TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 More than 2,600 University of South Florida students are preparing to graduate this weekend in Tampa, including Tyvelle Dorvil, a marketing major who plans to use his experience with campus accessibility to help others with mobility challenges.<\/p>\n
Dorvil, who has cerebral palsy, is among more than 1,700 students receiving bachelor\u2019s degrees. He said some of his favorite parts of college life involved moving through different areas of campus, but getting around was not always easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love just going around the campus,\u201d Dorvil said. \u201cIt was just so peaceful and calm. I would always come to listen to music for escapism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dorvil said small changes to campus infrastructure could make a major difference for wheelchair users and others with mobility issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll they have to do is just even it out or repave it,\u201d Dorvil said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take you redoing the whole campus, but just minor fixes that can really make a big impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dorvil said college required him to adapt to new challenges because USF was one of his first experiences in a walkable community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t necessarily make it accessible,\u201d Dorvil said. \u201cSo there was a lot of things I had to figure out how to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dorvil said one person who helped make his college experience easier was his advisor, Julie Harding.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediately, [he] was engaged in the process,\u201d Harding said. \u201cHe had a plan. He wanted to ensure that his graduation timeline met his goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harding said Dorvil also became involved on campus, including as a member of the Black Student Association and by presenting at a town hall. She said he brought a student perspective to accessibility services.<\/p>\n
Dorvil said studying marketing helped him think more deeply about people\u2019s needs and how to address them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really challenged me in a lot of ways to think deeper,\u201d Dorvil said. \u201cIt really taught me how to look at the underlying issues instead of just thinking on the surface level, because that\u2019s what all marketers do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dorvil plans to launch his own marketing firm, Dorvil Domain, in October. He said the business will focus on improving accessibility for wheelchair users and people with mobility issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to create a business that can create independence as an everyday reality for everyone, especially people with mobility issues altogether,\u201d Dorvil said. \u201cSo that way we can all walk the same paths.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dorvil is scheduled to graduate Saturday at USF\u2019s Tampa campus during a 1:30 p.m. ceremony at the Yuengling Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 More than 2,600 University of South Florida students are preparing to graduate this weekend in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4996,9995,274,81231,18924,113,276,27600,115,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-364699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-education","tag-app-latest-education-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-college-and-university","tag-colleges-and-universities","tag-education","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-julia-hazel","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}