Orlando Regional Medical Center: Service Learning Experience

Empress N A Alleyne

My project aimed to evaluate the medical atmosphere within Orlando Health’s Orlando Regional Medical Center. During my service learning experience, I had the pleasure of working alongside many doctors and nurses while learning the ins and outs of the hospital setting. I gained knowledge I never believed I could gain before my experience at the Regional Medical Center. Overall, I feel that this experience allowed me to not only benefit my own well-being, but it allowed me to benefit others. Although my service did not entail a hearty workload, my service significantly impacted a population of individuals more than I realized during the time of my experience, and for that, I am genuinely grateful.
Donation Sorting within Central Florida

Brayden S. Anthony

have taken the last semester with Second Harvest Food Bank to participate in Donation Sorting for over 25 hours of volunteering, which gave back food to the Central Florida area. Second Harvest Food Bank’s purpose is to meet the basic need of food that impoverished and malnourished people cannot meet themselves. This poster will display how I used this activity to work on my leadership skills, show what I had to do to become a better leader and how I used this activity to help my community. I will also be discussing important traits that I have developed from working with Second Harvest.
Brookshire

Kirsten Tyra H. Ayson

Throughout the semester, I have been helping to facilitate classroom operations at Brookshire elementary school. Although this includes tasks such as cleaning up and organizing papers, much of my work is done in regards to forming relationships with each of the students and getting to know them each individually.
Giving Puppies a Second Chance: Our Experience With Save a Life Pet Rescue

Camryn Marie Baker, Leandra Bodden, Breanna Lenz, James Sproull, and Rafael Toranzo

Our group of five chose to volunteer with Save A Life Pet Rescue for our LDR 3215 class. We helped over 50 dogs get adopted in the span of 4 months. Our time was spent working adoption events, advocating for no-kill shelters, and encouraging the community to engage in adopting and/or fostering dogs. Digitally, we created a brand new logo for the organization that will be used for all of their future advertisements. As a group, we discovered ways to improve the quality of life for dogs that are in the process of finding homes. We were also able to learn what it means to connect with the community around us in order to promote healthy adoption. Save A Life is an organization that has supported our participation in making active change happen in our community.
The Opioid Epidemic and Florida's Policies to Address It.

Elizabeth L. Barnum

The Opioid Epidemic was ignited by Purdue Pharmaceutical’s prescription opioid Oxycontin in 1997, which initiated a nearly tenfold increase in non-cancer pain prescriptions by 2002 (Bhattacharya). This exponential growth had devastating effects on the United States, with millions of opioid addictions and almost 280,000 deaths from prescription opioids alone (“Opioid Overdose”). Florida emerged as the epicenter of this crisis, hosting 90 of the top 100 physicians ordering opioids (Reuter) and purchasing 85% of oxycodone sold to medical practitioners nationwide in 2010 (“Remarks at the Operation Pill Nation II Announcement”). State policies and DEA operations were initiated from 2010 to 2012 to combat the crisis (Johnson). However, the problems persisted, leading to the passage of House Bill 21 in 2018, limiting the supply of opioids to 3 days in most circumstances. Upon being implemented on July 1, 2018, there were immediately sharp decreases in the mean days’ supply and dispensing rates of opioids (Hincapie-Castillo, Potnuru).

My project aims to demonstrate both the rapid spread of the opioid crisis and the effectiveness of policies put into place to address it. I used CDC and IQVIA Xponent data to map the number of opioid prescriptions per 100 people in Florida counties from 2006-2020 in ArcGIS, then presented these in a critical map via ArcGIS StoryMaps. Each map, accompanied by critical details and quotes from those affected, quantitatively and qualitatively highlights the crisis's severity. The narrative concludes with assessing Florida’s actions to address the crisis and necessary efforts going forward.
Special Needs Camporee

Lauren S. Barthel Ms.

The Special Needs Camporee is an event created to unite the community. This event specifically caters towards children with disabilities and their families. At this event we had numerous activities such as fishing, boat rides, games, traditional Indian dancing, and much more. I was the chairman of this event; therefore, I led the event with the help of others. Some of the tasks we had to accomplish to make sure this event was successful were recruiting volunteers and creating a program. We had to reach out to numerous organizations to ask for volunteers. We had over 300 plus volunteers. Regarding the program, we had to develop a schedule and contact volunteers and organizations asking them to participate in the camporee.
Project Nur: Illuminating Lives through Islamic Society's Community Service in Central Florida

Adam Bawatneh

This poster presents an in-depth exploration of my service experience at the Islamic Society of Central Florida (ISCF), where I have been serving as the head chef for the Family Night event. It delves into the challenges and triumphs encountered during my service, particularly in light of the recent conflict in Palestine. The poster also reflects on the personal growth and leadership development I have experienced throughout this journey.
Serving Knights Pantry

Baylee Behrens and Brendan Myers

Throughout this semester, we were both weekly volunteers at the Knights Helping Knights Pantry, a food pantry on the UCF campus that provides free food for current students. Our duties included processing donations, stocking the shelves, greeting students at the front desk, answering phone calls, and operating the checkout station. Our LEAD Scholars course taught us a lot about connecting our leadership styles with our spiritual beliefs. Being able to support this organization in its mission to provide students with free accessible food was something that we greatly enjoyed, and that allowed us to be involved with something that aligned with our personal spiritual beliefs that we should give back to those in need when we are in a position to be able to.
Save a Life Pet Rescue Culture Audit

Talia Ben-David, Kadyn Duffy, Rachel Blank, Hannah Phillips, and Tatyannah Santos-Lopez
Clean The World: A Mission for Global Sanitation

Anisha B. Bissessar and Ahmad Shaqqou

This presentation dives into our experience volunteering at Clean the World, an organization that recycles hygiene products to deliver to families across the world who don't have access to them. We learned more about what it means to be a servant leader through the welcoming and uplifting atmosphere the people working there created for us.
Unsustainable Urban Planning and Its Social Impact

Emelina G. Brown

The purpose of my project was to research a social justice issue and find out how the community can help work toward solving the problem. I researched the issue and came up with ways to get involved. I learned about how unsustainable infrastructure negatively impacts social communities, like caretakers. I also learned about my personal stake in the issue and why this issue is so important. Additionally, I practiced some of things I recommended that the community start doing, including preparing to attend a city council meeting to fight for an important problem relating to this issue. I walked away with a newfound understanding of social justice and the task at hand.
Advent Health Downtown Orlando Heroes

Madisyn M. Burchfield

My service-learning project that I partnered with Advent Health Downtown Orlando to join in accomplishing is synonymous to their mission: extending the healing ministry of Christ. While volunteering with Advent Health and the city of Orlando, I was able to work with patients from all works of life alongside the hardest working healthcare professionals that I call the heroes of downtown Orlando. The biggest act of love and support you can give to this world is serving one another with your time- which is exactly what Advent Health does. While volunteering with Advent, I was given the opportunity to shadow Orthopedic Trauma nurses and Orthopedic Surgery Physician Assistants. While working with the nurses, I gained clinical experience with patients that were in their most vulnerable moments, giving them support and care alongside the nurses. To see their faces light up when you give them encouragement and hope is the most rewarding part. While shadowing the PAs, I gained insight into what the healthcare world is truly like from a physician assistant’s point of view, and I was able to be a listening ear for them as I assisted them in their daily duties while working with patients.
Environmental Education in Higher Education: A Service Learning Perspective

Hunter R. Burtha

(Word Count: 107) Underwent a service-learning case study of the UCF Arboretum’s facilities. Examined students' thoughts, knowledge, and feelings about Environmental Education. Examined what the Arboretum could do to further increase engagement and purpose for students on campus, as well as increase knowledge and student well-being. Read and analyzed journal article about a case study on the effects of Environmental Education on children in K-12 schools. Also analyzed a journal article on how to make volunteerism more prioritized for college students. For each article, concepts were applied to logic models and asset maps in order to gain a full understanding of how to increase Environmental Education and awareness on campus.
Whale Chat

Elise Butler, Kouji Onari, Natalia Martinez, Trey Martello, and Megan Almond

By volunteering with The Cetalingua Project, we are assisting in further research being done to further understand this species. The goal of this project is necessarily revolved around a problem, but more of a curiosity, we are in the dark about the Humpback songs, and many other species’ forms of communication, and many are curious on how to breakdown this communication. We will be assisting in various different forms of classification of whale songs.
Knights Exemplar

Joshua Carrizales

This project is a dive into what the Knights Exemplar organisation is about and what they do on campus to help individuals with special needs. I also detail as to what I have learnt in class and how it relates to the organisation and to myself as a whole. There are also details about what it means to be a citizen and what responsibilities might come with such position. I also talk about how others may be able to relate to the program and how they may currently relate to people with special needs as well as offer some insight into what we (as a society) can do to help make each of these individuals lives better, one soul at a time.
Poverty in the Past and Present

Emma J. Cassidy Ms.

The purpose of this project is to explore poverty and see how we as a society can aid those who are going hungry. Along with a few studies, the author also went out and made her own experiences. The author shares her experience of volunteering at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orlando. Additionally, she informs the audience on all this organization has done in order to help the great Orlando area. It is amazing to be able to even make such a small impact on poverty and serve the community. Additionally, it is amazing the comradery that can come out of volunteering for an organization such as this one.
Volunteering to Better Orlando's Environment

James Christoffersen

For my Service Learning Project, I volunteered with the Seminole Education, Restoration, and Volunteer (SERV) Program. The purpose of my project was to see how local organizations help to maintain natural areas and control pollution in their communities. SERV performs numerous services to Seminole County, including removing invasive plant species, lake restoration projects, waterway cleanups, storm drain marking projects, and an education program. From my time with SERV, I learned about the importance of nature restoration organizations like SERV in their respective communities, the importance of maintaining our natural lands, and the leadership qualities that are needed to head an impactful organization like the SERV Program.
Military & Veteran Student Success

Christopher Clark, Kate Rumisek, Anyelina Izzo, Sidrah Tufail, and Vihan Yalamanchili

Our U-LEAD group collaborated with Mr. Michael Kepner, UCF’s Director of Military and Veteran’s Student Success (MVSS). The mission of the MVSS is to create an enriching and inclusive environment for military-affiliated students to achieve educational and career goals through academic success and community partnerships. In keeping with its mission, MVSS places miniature U.S. flags on campus every year since 2013. The number of flags on display corresponds to the military/veteran students attending UCF in Fall—1,400 flags were planted in 2022. This helps military-affiliated students through best practices, policies, and culture.
Give Kids The World Village

Grayson F. Clements

Give Kids the World Village is an 89-acre non-profit village in Kissimmee, FL, that partners with organizations such as Make-A-Wish to provide theme park tickets and housing to terminally ill children. The villages runs on volunteers, from their on-site shuttle service to serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner to operating wheelchair-friendly rides. They rely on volunteers to make sure that families can get the most out of their one-week vacations, and just worry about spending time with their family.
Food Insecurity and Food Deserts

Calissa L. Cowan Ms
Animal Welfare and Conservation: The Ecological Impact of Outdoor Cats

Angela F. Dauber

In September 2023, I began volunteering at Pet Alliance Orlando. Pet Alliance is one of the largest animal welfare organizations in central Florida, and it consists of two shelters in Sanford and downtown Orlando. I performed 16 hours of service as a “Kitty Cuddler” volunteer this semester. Though I have lots of experience with cat rescue service, I learned a lot about how Pet Alliance works and how their adoption services intersect with their other services such as their pet food pantry, veterinary care, and trap-neuter-vaccinate return programs. In addition to my service, I researched the ecological effects of outdoor cat populations.
Examining the Role of CtEG using Drosophila

JaDaya V. Davis, Om Patel, and Sebastian Velez

This project focused on creating viable drosophila models that could be used to evaluate and understand the significance of the N-tarp portion in the effector genes of Chlamydia Trachomatis. During our project we performed multiple DNA clean ups, PCR's, gel electrophoresis, double digestions, and DNA ligations. In this we learned not only the methodological importance within these laboratory techniques but that a great deal of learning occurs in being able to evaluate and analyze ways to troubleshoot when intended results from an experiment are not observed.
Halloween Service Project

Pilar De Jesus-Centeno

The purpose of my Halloween Service Project was to help raise funds for Ascension Catholic Community. For this event, I had to help plan a "haunted" escape room, the entrance room to the haunted house, as well has help create and build things for the event from scratch. Throughout this event, I learned that without having a team to divide all the tasks it would have almost been impossible to make this event happen. I also learned how satisfying and rewarding it is to give up time and effort to help the community without expecting anything in return. I also learned that through volunteering, one can make personal connection, for example a lot of the volunteers I used to see at mass every Sunday and not know their names, now I have created friendly relationships with the volunteers, and we actually look now to sit together at mass.
Community Music in Puerto Rico: Bomba as a Tool for Community Development

Katia Destine

I participated in a summer study away in Puerto Rico. I conducted a qualitative study on how Bomba serves as a tool for community development in Afro-Puerto Rican communities. My experience was hosted by the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón and NGRX (pronounced as /ˈnēɡre/), a local student organization committed to showcasing and celebrating the vibrant Afro-Caribbean community at Sagrado. I engaged with community members and explored numerous historical landmarks. I also participated in a comprehensive Bomba course to delve into Bomba's cultural and historical dimensions and its significance within the community.

My summer research proved to be an incredibly enlightening experience. It allowed me to immerse myself and connect with diverse individuals, fostering personal and academic growth. It also provided me with valuable skills in qualitative research and research design.

As I reflect on this experience with fondness, I am motivated to channel my newfound knowledge and skills into meaningful contributions. I aspire to research marginalized groups further, utilizing cultural tools like Bomba to drive community development. This project has been pivotal in reshaping my perspective, highlighting the transformative potential of cultural practices in bolstering resilience and empowerment within underserved communities. Looking forward, I am eager to apply these insights to real-world scenarios and positively impact community development initiatives.
Wrangling All Corners of Education

Armani A. Diaz

In my service-learning project, I went straight to the classrooms filled with students with special needs and helped them gain equal access to the quality education of their peers. I specifically went into intensive reading classes, and gave the students space to learn with my assistance in guiding them through not just their classwork but self-worth as well. They go through many struggles and being present for them, is one of my most gratifying experiences in my life thus far.