Recent News
Alumni Spotlight: Peter Holden
We hope you find puns a-peeling because this month’s alumni spotlight is full of monkey business.
As we approach the midseason for North Florida Ospreys Baseball, it’s the perfect time to share the latest ventures of former Osprey pitcher, Peter Holden ('23), who immediately following graduation was recruited to join The Savannah Bananas’ sister squad, the Party Animals.
Holden’s journey to this wild opportunity started when he chose to attend the University of North Florida. The proximity to home and the nature surrounding campus played a role, but the chance to pitch for the Ospreys is what solidified his decision. Holden reflects on his time at UNF as full of impact and excitement as he finished his collegiate career with 12 wins and 221 strikeouts in 34 appearances, earning Honor Roll and All-Conference accolades. He also took advantage of networking opportunities with the Taylor Leadership Institute and volunteered with the team at places like the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC).
“It was always such an amazing experience getting to visit the RMH because we were able to have a positive impact on these children going through tough times, but they also impacted us by being so positive and strong even in their toughest times,” Holden said.
Holden remembers his Osprey team as a great group of guys who could just be themselves and have fun. This freedom on the field may have caught the attention of the Bananaland recruiters because it only took two weeks after graduation for Holden to get a call for a try-out. Sure enough, Holden landed a spot on the Party Animals just a couple days later.
“It was a very short notice and quick transition, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I was all in,” he said.
The Savannah Bananas and the Party Animals put a whole different spin on baseball. Their games are known to be much faster and packed full of spontaneous dancing, outrageous skits and epic celebrations when they score. Holden said one of the wackiest things he has done involved a “synchronized swimming” skit the team did between innings during a game. He had the honor of being tasked with dressing up as a fish and crashing the team’s routine!
Holden loves that the Savannah Banana organization prioritizes the fan experience in a way that is refreshing for both the players and the audience. The team’s connection with the fans creates an experience like no other. “I feel like our crowds are some of the best in all of sports,” he said. “They are so responsive and locked in on the game so a crowd of 10,000 in Bananaland sounds more like 30,000.”
Holden has found a way to add even more excitement to his life with a recent engagement to his high school sweetheart, Kylie Matheny (’23), who is also a UNF alum after earning her bachelor’s in nursing from the UNF Brooks College of Health. They look forward to balancing life with baseball as they plan their wedding for February 2026.
(Written by Kara Hogue, Published 3/26/25)
Local Business Showcase: Eco Eclectic
With Earth Day on the horizon, we didn’t want to “waste” a perfect opportunity to highlight Eco Eclectic, an environmentally friendly alumni-owned business. Sara Jane Fagen (’18) was born in Jacksonville but ended up moving to Texas before starting her collegiate career at UTSA. However, like our on-campus solar panels, she returned to The Nest to soak up the sun.
Fagen studied psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences and became the first in her cohort to graduate with a behavioral neuroscience degree. After working with the biology department, she participated in the Basic Research in Neuroscience and Cancer (BRINC) program, where she interned in Pam McLean’s lab at the Mayo Clinic. As soon as she graduated, she was set up for a position in the Mayo Clinic’s neuroscience department, where she worked for about seven years until this year.
She was always a busy body, but when the pandemic hit, the social distancing made her restless. She decided to channel her energy into one of her passions – the environment. “I started asking myself, how do people claim they love the beach and then treat it like this?” she said. Now that she had extra free time on her hands and no concrete plans, she spent her weekends cleaning the beach. She also started to examine her own lifestyle choices and educated herself on becoming a more environmentally conscious consumer.
When Fagen noticed that there weren’t many options in the community to provide people with the tools and products necessary to practice conscious consumerism, she took action and started Eco Eclectic. It originated as a pop-up shop at beach events, where she would sell refills of products to gauge if there was a market. She had always dreamed of having a brick-and-mortar space since there's only so much you can bring to these events, and since “hauling glass bottles is kind of a pain.” Plus, the Floridian summers would get so hot that there was a lack of stability. After three years of pop ups, she got in touch with a landlord and found a reasonably affordable location to set up shop.
Eco Eclectic is a zero-waste shop and refillery located in Jacksonville Beach that lives up to its name. “Eco” refers to ecology, the study of how organisms interact with their environment, and “Eclectic” describes how it appears to diverse styles. “People think [environmentalism] is sort of that crunchy, granola lifestyle,” she said, “but there are more ways to contribute.” For example, reusing items or thrifting are ways to reduce waste. She wanted her shop to provide a gateway to sustainable living and open people's eyes to the different paths to being more eco-friendly.
“I think college really teaches you how to hunker down and discipline yourself,” she said. Her experience at UNF strengthened her ability to balance many of the various tasks that come with being a business owner. Plus, she says the psychology aspect of her degree program helps her understand her demographic and her target market, which she can apply directly to her business.
Some of the fun events her shop hosts are clothing and book swaps, where once a month people will bring up to 20 items and they can leave with as many items as they brought. She has also started organizing sewing workshops, so instead of throwing clothes away after small rips, they can be mended and help improve their sustainability.
One of the biggest challenges for Fagen is the lack of consistency with the brick-and-mortar shop. Some days are booming, like when The PLAYERS Championship was in town, her store was at capacity, but some days can be slower. She also has a lot of local regulars that have followed her from the popups who come in every week to refill their products, plus there are plenty of Jacksonville community members that are just looking for different thrift experiences. As she approaches five years running Eco Eclectic, she looks ahead toward her future. There’s always an option to pivot to the e-commerce route, but then it becomes complicated to pick items up or ship them, which doesn't fit the environmentally friendly vibe.
She loves staying in touch with the regulars and the community that she's built up, and her presence is well known through their Instagram and their newsletter, which helps highlight the sustainable events that are going on and local vendors you can support. In her spare time, she loves to be active, exercising through walks or the occasional volleyball match. However, she recently had a baby, so he takes up most of her time now. The little guy still loves to support his mom as she returns to work, and he gets to be a staple of the shop.
(Written by Alex Achorn, Published 4/9/25)
Schoolhouse Flock: Michele Purvis
There’s something to be said about loyalty, and while many teachers are often forced to bounce around from school to school, alumna Michele Purvis (’94) just celebrated 30 years with the only institution she’s worked for, Lake Forrest Prep, which serves as this month’s #SchoolhouseFlock.
Ever since she was a little girl, Purvis knew she wanted to be a teacher. After attending Fletcher High School, she wasn’t quite ready to leave Jacksonville. She applied to the University of North Florida, honestly expecting to attend for a year or two before transferring to a larger school, but got heavily involved with organizations like Alpha Chi Omega and loved her experience. She served as an officer on the Panhellenic council and in her sorority, which is where she discovered she had a knack for leadership. She ended up staying until she completed her degree in elementary education. “I was fortunate to have professors who loved what they did, which had an enormous impact on me as a student and as an educator,” she said.
After graduation, she landed her first teaching job at Lake Forrest Preparatory School – a school that had recently opened in 1991 in the Orlando area. She quickly made an impact, and as the school grew, the administration asked her to take on more responsibilities. For several years, she was teaching full-time while also overseeing the elementary grades. In 2004, the owner sadly discovered she had cancer and asked Purvis to fill in as principal. “I was honored, sad and terrified all at the same time,” she said. At nights, she would attend classes at UCF to earn her master’s degree.
Located in Casselberry, Lake Forrest Preparatory School is a private school with infants through 8th grade, with 310 students and about 60 staff members. “This is a small school where everyone knows everyone and students feel safe,” said Purvis. “We strive to help students build strong character education and love learning.”
“I love so much about my job!” she said. “It is tough, but the rewards outweigh the challenging times.” The excitement and genuine love of learning that sees in her students in incomparable, and she loves helping the teachers to grow as well. She and her husband Joey raised two daughters, Paige and Avery, through LFPS, who have now graduated from UCF and FSU respectively. After 30 years, she’s starting to see her former students come back to enroll their children.
(Written by Alex Achorn, Published 4/8/25)
Donor Spotlight: Eddie Collins
Continuing our “Thanks for Giving” campaign, we’d like to recognize Dr. Eddie Collins, founding faculty member for the UNF - College of Arts and Sciences Department of Sociology, who has established a need-based undergraduate scholarship to echo his commitment to student success.
Collins attended public school in eastern North Carolina and went to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University for his bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology. After graduating in 1966, he went to Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) where he got a master’s degree. He then taught at Clark College across the street for four years, and when he was researching for his thesis, he ran across Dr. Carroll Simms, a professor at Georgia State, who ultimately became the first chairman of the department of sociology at the newly founded University of North Florida. Simms called Collins and asked if he’d be interested in joining him, and he became an Osprey in 1972. After three years, Simms left to go up north, but Collins has remained part of the UNF community ever since.
In the early years, there were the core four in the department. Simms, Kumar Kuthiala, Chris Rasche and Collins. “Students were attracted to sociology because at least they had a vision of having some impact on society,” he said. Many of his students were much older than him; some were military and some had started their education before joining the workforce and never finished. Collins said, “Students who had a lot of real world experience and [were] very eager to get through.” The University allowed them to complete their degrees.
When he started, he taught the three courses of the social welfare program for about ten years and was also an advisor. He’d never taught these courses before, but he says “I was lucky to find some good textbooks and took a couple of other courses at Gainesville, and those courses became the courses that I enjoyed.”
He also organized a fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity, who got charted in the first couple of years. He’s loved seeing the growth of campus and the student body and remembers the first time he walked around and noticed students were playing around and suntanning on the green.
“Coming out of the 1960’s, it was a very optimistic time,” he said. “I saw this university as a part of that new revolution of creating a society that was much more open, much more diverse, and much more optimistic in terms of human possibilities.”
“I think the university probably impacted the city in terms of its racial climate more than anything that’s happened in the last hundred years,” he said. He was an active member of the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. that did an assessment of the city. Back then, the city was fragmented by regions, and he’s seen it grown tremendously in terms of developing an identity.
After 35 years, he retired from the University in July 2007, but still finds ways to contribute as an emeritus.
(Written by Alex Achorn, Published 11/26/24)
Oz For A Cause: Sarah Roberts
In this month’s edition of #OzforACause, we are highlighting a triple alumna who’s not only dedicated her life’s work to helping others through counseling and art therapy but has also staunchly advocated for herself and others living with diabetes. November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and we recently sat down with Sarah Roberts, RMHCI (’21, ’21, ’24), to discuss her career and advocacy. She currently works as an associate therapist at Elite DNA Behavioral Health in Jacksonville.
A Third-Degree Swoop
As an Osprey, Roberts stayed active on campus and in the classroom, earning dual bachelor’s degrees in psychology and interdisciplinary studies, focusing on ceramic art therapy. This year, she completed her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and incorporates her UNF education into her work, primarily counseling children aged 9 and up.
Art therapy, in many ways, inspired Roberts to become a therapist. During undergrad, while taking 17 credit hours one semester, she struggled with stress as she pursued forensic psychology aspirations. Practicing ceramics during this time helped her manage the pressure and persevere through her studies.
“I thought, ‘How cool would it be for me to be able to use the tools that I’ve learned to put my stress into something and create something out of nothing and teach that to people.’”
During undergrad, Roberts also worked as an orientation leader, senior mentor, and development associate for UNF’s University Development and Alumni Engagement office after graduation.
She speaks highly of her master’s program, noting classes such as Expressive Arts Counseling, Equestrian Therapy, and Sexology as enjoyable and beneficial for helping clients. Currently, she holds a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern (RMHCI) designation and will need to pass an exam after two years of client work and 1,500 direct-client hours to become a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC).
Diabetes at a Glance
Diabetes is a group of diseases affecting how the body uses glucose (blood sugar), according to Mayo Clinic. Glucose provides energy for muscles, tissues, and the brain, but diabetes can lead to excess blood sugar, causing severe health issues.
With Type 1 diabetes (T1D), the pancreas makes little or no insulin, the hormone that allows glucose to enter cells and produce energy. There is no cure for T1D, which is often caused by genetics or viral infections and typically appears in childhood or adolescence but can develop in adults.
In Type 2 diabetes (T2D), the pancreas produces insufficient insulin, often due to inactivity, obesity, or insulin resistance in fat, muscle, and liver cells. While T2D usually occurs in older adults, rising obesity rates have led to more cases among younger people, including children.
Roberts was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 3 after a severe strep throat infection triggered an autoimmune response that temporarily shut down her pancreas. She uses two medical devices to manage her blood sugar: a Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) and an insulin pump. These devices create a closed-loop system, acting as an external pancreas, she explained.
“I like to call myself part robot,” she said.
Insurance coverage for these devices can be challenging, and rising insulin costs remain a major issue for the diabetic community. Roberts said she’s had to fight her insurance provider to access the care she needs, while legislators often fail to grasp the life-or-death nature of insulin access.
“I think a lot of the time it’s seen as a luxury,” she said. “If you don’t have insulin, you can’t eat, you can’t function. You need insulin to survive.”
She also noted research showing that COVID-19 has triggered autoimmune responses in some adults, leading to late-onset Type 1 diabetes diagnoses.
“I know a lot of people in the mid-to-late 20s who got COVID and now they have Type 1, so it’s definitely something to pay attention to.”
Advocacy and Diabetes Camp
Roberts uses her T1D diagnosis to educate others and encourage younger generations to persevere despite their condition. As a child, she wrote a letter to President George W. Bush advocating for stem cell research, a potential avenue for curing diabetes. She received a reply with a presidential stamp, which she still has to this day.
Since age 5, Roberts has been involved with the Florida Camp for Children and Youth with Diabetes (FCCYD), returning frequently as a counselor. The camps offer a safe space and community for children with T1D.
Recalling her childhood, she faced bullying from peers who joked about her condition or mocked her medical devices. She said she often hid in school bathrooms to check her blood sugar.
“To be able to go to a space at least once a year [where] I didn’t have to hide part of myself is the best part about it,” she said.
Diabetes Camp provides a refuge where kids can participate in activities without worry, supported by trained counselors and professionals. The camps also offer diabetes education and mental health counseling. Roberts’ favorite, Camp Winona in DeLeon Springs, features lakeside cabins and is run by the YMCA.
Roberts advocates for person-first language, encouraging people to say, “I have Type 1 diabetes” instead of “I’m diabetic.” She explains that this distinction emphasizes that individuals are more than their condition—a principle she also applies to mental health and autism.
Living with diabetes requires constant decision-making, from monitoring blood sugar and food intake to managing devices and insulin. Roberts acknowledges this can be exhausting, especially after difficult fluctuations in blood sugar.
When she is not working as a counselor or volunteering at Diabetes Camp, Roberts enjoys pottery, spending time with friends, searching for shark teeth, visiting local breweries, and growing her vinyl collection.
(Written by Tyler White, Published 11/19/24)