Twelve students were recognized March 29 in the Pegasus Ballroom of the University of Central
Florida as part of the annual Eternal Knights Memorial service.
“It’s just a very important time for us to stop as a community and remember,” said Dr. Maribeth
Ehasz, the Vice President for Student Development and Enrollment Services.
Eternal Knights is an annual opportunity for students, faculty, staff and family members to come
together in homage to lives lost during recent academic terms.
This year’s honorees were Stephan Gomez, Christopher Beck, Kyle Urbanik, Andres Bermudez,
Anwar Rashid, Anna Adams, John Phillips, Ann Hefferin, Mathew Paul, Sean McLeod, Taylor
Wynn, and Jack Beard.
The program officially opened promptly at 3 p.m. with a campus wide moment of silence. The
welcome as well as the closing were conducted by Dr. Ehasz.
Each student was named as well as their respective college (College of Health and Public
Affairs, College of Nursing, College of Sciences, College of Engineering and Computer
Sciences, College of Education, and the Office of Undergraduate Studies) and given the
honorific of Eternal Knight.
Many ranking officials of the University of Central Florida community were present and
participating in the event.
President Hitt, Provost Waldrop and Student Body President Matt McCann were all on the program, as
well as various members of Campus Faiths and Ministries.
Yet, attendees seemed the most moved by the University of Central Florida Gospel and Cultural
Choir, directed by senior Enaris Inman.
“Very moving, very appropriate and respectful,” said Inman of the program and the way the
event unfolded.
The selections by the Gospel and Cultural Choir were “Total Praise” and “We Offer Praise.”
Inman said that those were chosen because, “I thought that they were very appropriate not only
to the event and need but also the religious. I know that there was a very diverse crowd and I
wanted to cater to them all.”
And the crowd did encompass the University’s diversity of race, gender, religion and belief to
reflect the differences of those lost.
But their shared grief was a commonality, especially amongst those who were present.
“It makes you realize how precious life is,” said Lisa Cunningham who represented the Office of
Student Involvement. Cunningham is a Master’s Criminal Justice student as well as the Graduate
Assistant for Volunteer UCF.
According to one student, a senior majoring in Health Sciences Pre-Clinical, “It was very nicely
done.”
The student declined to be named but did say the event offered an opportunity for closure in the
aftermath of losing someone very important to them.
And “[t]he great part about it is the turn out. You know that there are students who touched
people outside their families,” said Dean Foard Jones, Interim Dean for the College of Business
Administration.
All in all, most left the event feeling its purpose was fulfilled.
As said by Cortez Whatley, Student Government Association President-Elect, “Just like the
name of the program, [Eternal Knights], they’re still UCF students and they’re always UCF
students… I think it’s important to be here for the students and for the families…”
