POLKcast: President Falconetti kicks off season 2 [transcript]
Key:
MF: Madison Fantozzi
LB: Leah Bartholomay
Dr. F: Dr. Angela Garcia Falconetti
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MF: We’re back for a second season of Polk State College’s official podcast and today is a very special, presidential episode.
LB: Presidential?
MF: That’s right. We’re joined today by Dr. Angela Garcia Falconetti, President of Polk State College, to kickoff season two of POLKcast. Dr. Falconetti was named the college’s fifth president in May 2017, and has been the biggest advocate of her Polk State students since. She brings extensive experience at the state and national levels and higher education to the college, and remains an active leader in our community, representing Polk State in local, state and national organizations, enhancing opportunities for students right here on our college campuses and centers across Polk county. Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Falconetti. How are you?
Dr. F: I’m well. How are you? Thanks for having me. I’m very excited to be here.
MF: Doing well. Yeah, so we wanna share with the students more about you as our president. So, for starters, will you tell us a little bit about your background?
Dr. F Well, I’d love to. The most important piece about my background that I feel that the students and the general community should know, is that my parents are Cuban exiles. They met in Jacksonville, Florida as adults. They came in as children. My father through Miami. My mother through New York. And, as they met in Jacksonville, our roots began there. I should say, mine did. Not theirs. Theirs are Cuban roots, of course. But, I had the fortune of growing up in a household of which, you know, English was my second language. Spanish was my first. I didn’t learn English until kindergarten. But, a very loving environment to help me understand the English language well. But most importantly, I was able to experience how my parents thrived as a result of higher education. Specifically, their experience at the institution that used to be called Florida Junior College, which is now Florida State College in Jacksonville, and thereon, they became accountants. Graduated with four-year degrees, bachelors degrees, and I was able to really experience how my life as child changed because of the trajectory of what was provided to us through the impact of higher education. So, I very quickly became dedicated to career in higher education. And, as for my dream, was always to serve as a president if the doors ever opened for that opportunity to exist for me and my family. And the reason was not necessarily to climb a ladder. That’s not anything that I have ever wanted, but I have wanted to make the impact on the students lives and provide them with the opportunity to enhance their lives through the power of higher education. And so, I’ve experienced firsthand how education, and higher education in particular can change an entire life or lives. Raised the level of a family who came her with nothing to really being a provider for their own family. In this case, it was mine, and me and my sister. And so, I’m dedicated everyday , and a very passionate everyday, about giving back to our students and making sure that I’m instrumental in listening intently, observing intently and ensuring that their path is created as best as possible. Now, with my passion being accelerated here at Polk State as I serve as president.
MF: Awesome.
LB: What made you choose Polk State?
Dr. F So, that’s a great question. Polk is a very special place. In my opinion, we are like a family. I’ve said that from the moment that I’ve stepped foot on campus. We are. And, that is a very special culture that not a lot of institutions have. I’ve had the fortune of working in three states and for the District of Columbia, and I can attest to the fact that we have a very special culture here. And, I hope to be able to maintain that. But, not only maintain. We never wanna maintain. We wanna excel, but really foster and gender a continued culture of sense of family at the college, because I firmly believe that we can learn all of the pedagogy that we might wanna learn. And, that’s all important. We could provide all the wraparound services to our students that are needed, which are critical to ensure that they succeed. But at the end of the day, if we really care and we provide a caring and loving environment for our students, they’re gonna succeed. And again, that’s why we’re here. So, Polk’s a perfect fit.
LB: Yeah.
Dr. F And I feel that, I hope I’m the perfect fit for Polk and I just wanna tell everyone who’s listening how fortunate and honored and humbled I feel to serve in the role that I’m serving in.
LB: That’s awesome.
MF: That’s awesome, yeah. So, I heard you say Dr. Falconetti, you mentioned wraparound services. So, can you share with our students who are listening some of those services and departments? I know you would shout-out every department and every employee if you could, but can you share some of your thoughts on that?
Dr. F: Yes, thank you. I love that question. I do wanna do what you said. I wanna shout-out to every employee and every person because everybody’s critical. You know, ranging from those individuals to our cleaning, every night and every day, to facilities, to technology, to student services. All of our administrative services, but I specifically wanna hone in for a moment and just thank our faculty. Because those, our adjuncts and also our full-time faculty as one whole, are critical to the teaching and learning process. We know this. But ultimately, you can read any study across the country that’s been ever published, and the number one individual to be able to keep students on campuses, engaged and make or break their experience, are the faculty. So, I wanna thank our faculty. So, I wanna start there. But, I also think it’s important just to shout-out to our advising services, for example. All of our student services. All of our academic support services like our Writing Studio, our Office of Disability Services, our Office of Veteran services. Oh my goodness. How critical to ensure that veterans continue to excel. And, I wanna give a shout-out to them to thank all the veterans for everything they’ve done for our country. Also, our career development services, first year experience and we have all of our centers. Like, our J.D. Alexander Center. Right here right now, for this podcast here in the library. So, I wanna thank–
LB: Yeah.
Dr. F: Everyone who works for our libraries and our TLCCs, I call our tender loving care but that’s not really what it is. There our great technology learning support centers that we have across our college. And so, really I just can’t speak enough, even to the point where we’ve had great minds. For example, on our Lakeland campus that just recently opened a food pantry for our students and My Brother’s Keeper on the Winter Haven campus that helps students who are really in need. Specifically, we hope that if our students are experiencing a tough time financially or even our homeless, that they will go to see My Brother’s Keeper program that’s now housed in our Student Activities Office, our SALO office, Student Leadership and Activities Office. So, the range is just amazing. And I also want to highlight, last but not least, our foundation. Because, it’s really remarkable that our foundation, Board of Directors, is able to provide our students with approximately $1 million in scholarships, annually. And there have been years where it’s been up to $1.5 million. So, we look forward to continue to foster relationships with our community members, which are critical to making sure the doors keep opening for our students.
LB: Yeah. It’s incredible what they do.
Dr. F: It is!
LB: They’re fantastic.
Dr. F: Absolutely.
LB: Do you have any tips or hints for students that are coming into the 2019 school year to start off on the right foot?
Dr. F: Yes. Number one, love your president. No, I’m just kidding.
MF: I love that.
Dr. F: Just kidding.
LB: Check, check, check.
Dr. F: No, number one, the main key is ask for help.
LB: Mm-hmm.
Dr. F: We all wanna help here at Polk State, and if you don’t… If you encounter someone, if the student encounter someone that isn’t very helpful, let me know.
LB: You call the president.
Dr. F: That’s right. You call the president. No, but in all honesty, ask for help. Because, we have people who want to see our students succeed. So, that would be my number one tip, is really rely on us. Second thing is, don’t be too shy to be engaged. Ask for assistance for… We have tutoring services. I mentioned our teaching learning centers across our college. Any kind of academic support that is needed, ask for. See if we have it, and if not, we might be able to create it which is the really cool thing about being in a position where… We’re a state college system. We’re more nimble. We’re able to create things a little faster and ensure our students have the services that they need. And number three, just study. Stay dedicated and don’t give up. I believe firmly that in life, it’s more about perseverance than it is anything else. So if you want it, you can have it and we’re here to help you get it.
LB: That’s great.
MF: Well tell us some of the fun stuff that you get to do with the students. You talked a little bit about getting engaged. So, what can students come and do with you on campus during the school year?
Dr. F: Well one of my motto’s for Polk State is that student success is our success. In fact, it was the FEMA, the investiture ceremony. But, I’ve had so many great memories with students. It is why I’m here, as I said before. Our students are just phenomenal, but I’ll just list a few. I think of, for example, Kerin Sequin, who’s now an alumni of the college. His leadership, student government and many discussions I’ve had with him. I know that, for example, he’ll be graduating soon. I’m very proud of him, from law enforcement academy, locally. But, that’s just one of the many number of success stories that I’ve had the fortune, the dream of shaking their hands as they walk across the stage and our call-to-graduates become graduates but are officially called graduates of Polk State College. Just seeing those students accomplish their dreams are number one. But, I have multiple, multiple stories of my interactions with students. Another really good story I love, one of my best experiences, was being at Legoland recently and having one of the characters look at me. Of course, they don’t have an expression because they’re characters and I figured out it was one of our students. So, it was really fun to get a big hug from our student who was again, works for Legoland. Also, I’ve had just fun. I attended the Student Government Association state meeting in Tallahassee and spent time with our students. We’ve advocated for our college with our local delegation in Tallahassee. We’ve since then had Uno challenges. They love playing Uno on the Lakeland campus. And then here on the Winter Haven campus, we had Connect 4 challenge.
LB: Fun.
Dr. F: You know, it’s really just about spending time. Knowing that they have the ability to help guide me, too, is something that I’ve really tried to communicate to them. For example, they’ve guided me on the creation of a presidential Facebook site, which we launched last year and we’re having fun with. We just met today to talk about what that will look like this year and how we can further engage. So, I’m just excited. Madison, I’ll go on if you’d like but I have a ton of stories.
MF: We’d love to hear them all, but that’s a great plug to go to Dr. Falconetti’s Facebook page at Polk State President to see all of these great things that are going on, so. That’s awesome.
Dr. F: Yes.
MF: Yeah.
LB: So, where can students connect with you?
Dr. F: So, that’s a tricky question, because they can connect with me anytime they see me walking around our campuses, our centers. They’re always welcome to call the President’s Office or email me. All of that’s on the website, but I also have the Facebook page. So, I’d really appreciate their communication with me through Facebook. We post a couple of videos here and there. I try to just carry my iPhone around sometimes and we take some videos. And, we have a great videographer across our college, who serves, again, the entire college, who’s done a couple great videos, Welcome Back videos. So, please do. At the hones of the fall semester, if you’re a student, log on to the Facebook site, President’s Facebook site and check it out. Check and see what the students and I might be telling you about, initiating this great upcoming academic year.
LB: Awesome.
MF: Definitely. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We are super excited to kickoff season two of POLKcast with Dr. Falconetti, our presidential episode. So, thank you.
Dr. F: I wanna thank you both because this is such a important opportunity to be able to highlight what our faculty and staff are doing and some cool things that you might not know, otherwise, about our faculty and staff, so. Thanks for highlighting them. They’re who make our college special, just like you do.
MF: Thank you.
LB: Thank you.
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