Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorMarch 4, 2016

There are people who I am thankful for in the trajectory of my “success” in life, especially my family and my elementary school librarian, Mrs. Walker. I was Mrs. Walker’s student assistant in third and fourth grades. I ran errands and alphabetized the checkout cards. But mostly I read books. And she encouraged me to […]

Guest AuthorMarch 1, 2016

When I gave the Theatre UCF students 30 days to teach me how to perform a karaoke song, I didn’t realize I was also handing over my dignity. In retrospect, it was a ridiculous idea, but I have no one to blame except myself. I thought it would make a neat publicity project for the […]

Phil AmmannFebruary 16, 2016

The opportunity to volunteer presented itself to me last year — and it turned out to be an educational lesson about patience and communications. I had been wanting to volunteer some place, and purposely chose teaching Sunday school with kids 3 to 5 years old because it was completely different than anything I had done […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 31, 2016

Online advertising flooded into my computer and phone during the holiday-selling season: banner ads, email advertising including spam, Facebook ads, sponsored tweets, rich-media ads, pop-ups and pop-unders, and my personal favorite: pre-video ads that slow me down when I’m checking out the sports highlights from the previous night. As a sales guy, I understand that […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 21, 2016

When I was a freshman, a psychology course completely changed my perspective on life. I remember on the first day of class my professor provided a reality check to us that we so desperately needed. He wanted to erase the stigma that students often feel that they should just go to college with the focus […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 18, 2016

When we die, the knowledge stored in our brains disappears. But through education, each generation of people can pass their knowledge to the next via spoken language, books and other media, and this knowledge can accumulate through the ages. Much of our valuable knowledge will live on in the brains of the next generation and […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 6, 2016

Welcome to 2016! It is a new year and, of course, a new you. Many of us have taken the rollover of the calendar as a chance to make changes and reaffirm commitments. Usually these decisions take the form of the New Year’s resolution. We are great at making promises, but unfortunately are lousy at […]

Guest AuthorNovember 24, 2015

About this time of year the past several years, my husband can’t help but comment on the total departure from the “traditional” Thanksgiving feast available at our family’s gathering. He says something along the lines of: “I’m pretty sure the Pilgrims at Plymouth did not have pernil on their table during their Thanksgiving celebration.” (For […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 30, 2015

Nowadays it is politically correct to be “green” – to say and do things that seem to minimize one’s impact on the environment and to preach to others to do the same. But I am tired of people who portray themselves as somehow better environmentally than others just because they follow the latest trend without […]

Guest AuthorAugust 19, 2015

About a year ago a dear friend gave me a copy of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King. The 2012 book earned the 2013 Pulitzer for general nonfiction and the Pulitzer Committee described the book as a “richly […]

Tag: UCF Forum

Yolanda Hood: We all have the right to read what we want

Heather Gibson: I have newfound respect for what performers do before stepping on stage

Traci Evison: Volunteering may teach you something about yourself

William Steiger: Online advertising: Overwhelmed or overjoyed?

Elizabeth Santiago: Challenge yourself to learn more than is being taught

Barry Jason Mauer: Our best hope in a world filled with emergencies? Education

Michael Preston: If you want to be on time, make sure you end on time

Maritza Martinez: We have many menus, but Thanksgiving is for everyone

Michael Bass: Don't just blindly follow all 'green' trends — do your research first

Terri Susan Fine: I question whether we have learned 'citizenship' in our generation