graduation day, José Fernandez, dean of the College of Arts & Humanities, congratulated the students and presented each with the certificates and a Russian souvenir. Kourova said she plans to host the program again for the community next summer.

The Feb. 12 workshops will be part of the festival’s Education Day, which will also include the screening of films created by high school and college students from around the state. The festival’s Education Day activities are sponsored by Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s College of Arts and Humanities. During the rest of the weekend, the festival will show 61 short films from 11 countries.

“One of the goals of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s College of Arts and Humanities is to nourish artistic learning and endeavors,â€� said Jose Fernandez, dean of the college. “Leading educational programs at Love Your Shorts Film Festival helps fulfill that mission by enriching the lives of the community, our students and potential students.â€�

To start the 5-year-old festival’s first Education Day, Lisa Mills, an associate professor of film, will lead two workshops at the Greater Sanford Regional Chamber of Commerce, 400 E. 1st St.:

Others on the workshop panel are: film instructor Kate Shults, filmmakers and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ graduates James Noir and Zach Becker, and MFA film student Yesi Lima. The film program is part of the college’s School of Visual Arts & Design.

The workshops are free, but those planning to attend are asked to register at the festival’s website, LoveYourShorts.com.

At 7 p.m. that night, the festival’s Education Day will show a free block of high school and college student films from around the state at the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center, 201 S. Magnolia Ave., Sanford. The films are from STARTFEST Student Art Festival, a statewide project to encourage student filmmakers.

The rest of the nonprofit Love Your Shorts Film Festival weekend will showcase films up to 30 minutes each in seven categories (Comedy, Drama, Animation, Documentary, Sci-Fi/Horror, Florida Flavor, and E for Everyone), plus an opening-night variety of films, and a Best of the Fest competition on closing night. Also on Saturday during the festival, a panel of visiting filmmakers will present a discussion and Q&A on techniques, tips and current projects.

For a schedule of films and ticket information, visit the festival website at LoveYourShorts.com.

The play calls for several guest spellers to compete at each performance, so Fernández, dean of the College of Arts & Humanities, and Hinkle, vice provost and dean of the College of Graduate Studies, accepted the challenge to test their spelling skills on stage. The play also provides them the opportunity to be part of the theatre experience and make connections with students.

The spirited Tony Award-winning musical is about six young overachievers trying to become the county spelling champ. Along the way they learn that winning isn’t everything, and losing doesn’t have to be a catastrophe. The cast and invited guest spellers also join select audience members for a little “I before E� competition.

Fernández, who will appear on opening night, July 10, has appeared in two other campus plays in recent years. The dean said he accepts the roles “because I can better appreciate the tremendous talent of our students and faculty, and at the same time it gives me the opportunity to interact with the students and learn about their goals and aspirations.�

Fernández said he is not a native speaker of English but considers himself a decent speller. He said he finished second in a promotional 2002 Dairy Farmers Association community spelling bee in Orlando.

Hinkle said Fernández told him about the walk-on opportunities at Theatre Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, and said it sounded like a fun way to help promote the theatre programs and meet folks in the arts, “which should help me in building relationships across the university and better understand the arts at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ – as an ecologist and biologist I have had limited exposure to the arts.â€�

He describes himself as an “above average� speller, “but I do love spellcheck – even though sometimes it spells words correctly but out of context.�

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Beeâ€� will run July 10-20 and Aug. 20-24 at Theatre Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s Main Stage. Hinkle will be put to the test during the July 20 performance, and some other surprise invited spellers may appear during the run of the play.

Before each performance, a few audience volunteers also are handpicked to participate in the play as spellers, so each group presents new and unexpected outcomes. Contestants are chosen through pre-show lobby interviews and questionnaires. Anyone wishing to be considered should arrive at least 30 minutes before the show begins.

The Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ performance is directed by Be Boyd, an associate professor in the Theatre department. While on Broadway, the play was nominated for six Tony Awards in 2005, and won for Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actor. There is some mature language in the play, so it is suggested for ages 12 and up.

As for Hinkle and Fernández, they said their previous stage appearances have been limited. Hinkle did a reading of “Waiting for Godotâ€� in undergraduate school, and Fernández said he was in a couple plays years ago at FSU and the University of Colorado in addition to two previous cameos at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½.

In Theatre Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s 2012 production of “Zombie Town,â€� Fernández served up some bloody gore as one of the walking dead.

“It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from the students. After the play, they considered me one of their own,� he said. “Last year when Terrance (Jackson), one of the students, got his diploma at graduation, he hugged me and I said, ‘Thank you for coaching me.’ – It was a priceless moment.�

Performance times for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee� are 7 p.m. July 10-12 and July 18-20; 8 p.m. Aug. 21-23, and 2 p.m. July 13, July 20 and Aug. 24. For tickets and other information, go to .

The old-time school bell in the 1902 building was rung by associate professor Rosalind Beiler, director of the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ center, and Walt Griffin, Seminole County’s school superintendent, to symbolize the beginning of the new school year and the collaboration of the two organizations.

To reinforce the Public History Center’s goal of involving the community, Beiler quoted Benjamin Franklin: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” The center provides hands-on educational experiences for students of all ages, serves as a research site connecting local history to global events, and promotes opportunities for learning through workshops and interactive programming.

The center was just awarded a grant to show four documentaries and hold discussion forums about civil rights in America. The first film, “Freedom Riders,� won an Emmy in 2012 and will be shown 1 p.m. Nov. 2.

Dates will be set later for “The Abolitionists,� “Slavery by Another Name� and “The Loving Story.� “The Loving Story� and “The Abolitionists� have been nominated for Emmys this year.

The films are part of Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle, a partnership initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

The showcase is an opportunity for the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ community to view the exceptional work of students from the First-Year Writing Program. The event featured student displays, panels and awards for best writings.

Three student panels allowed young researchers to share their work with an audience. Research projects presented during the panel sessions included “Spanglish and Its Effect on L1 and L2 Speakers,� “Combatting Internet Piracy,� and “Geocaching and the Use of Multiple Literacies.�

Students whose work had previously been published in Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s presented a glimpse of first-year writing at its best and were recognized by Provost and Executive Vice President Tony Waldrop.

José Fernandez, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, presented awards for best student displays to Vanessa Carrillo for best overall poster, “Religious Literacy;� David Sheets for best research, “Reality Networks;� Lindsay Schmit for best presentation, “Facebook and Self-Disclosure;� and Delaney Postma, honorable mention for her poster “Traumatic Brain Injury.�

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ President John C. Hitt concluded the ceremony by presenting the Prize for Excellence in First-Year Writing to Lindsay Schmit for her research article “Personality and Its Effects on Facebook and Self-Disclosure,â€� published in the Fall 2012 issue of Stylus.

The prize includes a $450 book scholarship donated by Hitt and the Department of Writing and Rhetoric. Schmit, now a sophomore majoring in Pre-Clinical Health Sciences, was accompanied to the ceremony by her parents, Cathy and Dave, who drove from Fort Meyers to attend the showcase.

Marissa Penzato, now a sophomore Aerospace Engineering major, and Victoria Marro, now a junior majoring in Microbiology and Molecular Biology, were awarded first- and second-runners-up.

For more information about the Knights Write Showcase, the First-Year Writing Program or the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, visit .

A new partnership between Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and Seminole County Public Schools is transforming a 110-year-old Sanford school building into a learning laboratory for education, research and community engagement.

The center at 301 W. 7th St. has been preparing this summer to reopen its doors to the public Monday, Aug. 6. The first scheduled activity is 9 a.m. Aug. 13 with Seminole’s traditional ringing of the tower bell to open the first day of the new school year.

This inaugural event and many additional activities will be planned to fulfill public history’s goal of engaging the community.

“We would love to see this become a model for other centers around Central Florida,â€� said Rosalind Beiler, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s director of Public History. “The building is a gem. The place has a heart and soul, and anyone who spends time here becomes devoted to it.â€�

Looking back: The building is one of the few surviving Florida examples of school architecture from the turn of the 20th century. It opened in 1902 as Sanford’s first high school and became a grammar school in 1911. In 1984 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and became the school district’s Student Museum and Center for the Social Studies, an interpretive center and a hands-on teaching museum.

Looking ahead: The new Public History Center will schedule classes for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ students, offer community workshops, and promote involvement in historic preservation, while continuing popular programs such as hosting public tours and school field trips. Fourth-grade classes, specifically, schedule visits to the site because of Florida requirements to study state history at that grade level.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ signed a two-year lease for the center in the heart of Sanford’s residential historic district, whose residents are encouraged to join in the programs and research.

“The center will enhance the quality of life in our community by bringing to light the history of its most valuable resource: its people,� said José Fernández, dean of the College of Arts & Humanities, which will oversee the center.

Beiler said Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ chose Sanford for the Public History Center because the city has a “rich documented historyâ€� and is committed to historic preservation through the Community Redevelopment Association, Historic Preservation Board, Sanford Historic Trust, and other history-related groups, museums and projects.

“There are a lot of willing partners in Seminole County,� she said. “Sanford is among the strongest of any Central Florida city for historical preservation.�

To capitalize on that, Ashley Wilt, program coordinator, is focusing a big part of the first semester’s activities on community outreach, hosting gatherings and enlisting volunteers to assist the center in carrying out projects.

Beginning Aug. 6, the center will open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday through Saturday. In addition to the Aug. 13 bell-ringing ceremony, the staff is planning an evening open house, neighborhood block party, fall pumpkin festival around Halloween, and an old-fashioned Christmas event. They also are reaching out to scouting and other civic groups to hold activities at the center.

Next spring, the staff and university students will start to offer workshops on historical preservation and topics such as how to interview people for oral histories.

“We are thrilled with this collaborative effort,� said Tina Calderone, chairman of the Seminole County School Board. “This will enhance the educational experiences of our students, allow the center to be open more hours, and benefit the community as a whole.�

The center has several themed rooms: a furnished, original 1902 classroom complete with a portrait of then-President Theodore Roosevelt; a Timucua room that represents a 1,200-year-old village; a pioneer room with a log cabin and tools; Grandma’s Attic with old household items and vintage clothes; Georgetown and Crooms High School exhibits that feature the city’s African-American community, and other displays.

Behind the museum is a demonstration garden that contains vegetables and flowers grown at the turn of the last century, Florida native plants, antique roses, wildflower meadow, field crops and other horticultural displays.

The city’s Touhy Park across the street from the museum contains a historic tree grove, which contains about 70 trees that are associated with people, places and events around the country. There are sycamores, magnolias, maples, walnuts and others from Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Mount Vernon, Ellis Island, the Alamo and elsewhere.

City officials also are pleased that the schoolhouse, which was put on the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the state’s most endangered historic sites in 2009, has been given new life.

“This building and project are being looked at statewide as a preservation success,â€� said Christine Dalton, the city’s historic preservation officer. “They’re utilizing the building, site, its collections and the gardens – resulting in a hands-on learning environment for the students. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s partnership with the museum is a great benefit to the community, and will have a positive impact on this National Register site and surrounding residential neighborhood.â€�

City Commissioner Patty Mahany, who is scheduled to speak at the opening-day ceremony, said: “This is so significant because it is a great use for the historic building. It is a wonderful marriage and will benefit students with a much higher purpose.�

The building is about 20 miles northwest of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s main campus, which is part of the plan to reach into the community.

“Our name – Public History Center – means just that,� Beiler said. “It is a community resource and we invite Central Florida residents to take an active role and join us as this unique collaboration develops.�

More than 100 elected officials, business executives, journalists and other notables were nominated for consideration because of their demonstrated leadership and contributions to the enrichment and overall growth of Hispanics in Central Florida. The quarterly magazine is published by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando.

Fernández moved with his family from Cuba to the United States when he was 12, and is now the highest ranking Hispanic administrator at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½. He is responsible for the administrative oversight of the college, building new college policies and developing new programs of excellence.

He earned a doctorate at Florida State University in 1973 and came to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ as a visiting Spanish-language professor in 1981. He was chairman of the Foreign Language and Literature Department before he was named dean.

In addition to winning the Pegasus Professor Award, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s highest honor for teaching, research and service, Fernández has written dozens of books both in English and Spanish. In 2008, President George W. Bush appointed him to the National Museum of the American Latino Commission.

In an article about him in the magazine, Fernandez compares himself to “the first Hispanic explorers visiting the New World.�

Other university-related recipients named to the magazine’s top-25 list were: Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ alumnus Tico Perez, a member of the Board of Governors of the State University System, and Conrad Santiago, a former Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Board of Trustees member.

Perez, a son of Cuban immigrants, is co-founder of Edge Public Affairs and serves as national commissioner of the Boy Scouts of America.

Santiago, managing director of Conrad Santiago & Associates/Ameriprise Financial Services Inc., was a founding member and the first president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s new Department of Writing and Rhetoric will serve as a flagship program to coordinate comprehensive writing instruction and support across the university. As part of its mission, the new department will implement a “Writing Across the Curriculum” program called Knights Write to ensure students are prepared to write effectively in all of their courses.

Toward that end, Knights Write will provide support to help interested faculty members in all disciplines integrate writing into their courses to help students develop into more effective and versatile writers. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s would be only the second writing curriculum program at a Florida public university. It could potentially grow into the largest such program in the country.

The new department and program changes were initiated by the College of Arts and Humanities and approved by the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ administration.

“These changes will build upon our outstanding programs to create a unique Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ writing experience,” said Provost and Executive Vice President Terry Hickey. “This department will be a national model for how large public universities can improve students’ writing skills. These changes, along with the efforts of our dedicated faculty members, will further prepare students for success throughout their academic careers and after they graduate.”

Although universities are increasingly moving to stand-alone writing departments, few coordinate all of the writing support, services and scholarship as thoroughly as Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric will. The university is investing about $1.7 million in the new program during the next four years.

To ensure students receive a consistent and rigorous writing education, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ will convert 22 adjunct and 12 visiting instructor positions to 18 permanent instructor positions devoted to teaching composition. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ will become one of only a few universities in the country that employ only full-time instructors to teach composition courses.

These changes will help create curricular consistency and rigor in Composition I and II courses (ENC 1101 and 1102) that provide a strong foundation for writing throughout the university.

The Writing and Rhetoric Department will be charged with coordinating university writing instruction and support, and designing coursework based in the best writing-related research in order to provide Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ students with a coherent and rigorous writing experience. Toward that end, Writing and Rhetoric faculty will provide support and consultations to colleagues from across the university.

“We expect these changes to increase student writing within the discipline, increase retention rates and shorten the time many students need to graduate,” said Jose Fernandez, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.

“Building the new department with tenured and tenure-track faculty whose work centers on writing and rhetoric is one of the strengths of this endeavor. These changes will empower them to better serve students.”

The department’s tenured and tenure-track faculty will conduct writing-related research with a strong emphasis on the scholarship of teaching, learning and writing in the disciplines.