Knights HistoryCast

In Episode Four, Alecia Bryant (returning K12 educator) and Amanda Burchins (new K12 educator) primarily discussed their three deliverables (Veteran biography, mini-tour, and lesson plan) and how four days at the 2024 Institute had facilitated their further development. Alecia Bryant’s continuity with UCF VLP since 2023 allows us to examine the program from a broader perspective—such as the differences between the 2023 and 2024 edi...

In Episode Three, Sergeant Major (Sgt Maj) Ray Fullard recounts his experience taking his JROTC cadets to Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida. Throughout the school year, Sgt. Maj tasked his JROTC cadets to research and write a biography of a Veteran interred at Bushnell who served during the Gulf War (1990-91), Operation Enduring Freedom (2001-2014), and Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2011). Sgt Major is a Marine Corps V...

In Episode Two, Andrew Carroll’s herculean efforts to seek and collect over 210,000 war letters—that span since the American Revolution—demonstrate how others are as seriously committed to preserving the legacies of the men and women who served and fought for their country. Andrew shares several letters from his impressive collection, allowing us to be as close as possible to the Veterans—engaging with their own words, thoughts, an...

The 2024 UCF VLP Podcast Series explores the UCF Veterans Legacy Program (VLP) and its mission to honor and memorialize Veterans buried in Florida’s national cemeteries in innovative and engaging ways, primarily through the experiences of the participating K12 educators. For the past two years, UCF VLP has been specifically designed to instruct K12 educators how to teach Veterans' history to K12 students by learning how to create g...

In Episode One, Dr. Amy Giroux’s groundbreaking research on recovering the identities of previously unknown Native American prisoners and lost Union soldiers buried in St. Augustine National Cemetery enables us to understand the centrality of space and place in Veteran memorialization and legacy with tremendous clarity.

Dr. Amy Giroux—a co-principal investigator (PI) and the technical lead for UCF VLP—was one of two keynote speaker...

The Department of History's Sebastian Garcia spoke with Afrofuturism Academic Conference curators Dr. Julian Chambliss and Dr. Scot French about this year's edition of the ZORA! Festival Afrofuturism Academic Conference which was grounded in the theme of the space of Afrofuturism. This thematic approach was incredibly timely as Dr. Chambliss and Dr. French discussed thoroughly how they used the conference as a public platform to wi...

In the final episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” we return to an “after-hours” edition as Sebastian Garcia spoke with Nicole Bennett (2nd-grade Teacher at Webster Elementary), Erika Grant (Physical Education Teacher at Webster Elementary), and Judy Lindquist (K-5 Gifted Teacher at Andover Elementary), at the hotel after the entire Day 8 program. This includes the events of Episode 6 (“meta” field trip) and Episo...

In the eighth episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” we return to a sit-down conversation with K12 teachers Alecia Bryant (7th Grade Civics Teacher at Meadow Woods Middle School), Angie Hubbart (4th Grade Teacher at Orlando Gifted Academy), and Heaven Wilson (10th Grade World History Teacher). However, having gone through such a transformative morning, the “meta” field trip (Episode 6) and the subsequent roundtable...

In the seventh episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” we pick back up where we left off last week: the conclusion of the “meta” field trip and into the roundtable discussion about it. At the zenith of the Institute’s pedagogical and emotional significance, this roundtable discussion was remarkably reflective, insightful, and cathartic for several reasons. First, the roundtable discussion format established a fluid ...

In the sixth episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” we’ve reached the climax. At this point in the series, you have heard seven teachers, ranging from 2nd grade to 11th grade, profoundly reflect on their experience at the Institute—from their Veteran bios, to their mini-tours, to their lesson plans, to even how rewarding it has been to collaborate with other educators in the pursuit to memorialize Veterans and impr...

In the fifth episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” the “after-hours” edition continued as Sebastian Garcia spoke with two other teachers, Anne Makay (11th-grade U.S. history teacher at Clearwater High School) and Sgt. Maj. Ray Fullard (JROTC Instructor at Edgewater High School) at the hotel after the Day 7 program of the Institute.

Anne Makay’s fascinating candor throughout the conversation further revealed with r...

In the fourth episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” Sebastian spoke with three K12 teachers: Sharon Forand, Ryan Dane Rasmussen, and Alexis Wood. Sharon is an ELA and Social Studies teacher at Enterprise Elementary, Ryan is a high school teacher at Freedom High School, and Alexis is a fourth-grade teacher (all subjects) at Azalea Park Elementary.

In the first “after-hours” conversation of the series (recorded at t...

In the third episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” Sebastian Garcia had his first conversation with the K12 teachers. The teachers he spoke with were Lisa Bostick and Kristen Reilly, both second-grade teachers at Union Park Elementary and Clay Springs Elementary, respectively. Several key themes get talked about in conversation for the first time in this episode, such as the three deliverables the teachers worked...

In the second episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” Jim Stoddard, a reoccurring guest on KHC (Ep. 27 and Ep. 28), hosted the conversation with Dr. Heather P. Venable, an Associate Professor of Military and Security Studies in the Department of Airpower at the United States Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College. Given her successful career in researching and teaching military and Veterans’ history, Dr. Venable ...

In the first episode of “The 2023 UCF VLP Institute Podcast Series,” Sebastian Garcia spoke with Allison Simpson, Command Historian of the Florida National Guard, about the historic St. Francis Barracks, which hosted The 2023 UCF VLP Institute. Currently, the Florida National Guard headquarters, the characteristic coquina building, has an extensive and rich history that extends back to when the Spanish occupied St. Augustine in the...

Welcome to The 2023 UCF Veterans Legacy Program (VLP) Institute Podcast Series, a limited narrative podcast series directed, produced, written, edited, and hosted by Sebastian Garcia. The series focuses on a 10-day educational workshop created by UCF’s Veterans Legacy Program to honor and memorialize Veterans through powerful pedagogical teaching methods given to K-12 teachers across the state of Florida to ensure that the legacy o...

In the final installment of “Operación Pedro Pan: The Voices and Stories of Cuba’s Child Exodus—A Knights HistoryCast Mini-Series,” the Department of History’s Sebastian Garcia talked with Dr. Cecilia Rodríguez-Milanés, a Professor of English with a specialty in Latinx Literature at the University of Central Florida, and Dr. Lisa Nalbone, a Professor of Spanish and Coordinator of the Latin American Studies BA Program at the Univers...

In Part 3 of “Operación Pedro Pan: The Voices and Stories of Cuba’s Child Exodus—A Knights HistoryCast Mini-Series,” the Department of History’s Sebastian Garcia talked with former U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, who served in the U.S. Senate from 2005-2009. Mel Martinez was the first Cuban-American to serve in a presidential cabinet (President George W. Bush, from 2001-2003) and the first-ever Cuban-American to serve in the United Stat...

In Part 2 of “Operación Pedro Pan: The Voices and Stories of Cuba’s Child Exodus—A Knights HistoryCast Mini-Series,” the Department of History’s Sebastian Garcia talked with Barbara Palacios Wessels, a Pedro Pan, who arrived in the United States from Cuba via Operación Pedro Pan (Operation Peter Pan) on September 27, 1962, with her two younger siblings. Barbara was also a panelist from Day 1, Panel 2, which featured “community expe...