Newberry Community School is launching the new academic year as a charter school, enrolling roughly 360 students in kindergarten through fourth grade after the structural transition took effect July 1. The school now operates with its own governing board and greater autonomy over curriculum, scheduling, and daily operations. New offerings include extended care hours, a family walking program before the school day, dedicated bus service, and gifted and talented choice classes.
Sources: WCJB TV20
The University of Florida graduated more than 3,100 students across three ceremonies at Exactech Arena on August 7 and 8, marking the first commencement presided over by President Stuart Bell. Chemistry professor Matthew Disney of the Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute delivered the keynote address, urging graduates to focus on making a difference rather than seeking credit and to embrace failure as part of learning.
Sources: UF News · The Gainesville Sun
A long-term study led by a UF College of Medicine faculty member found that the cardioprotective drug dexrazoxane significantly reduced chemotherapy-related heart damage in childhood cancer survivors more than 15 years after treatment. The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, tracked nearly 900 survivors who had received anthracycline-based chemotherapy for leukemia, lymphoma, or sarcoma. The findings may eventually allow doctors to reduce the frequency of cardiac screening for survivors who received the drug during treatment.
Sources: UF News
A University of Florida astronomy professor helped lead new research suggesting that a massive flow of gas falling into a triple-star system in the Orion constellation gradually warped its planet-forming disk, causing the rings to become misaligned with one another. The study, published August 6 in The Astronomical Journal, offers an alternative to earlier theories that blamed the three stars themselves for the unusual arrangement of GW Orionis. Researchers say the next phase of work involves surveying many more young stars to determine how frequently such gas flows occur and how much they shape the structure of developing planetary systems.
Sources: UF News
