UCF in the News

All day today, we're showing you the impact of your donations to Share Your Christmas. Of all the Second Harvest Food Bank programs we feature, the ones that hit a lot of us the hardest are the ones involving kids. Children are facing so much today, and knowing that some of them are doing it on empty stomachs just feels wrong. That's why we love to highlight programs and people who team up with Second Harvest to bridge the gap for kids and their parents. Like the program Jason Guy recently visited: Soldiers to Scholars. The program was created in 1995 in partnership with the University of Central Florida.

A seemingly small obstacle can have a big effect on a student’s education. “If you come to school hungry, you can’t focus if your stomach is churning,” said Lauren Fuentes, the regional executive director for Children’s Home Society of Florida. “You can’t focus if you’ve got a toothache, if you’ve got a headache,” she continued. That's why her agency is joining three others in Palm Beach County — the school district, the Health Care District and Florida Atlantic University — in signing a 25-year commitment to two local schools. Those partnerships, along with funding from the state Legislature, are overseen by the University of Central Florida. UCF co-founded the model with help from Orange County Public Schools and Children's Home Society of Florida.

Through a volunteer program at the University of Central Florida, students are raising puppies to go on to work as service animals. The program, called Service Dog Training and Education Program (STEP), partners with the national nonprofit Canine Companions to raise the dogs. Meredith Rome, a sophomore at UCF, picked her puppy up from St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport on Sept. 7. Pegasus, named after the UCF mascot, is a mix between a lab and a golden retriever. On a walk, Rome practiced commands with Pegasus, whose attention wandered constantly. “They are so curious about literally everything,” said Rome. “But it is so rewarding, when they actually do get it, they’ll be so proud of themselves that they’ll do it every time." For the next year, Rome will take care of Pegasus, raising the puppy to have the focus and discipline required of a service animal — then, she will pass the puppy off to professional trainers, who will help Pegasus learn specific skills for her job as a service dog.

The Covid-19 pandemic took service workers on a ride. Patrons doled out higher tips during the throes of the pandemic to show appreciation for these workers, but a return to "normalcy" might have you reconsidering how your tipping tendencies can add up and eat away at your budget. Post-pandemic tip fatigue from a barrage of businesses asking for tips, inflation, the threat of a recession and ongoing Covid concerns might complicate the dynamics of consumer generosity. Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting, says tipflation is in part due to the high inflation rates consumers are facing—including those who work in jobs where tipping is the norm. Tips are part of the total compensation for many service-related occupations. Shortages in the labor market are driving up costs and tipping remains the primary way for service workers to combat low wages and make ends meet. “These workers are facing the same higher cost of living you are,” he says. “The cost of living is going up, so the same dollar amount tip to a door person…won’t go as far.”

The University of Central Florida is not the only school in greater Orlando among Florida's top 10 colleges with the best graduation rates. UCF ranked alongside Winter Park-based Rollins College for six-year graduation rates, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. The six-year figure is among those most commonly used to measure success by schools. Why this matters: Graduation rates can determine how many students are prepared to enter the workforce, as well as if students are facing hurdles to graduate.

The Florida Hospital Association projects a shortage of 37,400 registered nurses by 2035 and it estimates an additional 2,300 RNs are needed to enter the workforce each year. With a generous donation of $10 million from Doctor Phillips Charities, and an initiative called Progresando that supports Hispanic and LatinX students pursuing a career in medical fields, the University of Central Florida is trying to bridge the gap. “The need for entry-level RNs is huge,” said Jessica Simmons, assistant dean of the college of nursing for UCF. “Our graduate population is only about 15% Hispanic right now, so we are trying to increase the diversity in our graduate programs. We are focusing on our graduate nursing population, particularly our online students.” Simmons said the grant, which is provided by a banking institution and a technology company, will help recruit current Hispanic registered nurses, faculty and undergraduate nursing students. “We’re focusing on the nurse educator and the Ph.D. programs to help with the faculty pipeline but overall the college of nursing is trying to increase our nursing population as well at the BSN level,” Simmons said. “Surveys and statistics show that people who speak in their native language to a healthcare provider are much more — they feel much more comfortable, they have their needs met more efficiently and effectively.”

Can a COVID-19 infection have long-term health effects on people with diabetes, including advancing their risk for heart disease? College of Medicine researcher Dr. Dinender Singla believes that the genetic makeup of patients with diabetes or those predisposed to the disease makes them more prone to post-COVID inflammatory conditions that impact the heart and brain. “We believe that COVID-19 can alter a person’s genetic makeup which can enhance the proliferation of disease and cause further deterioration in diabetes and associated heart disease,” explained Dr. Singla, who is the AdventHealth Chair of Cardiovascular Science at the College of Medicine.

The University of Central Florida (UCF) is $10 million closer in its fight to stop the state’s nursing shortage. The school announced a new donation Thursday that will be used toward constructing a new, larger nursing school in Lake Nona to churn out more graduates. Dr. Philips Charities gave the money, the largest donation in the UCF College of Nursing’s history. “Our mission is to give with purpose, and the purpose could not be more clear here — nurses save lives and our community has a great need for more talented nurses. Their hands, minds and hearts impact us all in some way,” said Ken Robinson, president and CEO of Dr. Phillips, Inc., and the Dr. P. Phillips Foundation. UCF plans to build a $64 million, 90,000-square-foot building equipped with cutting-edge technology and lab space at Lake Nona, the same site as the UCF College of Medicine and the UCF Lake Nona Hospital. The school’s goal is to open in the 2025-26 school year, UCF spokesman Chad Binette said. “This is a transformational project that has wide-reaching impact for our region, and we will need the support of our entire community to help us reach our goal of educating more Knight nurses to positively impact more patient lives, and guide 21st-century healthcare,” UCF’s nursing dean Mary Lou Sole said earlier this year.

A local mom was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Her 6-year-old son was born without an arm. She said insurance wouldn’t cover it and buying one would cost thousands of dollars. So, Alyson Pring tried to print her son Alex a 3-D arm but didn’t know how. She reached out to a UCF college student. Albert Manero and his friends got to work printing Alex Pring a new prosthetic arm and presented it to him just weeks later. The former UCF student, Albert Manero is now the Co-Founder and President of Limbitless Solutions. He tells News 6 anchors and Florida’s Fourth Estate hosts Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden, “it’s been incredible to see the progress.” “Being able to go from the kitchen table to now a full research facility here at UCF in just 8 years has been unbelievable and has been such a journey to get here,” Manero says. Just last year, Manero says Limbitless Solutions moved into a new lab that “expanded our footprint about three times the size of our old lab.” He says helping kids struggling with limb differences is incredibly rewarding. “We’ve actually grown our program of UCF under graduate students, working in their internships and research work with us, to now over 45 students a semester,” says Manero.