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Potential of transatlantic flight to be offered out of MLB airport

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In 2022, TUI airplanes will land in MLB. Photo by TUI UK.

by: Ethan Qualle 

This story was updated on Dec. 4, 2019 at 7:10 p.m.

TUI U.K., an English leisure airline, announced a potential commencement of service to Orlando Melbourne International Airport by 2022.

TUI, based in Luton, England focuses mainly on vacation travel for its customers located in the United Kingdom. The British-based airline company primarily operates seasonal vacation routes from its 16 bases, which include cities such as Aberdeen, London and Belfast. 

TUI Group stated on Twitter, “At TUI, we’re committed to offering our customers an outstanding airline and holiday experience and we are delighted to be working with Orlando Melbourne Airport on their exciting expansion plans. Our new Orlando gateway will be perfectly situated to offer TUI U.K. customers total flexibility in designing their holiday around any combination of theme parks, beaches or cruising.”

According to Rob Himler, manager of Marketing and Communications for MLB, such developments are still underway and which routes TUI will offer out of MLB are unknown at this time.

“It normally takes me three to four legs to travel home from school,” said Yohann Emmert, a senior in business administration from Geneva, Switzerland. Emmert typically has endured multiple layovers in London, New York, Charlotte and Atlanta. Some of Emmert’s other European classmates have had to take stops in Iceland, which is more indirect. 

Himler also stated that it is unsure if U.S. residents will be able to book flights from Florida to the U.K. MLB plans on announcing more details for passengers late next year. 

With the new U.S. Customs Federal Inspection Station that can currently process more than 400 passengers an hour, facilities at MLB are capable of housing the larger aircrafts of TUI’s long-haul fleet, variants of the Boeing 787.

 “The airport plans to invest even more in the airport’s terminal to increase its capacity for future operations,” Himler said.

MLB currently sees only domestic travel to major hubs in the United States such as Charlotte, North Carolina on American Airlines and Atlanta, Georgia on Delta Airlines. Porter Airlines—a full-service Canadian airline—was the only airline that previously had international operations directly out of MLB, but they have since discontinued their services. 

Florida Tech remembers Judy Brooke and Rosary Pedreira

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Florida Tech recently lost two long-time dedicated employees: Judy Brooke and Rosary Pedreira.

Brooke started her career at Florida Tech 15 years ago and worked as the director of International Student and Scholar Services.

Family, friends and members of the Florida Tech community attended Brooke’s memorial service, held on Oct. 19 at the All Faiths Center.

Brooke was born in South Africa, then moved to London as a young adult and as mentioned in her remembrance in the All Faiths Center, “Somehow ended up in the United States.”

Her favorite song was played on the piano in her honor, and a slideshow of pictures of her greeted guests as they entered the chapel.

Candles lit the chapel, and red, orange and yellow flowers colored the room. A photo of Brooke sat in front of the podium.

Brooke battled cancer and underwent three years of treatment.

She passed away in her home on Saturday, Oct. 12, surrounded by family. Mike Neeland, the campus chaplain, spoke at the service.

He described Brooke as a caring and strong-willed wife, mother and friend to all who came through her office during her time at Florida Tech.

He recounted the family’s memories of her, recalling her passion for cooking and playful ways of retaliating when cereal boxes were left opened and she would pour the loose cereal on the culprits’ beds. Lareyne Ellebracht, the immigration advisor at ISSS, described Brooke as being warm and welcoming to international students.

“Judy was sympathetic toward our international students and the struggles they oftentimes faced in the United States,” Ellebracht said. “She would often go above and beyond to help them.”

Deborah Matta, the manager of international student programs, said from the moment she met Brooke, she felt Brooke’s care for her coworkers.

Matta said she knew she wanted to work in Brooke’s department and that six years later, Brooke interviewed and hired her to work in ISSS.

Matta said that while many students didn’t get the opportunity to meet Brooke, she wants them to remember her.

“I do want them to know that her legacy lives on in the International Festival and the International Coffee Hours,” Matta said. “These were both events that Judy created. She wanted to increase activities that would promote relationships between people of different cultures at Florida Tech.”

Rosary Pedreira served Florida Tech for more than 30 years and left a lasting impression on her Florida Tech family.

On Oct. 19, the All Faiths Center held an intimate remembrance for Pedreira with food and drinks.

Jackie Saunders, who worked alongside Pedreira in the mailroom, remembers how kind Pedreira was.

“She bent backwards to help people,” Saunders said. “She’ll give you the shirt off her back if she can. She won’t give you cash, but she’ll give you her shirt.”

Shawn Hughes, who was Pedreira’s boss in the mailroom, recalls Pedreira as his “abuela” with her infectious smile.

“Imagine having your grandmother with you all the time,” Hughes said. “That’s what it felt like.”

One story about Pedreira that stays with Hughes is from when Pedreira had just begun working in the mailroom.

Holmes Regional Medical Center contacted her, as they were looking for someone who was bilingual.

According to Hughes, the hospital offered Pedreira a substantial amount more than what she was making working in the mailroom.

When Pedreira went to resign, it was the week before her birthday.

“When she went into the copy center to give her resignation, the current manager at that time brought her a cake and bought her a briefcase,” Hughes said. “She was so heartfelt and struck by that she couldn’t go anywhere.”

Both women will be remembered by their Florida Tech community.

For Brooke and the events she created, Matta said, “As long as I’m in my position, I will try to make these events successful in memory of her.” Hughes simply stated in remembrance of Pedreira, “We miss her a lot.”

From Coffee Hour to International Night

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Aromas of dark roast coffee and cultural chatter of the middle east filled the first floor of the Evans library on Sept. 20: International nights have officially arrived.

With a turnout of about 40 to 50 students, the United Arab Emirates Student Association began their presentation with a video on the culture and heritage of their home country.

This was followed by a PowerPoint presentation that covered a variety of topics in the UAE about geography, politics, the economy and more.

Khaled Alsamri, the new president of the UAE Student Association, gave the presentation and ended it with a quick round of trivia during which he gave out three pairs of movie ticket vouchers to students who answered correctly.

Khaled Alsamri presents his culture in the library. Crimson // Christian Martinez

As the presentation came to an end, the event’s participants were dismissed for food and drinks from Panera Bread.

The food items served included traditional dishes from the UAE, balaleet and gaimat, juices and coffee.

Balaleet is described by Alsamri to be sweet and similar to spaghetti, while gaimat is fried bread balls that are sweet and covered with honey.

International Night will be the new name of last year’s International Coffee Hour.

With cultural presentations, foods, coffee, brochures and more, Alsamri likened the change to an “evolution of the Coffee Hour.”

The UAE Student Association was restarted this semester after disbanding in 2014 due to a lack of participating members, Alsamri said. The group now has 13 members.

Alsamri, a senior in mechanical engineering, restarted the UAE Association as he realized that “no one was delivering this culture to the campus.”

“Anyone is welcome to join the club so we can share the culture,” Alsamri said. Alsamri stated that the UAE Student association was approved by the school this past Tuesday.

As he is also a part of the International Student Service Organization, Alsamri organized the event with both organizations to share the culture of the UAE with the campus.

He had prior experience helping to organize the latest International Festival and being a part of about nine Coffee Hours.

Participants in the event, like Dominic Zaio, a freshman in mechanical engineering, said he enjoyed the event.

“It gives me the chance to try foods I might have never had,” Zaio said.

Zaio also said that he’d rather have the event focus more on the culture and less on statistics in the presentation.

Another freshman in chemical engineering, Md Tahmid Islam, expressed similar thoughts, saying he’d like for the event to “be longer and have some cultural activities be added.”

While it is unknown what culture will be presented, Corq currently has the next International Night, which has yet to be updated from International Coffee Hour in the app, listed to take place on Friday, Oct. 18 from 5:00-8:00 at Evans Library.

Women’s ex-golf team continues collegiate career

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In the spring semester of 2019, the Florida Tech Athletic Department dismissed three of its sports programs: the men’s and women’s tennis team, and the women’s golf team.

“In a five-minute meeting, the athletic director told us we were being cut because we weren’t competitive enough,” said Noelle Beijer, one of the eight women on the women’s golf team.

Instead of wearing Panther apparel this season, Beijer will be sporting Tiger attire at the University of Missouri.

She is one of three from the women’s golf team to transfer to another university to continue her collegiate golf career.

A key player for the Panthers, The Dutch native has an impressive golf career, scoring an average of 76.33 during her time at Florida Tech, as well as being a medalist honors at the 2018 World Golf Invitational.

Continuing her education path and majoring in global management and finance, Beijer is excited for her future at Mizzou but is saddened that she will no longer be playing on the field with her best friends and old teammates.

“The fact that I don’t even know when I will see them all again makes me sad,” Beijer said.

According to Florida Tech’s athletic director, Bill Jurgens, there were multiple factors that led to the team being cut, including a lack of competitive edge, facilities, the size of the team and the number of athletes that would be affected by the cut.

“We knew the team had not performed well in the fall, but by no means were we poor performers,” said Lauren Watson, a senior and member of the women’s golf team.

Although the women did not start off strong at the beginning of their season, they proved to leave their mark by the end of the season.

“The day we were cut, February 7, we were ranked 21 in the nation,” Watson said. “By March 26, we were fourth.”

The Scotland native described the news of being cut as giving her a sense of “betrayal” and leaving her feeling “undervalued.”

“Why us?” Watson said. “Why now?”

Refusing to go down silently, Watson challenged what she saw as discrimination with the backing of Title IX by talking to coaches and NCAA compliance directors.

After doing so, the NCAA ruled that she, as well as another woman, on the golf team could play and compete with the men.

“I know playing on the men’s team will be far more challenging due to the length of courses they play and the lack of strength and power I have in comparison,” Watson said. “It’s going to be a big adjustment because as I much as I love the guys, I’ll really miss the girls.”

Even though the news of the cut came in the middle of their season, the women persevered in the wake of what Watson described as disappointment, confusion and anger.

By mid May, the women’s determination and competitiveness led them to bring home a gold trophy with the label NCAA Division II Champions.

“Winning nationals was simply the best thing we could do,” Beijer said.

One key player that helped the Panthers take home a massive win was Megan Dennis.

Dennis had five top 10 finishes in the 2018-19 season for the Panthers, and was also a 2018 Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar.

Additionally, she made the Sunshine State Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

After the initial shock, Dennis said she immediately began to wonder what her future would look like.

“My first thoughts were complete sadness, but also panic because I knew I was going to have to transfer,” Dennis said.

Hence, The U.K. native made the decision to transfer to Pepperdine University in California to continue her degree in sports psychology for her remaining two years of undergraduate schooling.

Like the others, Dennis said replacing her previous Florida Tech teammates is impossible and she will never forget her time with them.

“I’m mostly going to miss the great atmosphere at Florida Tech,” Dennis said. “We worked hard, we were competitive, and we all shared the same passion.”

Venezuela Asylum: Escaping Maduro

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Nicolos Maduro (above) has served as Venezuala’s 46th president since 2013. Juan Guaido is now recognized as the interim president of Venezuala by multiple countries. Photo from Flickr.

In the fall semester of 2014, 18 Florida Tech undergraduate students claimed Venezuelan citizenship.

As of 2018, only one remains. Numerous organizations, such as the Council on Foreign Affairs, have declared the South American country’s economic and political landscape as rapidly deteriorating.

As a result Florida Tech has taken a heavy hit in regards to Venezuelan enrollments.

Current president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has been in power for six years, and his reign has been criticized by many.

Amnesty International, a London based human rights organization, has labeled Maduro’s actions as destructive towards the economy, and marked his military legitimacy as abusive wrongdoings against the opposition lead by Juan Guaido.

In early January Guaido officially became head of the opposition-held parliament, the National Assembly.

Since then, the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Chile, Peru, Colombia and several European countries have all recognized Guaido as interim president of Venezuela.

With no food, no money and no definite sign of improvement under Maduro’s regime, Venezuela has currently been deemed as the worst humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere according to the U.N.

In 2017, The New York Times interviewed 21 Venezuelan doctors who encountered nearly 2,800 cases of child malnutrition due to the food shortage and hunger crisis in the nation.

By the end of the year, The International Monetary Fund IMF has projected Venezuela’s inflation rate to reach 10 million percent, forecasting one of the worst hyperinflationary crises in modern history.

Jose Coiman, a junior in chemical engineering, is a native from Caracas, Venezuela.

He describes Maduro as a force that has lead his home country into complete ruin.

Coiman came to Florida Tech in the fall of 2016 while his father left Venezuela nearly four months later.

His mother and sister soon followed in the summer of 2018, fleeing the nation in hopes of a better life in Manaus, Brazil.

In 2015, during his third year of high school, Coiman started to notice just how bad the situation had gotten.

“I didn’t go to school for almost three months,” Coilman said. “I couldn’t even get to school because of the protests, it was so dangerous to leave home. The national guard and protesters were constantly occupying the streets.”

Coiman believes that with support from the U.S. and other European countries, Guaido and the opposition offer a sign of hope for the people of Venezuela.

However, he does not think the country will reach stability for the next 10-15 years.

Freshman Antonella Merola is studying chemical engineering as well, but her journey from Venezuela to Florida Tech is a bit different than Coiman’s.

Merola was born and raised in Caracas until her family relocated to Panama just under two years ago.

When she found herself in the process of applying to colleges in the U.S., Merola worried it would be very challenging to obtain a Venezuelan student Visa.

Merola took advantage of her dual Italian nationality and is attending Florida Tech under an Italian student visa.

Marivi Walker, the assistant director for International Admissions at Florida Tech, said that she has had plenty of experience working with students like Coiman and Merola.

“Four to five years ago it was very different with the Venezuelan students,” Walker said.

Four to five years ago, the Venezuelan government had an agency that administered legal currency exchange in the country called Comisión de Administración de Divisas (CADIVI).

CADIVI essentially determined what money got to leave the country and at what exchange rate you could buy U.S. dollars.

Therefore, they were also in charge of granting or denying applications for students to send tuition payments abroad to the U.S.

“I started to notice two years ago [during fall 2016 applications] little by little, that CADIVI had started to disappear,” Walker said. “The agency simply ran out of money.”

Towards the end of CADIVI’s downfall, the situation reached a turning point for Venezuelan undergraduate seniors in the spring of 2017 as they were trying to finish their degree programs.

“During the collapse of CADIVI, we had Venezuelan students who were graduating but could not get funds from Venezuelan banks to pay for their remaining spring semester,” Walker said. “The university literally had to grant them emergency funds stating that those individuals could graduate, but must eventually pay their tuition back.”

With students no longer able to pay their tuition using money from Venezuelan banks, it put a significant taint on being able to attend a college in the U.S. at all.

All Venezuelan students now have to rely on money they have already managed to send over to the U.S.

Moving forward, Walker has faith that the opposition led by Guaido could turn things around for the country which in return could boost Venezuelan enrollment at Florida Tech to what they once used to be.

“I truly think that we are at a make-or-break point,” Walker said. “When you hear Guaido speak, it will bring tears to your eyes because you will think, ‘Where did this man come from?’ He shows more of a genuine concern for finding peace within the country rather than trying to seize its leadership, and that is what signifies hope for the people of Venezuela.”

Merola, as well, vocalized her opinion in regards to Guaido’s intentions as leader of the opposition.

“When people hear about what is happening in my country I don’t want them to think the opposition is an invading power-hungry force,” she said. “Their sole purpose is to put the countries best interests before corruption and self-interest.”

A universal theme amongst Merola, Walker and Coiman is that the people of Venezuela are not going down without a fight and they will receive the justice and humanitarian rights they deserve one day.