FGCU

FGCU’s Softball team will help build three homes this weekend in Lehigh Acres in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties. The team works on Habitat projects multiple times a year.Head Coach David Deiros has maintained a relationship with the organization for 15 years. Miguel Fernandez, a late Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry County board member and father of a FGCU Softball alumni encouraged the team to help back in 2009.

Janet Mtali discovered her passion for radio when she was invited to host a children’s show on TWR Malawi when she was still in high school. Since then, she has worked her way up and is now its National Director. Mtali is one of 25 Mandela Fellowship for Young African Leaders participants who are in Southwest Florida for the 2024 Leadership Institute being hosted by Florida Gulf Coast University. We meet her today to talk about the work she does and the Mandela Fellowship experience.

Excitement and emotions are running high among people on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University. FGCU begins its 27th academic year on Monday, August 19.

John Lack has had a front row seat to the development of some household names in media during his four-decade-long career in media. He was Chief Operating Officer of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment from 1979 to 1984 where he was mandated to develop cable channels for specialized audiences. That led to the Movie Channel, Nickelodeon, and MTV. After moving to Fort Myers about a year ago, Lack decided he wanted to teach and is now doing just at FGCU where he’s an adjunct professor in the Department of Communication and Philosophy, teaching a course called Media Perspective.

Bonaventure Bondo is an environmentalist and climate activist based in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is the founder and national coordinator of the Youth Movement for the Protection of the Environment. It’s a youth organization working in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss in the DRC. His efforts focus on protecting forests, promoting renewable energies, defending the rights of local communities, and campaigning against the exploitation of fossil fuels in the Congo Basin Rainforest.

The Vester Marine & Environmental Science Research Field Station, basically scoured by Hurricane Ian's storm surge, is once again taking middle school students on an environmental journey of discovery.

Janet Mtali discovered her passion for radio when she was invited to host a children’s show on TWR Malawi when she was still in high school. Since then, she has worked her way up and is now its National Director. Mtali is one of 25 Mandela Fellowship for Young African Leaders participants who are in Southwest Florida for the 2024 Leadership Institute being hosted by Florida Gulf Coast University. We meet her today to talk about the work she does and the Mandela Fellowship experience.

NASA’s DEVELOP Program has brought a new research project to Southwest Florida bringing together a group of four students from FGCU, UCF, and Oregon State University to work with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to analyze water samples taken from tribal land.DEVELOP aims to give students hands-on experience in the field of earth science, and help partners of the program solve environmental problems.

Among the budget spending vetoed by DeSantis was $11.6 million for renovations to Florida Gulf Coast University’s Reed Hall classroom building.Also among the vetoes was $80 million for the Florida College System to participate in the state group insurance program, which provides health insurance to state workers.Among big-ticket items approved by the governor, the budget includes $14.5 billion for the state transportation work program and $232 million for cancer-research funding, including $127.5 million for the Casey DeSantis Cancer Research Program.Also included in the state budget is $15.547 million for Fort Myers Beach for a new Town Hall site and revenue replacement.

Florida Gulf Coast University trustees this week are slated to consider launching an “intensive English language program” to help fill a need after the closing of a private university. Hodges University in Fort Myers announced last year that it would stop enrolling new students, with only limited classes being offered through August. In a news release last year, Hodges University cited “financial challenges and declining enrollment numbers” as the reason for closing.