Making a difference in Swaziland is no small task. Roughly 25 percent of children in the African country have contracted HIV/AIDS. In the rural area of Gamula, about 70 percent of the community is unemployed, most living on about a dollar a day. As Peace Corps volunteers, Tristan Estes and Rachel Manring are doing their best to make everyday improvements there.

Now the 2008 graduates live in a stone and mud house without electricity or running water. At Flagler, Manring studied communication and Estes was a theatre major. To prepare for their move, the married couple completed two months of training on topics like health, culture, safety and language — a particular challenge, Manring said, because siSwati is “full of clicks and sounds that don’t exist in English.”

They have also battled frequent illness since their departure to Gamula, including Manring’s bout of swine flu in September. But despite the challenges they face, Estes and Manring are enjoying the chance to stretch their boundaries, live with a host family and become part of a new community. Manring’s main tasks are working with school health/anti-AIDS clubs and running self-confidence building workshops for orphans and other vulnerable children. Estes primarily works at a clinic and a preschool, in addition to helping with the workshops.

“These children often feel unloved, hopeless and depressed,” Manring said. “Confidence building is vital because if children feel good about themselves and know that people believe in them, they are more likely to believe in themselves … A better value of life leads to hopes and dreams for the future, which leads to positive decision making.”

Estes said sustainable development work is never a quick fix; he and Manring hope the workshops’ most immediate effects will be improved grades and school attendance.

“Development work isn’t just about building huge structures and throwing money at problems,” he said. “It’s more about interpersonal and small-scale things that can empower people to change their lives.”

The resilience of the community has surprised and sustained Manring during the tough adjustment to life in Gamula.

“Most of the people in our community have been through so much … death of family members, disease, hunger, drought, lack of clean water, emotional trauma, the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS, and abuse,” she said. “They make it through another day, support each other the best they can, and simply try to enjoy their lives. They genuinely want to improve the quality of life for themselves and their community members. This is what inspires us and makes us glad to serve.”

Read more about Estes’ and Manring’s Peace Corps experience on their blog: http://rachandtre.livejournal.com/

Mallory Needleman gets paid to listen to horror stories. As an assistant outreach and archival researcher at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., she catalogues and fact checks interviews with survivors, witnesses and perpetrators of the Nazi Germany genocide that killed roughly 6 million European Jews.

The 2008 Flagler alumna works with about 1,600 of the museum’s audio and video accounts of the Holocaust’s everyday atrocities: not just the typical shootings and mass graves, but unexpected details – like a neighbor who found the village’s Jewish tailor with all his teeth gone, pulled for their tiny gold fillings.

“There’s still a part of me that just doesn’t understand,” Needleman said. “About 95 percent of the museum’s stuff is in a warehouse, and we switch things out … One day, I started breaking down crying.

“I looked to the left of me, and staring me straight in the face were three cans of the Zyklon B. It’s the most ironic kind of thing because it says ‘POISONOUS, USE WITH CAUTION,’ and it was used to kill millions and millions of people … My boss told me, ‘Everybody has their little things. Mine is the hair.’ We have bags and bags of hair, and some of it is braided, and some of it has that baby curl to it. He can’t work with it.”

Needleman has spent her entire college career trying to understand the Holocaust. She studied history and international relations at Flagler and took classes that fascinated her, like Dr. Tim Johnson’s course on Christian-Jewish relations. Now, Needleman is finishing a master’s degree in Jewish studies at Towson University. While her tasks at the museum sometimes stress her, Needleman said she feels lucky to be contributing to a subject she’s passionate about.

“This is a generation that is leaving,” she said. “We need to be able to say 100 years from now that the Holocaust happened … It sounds cheesy, but knowledge is power. If you don’t know, then you’re just going to fall to the depths of ignorance.

“People ask me why the Holocaust happened, and it’s not one thing. These things could happen again today. It’s a destructive economy. It’s the loss of a war. It’s a very influential leader. It’s, ‘We need to find someone to blame this on.’ ”

Needleman’s goal at the Holocaust Museum is to make sure the interviews are as factual as possible, translated into various languages and easy to search; this will allow historians and scholars to access as much reliable information and testimony about the Holocaust as possible.

Currently, she helps coordinate 52 volunteer translators who are working on 70 interviews in 16 languages. Each hour-long interview takes about a month to translate.

Needleman said maybe 20 or so of the museum’s in-house oral history accounts are from admitted perpetrators. She said those interviews are often enlightening, but especially disturbing. Needleman recalled one man in particular: “He gives me chills because he speaks about the Holocaust in the way I think about it: in terms of gray areas,” she said. “Is the perpetrator the person who shot the gun? Or is the perpetrator the person who looked away and refused to hide the neighbor?

“He was one of the mass shooters. He took all their valuables and shot them into graves … And he’s talking about this family, and he’s being honest. He’s like, ‘Well, I shot the dad, and then I shot the kids,’ and he’s just saying systematically what he did. And he says, ‘Being a dad, could you imagine seeing your kid shot? … I did him a favor by killing him first.’ ”

Needleman says such ethical gray areas are important to examine if society wants to prevent future genocides. In addition to her studies, she has traveled to Germany and will soon be visiting Poland to get a clearer picture of both Holocaust history and contemporary culture in the area.

Primarily made of terra cotta, the towers are solidly built, according to Roland Ray of Byron & James, Inc, the construction company working on the restoration. But their age — the Ponce was built in 1888 — is catching up to them. The towers have small cracks that worsen during rainy weather, as water causes them to expand.

Byron & James is fixing that problem by repairing cracked areas and recasting them with concrete, in addition to reinforcing the entire structure with steel rods. Work on the roughly $560,000 project began this spring and should wrap up before fall classes begin.

It’s hard to define “success” in the publishing world these days. As major publishing firms struggle to turn a profit, it’s more difficult than ever to get a traditional contract. Meanwhile, self-publishing companies – which let anyone print their work, for a fee – are rapidly expanding. But the books they publish sometimes reach just dozens of readers – as opposed to, say, a million.

Flagler Assistant Professor of English Liz Robbins is finding success somewhere in between those two extremes. Her first full-length book of poetry, “Hope, As The World Is A Scorpion Fish,” was published by small, Nebraska-based The Backwaters Press in 2008 and has sold more than 1,000 copies.

One of the poems, “Studio,” was recently selected by Garrison Keillor – the famed American author and radio personality best known for his Minnesota Public Radio show “A Prairie Home Companion” – for national radio broadcast on “The Writer’s Almanac.”

Robbins’ book also received praise from David Bottoms — poet laureate of Georgia and editor of the literary magazine “Five Points” — who describes Robbins’ poems as exploring with “unflinching courage the human need for love and meaning. They are born out of that mysterious and painful tension between the hopeful heart and the world it must confront.”

For Robbins, success has more to do with creating, improving and sharing her work than with fame or money. She nurtures a similar approach in her creative writing classes at Flagler.

“I knew I wanted to teach, and I knew if I wanted to teach writing, publishing in a traditional way would be connected to that,” she said. “But I think also there’s so much rejection in sending out your work … that you absolutely have to be driven and passionate about it.

“I think different poets have different reasons and have different ways of writing … For me, it’s always starting with a puzzle of one kind or another … I think that we could benefit collectively from more contemplative thinking and inwardness, reflection. And I think actually all of literature plays that role; whenever we read a short story or a poem, no matter what, we’re getting some insight into the human condition and seeing ourselves and the people we know reflected back to us.”

The “Scorpion Fish” collection is hardly Robbins’ first literary accomplishment; she has received the First Coast Writers’ Poetry Award, judged by Robert Bly, and has been nominated for Best New Poets and a Pushcart Prize. Her poems have appeared in “Calyx,” “The Chattahoochee Review,” “The National Poetry Review,” “Natural Bridge,” “Potomac Review,” “Puerto del Sol” and other literary journals.

Robbins has begun working on new projects since the publication of “Scorpion Fish.” Last summer, she received a research award from a Schultz Foundation grant given to Flagler. She used that award to produce roughly 20 poems about Hastings, a rural town near St. Augustine that’s known as “The Potato Capital of Florida.” Four of those poems are already on their way to publication in literary journals.

The award also allowed Robbins to do additional work with Kim Bradley, a Flagler visiting assistant professor of English who runs “Word Play,” after-school poetry classes for underprivileged youth at Hastings’ non-profit Organization of United Resources Center (OUR Center). Bradley mainly teaches elementary school children there. Robbins has assisted with those classes, run a teenage poetry workshop and helped Bradley produce and self-publish “Juice Up the True Say,” a collection of the “Word Play” students’ poetry.

Blog: Juice up the True Say

“Once I saw all the good that she [Bradley] was doing out there, I knew I wanted to get more involved,” Robbins said. “I was inspired by the kids, too, and I wanted to capture their experience to some degree [in my poetry.]”

Bradley and Robbins both said the main goal with the Hastings students is to “make writing fun” – a task that is made especially difficult when the children have already been forced to do writing “drills” and follow strict essay guidelines to
prepare for standardized tests at school.

“Poetry is such a hard sell,” Bradley said. “So I started to think about why I’m a writer and why I loved the written word as a child.”

Class activities range from playing with magnetic poetry to rapping. Their poetry prompts include giving personality to colors and responding to jazz or photography. Robbins said creative teaching and exposure to contemporary poetry helps the kids better relate to what they’re reading.

“They are so confident about words now,” Bradley said. “They have a command of the language that they didn’t have before. They know how to articulate feelings … I hope that having this ability to explore themselves like this, hopefully it will mean great things for some of them.”

Robbins said it was an invaluable experience to teach students of a variety of ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“Those built-in walls for self-protection as adults are not there yet,” she said. “That same lack of defensiveness comes into their writing … In some cases, their word combinations ending up being quite profound. I think even the title of the book, ‘Juice Up the True Say,’ is an example of that. It sort of has a nonsensical feel to it, but it absolutely makes sense … There is that lack of self-consciousness that’s refreshing and exhilarating to be around.”

The most difficult part of teaching in Hastings was seeing evidence of struggle in the children’s lives, Robbins said – and not being able to do much about it.

“It’s a cold awakening to see really young kids, first graders, having such an awareness about, say, a violent home life,” Robbins said. “And being able to speak about it with such frankness because it’s so ordinary to them.

“That’s disturbing … The heart of poetry is truth-telling, and some painful experiences are told.”

She added that a “kind of rawness” is something she seeks in all literature: “There has to be an element of risk, where I get the sense that the writer is revealing something that is information we could not get in any other way, in any other setting – things about the human heart, the nature of suffering, the nature
of relationships.”

As an instructor, Robbins said she feels privileged to learn about students’ personal lives and points of view through their creative writing – both at the OUR Center and at Flagler.

“I’ve taught at different universities,” she said. “The students at Flagler, as a group, tend to be compassionate, sweet, self-motivated, modest … Just getting to know them is very rewarding.”Robbins said she sometimes has difficulty making time for both teaching and writing, but she thinks the tasks complement each other.

“I read a statistic somewhere that there are like 200 writers in the United States who make a living off of their writing,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a single poet I know of that doesn’t also teach, and that’s including the ones at the top of the heap.

“But teaching writing helps you become a better writer … and the best teaching requires a profound creativity.”

Vincent Puma has done a lot for Flagler College over the last 36 years. He built the school’s composition program from scratch when he arrived in 1973, and he later established a peer writing center that’s grown from just two student tutors to more than 60.

Now Puma is one of the last professors from the early Flagler years to retire; he taught his last classes this spring. Before he headed out, Flagler Magazine asked him some questions about how the college has evolved over the years – and how he has changed with it.

FM: What did you enjoy most about teaching? Any favorite classes?
VP: My favorite course has always been the language studies course … I liked the science side of English because it was always changing … It [linguistics] has never stayed the same; I’ve never taught the course twice.

FM: What do you find so interesting about language studies?
VP: Linguistics is really a branch of psychology … It has very little to do with underlining nouns once and verbs twice and circling the prepositions…it has to do instead with trying to answer questions about what goes on inside somebody’s head when he or she is attempting to produce or comprehend language.

How do we explain the magic and the mystery of human language production and comprehension? I think that’s the most exciting part of it, and that’s the part the students grab on to … If I could pinpoint one characteristic of my teaching that I enjoyed and tried to engender, it was trying to awaken those new perspectives.

FM: What’s different about Flagler today? Has it changed a lot?
VP: In every way possible. I think the only thing that has not changed and that shouldn’t change is the sense of community. There’s that camaraderie.

The buildings were not nearly as impressive. You have to understand, where you’re sitting right now [Kenan Hall] was just simply a rat-infested, four-story warehouse until 1982…The only people with phones were the department chairs. When we moved into this building and actually saw phones, we felt graced…and the rats were gone.

The first writing center was in the gambling room in the fourth floor of Ponce Hall…We [the Gargoyle adviser and I] were the only people who had our offices up there. Every morning we’d go and make a cup of coffee and go sit out on the turrets and watch the sun rise…it was kind of cool and kind of dirty, but it was lovely at the same time.

FM: So, are you totally done with teaching?
VP: Don’t ask right now. [Laughs.] Job No. 1 is: Learn to do nothing. I have a difficult time on vacations, for example … I couldn’t just sit down and watch television. If I found myself watching a news program, all of a sudden I’d find myself listening to the various correspondents and the kind of power struggles the language indicated. And I would sit there and start taking notes.

The idea of having no plans and not having to think on something consciously, I’m looking forward to that and hoping it will be successful … Is that true six months from now? Tough to say.

FM: Why did you stay here for so long?
VP: Because my colleagues and I were building a school. Because we were on a mission … I probably started understanding that when the first wave of people began retiring, the first original people. Losing them, and the new people were coming in, trying to tell those new people what we had been through and what we had sacrificed, and done so willingly because we wanted the place to survive.

All that baloney about mission statements has nothing to do with what I’m talking about … When someone said we’re meeting at seven o’clock tonight, nobody even batted an eyelash. We stayed as long as we needed to.

FM: What are your thoughts now that you’re leaving?
VP: It’s bittersweet to be leaving in the sense that I see the original mission is accomplished, and in a sense that’s sad.

Flagler’s done a magnificent job of recruiting faculty – people who want to teach, people who care … I want to leave it [Flagler’s future] in their hands. I have every belief that this place is going to be someplace special. It just needs the right mix of people at the right time.

“We’ve done a 180,” he said. “When I first got here there was a fight almost every day … I’ve had people threaten to shoot me. I’ve had kids take a swing at me.”

Fights are rare now. The 2007 Flagler graduate said the club currently has the highest rate of teen participation in the area, and the kids often see him as “one of their own.” Those changes might not have been possible, Black said, if he wasn’t good at basketball.

“In the beginning, that was my way of getting respect,” he said. “I was just really lucky that I was good at it.

“The frustrating thing was them not listening to me … the older kids wait to see who you are and if you’re real. It took them a little while to see that I was going to stick around … That’s how I knew I had to be here – because I knew I could change the atmosphere.”

Black started working at the Boys & Girls Club in 2005, when he was studying sports management and business administration at Flagler. In just a few years, he advanced from a part-time job as sports director to a career in the local club’s highest position: unit director.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida have honored Black for his commitment to the non-profit organization, and he’s recently been named a “Most Valued Professional” and chairman of the regional chapter of the group’s professional association. Black oversees a variety of activities at the club, including sports, leadership training, community service and teen discussion groups that address issues like drugs and puberty.

“Prevention works,” Black said, adding that the Department of Justice has provided grants to the Boys & Girls Club because their programs help high-risk youth stay away from crime and gang violence. “I love what we can do with kids, and I see the impact every day.”

Because administrative tasks sometimes keep him behind a desk, he puts in extra time to make sure he interacts with the 50 to 80 children who come in for afterschool programs each day; he attends school plays, sports games and special weekend events.

The St. Augustine club keeps receiving good news. The program is preparing to move into a new facility on West King Street that will have about 15 times more space, and 17-year-old Renita Greene recently won the Youth of the Year Award from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida. Black and his wife, Shelli, have mentored the young woman for several years, and in 2008 the Department of Children and Families placed Greene and her 13-year-old sister, Erica, in the Blacks’ home.

Black said his professors at Flagler helped him prepare for his current roles in a variety of ways, but classes like “Sport Ethics” and “Sociology & Sport” were among his favorites.

“It makes sense that that’s what I liked,” he said. “[In my position,] you’re dealing with real issues that will test your ethics and morals.”

By learning about various socioeconomic backgrounds and how they apply to sports, Black said, he saw how coaches have to take different approaches when handling “a team out in the projects, versus out on the beach.”

Ultimately, Black said, truly caring about the children he meets has been the key to helping them.

“Kids learn from the adults in their lives, what they see and what they’re surrounded by,” he said. “They need somewhere to go to develop self worth and that sense of belonging … This is not so much as a job as it is a calling.”

“Can I swab a shrimp?”

A young woman in chest-high waders is ready to join the activities of her companions, who are gently swiping cotton along specimens: anchovies, tiny crabs, shrimp. On a strip of shore by the dam at Guana-Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Flagler College assistant professor Terri Seron’s biology students have gathered little squirming things from a net with latex-clad hands.

Someone asks Dr. Seron if she’s collected enough of whatever she was supposed to get; the samples don’t appear much different than they did before sliding across a crustacean’s back. “Don’t worry,” Seron says. “Those bacteria will be all over that swab.”

The students are getting their first taste of the local, hands-on research opportunities that inspired Seron and Barbara Blonder, assistant professor and coordinator of natural sciences at Flagler, to launch a new environmental science minor. It’s the first natural sciences minor Flagler College has ever offered, and it’s drawing the interest of students with majors in communication, education, business and more.

Awareness and Resources
With news about global warming and “green” living making headlines around the country, the environmental science minor also has good timing. Back in her office, Seron pulls out the September 2008 issue of “Nature” magazine. The cover doesn’t feature plants or animals or a DNA double helix; it shows close-ups of Barack Obama and John McCain. Science has become one of the hottest topics of public debate in the United States.

“Awareness,” Seron said. “People are really starting to be aware that our planet is in some trouble … You pick up any newspaper or magazine, and they’re talking about these issues: stem cell research, flu shots, antibiotic resistance.”

Seron’s background is in biology. She focuses on very specific issues in her research, spending her summers at coral reefs in Bermuda. In her postdoctoral work, she used molecular biology to determine the coral genes that respond to heat, chemicals and tissue injury — the stressors that are bleaching and decimating reefs.

In the classroom, she helps students understand the impact of what they’re studying: how science intersects with politics, ethics, business and health.

“The cells we’re talking about in class are not some abstract idea – you’re made up of these, and more than half are bacteria cells,” Seron said. She adds that her classes analyze everything from atoms to the human brain, “learning about themselves in ways they probably haven’t thought about.

“Why do we have all the problems we have when doctors have laid out the entire human genome?” she said. “Should we ever rule out things to study? What about ‘designer’ babies? We can do that today, but should we?”

Blonder’s experience is a bit broader, more systemic. She’s focused on ecology and conservation; she worked for The Nature Conservancy for nine years, and another 10-plus years doing research on “everything from spiny lobsters to gopher tortoises to fire ecology.”

The professional connections she made during those years – along with Seron’s – will yield a variety of unique opportunities for Flagler environmental science minors. When they graduate, Blonder said, they’ll have the competitive edge of “practical field and research experience” and the relationships built from it.

“They are going to practice science, and these partnerships are really important,” Blonder said. Possible research locations include the marshy Guana Reserve, the Atlantic Ocean, the St. Johns River, the Ocala National Forest and a variety of state parks. “The college is now poised to take advantage of our unique bio-geographic setting,” Blonder said.

Making a Living in the ‘Green’ Movement
In addition to conducting hands-on research, Flagler environmental science minors are preparing for careers in a variety of fields.

Denise Liberi is a graphic design major who recently added the environmental science minor. She creates advertising and digital 3-D architectural models for the Green Home Store, a St. Augustine business that designs and builds sustainable, energy-efficient homes. She hopes to leverage her experience at thecompany – along with her new minor – into a career as an architect.

“The classes are not only ones that interest me, but they will also help me in my future career goals,” Liberi said. “We have a long way to go and a lot of work to do, but I’ve been inspired by the rapidly expanding ‘green’ movement. There are people all over the world who are working to educate and change our environmentally detrimental lifestyles.”

Education majors can benefit from environmental science studies and go on to remedy the “absolute dearth of science teachers,” Blonder said. Business majors, she added, will gain knowledge that’s “very marketable for today’s economy.” One of the real-world projects Blonder requires students to complete is a cost-benefit analysis for reducing the environmental impact of a department on campus.

Flagler communication majors have taken a special interest in environmental science, as well. Students Aslyn Baringer and Nathan Edwards will graduate too soon to add and fulfill all the requirements of the new minor, but they recently decided to focus production of FCTV Journal, a Flagler-produced community news program, on local environmental issues. They’ve produced shows on topics like beach erosion, reusable shopping bags and alternative transportation.

“Really, every major needs to know this kind of stuff,” Baringer said. She believes environmental education will continue to grow as people see a need for it. The “green” movement could be mistaken for a passing trend among her generation, she said, but she thinks it has sticking power. She and Edwards have seen a rise in concern for environmental issues coming from their parents’ generation, as well.

“It’s come into sight and into view because it’s necessary,” Baringer said. “It’s not just because you can get a shirt that says ‘Go Green.’ ”

“I think it’s definitely a fad, but through this fad people are being educated,” Edwards said, adding that the price of oil will continue to encourage sustainability in the long run: “You have a lot of people who are being forced to change because of their wallets.”

In the Future
About a month after these interviews, Barack Obama was elected president. Gas prices in St. Augustine fell to $1.64, and similar averages were seen throughout the country. The economic crisis demolished many people’s savings and retirement, and unemployment was rising steadily.

Changes came, and the reactions to them ranged from elation to utter fear. Some people have speculated that environmental issues will draw less attention until the cost of oil rises again, but Blonder said she remains optimistic about the future of the “green” movement.

“I lived through the first gas crisis in the ‘70s, and 20 years later, everyone’s driving SUVs,” Blonder said. “But this feels different to me. If we continue to have beach erosion like we’ve had and hurricanes like we’ve had … it’s been directly correlated with a change in the temperature.

“I don’t think this is a short-term trend. All these things seem to be converging at once … If we can equip our students with the skill sets to go out into the market in a time when environmental careers and technology are really starting to gain momentum, they’re going to be on the ground floor of this at a time when other job markets are shrinking.”

Innovation is the key to creating worldwide awareness and improving environmental conditions, Blonder said. There are tough global issues to address, like how to reduce the pollution and waste being produced by burgeoning economies in India and China – countries that, given their recent growth rates, will soon exceed the United States’ contributions to green house gasses.

Those kinds of problems are exactly what Flagler environmental science minors are hoping to learn about and, eventually, have a part in solving.

“Do we stop them [India and China] from their economic development, when they’re simply doing what we did 50 years ago?” Blonder said. “We can develop and export technology like nobody else, cleaner and greener technology … that’s more efficient, and that’s what it comes down to.

“We need to give them alternatives they’re not going to be able to ignore … I think there’s a real turnaround from science phobia to seeing science and technology as a solution, and I think our students are going to be uniquely positioned to take advantage of these opportunities.”

On the Ground
At the Guana Reserve, Seron’s students are releasing their shrimp and other living samples back into the water. They’re packing up equipment and heading to the other side of the dam to do more tests: salinity, wind velocity, temperature, acidity, water clarity.

The last student to leave is walking away when something catches her eye. She freezes, turns around and heads back to the site. She stoops to pick up a small slip of paper from the sand, and places it carefully in the trash. Seron looks back and sees this.

“Thank you,” she says, and then more firmly: “Thank you.”

Web Exclusive Story: Flagler goes a little greener
Find out what Flagler is doing to reduce its carbon footprint.

The recycling effort has been spearheaded by the Flagler Outdoors Club, which was founded by students two years ago. Melissa Kafel, a sociology major and president of the club, said recycling on a large scale can get surprisingly expensive.

“The Outdoors Club received a grant from an anonymous donor for $10,000, and then the senior class of 2008 donated $3,700 to the recycling fund,” Kafel said. “We could never have gotten the program running without them.”

The group has hired a company to collect and recycle materials from the 15 plastic and 20-plus paper bins around campus. The Outdoors Club also works on other conservation-related events, including beach clean-ups, plastic-to-cloth bag drives and an eco-fun festival.

“We all live on this planet,” Kafel said, “and it is our moral obligation to start taking care of it.”

Flagler hired GreenSpace Interior Design to help with the summer renovation of Kenan Hall. GreenSpace worked with a local architect to create an improved atmosphere for students while increasing efficiency in the lighting and reducing environmental impact.

From sound-absorbing panels to new counter tops, nearly all the renovated features are made from recycled materials. The carpet, for example, is made of recycled content, has an eco-friendly backing and comes in individual tiles that will be recycled by the manufacturer when they’re worn and need replacement.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs are being used in the building, and Vic Cheney, Flagler plant superintendent, said maintenance staff have been making similar energy-saving changes throughout campus. They include:

• Changing approximately 90 percent of incandescent bulbs to CFLs
• Replacing air conditioning units and updating digital controls to create greater efficiency in Kenan Hall, Ponce Hall, the Florida East Coast Railway buildings, the Student Center, Wiley Hall and the Communication Building.
• Using green-rated soap and multi-purpose cleaners in all public facilities

“A conservative estimate to date shows a decrease in our kilowatts-per-square-foot by 20 percent,” Cheney said. “That is huge.”

Related: Educating the future of the ‘green’ revolution
Find out more about Flagler’s new environmental science minor.

When St. Johns County Sheriff Deputy Ricky Domingo and 911 Emergency Systems Engineer Michael Banks submitted proposals for a grant writing class, they got what they asked for. Banks received $850,000 in grant money from the State of Florida for a new 911 emergency communication system for St. Johns County. Domingo landed a $1,000 grant from Wal-Mart to purchase seven tracking bracelets for the Sheriff’s Department.

“It’s a win-win for everybody because the county doesn’t have to go and spend those monies,” Banks said. “And we get additional equipment that is critical for us to maintain the infrastructure.”

The tracking bracelets Domingo secured are designed to locate children with mental disabilities or Alzheimer’s patients who might endanger their own lives by wandering away. The tracking system has already helped one local family find their lost son.

Launched in 2003, Flagler’s public administration program is designed specifically for nontraditional-aged students. Many of them already work as law enforcement officers or firefighters.

In the civilian world, Greg Teisan works as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company. But in Afghanistan, he held responsibilities that ranged from organizing a bazaar for local merchants to coordinating polio and tuberculosis vaccinations for thousands of people.

During his year as a major in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, the ’88 Flagler alumnus spent most of his time arranging training, supplies and other logistics for medical missions and emergency health care. Teisan had been a member of the National Guard for nearly 20 years, living in South Carolina with his wife and two children, when he was asked to deploy to Afghanistan.

Audio Slideshow: Alumnus Greg Teisan Narrates His Year in Afghanistan

“We planned it and all just kind of talked each other into it,” Teisan said, adding that several longtime friends deployed with him. “There was an excitement … and if I didn’t volunteer, I was probably going to be going anyway.”

While Teisan had some fears for his safety in Afghanistan, he quickly adjusted to the dangerous situations he encountered. He was most vulnerable to insurgent attack when on the move.

“It was really a hassle,” he said. “We had gunners on top [of the truck] and we had call signs … we really tried to portray a force, a real intimidating force, to avoid any problems.”

Al Qaeda and Taliban militants have begun using more suicide bombers to attack U.S. troops. Through luck and caution, though, Teisan steered clear of these attacks. In fact, he returned home in May 2008 having suffered just one injury: a broken thumb, acquired during a particularly competitive game of volleyball.

Teisan said he felt fortunate that his home overseas, Camp Alamo – dubbed “the most dangerous place in the world” by British newspaper The Sun – was hit by only two mortar attacks during his stay. Camp Alamo is located just inside the walls of the Kabul Military Training Center where, at any given time, the U.S. Army National Guard is attempting to train about 8,000 new Afghan recruits.

But it’s not an easy task. Local fear of reprisal from militants is strong, he said. His interpreter carried Western clothing with him and changed only when he was inside the training center gate.

“If the Taliban or the insurgents realized they were organizing the government of Afghanistan, supporting the United States Army … they became targets,” he said. “We have as many people leaving [the Afghan army] now as we have going in.”

Now home, Teisan juggles work in Charleston with long weekends in St. Augustine, where his wife relocated to be closer to family while he was overseas. His lasting impression of Afghanistan is that of “desperate people that needed help.”