On any given day, Angela McCall spends up to 14 hours in the UF Health Science Center working in the lab.
In the past, the 27-year-old found she didn’t have a space to escape her work. But following the completion of a new health science graduate student lounge, McCall, a UF biomedical sciences and interdisciplinary science graduate student, and her classmates have their own space on the ground floor of the building.
With whiteboards lining the walls and natural light filling the room, McCall said health science graduate students, including her, helped design the space with their needs in mind. After less than six months of construction, two classrooms were converted into the lounge, which opened Wednesday during UF’s Graduate Student Appreciation Week.
UF Health and the six health sciences colleges funded the room, which is equipped with three Apple TVs, two Whirlpool refrigerators and two microwaves, McCall said.
McCall hopes that the lounge can be a place for health science graduate students from the six schools to relax and socialize.
“This goes to having no communication into a greater amount of communication between colleges,” she said.
Andrea Lin, the president of the HSC’s graduate student organization, said the new room allows for a greater feeling of community.
“To properly manage health and properly have a good school within the Health Science Center ... you have to be able to integrate yourself with the community,” Lin said.
