In partnership with the Bob Graham Center, the Florida Community Innovation Foundation is helping University of Florida students better understand how the intersection of digital technology and public service can come together to serve Floridians.
FCI is an innovative data science nonprofit founded in the wake of the COVID 19 outbreak by a small group of Graham Center alums bringing together their skills in communications, social media and the web to fight the coming pandemic.
“We built out some really cool web technology and managed to reach something like a quarter million people with our efforts,” said tech entrepreneur and FCI co-founder Chris Battista, a UF mechanical engineering grad (2019) who is now a principal with Plainspoken Digital.
“At FCI, we come together to make our community a better place to live, through making innovative public-serving technology and novel educational pathways,” he said.
One example of their efforts is the Florida Resource Map, a hub of information for Central Florida and Northwest Florida that helps web-goers find COVID-19 testing, food banks, local shelters and more. The map is embedded in the United Way of Northwest Florida’s website.
“FCI connects Florida’s citizens with trusted information and resources to navigate challenging times,” said FCI co-founder Caroline Nickerson (2017), who double-majored in history and Chinese while at UF.
“We do this by building innovative human-centered technology, and conducting persuasive public education campaigns that move the needle on access to services and compliance with public health guidance,” she said.
FCI has also broadened its approach, and now recruits and trains additional young innovators. In the fall of 2021, FCI began offering UF students of all majors — and without backgrounds in tech — the chance to intern and gain experience on FCI’s public-facing projects. Below we spotlight interns from the first cohort.
Aniqa Ahmed
Aniqa Ahmed is a third-year political science major who plans to earn a master’s in public health before entering the field of medicine, either as a clinician or policy maker.
Through FCI, she learned skills in UX, or user experience design, which is an approach to making websites and digital products easier for consumers to navigate. One immediate application was to conduct usability testing of the FCI Florida resource map.
She’s currently completing the write-up of an interview she conducted with Dr. Stacy Gallin of Drew University, who presented “Medicine and Morality: Lessons from the Holocaust” at UF World Bioethics Day.
Dianelda Pulido
Dianelda Pulido is a third-year UF student double majoring in women’s studies, and Spanish and Portuguese studies. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in law, with a focus on Latin America.
She has previously served as a Graham Center Tallahassee intern.
One of the highlights of her FCI internship was interviewing Dave Joswick, founder and CEO of New Hope for Kids, a Florida nonprofit focused on providing grief counseling to children and young adults.
“Having participated in the FCI internship, I became more knowledgeable about the logistics and harsh reality of operating a small nonprofit,” she said.
“Hearing the perspective of the executive director put in perspective the importance of the FCI Resource Map. The Map provides a platform to promote the work of vital organizations like New Hope for Kids.”
Chloe Dill
Chloe is a sophomore psychology student with interests across the social sciences, public service, communications and sustainability. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology.
At FCI, Chloe developed a range of skills that allowed her to work across disciplines on projects such as the community resource map and templates for FCI publicity materials. She will continue to study the psychology of persuasive communications campaigns through her research in the Graham Center’s Haskell research program with Dr. Ron Chandler in the department of psychology.
“I started working with data for the resource map, designed a newsletter template to keep everyone updated, and showed interest in communications and research,” she said.
“As a sophomore who still feels like they are figuring out college, I want to share this for students who might hesitate to go after challenging goals or need that final push to dive into the unfamiliar.”
Renee Listrom
Renee Listrom is a sophomore geography student, with interests in the environment, the arts, social sciences, and sustainability. After graduation, Renee intends to pursue a master’s degree in geography.
As an FCI intern, Renee developed skills in Javascript software coding, as well as the webpage coding language HTML, and webpage styling CSS code.
Using these new skills, Renee built and styled a portion of the FCI website, specifically the “About” section that gives information on FCI as an organization.