Documentary filmmaker travels to Haiti to chronicle earthquake’s aftermath

It opens with the sound of lapping waves and shots of a serene, glassy bay. Colorful sheets are laid out on the beach. People walk beneath swaying palms. A child strolls along the sand. A man works on a fishing net by the shore. A boy in a striped shirt stands with arms crossed, staring into the camera.

And you have to wait for it — half an agonizing minute — before you finally get what you know is coming: scenes of destruction from the magnitude 7 earthquake that tore apart Haiti in January.

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:

Alumnus attempts to make sense of college debt

After hitting the hard reality of post-graduation debt, alumnus Logan Abrams, ‘03, decided he would not only figure out how to manage the financial burden, but also write about its impact.

“Debt-U: How Higher Education Breeds a Lifestyle of Debt” is Abrams’ attempt to make sense of how college students are racking up debt without even realizing it.

Abrams’ interest in the subject of debt and finance started in college when he realized he and his classmates had no personal finance education throughout high school. Abrams, like most college students, was making financial decisions without understanding the consequences of his actions.

Alum lands job on hit show ‘Glee’

For St. Augustine native Mark Bailey Jr., ‘08, it was a huge jump from his small hometown to Hollywood.

But that leap of faith has paid off for the alumnus, who is now a production assistant on Fox’s hit show “Glee” and working at Paramount Pictures.

From awards and cocktails to surfing and athletics, alumni weekend had something for everybody.

Photo Galleries

• Markland Reception
• Hugh Shaw Memorial Longboard Classic
• Alumni Awards Luncheon
• Athletics Hall of Fame Induction

Alumna Summer Bozeman writes book on St. Augustine

Alumna Summer Bozeman’s passion for St. Augustine’s past turned into a paying gig when she was tapped to author a pictorial book on the Nation’s Oldest City.

When Bozeman graduated from Flagler in 2007, she bought several books on St. Augustine history and found herself fascinated by many of the historic photos.

Peace Corps Alums working with HIV/AIDS children in Africa

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.

Alumna Mallory Needleman works with recordings of Holocaust survivors at Holocaust Museum

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.

O’Keefe, ‘80, looks back on life-changing trip to Rwanda

They are faces she can’t get out of her mind. Stories that are now etched in her consciousness — that haunt, or even inspire her on a daily basis.

For Kathy O’Keefe, a 1980 alumna and Flagler College’s former alumni director, the nine-day trip to Kigali, Rwanda, this past summer was something she could only describe as a life-changing experience.

Audio Slideshow: Kathy O’Keefe Speaks About Trip to Rwanda

’08 alum worked on infamous TLC reality show

For Flagler alumnus Clark McCarthy-Miller, ‘08, being a producer’s assistant has meant working on miscellaneous commercials, small movies and television shows. But that all changed when a friend set him up on an interview with a family that would change his life — the now infamous Gosselins, stars of TLC’s reality show, “Jon and Kate Plus Eight.”

After interviewing for the position with four others, the Gosselins handpicked him to work on the show. McCarthy-Miller could be seen on the show’s highest-rated season four opener where he helped the Gosselin family prepare for a birthday bash for the sextuplets.