Meet The Protagonists and Student Film Team
Protagonist, Cameraperson
Gaby Batista
Gaby Batista was the Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper, The Catalyst, and stepped up as a protest leader and organizer after the initial news of the takeover broke on January 6, 2023. She majored in anthropology and became a leading voice for the LGBTQ+ community on campus. At The Catalyst, she championed investigations into the Board of Trustees, the erasure of safe spaces on campus, and the unethical practices of President Corcoran. Today, she is on the editorial board of Old School Catalyst, an independent publication founded by three former Catalyst Editors-in-Chief, including Isaac Tellechea and Sophia Brown, and their mentor, Professor Emerita of Anthropology Maria Vesperi. She is also on a multi-city festival tour with First They Came for My College and will attend both True/False and SXSW, among others. After graduating from New College in 2024, Gaby has taken up full-time work in marketing and logistics fields, as well as assisting the production team however she can. In the future, she hopes to have many opportunities to plan events, cultivate community among minorities, and inspire others, much like she did during her time at New College of Florida.
Cameraperson, Production Assistant, Student Film Director
Calypso Camacho
Calypso Camacho is a storyteller who shows more than she tells, in both documentary and fiction. At New College, Calypso studied Film/Russian Language and Literature, subjects she combined in her thesis film, EAT MY LOVE, whose footage is featured in First They Came For My College, and is set to be screened at festivals this spring and released digitally this summer. Calypso’s love for film is one she shared generously with the NCF community. Films such as Another Round (Starring Lindsey Jennings) and Bike-Court-Palm-Girl (Scored by Orion Martins) were both shot on the iconic New College campus. Calypso also founded and organized the [New College] Film Club, which hosted weekly screenings, vibrant discussions, and four end-of-semester NCF Vidfests. In addition, she is an accomplished graphic designer and created this website.
President of New College of Florida,
2023-Present
Richard Corcoran
Richard Corcoran served as the Speaker of the Florida House from 2016 to 2018. In December 2018, DeSantis appointed Corcoran to serve as Florida’s commissioner of education. In January 2023, the new board of New College fired President Patricia Okker and installed Corcoran as its interim president, making him the permanent president in October of 2023, with a salary and benefits package over four times as large as Okker’s.
Protagonist
Denicia Finney
Denicia was valedictorian of her high school and graduated from New College with a degree in philosophy. She was president of the Philosophy Club, served on the Student Allocations Committee, and was Moderator of the New College Forum. She plans to enter graduate school in the fall of 2026.
Protagonist
Tracy Fero
An entrepreneur, community leader, grandmother, and one of the most outspoken parents of a New College student during the period of the takeover. Her child, who is transgender, transferred to Hampshire College, and Tracy continues to be politically active.
Protagonist
Libby Harrity
Libby was the president of the New College Student Senate and led the protests against the hostile takeover. During DeSantis's visit to sign anti-DEI legislation at New College, Libby confronted Board of Trustees member Chris Rufo, who threatened to charge her with a felony. Following national coverage of her case, she was offered a scholarship and transferred to Hampshire College. She is now a law student at Rutgers University.
Protagonist, Cameraperson
Joshua Janniere
Born in Queens, New York, Joshua Janniere is a filmmaker and photographer. While studying at New College of Florida, Josh wrote and directed María (which was included in First They Came For My College) and Bender. He’s currently working on his thesis film, The Dinner Party, which he wrote, produced, and is set to direct. The film covers the themes of grief and isolation, drawing visual inspiration from Bresson, Antonioni, and Fellini.
Protagonist, Associate Producer, Cameraperson
Lindsey Bliss Jennings
Lindsey is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and environmentalist dedicated to living and creating in relationship with the land. A Sarasota, Florida, native and a 2024 graduate of New College of Florida, she works at the intersection of sustainability, storytelling, and community care. Lindsey designs native and edible landscapes, helped establish a local neighborhood food forest, and grows much of her own food. Her creative practice in film and visual arts explores social and ecological narratives and local histories. She also hosts monthly community mindfulness gatherings.
Additional Music, Production Assistant
Orion Martins
Orion Martins is a radical communitarian adventure artist. With a background ranging from jazz improvisation and sitting meditation, Orion explores the territory between intentionality and discovery in his creativity. His baccalaureate thesis, The Language of Collaboration, speaks to the centrality of creative collaboration in his understanding of what it means to share community. Specifically in regard to film composition, Ori basks in reverence for the mysterious resonance that hums in translation between the languages of film and music. Orion’s other collaborations include composing for and acting in EAT MY LOVE, directing Go Gators, organizing NCF Vidfests, hosting open mics and art nights at Casa D’Ouro, and facilitating a daily meditation club.
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Protagonist
Dylan Niner
Dylan is an environmental scientist and community steward whose work bridges technology and the natural world and occasionally outer space. Raised by his grandparents and the first in his family to graduate college, Dylan earned his place at New College on academic scholarship. At Hillsborough Community College, his electromagnetic filter design for lunar regolith was incorporated into NASA's Artemis mission. At New College, he studied biochemistry and marine biology, learned to sail on the waters off campus, and went on to become a Sail Captain teaching others what was passed on to him. He served onthe Council of Green Affairs, a student-run environmental organization, and working alongside Professor Gerardo Toro-Farmer in the Heiser Lab, developed a machine learning model to auto-classify macroalgae in Sarasota Bay for his thesis. He also pioneered ground-penetrating radar procedures for New College's archaeology department, contributing to findings at Spanish Point. After graduating, Dylan ran a Florida-native landscaping business before joining Sedivision as an environmental field technician keeping the water flowing and the toilets flushing, one critical infrastructure system at a time.
Former President of New College, Ph.D.
Patricia Okker
Pat Okker has been an American literature professor, dean, university president, and the first woman president of New College of Florida until January 2023, when she was fired without cause by trustees installed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. She assumed leadership of New College only in July 2021, but during her brief tenure, enrollment increased, and “the academic profile of first-time-in-college students improved” by “five significant measures,” in contrast to the tenure of Richard Corcoran, when performance on all five measures worsened. Dr. Okker’s previous academic home was the University of Missouri, where she was a professor of English and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. A powerlifter and marathon runner, she has completed 10 consecutive Boston Marathons. Recently, she launched “a coaching and consulting endeavor to help higher ed leaders build the resilience, collaboration, and creativity to tackle what’s ahead—and the humility, persistence, and vision to work through setbacks and challenges.” Visit patriciaokker.com for more.
Protagonist, Ph.D.
Amy Reid
Amy Reid received her doctorate from Yale and taught at New Collge for three decades as a Professor of French Language and Literature. She also co-founded the Gender Studies program, and as the most vocal faculty member against the takeover, she led protests, criticized the administration in national news stories, and hosted gatherings for students to talk through their struggles. Elected by her colleagues to represent faculty on the Board of Trustees, she clashed often with Richard Corcoran and the newly appointed trustees. Midway through the film, after the Board voted to abolish the Gender Studies program, Amy had to give away the program’s collection of books, some of which later ended up in dumpsters when the college shuttered the student-run Gender and Diversity Center. Amy left New College and is now Program Director of the Freedom to Learn Program at PEN America, where she recently co-authored the report America’s Censored Campuses 2025: Expanding the Web of Control.
Protagonist, Cameraperson
Chole Rusek
Chloe Rusek graduated from New College with a degree in Digital Media Production and Journalism. As a staff reporter for The Catalyst, she pursued an interview with New College Interim President Richard Corcoran and reported on the administration’s silence. Rather than positioning herself at the center of campus controversies, she decided to document what remained of New College’s classic culture, capturing its eccentricities, traditions, and the student spirit that continues to define it. With commencement on the horizon, she marked the end of her college career by starring as Frank-N-Furter in the New College production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. With a strong love for makeup and costuming, she gravitates toward bold, expressive looks that inform both her performances and creative work. After graduating, Chloe continued her career as a designer. She worked to translate her background in digital media production and journalism into thoughtful, narrative-driven visual work. Alongside her professional design career, she continues to develop independent projects in film and fine art, steadily building her portfolio and growing her business as an independent artist, filmmaker, and designer. Creatively driven and highly self-directed, she continually expands her perspective through collaboration, new environments, and diverse experiences that shape her evolving body of work.
Cameraperson
Nickolas Steinig
Nickolas is an independent videographer and photographer with a passion for visual storytelling rooted in real people, places, and history. With a background in media production and investigative research, his work blends documentary sensibilities with cinematic technique, emphasizing authenticity, narrative structure, and attention to detail. Drawing on strong interviewing and field-production experience, he seeks to craft stories that are visually compelling and grounded in context. Nickolas is particularly interested in historically informed storytelling and documentary-style work that preserves a sense of place and gives depth to overlooked narratives.
Protagonist, Production Assistant
Isaac Tellechea
Since graduating from New College with a degree in Humanities and Creative Writing, Isaac has worked closely with Maria Vesperi and fellow Catalyst alums to build Old School Catalyst into a non-profit dedicated to providing student journalists across the country with an education and an outlet free of censorship. Now based in Brooklyn, Isaac has broken into the world of professional journalism as a CNN News Associate, where he’s learning the foundations of digital and broadcast reporting. In his free time, Isaac pursues creative endeavors, working on original short fiction and poetry with the goal of publication.
Protagonist, Ph.D.
Maria D. Vesperi
Maria D. Vesperi, Ph. D., holds a doctorate in anthropology from Princeton University. A former reporter, columnist, and editorial writer at the Tampa Bay Times, she came to New College from the Times Washington Bureau in 1993. She taught Newspaper Writing and Production and College Newspaper Editing in addition to anthropology, with the award-winning Catalyst weekly newspaper as her student-run class project. The Catalyst, archived online at ncfcatalyst.com, offered hands-on experience for students, many of whom went on to careers in journalism. Her lessons in news judgment and balanced reporting were crucible-tested when the staff stepped up to cover all aspects of the campus takeover in an atmosphere of mounting uncertainty and fear. As friends and teachers departed and painful new realities took hold, they continued to pursue challenging investigative leads and meet deadlines, demonstrating courage and tenacity. Maria, who is also executive coordinating editor of projects at the journal Anthropology Now, retired from New College as Professor Emerita in Fall 2024. Since then, she has worked with alums and former Catalyst editors to found the Old School Catalyst Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to student journalism education and publishing. Its newsmagazine, oldschoolcatalyst.com, provides a virtual newsroom where aspiring reporters can flourish free of censorship.