As always, we woke up at 7 a.m., washed up, had breakfast, got ready, and I did her hair — but one thing was different. Instead of getting in the car to rush to school, this time, we merely took a short walk from the living room to her in another room. She is doing at-home eLearning because of COVID-19.

For the past few weeks, I’ve watched as my friends post pictures of their kids’ first day of school on social media. They have on masks, gloves and face . The wording on the posts is often of uncertainty, fear, anger and confusion.

“I can’t stand sending my kid to school with that mask on her face all day,” one mother said. “Pointless. They don’t even work.”

While I may not exactly agree with all her sentiments, I understand. As much as I support wearing face coverings in public right now, I also wouldn’t want my child subjected to wearing one for seven hours a day, every day. It must have been a hard decision for her to make.

“Praying that teachers are extra cautious this year and that the kids remember our new reality, so everyone can make it home safe and healthy,” another mother said.

Again, I understand her concern. I don’t leave these things up to faith, but I also know that kids can only be held accountable for so much. My daughter is clean and well-behaved, but she’s still a kid. They forget about germs when they play, they like to share and are very social. As far as teachers, they can only be in so many places at once. So, I feel that mother’s worry.

My daughter understood that going to school would mean having lunch basically by herself every day, as she would sit six feet apart from everyone else.

The decision was hard for us, too, and not everything went according to plan. My daughter understood that going to school would mean having lunch basically by herself every day, as she would sit six feet apart from everyone else. Same with her workspace and play time during recess would also not be the same. She understood that she would not get to see her grandparents, as they are 84 and 94 years old, and we could not risk exposing them. She understood things would have to be different even between us at home, and that she would have to be responsible and careful in school, perhaps to an unreasonable degree.

As we watched Florida hit record COVID numbers, the choice to stay home was mainly hers. She knew it would mean sitting at her computer for long hours each day. She understood there would be isolation but figured it wouldn’t be much better at school, and that she’s much safer at home. She also understood the sacrifice was necessary to protect her family. And while she understood that this isn’t all part of a “normal” childhood, I was surprised at how willing she was to just accept an electronic reality.

These kids are not like us.

Fact is, she’s already proficient in Zoom. She uses apps like Duo and FaceTime to talk to her father in Texas and with me when she’s out there visiting him. She uses Hangouts and other apps to keep in touch with her friends and play remotely with them.

While to me this seems like the wrong way to nurture relationships, video communication is a norm to our kids. Some of them even prefer it.

What was the future in sci-fi movies — with holograms and video calls — is now here: a quick, reliable, easy and safe way to conduct business and gather with friends, even meet new people. She has been excited to log on and again “see” her friends were all “there,” too. I could tell this all feels just fine to her. They are so adaptable, so unafraid.

For some of us, we see this as they are missing out on “real life.” We hold these standard experiences as important just because we lived them, even though we grew up differently from how our parents did, and hated it when they would say the same thing about the way we lived then, too. Change is the only constant.

As I sit here, about to start making calls and sending emails to change my entire semester schedule to fit my daughter’s needs, the reality of this decision and how sacrificial it is has begun to sink in. This is hard for all of us parents, and a time to be supportive to one another, not critical or negative. No one decision was easy to make, and we all have our own ideas of how we wanted our kids’ school experiences to be. It’s okay to be mad and sad about it. It’s okay to figure it out as we go along. No one has all the answers.

Anyway, I’ve got to take off my writer hat and switch to my lunch-lady hat now. It’s almost time for lunch, and I have four college courses and an internship to work through, as well.

Lillian M. Hernández Caraballo is a senior planning to graduate in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and minors in writing and rhetoric and Latin American studies. She can reached at Lillian.Hernandez.C@knights.ucf.edu.

The UCF Forum is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on UCF Today and then broadcast on WUCF-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the Ů��AV.

Fear not, new Knights: Here are handy tips that will have you navigating campus like a pro, from finding your class on the first day, to knowing which garage always has a spot, to checking your grades with an app.

Parking

Parking can be tough during the first two weeks of the semester, when new students are still learning where they’re going. It helps if you get used to the fact that Ů��AV is a big university with lots of buildings. It’s not a convenience store; you shouldn’t expect to park 10 feet from the front door of your first class.

Knowing your way around will make it easier. Consider parking in or , which nearly always have space available. Or try , a Park and Ride lot at the softball stadium across from Bright House Networks Stadium (you’ll still need a campus parking permit for this lot). A Park and Ride shuttle runs continuously between Lot E4 and the shuttle stop near the Health and Public Affairs buildings, with pickups every 15 minutes.

Don’t forget: To park on campus, you need a .

UCF App

If you haven’t already, download the newly redesigned UCF Mobile app for or on your smartphone. Launch the app and you’ll find a treasure trove of information that will put you two steps ahead. Within the app, tap the “Maps” icon to find any building on campus and walking directions on how to get there. Or tap the “Shuttles” icon to find the exact location of the shuttle you’re waiting for via GPS tracking. Or tap the “Webcourses” icon to check your grades. Or “Calendar” to find out about upcoming concerts, career fairs and more.

Navigating Campus

The first two days of the fall semester, you can find helpful people at key spots around campus. These Campus Locator tents will be staffed by UCF employees and student leaders who can answer questions, provide directions and give you a map. Look for them on the sidewalk by Garage I and the Education Building; Memory Mall by the Veterans Commemorative Site; the side of the Reflecting Pond closest to Howard Phillips Hall; and the courtyard north of Ferrell Commons, near the Mathematical Sciences Building.

Fun for New Knights

Convocation: The Knighting is the official university welcome for new, first-year and transfer students alike. Held the Sunday before fall classes begin, President John C. Hitt and other administrators join current students, Knightro and others at this exciting and motivational event to kick off your academic journey. This year, will be featured as we celebrate its 15th anniversary.

As UCF’s official welcome week, Pegasus Palooza returns with a week full of social, academic and service activities for students to become acquainted with the UCF campus, meet people and simply have fun. Check out the full schedule of events at .

There’s also a new program in development to use Big Data to give academic advisors more tools to help students.

The university already offers a variety of resources and services to help all students from academic advising to UCF Cares, a referral desk for academic and non-academic services available on and off campus.

Think 30

New to the arsenal of resources this semester is an education campaign called , as in completing 30 credit hours a year. Taking that many credits each year enhances the chances that a student will earn a degree in four years.

“We’re encouraging students to complete 30 credits each academic year,” said Jenna Nobili, who is leading the campaign. She is an academic advisor for the Office of First Year Advising and Exploration. “We know 30 credits a year may not work for every student, but we want students to start thinking about their personal graduation goals from day one, so they can stay on track.”

Students can spread their credits out throughout the whole year, including summer sessions. Or they can increase their load one semester to make time to work in an internship or study-abroad opportunity another semester.

There’s another incentive to thinking about goals early: It will save students and their families’ money.

“We don’t want students graduating with a lot of debt,” Nobili said. “That’s why part of this education campaign also includes financial-literacy education and a strong recommendation that students speak to their academic advisor regularly.”

By finishing sooner, students can pay less tuition. And if planned properly, students can avoid excess credit-hour fees. That’s the legislatively-mandated policy that says that if students exceed the number of credits necessary to obtain a degree (about 120 credits for most majors) by more than 10 percent, they have to pay double tuition for each credit hour past the limit.

Jonell Gregor, a mechanical engineering major, thinks the campaign is a good idea because as a freshman, you’re not always thinking about graduating

“I know sometimes we come to college thinking it’s finally time for us to make our own decisions and figure out the person we want to be and sometimes we forget that the main reason we are at school is for academics,” Gregor said. “Sometimes we don’t think about the end goal for our academic career, only our personal lives and growth which causes us to not be as diligent on following our suggested guidelines for our major.”

Gregor is on track to graduate in December – four and a half years after starting at UCF, which is considered on track for Mechanical Engineering, one of the UCF majors that exceed 120 total credit hours. She took 15 credit hours both semesters her freshman year because she heeded strong recommendations made during orientation and she wanted to get involved in campus activities such as a sorority, Catholic Campus Ministry, and Knight Camp. But she agrees a campaign that reinforces the message to keep the end game in mind is a good one, especially to avoid unnecessary costs.

By September and early October, the campus will be plastered with banners, fliers and buttons that implore students to “Think 30.” There will be ads in the student newspaper and emails to students.

Knight Watch

While Think 30 is launching, Stephen O’Connell, director of First Year Advising and Exploration, is gearing up for Knight Watch. This program is aimed at the “murky middle,” the student population, which after their first semester in college has a grade point average between 2.0 and 2.59.  While they aren’t on probation, they could be if grades continue to decline the following semester.

That GPA range is a warning sign, said O’Connell. So he and his team will make contact with all those students identified before the start of their next semester to check in with them. The students will get an email and if they don’t respond, will next get a phone call urging them to talk to their advisor.

“We want to talk to them to find out what happened,” he said. “Was there a problem? Was the course combination too intense? Did they have a personal issue that interfered with their studies, whatever the problem is we’ll advise and refer them to resources they can utilize to make the next semester more successful.”

Students will also be reminded of things they may not consider when their GPA dips. For example, financial aid – such as Bright Futures Scholarships – are contingent on maintaining certain GPAs.

“Students often don’t think about that until after the fact,” O’Connell said. “We don’t want them surprised, so Knight Watch is about trying to intervene early and get them the help they need to stay on track. We want our students to be successful and make good decision.”

The program has been in the works for two years and O’Connell hopes to expand it in the next few semesters to provide more student support.

Big Data

Another initiative just getting started is a push to make better use of Big Data.

“We are starting the semester with a new university-wide program that harnesses the power of predictive analytics,” Provost A. Dale Whittaker announced in an email earlier this week. “This new program is called the Education Advisory Board Student Success Collaborative, and it will help us turn transactional data into actionable insight.”

That means advisors, faculty and student support staff will be able to see in real-time which students need intervention and access a powerful set of data-driven tools to guide academic and career advising.

Online dashboards, under development, will work with existing advising tools, giving advisors a 360-degree view of each student and alerting them if a student is at risk of not performing well in his or her current or planned coursework. The new tools also will help faculty and staff direct at-risk students to support services available across the university and help advisors follow their progress.

The incoming freshman class includes a UCF-record 74 National Merit Scholars. The 3,700 freshmen that will call UCF home this semester boast an average high school GPA of 3.85 and an average SAT score of about 1245. Last year 45 National Merit Scholars enrolled at UCF. The average GPA was 3.8 and the average SAT score was 1227.

The university continues to grow, fulfilling a longstanding commitment to provide high-quality students access to higher education. Enrollment is expected to exceed 58,000 students this fall. Graduate enrollment is expected to surpass 8,300.

Like the incoming freshmen, transfer students are making a name for UCF. The university’s many initiatives to help community and state college students make a smooth transition to UCF won rave reviews from the nonprofit College Board in a report released this summer. More than half of UCF’s bachelor’s degrees have been awarded to transfer students for the past two years.

And these students do well, earning coveted awards at UCF. Last year, for example, seven out of 10 students who received the university’s top academic honors at Founders’ Day ceremonies were transfer students.

The record group of National Merit Scholars includes Landon Meahl, of Ocala, who turned down Georgia Tech to attend UCF.

“UCF has a great science program, and I want to get involved in research early,” Meahl said. “I want to major in physics and math, so this was a great choice for me. And the Honors College is unique.”

Morgan McSweeney, who starts his first semester at UCF next week, said he’s thrilled to be at such a vibrant college. The Sarasota native applied to and was accepted at seven colleges and chose UCF because of its research focus.

“When looking for colleges, I knew that I wanted to do research as an undergraduate student. UCF offers the best opportunities for research and internships out of all of the colleges I looked at,” said McSweeney, who is majoring in Biotechnology with a minor in Psychology.

Housing

While no new residence halls are opening this year, many of the freshmen housed on campus will be living in new or expanded learning communities.

For example, 28 students who are interested in scientific research signed up for the (L.E.A.R.N.).  They will live on a floor of a building in the Hercules community on campus. The National Science Foundation funded LEARN to increase retention in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines for first-generation and minority students.

LEARN students will take three courses together – a freshman seminar, English and introduction to research. Participants also will work with graduate students and faculty members who will serve as their mentors as part of research apprenticeships.

On another part of campus, out-of-state students will be moving into Citrus Hall in the Libra community as part of the expanded Out of State Student Mentoring program. The program helps out-of-state students transition to UCF and Florida.

New Programs

UCF also is launching two new degree programs this semester.

The Master of Research Administration program is the first of its kind in Florida and among the first of its kind in the nation. It provides in-depth knowledge of identifying funding opportunities, preparing grant proposals, negotiating and handling contracts, and managing intellectual property and technology transfer, all essential to helping get research out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. The two-year, 36-credit-hour program is being offered online beginning this fall.

For the first time, Ů��AV is also offering a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies. It provides students with the necessary tools and relevant knowledge to understand, study and work with Hispanic populations. Research opportunities are part of the program, in fields such as anthropology, art, history and international relations.

Students will gain an understanding of the cultural, social, economic and political dimensions of the Americas and develop a basic proficiency in Spanish. Graduates will be well-prepared for careers in the Foreign Service, the military, government and international business.

Getting Greener

��AV is getting greener every day. In a national competition aimed at having buildings reduce their energy use, UCF earned high marks for reducing energy consumption by 31 percent in Parking Garage C. The Environmental Protection Agency sponsors the contest every year.

Construction is continuing on UCF’s new $10.2 million natural gas plant. The new plant will run on a 30-foot-long Mitsubishi engine powered by natural gas, and UCF will save about $2.5 million a year in fuel costs. In addition, the energy produced by the natural gas will reduce UCF’s environmental impact by 30 percent.

Other Highlights

The Burnett Honors College’s incoming freshman class is an impressive group of 525 students. The class’ average SAT score is projected to be 1389, compared to 1376 last year. And its weighted GPA is projected to be 4.2, up from 4.1 last year.

The College of Education is getting ready for its public unveiling of the Morgridge International Reading Center, which will spotlight the world’s best practices in reading instruction and help educators adopt them in the classroom.

This will be the first full semester for WUCF TV, the new Central Florida home for PBS. A partnership between UCF and Brevard Community College rescued beloved shows such as Antiques Roadshow, NOVA, and Arthur, and is giving the university unprecedented opportunities to showcase UCF throughout the region. Plans for the fall include expanding programming to include high-quality local shows.