Amila Tica— "Tica, like pizza," she joked—is UFIC’s Coordinator of Exchange Student Services, advising and assisting all inbound international students studying abroad here at UF. Amila is a double Gator, with a B.A. in International Studies and English and an M.Ed. in Student Personnel in Higher Education.

Born in Germany to Bosnian parents, Amila moved to the United States when she was 5 years old. “My family escaped from the war in Bosnia and lived in Germany for 7 years—it’s where my brother and I were born. We came as refugees to Jacksonville in 2000, when our residence in Germany became tenuous.” Growing up in Jacksonville, she always was close to her Bosnian heritage, “Jacksonville has one of the highest percentages of Bosnian folks in the US—it was nice for my family, because the community already existed and provided us with welcome tastes of home.”

Amila earned her International Baccalaureate degree from her high school in Jacksonville and started as a... READ MORE

Now on their third annual virtual exchange (VE) project implementation, Dr. Luis Mejia-Puig, Assistant Professor in the UF Department of Interior Design, and one of his VE partners, Prof. Edgar Martínez, Director of the Industrial Design Program at Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Colombia, were recently interviewed by UNICollaboration, a European-based VE network. They describe their VE project, which requires students to exchange knowledge on their local communities so they can design building interiors for each other's contexts. 

To check out the interview and article for the full story, click here

The University of Florida International Center (UFIC) Office for Global Research Engagement hosted the Global Fellows Program Final Symposium today at the Reitz Union, bringing together faculty fellows, mentors, and research experts for a dynamic morning of cross-disciplinary dialogue and global research engagement. This culminating event marked the conclusion of the 2025 Global Fellows Program, which aims to build institutional capacity for international research and collaboration.

Themed "Building Capacity for International Research and Collaboration," the symposium featured an innovative format inspired by the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Each of the 17 faculty fellows delivered a concise and engaging three-minute presentation of their proposed international research projects using only one static slide. These short but impactful "elevator pitches" emphasized research significance, international context, methodologies, and anticipated global impact while... READ MORE