Because of Hurricane Helene, Dr. Martha Saunders, the president of the University of Florida, did not give her State of the University address on Sept. 26. However, she shared her thoughts with Inweekly.
“Part of our mission is that we have students from varied backgrounds, and as we’ve talked about before, we have set record enrollment every year for five years and again this year,” she shared. “And so, we’re happy to do that, but these students are more academically talented than ever before.”
She continued, “When I came into the presidency, UWF had never had a National Merit finalist. This year, we welcomed our 14th, and that’s pretty exciting because these students can go anywhere.”
Dr. Saunders bragged about how well her students have performed in national competitions. “If there’s a competition, we’re going to send the team, and these teams are absolutely kind of not only succeeding but sort of cleaning the floor with some of the other big-name schools.”
A UWF team placed fifth in the country against teams, including Yale University, Dartmouth College, at the National Big Data Health Science Student Case Competition. UWF Lewis Bear Jr. College of Business students took home a first place win at the 2024 Southeastern Hedge Fund Strategy Competition, 28 other universities. UWF’s Speech & Debate team swept the table at the Pi Kappa Delta national. Students ranked in the top 10%, and Elizabeth Royappa, an Inweekly intern, won top superior.
