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Power of the People

Each year the University of North Florida brings talented students to Jacksonville, and provides residents with access to higher education. In addition, the University brings talented and resourceful faculty members to Jacksonville and the Northeast Florida region. These faculty members not only teach and provide scholarly recognition to the University; they also enrich the life of Northeast Florida.

UNF contributes to the intellectual and social capital through its own community of students, faculty, alumni, and through our programming and global perspective.

Nationally Ranked

The University of North Florida continues to appear in The Princeton Review's annual rankings. In 2007, UNF was named one of the nation's best value undergraduate institutions and a 2008 Best Southeastern College. Only 146 colleges and universities in the Southeast received that designation. In addition, the Coggin College of Business once again ranked as an outstanding business school in The Princeton Review's Best 290 Business Schools. Our students bring national recognition to the University as well. UNF SIFE, or Students in Free Enterprise, ranked 16th in the nation at the National Exposition. UNF has also had three students recognized as Truman Scholars, a prestigious national scholarship that provides funds for recipients to attend a graduate program that prepares them for a public service career.

Continuing Education

The UNF Continuing Education program provides an important resource to the region's business community and adults looking to enhance their knowledge and professional skills. The faculty and staff of the program are actively engaged in ensuring their program meets the needs of the community. The Dean of Continuing Education conducts approximately 10 to 15 site visits per month to provide training and educational services to the community. For the 2006-2007 academic year, almost 7,400 people in Northeast Florida enrolled in a Continuing Education course. Continuing Education partnered with 1,154 area companies to provide specialized trainings to their employees.

Table 3: Continuing Education by the Numbers Fall 2006-Spring 2007
Description Number
Total Number of Participants 7,393
Number of Continuing Education Opportunities Offered 448
Number of Organizations Partnered with to Provide Workforce Training 1,154

Source: Division of Continuing Education

Continuing Education Programs

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)

OLLI offers courses, lunch sessions, trips, collaborations, and networking opportunities for adults over the age of 50. Previous courses have included Easy Color for the Landscape, Current Events Discussion Group, French Readings and Conversation, Ancient Greek Views on the Universe, Wine 101, and Computers for Fun. Last year Osher had 420 participants. They also instituted satellite courses at area nursing homes and senior centers for adults who are unable to travel to the University.

Center for Economic and Workforce Development

This Center provides opportunities for relocating or existing companies in the Jacksonville area to provide specialized training to the existing workforce. Current programs include the Railroad Institute, which offers a certification program for freight train conductors. Additionally, the Center is in the process of developing The Logistics Institute.

Command Spanish®

UNF is Northeast Florida's only licensed official registered provider for Command Spanish®, the leading provider of customized Spanish language and cross-cultural programs for non-Spanish speakers in the workplace. It provides area business leaders with practical and effective industry-specific communications.

Conference and Workshop Series

UNF offers the Annual Administrative Professionals Conference and Expo at the Prime F. Osborn Convention Center downtown and the annual African-American Professionals Conference at the University Center on campus. They also work to bring conferences and workshops from national and international organizations for Northeast Florida residents.

Executive Education for Leadership Institute

Continuing Education and the Coggin College of Business offer several programs for area business leaders to expand their management skills. Courses include the High-Potential's Leadership Program, Business Dynamics for Evolving Leaders Program, Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers, and Improving Executive Presentation Skills. The Institute also offers customized programs to area businesses and organizations.

Health and Medical Institute

Continuing education offers online courses that aid Northeast Florida residents in advancing themselves in the health and medical field. These occupations are the fastest growing in Florida. Courses include medical coding, medical secretary, medical transcription, and certificate programs.

Legal Studies Institute

This Institute offers certification programs for legal secretaries and paralegals, with classes scheduled around typical work hours. It offers opportunities for both established professionals and career changers to take classes taught by area judges, attorneys, and certified paralegals.

Summer Reading Development Programs for Children and Adults

This program provides opportunities for children age four through adults to learn essential reading skills and improve reading comprehension. Courses are divided by age, and are available in Jacksonville, Orange Park, St. Augustine, and on the UNF campus.

Bringing the World to Jacksonville

The University of North Florida brings opportunities that Northeast Florida might not otherwise have access to, including learning about cultures and issues affecting the global economy. For instance, the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville provides the Global Issues Forum, held at UNF. 

Table 5: Select International Seminars, Speakers, and Symposia

Source: Coggin College of Business, Intercultural Center for PEACE, World Affairs Council

* See Appendix A for a complete list

 

Different international programs and services also provide the opportunity for the region to gain further recognition. Last year, there were 20 study abroad trips planned for students at the University through Transformational Learning Opportunities. These trips provided opportunities for students to travel to Spain, Brazil, Hungary, Japan, India, South Korea, China, Italy, England, Scotland, and Ireland. UNF faculty build partnerships in these countries to provide unique opportunities for our students, and these partnerships also provide access to Jacksonville. Some of these study abroad opportunities involve student internships, for example, the College of Education and Human Services Internship Program in Great Britain. Faculty and students also volunteer internationally. The Honors Program offers a Service-Learning program in West Africa. Also, UNF SIFE partnered with the University of Zambia in Africa to plan workshops, donate computers, and provide entrepreneur seed capital and mentoring to Central Africa youth and entrepreneurs.

Select International Programs

Communications Department - Middle East

Students in the Connect Program through the Soliya Organization engage in weekly discussions with students from universities in the Middle East.

Honors Program - West Africa

Students learn about West Africa and the developing world on campus for a semester and then participate in a 25-day study trip to Ghana. The heart of the trip is a week-long service project where teams of students led by faculty mentors work with local people on community projects.

Coggin College of Business - China

The Marketing course provides students with an opportunity to understand the culture of doing business in China and a firsthand experience with executives, companies, and the markets in which they operate. Company visits include selected U.S. multinationals operating in China to discuss their manufacturing/outsourcing, marketing, and related supply chain management activities.

College of Education and Human Services - Great Britain

Students live and attend seminars at the College of St. Mark and St. John (Marjon), ranked as the #1 best teacher preparation program in South West England. Students also participate in a three week teaching internship in elementary, special education, and physical education classes in schools in Plymouth, England.

Student Leadership Program - Dakar, Senegal

The international summer enrichment component at Cheikh Anta Diop University connects UNF students with host country students, with emphasis on comparative student leadership roles and responsibilities. Field trips give students further exposure to cultural sites and institutions, as well as opportunities to encounter more of the country's leadership/political systems.

Department of World Languages - Valencia, Spain

Students take courses in Spanish at a university in Valencia. The program enhances their linguistic competency in Spanish and exposes them to the culture first-hand.

Service-Learning Programs

Service-learning allows students to connect their academic endeavors with the community through service experiences. It allows learning to take place outside the classroom, while providing students with the opportunity to reflect on their newly acquired skills and experiences in the classroom. From January to December 2007, approximately 120 courses were offered at UNF with a service-learning component. In the School of Communication, 46% of the graduating seniors in 2007 participated in a service-learning project. The Psychology department has students volunteering approximately 5,000 hours annually to Head Start Centers in Northeast Florida through their service-learning program.

The Honors Program has been offering service-learning courses since 1996, and students have volunteered 101,388 hours through the program. Last year, the program offered nine courses for 143 students, with over 9,000 hours volunteered. The courses deal with such issues as at-risk youth, poverty, refugee issues, domestic violence, health care, and literacy. Students volunteer each week with agencies in Northeast Florida such as Hubbard House, Clara White Mission, Habitat for Humanity, Nemours Children’s Clinic, Mayo Clinic, and Lutheran Social Services.

Select List of Service-Learning Programs

Brooks College of Health

School of Nursing – Community Partnerships
Students assess, plan, and implement a project that meets a community health-driven need, guided by theory and evidence. Programs have included Second Harvest Food Bank, Ronald MacDonald House, Pine Castle, World Relief, "No Strokes" Program at Shands, and "Know Strokes" Program at the American Heart Association. Activities have included: educational programs, mentoring for various populations, assistance with a refugee resettlement program, mentoring Girl Scouts in teaching stroke education to vulnerable populations; comfort and consultation for parents of sick children; physical assessments for developmentally delayed adults and assistance with physician medical appointments; and extensive stroke awareness education for many citizens in downtown Jacksonville.

Public Health – Instructional Methods in Health

In conjunction with community agencies and school system contacts, students prepare, deliver and evaluate a 45 to 60 minute training. Both the target audience participants and the site supervisor evaluate the trainer(s) using student developed evaluation forms. The trainers also complete formative (reflective) and summative evaluations of their trainings. Organizations include school districts, hospitals, public health departments and non-profit agencies.

College of Arts & Sciences

Communications - The Hope Fund
Students in the School of Communications Applied Journalism course interview members of families recommended by Volunteer Jacksonville organizations, and the stories appear in the Florida Times-Union. The stories are used to generate funds for the organizations, and it has raised nearly $2 million since it began in 1993.

Philosophy – Environmental Ethics
Faculty and students chose a Duval County brown site and through a multidisciplinary approach conducted a case study in order to see how and why environmental injustice occurs. This required students to conduct extensive research, some even culled through school district archives.
Coggin College of Business

Professional Development
Students identify the needs of the community and develop suitable programs and implement it during the semester at the same time developing their skills. Some of the projects include teaching high school students how to start their own business; organizing a business ethics program for students; conducting finance literacy workshops to Job Corps, Foundation Academy, and Pace Center students and employees of Wal-Mart; and teaching the importance of recycling and protecting the environment to students through interactive exercises.

College of Computing, Engineering and Construction

Building Construction Management (BCM) - Senior Capstone Course
Students plan and implement a service learning project. They are tasked with assessing project needs, resources, developing a plan of action, and then implementing that plan to the successful execution of these projects. Students from the department are recruited to assist with the work. For example, one project entailed over 120 BCM students removing and replacing 1,000 sq. ft. of roofing for the Boys' Home of Jacksonville.

School of Computing – Computing Capstone Design
This is the first of a sequence of two courses where students have the opportunity to analyze, implement, and deploy a mobile software system associated with a specific application. In Spring 2007, the students collaborated with the Duval County School Board to develop an on-line application for the Math Superstars program, offered on a volunteer basis at the public elementary schools in the state of Florida.

College of Education and Human Services

Teaching Diverse Populations
Students in this course are required to complete two components, one in reading and the other in diverse culture. The reading course involves methods that teachers can use to help strengthen the reading skills and comprehension of students with special needs, and low academic reading performance. The other course prepares teachers to provide appropriate and exceptional classroom instruction to diverse cultures in the classroom. Students are also required to conduct after school tutoring in mathematics and reading at St. Claire Evans Elementary, a project that has been a successful implementation for the past five years. With the help and assistance of our students, St. Claire Evans has gone from an F school to a C school.

Practicum in School Counseling
The school counseling practicum requires each student to complete 100 hours of school counseling activities in the community and they complete these hours in a variety of ways. One of these ways includes pairing with the Gear Up program and Duval County Public Schools, allowing our students to mentor the students at inner-city schools, Butler and Northwestern Middle Schools. Our students also help plan and participate in parent nights, college fairs, and college tours in both the Gear Up schools and their practicum sites located in various schools throughout the city of Jacksonville.

Alumni Staying Power

One of the most significant contributions to the region is the alumni who live in the Jacksonville area. The graduates who remain here to pursue their careers comprise a large, well-educated segment of the professional workforce. Alumni of the University have gone on to hold prestigious positions within the surrounding community, including Sheriff of Jacksonville, Director of Community Nutrition Services for the Duval County Health Department, President of Flagler College in St. Augustine, and President of Columbia College in Jacksonville.

Table 4: Jacksonville Area Alumni by Geographic Area, Graduation Dates 2002-2005
Location Number
Duval County 22,890
Baker County 348
Clay County 3,792
Nassau County 1,050
St. Johns County 4,029
Total Alumni Living in Jacksonville MSA 32,109

Source: Alumni Association, UNF Foundation

With 32,109 recent alumni living in the Jacksonville MSA, and assuming the average family has 1.5 children and two parents, this means that more than 112,380 Jacksonville area residents could have direct or family ties to UNF.

Of the alumni who graduated between 2002 and 2005, there are 16,096 alumni living outside of Northeast Florida. These alumni provide a link not only to UNF, but also to Jacksonville. They spread the reputation of the college and the region throughout the United States, as well as internationally.

Fab Grads

Anna L. Brosche, BBA '93 MaCC '95

Anna L. Brosche is one of four partners in the CPA firm of Ennis, Pellum, & Associates of Jacksonville and is the Chief Operating Officer.

Philip Mobley, BS '75

Philip Mobley is the Director of Information Technology for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. He is also committed to helping youth, and began a summer night basketball league and works with Northside Community Involvement, Inc. and the Jacksonville Urban League.

Dr. Shyam Paryani, MHA '02

Dr. Paryani is director of Florida & Georgia Radiation Oncology Group, one of the region's largest medical organizations. He is also chairman of the board of OnCURE Medical Corp and Baptist Health Foundation.

Lisa Beatty, BA '89

Lisa Beatty is a Vice President with St. John & Partners Advertising and Public Relations. She is also president of the Jacksonville chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Outstanding Faculty

The University of North Florida employs some of the most gifted faculty who enhance the community life with their resources and outside work. As of 2007, there were 696 faculty primarily holding appointments as full- or part-time teaching faculty. These faculty members receive awards and honors that bring recognition to the important work they do. For example, an English faculty member received a Special Community Service Award from the State Attorney's Office of the Fourth Judicial Court for her "Living Inside" Project at the Duval County Jail. In 2007, four faculty members in the Nursing program were recognized as one of the "Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida." Our outstanding faculty are also involved in their respective fields, enhancing the academic prestige of our university. For the 2007-2008 academic year, faculty members served on the editorial boards of approximately 34 professional journals, and they held about 100 leadership positions in professional organizations. In addition, approximately 146 faculty members appeared on local television and radio news and talk programs just last year. Such appearances allow them to share their knowledge and expertise to the region.

Select List of Journals and Publications with Faculty Serving on Editorial Boards

Coggin College of Business

Journal of Business Issues

College of Arts and Sciences

  • Journal of Literary Disability
  • Journal of Military History
  • El Escribano: The Journal of St. Augustine History
  • Journals of the American Physical Society
  • Journal of Personality
  • Teaching Sociology

College of Computing, Engineering and Construction

  • IEEE Sensors Journal
  • Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials Sciences

College of Education and Human Services

  • Florida Reading Quarterly
  • Gifted Child Today

Source: Faculty Survey, 2008

See Appendix A for a complete list

Select List of Faculty Leadership Positions with Professional Organizations

Faculty also share their expertise with the community through presentations, talks, and workshops with organizations in Northeast Florida. In 2007, at least 45 speaking engagements were undertaken by faculty. For example, a faculty member gave a research seminar on Tick-Borne Disease Epidemiology for the State of Florida Department of Health. Other organizations included the Rotary Club, various area schools, St. Augustine Historical Society, the Cummer Museum of Art, The Sanctuary, and the Northeast Financial Management Center. Faculty members also provide other valuable resources to the community. For instance, a faculty member in the College of Education and Human Services served as a consultant for Spanish and English as a Second Language with the Florida Teacher Certification Examination. Another faculty member provides GIS consulting and support for Episcopal Children's Services. A Criminal Justice faculty member provided community-based research for the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida and Operation New Hope. A complete list of community presentations and resources can be found in Appendix A.

Coggin College of Business

Vice President, African Finance and Economics Association Board Member, Association for Public Budgeting & Finance Legal-Legislative Committee Chair, National Council on Economic Education

College of Arts and Sciences

Section Membership Chair, American Psychological Association President, Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology Past President's Council, International Association of Jazz Educators President-Elect, Southeastern American Society for Microbiology

College of Computing, Engineering and Construction

Committee Chairman, American Society of Civil Engineers Panel Member, National Science Foundation Paper Reviewer, International Assoc. of Science & Technology for Development

College of Education and Human Services

Commission 32 Member, Association of Teacher Educators Technology Coordinator, International Society for Technology in Education AERA Institute on Statistical Analysis for Education Policy

Brooks College of Health

Book Reviewer, American College of Sports Medicine Education Committee, Association of Community Health Nurse Educators, Inc. Nominating Committee Chair, American Dietetic Association.

Talented Students

In Fall 2007, UNF enrollment increased to 16,570 total students. For the average entering First Time in College (FTIC) freshman, the GPA was 3.61 with an SAT score of 1177 and an ACT score of 23. While about 46% of the students are from Duval County, about 49% come from other Florida counties and a little over 5% come from other U.S. states or are international students.

Table 1: Fall 2007 Student Enrollment Full- and Part-Time Students
Enrollment Number
Undergraduate Enrollment 14,884
Graduate Student Enrollment 1,686
Total Student Enrollment 16,570

Source: Office of Institutional Research Common Data Set 2007

Volunteers for Jacksonville

University of North Florida is committed to preparing students to make significant contributions to their community, and the faculty are themselves making these same contributions. Although this is only the second phase of this study, 265 volunteer efforts of the faculty have been identified during the target time period of the previous academic year. This includes faculty providing resources to area non-profits at no cost. For example, a Psychology faculty member serves as a consultant for the Community Health Assessment Team and the Household Health Assessment Team with the Florida Health Department. Additionally, faculty members in the school of nursing volunteer with the IM Sulzbacher Homeless Center Health Clinic, St. Vincent's Mobile Van, City Rescue Mission, Jane Adams House, Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, and West Jacksonville Health Center as Nurse Practitioners.

List of Select* Organizations with Faculty Volunteers

College of Arts and Sciences

  • Mayor's Sexual Assault Awareness Committee
  • Junior League
  • Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission
  • Jacksonville Jazz Festival
  • Northeast Florida Head Start
  • Second Harvest Food Bank
  • Jacksonville Community Council, Inc.
  • Clara White Mission

Coggin College of Business

  • VyStar Credit Union
  • River City Swim League
  • The Propeller Club
  • Hubbard House

College of Computing, Engineering, and Construction

  • Elementary School Science Fair
  • St. Johns River Community College
  • The Grove House
  • Girls, Inc.

College of Education and Human Services

  • Women's Center of Jacksonville
  • The Faces of Asia
  • The Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary
  • St. Francis House Soup Kitchen

Brooks College of Health

  • St. Vincent's Mobile Van
  • OneJax
  • Rick Wilkins Foundation
  • Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation
  • IM Sulzbacher Homeless Center
  • Nassau County Public Health Clinic
  • Jane Adams House
  • Volunteers in Medicine

Source: Faculty Survey, 2008