“I will not let these storms derail my education,” shared a State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF) student post-Hurricane Milton, following his living without power for eight days. At SCF, this “we will overcome” attitude is shared among the students, faculty and staff.

Our college, as is our tradition, is known for adapting quickly and being responsive to the local community and the students we serve. Our resilience was magnified when our community was hit by three hurricanes back-to-back. 

SCF Bradenton suffered approximately $6 million in damage from Hurricane Milton. It will take us at least a year to repair several of the buildings and structures, but we resumed full operations in less than two weeks thanks to our public safety, facilities and community partners who went above and beyond to help us recover.

Everyone pitched in. The SCF Foundation and its directors along with SCF’s trustees, faculty and staff contributed to a disaster recovery fund that was also generously funded by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. This funding was vital to helping our faculty, staff and students who were severely affected by the hurricanes, some losing everything, recover and move forward. 

As you might expect, our Student Care division has seen an increase in student need because of the storms. We’ve been providing more counseling, food resources, transportation funding and academic accommodations to help our students recover from the hurricanes.

Despite the storms and ongoing challenges our college students face, SCF will proudly graduate more than 900 students during our Winter commencement ceremonies on Friday, December 6. This will include 730 associate in arts and science degrees, 134 baccalaureate degrees and workforce certificates. 

We’ll also recognize and celebrate our outstanding graduate nominees, Dakota May-Grace Duffina, Gia Francesca Goldflam and Tanner Stephens. These students demonstrated exceptional achievements in the areas of leadership, community service, academic achievement and school spirit. 

The ceremony will also recognize Faculty Excellence Award recipient Dr. Katy Wallis, assistant professor for Natural Science. Dr. Wallis was nominated by her peers for her overall excellence in teaching and advising, institutional service, professional development and scholarly activities. 

To date, SCF has graduated more than 62,000 students in the fields of business, education, technology, and health sciences. Our alumni, many of whom have remained local, are recognized for their academic excellence, technical skills and ability to persevere.

Tommy Gregory is President of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.