Lucy Dillon

Cecilia Gonzalez Herrera and her family packed their bags and fled Venezuela in 2017 — today, the senior political science major is taking the Trump administration to court for its immigration crackdowns.The political and economic conditions in Venezuela no longer supported 18-year-old Gonzalez Herrera and her family, so they trekked to America with a dream to start again.
“At 18, I thought I had my life figured out,” Gonzalez Herrera said. “I was going to college in Venezuela, pursuing...

A bill proposed for the upcoming March legislative session aims to lower the legal gun-purchasing age from 21 to 18, sparking campus-wide conversations about gun control.In December 2024, Republican State Sen. Randy Fine introduced legislation to the Florida Senate to lower the gun-purchasing age from 21 to 18. If passed this session, the bill would alter the legal age to purchase firearms as outlined in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act, which passed in 2018 after a mass shoot...

Only two months after its constitutional measure was defeated, political action committee Smart & Safe Florida is attempting to get the topic of recreational marijuana back on ballots.The constitutional amendment, proposed for the 2026 election cycle, would allow adults 21 and older to purchase, possess and use marijuana for non-medical purposes, according to the amendment.In November 2024, Smart & Safe Florida’s Amendment 3 raked in about 56% of the vote, falling 4 percentage points short of th...

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Council members said they were inundated by calls, emails and texts from residents who do not want more establishments serving alcohol in the downtown area. Currently, five downtown businesses, including Dixie Cream and Pizza 14, serve alcohol.“It’s not that people don’t drink wine,” said Council Member Tom Stroup, who suggested the Kumars' request presented something of a public safety and welfare issue. “If five of the six businesses are serving alcohol, hypothetically, 95 percent of the peopl...

Since he was a kid in Bangkok, Thailand, Poohpha “Pooh” Warakulnukroh has been drawn to seemingly divergent pursuits — sports and science.“It’s almost impossible to balance the two things, but I know college is the best time to do it,” said Warakulnukroh, a redshirt sophomore guard on the UCF men’s basketball team and mechanical engineering student.
He began his UCF basketball career his freshman year in 2021 – not as a player, but as a student manager. Before he even bounced a ball on t...

UCF’s ROTC and Singing Knights had a bigger-than-usual audience on Feb. 4.The groups performed for nearly 6 million TV viewers and 55,000 fans who packed into Camping World Stadium in Orlando for the NFL Pro Bowl, according to Sports Media Watch and the Orlando Sentinel.
The game propelled the Knights once more to the national stage, building upon a substantial 2 million viewers that tuned into the Gasparilla Bowl in January, according to data from the Black and Gold Banneret.The NFL Pro...