For many students, it began with what some now call the infamous checkbox.
It was an afterthought to the essays, the resumes and the personal information on the freshman application to the University of Florida in 2012 and 2013 — a box asking if the applying students were interested in having their applications considered for the Innovation Academy.
Many students, without much thought or research, clicked yes.
Innovation Academy has since added an essay component asking why students want to become a part of IA and how it will influence their career paths to ensure students are committed to the structure and style of the program. But while initial acceptance came with relative ease, some students have found leaving IA to be a more difficult process.
GETTING IN AND STAYING IN
David Nassau was born a Seminole. He never considered going to UF, but his mom convinced him to apply in 2012.
He checked the box.
After he was accepted into the first class of the academy, he and his mom took a trip to visit the school and spoke to Admissions.
“What if it fails?” was a big question they had. But Nassau, now 20, connected with the idea of the program.
“And three years later, it’s still here,” the UF marketing junior said.
Nassau, often seen as one of the faces of IA, said he saw a lot of negativity in the program’s early days. He saw that begin to change during the second IA course, Creativity Practicum, where students are tasked to come up with ideas for a helpful product and present a prototype at an end-of-semester showcase.
“The quality was high,” he said of his class’ showcase. “We felt proud being in IA. It was so positive and so overwhelming. So much negativity had been thrown around.”
Students know more about IA now, Nassau said, so they’re more positive coming in.
Li Stalder was one of those students. She was accepted to UF for Summer B 2013, but she needed to defer enrollment. She looked to her Tampa college preparatory school Academy of the Holy Names college counselor, Kerry Keegan, who shared her excitement over IA, an “up-and-coming” program.
Stalder called Admissions and asked to be enrolled.
“I was one of the few people who didn’t check the box,” the 19-year-old UF journalism sophomore said.
Keegan, the counselor, educated herself on IA and now always mentions the option when she talks about UF. She has had several students go on to join since it began.
“It really is more of a what an honors program should be,” Keegan said. “It’s a great way to attend Florida; it’s more personal.”
Stalder said she isn’t affected by IA’s Spring-Summer schedule. She said she hasn’t pursued internships yet because she’s still exploring the industry and the various opportunities within it.
She stayed in Gainesville in the Fall and found a job she enjoys at Hyperlynx Media, a digital marketing agency specializing in search engine optimization.
With the skills she’s learned in IA, Stalder has been looking into internships with media startups like Spoon University, a college-focused online food guide, which she contributes to. She thinks she’ll be a strong candidate because of her experience with teamwork and collaboration, creativity and an entrepreneurial mindset.
“Personally, I’m not going to go out and start my own business,” she said. “But there are skills I’ve improved on.”
NEW APPLICATION PROCESS
Beginning with students who applied to UF this past Fall, students must now clarify interest in either traditional enrollment or IA enrollment five times to avoid confusion.
Students interested in IA must also write an essay about why they are interested in becoming an IA student and how it will affect their career growth, as well as confirm they cannot leave IA to go to the traditional Fall-Spring schedule.
UF spokesman Steve Orlando wrote in an email that as a result, enrollment dropped from 300 students in Spring 2013 and 347 students in Spring 2014 to 191 students this Spring.
But the students who applied before the change must still grapple with the consequences of admittance to a program they didn’t fully understand.
GETTING OUT
In order for students to leave IA, there is really only one option: petitioning.
Barring any extenuating circumstances, IA students are not allowed to transfer into the traditional schedule at UF if they wish to maintain a major that is offered in the IA program, IA Director Jeff Citty said.
IA student Hannah Westergaard is on the fence about changing her major for that reason.
The plant science junior only wanted to drop the innovation minor to begin with. She was already encountering scheduling conflicts because her major’s classes are primarily during Fall and Spring, and she had to petition to take the Fall classes in person.
“You have to go out into the field,” Westergaard, 20, said. “You need to smell the plants, work with the plants. You can’t do that stuff online.”
Dropping the minor would help alleviate that strain, she thought at the time, because she didn’t view the classes as valuable to her area of study. Advisers allowed her to drop the minor, she said, but she’s still on the Spring-Summer schedule.
The only way she can leave IA is by dropping her plant science major and switching to horticultural science, a major not offered within IA, she said.
“I might have to change my major, but I won’t be in the major that I want to be in,” Westergaard said.
For Lauren Tenton, petitioning to drop the IA minor was the first step toward applying for a major outside the program. But her petition wasn’t successful, and she left UF because of it.
When she first entered IA as a freshman in the College of Public Health and Health Professions in Spring 2014, Tenton was excited by the concept behind the program. But when it was determined that the college was no longer compatible with the academy’s schedule, she was faced with two options: reapply to keep her major after sophomore year and leave IA, or change her major and stay in IA.
She decided to stay in the college and, in the meantime, drop the minor to save time and money.
But when she spoke with Citty, she said he questioned the wisdom of leaving.
“He told me ‘You wanting to leave the program so early is like getting to the gates of Disney World and deciding not to go in,’” she remembered.
Citty confirmed his conversation with Tenton and said it was an effort to help her understand she hadn’t had the full IA experience yet.
“It was curious to me how she could evaluate so quickly that this wasn’t valuable,” he said.
Tenton, now 20, petitioned to drop the minor soon after their conversation. But her petition was denied, and she decided to leave UF during the Summer because of financial strain and issues with the academy.
Now a sophomore at Miami-Dade Community College studying nursing, she will transfer to the University of Central Florida this Fall. She said there was a chance she would have stayed at UF if she hadn’t been in IA.
“I would’ve had a better time, better support,” Tenton said. “I wouldn’t be worrying about my program. I would be working toward what I want to do.”
Sarim Ahmed, a marketing sophomore, had a similar experience attempting to leave the program. After struggling with financial and family complications, Ahmed, 19, petitioned in February to switch to the traditional Fall-Spring schedule. But due primarily to his unwillingness to change to a major outside the program, Ahmed’s petition was denied, he said.
But Ahmed said he is OK with remaining in the program and making the most of his remaining time at UF. As a Florida Cicerone, he still recommends for some students to look into IA.
“The thing that I like to tell people is, Innovation Academy is a program that if you are truly passionate about what the program stands for, you should go for it,” he said. “If you’re not too sure, or your major isn’t offered, it’s reconsideration time.”
Three years in, Innovation Academy is still relatively young. With most students in the first class expected to graduate next summer, program administrators are working to expand to include more majors and work through the kinks of a Spring-Summer schedule.
“The program can get better in every way essentially because it’s growing in every way,” said Hammaad Saber, a 21-year-old industrial and systems engineering junior in IA. “As time goes on, every aspect of the Innovation Academy is going to continue to grow.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 - 8/9 on 4/17/2015]
Read the rest of the series at Alligator.org/IA
Hannah Westergaard, a 20-year-old UF plant science junior enrolled in the Innovation Academy, poses for a photo on a walkway behind McCarty Hall. Westergaard has dropped the innovation minor and is having difficulties aligning her major’s classes with the Spring-Summer schedule.
Li Stalder, a 19-year-old UF journalism sophomore enrolled in the Innovation Academy, poses for a photo in the Weimer Hall atrium. After getting accepted to UF for the Summer B semester in 2013, Stalder asked to join, and is happy with, IA.
Sarim Ahmed, a 19-year-old UF marketing sophomore enrolled in the Innovation Academy, poses for a photo underneath the arches near Marston Science Library. Despite having his petition to leave IA denied, Ahmed is determined to enjoy the rest of his college career.
Hamaad Saber, a 21-year-old UF industrial and systems engineering junior enrolled in the Innovation Academy, poses for a photo on Turlington Plaza. An IA ambassador, Saber is appreciative of the program and the opportunities it’s given him.
