Campus Insider | July 2022

"Stars align” at USF Muma College of Business

Strategic leadership changes are coming to the University of South Florida Muma College of Business on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. Among the appointees are Joni Jones, who will replace Jean Kabongo as campus dean, and Cihan Cobanoglu, who has been made permanent dean of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and will continue to serve as director for the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology & Innovation. The changes are part of a larger effort to ensure the college’s continued success as Lynn Pippenger Dean Moez Limayem prepares to leave the USF Muma College of Business to become president of the University of North Florida after a decade at the helm. 

“These changes will be of great value not only to our campus and to the college, but also to the region as a whole,” said Karen Holbrook, regional chancellor for USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus. “We are fortunate, as a community, to have leaders like Drs. Kabongo, Jones and Cobanoglu who value student success above all else.” 

Jean Kabongo heads to Tampa 

Jean Kabongo, a professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship in the School of Marketing and Innovation, has been with USF for over 10 years. His research interests include the analysis and promotion of sustainable practices in organizations, sustainable entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education in developing economies. He has served as campus dean for the Muma College of Business on the Sarasota-Manatee campus since 2020. This summer, he will move to the Tampa campus to serve as associate dean for academic affairs and accreditation and chief diversity officer. 

“My experience on the Sarasota-Manatee campus has been wonderful. USF has transformed me into the person I am today by giving me the opportunity to grow not only as a scholar but also as a person who is passionate about education and impactful research,” said Kabongo, who credits “wonderful” campus leadership, colleagues, students and staff for his success. 

As campus dean, Kabongo enjoyed the opportunity to support faculty and celebrate student success. “Watching our young men and women who are ready to go out and make a positive impact walk across the stage and receive their degrees creates a sense of pride in me,” Kabongo said. “This is our shared goal. We accomplish it together.” 

Kabongo is also proud of the community outreach program he developed with Jessica Grosholz, an associate professor of criminology on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. “It transformed the way I think about research and community involvement,” Kabongo said of the program, which encouraged inmates at the Sarasota County jail and the Hardee Correctional Institute to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, generate ideas, develop business models and draft plans. 

First up on Kabongo’s agenda as he prepares to step into his new role as associate dean is to invest time in his colleagues. “I want to learn more about their teaching styles, their passions and their research,” Kabongo said. “The better I know them and understand their concerns and challenges, the better I can serve them.” 

Born and raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kabongo cites early exposure to international travel as a privilege that allows him to view the world through a cultural lens. “We all come to the table with our cultural backgrounds,” Kabongo said. “Every conversation is a cultural event.” Before settling in the United States, Kabongo lived in Haiti, Mexico and Canada. He is fluent in three languages.

Kabongo brings a broad perspective to his role as chief diversity officer. “The key to addressing diversity, equity and inclusion is to create open dialogue and a space for reflection and analysis of our findings,” he said. “Most important is our ability to implement changes to our policies and procedures so that everybody feels welcome and included.” Diversity exists along numerous axes: gender identity, race and ethnicity, country of origin, socioeconomic status, age, religion, politics, sexual identity, veteran status, and disability, among others. The university’s strategic plan emphasizes recruitment, retention, and advancement of diverse students, faculty and staff, as well as increased utilization of diverse suppliers. 

Joni Jones joins Sarasota-Manatee campus 

Replacing Kabongo as campus dean is Joni Jones, an associate professor in the School of Information Systems and Management. Jones has been with USF for nearly 20 years, during which time she spearheaded the creation of USF’s Business Honors Program on the Tampa campus, directed the undergraduate Management Information Systems (MIS) program, evolved the Business Analytics and Information Systems program and served as the academic director for the interdisciplinary, online master's program in cybersecurity. Since 2019, Jones has served as the academic director for the master’s in business analytics and information systems. “The growth of the Muma College of Business during this period has been astronomical,” Jones said.

In the classroom, Jones promotes data literacy and prepares students to uncover solutions to complex problems, “to make decisions based on data but also to know how to make data tell a story,” Jones said. “A spreadsheet chock full of data doesn’t give you any information. Only when the data is refined do they become informative. Until then, it’s just data. 

“We teach our students everything from how to design data-collection systems, how to create a mineable database, how to clean data and draw the information out so that it says something of value and how to visualize it,” she said. “The goal is to produce informed decisions based on concrete data.” 

In her new position, Jones hopes to forge partnerships with local businesses, bolster enrollment and ensure all degree programs are represented on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. “Dr. Kabongo has been doing a wonderful job,” she added. “If I am able to continue in his footsteps, I’ll be happy.” 

“I’m a small-town girl,” Jones said, referring to the time she spent growing up in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. “I have been excited to join the Sarasota-Manatee campus for a long time. I love the idea of the small, collegial campus. This is exactly where I want to be.” 

Cihan Cobanoglu stays put, thinks big 

Also on the Sarasota-Manatee campus is Cihan Cobanoglu. In the 12 years since arriving at USF, Cobanoglu has pivoted from faculty to administration and back again. Last year, he stepped back into his role as interim dean. “The idea at the time was that, after a year, a national search would be conducted, but things have been going really well. So, when campus leadership asked me to consider continuing as a permanent dean, I agreed.”  

Under Cobanoglu’s leadership, the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management has experienced a 100% increase in enrollment, expanded to the Tampa and St. Petersburg campuses and forged three key business partnerships to provide students with hands-on field training. The partnerships with Aramark, the on-campus food service and catering stalwart, and Mainsail Lodging and Development, a specialist in the tourism lodging sector, will provide as many as 130 student fellows on-the-job training over the course of eight years, for a combined value of $3.6 million. The school has also partnered with McKibbon Hospitality, which manages 98 hotels and 20 premier brands, including Marriott and Hilton, giving students the opportunity to shadow industry professionals and gain real-world experience in hotel operations, executive-level leadership and real estate and hotel development. 

“No one else is doing what we’re doing,” said Cobanoglu. “Our next challenge will be to integrate our strategic partnerships into our four-year degree so all students will graduate with management training experience. Usually, students spend 12 to 18 months on management training after graduation so that they can secure higher salaries and higher positions in the hospitality industry.” 

Cobanoglu also plans to initiate a “zero-based curriculum review” this summer to keep up with industry changes, which have accelerated rapidly since the beginning of the pandemic. “The plan is to invite as many stakeholders as possible – hotels, restaurants, theme parks, casinos, tourism destination organizations, vendors – to imagine we are creating a new school. What should the graduates of this school know?” Cobanoglu plans to organize the findings, conduct a gap analysis and roll out new courses to address any programming gaps. “I am sure there will be quite a few things.” 

If all goes according to plan, Cobanoglu will be able to offer the required coursework on all three campuses. “As I always say,” Cobanoglu added, “‘Sarasota-Manatee is small enough to care and large enough to lead.’ The stars have aligned for us.” 

Kabongo, Jones, and Cobanoglu will transition into their new roles this summer. 

Graduates of the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus master’s in social work program ready to work in growing, diverse profession

The criteria for admission to the master’s in social work (MSW) program at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus, says program coordinating chair Sarah Guadalupe, reflects what it takes to be a successful social worker. 

Simply put, it takes a special calling. 

"It takes someone special who is there to help and promote social justice, work on advocacy efforts for folks who are in marginalized groups and a have a sense of really wanting to work in the human services field,” Guadalupe said. 

Guadalupe is currently recruiting the next cohort of graduate students for the part-time master’s in social work program at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. The application deadline is Oct. 15, and students will enter the program in January 2023, after the current cohort of 11 students graduates in December. 

“Our Council on Social Work-accredited program offers a unique opportunity to prospective students to benefit from a highly personalized educational experience within the context of a cohort model, earmarked by peer support to optimize student success,” said Michiel Van Zyl, director of the USF School of Social Work. 

“USF invests in this growing program by recruiting highly qualified faculty,” he said. “Students on the Sarasosta-Manatee campus also benefit from the expertise of nationally and internationally recognized Social Work faculty on our Tampa campus.” 

Brett Kemker, regional vice chancellor of academic affairs and student success at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus said, “The expansion of the MSW program at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus is designed to meet the increasing need for social workers in a variety of human services-related fields in this region of the state. 

“Students benefit from the opportunity to work in the field while enhancing the quality of life of our citizens in our community,” Kemker said. 

Angela Zinn, a social worker in the emergency room at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, will graduate with a MSW in December. 

“I have learned so much as an MSW student at USF,” she said. “The professors at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus have been so supportive and inspirational. I have learned not only to be a better social worker but also a lot about myself. This has been a very insightful and empowering process. 

“I would encourage anyone interested in behavioral or community sciences to pursue this program,” she said. 

The 24-course program, including field placements, runs eight consecutive semesters, a schedule favorable for students with full-time jobs. Classes are held on campus in the evenings and on Saturday mornings. 

“We are looking for students who really want to be successful in a social work career,” said Guadalupe, noting that many students come to the program with no prior experience working in human services. “The really good thing about social work is the vast opportunities for careers afterwards, the broad spectrum of areas in which one can practice social work.” 

Social workers are found working in a variety of settings, ranging from schools and child protection agencies to the criminal justice system to hospitals and nursing homes. 

Zinn has worked in the medical field since graduating from USF with a bachelor’s in social work in 1990. 

“I hope to be able to move to a leadership role after I receive my MSW,” said Zinn, who plans to keep working at the hospital. “I may also explore other areas of social work out of the hospital. With my MSW, I feel the options are endless.” 

Guadalupe said the program is designed to prepare graduates to meet the steady demand for social workers. Some students receive job offers while completing their fieldwork with agencies like local public school districts, Sarasota Memorial Hospital and Manatee Family Services. 

“I actually have more agencies reaching out than I have students to match them with,” said Guadalupe. “I would say the community is really great in wanting to provide this educational opportunity.” 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects overall employment of social workers will grow by 12 percent between 2020 and 2030, faster than the average for all occupations. An average of about 78,300 openings a year during the decade is expected in the profession. 

Factors driving that trend include social workers retiring and new demands created by the opioid epidemic, the growing aging population and hikes in school enrollments. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for social workers in hospitals and other health care settings. 

Guadalupe said local human services agencies frequently reach out to USF and say, “‘Please send us interns, please can I come speak to your class because we need social workers.’ That’s telling me that we need more social workers out there with their licensure at a master’s level.” 

For more information about the master’s in social work program at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus, including admissions requirements, click here. 

Fawn Ngo wants to level the playing field

Fawn Ngo wasn’t supposed to attend college. Today, she is an associate professor of criminology at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus.  

Ngo’s family came to the United States from Vietnam as refugees following the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. They settled in Orange County, Calif., where they owned and operated a small business.

“I have five siblings,” said Ngo. “For the boys, college was expected. But my father did not believe girls should pursue higher education. So, when I told him and my mom I wanted to go to college, he looked at me and said, ‘What are you going to do with a college degree?’” 

When Ngo finally convinced her parents to let her enroll at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), she wasn’t allowed to live on campus. “They made me commute, of course,” Ngo said. “But I’m glad I did it because, when it came time for my younger sister to graduate high school, she was able to say, ‘Dad, I’m going to go to college like Fawn.'" 

Ngo, the first in her family to attend college, majored in Criminology, Law & Society – the closest thing UCI had to a pre-law program. “I speak Vietnamese. I speak a little French and Cantonese. And I was studying Japanese. So, I thought I was going to pursue international law,” Ngo said. “But, in my final year at UCI, I interned at a law firm and every single lawyer at the firm talked me out of it. They said I didn’t have the personality to be an attorney. I’m not sure what that means,” Ngo added. “I think they thought I was too ethical and too nice.” 

By chance, Ngo soon discovered a love for research as a research associate in the Westminster Police Department’s Office of Research and Planning. “At the time,” Ngo said, “community policing was a part of everyday policing parlance. So, when the chief of police suggested implementing a community-oriented policing project to address crime and disorder at a shopping center, I jumped at the opportunity to help him design the project,” she said. “I implemented the program, collected data and wrote up the final report.” Ngo and her colleagues later published the results in Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management. It was then that Ngo decided to pursue a master’s degree in criminal justice at California State University, Long Beach. 

It wasn't long after Ngo completed her master’s program that her thesis chair called her into his office to urge her to pursue a doctorate. “I had guest lectured in his statistics course," Ngo said. “A lot of students struggle with that subject, but my chair told me I had a way of explaining the concepts and motivating the students. He said, ‘You’re going to be a really good professor.’” 

Ngo moved to the East Coast to pursue a doctorate in criminology and criminal justice at the University of Maryland. Shortly before the semester began, her father was diagnosed with cancer. In the hospital, Ngo’s father expressed regret for giving her a hard time about wanting to go to college. “He said, ‘I want you to know I’m very proud of you,’” Ngo recalled. The week before her classes began, Ngo’s father passed away. 

Today, Ngo's research interests and pedagogy are both foregrounded by a desire to promote racial equity and justice for crime victims. One such research interest – cybercrime victimization – has her focused on the lack of resources available to internet users with limited English proficiency (LEP). “Right now, the data on cybercrime victimization are flawed. And I think that’s because we’re excluding a good number of internet users. We’re not giving them the access to report victimization, and we’re not offering them the resources they need.” 

Since 2000, the FBI has hosted the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a webpage where victims of cyberattacks can report incidents and access preventative information about hacking and identity theft. The problem, Ngo said, is that the information is available only in English. 

In an effort to address the issue, Ngo has begun conducting workshops with Spanish- and Vietnamese-speaking internet users. Following a recent workshop at a local community center, a young, Spanish-speaking women approached Ngo and explained that, prior to the workshop, she had routinely saved her login credentials on public computers. “This is a critical topic,” Ngo said. “We need to make sure that everyone, regardless of their language ability, has the knowledge to protect themselves online.” 

Ngo’s research also has her working with USF’s Trafficking in Persons – Risk to Resilience Research (TiP) Lab and Sarasota-based nonprofit Selah Freedom to help survivors of sex-trafficking and victims of the sex industry turn their lives around through a court program that offers housing, job training and counseling, among other services. Selah Freedom and court officials in Sarasota and Manatee counties have granted Ngo’s team special access to the Turn Your Life Around (TYLA) court diversion program, enabling them to view the court’s diversionary proceedings live and interview the program’s participants to understand how they became entrapped in the commercial sex industry, often for years. 

“When you explore the issue, you see that sex-trafficking victims often have underlying problems,” said Ngo. “Many were exploited at a young age – some by family members, some repeatedly – and they’ve suffered deep psychological trauma as a result.” Ngo hopes the team’s research efforts will lay the groundwork for the program’s expansion in addition to creating a blueprint for other agencies to follow.

Recently, Ngo has entered into talks with the Buyer Rehabilitation Project, a local non-profit that seeks to tackle the issue from the other side of the equation by providing group therapy, individual counseling and recovery programs to so-called buyers. “We often focus on supply and ignore demand,” Ngo said. “But it’s important that we understand the demand side of the equation, too.”

In the classroom, Ngo goes out of her way to make sure her students have the support they need. “Most of our students in the master’s program are working professionals, some with long hours,” Ngo said. “So, I’ll meet with them anytime, anywhere, to go over the course material.” Ngo is also aware of the value of providing multiple engagement options. “It’s important to recognize that people learn differently,” she said. When she teaches online, Ngo posts video lectures and announcements in addition to written communications, a practice which has garnered positive feedback from her students. 

One of Ngo’s favorite students, Gary Ernneus, is a former corrections officer who became visually impaired when an inmate detonated a homemade bomb. “I am someone who is willing to sit with students and go over the material again and again until they get it,” said Ngo. “But Gary was in my graduate statistics course, and I didn’t know how I was going to explain the materials without the use of visuals and graphs.” 

It was Ngo’s daughter who provided the inspiration Ngo needed to develop an innovative teaching strategy. “I was driving home,” Ngo said. “And my daughter was asking about going to the beach that weekend. She wanted to build a sandcastle. At that moment, a light bulb turned on in my head.”

Ngo brought a large tray to her office and filled it with table salt. “When Gary came into my office each week, I would take his finger and trace the different symbols and graphs. Like, ‘This is the summation symbol. Whenever you see this symbol, it means to sum up everything in the parentheses.’ Then we drew a normal distribution, and I showed him where the mean and the standard deviations were on the graph. I said, ‘When you have a normal distribution graph, 50 percent of the cases fall to the right of the mean and the remaining 50 percent fall to the left of the mean.’" The whole time, Ngo never let go of Gary’s hand. 

Today, Ernneus speaks fondly about the time he spent on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. “Dr. Ngo’s statistics course taught me that there are certain things only another human being can help you with,” said Ernneus. “Without Dr. Ngo’s help – without the help of the university and my other professors – there’s no way I would have made it.” 

“Gary was determined,” Ngo said. “It was all him. He said, ‘I’m going to get a master’s degree in criminology.’ And he did it. He showed great perseverance. I just admire him so much.” 

As a criminologist and professor, Ngo sees it as her responsibility to prepare her students for careers in the criminal justice system as it exists today. As part of her coursework at UC-Irvine, Ngo visited a local prison. “I grew up in a predominantly white Orange County neighborhood,” Ngo said. “During my visit to the prison, I was shocked to see that so many of the men behind bars were Black or Hispanic. I wasn’t an expert in statistics at the time, but even I could see that something was wrong.” 

“My job is to help my students understand the pervasive racism and inequity that exists in the criminal justice system,” said Ngo. “We treat poor individuals and minorities differently than we treat wealthy, white individuals. That’s something I want my students to recognize. It is my hope that my students will take what they learn, here, at the University of South Florida, and go forth and help transform the criminal justice system so that we can have a just and fair system for everyone.” 

USF partners with Safe Children Coalition, hosts career summit for local middle and high school students on Sarasota-Manatee campus

Over 100 Sarasota County middle and high school students and their parents filed into the Selby Auditorium on the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus on Saturday, June 25 to attend the Safe Children Coalition’s (SCC) annual career summit and cheer on the college-bound graduating seniors as they received scholarships.

The students are part of the coalition's Achievers program, which supports Sarasota County students throughout their academic careers by emphasizing personal development, college preparation, community service, leadership, cultural enrichment and career opportunities and empowering students to set and achieve educational and personal goals. The program primarily serves underprivileged Black and Latinx students, many of whom go on to become first-generation college students. Since 2008, the program has awarded over $1 million in scholarships.

“Partnering with organizations like the Safe Children Coalition is integral to our mission as a community-engaged institution,” said Brett Kemker, regional vice chancellor and vice provost for academic affairs and student success on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. “We recognize the importance of meeting the needs of our local community, and we are always looking for new ways to help prepare knowledgeable, involved citizens who contribute meaningfully to the region's overall social and economic success.”

The career summit has been an annual event on the Sarasota-Manatee campus since 2010 thanks, in part, to Darren Gambrell, assistant director of student services.

“The beauty of the Achievers program is that it provides scholarships to all college-bound students,” said Gambrell. “That’s huge. We know how often students face financial barriers when deciding to pursue higher education. So, what this program does, through funding from the Safe Children Coalition, is lessen that barrier.”

The career summit typically features rotating sessions. For the students, there is a panel of local entrepreneurs and presentations on financial literacy, self-help and fitness and nutrition.

“There’s also programming specifically for parents,” Gambrell said. “That’s another great thing about this program. It gets the parents involved.”

This year’s summit – which featured remarks by program alumni, advisory board members and Karen Holbrook, regional chancellor at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus – was a little different.

“This was the first time we’ve met in person since the pandemic,” said Jone Williams, educational outreach director for the Safe Children’s Coalition. “The last time we awarded scholarships in person was 2019.”

Williams maintains important relationships with Sarasota County high schools to bring new students into the program. “I have contacts at every Sarasota County high school,” Williams said. “The program has been around for 32 years, so we have alumni whose kids are now in the program.”

Middle and high school students interested in becoming achievers must maintain a GPA of 2.5 or greater, participate in community service projects and attend scheduled programming.

USF student Madison Sosa got involved with the organization as a high schooler after watching her older sister Priscilla Sosa go through the program.

"The Achievers program does such a great job of reaching out to students who might not know much about college and all the available options,” Madison Sosa said. “Mrs. Williams does everything. She’ll put together a panel with, like, five doctors, so that we could come in and ask them any question we wanted. The program prepared us for the ACT and the SAT. It taught me how to write my college resume, how to apply.”

The Sosa sisters were the first in their family to attend college. Both chose to enroll at USF after touring the Sarasota-Manatee campus as part of the program. Today, Madison Sosa is a fourth-year on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. She was recently elected to the student government position of lieutenant governor. Priscilla Sosa is a dentist.

The achievers will tour the Tampa campus later this week.

designing-women Donation will help Ukrainian hospitality students at USF Sarasota-Manatee campus

A donation from a Sarasota nonprofit group will benefit two Ukrainian students in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus. 

Designing Women Boutique receives donations of high-end clothing, furniture and other items, and then sells them from a storefront in Sarasota. Part of the proceeds are then donated to various other nonprofit organizations. Past beneficiaries include WUSF and the USF Sarasota-Manatee’s Chancellor’s Fund. 

“We are honored to be included among the organizations receiving support from Designing Women Boutique,” said Karen Holbrook, regional chancellor for the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. “All the organizations are doing great work for the betterment of our community.” 

Designing Women’s Boutique’s recent donation of $2,500 in scholarships to the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus will help cover academic expenses for Halyna Horpynich and Melissa Korolchuk, two students from Ukraine who fled their country because of the war. They will enroll this fall in the graduate program at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, said Dean Cihan Cobanoglu. 

“We are extremely pleased with the generosity of Designing Women Boutique,” Cobanoglu said. “The School of Hospitality is here to create a talent pipeline for our local businesses in Sarasota-Manatee and Tampa Bay areas. To receive support from a local organization such as Designing Women Boutique is so meaningful as it allows us to bring support back to the local area. It is a full circle.” 

Ida Zito, president of Designing Women Boutique, recently presented the donation for the hospitality students to Holbrook and Marrie Neumer, associate vice president of University Advancement at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. 

The donation came after Zito in March attended HospitaBull, a fund-raising dinner for the program. Zito said she came away impressed by the hospitality students who prepared and presented the meals, “as I observed their enthusiasm and their appreciation for opportunities that will benefit their career advancement.” 

Zito added she was “very proud” to help students in the program. 

USF Sarasota-Manatee campus commemorates Juneteenth with dance, history and a celebration of freedom

Someone visiting Selby Auditorium on the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus during the pre-Juneteenth Lunch and Learn Series, could hear the “sounds of feet talking” through the derivatives from African culture, “Minjani,” “Djembe,” and the Ring Circle,” dances used to teach about Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the end of chattel slavery in the United States.

Over five days of multicultural arts-integrated instruction leading up to Juneteenth on June 19, about 30 USF faculty, students and staff shed their shoes for informative lessons on African, percussive and tap dance, following the beats of polyrhythms and prompts from teaching artists Maurice Chestnut, a Tony-Award winning dancer; Quynn Johnson, a world renown percussive dance artist; and Alfred Bruce Bradley, CEO of Tapology.

The Juneteenth Experience was a collaboration of the USF Center for PAInT (Denise Davis-Cotton, director; and Frances Bradley Vilier, learning and development facilitator) and the Office of Multicultural Affairs (Darren Gambrell, assistant director of student services).

The lessons of enslavement and emancipation were highlighted to show the importance of the Juneteenth holiday. Attendees learned that because drums were banned, enslaved Africans used the rhythms and sounds from body movements to imitate percussion instruments and to communicate secretly with each other to gain their freedom. And later, these sounds were key to the development of Black churches and other parts of American culture. 

“Dance is bringing us closer to history,” said student Dahlia Martinez. “We are able to feel history through dancing.”

Another student, Samantha Campi, confessed she knew little about Juneteenth before looking it up on the internet before attending. She said she appreciated the chance to learn about the roots of the music and dance she enjoys.

“It feels good to give credit to where credit is due,” she said.

In addition to the dance lessons, attendees watched film clips on the styles of Bojangles, John Bubbles, Savion Glover, The Nicholas Brothers and Gregory Hines.

“The arts connect people to experiences, to knowledge, to life. The arts are engaging. The arts bring about meaning,” Davis-Cotton said. “What better way to interact and connect than dance and music and the visual arts?”

As of 2021, Juneteenth is the official federal holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans. The holiday traces back to June 19, 1865, when a Union general in Galveston, Texas, declared that slaves in Texas, the last state to have institutional slavery, were free. The announcement came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. 

“Juneteenth is significant in that the slaves in Galveston, Texas, had not heard they were actually free,” said Johnson, an award-winning artist, choreographer and author.

Black Americans have been celebrating the holiday for generations, since the first commemorations in Galveston in 1886, but to think of Juneteenth as only a Black holiday misses its importance for all Americans, Davis-Cotton said.

Juneteenth, she said, is a day for all Americans to celebrate their shared freedom, and the many struggles to achieve it, and to recognize, ”if one group is not free, we are not all free.”

“We should celebrate the achievements and the contributions of African ancestors in paving the way to freedom,” Davis-Cotton said. “We all as Americans can come to that understanding.”

That was echoed by Bradley, one of the instructors this week.

“When we study Juneteenth, we are celebrating democracy … We are celebrating a people who once were oppressed but now participate,” in the American way of life.

The Juneteenth series, entitled PAInTing Multicultural Movements, was one of several events on USF campuses that commemorated the holiday. USF faculty, staff, students and alumni also attended the Office of Multicultural Affairs Juneteenth Celebration on the USF St. Petersburg campus or virtually.

Summer Grant Writing Workshop – Campus Insider exclusive

A lineup of prestigious keynote speakers highlight the 2022 USF Summer Grant Writing Workshops, which continue through July. 

“The USF Summer Grant Writing Workshops is designed to walk early career researchers through the grantsmanship process,” said Sandra Justice, associate director of research and innovation at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus and the organizer of the workshops. “Writing grants is unique in that the proposals reflect aspects of the ‘pitch’ with technical writing and the scientific process that leads to discovery.” 

Keynote speakers at the sessions in July will be:

• Andrew Farmer, director of foundation relations, USF Foundation, noon, Thursday, July 14. Join the Zoom meeting.
  Meeting ID: 841 6531 9019. Passcode: 039072. 
• Naeem Thompson, director of client relations, Academic Analytics, noon, Thursday, July 21, 2022. Join Zoom Meeting
  Meeting ID: 871 0824 5655, Passcode: 705217 
• Wendy Duncan, interim associate director of regulatory affairs, USF Research and Innovation, 3 p.m. Friday, July 22, 2022 Join Zoom Meeting.
  Meeting ID: 834 6353 0882. Passcode: 325961 

“Sandy has developed an amazing program to help researchers – new and seasoned – learn the techniques and tactics of writing a successful grant,” said Karen Holbrook, regional chancellor at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. “Her own cleverly illustrated, deeply informative presentations are updated every year. In addition, she invites faculty who are successful at grantsmanship, speakers from federal agencies that fund research to add to the conversations, and Funding Friday sessions for the participants to ask questions. 

“The workshops have attracted faculty, students and staff from USF and top universities around the nation and internationally,” Holbrook said. “The workshops have also stimulated other universities to copy the model!” 

This year’s grant writing series started June 1, with more than 200 people from at least 26 institutions enrolled.  

All of the workshops are delivered virtually via Zoom and most are recorded and posted, which enables participants to progress through the course at their own pace. The sessions are held weekly, moving through the common elements of grant applications, including trends in research funding and how to provide context to research compliance. 

Virtual meetings are on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the curriculum is enhanced by the Training Activity Guidebook (TAG). Registered participants earn a digital badge by completing weekly writing assignments, and are encouraged to earn their certificate by submitting the grant that they develop for peer review in the program. 

Registration for the workshops is closed. To view presentations from earlier keynote speakers representing the Office of Naval Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Department of Energy, click here. 

Amid rising cost of living, MBA students find ways to promote TECO Share program

As the cost of living in Florida continues to skyrocket, catapulting the state to the title of least affordable place to live in the nation, some marketing students at the USF Muma College of Business have found a way to promote a little-known program that helps people keep their lights on.

Students in Associate Professor Kelly Cowart’s Promotional Management Marketing course — a featured class among graduate-level marketing and MBA students in the Weekend Professional MBA program on USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus — were recently tasked to come up with a marketing plan to promote TECO’s Share program.

“This was a great opportunity for 360-degree learning. Students took a deep-dive into developing marketing research through well-written surveys and used the results to recommend real-world marketing solutions,” said Cowart, an associate professor in the School of Marketing and Innovation. “It was a good learning experience for them.” Click here for the full story.

Study explores when nursing home chains should customize or standardize

A quick glance at the service industry shows a landscape dominated by chain-operated businesses, whether it is a hotel, restaurant, or the corner drug store. That is no different when it comes to nursing homes. With about 60 percent of the 15,600 nursing homes in the U.S. chain-operated, companies often face a strategic dilemma when opening new facilities, whether through expansion, acquisition, or a merger.

Do new nursing homes under the same brand give residents the same look and feel of services found at the company’s other existing sites? Or should chain-operated companies customize some services and tailor them to local demand and competition? And how does the degree of uniformity impact performance outcomes?

A new study by a University of South Florida researcher found important revelations that could provide chain-operated nursing homes with crucial implications for operational goals and strategic findings that carry over to other service industries. The biggest takeaway for nursing home operators is that having a similar percentage of Medicaid patients among its mix of residents while having a staff ratio adjusted to the community leads to increased financial performance. Click here for the full story.

Strong outcomes in employment and workforce metrics help USF stand out as a leader among state universities

The University of South Florida’s performance places second among all state universities, according to new data presented this week to the Florida Board of Governors (BOG), providing a strong indicator that USF is leading the way in driving the state’s economy and advancing communities within the Tampa Bay region.  The BOG measures each university against a series of student success-focused metrics that offer insight into how institutions are meeting the state’s needs.

No university scored higher in the BOG’s performance model than USF in several important categories tied directly to economic and workforce development, including the percentage of bachelor’s degrees and graduate degrees awarded in areas of strategic emphasis for the state and average wages of undergraduate students one year after earning their degrees.  The categories of strategic emphasis were developed by the BOG to help align degree production goals with workforce demand, and include fields such as STEM, health care, cybersecurity and teacher preparation.

“The University of South Florida is laser-focused on preparing our students for careers in high-demand fields and filling the talent pipeline for employers in the Tampa Bay region and the state of Florida,” USF President Rhea Law said.  “USF’s performance as an institution is driven by the talent and dedication of our hard-working students, faculty and support staff.” Click here for the full story.