PEL Students win Enactus USA award; Alumni News; Faculty/Staff news

A team of PEL students is moving on from a regional competition to the national level; we share how two PEL alumnae have impacted their communities since they graduated more than 30 years ago; and we congratulate a PEL staff member -- who also is a PEL alumna -- on a major accomplishment!

(l-r) Tonya Zalick, Yolanda Carter, Stephanie Krebs, and Stacy Sansoucie
work on their Enactus project earlier this Spring.

PEL students Yolanda Carter, Stephanie Krebs, Stacy Sansoucie, and Tonya Zalick, this year's Eckerd Enactus chapter president, teamed up to enter the 2017 Enactus USA competition and are now eligible to enter the national competition being held in Kansas City in late May. PEL teams under the guidance of Professor Naveen Malhotra have represented Eckerd College in regional competitions and at some national conferences since 1995.

Students begin the projects in Malhotra's Students in a Free Enterprise (SIFE) course, then take on the Enactus challenge as an extra-curricular project after the course has ended.

The outside (back on the left, front on the right) of the portfolio created by the 2017 Eckerd PEL Enactus team

Enactus--Entrepreneurial Action Us--is an international organization involving more than 48,000 undergraduate and graduate students; the Enactus USA group "connects student, academic and business leaders through entrepreneurial-based projects that empower people to transform opportunities into real, sustainable progress for themselves and their communities" according to the organization's website.

Last year, Enactus USA offered a virtual competition where teams submitted video presentations, along with the portfolio. This year,the virtual competition included a live Q&A session after the video presentation. Teams are judged on their effectiveness in conducting a needs assessment and in seeing opportunity, in taking entrepreneurial action, and in enabling progress by measuring direct and indirect outcomes that empower people and improve livelihoods in a sustainable way. Teams also receive feedback on their ability to communicate their projects and the results.

This year, the Eckerd PEL team's projects included teaching preschoolers about recycling and taking them on a visit to the local recycling center, helping Boys & Girls Club members and Girl Scouts create marketable hydroponic gardening kits to improve people's access to fresh vegetables, helping college students and recent graduates connect with employers offering paid internships in the IT field, and helping senior citizens market their artwork within the local community.

The inside of the 2017 Eckerd PEL Enactus team's portfolio

Alumni News

Kathie Tanner Erwin '82

Kathie Tanner Erwin '82 (Concentration in Society, the Media, and Politics), who subsequently earned an M.A. in Counseling from Liberty University, and an Ed.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Sarasota (now Argosy University), is an Associate Professor and Associate Coordinator of MA Counseling Programs for Regent University. Erwin also is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, National Certified Counselor and National Certified Gerontological Counselor. Recently she was awarded a Diplomate in Clinical Mental Health for Geriatric Counseling.

She has contributed to a number of journals and has written seven books, including Group Techniques for Aging Adults: Putting Geriatric Skills Enhancement into Practice, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2013) and an ethical thriller, Taylor Kendall: Evil Inc.( Par Press, 2010).

Erwin has volunteered as a Field Traumatologist with Green Cross Academy of Traumatology serving in India, Trinidad and Ukraine. She returns this fall for third season as guest lecturer in the Nord Mag Gerontology Institute at University of Iceland.

Recently, Erwin was named to the Fulbright Specialist Roster for a three year tenure. As a Fulbright Specialist, Erwin will serve with an international university on the project she designed for training geriatric group therapists, developing community based group programs and education in trauma related issues for older adults.

 Erwin is the mother of twin daughters (one currently an Eckerd College student) and four grandchildren. She has previously served as President of the Eckerd Alumni Association and as Alumni Trustee.

Note: [04/25/17] This section was edited to include the information just released about Erwin's being named to the Fulbright Specialist Roster.

Virginia J. Scott '85 at the PEL Alumni
Reception in March

Virginia J. Scott ’85 (Human Resources) is retired after a long and fruitful career in the social services fields. Scott began teaching in the early 1960s, earned an A.A. in 1964 in Early Childhood Development from Gibbs Jr. College, which later became part of St. Petersburg Jr. College, taught in the 1965 pilot program for Head Start in St. Petersburg, and became a program manager for Pinellas County Head Start. By 1974 she was training others in her work with the Pinellas County License Board for Children's Centers and Family Day Care Homes.

Eventually she became a program consultant responsible for staff development and training with the Juvenile Welfare Board -- JWB minutes from the mid-1980s show the Board recognizing Scott several times for her work -- all while she was serving on various boards and committees, while she and her husband were raising two children, and while she was taking courses at the University of South Florida. Scott transferred those credits to Eckerd College and finished her degree in the PEL program.

"I had taken courses at USF in psychology, criminology, and education. PEL allowed me to combine those interests and earn a degree in Human Resources," Scott explained when she visited the office recently. "That degree opened doors I never expected, and I ended up working in all three fields."

In 1994, the Florida Bar recognized Scott's service
on the Grievance Committee of the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

Scott worked for several years as a training specialist at the USF/Florida Mental Health Institute's Professional Development Center in the Department of Mental Law and Policy. In 1990, Scott was invited to testify before the Racial and Ethnic Bias Commission of the Florida Supreme Court as to the importance of sensitivity training for state workers. From 1991-1994, Scott was appointed to the Florida Bar's Sixth Judicial Circuit "D" Grievance Committee, which investigated complaints against lawyers and reported findings to the Florida Supreme Court. Scott also served as a lay member on Bayfront Medical Center's Institution Review Board.

Over the years, Scott also has been actively involved in various community and national organizations including Hospice, Congregations United for Community Action, the National Black Child Development Institute , and the National Council of Negro Women. In 1991, Scott was invited by the director/manager of Tyrone Square Mall to lead mall managers and security officers in cultural sensitivity training sessions to help serve mall patrons more effectively and to prevent confrontations from escalating. Eventually, Scott traveled throughout the state, training employees at other malls owned by the DeBartolo Corporation.

Scott became a family life and community educator with Family Service Centers, Inc., and, later, a guidance counselor at Academy Prep Education Center before retiring in 2011.

Scott quoted former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's statement (2013):

"The essence of America ... is an idea: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things. That it doesn't matter where you came from but where you are going."

Note: 04/24/17 This section was edited to correct the name of the college from which Scott received her A.A., to clarify Scott's work at Tyrone Square Mall, and to add an image of the award Scott received from the Florida Bar.

 

Faculty/Staff News

Congratulations to Alaina Tackitt '08 (Humanities), who successfully defended her dissertation titled "(Age)ncy in Composition Studies" this past month. Tackitt has earned her Ph.D. in English, Rhetoric and Composition at the University of South Florida, Tampa, and will graduate in May. Tackitt had previously earned an MLA (Master of Liberal Arts). Tackitt is the academic advisor at the Tampa campus and is PEL director of writing services.

PEL ENACTUS team headed to national conference

by Anne W. Anderson
Photos by Anne W. Anderson
or courtesy of Yolanda Carter

The Enactus team of (l-r) Yolanda Carter '17, Dorie Michalik '16, Professor Naveen Malhotra (advisor), Tonya Zalick '18, and Andi Gordon '16 celebrate their regional victory.

They wrote grants, developed marketing plans and tools, provided innovative programs at a number of local non-profit organizations, produced reports, and created a video presentation which they entered in the regional level of a nationwide competition judged by business representatives from major corporations. Now, having been named regional champions, Carter, Zalick, and Gordon are headed to the Enactus United States National Competition in St. Louis, Mo., on May 16-18. Dorie Michalik is unable to attend.

Dorie Michalik and Yolanda Carter work on the Powerpoint presentation.

They are Yolanda Carter, Andrea "Andi" Gordon, Dorice "Dorie" Michalik, and Tonya Zalick, students in Students in a Free Enterprise (SIFE), one of Professor Naveen Malhotra's senior seminar business management courses. As part of the course, they and other classmates each proposed a short-term project working with a local non-profit organization and then worked in teams of two to complete the projects and to give progress reports in class.

"We assisted our partner with making contact with potential audience members, looking for locations to present, and so on," Tonya Zalick wrote in an email interview. Zalick will be the Eckerd Enactus chapter president for the 2016-2017 academic year.

After the course ended, Malhotra offered interested students the opportunity to be part of an extra-curricular activity that involved putting together a presentation about the projects and presenting it, virtually, at the Enactus Regional Competition in April.

One of many planning sessions involved in preparing the entry.

"Most adult undergraduate programs don't have extra-curricular activities, but I feel it is an important part of the college experience," explained Malhotra, who has advised teams since 1995.

Trophies and other awards--including the key to the City of St. Petersburg--line his office, but the excitement in his voice as he talks about the projects students have completed suggests Malhotra's motivation for encouraging his students to participate is not winning trophies but watching PEL students discover ways they can use the business skills they are honing to help the larger community.

"And they do the work in eight weeks, then prepare their presentations during the next eight weeks," Malhotra said. "Other teams work all year on their projects and presentations."

Carter, Gordon, Michalik, and Zalick volunteered. They reviewed the eight projects that had been completed in the course, selected four to showcase in an annual report, and then began preparing their entry.

Materials Andi Gordon created for Pinellas Hope.

Enactus--Entrepreneurial Action Us--is an international organization involving more than 48,000 undergraduate and graduate students who "create community development projects that put people's own ingenuity and talents at the center of improving their lives," according to the 2016 Team Handbook.

Volunteer judges are professionals working for major corporations. They assess each team's effectiveness in seeing opportunity (including conducting a needs assessment), taking entrepreneurial action, and enabling progress by measuring direct and indirect outcomes that empower people and improve livelihoods in a sustainable way. Teams also receive feedback on their ability to communicate their projects and the results.

This year, communicating took a virtual turn. Recognizing that travel costs prohibited some teams from participating, the organization created a virtual regional in addition to regionals held in six cities across the continental United States. But it meant that, in addition to creating a Powerpoint presentation, the team also had to find a way to film the presentation.

Andi Gordon said it was a challenge. "Preparing a presentation with multiple content areas/speakers is almost always a major undertaking," Gordon wrote in an email interview. "But when you add the element of filming, editing, synchronizing with Powerpoint, and the expanded technology needs, the focus can shift from the content of your presentation to just delivering a usable "package.'"

Dorie Michalik noted she is used to moving around as she presents to a live audience. "Having to stand in one place as the team's presentation was videotaped was a challenge for me personally," she wrote in an email interview. 

The team met most Wednesday evenings during Spring 2 to work on the project. Towards the end, however, other meetings were added. The night before the filming, the group worked until midnight then were back on campus for an early-morning camera date.

"It was a lot of hours," Gordon wrote.

PEL Enactus projects

Yolanda Carter helps install a community garden at CASA.

The projects included in this year's showcase were:

CASA (Community Action Stops Abuse): Yolanda Carter obtained a $1,500 Partnership Workforce Development grant from WalMart's Women's Economic Empowerment Project to create materials for two workshops (employment readiness training and money management skills), which she termed EMPOWER (Encourage, Motivate, Prepare & Organize Women's Economic Readiness) workshops, presented to CASA clients. She also used funds to create a community garden that CASA clients will maintain to provide fresh produce to the residents.

Community Leveraged Learning (CLL): Dorie Michalik presented fellow SIFE student Lori Pinkerton's project, as Lori was not able to commit to the extra hours involved. Lori built a website for Community Leveraged Learning, an organization that provides writing workshops for children and for teachers. In addition to teaching writing skills, CLL also publishes finished work, validating children's creativity and helping teachers produce thematic units they can use in their classrooms. 

Pinellas Hope: A project of the Diocese of St. Petersburg and Catholic Charities, Pinellas Hope is replacing the "tent city" created to shelter people without homes with modular units made of shipping crates. Andi Gordon created marketing materials, including a multi-page case statement for the organization's funding initiative, for the dedication of Phase 2 of the project. She created the materials using templates that Pinellas Hope can reuse for future events and developed a media engagement plan including press release guidelines and timelines.

Re-emerge at Westminster Palms: Ten residents at Westminster Palms, a St. Petersburg retirement community, had been taking art classes from an instructor who came to the center each week and some were displaying their work in the lobbies of the buildings. Tonya Zalick, who works at Westminster Palms, felt the community was missing out on seeing the residents' works, and she knew residents were equally isolated from the larger art community in the area. Ekcerd Enactus coordinated with organizers of the Saturday Art Walk in Gulfport to allow the senior artists to re-emerge by showing their art at the public event. They also created a network of restaurant and shop owners interested in having individual artists display their work.

Takeaways, Tips, and Testimonials

 

All four team members agreed the project took a lot of time and stretched their skills.

"This is not something you can do well with little effort," Michalik cautioned. "Make sure you have the time and ability to give the project and the competition your all."

But each member also said the time was well spent.

"The best experience was the responses from the women who appreciated the information we provided during the workshops as well as the residents' reactions to the garden boxes being finished," Carter wrote.

Zalick agreed. "The best moment was seeing the faces of the [Re-emerge artists] when complete and total strangers offered to buy their artwork," she wrote. "They did not think that their paintings were of any value to anyone, and for them to see that they touched other people was eye-opening to them."

Zalick also said she is more aware now of the needs in the community and also of "the many, many organizations, people and groups who are doing what they can to make a difference in the lives of others."

Representatives of some of the communities helped said the short-term projects left a lasting impact.

Louis Ricardo, Catholic Charities' marketing and development manager, noted that Gordon did more than just provide detailed marketing materials.

"She was simply an excellent sounding board for me in general as I am new to both Pinellas County and the non-profit industry," Ricardo wrote, adding that he looked forward to working with her in the future.

Westminster Palms resident David Dumin said in a telephone interview that he didn't plan to pursue marketing his artwork. "But it was nice to watch the people enjoying our work," he said of the Art Walk event. "And I know others in the group are interested in being more involved."

Trace Taylor, founder and CEO of Community Leveraged Learning, said the website built by Enactus has helped CLL to present itself more professionally, which is important as they begin to provide teacher training to local schools and to apply for grants.

"They saved us, is what they did," Taylor said.

 
In addition to being PEL students and participating in Enactus, the team members each work full time. Yolanda Carter recently accepted a position in the Center for Conflict Dynamics and Mediation Training Institute at Eckerd College; Andi Gordon is the St. Petersburg Retail Advertising Manager for the Tampa Bay Times; Dorie Michalick is the Assistant Director of Product Management for the Center for Conflict Dynamics and Mediation Training Institute at Eckerd College; and Tonya Zalick works at Westminster Palms, a Continued Care Retirement Community in St. Petersburg. 

Anne W. Anderson is PEL's director of blended and online learning.