Flagler College President Dr. William T. Abare Jr. announced receipt of a $2.5 million bequest from the estate of Mary L.F. “Molly” Wiley, sister of the college’s founder Lawrence Lewis Jr. The funds were added to the college’s endowment, which was established in 1978 through a gift from Lewis and stands at more than $44.7 million.

Wiley passed away on May 28, 2010, in Richmond, Va. She served as a trustee of Flagler College from May 19, 1995, to May 16, 1997, and she served as a trustee on the board of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust until her 90th birthday in 2010.

Ponce 100 – What is 1888? 200 – What is hours on the clock and/or months of the year? 300 [...]

Ginger Riggs is a writer, editor, and graphic designer. Riggs studied creative writing under the tutelage of Page Edwards Jr., Richard Yates, Virgil Suarez, Elizabeth Stuckey-French and Robert Olen Butler. Riggs’ short fiction has appeared in the “Tampa Review.” Riggs spent nearly a decade as a journalist, writing and designing for papers all around Florida. In addition to many features and columns, Riggs has done profiles of musicians Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings and filmmaker Mohammad Bakri. Riggs is working on a biography of Waylon Jennings.

College campuses buzz in the spring, and Flagler is no exception. The semester becomes a flurry of activity as student clubs, organizations and programs bring the campus alive with unique projects and events.

These are just a few of the events that happened at Flagler this past spring.

The Flagler College women’s golf team won the Peach Belt Conference Championship in April by just three strokes over Armstrong Atlantic State University.

Senior Kaitlyn Edwards tied for fourth place with a 15-over 157. She shot an 8-over 79 in the final round and recorded one birdie and 11 pars. Edwards, who qualified for the NCAA Division II South Regional Championships, finished 42nd in that tournament.

Rarely does climbing into garbage dumpsters bring with it awards for excellence in journalism. But that’s exactly what it did for Flagler grad Haley Walker, ‘09, who won first place for Online In-Depth Reporting in the Society of Professional Journalists’ regional Mark of Excellence competition.

Her piece, written for an advanced reporting class and run in Flagler’s online student newspaper, The Gargoyle, chronicled her search through local dumpsters for food that is still edible if cleaned properly.

For her story, Walker learned proper “dumpster-diving etiquette” from the volunteer organization Food Not Bombs and ate solely from the trash for several weeks. Dumpster-divers recover food that is thrown out to make fresh, hot vegan and vegetarian meals to be served in outside public spaces, primarily for the homeless.

Walker said she became engulfed in the experience. “It became a thrilling hunt, and I was immediately flooded with enthusiasm as more and more edible food was found,” she wrote in the story.

On June 6, 41 Flagler students, along with history professors Michael Butler and Wayne Riggs, crossed the English Channel on the 66th anniversary of the D-Day invasion when thousands of Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.

It was part of a two-week study-abroad trip through Europe that followed the path of Allied forces from England to the liberation of Berlin. The trip hit especially close to home for senior art major Mary Harvey. Both of her grandfathers fought in World War II, including one who landed in Normandy.

Harvey blogged throughout the trip, and you can read more about her experience at http://WWII.flaglermagazine.com.

It’s off to Harvard for Flagler student Katherine Wrisley, who received a full scholarship to Harvard Divinity School, along with a Presidential Scholarship that will cover $10,000 of her living expenses.

Wrisley has several other accomplishments under her belt as well. Not only did she maintain a 4.0 grade point average, but her paper, “Optimistically Embracing Creation,” was published in the January/March 2009 issue of “The Cord, a Franciscan Spirituality Journal.”

Wrisley said a class called The Gospel According to St. Francis, taught by Dr. Timothy Johnson, professor of religion and chair of liberal studies at Flagler College, changed the way she views theology.

Knotts, ‘04, photographs Super Bowl for NFL.com

Without a football program, the likelihood of a Flagler alum standing on the field at a Super Bowl is always going to be pretty low — unless, of course, you’re Perry Knotts, ‘04. As a photographer, he’s already been there twice.

Freelancing for NFL.com, the St. Augustine photographer was on-hand when the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts in South Florida this past February. He also worked at the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa. Flagler College Magazine talked to Knotts about his experience at football’s biggest game:

Did you catch it? A brief scene on NBC’s action-comedy “Chuck” that included a photo of Flagler College’s Ponce Hall — the centerpiece of the campus and a National Historic Landmark.

It was the March 29 episode titled “Chuck Versus the American Hero,” and it popped up about three and a half minutes into the show when Chuck, now a member of the CIA, journeys to Washington, meets with a general for orders and is given a dossier with his next mission. The location: an Italian villa that is played by a picture of the Ponce.