By Arielle Stevenson, University Communications and Marketing
The photographs Gevan Peacock keeps from his student years at USF St. Petersburg capture a campus that feels both distant and familiar.
Gevan Peacock presenting in a classroom located in H. William Heller Hall, formerly known as "Coquina Hall."
There’s Peacock in the old Campus Activities Center, now the Student Life Center. A classroom presentation in what was then Coquina Hall, now H. William Heller Hall. There’s Peacock as a student, working at the Help Desk and in computer labs — jobs that eventually became the beginning of his career at USF St. Petersburg.
He earned a bachelor's degree in information systems management from USF St. Petersburg in 2005 and later a master's degree in management information systems from USF Tampa in 2008.
After he graduated both times, Peacock stayed.
Today, he serves as the St. Petersburg campus’s AV lead after moving through a series of technology and leadership roles at the university over the last two decades.
“Because I already enjoyed such positive experiences as a student working at USF St. Petersburg, moving into a full-time role felt like a natural next step,” Peacock said.
Gevan Peacock built a career in information systems management.
His path is one that other alumni have made from student life into staff and faculty roles that support the campus.
For Madison Badertscher, that transition is just beginning. Badertscher is now the coordinator of orientation in Student Success.
She graduated on August 7, with a degree in health sciences after spending much of her undergraduate experience working across campus, including as a tour guide captain and orientation leader.
By her senior year, she said, she realized staying at USF St. Petersburg had started to feel like a possibility.
“Working at USF was something I really enjoyed and wasn’t ready to leave,” Madison said.
Her recent experience as a student now gives her a perspective she hopes to bring into her work, particularly when it comes to understanding what students encounter on campus.
Madison Badertscher graduated on August 7 and accepted a staff position on campus.
Camielle Crampsie, now a faculty librarian, first started working in the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library as a psychology student.
After graduating in 2010, she accepted a full-time position in Access Services, while still unsure whether she wanted to pursue graduate school or continue toward a career in psychology.
The library gave her another direction.
“It was a little weird at first,” Crampsie said. “I was suddenly given autonomy and told I could make changes and get involved in things I was interested in, and to be honest that was a little intimidating.”
Support from her coworkers helped her grow into the role. Her experience at the library eventually inspired her to pursue a master's degree in library and information science (MLIS). After earning her MLIS, she later moved into a faculty librarian position.
“I have loved our campus here so much that I never left,” she said.
Staying has meant watching the campus change along with their own careers. When Peacock was a student, the campus primarily served upper-level students and had no residence halls. He watched it grow, building a student union, three residence facilities and a dining hall, while becoming part of a unified USF again.
Camielle Crampsie found a career in library sciences at USF St. Petersburg.
But one of his clearest memories is of the people who made the campus feel personal.
“One day, Karen White, who was the regional chancellor at the time, approached me in the hallway and started a conversation,”Peacock said. “She asked my name, what I was studying and how I was doing.”
After that first conversation, White continued to greet him by name and asked how his studies were going.
“I still remember how valued that made me feel, and I try to create that same feeling for the students I encounter today,” Peacock said.
For Peacock, Crampsie and Badertscher, returning to USF St. Petersburg has meant carrying pieces of their own student experiences into the work they do today. Even at different stages of their careers, each points back to the same thing that kept them connected to the campus: community.