Hall, who is majoring in creative writing and advertising/public relations, and his brother Horacio are enabling Zeek on his journey, and recently received an offer of help from Charlotte Hornets basketball player Johnny O’Bryant III.

If this all sounds like fantasy mixed with reality – it is.

The brothers from South Miami Heights are real, but Zeek resides in the new manga comic Stratum 21, soon to be released by O’Bryant’s creative agency, Noir Caesar, which produces creative art, fashion and music.

Hall said a Noir Caesar representative saw images of their characters on Stratum 21’s Instagram and reported back to O’Bryant, owner and founder of the company, who arranged to carry the brothers’ first comic series on the company’s website. O’Bryant has been in the NBA since 2014 and he started his company to intertwine Japanese anime culture with African-American street wear and hip-hop culture.

The first chapter of the story is scheduled to come out Sept. 21. Stratum 21 takes place thousands of years after a cataclysmic event shattered the planet Strata into 20 pieces. The inhabitants have rebuilt society but three factions are fighting for control. Main character Zeek knows little about the world he lives in until he meets a Seeker and learns what life entails. Aspiring to join their ranks, he leaves his swamp home in search of life’s greater purpose while joining forces against the dark side that despises the Seekers.

“Stratum 21 is exactly the title we were looking for to add to the fall lineup. It’s about adventure and discovering yourself in a world that’s fallen off the brink,” said Corey Mikell, production manager for Noir Caesar. “It’s a timeless tale of self-discovery and the pursuit of happiness in an unfavorable situation. It teaches people to keep moving forward, no matter the setback.”

Hall said physical copies of the manga will be released every seven chapters.

“These books are special because they can be read as any other comic would, but if one were to download the app, Stratum21+, which is in the works, and put their phone camera over the images on the page, the panels will begin to animate on the mobile device,” he said.

Branden, 21, is the team’s writer, while Horacio, 24, an illustration/animation graduate of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, is the artist. The brothers enlisted the help of a friend, Grant Price, as editor. They describe the art as similar to the comics Boondocks and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Branden Hall also likes to rap, write children’s and short stories, is working on a movie script and works on The Cypress Dome Society, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s undergraduate literary organization.

Horacio Hall said he started drawing because their other brothers used to draw comics and watch anime.  “I used to practice drawing the characters from those shows,” Horacio said. “I started reading comics in the fifth grade when (anime character) Inyuasha became popular.”

Another brother, rapper Ty, will appear on the animated version of Stratum 21’s title sequence.

Brendan Hall said he credits his writing development to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ English professors Laurie Uttich, Susan Jardeneh, Kevin Meehan, Jocelyn Bartkevicius, Obi Nwakanm and Terry Thaxton.

“I couldn’t even write an interesting paragraph of a story before I came to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝,” he said.

To keep up to date on Zeek’s journey, go to .

Liles is among the nine students from the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ who have spent part of the summer studying technology, business and medicine in St. Kitts and Nevis.

“I think many of the things you learn from trips like this are not exclusive to the field you study,” said Liles, a biology major. “Traveling to a new place and meeting all kinds of people opens your perspective to a whole other way of living so different from your own. A dream of mine has always been to work in global health, and experiencing the health care setting of a different country was an amazing opportunity.”

The trip to the West Indies was part of the President’s Scholars Program, which provides a study-abroad experience to students in Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Burnett Honors College. The college has partnered with Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in St. Kitts for more than six years for the program, which started in 2004. It was initially focused on European culture and history but evolved into a two-week trip to St. Kitts and Nevis in which students tackle service-learning and interdisciplinarity head-on.

The trip followed five weeks of lectures at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ that focused on the challenges small island nations face.

In St. Kitts and Nevis, students built solar panels to power a hydroponics facility, developed the design for an organoponics shadehouse, led a hybridponics entrepreneurship workshop for students and completed other projects. Students also made trips to the rainforest and explored colonial-era relics in addition to presenting their work to a government panel and being featured on local television news.

For junior Lucien Charland, who is majoring in international and global studies and economics, the trip was an opportunity to take his studies outside of the classroom and apply what he’s learned to a real-world setting.

“I was able to experience firsthand some of the difficulties facing developing nations. More importantly, I saw how partnerships and investment can address those difficulties,” Charland said. “I learned about the inner workings of a few of the government ministries and departments on the islands and developed a recommendation proposal to help them become more cohesive and to advance in areas like agrotourism.”

In May, two alumnae of the President’s Scholars Program returned to Nevis with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ professor Kevin Meehan to present their work on sustainable agriculture at the UNESCO Conference on Environmental Policy Formulation and Planning in the Caribbean Region.

Charlene Kormondy and Jessica Gottsleben presented on sustainable farming and the businesses of hydroponics, respectively, based on the research they had completed with faculty and students at Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.

Meehan has led the President’s Scholars trips for the past five summers, helping students research hydroponic, organic and hybridponic agriculture and develop and install sustainable agriculture systems.

The partnership with Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College has attracted attention across the Caribbean, which Meehan says will pave the way for future Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ students to get involved with service-learning.

“Our students were recognized as regional experts at the UNESCO conference, and we recently received funding from the Organization of American States to implement our shade house system in Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana and Haiti, with additional interest from four other countries,” said Meehan. “With these projects to complete, there will be further opportunities for President’s Scholars alumni to return to the field and gain additional experience implementing projects and presenting research at international development conferences.”

But the trip, part of the President’s Scholars Program offered through the Burnett Honors College, proved to be more than a talking point on her résumé. She said it was an immersive experience that allowed her to broaden her global awareness and cultural sensitivity through a variety of academic and community service projects.

“I think the Honors College has a great emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and this program really embodied that in terms of combining the different disciplines in the projects we did,” said Crawford. “It was interdisciplinary studies in action.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ President John C. Hitt initiated the The President’s Scholars Program in 2004 to provide a study abroad experience to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s highest-achieving students. Initially, the program was focused on European culture and history. It took students on study abroad trips to areas such as Cambridge, England and Bergamo, Italy.

The program evolved into a two-week trip to St. Kitts and Nevis in which up to 12 honors students participate in an interdisciplinary approach to service-learning.

The trip followed five weeks of lectures at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ that focused on the environmental challenges small island nations face. The study abroad element challenged students to tackle issues head-on, considering policy solutions and recognizing the impact tourism and agriculture have on the environments of Caribbean nations.

This year’s scholars participated in a variety of activities, including snorkeling among sea urchins and attending the St. Kitts Music Festival.  The majority of the trip, however, was spent working on service-learning projects in conjunction with Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in St. Kitts.

Kevin Meehan, an associate professor of English at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝, became involved with the program in 2008, the first time the President’s Scholars traveled to St. Kitts. In 2009, Meehan became a trip leader and combined his community contacts on the island with the professional contacts of the other trip leader Martin Dupuis, assistant dean of the Honors College.

“Between the two of us, I think we created a powerful combination of networks so that the students would have access to everything, from top to bottom,” Meehan said. “One of the strengths of this program is that we have built up really strong partnerships over there in the past four years. This opens up a lot of doors to collaboration and service projects.”

This summer’s trip divided students by major, challenging them to work on projects related to agribusiness, construction and public health.

During the second week, the students regrouped in Nevis to work together on an oral history documentary on local agriculture practices. Students interviewed farmers and fishermen, then compiled and presented their findings at a roundtable discussion with representatives of the Nevis Department of Agriculture.

“The trip benefited my leadership and academic skills, and it also gave me the opportunity to look into the government policies, public opinion, history, entertainment, and journalistic outlets of the islands,” said junior Jessica Gottsleben, whose team developed and hosted a four-day workshop for the new agribusiness department at Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.

Meehan said he and Dupuis tailor the projects to meet the needs of their partners on the islands, creating work that is just as relevant for participating students as it is for the communities. This year, the program also offered full participation to four students from St. Kitts and Nevis.

Led by the volunteer members of Task Force H.O.P.E., numerous projects during the past year – from collecting computer equipment and relief supplies to creating water purification systems and new ways of using mobile technology – have made a significant difference for the millions of people affected by the tragic 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

“There’s still so much work to do, but we’re making incredible progress,” said Dr. Edwidge Crevecoeur-Bryant, a Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ education professor and member of the university’s Task Force H.O.P.E., which stands for “Healing, Outreach, Partnership and Education.”

The task force, established by President John C. Hitt and led by Vice President Al Harms, has shaped the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ community’s assistance in relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts to help the 1.5 million people left homeless after the earthquake and the thousands who escaped to Central Florida during the past year.

“The earthquake shattered many lives in Haiti and also had a tremendous impact on our local community,” Harms said. “Thanks to the efforts of many dedicated, talented and generous people throughout the university, we are making a positive difference in providing access to education and improving the public health system in Haiti. “

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ has partnered with many outside organizations to host donation and charity drives, pack meals to help feed children in Haiti, offer “on-the-ground” medical aid, bring in expert speakers and even develop water filtration systems and smart phone technology for Haitian villagers, responders and educators. Many alumni remain active in recovery efforts in the local community and Haiti.

Made up of students, faculty and staff members from across Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝, Task Force H.O.P.E. recently collected more than 100 surplus computer systems from the university to send to the villages of Leogane and Petit Goave in southern Haiti. The computers will give villagers access to the Internet and provide high-school students and adults with opportunities to use them to take literacy and technology classes.

Crevecoeur-Bryant is developing courses in French literature, technology, English and Haitian Creole with technical support from Webcourses@Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝.

“It’s amazing what we can do when we all so generously work together for the benefit of others,” said Crevecoeur-Bryant, who in from Haiti and is also working with other College of Education professors to establish service-learning projects with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ and Haitian students.

Keeping the Focus on Haiti

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ students mobilized quickly last year to provide aid to Haiti and to comfort and support their peers with family members living there. Those efforts have continued throughout 2010 and early 2011.

To mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake, student organizations Club Kreyol and the Caribbean Student Association will host a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. today, Jan. 12, by the Reflecting Pond outside Millican Hall.

During the past year, a handful of College of Medicine students traveled to Haiti, volunteering on the grounds of the Port-au-Prince Airport hospital, dispensing drugs, handling patient logistics, organizing blood donations and assisting with surgeries.

First-year Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ medical student Anika Mirick led efforts to bring leukemia patient Ginel Thermosey from Haiti to Orlando, where he continues to undergo treatment with help from the local community.

Other student groups, such as the International Medical Outreach chapters at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝, are planning follow-up trips to Haiti to offer aid and improve public health.

Later this spring, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s EWB group is scheduled to deliver and install water cisterns in Mare Brignol, where villagers must walk up to seven hours each way to find fresh water. The cisterns and sand filtration systems, which were installed during a previous trip, will help prevent water-borne illnesses and provide closer, safer water sources.

Mobilizing Technology

Shortly after the earthquake, Dr. Kevin Meehan, an English professor and the director of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Haitian Studies Project, teamed up with researchers from Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Institute for Simulation & Training led by Dr. David Metcalf. Their goal is to use cell phones and smart phones to improve agencies’ coordination on the ground and Haitian college students’ access to online classes.

Partnering with the University of Fondwa and the University of Nouvelle Grand’Anse in Haiti, the team presented its preliminary findings late last year to the National Science Foundation, which funded its work.

Meehan has taught long-distance, video-recorded world literature courses to students at the University of Nouvelle Grand’Anse. Metcalf and his team are developing ways that Haitian educators can offer college courses entirely on smart phones while universities continue to reconstruct their buildings and infrastructure.

A brief video about their work is available .

Continuing Compassion

Jeremy Schurke didn’t expect to find himself in Haiti during last year’s earthquake. The 2008 Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ alumnus had once dreamed of being a “professional adventurer,” maybe chartering yachts in the Pacific.

Instead, he’s the co-founder of Lespwa Means Hope, an organization working to restore Haiti. He was volunteering at an orphanage outside of Port-au-Prince when he felt the ground violently shake. Fortunately, neither he nor the 60 children were injured in the quake. But seeing all the destruction around them made Schurke and several of his best friends stay and help.

For the past year, the Jacksonville native has helped organize other volunteers in Haiti. He’s now working with Mission of Hope, and he toured U.S. universities in the fall, engaging young people with updates from Haiti and ways to get involved with humanitarian efforts.

He’ll be at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ on Jan. 18 raising money for an agricultural school and farming land in Haiti to help villagers learn new techniques and secure their own food supply.

“All of these experiences have taught me to think less about myself,” Schurke, 25, said. “My own goals and well-being are important, but they’re nothing compared to the gratification of helping other people.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ Helping Haiti

To learn more about Task Force H.O.P.E. and see a listing of events, projects and ways to get involved, visit ucf.edu/haiti.

The Task Force will hold its next meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9, in the Provost’s Conference Room, Room 395E in Millican Hall.

Don’t see your project or event mentioned? E-mail Task Force Coordinator Christine Dellert at cdellert@mail.ucf.edu with more information.