UF Gulf Scholars bring hope and healing to coastal communities
On a warm June day, under the shade of her home’s carport near Sanders Beach in the Florida Panhandle, 69-year-old Dixie Wilkinson spoke and seven University of Florida students listened.
Wilkinson told the students about her childhood, growing up on the land her family owned for more than 150 years along the shore of Pensacola Bay. She told stories of her love for gardening, her endless days playing outside with her dog, and the pony she raised under the shade of the same oak trees that still dot the land. She then shared that, today, she no longer gardens in the soil that used to grow her family’s vegetables. She doesn’t even step outside without shoes on her feet for fear of the poisons lurking in the soil.
The seven students who listened to Wilkinson were part of the UF Gulf Scholars Oral History Field Excursion: Documenting the Legacy of Environmental Harm and Heroism in Pensacola, Florida, which involved interviewing individuals who have been directly affected by environmental hazards in the region. Wilkinson’s home sits just yards away from what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has deemed one of the worst Superfund sites in the nation – a location contaminated by hazardous substances that is in need of serious long-term cleanup.
“I’m not an oral historian, but I now think about Dixie and her neighbors all the time,” said Amelia Sewell, a third-year economics student at UF who took part in the field excursion. “Before the interview, I learned she was a strong female advocate for the community but, when I met her, she was real, she was so personable. My perspective really changed.”
Sewell is among 143 undergraduates from the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences who are participating in the UF Gulf Scholars program, which officially launched in the fall. UF was one of five universities selected as a host institution for the third cohort of a five-year, $12.7-million pilot project funded by the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. As part of this project, UF received a $475,000 grant which was then bolstered last fall, with an additional $414,000 in presidential strategic funds from the Florida Legislature.
The power of storytelling
The experience with Wilkinson and the UF students – a joint effort between the UF Gulf Scholars program, the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program – allowed students to use oral history techniques to document the personal experiences of Florida residents who were impacted by toxic waste sites along the Gulf Coast.
Residents like Wilkinson and her neighbor, Kelly Hagen, spoke with the students about the fight for proper Environmental Protection Agency testing, complete cleanup, and financial remediation. They shared stories of cancer diagnoses and other health concerns devastating neighboring families – stories the residents hope don’t get lost as new generations begin.
Students learned that creosote – a wood preservative rife with chemicals that can extend the life of timber from seven to 40 years – was once the answer to the conservationist fight to protect disappearing forests, but it soon climbed the list of human carcinogens. Until the 1950s, American Creosote Works – a wood treatment facility in Pensacola – used creosote as its primary wood preservative chemical. The company filed for bankruptcy in the early 1980s and left its toxic waste right where it was, seeping into the soil of hundreds of backyards, including Wilkinson’s.
This story shocked and inspired Caitlin Remmert, a Gulf Scholar and second-year economics student at UF.
“I am now more interested than ever to learn as much as I can on how environmental issues impact communities – especially their effect on small businesses,” Remmert said.
Beckett Price, a fourth-year history student at UF, was surprised to learn that Florida’s Gulf communities were so vulnerable.
“We all hear about the fragile nature of Florida’s ecosystem, but we don’t think about the people in the communities and how it impacts their lives,” Price said. “Documenting first-person accounts of the area’s history is essential to keeping their voices alive.”
Sewell, who has taken classes in natural resource law and learned about Superfund legislation, said that seeing how the laws actually affect people in Florida communities made the greatest impact on her. She fully understands the importance of spreading awareness to the younger generation.
“I believe in the youth to make good changes,” Hagan added. “I’m trying not to lose faith, just be persistent and stand up for what you believe.”
A follow-up trip is planned for November for students to interview more residents and give voice to their stories. Students will process and finalize all collected materials for inclusion in the UF Digital Collections in the George A. Smathers Libraries.
Using history to transform the future
The UF Gulf Scholars program prepares students for civic engagement and public leadership, giving them the tools to address the complex challenges facing Florida’s coastal communities.
According to Gulf Scholars Program Coordinator Rebecca Burton, many of the students in the program have direct or indirect ties to the Gulf communities they are studying. Participating students have diverse areas of interest (26 different majors and minors), while 14 faculty and staff members in the program represent six colleges, three institutes, six departments, and four centers on campus.
Mattison Mathews, a Gulf scholar and third-year history student at UF, grew up along the Manatee River, where her family's marina business was first started by her great-grandfather.
"I believe it is the responsibility of the people who live on or near the Gulf Coast, who love the Gulf Coast, to educate themselves and do our part in attacking care of the environment," she said.
Mathews’ perspective is part of a much larger, ongoing conversation on campus about Florida’s vulnerable communities and how UF students are helping residents. A symposium entitled Our Gulf, Our Future: Navigating the Tides Together served as a kickoff event for the UF Gulf Scholars program in September.
The panelists, representing the interdisciplinary nature of the program, included Jeff Carney, an associate professor in the UF School of Architecture; Marlowe Starling, a UF graduate and environmental journalist; Christine Angelini, Ph.D., the director of the Center for Coastal Solutions and a professor of environmental engineering sciences at UF; and Pulitzer-Prize winning author Jack E. Davis, Ph.D., who wrote “The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea” and is a distinguished professor of history and the Rothman Family Endowed Chair at UF.
“The Gulf is not a regional sea; it is a continental sea,” Davis said. “We have to start considering every state in the lower 48 as a Gulf community; it is that important.”
More gatherings and experiential learning opportunities will be offered throughout the fall at UF, and new and redesigned courses will be available in spring 2025.
Nine Gulf Scholars courses will be added, including History of the Gulf of Mexico, taught by Davis; Field Ecology and the Gulf, involving a trip to Seahorse Key Marine Lab to learn about sampling techniques and collection methodology; and Design Thinking for Complex Gulf Challenges, which will help students develop innovative solutions for Florida’s problems.
According to Matt Jacobs, Ph.D., the director of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, the UF Gulf Scholars program is currently a medallion program, involving required coursework, experiential learning opportunities, and the completion of a Gulf impact project. Plans are underway at UF for creating a certificate program and, eventually, a Gulf Studies minor.