Flagler College and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services will hold a Naturalization Ceremony on Feb. 21 in the Lewis Auditorium for approximately 50 individuals as part of the college’s Inaugural Week for new President Dr. Joseph G. Joyner.
Joyner, who is the fourth president in the history of the college, began work in July 2017. His inauguration on Feb. 24 is being celebrated with a week of activities centered around the theme of “Citizenship in a Diverse Democracy.” As part of that week, the Naturalization Ceremony will involve approximately 50 people taking the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America, thereby completing the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.
The ceremony will take place at noon and is open to the public. Dr. Joyner will give the welcome address, and naturalized citizen and Associate Professor of Education Edwidge Bryant will give the keynote address. Naturalized citizen and Flagler Head Men’s Soccer Coach John Lynch will offer closing remarks, and the Flagler College Chamber Choir led by Assistant Professor Kip Taisey will perform the national anthem.
A small reception for newly naturalized citizens and their guests will take place immediately following the ceremony.
Flagler College
Flagler College to show ‘Dare Not Walk Alone’ and hold panel on civil rights movement
Flagler College will hold a public screening of the documentary “Dare Not Walk Alone” followed by a panel on the legacy of the civil rights movement on Jan. 28 at 5 p.m. in the Lewis Auditorium.
“Dare Not Walk Alone” is a 2006 documentary that chronicles civil rights protests in St. Augustine in 1964, and inequalities that continue to exist in the city today. It was written and directed by Flagler alumnus Jeremy Dean, an artist whose pieces revolves around the central themes of social awareness and historic revelations.
Following the screening of the film, Flagler Professor of History Michael Butler will moderate a panel discussion that includes: Dean; Evan Milligan, Law Fellow at Equal Justice Initiative; Hasani Malone, Flagler student and president of the Black Student Association; and Maude Jackson, a St. Augustine resident and participant in the 1964 Civil Rights demonstrations in St. Augustine.
“Dare Not Walk Alone” received numerous awards, a theatrical and TV release and special screenings at The King Center, the Skirball Center, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Dean is the recipient of the Independent Southern Filmmakers Tour award and nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
This event is being done in partnership with NAACP St Augustine, Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, Women’s March St Augustine and Indivisible St Johns. The event is free and open to the public.
Flagler College Named a 2017-2018 Military Friendly School
Flagler College announced today that it has earned the 2017-2018 Military Friendly School designation. First published in 2009, Military Friendly Schools is the most comprehensive, powerful resource for veterans today. Each year, the list of Military Friendly Schools is provided to service members and their families, helping them select the best college, university or trade school to receive the education and training needed to pursue a civilian career.
Institutions earning the Military Friendly School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from Victory Media’s proprietary survey. For the first time, student survey data was taken into consideration for the designation. More than 1,300 schools participated in the 2017-2018 survey with 849 receiving the designation.
Ratings methodology, criteria and weightings were determined by Victory Media with input from the Military Friendly Advisory Council of independent leaders in the higher education and military recruitment community. Final ratings were determined by combining the institution’s survey scores with the assessment of the institution’s ability to meet thresholds for Student Retention, Graduation, Job Placement, Loan Repayment, Persistence (Degree Advancement or Transfer) and Loan Default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.
Flagler College Director of Military Recruitment Selena A. Hernandez-Haines said she was delighted to learn of Flagler’s recent designation as a military friendly school.
“This is well-deserved recognition of the sustained campus-wide attention and support given to enhancing military, and veteran-friendly policies and procedures over the past year and a half,” she said. “Flagler College has so much to offer its students, including veterans. Achieving the Military Friendly designation will help get that word out to the field and the fleet.”
Chief Product Officer at Victory Media Daniel Nichols said, “Our ability to apply a clear, consistent standard to the majority of colleges gives veterans a comprehensive view of which schools are striving to provide the best opportunities and conditions for our nation’s student veterans. Military Friendly helps veterans make the best use of the Post-9/11 GI Bill and other federal benefits while allowing us to further our goal of assisting them in finding success in their chosen career fields.”
For more information about Flagler College’s commitment to attracting and supporting military students, visit Flagler’s website atwww.flagler.edu/militaryveterans.
Flagler College will be showcased along with other 2018 Military Friendly Schools in the annual Guide to Military Friendly Schools, special education issues of G.I. Jobs and Military Spouse Magazine, and on militaryfriendly.com.
Multi-disciplinary performance to be held at Crisp-Ellert Art Museum during Art Walk
St. Augustine, Fla. – Two new media artists, a poet and an engineer have collaborated to create a 20-minute mix of live video, text, animation and sound that prompts audiences to consider what experiences are “live” and to reimagine their most familiar selves. The multi-disciplinary performance, by Matt Roberts, Dengke Chen, Terri Witek, alongside sound engineer Amandine Pras, is titled “implement for removing foreign bodies” and will be held at Flagler College’s Crisp-Ellert Art Museum on Friday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m., in conjunction with First Friday Art Walk.
Matt Roberts is a new media artist specializing in locative media, physical computing, augmented reality and real-time video performance. His work has been featured internationally, including exhibitions in Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, Italy, Mexico and nationally in New York, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago. In 2015, his collaboration Dream Garden, with poet Terri Witek, was performed at Orlando’s Art in Odd Places, and has since been featured through the United States and abroad, in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Manizales, Colombia; Porto and Lisbon, Portugal; and Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee. In May 2016, Roberts was nominated for the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art by the Orlando Museum of Art, where his work was also on view. Roberts received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is currently an associate professor of Digital Art at Stetson University, in DeLand, Florida.
Dengke Chen’s creative art works involve 2-D and 3-D animation, illustration and augmented reality interaction. His work has been presented in festivals and exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe and China. Chen received his bachelor’s degree in animation from China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and his MFA in New Media from Pennsylvania State University. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Creative Arts at Stetson University.
Terri Witek is the author of five books of poems, most recently “Body Switch.” Her poetry often traces the breakages between words and images, and has been included in American Poetry Review, Poetry, Slate, Hudson Review, and many other journals and anthologies. She has collaborated with Brazilian visual artist Cyriaco Lopes since 2005; their works together include museum and gallery shows, performance and site-specific projects featured internationally in New York, Seoul, Miami, Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro. Collaborations with Roberts use augmented reality technology for smart phones to poetically map cities and have been featured in Manizales (Colombia), Glasgow, Vancouver, Lisbon, Miami, Santa Fe and Orlando. Witek is the Sullivan Chair in Creative Writing at Stetson University, where she directs their undergraduate Creative Writing program, and with Lopes teaches Poetry in the Expanded Field in Stetson University’s low-residency MFA of the Americas.
For further information on the exhibition and related programs, please visit the website at www.flagler.edu/crispellert, or contact Julie Dickover at 904-826-8530 or [email protected]. The museum’s hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Flagler Forum lecture welcomes national correspondents from McClatchy Newspapers
St. Augustine, Fla. — Veteran Washington correspondents David Lightman and William G. Douglas will give a talk at Flagler College on Thursday, Oct. 5, on the political conflicts over the federal budget, debt limits, immigration and tax reform, and the impact those conflicts could have on next year’s midterm elections. Their talk, titled “The bumpy road ahead for Congress: A look at the 2018 elections,” is part of Flagler College’s Forum on Government and Public Policy series and will be held in Lewis Auditorium.
The debated topics are significant because they will shape future American policy, said Lightman, the congressional editor for McClatchy Newspapers.
“Who will be allowed into this country?,” he said. “Will the next budget dramatically cut social programs? Will taxes go down, and perhaps starve the government of much-needed revenue? Or will it boost the economy by putting more money in people’s pockets?”
Lightman previously worked at the Baltimore Evening Sun, where he covered the Maryland General Assembly, and was Washington Bureau Chief of the Hartford Courant from 1984 to 2007. He is a member of the Gridiron Club and is current chairman of Congress’ Standing Committee of Correspondents. He has taught at the University of Maryland since 1994.
Douglas, McClatchy’s congressional correspondent, started out as a reporter for The Charlotte Observer in 1980. He then moved on to report for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Evening Sun, and New York Newsday. In addition to serving as congressional correspondent, he is co-host of the podcast Majority Minority, which focuses on the impact of minorities in Washington politics and beyond.
For more than 30 years, the Flagler College Forum on Government and Public Policy has invited nationally recognized journalists and commentators to St. Augustine to discuss issues of importance in regional, state and federal government. All Forums take place in Lewis Auditorium, 14 Granada St., at 7 p.m. Forums are free and open to the public, but seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodations, please contact Lynn Francisco at 904-819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice.
Call (904) 826-8572 or visit here for more information.
Flagler College second in U.S. News’ Best Regional Colleges in South
Ranks sixth on Best Value list
Flagler College has once again been ranked second in U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 Best Colleges guide for the Best Regional Colleges in the South, behind High Point University in North Carolina. This year, the college was also ranked sixth on the Best Value list in the South regional category for offering high-quality programs at an affordable cost.
“Our ranking, and inclusion on the Best Value list, is another indication that Flagler is living up to its mission of providing the highest quality education for our students,” said College President Dr. Joseph G. Joyner. “This is a tribute to the hard work by all of our faculty and staff who always place students first and continue to excel.”
Other schools in the top 10 Best Regional Colleges in the South category include University of the Ozarks, Catawba College, University of Mobile, University of South Carolina-Aiken, Alice Lloyd College, Barton College, Belmont Abbey College, Blue Mountain College, Coker College and Kentucky Wesleyan College.
U.S. News defines regional colleges as those focusing on undergraduate education, but granting fewer than half their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.
Academic quality is measured by gathering data in a number of categories: assessment by administrators at peer institutions, how well schools perform at retaining and graduating students, the quality of and investment in the faculty, student selectivity, financial resources and the state of alumni giving. A rank is arrived after calculating weighted scores for each school.
There were 57 colleges and universities included in the first tier of the South rankings.
In August, the Flagler College was also named one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education in The Princeton Review’s “The Best 381 Colleges” guide. Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges are included, and Flagler has made it into the book since 2003.
The U.S News & World Report’s “Best Colleges 2018” guidebook will start shipping on Sept. 25 and be available in stores on Oct. 10. For more information, click here.
Flagler College to reopen residence halls Sept. 16 and resume classes Sept. 18
Flagler College officials have decided to postpone the start of classes until Monday, Sept. 18, at normally scheduled times, as the campus continues to cleanup from Hurricane Irma. Residence halls are expected to be ready for student arrivals on Saturday, Sept. 16.
We have done this to complete assessment of campus, continue cleaning and preparing the campus after the storm, and to alleviate the concerns of our students, faculty and staff about making travel arrangements after Hurricane Irma.
The college Emergency Operations Team is currently assessing and surveying the campus, which sustained minor damage and flooding. The safety of students, faculty and staff has been the primary concern of college administration, and all necessary steps are being taken to prepare the college for a return to normal and safe operations.
Flagler College cancels Public Policy Forum lecture
Due to Hurricane Irma and the clean-up efforts in its aftermath, Flagler College has cancelled its Forum on Government and Public Policy lecture with Nicholas Johnston on Thursday, Sept. 14. The talk, by one of the founding editors of online media company Axios, will be rescheduled and announced at a later date.
Flagler’s Forum series invites nationally-recognized journalists and commentators to St. Augustine to discuss issues of importance in regional, state and federal government.
Please check www.flagler.edu for future updates.
Flagler College’s President Dr. Joseph Joyner welcomes new students during convocation ceremony
St. Augustine, Fla. — Flagler College officially welcomed nearly 800 new students to the Flagler family Tuesday evening, during the college’s annual convocation ceremony in Lewis Auditorium. The students clutched railroad spikes, symbolic of their Flagler journey, as they listened to new President Dr. Joseph Joyner share his vision of great leadership and the core values that define the college.
Joyner began his talk by highlighting the merits of a college education. It is about more than economic security, he said, or civic duty: “College opens your senses as well as your mind to experiences that would otherwise not be available to you.”
An education anchored in Flagler’s core values and steered by a philosophy to serve others, he imparted, will help solidify a foundation for student success.
Joyner began as the college’s president this past July and introduced himself to students by underscoring his conviction in servant leadership, a philosophy focused on the principle of serving others and based on the work of management expert Dr. Robert Greenleaf.
Servant leadership is comprised of several characteristics, including listening, empathy, healing, awareness, conceptualization and a commitment to the growth of people, among others. The philosophy, he said, fits well with the culture and principles of Flagler College.
“The essence of servant leadership is the desire to see others grow and become servants themselves,” he said. “There is true and lasting joy is seeing growth in others. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Flagler College students is their service to our community, and I have been favorably impressed at the level of that service.”
Practicing good citizenship and giving back to the community are just two core values of Flagler. Joyner also noted others: The college is student-focused, committed to teaching and learning, quality-driven and devoted to cultivating civility, integrity and stewardship.
It is these values, which underpin the college’s ethos, that help students shape their own experiences at Flagler, and ultimately, their life legacy.
“We are stewards of Flagler College for the time we are here, and that doesn’t mean just the beautiful buildings we are blessed with,” he said. “We are stewards of the idea that is Flagler College, St. Augustine and indeed America. We are now more than a community — we are a family.”
The upcoming four years, he said, is an opportunity for self-exploration and growth.
“(They) might be the greatest opportunity for you to go beyond the prosaic and find your passion,” he said. “Use your creative nature to dream those great dreams and develop the passion necessary for a life well-lived.”
The ceremony was part of Flagler’s Building Your Legacy program, which includes meeting First-Year Advisers, participating in a five-day orientation to ease the transition from high school to college and taking an honor pledge. The program is designed to ensure that all first-year students begin with a solid foundation for what will become their legacy.
Flagler College begins new academic year, opens Abare Hall
St. Augustine, Fla. — New and returning students have arrived to Flagler College’s campus for the 2017-2018 academic year. Approximately 760 first-year students moved into residence halls this past weekend, and upperclassmen are returning early this week.
New to the campus and now open to roughly 150 upperclassmen is residence facility Abare Hall, the college’s largest-ever construction project to-date. The complex, named after retired President Dr. William T. Abare Jr., sits on the west side of the college’s existing FEC Residence Halls on the banks of St. Augustine’s San Sebastian River. The residence hall is part of a $23-million complex that features a 551-space parking garage and an 18,900-square-foot, two-story Commons building that connects the existing FEC Residence Halls to Abare Hall.
On Wednesday, Aug. 23, classes will begin for new and returning students, including 184 transfer students.
International students represent countries including Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Paraguay, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom.
Top declared majors are Business Administration, Education, Psychology, Communication, Coastal Environmental Science and Criminology.
Flagler College is a private, four-year comprehensive college located in St. Augustine, Fla. The college offers 32 majors, 38 minors and two pre-professional programs. Flagler College has an enrollment of about 2,500 students, as well as a satellite campus in Tallahassee, Fla. U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review regularly feature Flagler as a college that offers quality education at a relatively low cost. A Flagler education is less than half the cost of similar private colleges, and competitive with many state universities. A relatively young institution (founded in 1968), Flagler College is also noted for its historic beauty. The centerpiece of the campus is the former Hotel Ponce de Leon, a National Historic Landmark opened in 1888 by railroad pioneer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler. For more on Flagler College, visit www.flagler.edu.
