*Update* Student Hannah Pierce has been awarded the Young Non-profit Professional award: "I encourage everyone to go out and create art with a child. You’ll find that it’s a beautiful experience.” Alumnus Bo Bozard has been awarded the Young Private Sector Professional award: "We do common things, uncommonly well, and when you do things uncommonly well over a period of time, it endures, and when it endures, it becomes defining. And in Steven Thomas' business class at Flagler, we learned that if something defines it becomes a brand. I’m so glad to be a part of a brand that does common things uncommonly well.”

This past Saturday, hundreds of students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of Flagler College reached out and raised up for their bi-annual Day of Service. Over 12 nonprofits received the influx of volunteers for one day of intensive, focused and scheduled service to get the projects done that required a bulk of time, people, or both.

The Flagler College women's basketball team brought home some Peach Belt Conference hardware from the pre-tournament banquet tonight. Tabitha Odabe, Chris Wilson, and Kierra Crane were selected to the all-conference teams while Erika Lang-Montgomery was named as the PBC Coach of the Year and Odabe took home PBC Defensive Player of the Year honors for the second year in a row.

Flagler College Forum on Government and Public Policy is an opportunity for students to attend presentations from guest speakers, including nationally-recognized journalists and commentators. This type of event provides students with co-curricular credit, a Flagler program that encourages students to attend events, lectures and activities that represent a well-rounded, cross-disciplinary, liberal education. Forums are also open to the public, creating a space for community interaction.

On Feb. 2, Flagler Graphic Design students attended the American Advertising Federation ADDY awards at WJCT studios in Jacksonville and won a total of 12 awards.

The 50th anniversary year culminated in a gala last week, held in the Lewis Auditorium and Ponce de Leon Dining Room. In the spirit of gratitude for those who have sacrificed their time and treasures, there were many thanks said and tributes spoken. However, the focus was on the students and how Flagler is moving forward.

This academic year, Flagler College welcomed Clint Weinberg, adjunct professor of applied voice and pep band director, to our faculty. Since joining us, he has made major progress in the music department by heading the new pep band and coaching voice students to victory.

On Feb. 27 at the Student Center on Flagler College’s campus, representatives from Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (FSDB), the St. Johns County School District and Flagler College, will host a panel to discuss the options available to the community’s students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The event is “Educating as a Team.” It is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

On Saturday, March 9, the bi-annual tradition of more than 200 Flagler College students, faculty, staff and alumni coming together for a community day of service will take place across St. Johns County. Many of the participating nonprofits hosting the volunteers are repeats, but the student-led group organizing the event said that there is still time to express interest in having volunteers come to your nonprofit.

The annual St. Augustine Spanish Wine Festival is Feb. 15-17 which is exciting for Flagler students for two reasons: experience and funding.

Abby Wendle, ’07, recently visited Flagler College to speak with students about her post-graduate experience. While on campus, she visited two classes, hosted a coffee chat with students, and held a workshop on handling uncertainty.

On Jan. 31 Flagler College honored its highest achieving students — those who attained placement on the President’s List for their outstanding academic achievements — with a reception in the college’s historic Solarium. These students achieved a 4.0 grade point average with at least 12 hours of graded credit during the Fall 2018 academic semester.

Flagler College’s Youth Ministry program has received a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. to begin a new program called “The Missing Voices Project” that will look for new ways to reach young people who are on the margins of society, culture and even the church.

Flagler College Enactus started Harvesting Hope, a project to benefit boys in partnership with St. Johns Youth Academy, a correctional institute for adolescent males. Enactus is a student-led national organization that promotes entrepreneurship and community-based programs.

Flagler professor heads gopher tortoise study with national research reserve

On Saturday, Dec. 15, Flagler College handed out diplomas to 153 seniors, including 43 locals from St. Johns County, in the college’s gymnasium. Flagler College’s Public Administration (PAD) Program graduated 16 in the college’s Lewis Auditorium, including eight locals.

by Jayda Barnes, '20 Flagler College’s Model UN team attended the 29th annual Southern Regional Model United Nations (SRMUN) conference Nov. 15-17. The team won Best Delegation in United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and overall Honorable Delegation.

Flagler College is one of 27 NCAA Division II member institutions to be honored as part of the Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence for achieving a four-year Academic Success Rates of 90 percent or higher. This is the eighth year of the program.

The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum announced its biannual exhibition of work by the graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Arts candidates in the department of art and design. The exhibition will open with a reception for the artists on Thursday, Dec. 13 from 5 until 8 p.m. It will be on view on Friday, Dec. 14 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and on Saturday, Dec.15 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. The opening reception and following showings are free and open to the public.

by Jayda Barnes, '20 Autumn Stanish, ’19, has taken on several projects to understand the circumstances of homelessness in St. Augustine. Stanish, an English major, began by writing a book for her honors program senior capstone project, which detailed anecdotal accounts of living in St. Augustine by members of the city’s homeless community. Under the working title, “Street People: Monologues from the Homeless of St. Augustine,” the book seeks to uncover Stanish’s questions on why homelessness is an issue in St. Augustine and why many people of the homeless community are drawn to St. Augustine as their city of residence.