Improving Educational Access, Quality, and Environment in Rural Intabazwe, South Africa

Divya Joshi

Despite the rapid modernization and urban development in South Africa in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, many of the country’s citizens in its rural and underdeveloped areas struggle with meeting their basic needs such as food security, sanitation, and education due to mismanagement of resources and government corruption. Through my Service-Learning Project, I aimed to try to lessen these disparities through targeting educational access, quality, and environment in the rural town of Intabazwe, South Africa. For access to education, I wanted to have a menstrual product drive since millions of South African girls miss a large part of their schooling every year just because they don’t have access to menstrual products. I also demonstrated how to use the pads to the girls and women who had never seen a pad before. For educational quality and environment, I donated various school supplies, including dry-erase math workbooks and a massive whiteboard, and playground equipment, including a trampoline, two seesaws, and two netball hoops. Throughout this process, I constantly had to re-budget and reschedule to account for new issues that arose every day. From this, I grew profoundly in my project management skills, learning adaptability to be able to have contingencies for any unexpected situations. Most meaningfully, however, I was able to connect with the people of Intabazwe on a personal level and really listen to their wants and needs, allowing me to serve them best and to learn from them.
Battle Against Bleaching: Nurturing a Curiosity for Coral Reefs

Julia Kruger, Samuel Prevatt, Tyler Callaghan, and Reese Hamlin

We visited Winter Springs Elementary School to teach students about coral bleaching. Our team wanted to share a topic we are passionate about while simultaneously inspiring others to care about corals. Our team visited one third grade class and a second group of third and fourth grade students. In total we engaged with 34 students!
ADHD and Metacognition

Isabel E. Latorre-Lagos

Metacognition is a helpful solution to address the symptoms of ADHD. Through my research case study, I did a semester long project with a 3rd grade student with ADHD working on Metacognition to improve reading comprehension. This project consisted of doing multiple assessments/inventories to find the areas of reading this student needed to grow in. After seeing the need, I met it with an intervention. My student showed needs in phonics and reading comprehension. I administered four research-based interventions on Metacognition (thinking about your thinking) to improve reading comprehension. The results showed a positive increase in reading comprehension scores. I decided on my intervention through my mini-literature review which revealed the correlation between ADHD and metacognition. Not only is metacognition a tool to be taught to improve reading comprehension but, it is also a strategy to help students with ADHD.
ADHD & Metacognition

Isabel E. Latorre-Lagos

Metacognition is a helpful solution to address the symptoms of ADHD. Through my research case study, I did a semester long project with a 3rd grade student with ADHD working on Metacognition to improve reading comprehension. This project consisted of doing multiple assessments/inventories to find the areas of reading this student needed to grow in. After seeing the need, I met it with an intervention. My student showed a need in reading comprehension. I administered four research-based interventions on Metacognition (thinking about your thinking) to improve reading comprehension. The results showed a positive increase in reading comprehension scores. I decided on my intervention through my mini-literature review which revealed the correlation between ADHD and metacognition. Not only is metacognition a tool to be taught to improve reading comprehension but, it is also a strategy to help students with ADHD.
Storytelling Through Improv

Kirby Lee and Leigh Green

In partnership with UCP Bailes, we devised a 3- week workshop designed toward the needs of the class expressed to us. Our students were focusing on Language Arts and writing. We proposed three class times consisting of how we can use our voice and bodies to tell a story, and how we can collaborate as a group through improvisation and dramatic based pedagogy to create a beginning, middle, and end of a story. The workshop lesson plans were devised for 4th - 5th graders and utilized improvisational storytelling exercises and playwriting tools to devise their collaborative story. The lessons themselves were 45 minutes each. Learning objectives were set by the Florida CPALMS standards for Theatre and Language Arts to ensure a comprehensive educational experience.
Professional Development for Graduate School: ePortfolio and Networking

Wesley Lim

The development of an ePortfolio offers a digital introduction during networking events in an increasingly technology-driven society. Throughout one semester in Biomedical Sciences Careers, MCB 3933, I developed an ePortfolio with components like a resume, personal statement, individual development plan, and elevator speech. In my ePortfolio, I had three areas of focus that showcased my highlights and skills in my undergraduate education: the academic skill sets I developed, my relevant research experiences, and my time as a teaching assistant for multiple courses.

As part of the course, students were required to contact at least four people in their desired field to develop their networking and communication skills. I reached out to nine people since the start of Biomedical Sciences Careers. I contacted four people while taking the class, and the other five were contacted after finishing the course. Of the people contacted, a little over half responded to initial and following emails, and over half that responded agreed to meet in person or virtually. Overall, I had a 33% response rate, with three out of the nine contacts agreeing to meet with me to discuss what a career in academia is like.

Developing an ePortfolio allowed me to stand out while networking and showcased my personal mission statement and academic career goals. Moving forward, I see myself fully utilizing my ePortfolio to develop my digital brand further and help me network with more people in the biomedical science field.
Knight-Thon

Yael Litwak

Knight-Thon is something I have been passionate about since the beginning of my experience at UCF. I discovered Knight-Thon through my sister, who had been involved during her college years, and soon followed her footsteps to become involved. I discovered this passion through my sorority's team and am now serving on an Impact Team to further my time, support and involvement in Knight-Thon. I have learned so much about the operations, behind the scenes with the Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, and working and meeting the miracle families. I have loved my time getting to further my love for Knight-Thon and hope my passion shines through my project.

Link to video: https://knightsucfedu39751-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/yaellitwak_knights_ucf_edu/EeItwvoBdjRIoonHiRyzbdIB-esNIJ8U2-DVYadbo5g5RQ?e=rXvn76
One Call At a Time: Offering Support to Bereaved Caregivers and Loved Ones

Joy Louis

Hospice care is an often overlooked and misunderstood part of the medical system, and one that I dove into firsthand for my Service-Learning project. As a telephone volunteer at VITAS Healthcare, one of the largest hospice care providers in the nation, I provided bereavement support for many family caregivers after their loved ones had passed away. This work allowed me to explore practices within the hospice industry and shed light on myths and misconceptions surrounding it. I was also able to see firsthand the impact of VITAS on the Central Florida community, as well as the vast positive impact resources provided by the organization have on patients and their families.
Serving with SERV

Parker Maron and Bryce Ballard

Our project’s goal is to share our experience of volunteering with SERV; an environmental service organization located in Seminole County whose mission is to clean and restore local waterways and parks. Some of the things we did with them range from removing trash at local park to getting down and dirty, planting native water plants at a lake in order to slow and prevent shore erosion. These events SERV held showed us the benefit of serving our community: it made sure community areas stayed clean, that local lakes would stay healthy for the public to enjoy, and allowed us to form new friendships with other community members who were also volunteering. While this was the most obvious benefit to working with SERV, we also learned it gave us a chance to build our leadership skills and lead in the activities we were doing.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as a Predictor of Adulthood Anxiety States

Emma N. Martin

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are instances of childhood trauma such as caregiver negligence, domestic abuse, and other dysfunctional relationships that a child may encounter inside or outside of their family. Significant evidence suggests ACEs are a predictor of youth complications, such as attentional, learning, emotional, and behavioral deficits. Anxiety and depressive disorders are two of the most costly childhood health conditions. The more instances of ACE indicated, the “higher [the] odds of anxiety or depression,” with an increased likelihood of internalized comorbidities or engagement with self-sabotaging behaviors (Elmore et al., 2020). This study addresses potential precursors to adulthood anxiety using the ACE scale while cross-referencing current anxiety states using the Hamilton-Anxiety Scale (HAM-A). Our study found that all cases of ACEs produced general anxiety symptomology (irritability and worrisome anticipation), anhedonic qualities (depression onset), concentration/memory deficits, sleep complications, uncontrollable twitching/uptightness, and social anxiety in adulthood across 85 university students. These results coincide with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), but could also implicate the causation of other anxiety conditions, like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), or specialized phobia.
Addressing Community Engagement in Combatting Hunger

Hannah Mason

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida gifted me a great opportunity to volunteer for the less fortunate people of Orlando who are suffering from hunger and longing for a meal. At Second Harvest Food Bank I was given the task of loading boxes with nutritional foods and packaging them in a warehouse in safe containers, in order to be distributed around Central Florida to those affected by homelessness and hunger. My topic for this project is combatting hunger in the United States and worldwide. Hunger and starvation are worldwide pandemics that often can go unnoticed in the United States. Second Harvest is an organization that combats eroding democracy by providing food, help, resources, and donations to those who need it.
7 Cups Therapy

Allie McCutcheon and Jasmine Awad

The purpose of this project is to showcase our service learning experiences from volunteering with 7 cups. 7 Cups is a therapy website that provides free emotional support and talk therapy to those who really need that help. Jasmine and I created a 7 cups listener account where we would log onto the 7 cups portal and find a member who needs help. This whole website is all anonymous in order to protect the listeners and the members identities. Jasmine and I would chat with members and figure out what seems to be troubling them and how to combat that trouble. Some of the things that we learned was to become quick problem solvers and how to build better communication skills.
Dexmedetomidine VS. Propofol for Use in Intravenous Sedation during Third Molar Extractions

Madeline McNutt, Jordyn Oristano, Nardy Pena, Amelia Green, and Stephanie Leon
Caring for UCP

Jailimar Montanez, Jordan Teitelbaum, Samantha Jorgesen, Sydney Stillman, Adriana Chaparro, and Jeremy Colon

The purpose of our project was to assist and foster connections with students and faculty at Unlocking Children's Potential (UCP) Charter Schools. The main focus of our group's service was to assist with day to day classroom activities at UCP. Our goal was to provide a helping hand and watchful eye for the faculty teaching students at UCP. Fostering connections with students at UCP was also an important goal for our service. Each of us individually served in different places at UCP, but every member of the group had extensive contact with at least 13 students in a classroom setting, as well as teachers or teaching aids. Our hope was to foster positivity and meaningful connections within UCP, while also being a help to those around us.
Theater Studies in Creative Drama - A Journey of Transformation

Alyne S. Montenegro

The Theater Studies in Creative Drama project at UCF aimed to explore and implement Drama-Based Instruction (DBI) in education, with a specific focus on creating a lesson plan for children in hospitals. The project began by delving into the significance of play in childhood and its connection to theater. Through interdisciplinary collaboration with UCF nursing students, the team crafted a dynamic lesson plan, incorporating theatrical elements to enhance the educational experience for young patients. The To-Go Package, designed for children unable to attend in person, extended the impact of the project. The key activities involved reflection on personal experiences, connecting play to theater, understanding diversity, and communicating in diverse ways. Through this journey, I learned that DBI is a powerful tool for fostering creativity, communication skills, and empathy, transforming the traditional learning experience into a dynamic and inclusive educational approach.
Women's Rights and Leadership with UCF Homecoming

Gabrielle Murison
Volunteer Recruitment and Retention in Ecological Restoration: A Service-Learning Perspective

Vishanth Murugesan, Shivani Hari, Jaclyn Walgreen, Danielle Bodziak, and Jayna Manohalal

Environmental groups combat global warming and climate change using a variety of restoration efforts, often with the help of volunteers. In this project, we examine the impact of volunteerism on coastal ecological restoration work with the Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab (CEELAB) at the University of Central Florida (UCF). We recruited volunteers from UCF Pre-Med American Medical Student Association (AMSA) to help with mangrove restoration and oyster unit construction service dates. We studied the influence of the work through factors such as the number of service hours contributed and social media attention garnered, both indicating a significant impact. As a service-learning project, we also learned how this project benefited us by enabling real-world associations to coursework and providing a basis for professional connections.
Combatting Social Isolation in Greater Orlando

Rishi Nair and Nicholas Mistry

The state of Florida is home to one of the largest retiree and Veteran populations in the country. As people age, they are more prone to suffer from physical and mental conditions that preclude their ability to live a fulfilling life. This could result in social isolation and loneliness, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We partnered with Seniors First’s Project Connect program to improve social interactions among the elder community with virtual trivia events. These weekly games helped us identify areas of emotional need, such as improving self-esteem, introducing memories of seniors' lives when they were younger, and engaging in friendly competition. Additionally, seniors improved their self-esteem over weeks of playing Jeopardy-style events; we predict this is due to greater familiarity with the types of questions and people they interact with. However, we identified a dire need for stronger history, geography and current events-related education in the elder community. Thus, we started combining these categories of questions to make our events more interactive, which resulted in much higher levels of enthusiasm. Overall, we hope to bridge the knowledge gap and strive for a happier elder community
Analysis of Universal Healthcare

Jay Patel

The purpose of this project is to volunteer and help the patients at the downtown Shepherd’s Hope clinic. Throughout this project I was most responsible for the front desk and discharge coordination of new and returning patients, I was responsible for inputting them into the system and organizing the data for the scribe to easily access. During this service period I learned a lot about the inner workings of a health facility and how hectic it can get at times as problems within the system and it taught me to always be on my feet ready to help in terms of crisis.
The Importance of Mental Health Amongst the LGBTQ+ Community

Adrian Perotin

When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, it has become known with more studies and research that many in the community have suffered through traumatic experiences regarding sexual assault and/or violence. This has caused a big impact on the mental health of the victims, but because there is not enough resources to the LGBTQ+ community that are open to them, those victims have a hard time recovering or feeling seen. Amongst the community are of course the youth coming in from the next generations that may unfortunately deal with these issues in safety and mental health, so they deserve to have centers accessible to them to discuss and resolve these types of issues. All research or studies that have been towards these issues within the community have all found that centers are out there, but even those centers have a hard time being seen like the people within the community. The best course of action is to spread information about these organizations, as well as bring awareness that LGBTQ+ people are suffering from mental health and that like anyone else, deserve to have resources to help them in a safe and inclusive manner.
Unveiling a Mystery: Investigating the Chlamydia ipaM Gene Using the Model Organism Drosophila

Hillary Quach and Vedwattie Ramdeo

In today's society, Chlamydia is becoming an increasingly serious concern. It is interesting to note that while the ipaM gene has never been studied in Drosophila, it is involved in Chlamydia’s life cycle. In this course, we are looking into different Chlamydia effector genes, specifically ipaM, to clone it into a transformation vector to produce transgenic Drosophila. With the collected DNA, a double digest was performed for the plasmid and PCR product. The ligated DNA will then be E. coli transformed and we intend to troubleshoot this. We are awaiting further data from observations of transgenic Drosophila with the cloned ipaM gene. Our expected results will bring light to ipaM’s function in relation to Chlamydia.
Housing Inequality and Community Engagement

Gabrielle E. Quinones

This project analyzes the best ways to address housing inequality through the lens of community engagement. I volunteered at a non-profit to get 25 hours of community service learning that focuses on preventing and reducing homelessness. I volunteered in order to understand how community engagement can help in the fight against housing inequality. This experience helped me understand how community engagement can help reduce and prevent homelessness through supporting the homeless community with low prices for clothing and free healthy food which in the long term, reduces housing inequality. Furthermore, it helped me understand how even little actions can have a huge impact if you are helping someone in need.
The Effects Of Social Media

Milo Rasmussen

In an ever evolving era of technology, the invention of social media has seen a profound impact on individual lives as it has become increasingly accessible to larger swaths of people. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter (X) have enabled a sense of global connection, connecting people from all around the world. With this relatively recent invention that influences the daily lives of many people, one such population that we will delve a little more into is the consequences and affects that using social media has on the mental health/ wellbeing of people. This poster aims to understand and inform us on the positives and negatives of using social media. Research is still ongoing in this field and is only relatively new so new methods and analyses of social media are being implemented to provide more accurate results for future research to build upon.
Thriving with OCA

Dyanna Reynoso Aguirre and Hermela Shenkute

Working with OCA taught us how to work and help, people with special needs, more specifically children. Throughout our volunteering we helped kids at OCA with their arts and crafts, made sure they had their needs met and worked on building the skills when they were taught during their group sessions. We learned how to redirect their behaviors to something more positive, and we learned how to better communicate with kids who are nonverbal to make sure their needs are met.
Inspiring the Next Generation: A Classroom Visit Exploring Marine Ecosystem Invaders

Declan Ridgeway, Madeline Cox, Lauren Mettke, Brittany Shirley, and Morgan Vasser

We visited Geneva Elementary School and met with a class of fifteen fifth-grade students to teach them about marine invasive species in Florida. Our goal was to introduce them to a marine environmental issue that would inspire an interest in them for marine conservation. Our team created a presentation and activities for the class to better their understanding of the concept of invasive species. We created an outdoor game for the class, the point being to display how invasive species can outcompete native species using lionfish as an example. Two students were sharks, three students were lionfish, and the rest of the students were reef fish. The objective was to see who could capture the most fish, lionfish, or sharks. The lionfish were given an unfair advantage over the sharks and thus showed the students how lionfish outcompete native predators. We also gave the students a lionfish-themed take-home item, made an invasive species photo frame for photo opportunities, a take-home wanted poster that they could design and write facts on that they learned, and a pre- and post-test to gauge how much the students learned. This experience was invaluable in teaching us how to communicate scientific ideas to a broader audience in an engaging and meaningful way.

Explore

Connect