The accolade highlights the university’s continued commitment to delivering rigorous, industry-relevant curriculum to prepare graduates for the increasingly complex and dynamic global business environment.

The university’s online MBA in finance is a flexible, 15-month program that builds advanced skills in investment strategy, portfolio management and financial decision-making. It’s IACBE-accredited and requires no GMAT or GRE while also offering competitive tuition.

“The IACBE-accredited curriculum prepares graduates for high-impact roles like financial analyst and chief financial officer,” the site noted about Florida Tech’s program.  

MBAschools.org evaluates its programs using criteria such as tuition affordability, student-to-faculty ratios, graduation rates and the availability of flexible learning formats such as online or hybrid options. Programs are ranked accordingly from highest to lowest.

Florida Tech’s MBA program was also recognized by Research.com as one of the 10 best MBA programs in the state, ranking No. 10 out of 44 institutions. The site noted the university’s “dedication to academic excellence and student satisfaction” in its MBA programs and said the award is well-earned.

Unique, a product unachievable by any two other numbers. 2, 3, 7 … 

Prime is a quality. 

Excellent, of the highest caliber. Outstanding, Choice, Top-Notch… 

In both quantity and quality, this column features Prime Examples of what makes us Florida Tech. 

To be well is to be healthy. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally.

While wellness in one area does not necessarily require it in the others, they are undeniably linked. Personal fitness, intellectual acuity, emotional maturity: Ultimate wellness commands all three—a balance that leads to satisfaction, fulfillment, happiness. Like most things, achieving it takes effort, consistency, evaluation, adaptation. And proactivity is key.

Whether for our students, faculty, staff or the greater community, at Florida Tech, we make wellness a priority.

Here are a few prime examples.

2 Mental Health Accolades

Insight Into Academia magazine’s 2025 Excellence in Mental Health and Well-being Award

Among 71 schools in the country—and just five in the state—to receive the recognition, Florida Tech received the award for its dozens of mental health resources for students, faculty and staff. The university’s award application highlighted two unique campus programs:

“YOU MATTER” INITIATIVE: a campaign sponsored by the Parent Leadership Council that installed three benches engraved with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline across campus to create conversation and share resources about mental health, suicide awareness and suicide prevention

“PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE MINUTE”: a quick and engaging WFIT– and School of Psychology-sponsored weekly radio segment that presents relevant, interesting and digestible research to the public, covering topics such as happiness, healthy relationships, the importance of sleep and burnout

The Princeton Review‘s 2026 Mental Health Services Honor Roll

Now in its second year, this designation recognizes just 30 institutions nationwide for their “exceptional dedication and commitment to their students’ mental health and well-being” based on data from the publication’s Campus Mental Health Survey, which polled administrators at 540 colleges about their schools’ counseling, mental health and wellness services for students.

3 Proactive Partnerships

Behind You

Florida Tech’s Community Psychological Services is providing free telehealth therapy sessions to food and beverage workers through Behind You, a multistate effort run by Houston-based nonprofit Southern Smoke Foundation. The foundation aims to help food and beverage workers by reducing barriers to treatment, establishing support systems and creating industrywide national dialogue about mental health. Florida Tech’s pilot program kicked off Sept. 1, 2025, and is being carried out by advanced clinical psychology Psy.D. students and Scott Gustafson, professor and CPS director.

Winter Haven Hospital Foundation

After five years implementing integrative mental and physical health training for Florida Tech Psy.D. students, the School of Psychology has renewed its partnership with Winter Haven Hospital Foundation and Florida State University College of Medicine. The partnership, established by Joel Thomas ’97 MBA and assistant professor of clinical psychology Patrick Aragon, gives doctoral students from both universities a chance to gain unique clinical experience while helping expand access to mental health services in Polk County. Thirteen Florida Tech students have served more than 2,000 patients since the program was established in 2020, Thomas said.

Who We Play For

With the health and safety of Florida Tech scholar-athletes in mind, the athletic department partners with Who We Play For (WWPF), a local nonprofit that raises awareness for cardiac treatment and preventive care. Each fall before practices begin, WWPF comes to campus and performs electrocardiograms (ECGs) for all Florida Tech scholar-athletes, a practice that can detect preventable conditions, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and potentially, save lives.

7 Helpful Campus Resources

Charles and Ruth Clemente Center for Sports and Recreation

Campus gym and fitness center + healthy dining area

O.A. Holzer Student Health Center

Health services center offering medical consulting and services to students

Student Counseling Center

Facility where mental health professionals offer crisis intervention, counseling for common stressors—like anxiety and depression—and outreach and education programs

CARE Team

A behavioral intervention team that helps identify and assist students struggling with mental, physical and behavioral health

Panther Peer Mentor Program

Program pairing upperclassmen mentors with incoming and returning students

Panthera

AI-enabled chatbot representative that checks in with students about their Florida Tech experience how and when they need

TalkCampus

App that safely and anonymously connects students around the world to talk about their problems before they escalate

This piece was featured in the winter 2026 edition of Florida Tech Magazine.

In its 14th year, the magazine’s Best Online Bachelor’s Programs evaluated 359 online bachelor’s degree programs for 2026 using metrics specific to online learning. The rankings include only degree-granting programs offered primarily online by regionally accredited institutions.

Florida Tech’s online psychology program jumped 17 spots since last year and is now tied for No. 12 in the country. Joining it on an upward trajectory is online business, which rose six spots from 2025 to No. 98.

Florida Tech’s overall ranking for online bachelor’s programs came in at No. 160 out of 348 schools ranked (11 programs ended up unranked), a slight decline from 2025.  

The magazine also ranked some graduate online programs, including Florida Tech’s online master’s degree in information technology, which landed at No. 38, down two spots from 2025. 

The online programs were evaluated using four categories, with each weighted to represent a portion of the overall score. The categories are: Engagement (35%), which centers on opportunities for student interaction with instructors and classmates, as well as how accessible and responsive faculty are; Services and Technologies (25%); Faculty Credentials and Training (20%); and Peer Assessment (20%), which is based on results from a survey of high-ranking academic officials.

“What sets the top-ranked online programs apart is their commitment to delivering flexible coursework for professionals, parents and service members seeking to advance their careers and broaden their knowledge,” LaMont Jones, Ed.D., managing editor for education at U.S. News, said in a statement. “Our rigorous evaluation focuses on student engagement and support to highlight programs truly built for the modern learner.”

Florida Tech was among 71 schools in the country – and one of just five in the state – to receive the recognition.

The award recognizes institutions that commit to campus-wide integration of mental health initiatives, including accessible services, peer support, emotional resilience and proactive policy. Florida Tech offers dozens of mental health resources for students, faculty and staff, including a variety of wellness spaces and activities, counseling support and assistance programs.

“We know that institutions are not always recognized for their dedication to their mental health and well-being services and support for their students and employees,” Insight Into Academia’s owner and publisher, Lenore Pearlstein, said. “We are proud to honor these colleges and universities as role models for other institutions of higher education.”

In the university’s award application, Student Counseling Center Director Robyn Tapley highlighted two unique campus programs: the “You Matter” initiative, sponsored by the Parent Leadership Council, and the Psychology Science Minute, sponsored by WFIT. 89.5 FM and the School of Psychology.

“You Matter” is a campaign that aims to create conversation and share resources about mental health, suicide awareness and suicide prevention. In 2024, three benches, engraved with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, were placed across campus to raise awareness for the 24/7 resource. The Psychology Science Minute is a quick and engaging weekly radio segment that presents relevant, interesting and digestible research to the public, covering topics such as happiness, healthy relationships, the importance of sleep and burnout.

“This award recognizes the collective and important work we as a campus community do to help support the mental health and emotional needs of our students, faculty, staff and local community,” Tapley said. “I am proud to be part of a caring, compassionate and skilled team that makes a valuable difference in the lives of our campus community.”

Tapley also mentioned the university’s Panther Peer Mentor Program, the EdSights-driven “Panthera” support chatbot and the Employee Assistance Program, among other resources.  

“It is important to create conversation about mental health and the available resources to show to the members of our campus community that they are not alone, that they matter and that support is available and encouraged,” Tapley said.

The award recipients will be featured in the magazine’s September 2025 issue.

The Student Leadership Award is given to select students who demonstrate exceptional leadership among their peers with outstanding contributions to their collegiate esports community. Wilson has spent the last two and a half years working with BPC to help improve coaching for esports and athletics.

Also representing Florida Tech: Anna Patterson was nominated for Assistant Director of the Year; Kaitlynn Gokey, assistant professor of behavioral analysis, was nominated for Educator of the Year; and the BPC program, run by Gokey and James Riswick-Estelle, M.S., was nominated for Advocate of the Year.

Wilson serves as the project manager for BPC—a long-standing collaboration at Florida Tech between the School of Behavior Analysis, esports and athletics. The unique program cultivates and supports an active and ongoing collaboration between esports and the science of behavior that aims to improve competitive performance while giving behavioral analysis students powerful out-of-classroom experiences.

In almost three years, Wilson has helped develop frameworks that provide systematic support to student athletes. She also helps esports players increase productive communication in-game.

“I feel beyond honored to be recognized in such a way. The work I have done has always been with the goal of our esports student-athletes being as supported as possible so that they can perform at their best,” Wilson said in a statement. “Seeing the benefits that they reap from my work has been all the reward I need.”

“The express purpose of the BPC program since its founding has been to provide diverse work experience opportunities to students where there were previously very few, enhance competitive performance and to spread and disseminate behavioral science,” Gokey and Riswick said. “The nomination of the program and its staff is an incredible testament to the work the BPC program has been doing since its founding.”

The MVP Program was launched in May by the city’s Beautification and Energy Efficiency Board. It celebrates well-maintained stormwater ponds that also effectively reduce pollution. These ponds are critical to protecting the city’s stormwater conveyance system and, by extension, the Indian River Lagoon ecosystem.

To qualify for MVP status, ponds must meet specific criteria including being free of bare slopes, litter and invasive plant species, among other maintenance standards.

Lee Myers, associate vice president of facilities at Florida Tech, said maintaining a healthy and visually appealing pond system requires a daily commitment from plumbing and grounds crews.

“Our plumbers have worked diligently to ensure the ponds are properly aerated and functioning as designed, while our grounds crew plays a vital role in controlling invasive species, managing shoreline vegetation, and keeping the areas free of litter and erosion,” Myers said. “It’s truly a team effort.”

He explained that this effort goes beyond landscape; his team is taking care of a living system. By maintaining the pond’s cleanliness and ecological balance, they are protecting “one of the most biodiverse estuaries in North America.”

“We’re proud to support sustainability in action through daily stewardship of our campus environment,” Myers said.

Florida Tech’s stormwater pond is not the only campus landmark to receive recent city praise. The Folliard Alumni Center earned the City of Melbourne Beautification and Energy Efficiency Board’s Clean Energy Award in 2022 for its zero-energy indoor design. The same building earned the city’s Diamond Gems Award a few months later for its native landscaping and eco-friendly maintenance.

The award is given to exceptional college juniors and seniors pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). In addition to the cash award, selected students also have access to professional networking with astronauts, alumni and industry leaders.

Hatter is a rising fourth-year student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science with minors in computational mathematics and philosophy. She said she’s been driven by “insatiable curiosity” since she was a child. This drive continues to fuel her pursuit of education and discovery.

“As a first-generation college student who grew up in a struggling area, this drive to question, explore, and understand the world around me became deeply ingrained,” Hatter wrote in her ASF essay. “It has consistently inspired me to seize every opportunity to learn, grow, and overcome any challenges I may encounter.”

In her first three years of college, Hatter tutored elementary school students in reading and math; worked as a robotics lab technician for engineering instructor Lee Caraway; and completed several engineering internships. She is also president of both Florida Tech’s branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the university’s Phi Eta Sigma chapter.

She is currently between the Air Force and the Navy Officer Training School. After graduation, she hopes to commission as an officer in the United States Air Force. Eventually, she’d like to go back to school to study systems engineering or electrical engineering.

Hay is also a rising fourth-year student. He’s pursuing a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering after nine years in the U.S. Marine Corps. In his ASF essay, he wrote that he’s fascinated by the underlying physics between antennas in our daily communications systems. He’s ecstatic to be back in the classroom and hopes to lead a career as a researcher both on Earth and in space.

“I hold learning as such a privilege in my life, and I am committed to making the most of that privilege by leading a career as a researcher on Earth, and hopefully one day in space,” Hay wrote.

As a Florida Tech student, Hay was selected for the NASA Pathways internship program at Kennedy Space Center; worked as a research assistant in assistant professor Madhur Tiwari’s Autonomy Lab; and is the president of Florida Tech’s SCUBA Club. This summer, he is conducting research on metasurface antenna technology at the University of Michigan and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in applied electromagnetics.

“The 2025 class of Astronaut Scholars brings fresh energy, creativity and determination to the ASF community and carries forward the legacy of innovation and courage that began with our founding Mercury 7 Astronauts,” said Caroline Schumacher, president and CEO of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. “We’re excited to see how their passion and talent will help fuel meaningful progress across STEM fields.”

ASF will present this year’s scholars during its Innovators Symposium & Gala featuring the Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence on Aug. 13-16 at the Omni Houston Hotel in Houston, Texas. 

ASF was founded in 1986 and awarded its first seven scholarships in honor of its founding members, the Mercury 7 Astronauts — Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.

Each founding member sponsored a $1,000 scholarship and began to fundraise to support future scholarships by donating proceeds from their speaking engagements. The incredible efforts of these legends have shaped ASF’s mission to support and reward exceptional college students pursuing degrees in STEM fields. Over the past 40 years, more than $10 million has been awarded to more than 900 students.

“A Bayesian Analysis of the Probability of the Origin of Life per Site Conducive to Abiogenesis” was declared the organization’s best astrobiology paper of 2024.

The RFS Awards recognize outstanding peer-reviewed research by women and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) featured across the 100 peer-reviewed journals from publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. They also highlight the critical contributions of these researchers and the organization’s commitment to amplifying diverse voices in scientific discovery.

“The importance of this award for the department is that it recognizes such voices, as in Dr. Lingam’s case,” said Ratan Jha, head of the aerospace, physics and space sciences department.

To determine winners, the editors-in-chief and editorial board members across the journals nominate papers that demonstrate exceptional scientific contributions. They evaluate nominees based on scientific excellence and originality, potential impact on their fields and the rigor of methodology and research approach demonstrated.

Lingam’s paper was published Aug. 19 in the journal Astrobiology with help from Ruth Nichols ’24 and University of Rome astrobiologist Amedeo Balbi. They developed models that illustrate the relationship between hypotheses predicting varying numbers of potential sites on Earth for abiogenesis–the emergence of life from non-life–and the likelihood of life’s emergence at those sites.

“The origin of life–whether on Earth or elsewhere–remains one of the great unsolved fundamental questions of our age,” Lingam said. “How do we go from a soup of prebiotic chemicals to a complex living system–the first organisms?”

Lingam emphasized that this research does not claim to answer that question, but it instead illustrates how quantitative frameworks can be harnessed to place constraints on the probability of the origin of life in a conducive environment.

While the accolade is significant to Lingam, he believes the recognition should extend beyond him. He emphasized the role his community played in his pursuit of understanding.

“I do not consider the award important for my own sake, but rather as vindicating people that have supported and aided me: my parents and other close family, my close friends and my students,” Lingam said.

Each award recipient received a $1,000 cash prize and a certificate. In addition, all winning papers – including Lingam’s – are freely accessible for 90 days.

WeVENTURE WBC is a program of the Bisk College of Business, established in 2007. It strives to be the leading voice and resource for professional women and entrepreneurs on the Space and Treasure coasts. More than 14 million women-owned businesses make up 39% of all U.S. businesses – a nearly 14% increase from 2019 to 2023.

“WeVENTURE Women’s Business Center is committed to providing meaningful support to our small business community,” Executive Director Kathryn Rudloff said. “We are incredibly proud of our clients’ growth and their contributions to the local economy. We deeply appreciate the SBA’s recognition and partnership.”

Malcolm Richards, director of the SBA’s South Florida District Office, highlighted the program’s perseverance, leadership and “remarkable” impact on Florida’s business community in a letter announcing the accolade.

“The center’s success story is an inspiration to many, demonstrating that your team’s vision and commitment to excellence can transform not only businesses but also add value to your community,” Richards wrote. “Through innovation, the center has supported job creators and economic contributors who have played a vital role in strengthening both the state and national economies, leaving a lasting imprint on those you serve.”

The SBA South Florida district covers 24 counties in southern Florida, including Brevard County, and the regional district includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. 

Visit weVENTURE’s website to learn more about its programs and community impact.

The recipients, Shellbie Reed, a junior majoring in Aeronautical Science with Flight; Caleb Walker, a freshman majoring in physics; and Julia Pearson, a freshman majoring in marine biology and a member of Florida Tech’s NCAA Division II women’s swimming team, were selected based on their academic excellence, demonstrated leadership and a competitive interview process.

The CWF program runs from June 27 to July 24. It begins with three weeks at Schloss Wissen, a historic castle in Germany, followed by a week in Rome, Italy. Participants will engage in interdisciplinary studies in history, philosophy, theology and ethics, earning three academic credits for the study abroad coursework granted through Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. 

Cultural excursions will include visits to German cities such as Aachen, Cologne, Trier and Xanten, and major Roman landmarks like the Vatican Museums, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Colosseum. This year’s program is especially timely; it coincides with the 2025 Great Jubilee Year for the Catholic Church, an occurrence celebrated in Rome every 25 years that draws millions of visitors to the eternal city. 

This year’s recipients continue the legacy of Florida Tech students attending the program. Last year’s Catholic Worldview Fellowship awardees, Ryan Christensen, a sophomore in Aerospace Engineering, and Joseph Federle, a sophomore in Aeronautical Science with Flight, had high praise for the program.

“The Catholic Worldview Fellowship allowed me to seriously reflect on the history of my faith,” Christensen said. “It showed me what the word ‘Catholic’ really means: universal, and how that word brings us together as a family across the world and across time.”

Sophomore Joseph Federle noted his appreciation for seeing so many different religious sites and how that “transformed not only my understanding of my culture, but also of how other cultures practice Catholicism.”

The annual program selects 36 students from universities across the nation.