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Local Business Showcase: Her Espresso
She’s working late, 'cause she’s an Osprey! In this month’s #LocalBusinessShowcase, we hope to express all the vibrancy and fun that comes with Her Espresso mobile coffee cart, operated by a UNF alumna!
Founder Ashtin Billhardt (’17) runs the coffee cart show with her bestie, Savannah Rae. On top of owning the trendiest coffee spot, she is also a mom and runs another small business! Good thing she’s got some caffeine close because she does it all!
After graduating from college, Billhardt followed her love of coffee and curiosity for crafting delicious drinks by starting a job as a barista. Billhardt couldn’t stop her natural ambitiousness and ended up observing not only just the drink recipes, but also the coffee business as a whole.
“I was just like, I could do this myself … and if other people can do it, why can’t I,” Billhardt said.
This wasn’t her first experience being a self-starter. During her sophomore at year at UNF, she took advantage of the network she had formed from living in Jacksonville her whole life and through Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity. Her involvement in ZTA gave her lifelong friends and surrounded her with potential babysitters, creating the perfect circumstance to start her own baby-sitting business, JAX Sitter.
Looking back at her experience at the University of North Florida, she saw that those as pivotal years for everything she does today. Although she didn’t major in business, her elementary education degree from the UNF Silverfield College of Education and Human Services taught her many skills that transferred well.
“I feel like them setting us up to have real life experiences in the classroom led to being able to connect with people so well outside of the classroom now and now in business,” Billhardt said.
Billhardt loved the idea of having multiple streams of income with the freedom to build her own schedule. She realized that unlike a traditional coffee shop, a coffee cart was more affordable and would give her the flexibility to avoid the traditional nine-to-five. She could choose where the cart popped up at, how long she would be there, what events she would be working on, and how much she was charging. In just 30 days, she pulled all her ideas together and had her coffee cart up and running. To her surprise, Her Espresso took off and became one of the first successful mobile coffee carts in Northeast Florida.
To Billhardt, success does not mean making millions to spend on extravagant trips or luxury items. From the beginning, her goal was to plan her schedule to maximize her time with her firefighter husband and her newborn daughter. They now consistently have open days to spend quality time together.
Billhardt’s vision for Her Espresso was to make the brand an extension of herself. She wanted her business to reach clients who take a slower approach to coffee, where they can take their time to sip and admire the aesthetics of a cute, delicious creation. This can be risky in the coffee industry since the standard is to push out as many drinks as possible, but she believed in staying true to herself.
“Be yourself and let yourself shine through your business, and the right people will come,” Billhardt said.
She is grateful for the kindness of the coffee community and the wholesome environment they create. Her signature drink, the Her Espresso, is a smooth brown butter toffee latte that’s perfectly sweet, tailored with love just for her customers.
(Written by Kara Hogue, Published 5/7/25)
Local Business Showcase: Decca Live
Two Friends, 2 Chainz, Two Ospreys? Just a few of the celebrities you’ll catch at Decca Live this summer! Check out downtown’s newest concert venue and rooftop bar, owned by alumni Eric Fuller (’09) and Evan Rajta (’10).
After an admittedly tough time in high school, Fuller’s application wasn’t too high on any college’s radar. In choosing between UCF and UNF, he decided to become an Osprey mainly due to its beach proximity. However, once he became a student at the Coggin College of Business, a switch flipped. He discovered his passion for hospitality and live entertainment and utilized his education to start a business. After starting out spinning at clubs, he launched a promotional company to organize parties and bring renowned artists to local venues. “As I’m taking these courses at UNF, I got to apply them in real time,” Fuller said. He paid close attention to his business law class, which helped him negotiate and sign contracts with venues and artists. UNF is where he met not only his life partner, Erica (’13), but also his business partner, Rajta. Fuller and Rajta would work with local club owner Aleksander Lukaj to organize and market events before graduating.
A first-generation Albanian American, pursuing a finance degree at UNF seemed like the right choice for Evan Rajta. He was initially considering the University of Florida, but once he took a tour of campus, he was sold on the atmosphere of UNF and the smaller class sizes in the Coggin College of Business. “I loved every bit of it,” he said, as he lived in the dorms and expanded his network, meeting future business partners in addition to his future wife, Meghan (‘10).
“Just like anything else in life, what you put into it is what you get out of it” Rajta said. He participated in countless clubs, intramural teams and extracurricular activities, which he believes was essential to building strong relationships. As a junior, he started his career in club management with the opening of the LUX Ultra Lounge, and as he continued to expand that business, he and fellow Osprey, Tony Largura (’07), opened the Jamrock Bar and Grill on Jacksonville Beach.
Meanwhile, it was a tough time to enter the job market with a finance degree, but Fuller was able to land a few solid offers. However, his passion for music became his driving force. He moved to Spain where he grew his event experience and his network. Over the years, he’s owned, built and operated notable brands including the Life in Color festival, Miami’s Club Space and BLNK CNVS Presents. There’s a lot of variability with festivals, so after purchasing Club Space, he enjoyed the consistency and reliability of owning the venue. Plus, he got to incorporate real estate and design into his resume. When he saw an opportunity to do something similar in Jacksonville, he jumped at the opportunity.
In 2011, Evan and Meghan got married, and soon their family grew by three with the addition of their sons, Aiden and Axel, and daughter, Aria. He had been operating several venues by this point but started to sell them off to enter real estate development and construction, which is how he was able to identify the building of Decca Live.
Whether it’s real estate development or building a new concert venue, Rajta loves creating something out of nothing and watching it come to life. In the case of Decca, despite multiple attempts to redevelop the space, the building at 323 E Bay St had remained vacant for over 20 years. “The moment I walked in that building, I knew immediately what it deserved to be,” Rajta said. “I called Eric [Fuller] immediately and said, ‘I found the concert venue we have been looking for since college.’”
Back in 2011, Fuller brought a moderately unknown DJ named Calvin Harris to a club in Jacksonville to play for a crowd of 500 people. Years later, he got to reunite with the now Grammy Award winner and top of the charts producer to play in front of nearly 30,000 people in Miami. Fuller said, “Decca Live is going to be a breeding ground for so many artists, and hopefully it will inspire others to get involved into the arts and entertainment.”
When they announced Kaskade as the headliner for their launch, they expected it would be a full house, but didn’t anticipate tickets would be sold out in less than 24 hours. “It’s a great sign,” he said. “It means our hunch that this city is starving for content is correct.
After a grueling five years, Decca Live opened its doors earlier this year. The venue has created over 100 jobs for the local community in addition to attracting award-winning performers like Kaskade and 50 Cent to Jacksonville. Just this month, they’re welcoming rappers Soulja Boy (5/6) and Juicy J (5/16) along with EDM artists Afrojack (5/30) and DJ Diesel, aka Shaquille O’Neal (5/10), to the stage. “It is my honor for Eric and I to have a hand in being the change we have been envisioning since college,” Rajta said.
Whether it was a house party in college or a stadium show, there’s no better feeling for him than the moment when everything clicks, everyone is having a good time, and he can sit back and enjoy it. Fuller said, “I think everyone is going to feel the love we put into this.”
In addition to Decca Live, Fuller also owns Celene Orlando, and is building another venue in Miami. His goal is to have all three full of solid programming and running to the best of their ability, but he’s especially excited to play a role in the growth of downtown Jacksonville and help our city achieve its potential. Outside of work, his focus is on being a good husband and father, while still getting the occasional surf session in.
Decca Live is located at 323 E Bay St in Downtown Jacksonville. For more information, check out deccalive.com.
(Written by Alex Achorn and Kai Edi, Published 5/9/25)
Schoolhouse Flock: Michele Purvis
There’s something to be said about loyalty, and while many teachers are often forced to bounce around from school to school, alumna Michele Purvis (’94) just celebrated 30 years with the only institution she’s worked for, Lake Forrest Prep, which serves as this month’s #SchoolhouseFlock.
Ever since she was a little girl, Purvis knew she wanted to be a teacher. After attending Fletcher High School, she wasn’t quite ready to leave Jacksonville. She applied to the University of North Florida, honestly expecting to attend for a year or two before transferring to a larger school, but got heavily involved with organizations like Alpha Chi Omega and loved her experience. She served as an officer on the Panhellenic council and in her sorority, which is where she discovered she had a knack for leadership. She ended up staying until she completed her degree in elementary education. “I was fortunate to have professors who loved what they did, which had an enormous impact on me as a student and as an educator,” she said.
After graduation, she landed her first teaching job at Lake Forrest Preparatory School – a school that had recently opened in 1991 in the Orlando area. She quickly made an impact, and as the school grew, the administration asked her to take on more responsibilities. For several years, she was teaching full-time while also overseeing the elementary grades. In 2004, the owner sadly discovered she had cancer and asked Purvis to fill in as principal. “I was honored, sad and terrified all at the same time,” she said. At nights, she would attend classes at UCF to earn her master’s degree.
Located in Casselberry, Lake Forrest Preparatory School is a private school with infants through 8th grade, with 310 students and about 60 staff members. “This is a small school where everyone knows everyone and students feel safe,” said Purvis. “We strive to help students build strong character education and love learning.”
“I love so much about my job!” she said. “It is tough, but the rewards outweigh the challenging times.” The excitement and genuine love of learning that sees in her students in incomparable, and she loves helping the teachers to grow as well. She and her husband Joey raised two daughters, Paige and Avery, through LFPS, who have now graduated from UCF and FSU respectively. After 30 years, she’s starting to see her former students come back to enroll their children.
(Written by Alex Achorn, Published 4/8/25)
Donor Spotlight: Eddie Collins
Continuing our “Thanks for Giving” campaign, we’d like to recognize Dr. Eddie Collins, founding faculty member for the UNF - College of Arts and Sciences Department of Sociology, who has established a need-based undergraduate scholarship to echo his commitment to student success.
Collins attended public school in eastern North Carolina and went to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University for his bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology. After graduating in 1966, he went to Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) where he got a master’s degree. He then taught at Clark College across the street for four years, and when he was researching for his thesis, he ran across Dr. Carroll Simms, a professor at Georgia State, who ultimately became the first chairman of the department of sociology at the newly founded University of North Florida. Simms called Collins and asked if he’d be interested in joining him, and he became an Osprey in 1972. After three years, Simms left to go up north, but Collins has remained part of the UNF community ever since.
In the early years, there were the core four in the department. Simms, Kumar Kuthiala, Chris Rasche and Collins. “Students were attracted to sociology because at least they had a vision of having some impact on society,” he said. Many of his students were much older than him; some were military and some had started their education before joining the workforce and never finished. Collins said, “Students who had a lot of real world experience and [were] very eager to get through.” The University allowed them to complete their degrees.
When he started, he taught the three courses of the social welfare program for about ten years and was also an advisor. He’d never taught these courses before, but he says “I was lucky to find some good textbooks and took a couple of other courses at Gainesville, and those courses became the courses that I enjoyed.”
He also organized a fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity, who got charted in the first couple of years. He’s loved seeing the growth of campus and the student body and remembers the first time he walked around and noticed students were playing around and suntanning on the green.
“Coming out of the 1960’s, it was a very optimistic time,” he said. “I saw this university as a part of that new revolution of creating a society that was much more open, much more diverse, and much more optimistic in terms of human possibilities.”
“I think the university probably impacted the city in terms of its racial climate more than anything that’s happened in the last hundred years,” he said. He was an active member of the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. that did an assessment of the city. Back then, the city was fragmented by regions, and he’s seen it grown tremendously in terms of developing an identity.
After 35 years, he retired from the University in July 2007, but still finds ways to contribute as an emeritus.
(Written by Alex Achorn, Published 11/26/24)
Oz For A Cause: Sarah Roberts
In this month’s edition of #OzforACause, we are highlighting a triple alumna who’s not only dedicated her life’s work to helping others through counseling and art therapy but has also staunchly advocated for herself and others living with diabetes. November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and we recently sat down with Sarah Roberts, RMHCI (’21, ’21, ’24), to discuss her career and advocacy. She currently works as an associate therapist at Elite DNA Behavioral Health in Jacksonville.
A Third-Degree Swoop
As an Osprey, Roberts stayed active on campus and in the classroom, earning dual bachelor’s degrees in psychology and interdisciplinary studies, focusing on ceramic art therapy. This year, she completed her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and incorporates her UNF education into her work, primarily counseling children aged 9 and up.
Art therapy, in many ways, inspired Roberts to become a therapist. During undergrad, while taking 17 credit hours one semester, she struggled with stress as she pursued forensic psychology aspirations. Practicing ceramics during this time helped her manage the pressure and persevere through her studies.
“I thought, ‘How cool would it be for me to be able to use the tools that I’ve learned to put my stress into something and create something out of nothing and teach that to people.’”
During undergrad, Roberts also worked as an orientation leader, senior mentor, and development associate for UNF’s University Development and Alumni Engagement office after graduation.
She speaks highly of her master’s program, noting classes such as Expressive Arts Counseling, Equestrian Therapy, and Sexology as enjoyable and beneficial for helping clients. Currently, she holds a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern (RMHCI) designation and will need to pass an exam after two years of client work and 1,500 direct-client hours to become a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC).
Diabetes at a Glance
Diabetes is a group of diseases affecting how the body uses glucose (blood sugar), according to Mayo Clinic. Glucose provides energy for muscles, tissues, and the brain, but diabetes can lead to excess blood sugar, causing severe health issues.
With Type 1 diabetes (T1D), the pancreas makes little or no insulin, the hormone that allows glucose to enter cells and produce energy. There is no cure for T1D, which is often caused by genetics or viral infections and typically appears in childhood or adolescence but can develop in adults.
In Type 2 diabetes (T2D), the pancreas produces insufficient insulin, often due to inactivity, obesity, or insulin resistance in fat, muscle, and liver cells. While T2D usually occurs in older adults, rising obesity rates have led to more cases among younger people, including children.
Roberts was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 3 after a severe strep throat infection triggered an autoimmune response that temporarily shut down her pancreas. She uses two medical devices to manage her blood sugar: a Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) and an insulin pump. These devices create a closed-loop system, acting as an external pancreas, she explained.
“I like to call myself part robot,” she said.
Insurance coverage for these devices can be challenging, and rising insulin costs remain a major issue for the diabetic community. Roberts said she’s had to fight her insurance provider to access the care she needs, while legislators often fail to grasp the life-or-death nature of insulin access.
“I think a lot of the time it’s seen as a luxury,” she said. “If you don’t have insulin, you can’t eat, you can’t function. You need insulin to survive.”
She also noted research showing that COVID-19 has triggered autoimmune responses in some adults, leading to late-onset Type 1 diabetes diagnoses.
“I know a lot of people in the mid-to-late 20s who got COVID and now they have Type 1, so it’s definitely something to pay attention to.”
Advocacy and Diabetes Camp
Roberts uses her T1D diagnosis to educate others and encourage younger generations to persevere despite their condition. As a child, she wrote a letter to President George W. Bush advocating for stem cell research, a potential avenue for curing diabetes. She received a reply with a presidential stamp, which she still has to this day.
Since age 5, Roberts has been involved with the Florida Camp for Children and Youth with Diabetes (FCCYD), returning frequently as a counselor. The camps offer a safe space and community for children with T1D.
Recalling her childhood, she faced bullying from peers who joked about her condition or mocked her medical devices. She said she often hid in school bathrooms to check her blood sugar.
“To be able to go to a space at least once a year [where] I didn’t have to hide part of myself is the best part about it,” she said.
Diabetes Camp provides a refuge where kids can participate in activities without worry, supported by trained counselors and professionals. The camps also offer diabetes education and mental health counseling. Roberts’ favorite, Camp Winona in DeLeon Springs, features lakeside cabins and is run by the YMCA.
Roberts advocates for person-first language, encouraging people to say, “I have Type 1 diabetes” instead of “I’m diabetic.” She explains that this distinction emphasizes that individuals are more than their condition—a principle she also applies to mental health and autism.
Living with diabetes requires constant decision-making, from monitoring blood sugar and food intake to managing devices and insulin. Roberts acknowledges this can be exhausting, especially after difficult fluctuations in blood sugar.
When she is not working as a counselor or volunteering at Diabetes Camp, Roberts enjoys pottery, spending time with friends, searching for shark teeth, visiting local breweries, and growing her vinyl collection.
(Written by Tyler White, Published 11/19/24)