Alumna Risa Matthews takes on the lastest trend in corporate sponsorship with HGTV & DIY

When advertisers want their products featured on shows like “House Hunters” on HGTV, alumna Risa Matthews, ‘02, figures out ways to integrate them seamlessly into segments without it looking like traditional product placement or advertisements.

What she does is called “product integration,” and it’s used to feature all kinds of products from baked beans to paint and everything in between.

The 2012 Flagler College Alumni Weekend hosted a 40th Reunion of the Class of 1972, the first class to graduate from Flagler College. They were joined by members of the Charter Classes of 1973, 1974 and 1975.

While in town for a lecture at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre in March, Former President Bill Clinton stopped outside of the Flagler College Communication Building to pose with students from Communication Chair Tracy Halcomb’s TV Production class.

When the former Hotel Ponce de Leon — the centerpiece of Flagler College and a National Historic Landmark — was left out of the Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ “Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places” competition, the Flagler community took action.

The Ponce garnered enough write-in votes to be recognized among the top 100 buildings in the state and now joins other Florida architectural structures including the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World, the Historic Capitol Building in Tallahassee, the Florida Aquarium in Tampa and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed campus of Florida Southern College.

Former Flagler first baseman John Sgromolo (above) was selected as the Division II male winner of the NCAA Sportsmanship Award. This is the first time a Flagler College student-athlete has won it.

The Sportsmanship Award honors student-athletes who have demonstrated the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility and respect.

Flagler College’s Garrett Bush, Jonathan Armold and John Sgromolo were each selected in June’s 2012 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, marking the first time three players from the school were selected in one draft.

This past fall, Flagler College completed the renovation of the Florida East Coast Railway buildings, transforming them from office use to student residence halls.

That work has paid off with a 2012 Florida Trust for Historic Preservation award for Outstanding Achievement.

Popular Flagler College Forum speaker Jim Toedtman, editor of AARP’s Bulletin, has been named director of the series on government and public policy.

Toedtman, a speaker at the program for the last 13 years, succeeds Victor Ostrowidzki (right), who passed away this past spring after battling cancer. Ostrowidzki, 80, was a veteran journalist and former White House reporter who covered every presidential election from 1964 to 1988. He joined the faculty at Flagler in 1997, founded the Forum series and taught classes on elections and the media.

Jones, Lee and Mena inducted into Athletic Hall of Fame

Julie (Went) Jones, ‘89
Lettered three years in women’s tennis and played on three NAIA National Championship teams (1987-89). She earned NAIA All-America honors in each of those three seasons. As a senior, she posted a 26-0 record in singles competition, and was the national runner-up in the singles tournament. Went and Catharina Persson became the first tandem from Flagler to win the national doubles competition.

Alumnus’ new book explores communication between chimpanzees

In “The Song of the Ape,” Andrew Halloran, ‘95, recounts a chimpanzee escape attempt at the drive-thru animal park where he worked. He received a blow to the head from an angry chimp wielding a deck brush, but at the same time came to better understand the communicative abilities of apes.

Five adult chimps had attempted to escape their island home in the park after their decades-long leader, Higgy, was deposed by a new alpha. Higgy’s group waited patiently for their chance to leave the island and took it in an orderly manner when opportunity arrived in the form of an unsecured rowboat.