Personal Stories...
Austin Carter wanted to be a hero, a firefighter. No one expected he would live up to that moniker ... Read My Story >>
Higher Education
Our Mission
The Donate Life Florida Higher Education Program is dedicated to saving and improving lives through increased education about organ, tissue and eye donation. As a Donate Life Florida program, higher education initiatives support blood and marrow donation as well.
Our Vision
To have all college students throughout the state of Florida registered as organ, tissue and eye donors.
Our History
Oftentimes, big things hatch from humble beginnings, which was the case for the higher education program (founded as Get Carded on several campuses). Julie Williams (now Julie Helton) played a prominent role in its creation. As a student director for Volunteer UCF, an organization at the University of Central Florida, she developed service projects, directed volunteers to nonprofit organizations and sparked spirit throughout the campus community.
One of the service projects she wanted to create involved organ, tissue and eye donation - a topic she encountered in high school when her boyfriend became ill while awaiting a lung transplant. Unfortunately, his hope for a second chance at life was never realized. His death made Julie's work as a volunteer more meaningful.
To get the ball rolling, a small group of volunteers joined Julie and TransLife, their local organ and tissue donation program. In spring of 1997, Get Carded emerged on the Orlando UCF campus as an education and music festival. Its goal: To save lives by rallying campus support for organ, tissue and eye donation. Hundreds of students attended and thousands more received donor cards, information and read about the effort in the campus paper. Get Carded and higher education initiatives soon became a year-round effort.
In 1999, Donate Life Florida adopted the higher education program for statewide campus expansion. The University of South Florida was selected as the first sister campus of the program. New ideas met the distinctive environment and culture of this Tampa University. The unique element of the campaign is peer-to-peer education, which allows students to teach students. Students propel the effort and ultimately determine its success.
Today, Higher Education programs are active on ten campuses:
Florida Gulf Coast University (Fort Meyers)
Florida State University (Tallahassee)
Indian River State College (Fort Pierce)
Southeastern University (Lakeland)
University of Central Florida (Orlando)
University of Florida (Gainesville)
University of North Florida (Jacksonville)
University of South Florida (Tampa)
University of West Florida (Pensacola)
Valencia College (Orlando)
Return to Registry to sign-up