Mentoring

Finding your place on campus can be as simple as getting your hands on something familiar.

Isabella Shenouda enrolled in Clay I her first semester, even though she came to Eckerd College to major in animal studies.

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Tony Baker recognized her zeal for ceramics immediately.
“She has really strong work—
visually and conceptually,”
Baker says.

“She’s very
outgoing and willing to help
anyone in the studio.”

That fire turned into a job offer. Isabella
works as a studio tech in Eckerd’s
ceramics studio, mixing glazes and
loading, unloading and firing the
kilns. She’s always imagined her
career in animal care, but the positive
reinforcement has also shown her
another path. Now, she has two majors.

“I’ve definitely seen myself grow, become
more independent, and become more
confident in myself,” Isabella explains.
“I’ve noticed, I’ve found my passion. I’ve
come fully into my love of clay.”

Between her up to 10-hour days
assisting in the ceramics workshop,
she’s a leader with the Eckerd College
Feminists and an officer for the
Herpetological Society. And she still
finds time to produce her own pieces
for display at St. Petersburg’s The Clay
Co-Op. Juggling it all takes focus and a
steady hand at the wheel.

“One big part of improving my work
ethic is ceramics because you have to
put in the work, or else it’s not going to
come out. It holds you responsible, and
it gives you a direct result,” she says.

Now the future looks more malleable
and easier to grasp. Isabella wants
a career in ceramics and animals.
She’s excited about her animal studies
internship and learning new skills like
firing gas kilns.

“I’m having the best time of my life,”
she added.

Graduate high school. Go to college. Become a published researcher at 19.

Lilly Branton’s academic career went from the on-ramp to the express lane
the moment she applied to work in
the ecophysiology lab with Dr. Phil
Gravinese in the fall of her first year.

Gravinese paired her with a senior
student researcher, Taran McNally ’25,
to study how stone crabs fared in
saltier water. The duo spent the
spring and summer of her first year 
speedrunning the data collection
and analysis on campus at Galbraith
Marine Science Laboratory and in
Summerland Key, Florida at Mote
Marine Laboratory, where Gravinese
takes student interns every year.

The result? A peer-reviewed article
published in the Journal for Experimental
Marine Biology and Ecology.

“By starting early, Lilly now has
two to three years to collect a robust
data set for her undergraduate thesis
work, which most likely will lead to a
second peer-reviewed publication,”
Gravinese explains.

When it came time to choose a
major, Lilly knew exactly who
she wanted as a mentor.

“I wouldn’t be able to do any of these
things without the help of Professor
Gravinese,” she says. “I’m forever
grateful towards him for all the
opportunities he’s provided for me.”

Through their regular meetings in the
First-Year Research Associate Program
and mentoring, the two have built a
relationship that helped Lilly quickly reach
important mile markers in her journey.

“It makes a world of difference knowing
that I can just … go to him and he would
help me navigate through things,”
Lilly adds. “But honestly I feel like that
with a lot of the different professors on
campus—even ones that I’ve just had
classes with. I feel like I could probably
go to the majority of them and they
would help me with whatever I needed.”

She doesn’t just feel supported by faculty,
but by the entire Eckerd community.
“I do think that the sense of community
at Eckerd is absolutely crazy,” Lilly says.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been to another
place like this where the sense of
community has been this strong.”

The “Les Animaux,” French for the animals, lesson was the most fun Ezio Severens has ever had in a classroom.

They were teaching elementary French Club students at St. Petersburg’s Midtown Academy, and watching the children enjoy learning the language.

“Both parents and students are just excited for any opportunity to learn languages, whatever that might be,” Ezio says. “Languages are so important, particularly at a young age, for development and just learning about the world around you outside of the states.”

Born to multilingual parents, Ezio developed a love of language from a young age. Following their passion, they took courses with Dr. Kathryn Bastin and even traveled with her to Aix-en-Provence, France, for a three-week Winter Term course filled with history, culture, and wine and cheese tastings.

After the trip, Ezio shared their dream of graduating to take part in the Teaching Assistant Program in France before moving on to the Peace Corps. Bastin said volunteering at Midtown would be a great start.

“I really wanted my students to go into the community and offer a French club in a public school close to the campus,” Bastin says. “Overall, I think every single iteration has wanted to show how French is spoken inside and outside of France.”

Triple majoring broadened Ezio’s view on what can be done with a language major. Now, they are aiming to stay in art by translating for film and literature.

“No matter what path you end up going, even if you change your mind multiple times like I did, there’s something here for you,” Ezio says. “You just have to know where to look.”

It was time to pick a business idea. Nathan Hilton and Gavin Stella decided not to do it on an empty stomach.

As they sat down with their noodles a few blocks from campus at Tokyo Ramen, Dr. Jennifer Knippen suggested they look for inspiration close by.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you guys do Boba [tea]?’ Since we were drinking Boba at the time,” Gavin remembers.

And so the Boba Bros were born.

Knippen guided the business partners in her Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Mindset class through the entire start-up process from ideation to cost analysis and securing investment to launch. Along the way, the duo built a loyal customer base of students and campus catering clients and got to experiment with product offerings. Ultimately, being small business owners shaped their idea of what was possible beyond their four years at Eckerd.’

Knippen’s mentorship convinced Gavin to switch his major from marine science to business administration. Nathan picked up entrepreneurship as a minor, studied abroad with Knippen in Costa Rica and completed her capstone course, Venture Creations.

The small class size and personal attention helped a lot.

Knippen’s students dream up food, apparel, goods and service businesses every semester and most continue operating them well beyond the end of the course. Gavin plans to continue to refine Boba Bros with a website, mobile ordering and more while he decides which venture he’d like to turn into a career.

“I hope to start my own business with a marine conservation focus like I saw in Costa Rica,” Nathan says. “I think a lot of marine science majors don’t think of entrepreneurship as a minor, but there is so much you can do beyond research.”