TAMPA, Fla. — It may be the middle of summer, but they are hard at work at USF, putting the finishing touches on their new state-of-the-art honors college.
For one alum, it’s truly a full-circle event because he was influential in the construction process.
“I've always been a kid who was tinkering with things, and taking things apart, things like that, so I came to USF for engineering,” said Floyd Freeman, who graduated in 1996.
When he received his diploma, the Judy Genshaft Honors College was nothing more than a field of grass.
So Freeman felt like a proud father going room by room at the college, highlighting all the safety equipment his company, CableLytics, has installed.
“It’s for police and fire radios to make sure in an event of an emergency their radios work inside the building,” said Freeman.
You could say Freeman graduated from USF twice—first from the College of Engineering, then again 25 years later, when he returned as a business owner to participate in the Supplier Diversity Mentorship program.
“So it is a construction-focused program to really help us to identify firms that can work with us through some of the opportunities we have across USF and our construction area,” said Terrie Daniel, Assistant Vice President of Supplier Diversity for USF.
“We learned things like project management, construction management, HR, finance, all the things that you would need to enhance your business,” added Freeman.
Freeman knew the 10-week program would open doors for him but never could have imagined they would be the doors of the brand-new honors college.
“We were able to connect him to some of our partners who helped us to develop and build on this beautiful space,” said Daniel.
Freeman still remembers receiving the call that his alma mater wanted to hire him.
“It’s like a full circle moment for me, just being a student at USF back at '96 and then getting the opportunity to come back and install in such a beautiful building was really exciting,” said Freeman.
Over the past three years, the Supplier Diversity Mentorship program has helped more than 30 businesses, just like Freeman’s. He said it’s nice to know once a Bull, always a Bull.
“Floyd’s company graciously accepted our invitation to participate in the program, and now look, they are doing an incredible job here at USF,” said Daniel. “He is an incredible firm and an incredible advocate for small and diversified businesses, which is really what this program is all about.”
