Dr. Jonathan Gueverra, president and CEO of the College of the Florida Keys, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on at the college.
The Seaside Soiree, the biggest fundraiser for the college, was hugely successful.
Dr. Gueverra said, “We had a great time. People danced the night away, had dinner. We raised over $125,000 and usually with events like these, you do the tally at the end of the night for ticket sales, auction items, and other donations, and often, people will make pledges that will come in later. So we don’t have the final tally yet, but it was a good night for us. It’s a lot of fun. Everything that we raise goes to benefit students and programs at the college, and I always want to recognize our community for its support. One of the highlights of the evening was a student of ours, she is a future nurse in the Upper Key Center, and she talked about her life changing experience coming to CFK, and having two kids, a mom, a family, the whole thing. This event, I mean, she was not aware of it until we asked her to attend, but just seeing the outpouring of support and the financials and being able to pay tuition and all of that, none of this could be done without our sponsors. These people and others really support the work that we do. We’re always looking for nurses. We’re always looking for plumbers. We’re always looking for HVAC techs. We live in an area where there is a great deal of turnover. So for us to be able to prepare people who will at least give us a few years at the end of their journey is really, really important. So I want to thank everybody for showing up at the Soiree and supporting our students in that way.”
Swimming is also a part of the college.
Dr. Gueverra said, “We’re athletic light. Swimming is our only sport for now. We have swimming and since we reintroduced athletics, the team has done really well, but it remains small, usually no more than a dozen. This year, we have seven swimmers who went to Buffalo, six of them will swim. Our coach, Lori Bosco, I mean, she is just a hard working, probably the hardest working person in the Keys and such dedication to all of the swimmers, and together, they’ll have about 21 races for individual swimmers. For us, as small as we are, it’s great that we’re competing with schools that have teams with dozens of swimmers, and yet, every year we come back with something from the podium.”
There is also a future student virtual info event coming up at 5:30 today.
Dr. Gueverra said, “We do this several times for the year, and you would think that this gets easier, but especially with all of the changes going on in Tallahassee and in Washington, DC, it’s actually gotten more complicated for people to figure out. Last year, there was a major hiccup with the financial aid system. So these events are very, very helpful, because we cover topics everything from how to pay for college, how do we compare financially if you came here to another institution in state or out of state. What the FAFSA? How do you fill that out? We also talk about our own scholarship programs, payment plans. We do career advising. We talk about our baccalaureate programs, our Associate degree, our certificate programs, the guarantee transfer programs that are in the state, for students who may still be in high school or eighth grade. We talk about dual enrollment. So if you are a parent, if you are a guardian, if you are just somebody who wants to help out youngsters in your neighborhood, or somebody who was just thinking about going back to school because it’s something that you thought you need to do or finish or never did, or you’re looking for a career change, please come on online, and when you attend, we will give you a special code that will waive the application fee you are required to register. If you don’t register, you will not be able to get that application fee waiver and that’s 30 bucks right there to get you started. We have not raised tuition in over a decade.”
The College of the Florida Keys will also take part in Florida Keys Day in Tallahassee next week.
Dr. Gueverra said, “We have been a part of this event for many years right after its inception, and this is our opportunity to be part of the Keys, outside of the Keys, and to represent both the Keys and the college in the state capital and whenever we attend, we take something of the college with us. So one of our mainstays, we’ve been preparing Key Lime desserts, which we distribute at the state capitol during the main event, and for a number of years, we did what we used to call key lime pie on a stick. We stopped that for a while, and we started doing key lime treats, and we put them a little mason jar. Well, the key lime pie on the stick is back, by popular demand. It is chocolate covered. Part of this is to showcase our students. So we’re still doing some of the treats that are going to be in a jar so that our students can practice their craft as chefs or budding chefs. We will also take two students from our Project Access Program up there. This is incredible because we’ve had this program now for more than 10 years, and it does great work. I think I spoke to you last time about the National Retail Federation Award and our top ranking by the Think College organization that monitors these programs. Well, the state this year has a big focus on doing autism testing earlier and the college and I’m sure all parents or families that have children with autism or intellectual disabilities, I’m sure they’ll support this. So for us, it’s incredible that they’re doing this and putting greater attention on that this year, and we had decided to take some of our Project Access students anyway, so we are going to take them and have them speak with legislators, so legislators can understand the importance of educating all individuals. We have such controversy these days with the abandonment of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. But the reality is that the notion of DEI is not just about what you see physically, because people with intellectual disabilities, you can’t often tell and so for us, this program has been not just something to showcase anything about inclusivity, but it’s also an economic reality – 20% of the country has one form of disability or another. So when you think about the lack of employees that we face from an economic standpoint, we have to be working with these students with autism and intellectual disabilities, and they are very, very, very talented. We as educators, for years have used a model that has not always helped all students, and so this is part of what we’re trying to do with our Universal Design Program.”
The Career Connections job fair will be held March 26 from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Tennessee Williams Theater Key West Campus.
Dr. Gueverra said, “All employers are welcome. Many have participated in the past, and we ask them to continue to participate. We’re also focusing on the job seekers who could be our current students, our alum, or just anyone from the community who is thinking about a change. We’re going to have employers there and my experience with this in the past is that some of them are ready. So show up, bring resumes, bring whatever credentials you need, because some people will, depending on who is there from that employer sometimes it is the owner of the business, and they will make spot decisions. So show up and be ready. In the past, we also had opportunities for people to do some resume workshops and things like that to get them started. Employers who are interested and want to be at the Career Connections, they must sign up by March 10, and our executive director of student success, Miss Nicole Gerard, is the person to contact. There’s a link on our home page with her contact information.
It’s important to get correct information when choosing your future.
Dr. Gueverra said, “There’s so much change happening all around and it’s important that people don’t just take their information from social media. Go right to the source, especially when it comes to stuff related to your education, how to pay for it, and for our part in all of this, the college continues to be a supporter of the community, and we will do whatever is necessary to make sure that people get the most accurate information. So I encourage anyone who has questions, who has concerns, who may have heard something, to not just take it off of a social media page or some other thing, but to really contact the College as the source for your higher education information in the Keys. If we can’t answer it, we will direct you to a place where the correct information is available, because, as I mentioned before, there are all manner of changes, everything from the financial aid application to how much is our tuition to what’s going on in DC, what’s going on in Tallahassee, related to education. We’ll be able to answer questions for you.”
For more information, click here: https://cfk.edu/