Second UF student wins iPad for completing SERU

June 10, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Carolina Calvo, a native of Tampa and a rising sophomore at the University of Florida, is the second participant in a survey of undergraduates who has been chosen randomly to win a new iPad.

“At first I thought it was a scam, but when I read the email thoroughly, I realized I really won an iPad,” Calvo said. “This is the first time I’ve ever won anything so I was shocked and excited.”

Calvo, a criminology major and French minor, won the iPad because of her participation in the Student Experience in the Research University, or SERU, survey. The survey gives students the opportunity to voice their opinions about their university experience by asking them questions that reveal how and what they think, feel and do on campus.

UF first participated in the survey in 2009 when it had the highest student response rate of nine participating universities, eclipsing 65 percent. The second highest response rate was 40 percent by University of California Berkeley, the university that developed the survey.

The survey can be taken http://ufl.to/seru2011 by any undergraduate student, including freshmen and graduating seniors, until July 1.

For participating in SERU, UF students can win a variety of prizes. Although Calvo won the last iPad that was to be given away, SERU participants can still win prizes like an iTunes gift card, $50 gift card to the UF Bookstore and Amazon gift cards.

Students who complete the survey will also receive a buy-one, get-one free offer of admission to the Florida Museum of Natural History Butterfly Rainforest and a coupon for discounted student membership to the Harn Museum of Art.

Additionally, undergraduate students are only eligible to enter the ticket lottery for the 2011 Gator football season after participating in the survey.

Although Calvo enjoyed a few home football games during her freshman year, she was motivated to take the survey only because she cares about UF and wanted to do her part to make the university even better, she said.

“I think it makes perfect sense to take SERU and it’s important to UF,” she said. “I wanted to express how I feel about my first year at college: the good and the bad.”

Although the SERU campaign included announcements on posters, T-shirts, special events and promotions and a social media campaign, Calvo said it was the email reminders from UF that prompted her to complete the survey.

“I check my email a lot, and there were constant emails reminding me to take the survey,” Calvo said. “I realized my feedback was probably very important to UF.”

Calvo said she was certain the SERU analysts would take her opinions into account despite the large number of undergraduate students. If enough students voice what they want to change about their college experience, it might actually be changed, she said.

Calvo said she suggested a change to the school library hours. Instead of closing at 1 a.m., she proposed that the UF libraries stay open much later.

Her inspiration came from her older sister who attends the University of South Florida, where she would stay at the library studying late at night, sometimes even all night.

“Like my sister, I study best at night,” Calvo said. “As a freshman, I lived in a triple (shared a dorm room with two other girls) and wouldn’t want keep my lights on and wake my roommates late at night.”

She said she also praised the variety of organizations UF has to offer students. Calvo, who enjoys listening to music and reading romance novels, didn’t waste any time getting involved. She joined the Dominican Student Association, where she learned about her culture and made new friends.

The survey includes several categories, including quality of education, student services, diversity understanding on campus and other issues. There are questions from an array of UF departments and topics such as academic dishonesty, sustainability, International Center, Council on Diversity, arts and culture, Campus Climate Task Force/Student Affairs and the University Athletic Association, among other wildcard questions.

Calvo is one of two UF students who were randomly chosen to win iPads this year. During the spring 2011 semester, John Rodkey, a fourth-year computer science major, also won an iPad for taking SERU.

“I don’t know why students would not want to take SERU,” Calvo said, “It only took me about 20 minutes and I won a free iPad!”