In May of 1998, Doug Dvorak went through the toughest 30 days of his life: he was diagnosed with cancer, he got sober for the first time, and his father died tragically after falling out of a third floor window. If there was ever a time to make a big move, it was now.

After graduating from Flagler in 1984, Dvorak spent more than two decades working corporate jobs in sales and marketing for technology companies. He loved the stability, but it wasn’t his passion.

Segal helps lead organization that helped save St. Augustine’s historic Bridge of Lions

When Theresa Segal, ‘87, was a little girl, her family would drive down to St. Augustine for a month during the summer to stay at her grandparent’s house on Davis Shores, a historic, waterfront neighborhood just over the Bridge of Lions.

“When we drove over the grating of the bridge, I would wake up and I knew that we were almost there,” Segal remembers.

Blevins helps turn St. Augustine Amphitheatre into one of the country’s top outdoor venues

When Troy Blevins took a job with St. Johns County Recreation and Parks, he never thought it would lead to hobnobbing with big time celebrities like Ringo Starr, Aretha Franklin and Toby Keith. Blevins, ‘89, just wanted to help the county by creating youth sports programs.
“I figured I’d be in the gym and be ‘Coach Troy’ for the rest of my life,” the 43-year-old admits. “I didn’t think I’d be the guy in charge of 43 miles of beaches, 4,500 acres of parks and all of the boat ramps. And I definitely didn’t think I’d be running a concert venue.”

Senior Graphic Design Major is Never Short of a Canvas for Bold Illustrations
Design-heavy street art with grit and detail is how 22-year-old Hahau Yisrael defines his work.

Yisrael, a graphic design major and advertising minor graduating this spring, doesn’t speak about art the way many have been taught. He understands the importance of balance and perspective, but uses them on his own terms. He doesn’t stick to a particular medium – combining coffee grounds, spray paint, ink, charcoal, henna and acrylics.

Jacksonville publisher Cinda Sherman launched successful arts magazine from the humblest of beginnings

The early 1990s was no time to break into the world of investment banking. That’s the way Cinda Sherman remembers it. She had just lost her job as a financial analyst in Jacksonville, Fla.; the market was tanking; and all around her, banks and brokerages weren’t hiring, but instead laying off workers.

Things got so bad that when a few friends offered her a basement to live in until she got back on her feet, she took it.

Not every recent graduate can say she’s spent half a billion dollars. But that’s exactly what Amy Waers (‘06) has [...]