The USF St. Petersburg campus is an urban university that aims to integrate seamlessly into the fabric of the city and region, thereby increasing prosperity for students, businesses and the public. This community roundup series intends to shed light on the ways that our campus hosts community and ways USF faculty, staff, students and administration are active in the community every day. If you’d like to engage the USF St. Petersburg campus, or are a campus staff, faculty or student interested in ways to engage in the community, please contact Caryn Nesmith, Community Relations Director, and follow the campus community relations Facebook page.
Advisory Board member Brody honored as a community champion
The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance honored USF St. Petersburg Campus Advisory
Board member Lisa Brody at its annual Legacy Awards on February 3. Brody received
the Public Service Award from City Council Vice-Chair Deborah Figgs-Sanders to recognize
her 29 years of service in the St. Petersburg community, both through her work as
assistant deputy director with Bay Area Legal Services, and her long legacy of volunteer
work and volunteer leadership on several boards. Brody has been on the Campus Advisory
Board since 2021. She currently serves along with Duke Energy Florida President Melissa
Seixas; YMCA of the Suncoast President Scott Goyer; entrepreneur Reuben Pressman;
campus champion Debbie Nye Sembler; and the
board’s newest member, Isaac McKinney III, a global program manager for PwC and USF alumnus.
Speed Networking/ Job Fair brings hundreds of employers and students together
Two recent events brought students and area employers together. USF’s Muma College of Business hosted key area employers for a night of speed networking with representatives from Raymond James, PWC, Jabil, Enterprise, Manning & Napier, and others. Students spent five minutes at each company’s table practicing their elevator pitches, seeking career advice, and job leads.
“My goal was to connect with employers in the St. Petersburg area and identify potential opportunities. I was able to make more than 15 connections and connect with them later to ask them about internship opportunities in the business analyst profession," said Abdul Muqeet, a USF Muma College of Business student.
Meanwhile, Muqeet was also spotted at the job and internship fair hosted by Career Services on February 16, in which 83 local and national employers in the fields of accounting and finance, healthcare, education, environmental and biological sciences and wholesale trade engaged with. Employers interested in hiring students can reach out to Career Services to discuss recruiting strategies. Email usfspcareerservices@usf.edu.
Rescued manatee off Bayboro harbor thriving at Tampa zoo
Regional Chancellor Christian Hardigree got a chance to visit Burro, the manatee rescued in waters off the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus who is now recovering at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo. Staff at the zoo are taking great care after the rescue call placed by USF student Kierstin Benjamin, who identified Burro as being in need. The manatee is on a strict diet of lettuces in order to gain the pounds per day needed to get up to a healthy weight. If you missed the original spectacular story on the rescue, check it out here.
Imagine Blackness: Black representation through AI-generated images
Inspired by Black speculative fiction and Afro-Futurism, the art exhibit Imagine Blackness offered viewers interactive opportunities to question, inspire and escape by engaging the viewers’ own imaginations in the co-construction of the future and alternate worlds through AI-generated images. The exhibit was on display through mid-January to late February at Creative Pinellas. The collaborative exploration of Blackness and Black representation through AI-generated images was created by artist, McArthur Freeman II, and sociologist, Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, both USF professors.
Center promotes community engaged classes
Grants from the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) enable dynamic faculty members like Dr. Catherine Wilkins and Dr. Rebecca Harris opportunities to integrate civic engagement into their curriculum. At a recent Faculty Course Development Workshop, CCE Founding Director Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan led a discussion with Wilkins and Harris around the challenges and opportunities of integrating civic engagement into their curriculum.
Dr. Harris’ described her Economics of Inequality class, which spent a day on the African American Heritage Trail in south St. Petersburg. With CCE support, students received a narrated tour from USF alumna and current doctoral student Hillary Van Dyke, who is also the founder of the Green Book of Tampa Bay, an online directory of local, Black-owned businesses. The tour discussed the impacts of segregation, housing projects and cyclical aspects of poverty. The noise of the highway ramp, which split the neighborhood while remaining inaccessible to its residents, was a reminder of the ways that poor neighborhoods have been impacted by urban planning. At the same time, students were exposed to the vibrant culture of the past, including a robust jazz scene captured by murals of greats like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. Students also met a local businessman who spoke to them about the challenges to restoring and redeveloping the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Wilkin’s Honors class "St Pete, City of the Arts" visited 5 local museums to discover how St. Pete became known as a city of the arts, and to explore how museums reflect and relate to broader issues in the field of museum studies. Students met museum professionals and conducted an analysis for the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art. Using high impact practices including experiential learning, undergraduate research and service-learning, this course sought to leverage the knowledge and skills of an interdisciplinary cohort while imparting perspective on current debates in the field of museum studies. That experience led to a class this semester called Healing Arts that is again partnering with the James Museum to develop arts programming for memory care patients.
First Lady Kriseman’s Autobiography hits campus library
We recently caught former St. Petersburg First Lady Kerry Kriseman in the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library eyeing a copy of her new memoir on the shelves. Kriseman’s memoir "Accidental First Lady" chronicles the triumphs and tales from her political life. Last year, the Center for Civic Engagement hosted a conversation with the former first lady in honor of USF Women in Leadership program.
USF Day at the Capitol
More than 100 students and alumni from across USF’s three campus, including USF St Petersburg campus students shown here, descended upon Tallahassee for USF Day at the Capitol – an annual gathering that offers an opportunity to raise awareness about the university and its priorities ahead of the legislative session. The event connects leaders in Tallahassee who advocate for USF’s future with students, providing them the opportunity to understand the inner-workings of state government.
During the visit, USF St. Petersburg campus student government president Sean Schrader was interviewed by Florida Internet & Television on current initiatives that the University of South Florida is working on.
Tabling Offered for Local Businesses
The Office of Student Leadership and Organizations is hosting Bull Market, a monthly tabling opportunity for student organizations, campus departments and off campus community members to engage with USF St. Petersburg campus students! Sign ups are still available for the remainder of the semester. Sign up here.