State College of Florida commencement to be held Friday

SCF winter commencement will be held this Friday

BRADENTON -- State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota commencement will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at the Bradenton Area Convention Center, 1 Haben Blvd., Palmetto.

Out of 1,057 students eligible for graduation, approximately 247 graduates are expected to participate in the ceremony, which includes 202 associate degree graduates, 43 baccalaureate graduates and four certificate graduates (several graduates are earning multiple degrees).

Graduation speaker will be Edie Deane-Watson, an expert in creative leadership, customer engagement and staff empowerment. Deane-Watson has provided consulting and education in most areas of health care, including business development, operations, software, education and training. She is the principal of ED Coaching & Consulting, empowering leaders and professionals to meet life and career objectives.

Michael Mears, vice president of strategic initiatives at SCF, will serve as the macebearer in the ceremony. Mears will retire in May 2016 after 36 years of service to SCF.

Tickets are required.

SCF's Model UN Team wins at Atlanta conference

BRADENTON -- The Model United Nations team at State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, earned team and individual awards at the Southern Regional Model UN conference in Atlanta Nov. 17-19.

The five SCF students were among 700 college students from universities and two-year colleges from around the country at the competition.

Anne Miller, SCF's only Model UN veteran and international business bachelor of applied science candidate, received an individual Outstanding Delegate Award for her work in the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

New delegates Michael MacDermott and Zoran Popovic won a partner award for "Most Diplomatic" in the World Humanitarian Summit committee. Fellow team members Tori Stalnaker in the General Assembly Plenary and Alex Rosas in the World Health Organization contributed points that added up to several team awards.

SCF also received a best position paper award for the sixth straight year for schools whose papers scored in the top 10 percent.

8th-graders at SCF Collegiate School champion clean water

BRADENTON -- Lugging a nearly 40-pound container of water from class to class, State College of Florida Collegiate School eighth-graders Julie Stivers and Kea Kamiya were part of an initiative on issues faced by those lacking access to clean water. Having raised nearly $11,000 since September, the girls and their classmates have ensured at least one community in a developing country will have potable water for all its families.

Nearly one in 10 people worldwide - twice the population of the United States - lack access to clean water. Most live in isolated rural areas and spend hours every day walking to collect water for their family.

Working with Charity Water, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing safe and clean drinking water to developing countries, the 54 SCFCS eighth-grade students raised enough money to fully fund a drilled well, spring protection or BioSand filter that can provide clean water to a community in need.

SCFCS is accepting contributions for the Charity Water project through Friday. Checks or monetary donations can be dropped off or mailed to SCFCS, Charity Water Project, 5840 26th St. W., Bradenton, FL 34207. Checks also can be sent directly to Charity Water with "SCFCS 8th-grade coaching" in the memo line.

Information: Go to charitywater.org.

-- Herald staff reports

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "State College of Florida commencement to be held Friday ."