Pulling an All Knighter: Attending UCF Has Become a Family Tradition for Industrial Engineering Instructor

By Bel Huston, Marketing Communications Specialist
UCF College of Engineering & Computer Science

When Mark Calabrese ’78BSE ‘79MSE moved from New York to Florida to attend college, he knew that he was starting an academic journey to become an engineer. What he didn’t realize was how much he would grow to love his new university, that it would play a role in his career and that he was starting a family tradition of attending UCF — since earning his degrees, 20 family members have become Knights.

Calabrese is the Knight who started it all when he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1978 from what was then known as Florida Technological University. He then earned a master’s degree in engineering after the university changed its name in 1979. He worked for 20 years in industry as a professional engineer, chief financial officer and entrepreneur before coming back to UCF as a faculty member in 2006.

It could be argued that it was his dad who got the ball rolling. The family had plans to move from New York to Orlando when his father retired. Calabrese moved to Florida first. His immediate family moved there afterward, followed by aunts, uncles and cousins.

“Having a dictating Italian father, I was told I was going to UCF to become an engineer,” he jokes.

Calabrese says his professors, including former deans Marty Wanielista and Gary Whitehouse, were down to earth and always available to him. They remained friends and colleagues long after he graduated.

“UCF to me has always had a close-knit, family feel,” he says. “I still feel like UCF has some of that initial family vibe.”

Calabrese’s cousin JoAnne Roche attended UCF and worked there for more than two decades in the Office of Undergraduate Studies and Department of Statistics. Like Calabrese, she helped foster an attachment to UCF.

For Katey Woodard ’14 ‘16MA, a niece of Calabrese who earned her bachelor’s in health sciences pre-clinical and master’s in marriage and family therapy, visiting her Aunt JoAnne at UCF started her love for the university. During summer breaks, Woodard would visit her at the statistics department and help with clerical tasks. At lunchtime, they ate at Wackadoo’s. Woodard says she was in awe of the union and the students who passed through.

When it was time to select a university, she says that it was a “no brainer” to choose UCF.

“UCF is a huge school with a small college feel,” Woodard says. “Even within your undergraduate degrees, you start seeing the same people, the same professors. All of my professors were always so eager and open to students to help or to get to know your plans as a student.”

Now living in Colorado, Woodard is a stay-at-home mom for her family’s three girls.

“Because of my experience and education within the counseling program, I am the mother I am today,” she says. “My master’s was a pivotal point in my life for the better and I truly credit the knowledge I got on attachment and family systems as a huge contributor to how I am raising my kids now.”

Woodard adds that she considered other universities, but ultimately chose UCF, as did several of her closest friends and her boyfriend, now her husband, Austin.

“UCF keeps getting better and better in so many areas of the school — athletics, education, outreach and research,” she says. “UCF was such a great university to attend and I’m a proud alumna. Go Knights!”

Another of Calabrese’s nieces, Lauren Ayala ’06, earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and is a reading coach at Union Park Elementary. She says she already felt at home on campus, having visited her Aunt JoAnne during the summers as well.

“UCF is the college we talked about at many of our family gatherings,” she says. “I feel like it was just understood as ‘our family college.’”

Her time at UCF still makes an impact on her career. Ayala’s favorite class was taught by Lee-Anne Trimble Spaulding, an associate lecturer at the College of Community Innovation and Education. Spaulding, a teacher practitioner, had asked her students to present a read-aloud to the class, performing a demonstration by reading to them first. Ayala says she was amazed and inspired by the experience.

“She loved what she was doing and it left a lasting impression,” she says. “I often think back to that class and how it made me want to bring reading to life. I’m now a reading coach at a local elementary school and hope to continue that same passion for reading to my teachers.”

She adds that her 13-year-old son Jake will add to the family’s numbers when it’s time for him to choose a college.

“My son has said, ‘I’m going there just like you, Mom!’’ she says. “So yes, it’s a given and I’m thrilled about it. We currently live in Oviedo and UCF is less than five miles away. We sometimes just drive through the campus to check it out. I’m in awe of the growth since I graduated.”

With several other of Calabrese’s family members planning to attend UCF, the number of Knights in the family is destined to grow. Calabrese may have unwittingly begun a family tradition of attending UCF years ago, but today, he’s purposefully encouraging other families to become members of Knight Nation.

“I get asked by friends and colleagues all the time to show UCF to their children,” he says. “It’s an easy sell. The university is beautiful. We live in paradise. UCF has all the big school activities and resources but still retains its original charm.”