In our season finale of Your University: The FGCU Podcast, our host Katie Cribbs talks with Dr. Aysegul Timur, the President of Florida Gulf Coast University.

President Timur talks about the history of this young university, recounting with Katie the growth seen since opening in 1997 and its close alignment with Southwest Florida’s needs. She also highlights the intentional expansion of FGCU’s offerings in undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs tied to workforce demand, and notes an estimated nearly $600 million regional economic impact, driven largely by alumni serving as nurses, teachers, engineers, and more.

President Timur emphasizes FGCU’s Three Cs - curiosity, collaboration, and commitment. She notes recent recognition through the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification. They also discuss public-facing resources like the water quality monitoring dashboard, the Waller Weeks and Johnson Rental Index, and the Regional Economic Research Institute (RERI), reminding all to visit campus, attend events, and follow FGCU 360.

Your University: The FGCU Podcast is produced by University FM.

Episode Guide:

• 01:30 FGCU Growth Story
• 03:58 Economic Impact
• 06:32 The Three C’s of Values
• 07:40 Service Learning Pathways
• 09:12 Advisory and Mentorship
• 10:56 Carnegie Recognition
• 12:39 Open Data for Community
• 16:14 RERI and Student Skills
• 19:14 Explore Campus Highlights
• 23:30 Bridging Campus and Community
• 25:54 FGCU Is Your University
• 27:39 Final Thanks and Signoff

Episode Quotes:

Service-learning in FGCU

07:25: First-time college students come into FGCU, and we have a graduation requirement: 80 hours of service in our community. While you are servicing, you are learning, you are building skills. And our community opens their doors to our students all the time.

From students to leaders

22:26: They come here as teenagers, and they graduate from here as an adult. It is so wonderful to see and share their journey. Seeing the future, they are our future, and how they're going to serve in our communities is so great.

Why FGCU is Your University

27:36: We open our doors to our community in so many ways. We create new knowledge. You come here, you, you know, listen to lecture series, you meet with our students, and our alumni are in our community. We become Your University." And once I start that conversation, everybody's like, "Yes, FGCU is our university," and I love hearing that.

Show Links:

• President Timur | FGCU Office of the President Profile
• FGCU Water Quality Monitoring
• FGCU's Rental Index
• Regional Economic Research Institute | FGCU
• FGCU | Website
• FGCU | Your University

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Welcome back to Your University: The FGCU Podcast. In this episode, our host Katie Cribbs talks with Mark Bole, an instructor with the Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship at FGCU and a faculty fellow for FGCU's Ain Technology & Design Hub.

Katie asks Mark about his past, finding out about his path from multinational corporate roles to the challenges of launching an investment firm in Luxembourg during the 2008 financial crisis. Mark explains his NIL concept (name, image, and likeness) and how he created an NIL class to help FGCU student-athletes build authentic personal brands, including social media sensation Brandon Dwyer.

Mark describes FGCU’s Technology and Design Hub, launched with a $2M donor gift, as a student-run agency delivering websites, digital marketing, and AI integration for local clients. For example, “Sanibel Solutions,” where students built an AI-enabled hurricane recovery dashboard and led island-wide AI workshops to help businesses and nonprofits survive and market their return. Mark outlines plans to expand this work across more of Lee County so that students can become “agents of change” for AI adoption.

Your University: The FGCU Podcast is produced by University FM.

Episode Guide:

• 01:06 Welcome and Background
• 02:45 Launching in Luxembourg
• 05:22 From CEO to Teaching
• 06:32 NIL and Athlete Branding
• 08:38 Brandon Dwyer Success
• 11:28 Tech and Design Hub
• 13:25 AI Ethics and Business
• 15:05 Sanibel Solutions Dashboard
• 17:12 Workshops and Expansion
• 20:43 Vision for Student Interns
• 22:29 Making AI Practical
• 24:48 Closing Advice and Involvement

Episode Quotes:

Going beyond what students get from textbook
18:36: That became a really personal thing for me. It's like we have to help them. Once you start meeting the people and talking to it, and students get to meet them, relationships develop, and you're all on the same mission. And you feel really connected to the island, and that's something that students don't get from a textbook or a classroom. And so, I think everybody wins in this situation.

On AI giving more opportunities for human connection

23:29: AI doesn't just take the current tasks that we're working on and make it automated. It gives you more opportunities to do things you never thought of, like build a dashboard for Sanibel recovery. I never would've been able to do that before. So, once you realize that, I think the students are starting to figure out that they can do anything with this, and that's the key.

On service learning and community impact

25:50: Our students become part of the solution. And that's what I want Southwest Florida to understand, is that we are not doing this just to do consulting and get some revenue. We're doing this to help Southwest Florida adapt to AI, and our students are going to be the answer.

Show Links:

• Mark Bole | LinkedIn
• Students Harness AI to Help Sanibel Businesses | FGCU360 Article
• Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship | FGCU
• Ain Technology & Design Hub
• Brandon Dwyer featured on Good Morning America
• FGCU | Website
• FGCU | Your University

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Today, on Your University: The FGCU Podcast, host Katie Cribbs takes an audience with Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki, Director of the Bower School of Music & the Arts at FGCU.

Krzysztof shares his path from childhood singing in Poland to an international opera and recital career, immigration to Canada, university training and teaching, and leadership roles at UNF and FGCU. He describes Bower’s scale and momentum—planning 150–178 annual events across music, art, theater and the Wasmer Art Gallery—alongside strong community support and sold-out performances.

Katie asks about the 2026–27 addition of Digital Media Design (about 350–370 students and eight faculty), and Krzysztof highlights some recent student competition successes and details some exciting partnerships including the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation and Opera Naples International Voice Competition hosted partly on campus. He also spotlights outreach favorites like Joyful and Triumphant, the Naples Botanical Garden jazz series Rhythm and Blooms, growth in the accredited music therapy program, summer camps, America 250 programming, and Bower’s upcoming 20th anniversary season with alumni and guest artists.

Your University: The FGCU Podcast is produced by University FM.

Episode Guide:

• 01:05 Early Singing Roots
• 02:21 Poland to Canada Training
• 03:07 Performing Career and UNF
• 06:16 Bower School Growth
• 07:19 Digital Media Design Expansion
• 09:53 Pavarotti Competition Partnership
• 15:13 Community Concert Series
• 18:09 Music Therapy Spotlight
• 19:44 Summer Camps and Outreach
• 20:32 America 250 Season Planning
• 23:06 AI and the Arts Future
• 24:35 Final Invitation and Wrap Up

Episode Quotes:

Southwest Florida is an arts destination
27:20: That's what's so special about Southwest Florida. This is the arts destination. And, you know, when I moved here in 2019, I couldn't believe that we're selling out events. You know, other universities across the nation do not have that problem.

The human touch will always matter

23:47: What we do as artists, as the creative types, will become that much more valuable, right? It will become the human touch. It will be the paint on the brush. It will be the student at the piano. It will be a dance movement. It will be human-generated content as opposed to machine-generated content.

Changing lives through the power of the arts

27:20: Attend as many events as you possibly can. There's so much to experience here, so much to learn and grow. We are changing lives through the power of the arts. We truly are. We are still a little bit of a well-kept secret in Southwest Florida.

Show Links:

• Krzysztof Biernacki | FGCU Profile
• Krzysztof Biernacki | LinkedIn
• Bower School of Music & the Arts | FGCU
• FGCU360: Music Therapy
• FGCU360 | America 250
• FGCU360| Pianist
• Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition
• Rhythm & Blooms | Naples Botanical Garden
• FGCU | Website
• FGCU | Your University

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