Good News: iHEAL initiative provides iPads

Florida Times-Union - 1/21/2019

Jan. 21--The HEAL (Helping Enrich Autistic Lives) Foundation presented 40 iPads to local exceptional student education classrooms as part of its iHEAL initiative.

According to the nonprofit, students with intellectual and developmental differences are making progress with iPads and can use them to communicate. The gift of an iPad comes with a $25 iTunes gift card for educational apps purchased by the teachers.

So far HEAL has donated 400 iPads and says its goal is to provide at least one to every local exceptional student education classroom. The HEAL Foundation has provided programs, camps, iPads and autism service dogs to the autism community and since 2007 has granted over $2 million to provide these services. For more information visit HealAutismNow.org.

Here's more good news:

--Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Chakene Rogers was honored as the Reserve Junior Sailor of the Quarter for this year's first quarter for Navy Operational Support Center Jacksonville, serving at Command Navy Region Southeast. Jacksonville's Navy Operational Support Center is one of the largest in the nation with about 2,400 sailors. Rogers is an operations specialist for the radar, navigation and communications equipment on a ship's bridge, equipment that would detect aircraft, missiles and other ships. Rogers is a graduate of Andrew Jackson High School and is working toward a degree in exercise science at the University of North Florida.

--The Springfield Preservation and Revitalization Council just announced that Springfield was named the most bikeable neighborhood in Jacksonville's urban core by WalkScore.com. The score was based on "bike lanes, hills, destination and road connectivity, and bike commuting mode share." Bicycle maintenance stations were installed in the Henry J. Klutho Park in the historic neighborhood when the Preservation and Revitalization Council received an AARP Community Challenge "Quick Action" grant.

--The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education has, for the first time, placed the University of North Florida in the tier of national universities that grant doctoral degrees. Due to the growth of doctorate programs at UNF and a change in the Carnegie Classification's recognition of those degrees, UNF has moved from a Master's University into a new classification of Doctoral/Professional University along with 163 other elite institutions.

Placement in the higher tiers is considered prestigious and provide advantages in receiving grants and attracting high-quality faculty. The university states that it awarded 117 doctoral degrees during the 2017-2018 school year. Of the doctoral degrees, 109 were professional doctorates and eight were research doctorates.

Have good news? You can email jkanner@jacksonville.com or mail to The Florida Times-Union, P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231.

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