The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) selected the Florida Small Business Development Center at UCF (FSBDC at UCF) as the National Small Business Development Center of the Year – recognizing its outstanding performance, innovative programming, and leadership in supporting Central Florida’s entrepreneurs and small businesses. The UCF center was selected from a pool of 1,000 applicants nationwide.

“This award reflects our consistent ability to exceed SBA milestones and outperform our own high expectations within the Florida SBDC Network.” — Eunice Choi, regional director of the FSBDC at UCF

“We are humbled yet immensely gratified to be honored as the SBDC of the Year by the SBA,” says Eunice Choi, regional director of the FSBDC at UCF. “Our team takes great pride in its unwavering commitment to serving the small business community and advancing SBA’s mission. This award reflects our consistent ability to exceed SBA milestones and outperform our own high expectations within the Florida SBDC Network.”

The FSBDC at UCF is located in the National Entrepreneur Center inside the Orlando Fashion Square Mall near downtown. It serves serves eight counties including Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia. At the Orlando main office, as well as six service center offices, small business owners have access to seminars and no-cost one-on-one consulting with experts who can assist across the following areas:

• Accounting: asset management, record keeping systems and procedures
• Finance: ratio analysis, breakeven analysis, financial projections and business valuation
• Marketing: pricing, advertising and promotion, marketing planning, market research and exporting
• Operations: production and inventory control, project management, risk management and energy conservation
• New Venture Planning: start-up information, feasibility analysis, business planning and general business consulting
• Technical Assistance: preliminary patent searches, patent, copyright and trademark, and technology transfer and SBIR/STTR

Each year, the SBA celebrates National Small Business Week (May 3-9 this year) by recognizing exceptional small business owners, entrepreneurs and resource partners from across the country. This year’s winners have been invited to Washington, D.C., May 3–4, where they will be honored during national ceremonies.

“This year’s NSBW celebration is particularly historic as our nation commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when our Founding Fathers laid the groundwork for the liberty that powers the engine of free enterprise. The result is our nation’s prosperity and entrepreneurial spirit — the very spirit your leadership exemplifies,” SBA Administrator Kelley Loeffler stated in a letter congratulating to the FSBDC at UCF.

The realization hit him one day on the job. This project’s legacy and impact were going to outlive him.

“When I think back on every cool thing I’ve gotten to do so far in my career, it does all kind of lead back to Orlando Family Stage,” Lowe says.

Lowe was 6 years old when his cub scout troop attended a show at the stage, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary — the last 25 of those years in partnership with UCF.

He eventually went through its Youth Academy, interned as a UCF theatre student on site, made industry connections and now regularly contracts work at the stage as a full-time lighting designer for Clair Global, a tech company that specializes in live production services.

Lowe’s story is just one example of the countless ripple effects that have materialized from UCF’s longstanding, collaborative partnership with a nationally recognized leader in the theater industry.

“I’ve watched kids come in and they’re so shy and they can’t do anything. But by the time they leave, they’re not only signing up for the next show, they’re leading the next show,” says Paul Lartonoix, assistant dean for the College of Arts and Humanities and longtime Orlando Family Stage board member. “Sometimes it’s amazing at what it does. There’s no reason to not be proud of it. It’s doing great things for families. It’s doing great things for kids. It’s doing great things for our students, and it’s awesome that it’s being run by Knights.”

A Partnership That Builds Community

Orlando Family Stage, founded in 1926 as part of the City of Orlando’s Recreation Department, has evolved over the past 100 years while persevering through historic challenges including the Great Depression, World War II, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

UCF entered the picture in 2000 when former Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood and UCF President John C. Hitt formed a community coalition to bring the stage under UCF’s oversight. At the time, the theater needed a major overhaul — both to its physical home at Loch Haven Park and in programming — to ensure it could thrive in the new millennium.

“I know with great confidence we would not be sitting here today without UCF on board. We wouldn’t have survived.” — Chris Brown ’05, Orlando Family Stage executive director and UCF theatre alum

“We wanted it because we thought that space was an exceptional, it had tremendous potential, and UCF should be a part of it. That really was the driving force,” says Lartonoix, who served as executive director on-loan and was instrumental in leading the early years of the partnership. “And when things worked, it was fantastic.”

The intervention proved to be a major catalyst for its impact in the community today, and for the world at large through the countless children and UCF graduates who have been affiliated with its programming and education.

“I know with great confidence we would not be sitting here today without UCF on board. We wouldn’t have survived,” says Chris Brown ’05, Orlando Family Stage executive director and UCF theatre alum. “To think that leaders came together and said, ‘We don’t want to lose a vital theater organization in our town, and we want to create an active and engaged partnership with the university where we can collectively do good things to serve young people in the world.’ It’s very special.”

Florida’s Only Professional Theatre for Young Audiences

A major part of that partnership is UCF’s MFA in theatre for young audiences program, which launched in 2004. The program has operated for the past two decades as Florida’s only professional theatre for young audiences and is one of the most distinctive programs in the country with its unique graduate-training residency.

In addition to learning from the university’s esteemed faculty, students gain practical experience with opportunities to work with professional artists and teach in Orlando Family Stage’s award-winning Youth Academy, which offers camps, classes and experiences for every age level from infancy through teens.

The MFA program has seen graduates go on to work at some of the most prestigious theaters in the country, become educators at universities as far as Dublin and help run community theaters across the United States.

In addition to his leadership role, Brown teaches theatre management courses on UCF’s campus. He says he believes an important part of his responsibility as an educator is to expand his students’ idea of where a career in the arts can take them.

“We’re helping them recognize that arts administration is creative work,” he says. “Writing a grant narrative, crafting a brand voice, planning a touring route or stewarding a donor relationship all require the same storytelling skills they bring to performance and production roles.”

Instilling Bravery in Children

The stage’s mission is to empower young people to be brave and empathetic.

Sure it sounds good, but more importantly, there’s truth to the claim. Recent research by the UCF Department of Psychology provides evidence to support it.

The Orlando Family Stage’s education team collaborated with associate professor Valerie Sims and senior lecturer Matthew Chin and more than a dozen undergraduate students from the Applied Cognition and Technology Lab along with associate professor of musical theatre Tara Deady ’07MFA on a study, which they are currently working on publishing. The study aimed to determine if the stage’s programming delivers on its promise to promote creative engagement and bravery in children ages 1-5.

Because of the young age of the participants, traditional survey tools and written questionnaires wouldn’t work. The team needed to get creative in a research approach that matched how children experience theatre.

The research team meticulously observed second by second footage of children and parent engagement during performances of Yo, Ho, Ho! Let’s Go! — an interactive, multi-sensory original production created by the stage’s senior director of education Jennifer Adams-Carrasquillo ’11MFA.

“We have evidence that theater participation really is beneficial to these very young kids.” — Matthew Chin, UCF psychology senior lecturer

They logged and quantified data through body language and audience responses. Early on, Sims and Chin say, children needed to be prompted by their parents to participate. However, as the show progressed, you can clearly see children initiating the participation on their own and parental involvement decreasing.

“With this study we are able to say that it isn’t just this thing that we think is true — we have evidence that theater participation really is beneficial to these very young kids,” Chin says.

In 2024-25 alone, more than 4,770 audience members attended Theatre for the Very Young productions like Yo, Ho, Ho! Let’s Go!. Multiply those numbers year after year and the impact to the youth in our community is monumental.

The Next 100 Years

As the stage commemorates this special milestone in its history, it also acknowledges the scope of possibilities and impact ahead.

This year, when Gershwin Entertainment Group, who owns the theatrical rights for A Charlie Brown Christmas, needed a national touring partner to bring the show to life on stage around the country, they turned to the Orlando Family Stage to deliver. It became the highest revenue-generating show in the history of the organizatoin’s performances in Orlando —without counting the 32 cities it visited from New York City to Vancouver, Canada.

A partnership with the UCF Department of History is enabling the stage to create an archive of its materials from the last century as part of the RICHES Mosaic Interface, an online resource dedicated to collecting and sharing the stories of Central Florida.

Another is the inaugural Florida Children’s Book Festival in partnership with Writer’s Block Book Store and WUCF, which they hosted in February and plan to host annually to celebrate literature and the link between books, storytelling and live theater.

“We all need to be aware of how special this place is. And we need to be so proud that our community has something like this.” — Chris Brown ’05, Orlando Family Stage executive director and UCF theatre alum

They look to expand the reach of Mind Matters, a program the stage initiated with UCF’s psychology department and national playwrights to produce 10 original short plays about geared for teens about depression, anxiety, loneliness, isolation and other mental health challenges they face today. The plays serve as an educational resource for teachers to spark honest conversations on these topics with their students.

Brown envisions one day expanding the footprint of the building with more theater space, new classrooms and offices to help alleviate their bursting-at-the-seems infrastructure, so they can keep delivering on all the dreams they want to turn into reality and continue creating meaningful experiences for children and the audiences of tomorrow.

“I can’t get past the energy and the faces of busloads of kids coming in here every day,” Brown says. “We all need to be aware of how special this place is. And we need to be so proud that our community has something like this.”

Celebrates the Arts Programming

You can catch live performances from the Theatre for Young Audiences program during April’s UCF Celebrates the Arts festival at the Dr. Phillips Center in downtown Orlando.

Thursday, April 2 – 7:30 p.m.
Hosted by Ashley Eckstein (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Her Universe, HypeFriend!), this concert features performances that span musical styles and theatrical traditions, reflecting the many creative paths that begin at Orlando Family Stage.

*Featuring Micheal James Scott (Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway), Leslie Carrera-Rudolph (Emmy Award-winning performer for Abby Cadabby, Sesame Street), Jack Griffo (Nickelodeon’s The Thundermans), Davis Gaines (Broadway’s longest running Phantom of the Opera), Michael Andrew (Composer and one of America’s greatest interpreters of the American Songbook), Paul Vogt (Broadway’s Hairspray and Chicago). Video appearances by Mandy Moore (This Is Us), Jasmine Forsberg (Broadway’s Six and Here Lies Love), Clayton and Bella Grimm (Blippi), Broadway legend Norm Lewis and more.

*Artist lineup is updating and is subject to change.

Tuesday, April 7 – 10 a.m.
When best friends Squiggle and Square move away from each other, they must find creative ways to keep communicating! Told through clowning, puppetry and music, Pen Pals is a 30-minute interactive play designed for 5 to 10-year-olds.

Saturday, April 11 – 10 a.m.
Yo, Ho, Ho! Let’s Go! is a 30-minute adventure designed especially for children ages 1 to 5 as a multi-sensory experience that invites them to help a pirate navigate the high seas. Together, they follow a treasure map, solve clues and chart the course forward.

The three-time alum of the UCF recently took the reins as fire chief of OCFRD — the largest fire and rescue department in Central Florida and the 26th largest in the nation out of nearly 30,000 departments. OCFRD serves nearly 1.5 million citizens and welcomes over 75 million annual visitors.

Throughout his years with OCFRD, Rios has held just about every field and executive administrative position within the organization. He has nearly three decades of experience in public service and has a background in what he refers to as the trifecta of public safety: corrections, law enforcement and fire services.

The triple Knight earned his doctorate in public affairs, along with both his �����������ǰ�’s and master’s degrees, from the College of Community Innovation and Education. Rios says his education and experiences at UCF were crucial in preparing him to lead one of the largest metropolitan fire departments.

“It was an invaluable experience at UCF,” he says. “A lot of my focus through my education was relevant to what we experience here in local government. Everything that I’ve done academically has been building on my knowledge and ability as a practitioner in the field of public safety policy, and it absolutely added a needed perspective as I became a producer of information within the domain of public safety.”

Enhancing Service to the Community

The OCFRD plays a vital role in the community as an all-hazards department, responding to a wide range of emergencies, including providing fire suppression, technical rescues, hazardous materials incidents, pre-hospital care response and community engagement.

“One of the strengths within the public safety community is our ability to adapt to the challenges faced by our community,” he says. “As fire chief, my top priority is the safety and well-being of our citizens, visitors and firefighters. … Close to three decades ago, Florida adopted me — specifically Orlando and Orange County — so this is my way to give back to the community.”

To facilitate this, Rios embraces opportunities for professional learning and interagency collaboration that build upon the traditions of the fire service, aiming to improve the fire department’s services well into the future. This includes investing in employee education and training to ensure OCFRD can provide the highest level of pre-hospital care, developing new partnerships between first responder departments and law enforcement, as well as a nonstop focus on natural disaster preparedness and response strategy.

“As a leading fire department, we create opportunities to address these challenges by refining how we perform our core responsibilities,” he says. “At the same time, we explore how to propel the future of the fire service by embracing innovation and technology.”

With the department’s range of programs, its employees interact with citizens and law enforcement on a daily basis, fostering a sense of community safety and pride among public safety interests. This is especially true during hurricane season in Central Florida.

“We live in a state where natural disasters are prevalent,” he says. “There’s a lot of training and effort that goes into preparing for every hurricane season. Not only do we prepare for the response and recovery, but we also focus on mitigation: How do we prevent catastrophic events from happening year after year? It’s a yearlong focus on how we improve the condition and the quality of life for our citizens.”

Protecting First Responders’ Well-Being

Continuing to provide quality fire and rescue services also requires ensuring that the department’s workforce is adequately supported, Rios says. Firefighters have a 9% higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population, according to the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety.

“I am committed to finding solutions within the fire industry, starting here with Orange County Fire Rescue, to reduce the level of carcinogen exposures that firefighters experience because of the inherent job that they have,” he says. “Many people may not know … firefighters are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer-related illnesses.”

Another top priority is to ensure that fire service workers have the mental health support they need to continue serving the community. About 20% of firefighters and paramedics meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder at some point during their careers — a similar rate to military members returning from war, according to a Journal of Occupational Health Psychology study. It’s especially important to provide resources to help fire and rescue service members process the traumatic events they witness regularly on the job. The department’s collaboration with has been instrumental in providing these services to the workforce through research and development of innovative trauma treatment, as well as delivering peer mental health support training to first responders.

“Our firefighters are constantly involved in individuals’ worst nightmares: They live them on a daily basis,” Rios says. “So, we owe it to them — in order to have an operational workforce that is ready to respond to the community’s needs — to focus on the well-being and the mental health of our employees.”

Rios says his education and experiences at UCF were crucial in preparing him to lead one of the largest metropolitan fire departments and manage its responsibilities. Today, he gives back to the community, which he considers one of the most rewarding aspects of his job.

That is in large part thanks to Evans’ teachers and students, as well as Children’s Home Society of Florida, Orange County Public Schools, the ����ֱ��, and Orange Blossom Family Health — all of whom collaborated to provide support to students and their families, including affordable healthcare, tutoring, access to healthy foods and more.

Those efforts made Evans High the first Community Partnership School — a designation that has grown exponentially to 43 total sites across the state — including 18 UCF-certified Community Partnership Schools and 25 Community Partnership Schools on their way to certification. Another nine planning sites are scheduled to launch this year through UCF’s , established in 2014 to expand community schools across the state.

Now with over 80 Florida core partners in this work, even more vital services will be delivered to help level up student success — including tutoring, healthcare and mentoring to almost 50,000 students statewide.

Last year, the program’s funding helped schools provide more than 292,000 hours of tutoring, 12,000 behavioral health sessions, and nearly 4,000 dental and vision checkups.

The Florida Legislature’s 2024 funding boost ensures Florida schools have the resources they need to break down obstacles to educational achievement.

That support will continue thanks to the generous investment from the Florida Legislature, whose members recognize the importance of lifting up schools and communities in need to cement Florida as a producer of top-tier K-12 students.

The Legislature’s 2024 funding boost rose from $11 million to $20.1 million, ensuring Florida schools have the resources they need to break down obstacles to educational achievement: wellness supports, family and community engagement offerings, and expanded learning opportunities.

“The increase in funding to the Community Partnership Schools grant program is a testament to its success and the transformative impact it has had on our students’ lives,” says Andry Sweet, president and CEO of Children’s Home Society of Florida. “By fostering a holistic approach to education, this program has not only improved academic outcomes but also enriched the overall well-being of our students.”

Sweet says the increased funding will help expand their reach, allowing them to provide even more students with opportunities they would not otherwise have.

“With this additional funding, we look forward to ensuring that even more students benefit from the support and opportunities they need to thrive,” Sweet says. “We are grateful to UCF for their invaluable partnership in making this possible.”

Each Community Partnership School brings together at least four core partners — a school district, university or college, community-based nonprofit, and healthcare provider — to work together and pool resources, offering students access to essential services.

Those partners collaborate to bring opportunities to students and families, such as academic support, health care, clothing, meals, counseling and more — all affectionately known as ‘the HUB’ at Evans. The high school offers a parent resource room and on-site access to public assistance for eligible families. There’s also a robust after-school tutoring program; enrichment activities and resources to address food insecurity, including a food pantry; snack cabinets; and periodic community food distributions.

“The HUB helped me grow the perspective that anyone can be a leader and can voice their concerns to take action to create a world they want to see. At Evans, I felt like I was actively making Pine Hills better. What I have learned from my experiences with the Hub can be applied to have a positive effect on the community,” says Evon Thompson, a 2020 graduate of Evans High School who recently earned his degree in neuroscience from Harvard ����ֱ��.

“… [UCF’s Center for Community Schools’] mission [is] developing and sustaining high-quality community schools.” — Grant Hayes, dean of the UCF College of Community Innovation and Education

UCF’s Center for Community Schools has acknowledged 18 schools as UCF-certified Community Partnership Schools, ranging from elementary to high school, for successfully aligning with the model’s core components and reaching the implementation benchmarks defined by the UCF-certified Community Partnership Schools Standards. Earning this distinct honor represents years of dedicated work focused on student success and well-being.

“One of our primary goals in the College of Community Innovation and Education is to cultivate partnerships that allow us to collaborate with community stakeholders in creating innovative solutions to complex social issues,” says Grant Hayes, dean of the college. “UCF’s Center for Community Schools not only embraces this mindset but actively works to transform the lives of students and families served through the Community Partnership Schools model. This funding increase is crucial to the center’s mission of developing and sustaining high-quality community schools, empowering both existing and future stakeholders to positively impact an even greater number of students and families.”

Fox is one of 32 students ages 6 to 17 participating in , an intensive reading program developed by the to improve reading comprehension, spelling and writing. The four-week summer program just completed its fourth year. It’s become so sought out by parents — some of whom travel from across the country — that the clinic began offering the same specialized, individual therapies by appointment throughout the year.

When Fox arrives at camp, he’ll high five his campmates, drop off his backpack and scamper to the side of the room where his hearing technology will be tested, and a student clinician will affix a tiny remote microphone on her collar to be sure it’s transmitting correctly to his cochlear implants.

Fox, who was born with hearing loss in both ears, is one of four children in this summer’s iHEAR program (part of iREAD) who have atypical hearing. Three campers have hearing loss, and a fourth has an auditory processing deficit which causes a breakdown in how the central auditory nervous system efficiently processes speech information, particularly in noisy listening situations. The iHEAR participants learn alongside other campers with typical hearing, but who are there to gain additional help with reading and language development. Their camp fees are waived, thanks to the generous support of Manish Hirapara ’98 and Vieng Hirapara ’99 who created an endowed fund, the Hirapara Enriching Audiology Resources (HEAR) at UCF, to help people with hearing loss.

According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, hearing loss in children causes delays in the development of speech and language, which leads to learning problems that can result in reduced academic achievement, as well as social isolation and low self-confidence. Reading is particularly an area of difficulty for children with hearing loss, and the earlier a problem is identified and intervention begins, the less serious the ultimate impact.

Like Fox, some of the children in iHEAR have their own hearing aids and accessory technology they’re still learning and adjusting to. Other campers are outfitted with ear level hearing technology and remote microphone assistive technology by the camp: a chance to test out a new device or even use one for the first time. Faculty clinicians partner with multiple hearing manufacturers (Sonova, Cochlear Americas and Oticon) who offer access to a variety of products and technologies as well as financial support for the camp.

Other communities have reading programs for children and others may offer reading programs for the deaf and hard of hearing, but the UCF program is unique in that it combines the two, says Associate Lecturer Janel Cosby ’04 PhD, an audiologist and one of the iHEAR coordinators. “We have the expertise to develop children’s literacy and language skills and we have the expertise to match children with the right technology, specific to that child’s auditory system deficit.”

Cosby works hand in hand with Clinical Instructor Whitney Haas, who is a speech language pathologist and listening and spoken language specialist. Her certifications focus on helping children and families of individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing.

For the children in iHEAR, their days will involve a series of one-on-one speech therapy sessions, group sessions and hands on activities, all carefully structured to target speech and language development. The program is based on the science of reading and uses evidence-based strategies largely centered around multi-sensory, physically engaging activities.

“We’ve seen what works well with typically hearing children to enhance their literacy abilities,” Haas says. “So, we’ve taken that approach and applied it to children who are deaf and hard of hearing, because it supports their development from an auditory standpoint, as well.”

Camp iHEAR also serves as a training opportunity for the more than two dozen graduate students in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders who provide the therapy sessions in the camp under the supervision of faculty clinicians.

“As future clinicians who will be working with deaf and hard of hearing individuals, our students need to learn how to manipulate the technology, know when it’s working, know when it’s not working, and know where the proper placement of the microphones should be so that that brings in the best auditory signal for the patient,” Cosby says. “In addition to earning the clinical hours required to graduate, they’re learning how to better serve the needs of this special population.”

“It’s so wonderful to be able to modify, not change, but just add in extra things that we know our kids that are deaf and hard of hearing need,” Haas says. “It gives them the opportunity to work alongside typically hearing peers, have that connection, and to have fun while learning and to have the experience of applying what they’ve learned with other kids. It makes my heart so happy.”

“At the UCF Police Department, we strive to be the most professional and innovative campus police department in the country,” says UCF Police Chief Carl Metzger ’03MS. “We do that by hiring the best and the brightest … and UCFPD is in great hands with the addition of these three officers.”

The new officers will be assigned to the patrol division upon completion of their field-training program, where they will spend several weeks paired with senior officers to receive hands-on experience out in the field before graduating to solo patrol.

Meet the Officers

• Adriel Rivera Aponte previously served with the St. Cloud Police Department after graduating from Dr. Phillips High School. Originally from Puerto Rico, he now calls Orlando home and is looking forward to building a positive relationship between students and law enforcement while getting to know the UCF community.
• Jonathan Mattingly comes to UCFPD after serving with the Oviedo Police Department for several years. He chose to make the switch to UCF after working closely with UCFPD officers during events like game day. He appreciated that he was always treated like family and looks forward to engaging with students.
• Michael Rivera graduated from Valencia College and previously served as a deputy sheriff with Seminole County. He chose to join UCFPD because he believes in the organization’s mission and values, and looks forward to interacting with students and being a positive influence.

A live stream of the swearing-in ceremony can be viewed .

The project, in partnership with Orange County, will create a 10-foot-wide multi-modal pathway along Alafaya Trail with new pedestrian lighting. A four-foot-tall guardrail is also included in the plans to encourage pedestrians to cross at the crosswalks, and a new pedestrian-activated traffic signal will be added at Solon Drive.

Beginning Monday, Oct. 16, tree removal will begin in order to make room for the multi-modal pathway. Construction will start at Research Parkway and continue north toward Oviedo. Those who commute to the main campus should be aware that the work could impact traffic.

Orange County will be leading the pedestrian safety project, which is designed to protect students from busy car traffic as they travel to and from campus.

Additional information about the project can be found .

A 2021 study found that 34% of nonelderly Hispanic residents in the United States do not have a physician — compared to 18% of African Americans and 16% of Caucasians. This lack of access to care, along with poverty, language challenges, food insecurity and other societal factors — called the social determinants of health — lead to higher rates of diseases including diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and cancer for Hispanics.

“Where you live – your zip code — is the most important determinant of your health, regardless of race or ethnicity,” says Caridad Hernandez, professor in the College of Medicine. “Let’s look at ways that we, as educators, researchers and clinicians, can make a difference.”

One solution on the horizon is a new mobile healthcare clinic — a collaboration of the UCF Academic Health Sciences Center (AHSC).  The 38-foot van is expected to launch in June 2024, with participation from faculty and students of the AHSC’s three colleges: Health Professions and Sciences, Medicine and Nursing. It will provide preventative and screening services, with the goal of improving chronic disease management and unnecessary ER visits. By providing care where patients are, Hernandez says the mobile clinic will allow providers to be more engaged in the community and learn first-hand the community’s needs. The mobile clinic will schedule visits in poverty hot-spots across Central Florida, including Apopka, East Orlando, Kissimmee, Parramore and St. Cloud.

In 2003, medical experts across the nation produced a book titled Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Twenty years later, while some progress has been made, Hernandez says that these disparities continue and have worsened due to COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic showed once again that underserved and minority populations became seriously ill and died from COVID-19 more than their Caucasian counterparts.

According to the U.S. Census, 63.7 million Hispanics now live in the U.S., accounting for 19% of the population. Hispanics make up 27.1% of the population in Florida, 32% of the population in Orange County and 55% in Osceola County. Many of Osceola County’s Hispanics — 41% — are from Puerto Rico, relocating to the U.S. after Hurricane Maria in 2017. In addition to other social determinants of health, many of these families face displacement issues and trauma from the hurricane, Hernandez says.

As the College of Medicine and the healthcare industry look at addressing healthcare disparities for Hispanics, Hernandez and Deborah German, UCF’s vice president for health affairs and dean, have suggested examining ways to diversify people entering medicine. For example, as technology helps improve care and health monitoring, medical schools might consider admitting more engineers who can help create new, more accessible delivery systems. And increasing the numbers of bilingual medical students — in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese — will create more doctors who can communicate with Hispanic patients in their native language.

Hernandez shares her personal journey through medicine as an illustration.

She arrived in the United States as a Cuban refugee at the age of 3. Her parents were farmers in Cuba and had little advanced education. Her mother worked as a seamstress in America. Her family only spoke Spanish in their home and Hernandez was their interpreter for all of their medical appointments.

“I didn’t end up here by accident,” she says of her life’s work.

It’s the responsibility of both drivers and pedestrians to pay attention to their surroundings, which includes avoiding distractions, like cell phones, and removing headphones or ear buds so they can hear what’s going on around them.

Drivers should always follow posted speed limits and yield to pedestrians even when there’s a green light. It’s also pedestrians’ responsibility to follow traffic signals and rules and to always use a crosswalk and look both ways before crossing the street, even when they have the right of way.

We all share UCF’s roads and it’s up to all of us to keep them safe, which is why UCF recently implemented new safety enhancements for pedestrians.

Pedestrian Safety Improvements

Improvements include re-striping crosswalks around campus to increase visibility and adding rumble strips before crosswalks that are not at a traffic light. Rumble strips are meant to provide both an audible and vibration warning so drivers know they are approaching a crosswalk and should decrease their speed.

Previously, UCF added flashing lights at some of the busier crosswalks around campus and signage in the middle of the road to remind drivers that it’s state law to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.

In June, Orange County also approved a construction project for pedestrian safety updates in the area of Alafaya Trail, McCulloch Road and ����ֱ�� Boulevard. The project is expected to be completed at the end of 2024.

UCFPD’s ‘Drive Smart’ Traffic Safety Detail

In preparation for Pedestrian Safety Month in October — established by the U.S. Department of Transportation as a reminder for drivers and pedestrians that staying safe is a shared responsibility — the UCF Police Department (UCFPD) will host a pedestrian safety detail on Tuesday, Sept. 26.

“The goal [of the detail] is to stop dangerous driving behaviors around campus,” says Commander James Mangan, who oversees UCFPD’s main campus patrol division. “Specifically, we’re looking for drivers who are speeding and not yielding to people in crosswalks.”

The department will achieve this by having plain-clothed employees use crosswalks throughout campus, while officers assess drivers’ responses.

Mangan notes that while the main purpose of this detail is educational, vehicles that do not yield will be stopped and officers will have discretion as to whether they give a verbal warning or a citation. Leading up to the detail, UCFPD will be sharing information about these efforts on their social media accounts and on message boards around campus.

This isn’t the first time UCFPD has hosted a pedestrian safety detail. In 2022, two details were conducted, one of which focused on motorists yielding to pedestrians and another with an additional focus on ensuring pedestrians were using crosswalks correctly.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 48,000 people died by suicide in the United States in 2021 — the equivalent of one death every 11 minutes.

The onset of mental health issues is typically found in individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 — the age range of most college students. Coupling that with the stress of a full class schedule, being away from home and trying to balance a social life could be overwhelming for anyone.

At UCF, we want our students, faculty and staff to know that they are not alone and that there are resources available to help.

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis and need immediate help, always call 911. �ճ����National Suicide Hotline is also available 24/7/365 by dialing 988. The UCF Counseling and Psychological Services Crisis Line is available 24/7/365 as well by dialing 407-823-2811.

Field of Memories

The Field of Memories — Be Aware Show You Care Flag Exhibit is a powerful and poignant visual display representing the 1,100 suicides that occur on college campuses throughout  the United States each year. Members of the UCF community can participate by personalizing a flag to show their support or honor a memory of someone lost to suicide.

Please join us Wednesday, Sept. 13, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Reflecting Pond to help us raise awareness and spread a message of hope and healing. UCF President Alexander N. and First Lady Melinda Cartwright will be in attendance, along with several health and wellness campus partners to support the exhibit.

There will also be an exhibit at the UCF Downtown campus, between DPAC and the Paramore Garage, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sept. 13.

QPR Suicide Prevention Training

Keeping UCF safe is a big job, and it takes all of us looking out for one another.

QPR stands for Question, Persuade and Refer — the three simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide. Just as people trained in CPR help save thousands of lives each year, those trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis, how to interrupt the crisis and how to refer someone to proper care.

Some warning signs include, but are not limited to:

• Talking about wanting to die and/or researching how to kill themselves
• Talking about having no reason to live, feeling hopeless or like a burden to others
• Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
• Behaving recklessly or erratically
• Extreme mood swings
• Withdrawing or isolating themselves
• Not taking care of themselves

If someone you know is experiencing challenges or difficulties and exhibiting concerning behavior, please report it using the . In an emergency, always dial 911 for immediate help.

CAPS is hosting QPR training Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 3 p.m. and Thursday, Sept. 14, at 1 p.m. via Zoom. You can .

If you cannot attend either of these sessions, Central Florida Cares and the also provide free, virtual QPR training for anyone to attend.

For Students

 provides crisis-intervention services and comprehensive psychological services for students by appointment, walk-in or 24/7 hotline. CAPS can be reached by calling 407-823-2811. For after-hours services, call 407-823-2811 and press 5 to be connected to a licensed therapist.

UCF Student Care Services is the umbrella for student-related care resources and a great place to start if you are not sure where to go for help. Visit  for resources and support with academic distress, homelessness, mental health concerns, financial challenges,well-being and more. Email caremanager@ucf.edu or call 407-823-5607.

For Faculty and Staff

�ճ����, provided by Health Advocate, is a university-funded benefit that offers the support and resources you need to address any personal challenges and/or concerns that may affect your personal well-being and/or work performance. It is confidential and free to all faculty and staff (excluding OPS student employees) as well as their eligible family members, including spouses, dependent children, parents and parents-in-law. Health Advocate can be reached by calling their toll-free number at 877-240-6863 or by visiting their website at HealthAdvocate.com/members.