MagazineWINTER 2014-15 VOLUME 31

FiU’s ebola FighterDr. Aileen Marty in West Africa

Homecoming highlight Nearly 7,000 students rocked to the beats of internationally renowned DJ Tiesto and American rapper TY$ at the annual Panthermonium concert that kicked off Homecoming week 2014.

Photo by Eduardo Merille ’97, MBA ’00

20THe AsiA connecTionFIU builds a variety of educational ties to the world’s most populous continent.

28VeTerAns-To-nursesArmed services personnel earn their BSN in a special FIU program.

globAl ciTizensin AcTionFIU receives national recognition for its Peace Corps volunteer program12A sAncTuAry growsMMC’s newly revived nature preserve is an educational and recreational oasis.16

On the COVeR Fiu’s ebolA FigHTerDr. Aileen Marty answers the call of the World Health Organization to work in West Africa. Cover photo: Dr. Aileen Marty speaks with an official of Nigeria’s Port Health Services.10

WINTER 2014-15 | 1

• Watch novelist and FIU Creative Writing Professor John Dufresne talk about the process of crafting a story.

• See where in the world FIU alumni have volunteered with the Peace Corps.

• Read about the FIU Young Alumni Council, a new group that aims to serve FIU.

Be featured on faceBook! Send us a photo of yourself reading FIU Magazine - at home, at work or on vacation - and we will share it on our Facebook page! Email photos to magazine@fiu.edu.

online-only stories, videos and photos

Whenever you see the play Button, visit magazine.fiu.edu to get more With our online videos and photo galleries

magazine.fiu.edu

Nature walkTake a video tour of MMC’s Nature Preserve, a hidden oasis in the middle of a bustling urban center.

Science made simpleProfessor Marcus Cooke explains: What exactly are free radicals and why should they scare us?

East to WestObserving American students enrolled in FIU’s China program helped Chinese national Margaret Fan ’10, MS ’12 make a smooth transition to the U.S.

desmond meade Jd ’14 overcame homelessness, drug addiction and incarceration before taking on his current battle: a fight for his own civil rights.

Washington, d.c., rising stars Kate Yglesias Houghton ’06, pictured left, and Peter Smith ’06, JD ’09 are making a difference at the national level.

FIU Magazine is printed on 30% PCW recycled paper that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council

Three years ago, FIU Marketing Director Eduardo Merille and

I were brainstorming ways to elevate FIU on the national stage.

We know FIU is a special, transformative place full of amazing

people. How then, with limited resources, could we show the

rest of the world what we see?

We settled on the ideal showcase: a TEDxFIU event

featuring alumni, faculty and students contributing to the global

community of ideas. At the event and online, we could invite

the world to experience the intellectual, scientific and artistic

richness that define FIU.

Approved and officially licensed by the national TEDx organization, we set about

identifying and coaching our speakers—no notes and no podium allowed on stage!—and

soon had a buzz going. To help us along, we sought out a few more FIU folks who truly

“get it”—such as our emcee Alberto Padron, who immediately recognized the potential

of our idea. He’s been the face of TEDxFIU for three years, perfectly framing and shaping

the event so it is an unforgettable experience for the audience. And Communication Arts

staff member Char Eberley likewise came on board, eagerly participating in countless

rehearsals and sharing her public speaking expertise and genuine support. We are

grateful to Alberto and Char

and the many others who fell

in love with this idea worth

spreading.

Convinced TEDxFIU

was the perfect platform,

we still wondered: Would

anyone else? Well, three

years later the numbers

are proof positive of the

impact: hundreds of speaker

applicants, tickets sold out

in a matter of hours, packed audiences, more than 300,000 views of our TEDxFIU videos.

And then there are the speakers themselves – alumni, students and professors who have

bared their souls, made us re-examine our thinking, inspired us to try again and dazzled

us with their innovation.

The theme for TEDxFIU 2014, held on Nov. 13, was “Fearless Journey,” a motif that is

the essence of the event itself. Our speakers shared their stories of adversity: watching

beloved people die, losing it all, crashing at 200 miles per hour (literally) on the way to

the finish line. And they shared their stories of triumph: transforming the lives of children,

building homes in Haiti, giving back autonomy to aging adults. I invite you to be inspired

by the Fearless Journey by watching their talks on the TEDx channel at go.fiu.edu/

tedxfiu2014.

Until next time,

Deborah O’Neil MA ’09

P.S. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook: facebook.com/FIUMagazine

FroM THE EDITor Fiu PresidentMark B. Rosenberg

Fiu board of TrusteesAlbert Maury ’96, ’02 (Chair)Michael M. Adler (Vice chair)Sukrit AgrawalCesar L. AlvarezJose J. ArmasJorge L. ArrizurietaRobert T. Barlick, Jr.Alexis CalatayudMarcelo ClaureMayi de la Vega ’81Gerald C. Grant Jr. ’78, MBA ’89Claudia PuigKathleen Wilson

Fiu MAgAzine Division of external relations

Sandra B. Gonzalez-Levy Senior Vice President

Terry Witherell Vice President

Karen Cochrane Director News and Communications

Deborah o’Neil MA ’09 Editor

Alexandra Pecharich Managing Editor

Aileen Solá-Trautmann Art Director

Doug Garland ’10Senior Multimedia Producer

Angeline EvansDigital Media Manager

writers Karen-Janine CohenRobyn NissimJamie Giller

Magazine internRay Boyle

PhotographersBranaman PhotographyEduardo Merille ’97, MBA ’00Charles Trainor Jr.

copyright 2014, Florida International University. FIU Magazine is published by the Florida International University Division of External Relations and distributed free of charge to alumni, faculty and friends of the university. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. To reach us, call 305-348-7235. Alumni office: Write to Office of Alumni Relations at MMC MARC 510, Miami, FL 33199 or call 305-348-3334 or toll free at 800-FIU-ALUM. Visit fiualumni.com. change of Address: Please send updated address information to FIU Office of Alumni Relations, MARC 510, Miami, FL, 33199 or by email to alumni@fiu.edu.letters to the editor: FIU Magazine welcomes letters to the editor regarding magazine content. Send your letters via e-mail to alumni@fiu.edu, by fax to 305-348-3247 or mail to FIU Magazine, Division of External Relations, MMC PC 515, Miami, FL, 33199. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. All letters should include the writer’s full name and daytime phone number. Alumni, please include your degree and year of graduation.14212_12/14

Fiu MAgAzine editorial Advisory boardHeather Bermudez ’06, MS ’12 Marketing Manager South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Gisela Casines ’73 Associate Dean College of Arts and Sciences

Lori-Ann Cox Director of Alumni Advocacy University Advancement

Paul Dodson Assistant Athletic Director for Media relations

Amy Ellis Assistant Director of Pr and Marketing office of Engagement

Stephen Fain Professor Emeritus College of Education

Lazaro Gonzalez Marketing and Branding Strategist Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management

Susan Jay Assistant Vice President of Development and Assistant Dean for Medical Advancement Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

Nicole Kaufman Assistant Vice President for Engagement

Andra Parrish Liwag Campaign Communications Director University Advancement

Larry Lunsford Vice President for Student Affairs University ombudsman

Maureen Pelham Director of Clinical Trials Division of research

Mary Sudasassi Director of Public relations Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Duane Wiles Executive Director Alumni Association

Mark Williams Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management Stempel College of Public Health

FroM THE EDITor

WINTER 2014-15 | 3

Ninth-graders do the honors at the opening of a public high school at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus. President Mark B. Rosenberg, center, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, left, in blue tie, joined the community to celebrate MAST@FIU, a magnet school in the tradition of the highly respected Maritime and Science Technology Academy on Key Biscayne.

Photo by Kristen M. Rubio ’11

PrESIDENT’S CorNErMArK B. roSENBErG

Dear FIU Family:

We are celebrating a historic victory! On Nov. 4, 2014, the

voters of Miami-Dade County gave us a mandate to expand and

create more and better educational opportunities and jobs for the

residents of Miami-Dade County. More than 315,000 voters said

“YES” to FIU!

Thank you! ¡gracias! mesi!

We would not be at this point without the support of the county

commission, Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his staff.

We are very thankful to the voters of our community and our

students, alumni, faculty and staff. We want to thank our Board of

Trustees, the FIU Foundation Board of Directors, the President’s

Council and Alumni Association, our donors and Friends of Higher

Education, led by FIU alumnus Eddie Hondal ’88, MS ’00.

With our community behind us, we are ready to move forward.

There is much work to do. FIU will continue to work with the

County and the Fair to find a new, suitable location for the Fair.

We are committed to working with our elected officials in

Tallahassee to identify the funds to pay for the relocation. We

want a win-win-win solution. No county dollars will be used, and

we will not raise tuition to pay for this effort!

This expansion will have an annual recurring economic impact

of $541 million for our community above the almost $9 billion FIU

4 | WINTER 2014-15

ON ThE PrOWl

As FIU prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding—with a year of

festivities and commemorations in 2015—FIU Magazine invites you to share your stories and photos. Go to fiu.edu/memories to tell us in which course you met your spouse, where on campus you hung out with friends, the name of the professor who changed your life and

anything else that left an impression on you as a student. We’d love to hear from you.

already provides. It will bring about the creation of jobs and a $900

million investment in construction.

The consensus in our community is that world-class cities

deserve world-class universities. with your continued support,

we are building a world-class university!

Sincerely,

Mark b. rosenbergPresident

Be WorldsAheadWINTER 2014-15 | 5

The Wolfsonian-FIU’s bust of Venus, the goddess of victory,

commemorates a decisive triumph by Italy over Austro-Hungarian

and German forces during a battle of World War I. “Victory of Piave,”

by Arrigo Minerbi (Italian, 1881–1960), celebrates Italy’s success

at the site of the Piave River in 1918, the same year in which the

sculpture was completed. Part of the Wolfsonian-FIU’s permanent

Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection, the work is on view through April 5 in

the museum’s exhibition “Myth and Machine: The First World War in

Visual Culture.”

Treasure: A Triumph in stone

ON ThE PrOWl

The FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

(HWCOM) has launched a local health television show,

For Your Health. The half-hour program features HWCOM

doctors and other FIU experts sharing their knowledge

on timely and important health and medical issues.

The first edition aired Oct. 19 on WPLG-TV,

Channel 10. Subsequent programs are

planned on a quarterly basis.

college of medicine tv shoW

spotlights health and medicine

Watch the show atmedicine.fiu.edu/foryourhealth

FIU honored for public service commitment

In recognition of the university’s commitment to community

engagement and public service, FIU has received five Florida

Campus Compact awards, including one for the university’s

partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

At an October awards ceremony in Jacksonville, the university

received the 2014 Engaged Campus Award. The award recognizes

universities that improve community life and educate students for

civil and social responsibility.

Part of a national network of colleges and universities, Florida

Campus Compact works to integrate service with higher education.

FIU also received a second place award for Campus-

Community Partnerships in recognition of ACCESS, the university’s

collaboration with the school district created in 2010 to improve

high school success, increase graduation rates and promote

college readiness. One of the signature initiatives of ACCESS, The

Education Effect, has dramatically improved student outcomes

at Miami Northwestern Senior High School in Liberty City. The

partnership recently launched at a second school, Booker T.

Washington Senior High School in Overtown.

The recent awards follow on the heels of FIU’s recognition

by Washington Monthly in August as a top community

engaged university.

On The PrOwl

6 | WINTER 2014-15

By Robyn Nissim

In the Caribbean, the tourism industry is a major boost to the economy. Away

from the stresses of everyday life, tourists lose their inhibitions and open their

wallets, looking for an experience that truly takes them away. But FIU medical

anthropologist Mark Padilla in the School of International and Public Affairs has

found that what happens on the island is not staying on the island—and that has

far-ranging consequences for the entire region.

Currently the Caribbean has the highest rates of HIV infection outside of sub-

Saharan Africa. Nearly 75 percent of those cases occur in two countries: Haiti and

the Dominican Republic, which comprise the island of Hispaniola. The Caribbean

has also become a primary crossroad for cocaine and heroin from South America, a

$5 billion a year trade directly responsible for the majority of street-level drugs sold

in the United States and Europe.

At the same time, the Dominican Republic has become the most popular tourist

destination in the Caribbean, attracting more than six million visitors every year.

Padilla is embarking on a new, multiyear study that aims to identify and address

the different factors—such as the sex trade, high rates of illicit drug use and a boom

in tourism– that are colliding and contributing to a major regional health crisis.

The prevalence of HIV among sex workers and homosexual and bisexual men

in the Caribbean indicates that research, policies and prevention programs may

be missing a key demographic. “It’s wrong to look at one issue in isolation,”

Padilla noted.

“We are committed to reducing the impact of the dual epidemics of both HIV

and drugs in the Caribbean in order to protect the health of both the Caribbean

populations as well as Americans who are in close contact with the Caribbean,”

Padilla said. “Our project would develop the first national intervention to reduce the

impact of both HIV and drug abuse in Dominican tourism zones,” he said, “and may

serve as a model for the entire Caribbean region.”

The project has the support of a diverse group, including a Community Advisory

Board comprised of community members, leaders of the Dominican government,

tourism and business leaders, as well as Florida congresswomen Ileana Ros-

Lehtinen and Frederica Wilson. As Padilla explained, what is happening hundreds

of miles away is actually very close to home.

study examines sex, drugs and disease in the Dominican republic

WINTER 2014-15 | 7

ON ThE PrOWl

Federal grants awarded to latin America and Africa programs

FIU has received three prestigious grants to fund programs and student scholarships in

areas of strategic importance for the United States: Latin America and Africa.

“The U.S. Department of Education awards these grants in an effort to help our

nation enhance its leadership role in the world and foster global engagement,” said FIU

President Mark B. Rosenberg. “These awards solidify our position as a solutions center

that addresses themes of global consequence.”

A total of $2.3 million dollars in Title VI grants were awarded to two centers in FIU’s

School of International and Public Affiars.

• The Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowship grant will provide more than

$1.2 million in funding for undergraduate and graduate students in the Latin

American and Caribbean Center (LACC) for area studies and language training in

Portuguese, Haitian Creole and Quechua, including study abroad programs. LACC

received the largest award allocation for Latin America.

• The National Research Center grant will provide LACC with $900,000 to expand its

teacher training programs in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools

and Miami Dade College.

• The Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language grant will provide

$187,000 to expand an undergraduate certificate in African studies within the

African and African Diaspora Studies program.

#1college of law alumnus Alexander Martini, 28,

earned the highest score among more than 2,800 who

took the Florida bar examination in July. The 2014 grad

enrolled in evening classes at FIU while he worked full time

as an Internal Revenue Service agent. As the top scorer, he

was invited by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge

Labraga to speak during the induction ceremony of new

attorneys in the chambers of the Florida Supreme Court.

fiu students carry less debt and have fewer loan defaults

FIU students owe less when they graduate

than do their peers nationally. And they are

more likely to pay off their loans.

Even as fewer students nationwide are

defaulting on their federal student loans, FIU

students are ahead of the curve, according to

the U.S. Department of Education. The official

three-year federal loan default rate for FIU

dropped to 8.9 percent. The official national

default rate stands at 13.7 percent.

The average debt carried by FIU’s class of

2013 was $17,893 versus an average $25,550

for public university graduates nationally. That

places FIU at No. 13 among institutions whose

students graduate with the least debt load,

according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2015

edition of Best Colleges. FIU is the top Florida

school in this category.

“Seventy percent of FIU students receive

some form of financial aid, and less than half

take on student loans. We are pleased to be

recognized for the work that has gone into

keeping tuition affordable and higher education

accessible in South Florida,” said FIU President

Mark B. Rosenberg.

frost museum director namedThe Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum has announced the

appointment of a new director. Jordana Pomeroy takes over in 2015 after

having served as executive director of the Louisiana State University

Museum of Art. There since 2012, she doubled museum membership,

overhauled exhibition programming, wrote a new strategic plan, galvanized staff and

built active participation and support from the community. Previously she served as chief

curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Pomeroy replaces Carol Damian, who stepped down after six years as director and

chief curator. Damian’s tenure was distinguished by a commitment to the museum’s

educational mission. She and her staff enhanced scholarly research and interdisciplinary

collaborations by offering the museum as a local and global center of knowledge

and culture. Under her watch, the Frost has curated dozens of ground-breaking and

celebrated exhibitions. Damian will remain a professor of art and art history.

On The PrOwl

8 | WINTER 2014-15

wine Professor earns president’s council Worlds ahead award

Beloved wine professor Patrick “Chip” Cassidy ’75 is the recipient of the 2014

President’s Council Worlds Ahead Award, the most prestigious prize conferred at the

annual Faculty Convocation and Awards Ceremony in October.

“I’ve been at FIU for a long time and to win this award is a great honor,”

Cassidy said. “Becoming a teacher was the most wonderful thing to ever

happen to me. People always tell me that this hospitality school is one

of the best, and I’m proud to say that.”

In a 40-year career at the university, Cassidy has a record of

monumental accomplishments. Back in the 1990s he approached the

country’s largest wine and spirits distributors to invest in a proposed

beverage management center at BBC. Today the Southern Wine &

Spirits Beverage Management Center is the region’s premier educational

and product-testing facility, unlike any other in the country. And to support

the center all those years ago, Cassidy organized a one-day fundraiser that

has since grown into the nationally recognized weeklong South Beach Wine & Food

Festival. That annual event offers students unprecedented practical learning experience,

has brought millions in scholarship money back to the school and attracts thousands

to Miami Beach. Most recently he developed a wine certificate program for industry

professionals.

Finalists for the award were Professor Thomas Breslin from the Department of Politics

and International Relations and Professor Ediberto Roman from the College of Law.

FIU partners with Florida Keys sanctuary

FIU has been named a major partner of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

under an agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA is committing $1.3 million in funding, and FIU’s School of Environment, Arts

and Society will support sanctuary operations with scientific, technical, educational and

administrative personnel.

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary protects 2,900 square nautical miles of critical

marine habitat. FIU scientists have been conducting research and monitoring activities in

the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary since its inception in 1990. Past projects in the

Florida Keys include the monitoring of seagrass, water quality and coral reefs as part of the

Water Quality Protection Program, as well as numerous experiments that have helped the

world understand the factors necessary for a healthy environment.

Today, FIU also features the Medina Aquarius Program, which is dedicated to the study

and preservation of marine ecosystems worldwide. Off the coast of Key Largo, this program

houses the FIU Aquarius Reef Base, the world’s only undersea research laboratory.

On The PrOwl

WINTER 2014-15 | 9

Fighting Ebola

is all in a day’s

work for Dr. Aileen

Marty. The 25-year

Navy veteran, now

with the Herbert

Wertheim College

of Medicine, didn’t

think twice when

the World Health

Organization (WHO)

called her last fall

and again in January

to help lead containment efforts in West Africa.

“This is a situation that I happen to have

a tremendous amount of knowledge about

and experience with,” she explains, “and it’s

impossible, if I’m asked, for me to say, ‘no.’”

What drives Marty is a commitment that

comes from deep within. Born in Cuba

and raised in the United States since the

age of 4, she credits her grandfather a

powerful influence.

“He said it so many times, what a generous

country this was and how we owed them a

debt,” Marty remembers. “And I felt the weight

of that.”

And so she enlisted after medical school

and embarked on a career that would lead

to specializations in infectious diseases,

disaster medicine and the science, medical

response and policy related to weapons of

mass destruction. Her unique trajectory began

with her studying some of the most loathsome

had been manipulating small pox and plague

to make them more dangerous.”

Later she would hear of other countries’

deployments of biological agents such as

anthrax and viral hemorrhagic fevers. “I wound

up with top-secret clearances and learned

of unbelievably nasty ideas that people had

accomplished all over the place,” she says.

“And among those very, very frightening

diseases was Ebola.”

on the ground in west AfricaThe WHO has several times called upon

Marty to take assignments around the world,

and in August she began a month-long stay in

Nigeria, then-little affected by Ebola but very

near the line of fire.

The outbreak—naturally occurring and not

the product of terrorism—was first reported in

March of 2014. It has resulted in the infections

of more than 20,700 people in West Africa and,

as of early January, more than 8,200 known

deaths, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia

and Guinea.

In Nigeria Marty worked daily from dawn

until almost midnight in challenging conditions

to train screeners, doctors, nurses and others

to recognize potentially infected persons

entering the country via airport, seaport

or border crossing. She also developed

processes and secured needed equipment

and resources. That work has paid off. As of

early January, Nigeria remained Ebola-free. But

the epidemic still rages, and ending it remains a

diseases known to man, starting with the

oldest: leprosy.

An uncommon education“Who wants to go work with a disease that

is that disfiguring?” Marty, 57, recalls asking

herself while stationed at the former Armed

Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington,

D.C. “I was scared. It’s contagious.”

Still, she took the assignment, inspired

largely by the man who would become an

early mentor.

“It was his humanity. It was his own

willingness to sacrifice himself,” Marty says

of renowned microbiologist Dr. Wayne

Meyers’ profound influence upon her. “He led

by example.”

Meyers, 90, doesn’t recall any

squeamishness on Marty’s part. But he

does remember a hard-working young

physician who joined him on trips to leper

colonies, helped him hunt down African

monkeys with non-lethal darts so as to test

them as possible carriers and co-wrote

scientific papers with him.

“It did not surprise me,” he says of his one-

time protégé’s successful efforts in the Ebola

battle. “Typical of Aileen Marty.”

Her education under Meyers was followed

by another fascinating chapter. In the

mid-1990s, Marty was called to the State

Department. “The Soviet Union had broken

down, and some of their defectors had been

debriefed,” she recalls. “We learned how they

By Alexandra Pecharich

FIU’s Dr. Aileen Marty is uniquely qualified to help keep the virus from crossing borders in Africa.

EbolaStemming the Spread of

Dr. Aileen Marty

10 | WINTER 2014-15

the project, the staff keeps track of patients’

data. Those with “bad” numbers can be

identified for additional interventions while the

others continue with prescribed treatments

without the burden of examination.

A humanitarian to the coreIn January Marty flew back to Africa, this

time to Equatorial Guinea, a country free from

the virus (not to be confused with Guinea,

one of the worst hit). There she again led

screening efforts, this time in anticipation

of the Africa Cup of Nations, a soccer

tournament typically attended by thousands.

And already she is planning to tread again

where many rightly fear: as early as March

Marty hopes to return, this time to observe

the pilot program in Sierra Leone. Her

tirelessness remains but a reflection of who

she is.

“I think it’s really important to make sure

that we do things that make a difference,”

she says, “that we can feel at the end of

the day, or even at the end of our lives, that

we’ve made a real difference.” n

complete with GPS capability, on those who

have been in high-risk contact with infected

individuals but show no symptoms (and,

therefore, are not contagious) and follow them

electronically?

Already 700 health care workers have

contracted the disease in West Africa,

where treating patients is expensive and

cumbersome. The gear workers don includes

an average of $100 of protective wear, such

as a coverall suit and gloves, that must be

discarded after a maximum-two-hour use. And

the gear’s bulkiness—which impedes health

care workers’ hearing, vision and manual

dexterity—does not allow for a patient-

centered experience.

Suddenly, Marty had a 21st-century

solution to bring to the table. Existing

technology—in the form of a $120 fitness

bracelet—could provide myriad benefits:

“We will get better information on the

patients, more accurate data with less risk

to health care workers, which leads to better

management of the patients and better

survival of everybody.”

Marty introduced her idea in a CNN

online op-ed and soon was contacted by

an organization interested in running a pilot

program. That trial launched in January with

100 patients at a treatment center in Sierra

Leone. Each was outfitted with an electronic

bracelet that records body temperature,

oxygen saturation and other vitals. Via a free

app and Internet connected specifically for

worldwide concern. The WHO estimates that

$1 billion will be spent before the contagion

is eradicated.

A potential game-changerUpon Marty’s return home in the fall, media

flocked to hear her story. In one interview, she

happened to mention the lack of precaution

surrounding her re-entry into the United

States: The very types of questions she had

taught screeners in Nigeria to ask of incoming

visitors were never put to her by customs or

other officials. “Nobody had asked, nobody

had cared,” Marty recalls.

Within days, Marty’s comment loomed

prescient. A Liberian national who had worked

with Ebola patients entered the United States

via Washington, D.C., before continuing on to

Texas. Following the disease’s typical 21-day

incubation period, the man became sick and

sought treatment. He eventually died but not

before two nurses who cared for him in Dallas

had contracted the illness.

Unworried for herself but nonetheless

taking responsibility for her health, Marty

had been monitoring her vital signs with a

fitness bracelet, the kind that records body

temperature and pulse and is available at

sporting goods stores. A fever would indicate

a potential problem, although that information

alone is not enough to prove Ebola.

And then it occurred to her: Why don’t

we use such monitors on Ebola patients

in the wards? Why not slap a bracelet,

WINTER 2014-15 | 11

By Jamie Giller

Shala Meindel ‘08 plays with children at Casa Miani Orphanage in Sorsogon City, Philippines.

Jachary Murray ’09 braves a Mongolian winter to fetch his daily water.

Stephanie Sheffield ’10 poses with high

school students in Colombia following

her guest lecture at a bilingual forum.

View a world map of FIU Peace Corp volunteers at

magazine.fiu.edu

12 | WINTER 2014-15

From Morocco to the Philippines, FIU graduates have served the Peace

Corps in more than 60 countries around the world, earning the university

national distinction by the world’s preeminent international service organization.

In 2014, the Peace Corps recognized FIU as a leader among Hispanic-Serving

Institutions for producing volunteers. To date, nearly 200 FIU alumni have served,

and 11 are currently abroad.

Since May 1998, FIU has partnered with Peace Corps for a Master’s

International Program and has recently added an undergraduate track, Peace

Corps Prep, focused on international relations and community service. The

program builds on the Global Learning for Global Citizenship initiative and meets

the growing demand for diverse applicants for the service organization as it

continues to tackle the most pressing needs of people across the globe.

“I believe that what makes FIU students so appealing is this focus that the

entire school has on international business, service and environmental issues,”

said Steve Hunsicker, Peace Corps recruiter. “The school really lives up to the

‘international’ in its name.”

But it’s not the academic training alone that makes FIU alumni desirable

candidates, says Hunsicker. The organization also values the school’s growing

minority population, representing the rich, multicultural backgrounds of

Americans. Hunsicker says that the success of volunteers often relies on being

able to relate to those in other countries, regardless of backgrounds. This global

perspective, he says, is paramount.

A centerpiece of undergraduate education at FIU, the Global Learning for Global

Citizenship initiative launched in 2011, requires all students to take global learning

courses. The goal is to provide students with opportunities to explore real-world

problems, learn global perspectives and ultimately be globally engaged.

Hilary Landorf, director of Global Learning, knows the value of a global

perspective and Peace Corps first hand, as a returned Peace Corps volunteer

who served in Morocco from 1979-1981.

“I truly believe in Peace Corps. For me, and for everyone I’ve ever met, it’s a

life transforming experience,” she said. “When I came back two years later, I felt

very confident in my language and teaching skills. I went back to school, got a

master’s degree and also got certified in ESOL.”

Landorf is now spearheading FIU’s Peace Corps Prep Program, which

consists of four global learning courses, four semesters of foreign language, a

minimum number of approved global co-curricular activities and a written self-

reflection. The unique combination of undergraduate coursework and community

service focuses on international development. FIU is the only school in Florida

and the largest of the 24 schools that offer the program.

At the graduate level, Professor Krish Jayachandran, who heads the Master’s

International Program, sees the implications of international service through the

research students conduct. While the majority of the thesis topics are based on

local research in the U.S., Peace Corps students focus on global environmental

and social issues.

The MIP allows students to earn up to six credits for their Peace Corps service

and upon completion of the classes, awards a master’s of science degree in

environmental studies with a concentration in biological management. n

Meet Peace Corps’ Lillian Carter Award winner Helene Dudley MS ’90 at

go.fiu.edu/Helene-Dudley

Turn the page to meet a few FIU volunteers

WINTER 2014-15 | 13

language, Mongolian. In between teaching,

Murray works with local Mongolian teachers,

instructing them on lesson planning and other

formal skills.

Murray thrives on the variety and scope of

work that comes with his main assignment.

He’s worked with two other Peace Corps

volunteers to establish a basketball leadership

camp, and provides dental education and

care for the local youth.

“I spearhead projects, go to businesses

to ask for funding, and organize camps,” he

said. Doing it all in another language adds to

his skill set.

“The point was not for me to do the

basketball leadership camp alone, but to train

the Mongolians to do it so they can continue

doing it yearly and make it sustainable,”

he said.

As for what’s next for the world traveler,

he’s contemplating a variety of options,

including the Foreign Service, returning to

Japan, or maybe heading to graduate school

in the U.S.

Ultimately, Murray knows that Peace Corps

has shaped him into a different person.

“I like my mind always being open and

discovering new things,” he said. “You learn

a lot about yourself while you’re doing Peace

Corps – you not only give, but you receive a

lot, too.”

MONGOLIA Zachary Murray ’09, currently serving in

Mongolia, wakes up in the middle of the night

to restart the fire in his ger, a portable tent that

Mongolian nomads still use. The tent provides

little warmth from the frigid temperatures.

Buckets of water and eggs freeze overnight.

He can’t remember the last time he ate a

green vegetable.

“I eat carrots every day,” Murray said,

speaking to FIU Magazine from Mongolia.

The Miami-born and raised alumnus

has learned to adjust to his new lifestyle in

Uliastai, the rural city accessible by a 30-hour

bus ride from the capital, Ulaanbaatar. With

snow on the ground seven months out of the

year, his daily attire consists of heavy layers of

clothes and boots.

“Living in a developing country really

pushes you,” Murray said. “When things don’t

work out or go to plan, it teaches you a lot. It

even teaches you how many days you can go

without showering.”

The religious studies graduate got bit by the

travel bug after a visit to Israel so he moved

to Japan after graduation and became an

English teacher in Kagoshima. He then moved

to Kyoto, learned Japanese and worked

in guest houses in Tokyo before carefully

planning his next step – joining Peace Corps.

He was assigned to teach English in

Mongolia. That involved adding a third

COLOMBIA Stephanie Sheffield ’10, is serving in Santa

Marta, Colombia, a coastal city flanked by

beautiful beaches and the Sierra Nevada

mountains. She arrived in August of last year

for her assignment, Teaching English for

Livelihoods (TEFL) project.

The TEFL project supports the training of

Colombian primary and secondary teachers in

improving their English as a foreign language

teaching abilities through co-teaching, co-

planning, workshops and one-on-one tutoring

with volunteers. Sheffield works with both

English and non-English teachers to improve

their spoken and written English skills.

Ultimately, the project allows for the

development of bilingual community

activities, giving young Colombians the tools

to become competitive workers in different

Shala Meindel ’08 - Philippines

Zachary Murray’09 (far right)- Mongolia

14 | WINTER 2014-15

the PhILIPPINesThree years after returning from the

Philippines, Shala Meindel ’08, still sends

packages of supplies to the orphanage she

served in while in Peace Corps.

Her FIU studies in criminal justice and

social work led to an assignment at an urban

juvenile detention facility on the Southeast

Asian island. The locked-down unit had no

windows, air conditioning or beds. It housed

dozens of children ranging from three to 18

years old. Many had been charged with petty

crimes such as theft, while others were there

for murder. Meindel saw only children in

need and was focused on ministering to their

critical needs: literacy, life skills, and drug

and alcohol intervention.

“It was an amazing experience,” Meindel

recalled. Many of the children had never

gone to school and supplies like crayons and

paper were foreign. Such limited resources

drove her to apply for grants to supply

the center with books. Slowly, she began

teaching basic literacy.

The children helped Meindel learn Tagalog,

the local language, to communicate better

with them and understand what their lives

were like on the streets.

“They have to figure out how to cope with

being on the streets their whole lives and

experiencing trauma,” she said. “You try to

teach them things that they would use in

real life. The kids in the U.S. do drugs to get

high. Over there, they get high to cover the

hunger pains. As a result, they get addicted

at really young ages.”

About a year into her time at the facility,

she was transferred to a new site – a

Catholic orphanage for boys in a rural

village. Her new assignment was working

with teenagers who had fallen so far behind

in school they could no longer attend. While

she was still tasked with teaching basic

reading skills, she continued to address

individual needs.

Meindel won a grant through the

Appropriate Water Project to pay for a water

pump for the village, eliminating the one –

and-a-half mile walk previously needed to

get water. Running water improved personal

hygiene and agriculture in the community.

Since returning to the U.S., Meindel

carries on her mission to help at risk youth,

now serving as an outreach worker in

San Diego.

“I still love the work, but it’s different,” she

admits. “Adjustment was, phew, I don’t think

I’ll ever adjust. I’ve been gone three years

and I still miss it every day.” n

fields, especially the hospitality and tourism

industry. Sheffield feels Santa Marta

has the potential to be a major tourist

destination if the community becomes

more proficient in English.

“FIU helped me become a great teacher,”

said Sheffield, who majored in Spanish and

minored in education. “In turn, it has helped

me become an awesome Peace Corps

volunteer. I feel that I have a lot of tools to

offer the English teachers here in Colombia

that I learned from FIU.”

In addition to teaching English, Sheffield

serves as a resource, educating community

members on nutrition, wellness and sexual

health. She hosts girls’ camps, English

clubs for local children and bilingual forums.

She also organizes a weekly event called

“Spanglish” where university students come

to practice English with her and other Peace

Corps volunteers.

“Spanglish is probably my favorite,” she

said. “It has grown to be pretty big, and

we’ve been able to help a lot of college

students and young professionals increase

their English proficiency and become more

comfortable speaking English. Many of

them are studying fields that would benefit

greatly from more English speakers such

as hospitality, tourism and international

relations.”

Sheffield plans to return to the States for

graduate school after her service ends.

“I love education,” she said. “I want to

see what I can do on a global scale to help

people get quality education.”

Stephanie Sheffield ‘10 (far left) - Colombia

WINTER 2014-15 | 15

In a relatively small space, the preserve

contains three distinct ecosystems – tropical

hardwood hammocks, freshwater wetlands

and one of the most endangered habitats in

the world, the pine rocklands.

As rare and valuable as these ecosystems

are, if they are not functional and accessible,

their true value is lost. For many years the

future of this urban oasis was uncertain, but

emerald in the sand.

More than 6,000 years old, the 16-acre

preserve at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus

has never been more alive. Boasting about

10,000 visitors a year, it is home to more than

450 plant and animal species, including many

that are endangered. It serves as a living

laboratory for more than 25 different FIU

courses, as well as an outdoor classroom/

park for local schoolchildren and residents.

T ake a look at an aerial image from

South Beach to the Everglades

and consider the terrain. Notice the

shades of gray, orange and blue of the roads,

roofs and lakes. Attempting to find patches

of undeveloped land in this city can be a

daunting task. In fact, less than 3 percent

of Miami’s native pine rockland habitat still

remains. But within this chaotic tapestry

of concrete and palms that we call home,

the FIU Nature Preserve stands out like an

The revival of FiU’s

Nature PreserveCampus-wide effort transforms MMC’s 16-acre habitat into a green oasis

By Douglas Garland ’10

Take a virtual stroll through the Nature Preserve atmagazine.fiu.edu

16 | WINTER 2014-15

a recent revival effort, initiated in 2010, has

solidified the preserve’s place on an already-

dense university campus.

“Pre-2010, when there were narrow trails,

no lighting, no signage and no staff - this was

a pretty scary place to be. People didn’t like

coming out here because it was not safe,”

says program coordinator for the Office of

University Sustainability Ryan Vogel ’12, ’14,

years, Parker and other volunteers protected

the valuable land from development. Yet

during that time, the Nature Preserve was

more an unrealized vision than valued

space. Relying only on student volunteers

to maintain it proved insufficient, and

eventually the preserve developed its

share of problems: stray dogs, garbage,

overgrown trails, evasive exotic species and

the occasional homeless resident.

who has championed the revitalization of the

preserve for the last four years as its official

caretaker.

In 1978, Professor John Parker, along

with other faculty members, founded the

FIU Nature Preserve with the idea that if

this small piece of land was left untouched,

it would eventually develop into a thriving

ecosystem for plants, wildlife and, most

importantly, students. For more than 30

The revival of FiU’s

Nature PreserveCampus-wide effort transforms MMC’s 16-acre habitat into a green oasis

By Douglas Garland ’10

Continues

WINTER 2014-15 | 17

FIU faculty and staff who contributed to the

Ignite campaign and through annual benefit

concerts. In addition, Vogel created the FIU

Urban Forestry Internship Program through

support from the Florida Forest Service, the

FIU Department of Biological Sciences and

the FIU Department of Earth & Environment.

Paid interns made the revitalization possible.

Soon a once-hidden lake at the north end

was revealed to the public, and today it has

become a popular backdrop for the hosting

of martial arts and yoga classes. Heinen says,

“For all those years many people worked very

hard at it without an overall plan. It’s difficult

to get things done when relying only on

volunteers. But now that all of that has been

done, I think it’s very, very good.”

into an endless source of creative inspiration.

“It is often hard to justify with dollar

values,” she said, “but I would argue the

dollar value is priceless.”

In 2010, Vogel, along with faculty, staff and

more than 2,500 student volunteers, began

bringing renewed purpose to the preserve.

The process of clearing out invasive species

and garbage, relocating stray dogs and setting

up proper signage took four years of manual

labor and smart spending during an era of

statewide budget cuts.

Professor Joel Heinen of the Department of

Earth and Environment has served as faculty

advisor for the preserve since 2005 and

raised $100,000 for an endowment through

the support of the Martin Foundation, from

With every new building constructed at

FIU, the preserve seemed to move closer

to the center of MMC. As the campus grew

around it, the preserve seemed doomed for

development. Much like the rest of Miami,

land at FIU is a scarce commodity. The urban

forest could no longer be ignored. A case for

protecting it had to be made. To many, it was

obvious that the busier university life became,

the more the community needed just what the

Nature Preserve has to offer.

“Preserving natural spaces is like preserving

art,”said art Professor Gretchen Scharnagl,

who has been using the preserve to inspire

student artwork for many years. Her students

have spent countless hours under its canopy

with pencil and sketchbook in hand, tapping

Photo by Gretchen ScharnaglContinued

18 | WINTER 2014-15

paths and trim trees through his landscaping

company, True Tree Service.

Connie Amram, a staff member in the

Office of External Relations, makes use of

the preserve’s walking trail several nights a

week. “I love walking out from my office at

the end of the day and getting some exercise

around the perimeter. The rubber walking trail

is great on my knees, and it feels safe to walk

at night with all of the additional lighting.”

Today, the FIU Nature Preserve’s beauty

doesn’t just come from the lush vegetation

and musical wildlife, it comes from its

functionality and accessibility. No longer is

it only a place to study or admire from afar,

but a place for the community to enjoy and

utilize daily. n

out there day and night. We see people

engaged with this space in a way that we had

always dreamed of. ”

In its new role, the preserve is more

accessible than ever to the local community.

It has become a training facility for many

university sports teams and local high

school track teams, as well as hosted

environmental education workshops,

concerts, yoga and martial arts classes and

even several 5k runs.

Ian Wogan ’10 practiced yoga in the preserve

as a student. “It’s much better than doing yoga

in a classroom. The fresh air, the trees—it really

is nice to have all this on an urban campus.”

Since graduating, Wogan has been able to give

back to the preserve, donating time to clear

Perhaps the most significant addition to

the preserve is the half-mile jogging path

and exercise equipment that now border

it. The popular workout circuit was created

with leftover construction funds from the

preserve’s newest next-door neighbor,

Parkview Student Housing.

From the outset of the massive

construction project that became Parkview,

Director for Facilities Planning Jim Wassenaar

understood the danger of building so close to

the preserve.

“When the president selected the building

site for Parkview, it created some concern as

to how the two would coexist,” Wassenaar

says. “The reality is, the preserve has become

a part of the university fabric. We see joggers

Photo by Nick Vera ’13

Down and dirty: The brothers of Theta Chi fraternity , above, help plant new trees in the preserve. At left, the preserve attracts joggers, artists and student volunteers.

WINTER 2014-15 | 19

20 | WINTER 2014-15

FIU’s relationship with the world’s largest continent continues to grow. As the center of

global economic power shifts and as interest in understanding other cultures expands

on both sides of the Pacific, FIU has stepped up to create new opportunities for learning.

From study abroad programs to places such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan and India

to FIU’s engineering programs in South Florida in support of Chinese graduate students

and a well-established hospitality and tourism program in Tianjin, China, FIU has found

numerous and innovative ways to meet the needs of U.S. and Asian students.

The dragon has served as a symbol of

Chinese culture for thousands of years. Its

sometimes-menacing appearance does not

detract from its positive connotations: power,

strength and good luck.

Yet for all the mythic creature’s bravado—

Chinese parents, in a traditionally patriarchal

society, have long pushed their sons to work

toward dragon status—it has for most of

history contented itself at home, not looking

to venture beyond the borders of its

native land.

That is, until now. In just a few short

decades, China has steadily and methodically

grown into a global economic power. Its

meteoric ascent on the world stage belies its

past as a once fiercely inward-looking nation.

Today it actively seeks to engage with the

outside, both at home and abroad. And to

help keep its momentum going, the dragon

has come knocking on the door

of the Panther.

FIU at the forefront

In May at its annual commencement

ceremonies, the FIU program that offers

China’s first and only in-country foreign

dual-enrollment degree celebrated its tenth

anniversary. To date, more than 1,000 Chinese

citizens have earned FIU degrees in hospitality

and tourism management on their home turf,

and another 1,100 are currently enrolled.

“There’s no other arrangement in China

like what we have,” says Mike Hampton,

dean of FIU’s Miami-based Chaplin School of

Hospitality and Tourism Management, which

oversees the China program. “The student

goes all four years in China and earns an

FIU degree.”

The program grew out of China’s need for

high-level executives who understand how

to do business in the global marketplace,

Hampton explains. While Chinese citizens staff

the country’s international hotel, resort and

restaurant chains, foreigners generally have

held the upper-management positions at those

companies—something Chinese leaders want

to progressively change, especially as the

hospitality and tourism infrastructure continues

to grow. (By most accounts, at least one new

hotel opens in China every day.)

“That’s how they saw this partnership,

as a strategic mechanism to help prepare

graduates to be qualified to go in the

hospitality and tourism businesses and

eventually assume the senior executive

roles,” Hampton says. “They would like to see

Chinese nationals serving in key leadership

roles within Chinese businesses.”

Today, graduates of FIU’s China program—

known formally as the Marriott Tianjin China

Program in recognition of a major donor to

FIU’s program in South Florida—hold top jobs

with multinational corporations such as Hilton

Worldwide and Royal Caribbean. Many work

in China, while others—including some of the

more than 250 who followed up their China-

By Alexandra Pecharich | Illustration by Lazslo Kubinyi

Continues WINTER 2014-15 | 21

program at Qingdao University in the eastern

province of Shandong follows in the footsteps of

the original hospitality program. Students will earn

degrees from FIU after completing four years’ of

education in their own backyard.

“There is an interest in trading with Latin

America,” explains Pascal Becel, chair of FIU’s

Department of Modern Languages in the School

of International and Public Affairs, “so training

speakers of the language is an important goal to

achieve this.”

In fact, the move is just that: a first step toward

FIU’s introducing an international business

program at Qingdao University in a few years. Lu

confirms that China’s interest in the Spanish has

everything to do with China’s interest in building

up commerce with Latin America.

“Spanish is the hottest language in China,”

Lu says. Just as many Americans are rushing to

learn Mandarin, so the Chinese are scrambling to

acquire the language of the next region in which

they want to do business. With English already

conquered, Spanish represents the new horizon.

Currently about 60 students per year

are majoring in Spanish at Qingdao. FIU’s

involvement should raise the quality of studies

and is expected to make a big impact on the

verbal proficiency of graduates—Chinese

programs have traditionally placed greater

attention on writing skills—who will take jobs as

translators and interpreters, Becel says. In Miami,

she and colleagues will train some of the current

Qingdao faculty in methods and approaches

commonly employed in the U.S., emphasizing, for

example, the importance of student interaction

in the classroom over lecture-style teaching. As

well, she will hire additional Spanish instructors,

likely from within the large South Florida talent

pool, to travel to China and teach the upper-

division courses that constitute the FIU portion of

the degree.

“It’s been a very challenging project, also

very exciting,” says Becel, who anticipates that

cohorts will swell to 100 annually within a

few years.

York University and Dublin University are

among the many that have visited FIU’s

TUC campus.

Says Peng Lu, FIU’s associate provost

for international programs, who travels

regularly between Miami and China, “In China,

FIU is very famous and one of the reasons is

because people can actually

see FIU in Tianjin.”

More to come

The experience in Tianjin has inspired a long

list of potential FIU-China projects—nearly

four dozen, more than with any other country.

These include 11 active, albeit currently small,

programs in the College of Engineering that

offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees in South

Florida to Chinese students. Many of the other

proposed projects live only on paper in the form

of agreements and likely will take several more

years to materialize. And several are cooking.

Currently on the front burner: four more

hospitality management programs in, as

Hampton calls them, “strategic cities,” among

them Beijing and Shanghai. These programs,

Hampton says, promise to be bigger than

the original in Tianjin simply by virtue of their

location in travel-and-tourism hotspots and

in their ability to attract and educate far

greater numbers.

“We have the opportunity to be the driving

force in hospitality and tourism education in

China,” Hampton says. “We have experience

now that has given us unique insight into how

to work closely with government and industry

to help achieve the goals that they’ve set for

their growth and development.”

Chinese trade

Just as learning to navigate the hospitality

business within the context of western

practices remains critical to China, so also

does learning to do business in general. Once

again, FIU has been tapped. Slated to start

as early as this fall, FIU’s Spanish-language

based FIU degrees with a master’s from the

Chaplin School in Miami—are involved with the

development of huge Chinese resorts in places

such as the Bahamas and Brazil.

An auspicious beginning

The unprecedented collaboration with FIU

came about as Chinese leaders recognized

a need to fast track hospitality and tourism

education. A meeting between officials at

Tianjin University of Commerce (TUC) and

FIU’s Jinlin Zhao, a hospitality professor who

was born in China, led to talks, and the Chaplin

School’s strong reputation—other universities

vied for the opportunity that FIU eventually

won—sealed the deal.

Soon after, in 2003, FIU set about working

with local authorities. TUC would build, at its

own expense, a dedicated campus based on

specifications provided by FIU. Classrooms

and labs, for example, would mirror their

counterparts in Miami, and the curriculum—

all courses are presented in English—would

follow precisely the one offered stateside.

“Everything is taught the same way,”

Hampton says. “It’s not just the language.

It’s all the learning outcomes, all the support

services. We have our career services support,

our counseling support, everything.”

And the same graduation requirements that

apply to undergraduates in Miami—among

them a passing grade in English composition—

have to be met by Chinese students in

compliance with the standards of the U.S.

organization (the Commission on Colleges

of the Southern Association of Colleges and

Schools, or SACS) that accredits FIU.

Today the program remains unique in China.

Representatives from foreign universities

have regularly come to TUC to observe and

learn from FIU in preparation for their own

collaborations with Chinese universities,

although no other has established an in-

country dual-degree program. Administrators

from the University of Central Florida, New

Continued

Continues

22 | WINTER 2014-15

FIU’s Department of Religious Studies

has a formal arrangement with the Jain

Vishwa Bharati University in northwestern

India, to which several students

travel annually to participate in a summer

program. Faculty also travel there to

conduct research.

FIU hosts several study abroad programs in

China, with students visiting Beijing,

Shanghai and Hong Kong, among other cities.

FIU’s in-country Marriott Tianjin China Program

offers local students degrees in hospitality and

tourism management, an arrangement soon to be

replicated in other cities. FIU has plans to run a

Spanish-language program at Quindao University

in the province of Shandong, and an internship

program in Macau for Miami-based hospitality

and tourism majors provides professional training

in one of the world’s largest gaming centers.

The Honors College takes students on a 28-day

study abroad trip to Cambodia and

Vietnam to learn about culture and

history, with an emphasis on U.S. involvement in

Indochinese conflicts and how the U.S.-Vietnam

War has influenced foreign policy. And for 11

days the group teaches English to aspiring

teachers in Cambodia.

Japan The Asian Studies Program

sponsors the Southern Japan Seminar

and publishes the Japan Studies Review.

In addition students can apply to spend

a semester or full year in Japan through

collaborative programs established

with Kanda University of International

Studies, Kansai Gaidai University and

Ritsumeikan University.

The Honors College takes students on a four-

week study abroad trip to Indonesia

to explore the effects of globalization on

religious life. Time is divided between the

islands of Java and Bali, and students explore

temples as well as meet with community

activists and representatives of NGOs.

WINTER 2014-15 | 23

Read the story of FIU China program alumna Margaret Fan at

magazine.fiu.edu

WINTER 2014-15 | 23

Good for South Florida

FIU’s expanding presence in China can be

attributed to both its academic strength and its

location in a city regarded as the gateway to

Latin America.

Chinese officials, Lu explains, would like

to conduct their business, particularly with

Central American officials, in Miami, with its

established commercial infrastructure that

includes firms specializing in international law

and a world-class port. Where trust in support

of direct business relations between Latin

America and China generally does not yet

exist and past dealings have not always gone

well, Lu continues, South Florida makes an

“Our academic collaborations and partnerships with Chinese universities and students will enable us to deepen cooperation and mutual understanding as well as economic wellbeing.”

—President Mark B. Rosenberg

among those promoting the windmills.

“By 2040, it is estimated that the Chinese

economy will dwarf the U.S. economy,” he

states. “We must prepare our students and

community for this eventuality.

“Our academic collaborations and

partnerships with Chinese universities

and students will enable us to deepen

cooperation and mutual understanding as

well as economic well-being with China.”

The two-way street of economic well-

being is real, Lu says. With 1.4 billion

people, China is the world’s largest

education market, and one with needs the

country internally does not have the capacity

to meet. “China’s education supply is not

enough and cannot be improved soon,”

he says. That’s where universities like

FIU come in.

And so Lu encourages FIU to continue to

lead, which includes fostering exchange and

mutual understanding in a variety of ways.

To that end, FIU is introducing students

in South Florida to Chinese culture and

language through several study abroad

programs for undergraduates and one for

international MBA students that is run by

the College of Business. And recently Lu

has been tasked with establishing

programming through FIU’s University

College, which offers noncredit courses and

professional training to the community, and

he is working with the Miami Dade College-

based Confucius Institute, which offers

similar outreach.

The activity vis-à-vis China simply reflects

what FIU is all about, Rosenberg says.

“FIU’s approach to China is aligned with

our broader strategy to provide high-quality

learning and research opportunities to our

students and faculty,” he says, “and to use

win-win partnerships to find solutions to

community problems.”

In the end, both the dragon and the

Panther come out ahead. n

visiting and trading in Latin America for 10

years now to learn the language and culture,”

he says. “I think we at FIU can create a hub

here for training, understanding, knowledge.”

And, Mora adds, that education must extend

in both directions: “Latin Americans want to

understand and do business in China.”

Clearly, any efforts made by FIU have the

potential to contribute profoundly to South

Florida and the state. As FIU’s backyard

becomes the nation’s center for Sino-Latin

American commerce, the local economy will

benefit from new port fees and the expansion

of services and related industries that support

such trade.

Helping the Chinese advance their

hospitality and tourism goals already is having

a positive trickle across effect, Hampton says.

“Because so many of the companies that

are branding the resorts and operations being

developed by Chinese investment groups are

based right here in South Florida”—among

them locally headquartered, alumnus-owned

Kerzner International, which is working with

a Chinese conglomerate to build the $1.5

billion Atlantis Resort in the coastal city of

Sanya—“revenues come back to those brand

companies,” Hampton explains. “The residual

impact of that permeates many, many levels

to benefit everybody. It’s good for the state of

Florida. It’s good for America.”

Good for FIU

“When the winds of change blow,” goes an

old Chinese proverb, “some build walls, while

others build windmills.” President Rosenberg is

attractive meeting ground to carry out trade

negotiations and sign distribution agreements.

Having FIU as an academic partner provides a

base from which China can move forward,

Lu says.

Officials in the port city of Qingdao, for

example, would like to maintain an office at

FIU out of which to operate when in town

for meetings with business and government

leaders. And FIU and Miami-Dade County

officials together have considered doing the

same at Qingdao’s campus. Lu believes FIU

could possibly facilitate greater interaction

among all parties by organizing conferences

that would touch upon both academic

research and trade issues.

Frank Mora, director of FIU’s Latin

American & Caribbean Center, agrees that

the university has a role to play. “There is a

significant demand on the part of Chinese

businesspeople and others who have been

Continued

24 | WINTER 2014-15

develop a Ph.D. program.

Graduates of the program are working in

the Japanese consulate, museums and federal

agencies. After earning her master’s degree,

Garcia spent two years living and working in

Japan as an English teacher.

Asian Studies is intentionally

interdisciplinary with 16 faculty members in

language studies, literature, sociology, religion,

art, history and international

relations. Around 400 students

a year are enrolled in Japanese

and Chinese language courses

at FIU. Heine, who founded the

program and has guided its

growth, is among the nation’s

most respected scholars of

Japanese Buddhism.

During her time at FIU, Garcia

was awarded scholarships that

allowed her to study abroad

in Japan twice, solidifying her

decision to live there in the

future. The transition into Japanese culture,

a topic that is the subject of many books by

American travelers, was a smooth one, Garcia

said, because of her coursework at FIU.

She had taken Japanese language for four

years, studied the tea ceremony, learned

about race relations and pop culture in

Japan. Garcia found that her knowledge

of Japanese culture opened doors to new

experiences and friendships.

“It all came full circle,” she said. “Studying

in-depth gave me a well-rounded education

and then when I went there, I lived it from

the Japanese perspective as well. People

say to me, ‘Wow, you’ve gone way out

there living in the Far East and experiencing

something not many Americans have.’

It’s made me very grateful that the Asian

Studies program is there.” n

studies. Additionally, the program publishes

an academic journal, holds academic

conferences and workshops and organizes

community events.

“If you look at our enrollment, the trajectory

is upward,” Heine says. “Student demand is

really there to study this part of the world.”

The growth of Asian Studies has been

supported with more than $2 million in grants

from the Japan Foundation, the National

Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S.

Department of Education and the Freeman

Foundation. A $275,000, four-year grant from

the Japan Foundation has enabled FIU to

fund faculty research and travel in Asia, the

expansion of the Asian studies collection at

the library, workshops and guest speakers.

The grant also helps support the Japan

Studies Review, a peer-reviewed academic

journal published jointly by Asian Studies and

the Southern Japan Seminar.

Introduced in 2002, Asian Studies today

enrolls 150 undergraduates, plus 200 minors

and certificate students. The seven-year-old

master’s degree program has 25 students and

is graduating eight to 10 students each year.

Heine has recently put forth a proposal to

Growing up in Miami far from any cultural

connection to Asia, Jennifer Garcia

’09, MA ’11 became enchanted with the hit

Japanese anime TV series Sailor Moon. At the

time, she didn’t really know anything about

this special genre of animation, nor was she

familiar with Japan’s vibrant pop culture.

Instead she was drawn to the series’ heroine,

Usagi Tsukino, and its portrayal of magical

girls who use their powers to

thwart evil.

She wondered if there were

other cartoons like Sailor Moon.

Eventually, Garcia found a store

in Miami that sold original and

unedited Japanese anime comic

books and videos.

That extracurricular interest

grew, and by the time Garcia

was ready for college she

knew she wanted to study

Japan. She found all she

wanted and much more in

FIU’s Asian Studies Program within the

College of Arts & Sciences.

“It has a good diversity of professors and

courses and opportunities in place,” said

Garcia, who eventually earned bachelor’s

and master’s degrees. “Scholarships and

study abroad allowed me to indulge in

these passions.”

Many come to FIU’s popular Asian Studies

degree programs for the same reasons.

Students often fall into two camps, Director

Steve Heine says: they want to study Japan

for its culture or they want to study China for

its economy.

The Asian Studies Program allows them to

do both by offering interdisciplinary degrees,

study abroad, internship opportunities

and comprehensive foreign language

Interest in Asian studies at FIU explodesstudent demand drives growth in Asian studies degrees

By Deborah O’Neil MA ‘09

Jennifer Garcia ’09, MA ’11 on her journey to the top of Mt. Fuji

WINTER 2014-15 | 25

FIU students with an interest in Asian art

know the work of Xu Bing through books or

U.S. exhibits. For nine studying art and art

history, however, meeting the famous Chinese

artist in person during a study abroad was

extraordinary.

“Seeing work in class is like watching a

film,” said senior fine arts major Nathalie

Alfonso of the inherent distance in classroom

studies. “Being here,” she said of her trip to

China, “you are not in a film anymore. You are

backstage.”

Last summer the program introduced

students to contemporary art through the

lens of history. It focused on current work

while familiarizing students with the ancient

traditions and age-old cultural sensibilities

that still exert influence today. Excursions

included trips to cultural and historic sites

while also offering unprecedented access to

the studios and homes of working artists.

Led by FIU Professor Lidu Yi, who

personally knows many of China’s artists,

the group was warmly welcomed by such

luminaries as performance artist He Yunchang,

multimedia artist Wang Qingsong, woodcut

artist Yang Hongwei and painter Lan Zhenghui.

Students also gained a first-hand awareness

of the key role tradition plays in contemporary

Chinese art. Xu’s work, for example, invites

people to consider how China can grapple

with its own history, both ancient and modern,

while moving forward.

“How do we face this history? If we throw

away everything, we have nothing,” said

Xu, who, in 1999, was named a MacArthur

study Abroad students see how Asian artistic traditions influence contemporary artBy Karen-Janine Cohen

Artist Xu Bing in his studio

The PAST MeeTS The PReSenT

26 | WINTER 2014-15

Fellow during a time when he lived primarily

in the United States. The last centuries, he

noted, were all about industrialization and

westernization. Little attention was paid to

preserving China’s own tradition. “We need to

explore the essential values that come out of

this tradition.”

Talking to the students, Xu drew a direct

line from traditional landscapes to the

inspiration for his work. Reverence for nature

permeates the work of the early masters, he

explained, and landscape painting—along

with calligraphy, which is integral to China’s

visual art—are seen as the rich apex of

Chinese art. They embody the traditional

virtues of Chinese culture.

To understand those influences, students

visited museums to see the celebrated

landscape paintings from the Song and Ming

dynasties as well as early Chinese bronzes.

Along with art, students also visited historical

sites, among them the archaeological digs

in Xian that hold the Terracotta Warriors, the

buried army of China’s first emperor dating to

about 200 B.C.

A high point of the trip was two days spent

at the Yungang Grottoes, a religious shrine

and World Heritage site near Datong. Buddhas

as tall as 50 feet and exuberant stone carvings

of thousands of smaller Buddhas dating

from the fifth century attest to the arrival

and influence of Buddhism in China. There,

the students toured a section undergoing

restoration and still off limits to the general

public. Zhang Zhuo, director of the Yungang

Grottoes Research Institute, sponsored the

group’s two-night stay and held a seminar on

the challenge of conserving the sacred site

while also welcoming visitors.

The easy flow between China’s past and

present is striking, said Roderick Smith ’14.

“They still have ties to their history, all the way

from pre-history and pre-colonial times up until

now,” he said. “Chinese art has its own rules

and vernacular, based on its own tradition,

which makes it unique and at the same time,

somehow familiar.”

Expanding students’ vision and their

understanding of Chinese culture was a

goal of the trip, Yi said. “I want this to be a

transformative experience in many ways,” she

told the students upon their arrival. “I saw the

world, and the experience of learning different

cultures transformed me. I want you to have

the same experience, to transform, in spirit, in

reality, in your future. You can feel it. You can

touch it. It resonates inside you.”

Senior art history major JeanCarlos

Fernandez quickly understood Yi’s message.

“Looking out the window when you are on a

bus or a taxi adds another layer to what you

know about art,” he said. “It’s the art, the food,

the culture, all of it together.” n

Karen-Janine Cohen is a fine arts student with a

focus in drawing and ceramics, and expects to

graduate this year with a BFA.

Xu bing: wriTing beTween HeAVen AnD eArTHFebruary 14, 2015-May 24, 2015

The Frost Art Museum follows up recent

exhibits by two other Chinese artists—the world-

renowned Simon Ma and Wang Qingsong—

with a show by MacArthur Fellowship-winner

Xu Bing. The exhibitions together formed the

museum’s 2014-2015 series “3 Giants of Chinese

Contemporary Art.” Visitors are invited to view Xu

Bing’s printmaking and installation pieces, which

showcase writing as image.

The museum, at the Modesto A. Maidique

Campus, is open Tuesday-Sunday, and

admission is free. For more information, go to

theFrost.fiu.edu.

Above, a visit to the Yungang Grottoes Research Institute; at left, the Yungang Grottoes in China’s Shanxi Province feature stone carvings from the fifth and sixth centuries.

WINTER 2014-15 | 27

new cohort “deploys” in January

The next group of nursing students will

benefit from the lessons learned in year one.

David Hildreth, an academic coach for the

program, said it was good to have a small

first group because they were able to make

changes along the way with little effect on the

students. “It was a test flight,” he says.

Like most new programs, the VBSN

program has had a few issues: for example,

figuring out the pacing of classes and

scheduling classes around students’ required

reservist training. (Three of the first four

students were reservists; half of the incoming

cohort are reservists.)

Jalicia Johnson, who has worked as a lab

technician in the Army Reserve for seven

years, is among those just beginning the

program. She believes her rigorous physical

and mental training, coupled with her

experience in the lab, have prepared her for a

career in nursing.

“I’ve learned prioritization, getting things

done in a timely manner,” she said. “I’ve

learned how to lead.”

A life of serving othersStudents like Arvizu and Johnson see

the program as a step toward their dream

careers and a way to continue contributing

to society. Arvizu plans to eventually get his

master’s degree as a certified registered nurse

anesthetist, and Johnson hopes to become a

commissioned nurse in the Army Reserve.

The fact that service members have already

given to society once and want to do so again

is something that FIU values and supports.

“What we’re doing here impacts their

income levels, whether or not they’re

employed, and it can make huge differences

in their personal lives,” Olenick says. “These

vets deserve it.” n

combat-tested students who’ve seen things

that traditional nursing students have not.

“They’re a different group.”

Most come in having already mastered

fundamental procedures like administering

IVs and conducting patient assessments,

and they are comfortable working in

extremely stressful environments. Arvizu, for

example, dealt regularly with trauma injuries

such as gaping wounds, collapsed lungs

and compound fractures.

Their test at FIU is to learn to leave to

the doctors what were once commonplace

tasks for them – for example, stitching up

patients and inserting chest tubes to inflate

a collapsed lung – and instead learn to work

with pediatric and geriatric patients and

focus on post-operative care, activities they

never encountered in the military.

That can be difficult at times, Arvizu

admits, but “you have to keep an open

mind,” he says. “Try to take what the

professors tell you before what you would

already know. Learn from them.”

By Ray Boyle

I n his 20-year Army career, Victor

Arvizu was used to making split-

second, life-saving decisions on the

battlefield. More recently, the retired Army

medic had to learn to let his professors run

the show.

Arvizu literally came straight from

Afghanistan to FIU. He is one of four

students who graduated in December

from FIU’s Veterans Bachelor of Science

in Nursing (VBSN) degree program, which

debuted in January 2014 and a year later

welcomed a new cohort of 30.

Supported by a $1.3 million federal grant,

the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing

& Health Sciences program graduates

veterans with some type of medical

background in just one year instead of the

standard 18 months. Their real-world know-

how takes the place of basic courses.

“They definitely bring with them

extraordinary life experiences,” says VBSN

Program Director Maria Olenick of the

battle-tested veterans join ranks of Fiu nurses Bachelor’s program offers medics and others with medical backgrounds credit for time served

Photo by Charles Trainor Jr., Miami Herald

28 | WINTER 2014-15

Fiu 2014-’15 Alumni Association board

executive committee

Frank Peña ’99 President

eddie Hondal ’88 ’00 Vice President

Maria garcia ’05 ’08 Secretary

benjamin sardinas ’01 Treasurer

enrique Piñeiro ’03 Parliamentarian

gonzalo Acevedo ’91 ’10 Past President

officers

gabriel Albelo ’93

Juan carlos Alexander ’04

gus Alfonso ’02 ’08

Michelle Arencivia ’00

nicolas bardoni ’12

Dwayne bryant ’93

nestor caballero ’95 ’97

elizabeth cross ’89

isabel Diaz ’01

sharon Fine ’99 ’11

Anastasia garcia ’89

Abhishek Hawaldar ’05

Jorge Hernandez ’95

Michael Hernandez ’04 ’11

Miguel larrea ’96

Jaime Machado ’01’10

Michael P. Maher ’97

Ana Martinez ’92

gabriela Martin-brown ’96

Marcel Monnar ’03 ’12

Alberto Padron ’98 ’09

Pedro Pavon ’04

Alex Pereda ’97

Aslynn rivera-Tigera ’98 ’01

casandra roache Henriquez ’04, MPH ’06

colleen robb ’00 ’03

ralph rosado ’96 ’03

celina saucedo ’99 ’11

sergio Tigera ’01

erick Valderrama ’95

_________________________________

Duane wiles Executive Director Alumni Association

Young Alumni Council founding members: back row, from left, Marcos Oyola ’11; Phillip Lloyd Hamilton ’12; Hiram Hernandez ’03; Mario Martinez ’12; Travis Stokes ’09, MPA ’12; Daniel Garcia ’10, MST ’12; Jose Bowles; front row, from left, Lourdes Domin-guez ’13; Kimmie Schmidt ’09; Brene-zza Garcia ’05, MS ’07; Manny Arce ’03; Thomas Pla ’03; Adrian Molina ’10; Angelique Freire ’11; Erika Galan ’11; Carolina Bayona ’11, JD ’14.

Dear Fellow FIU Alumni:I hope the holiday season brought all you desired.

Last year my wife Samantha and I had the honor of

attending a wedding in Jupiter, Fla. Our friends, both

Gators, had a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception.

Mixed in with the many Gator alums were five of us

Panthers: Kate Wesner ’03, Camar Jones ’00 and

Len Collins ’96, in addition to Samantha and me. Once we

discovered our FIU roots, a special bond was born between

us. And while I might not be the most objective person, can I just say that the five of us were the life of

the party. Why? Because we are FIU and have much to be proud of!

The fifth largest university in the country and the second biggest in Florida, FIU has an impact on

the world that is proving greater every day. To harness that impact—specifically the influence of our

alumni—the Alumni Association is widening its circle to actively reach out to younger graduates so that

they remain an integral part of the FIU family from the moment they earn that degree. You can read

more about the Young Alumni Council at magazine.fiu.edu.

And then there is the impact of our faculty research and outreach. A friend shared with me the story

of his 10-year-old son, who has ADHD, and the amazing work of FIU’s

Center for Children and Families, which has helped his child succeed in

school and social settings. You can learn more about their programs at ccf.

fiu.edu.

Finally, this past election cycle proved how big an impact FIU can make.

In November, Miami-Dade County voters said “Yes!” to FIU by overwhelmingly supporting Expand

FIU, our initiative to explore growing the Modesto A. Maidique Campus. Meanwhile, more than 1,000

miles away, 1993 FIU grad Evelyn Sanguinetti was elected lieutenant governor of Illinois, the first

woman to hold the post. Hosted recently by the Washington, D.C., alumni chapter, Evelyn made

clear that she still bleeds blue and gold.

Our FIU is truly “Worlds Ahead.” Be proud, share your FIU story and be the “life of the party” in 2015.

Frank PeñaPresident, Alumni Association Board

Read more about the Young Alumni Council at

magazine.fiu.edu

WINTER 2014-15 | 29

Alumni Association Lifetime Member

1970sPatrick “Chip” Cassidy ’75, a professor in the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, received the 2014 FIU President’s Council Worlds Ahead Award.

1980sJoseph Haj ’84 received the 2014 Zelda Fichandler Award, which recognizes an outstanding director or choreographer who is transforming the regional arts

landscape, from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Michelle Otero Valdes ’89 recently spoke at the Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute in New Orleans on “International Conventions and their Applicability in U.S. Maritime Cases.”

1990sCharles A. Garavaglia MA ’91 was elected chairman of the City of Miami’s planning, zoning and appeals board.

Evelyn Pacino Sanguinetti ’93 ran on the Republican ticket in November and was elected lieutenant governor of Illinois. The Hialeah-raised daughter of Cuban and Ecuadorian parents majored in piano performance at FIU before going on to law school and positions as an assistant district attorney and a councilwoman in the Chicago suburb where she currently lives with her husband and three children.

Elena M. Dieppa ’94 recently sold a portion of her company, Clear Sky Property Management, and joined Boutique Hospitality Management, which manages properties in Miami, Atlanta and Panama. She is currently engaged and will marry Alexander Puga on Feb. 5, 2015.

Eugene Butler Jr. MA ’95 was recently promoted from interim executive director for Exceptional Education and director for Middle Schools to assistant superintendent for Student Services in the Tucson Unified School District in Tucson, Ariz.

Ana Maria Rodriguez ’99 was recently re-elected to the City of Doral Council, for a second four-year term.

CLASS NoTES

Alumni Association Lifetime Member

2000s Chi Ali ’00 and Veronica

Trujillo were married July 19, 2014, in Galveston, Texas, and later celebrated in the Caribbean.

Roxanne Molina ’00, MA ’06, Ph.D. ’12 was recently recognized as an Emerging Leader by PDK International, a global association of education professionals.

Rodolfo Rodriguez-Chomat ’01, MBA ’13 recently completed his first year at Solomon Search Group as the director of attorney recruitment. He specializes in attorney placements at law firms and corporations throughout the country with specific focus in South Florida. He was also recently extended membership to Beta Gamma Sigma, Delta Epsilon Iota and the Golden Key International honor societies in recognition of his academic successes while attending the MBA program at FIU.

Richard LaBarbera ’02 and Jillian Mayer ’07 received the 2014 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship.

Catherine Poindujour ’05 was recently awarded an educational specialist degree in school psychology from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Randy Mora ’06 was recently appointed Town Attorney for Kenneth City in Pinellas County, Fla.

Fabienne Kellerhals-Perez ’07 and Armando Perez welcomed their first daughter, Camilla Julia, on March 8, 2014.

Esther Colombo-Cruz MA ’08 recently showcased several of her paintings in an exhibition at the Museo Rosa Galisteo in Sante Fe, Argentina. President Rosenberg has also selected her artwork for display in the Reagan Presidential House beginning in November.

Jacklyn Meyer ’08, MS ’10 and Arthur “AJ” Meyer ’09, MS ’11 welcomed their little Panther, son Greyson Parker Meyer, on November 6, 2014.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

14th AnnuAlChArity GAlA

Honoring FIU’s Most Outstanding Alumni

to reserve a table or to learn about sponsorship opportunities,

please contact Paulina Muñoz at 305-348-4486 or Munozpau@fiu.edu.

SAve the DAte

Fiualumni.com/torch

30 | WINTER 2014-15

2002

2013

facebook.com/FIUalumni

@FIUalumni

@FIUalumni

#FIUalumni

FIUalumni.com/linkedin

FIUalumni.com/join

Membership dues help create scholarships and alumni programming, which in turn help build a stronger FIU and ultimately increases the value of your degree.

Plus, members enjoy more than 100,000 discounts from our Panther Perk Partners, a free subscription to our award-winning FIU Magazine, and more.

Don't Don't forget to visit our website, FIUalumni.com, and follow us online so you can learn about exclusive events and special offers. You can also stay in touch with us by texting FIUALUMNI to 313131.

We hope you join the FIU Alumni Association today!

CONNECT. GIVE BACK. ENJOY.

facebook.com/FIUalumni

@FIUalumni

@FIUalumni

#FIUalumni

FIUalumni.com/linkedin

FIUalumni.com/join

Membership dues help create scholarships and alumni programming, which in turn help build a stronger FIU and ultimately increases the value of your degree.

Plus, members enjoy more than 100,000 discounts from our Panther Perk Partners, a free subscription to our award-winning FIU Magazine, and more.

Don't Don't forget to visit our website, FIUalumni.com, and follow us online so you can learn about exclusive events and special offers. You can also stay in touch with us by texting FIUALUMNI to 313131.

We hope you join the FIU Alumni Association today!

CONNECT. GIVE BACK. ENJOY.

The College of Business recognized

outstanding alumni during its annual

Hall of Fame Awards gala. The 2014

winners included (from left):

Alexander Mijares MbA ’11, Alina Villasante, guillermo g. castillo ’81, randy robertson ’84 and

eric Maldonado ’86.

Rachel Fernandez ’12 and Emilio A. Urgell ’11 were married on December 7, 2013, at the Coconut Palm Inn in Tavernier, Fla.

Mary Larsen ’12 showcased her paintings in two recent Miami-based art exhibitions: “Short Story” and “11 / 11 – Eleven Artists on the Eleventh Month.”

Carmen Ferrer MIA ’14 has been accepted into the boating and nautical design doctoral degree program at the University of Genoa in Italy.

Abdel Perera ’11 recently attained his dream of becoming a Foreign Service officer. After graduating from FIU, he earned a master’s degree in international affairs from American University in Washington and served twice as an intern with the State Department. Sworn in on August 8, he has been assigned to a two-year consular tour in Buenos Aires.

Jose Pagliery ’11, a technology writer for CCNMoney, published his first book, “Bitcoin and the Future of Money,” about the currency’s mysterious beginnings, its dark side and its economic impact.

Jenise Fernandez ’10 recently accepted a reporter position as a member of the local Channel 10 (WPLG) news team. Her previous experience includes working as an assignment reporter for KATC-TV 3 in Lafayette, La., and WEAR-TV in Pensacola, Fla.

2010sSarah Bartels ’10 is currently working as a producer and casting director for a short film called Two Secrets. This is her first major film project since graduating from FIU.

Christi Fraga ’10 is the current vice mayor of Doral and youngest councilwoman in the city’s history. She was also recently appointed to the 2014-2015 Miami-Dade County League of Cities Board of Directors where she will focus on efficient government administration across municipalities.

Brian Ortiz ’11 recently earned the Ring of Honor from Pepsi in recognition of his great success as a sales associate. Given to him by CEO Indra Nooyi (the two are pictured left), the award is

the company’s highest accolade. Brian worked his way up from an internship with Pepsi to his current position as key account manager for the Southeast Region, North American Field Operations. He is based in Miami.

You sit in the quiet room, choosing work over diversion. You

understand that writing stories is not an escape but a plunge into

reality. You try to express what is inexpressible, to say what can’t be

said in any other way. You believe that only what can’t be explained

is important, and only what is ephemeral is of lasting value. You insist

on meaning, but not on answers. The point is not to answer, but to

question; not to solve, but to seek; not to preach, but to explore; not

to assure, but to agitate. Not to explain the mysteries of life, but to

celebrate the mystery itself.

You need two skills to be a fiction writer. You have to know how to

write and you have to know how to tell a story. The second skill is far

more difficult. No matter how luminous your prose or how fascinating

your characters, if you have no plot, if the characters have nothing

meaningful to accomplish, the reader will put down your story. Plot is

the gravity that holds the world of your story together. And the basic

plot of every story is: a central character wants something intensely,

goes after it despite opposition and, as a result of a struggle, comes to

a win or a loss.

You write about people in trouble, people at the end of their rope,

desperate people taking desperate measures, because only trouble is

interesting. Everything that you don’t want to happen to you or your

family and friends should happen to your characters.

And you sweat the small stuff because the truth is in the details.

Writing a story is archaeology. Not all the details in our notes will make

it to the page, but each affords us insight into our characters. The

details that make the cut will be those that are vivid and consequential,

that express a theme or advance the plot while revealing character.

Revelations lurk in details.

Stories aren’t written but rewritten. Most of the important revelations

happen in revision, but you have to have something to revise—a

complete first draft. Beginning, middle, end. The purpose of this draft

is not to get it right but to get it written. To expect too much from the

first draft is to misunderstand the writing process. A good first draft is a

failed first draft. If at first you succeed, try, try again. n

We read stories—and write them—to

make sense of our lives, to be entertained

and to feel something. We read and write

to be transported to another, more lucid

and compelling world, to learn about

ourselves and what it means to be human.

This narrative impulse is as basic as

breathing.

The first commandment of fiction writing

is Sit Your Ass in the Chair. Writing is a

physical activity. There are decidedly more people who want to have

written than there are people who want to write. Writing is what you

do, not what you’ve done. Writers write. And writing is work. So you

sit in your chair at your desk, and this is what you bring with you:

• A sense of wonder

• Patience

• A love of words

• Passion

• Doubt, anxiety and fear

• Time and lots of it

now we dispel three myths:

1. We are not inspired to write. We write and then we are inspired.

2. Writer’s block is an excuse. If you didn’t write today, it’s because

you chose not to.

3. Writing a story is not about freedom. There’s nothing so

tyrannical, so paralyzing, as the blank page.

The first act of writing is noticing, seeing what others don’t. You

savor what they miss. It’s a provocative world out there, and you make

yourself susceptible to it. You try to see as many levels of meaning as

you can. You give your imagination opportunities. You present it with as

many images, concepts, ideas and paradoxes as you can—and some

will fire up your brain.

how to Write a storyCreative Writing Professor and novelist John Dufresne delivered a captivating talk at this year’s

TEDxFIU: Fearless Journey on how to write a story. This passage is adapted from his talk. Watch the talk at go.fiu.edu/tedxfiu2014

32 | WINTER 2014-15

VIP: Very Important Panther

Photo by Branaman Photography

Diane ramy Faulconer • Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences, 1974

• Master of Science in Management, 1974

• Lifetime Member, FIU Alumni Association

Q: you spent nearly 40 years in the nursing profession. what attracted you to the field?A: As a 12-year-old I went into the hospital for an ear infection.

To pass the time, I read all the then-popular Cherry Ames novels,

which were about a mystery-solving nurse. I also greatly admired

the nurses who took care of me. That was a great motivator, and

so in high school I enrolled in all the courses required to get into

nursing school.

Q: And did you go straight into nursing school?A: The day after high school graduation I was on an ocean liner

headed to Italy with my grandparents. We stayed for three months,

and when I returned I inquired about admission at the nursing

school affiliated with a college in my hometown in Connecticut. I

was accepted even though classes had started a month before, so

I spent the time trying to catch up on everything I had missed. More

than a decade later, I earned two degrees from FIU.

Q: Dean ora strickland likes to say, “nursing can take you in so many directions.” was that the case for you?A: Definitely. Most of my career was spent at Mount Sinai Medical

Center in Miami Beach, where I worked my way up from a team

leader in the surgical unit to supervisor of the operating room to

coordinating the ambulatory services of 52 specialty clinics and,

finally, serving as director of nursing for the operating room and

post-anesthesia care unit. During that time I published more than

two dozen articles and was active on the editorial boards of several

nursing publications, not to mention managing seven-figure budgets

and a large staff. Later, I worked as an independent consultant

specializing in healthcare operations, interim management and

quality assurance.

Q: you and husband lee made a seven-figure planned gift in support of graduate students pursuing careers in nursing and business. what prompted this generosity?

A: We were influenced by the actions of Warren Buffet and others

who have set an example of giving back to the community. The best

way to support the community is to educate people. This is the right

decision for us.

Q: you have retired from nursing. How do you spend your time?A: I have traveled the world—over 120 countries—visiting some

as many as three or four times. I continue to travel and have many

great experiences and meet such interesting people.

WINTER 2014-15 | 33 FALL 2013 | 33

First FIU President Charles E. Perry, left, stands in 1972 on the steps of FIU’s first building, Primera Casa, with artist Albert Vrana. To enhance the aesthetics of the building affectionally known as PC —the five-story concrete structure was once the largest in the State University System with more than 200,000 square feet of floor space —Vrana received a $40,000 commission to create the bronze Las Cuatro Razas (The Four Races), which is 103 feet wide and still adorns the facade today.

get the full story at go.fiu.edu/historyphoto

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